South Indian movies have been a fun ride and a great source of entertainment and engaging content for quite a long time. Be it Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, or Kannada, the films have always seemed to manage to give something new and unique for viewers to experience, not just in India but in the whole wide world.
Even today, South films are known for having epic world-building and grand premise with exceptionally hard-hitting performances by actors. Moreover, the movies coming out of South don’t just stick to one kind of hero trope with witty dialogues and punchlines but also provide a well-scripted narrative laced with the core ideas and emotions needed for a film.
The fact that regional cinema has been remade into other languages for many years is no wonder, as the craftsmanship the films carry makes them what they are today. Taking a look into some of the greatest films of South India in recent times, let’s see the top picks that stood out very much in recent times.
Top 10 South Indian movies
1. Master (2021)
Cast: Thalapathy Vijay, Vijay Sethupathi, Malavika Mohanan, Arjun Das, Andrea Jeremiah
Genre: Action
Director: Lokesh Kanagaraj
Screenplay: Lokesh Kanagaraj, Pon Parthiban, Rathna Kumar
Runtime: 2 hours 59 minutes
IMDb rating: 7.4/10
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
Master revolves around an alcoholic and socially flawed college professor called JD, who goes to a juvenile home to teach the kids for three months. He unknowingly gets caught up in a squabble with a gangster called Bhavani. Master’s acting performance by both Thalapathy Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi is quite a visual treat, especially being polar opposite characters.
2. Avane Srimannarayana (2019)
Cast: Rakshit Shetty, Shanvi Srivastava, Achyuth Kumar, Pramod Shetty
Genre: Adventure-Comedy
Director: Sachin B Ravi
Screenplay: Rakshit Shetty, Chandrajith Belliappa, Anirudh Kodgi, Abhijith Mahesh, Nagarjuna Sharma, Abhilash
Runtime: 3 hours and 4 minutes
IMDb rating: 7.7/10
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
Avane Srimannarayana is an out-of-the-box western-style fantasy adventure comedy film that Rakshit himself calls Southern Odd Fiction. The film revolves around the story of a corrupt police officer who gets caught up with a bandit chief of their land who is in search of a hidden treasure that went missing in the 1980s. This fun ride of a treasure hunt mixed with Rakshit’s witty portrayal as Inspector Narayana surely deserves multiple watches.
3. Jersey (2019)
Cast: Nani, Shraddha Srinath, Sathyaraj, Viswant Duddumpudi, Sanusha
Genre: Sports-drama
Director: Gowtam Tinnanuri
Screenplay: Gowtam Tinnanuri
Runtime: 2 hours and 40 minutes
IMDb rating: 8.5/10
Where to watch: Disney+ Hotstar
Jersey is not just a story about a late bloomer in a sports drama going back to the field to fulfill his lifelong passion but is a beautifully captured film about resurgence and how a person forsook his goals at the peak of his career owing to own burdens both personally and in his family spectrum. The emotional connection of the protagonist gifting an Indian cricket jersey he earned to his son does touch one’s heart, but everyone is more excited when Arjun (played by Nani) goes off into a nearby railway station and screams his heart out over his success.
4. Super Deluxe (2019)
Cast: Fahadh Faasil, Vijay Sethupathi, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Ramya Krishnan, Gayathrie, Mysskin
Genre: Comedy Crime-thriller
Director: Thiagarajan Kumararaja
Screenplay: Thiagarajan Kumararaja, Mysskin, Nalan Kumarasamy, Neelan K Sekar
Runtime: 2 hours 55 minutes
IMDb rating: 8.3/10
Where to watch: Netflix
Super Deluxe is a hyperlink movie that revolves around four different storylines that are interconnected by characters and instances that occur in them.
From an unfaithful married woman (Samantha) trying to dispose of the body of her ex-boyfriend with the help of her husband (Fahadh), a group of teenage boys trying to watch an adult film only to find out one of their mothers is the heroine in it, to a transgender woman Shilpa (Vijay Sethupathi) returning to his home to meet his son. All the storylines are intertwined with one another, only to resolve bizarrely in the end.
5. Pushpa: The Rise (2021)
Cast: Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil, Sunil, Rao Ramesh, Anasuya Bharadwaj
Genre: Action-drama
Director: Sukumar
Screenplay: Sukumar
Runtime: 2 hours and 59 minutes
IMDb rating: 7.6/10
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
Pushpa..! or better, Pushpa Raj, is a red sandalwood smuggler based in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. Being a mere daily wage worker didn’t seem to satisfy the need for a better life Pushpa (Allu Arjun) envisioned for himself, and owing to that, he overthrows the local syndicate leader to become one himself only for a new threat to arise in the form of SP Bhanwar Singh Shekawat IPS (Fahadh).
If the first film was the rise of the protagonist, the real action is only set to take place in the sequel, Pushpa 2: The Rule, slated to release on 15th August 2024.
6. Ponniyin Selvan: I and II (2022 and 2023)
Cast: Chiyaan Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Jayaram, Trisha Krishnan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Sobhita Dhulipala, Prakash Raj
Genre: Epic historical action-drama
Director: Mani Ratnam
Screenplay: Mani Ratnam, Elango Kumaravel, B Jeyamohan
Runtime: 2 hours and 47 minutes, 2 hours and 45 minutes
IMDb rating: 7.6/10, 7.3/10
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
Legendary director Mani Ratnam came into 2022 and 2023 with his two-part magnum opus film Ponniyin Selvan: I and II. A dream he had for a very long time finally came to fruition. The film is based on a novel of the same name written by Kalki Krishnamurthy that is a dramatized version of the actual real-life Chola prince Arunmozhi Varman, who would become the renowned emperor Rajaraja I, an essential figure in Indian history. The political drama and the revenge plot laced within the film are the main crux of the story, and that only develops into bloodshed.
7. Kantara (2022)
Cast: Rishab Shetty, Sapthami Gowda, Kishore, Achyuth Kumar, Pramod Shetty
Genre: Action-thriller
Director: Rishab Shetty
Screenplay: Rishab Shetty
Runtime: 2 hours and 30 minutes
IMDb rating: 8.2/10
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
As a storm that comes unannounced, in the year 2022, Rishab Shetty came in with a folk-tale interlaced action thriller flick that blew the minds of any and every person who watched the film. The film Kantara revolves around the feud between a Kambala (buffalo race) champion and a newly appointed strict forest officer, who go head to head over several disagreements but only have much bigger hands at play behind them. But the surprising and beautiful storytelling in the film was that of presenting the local Daiva Kola ritual of the land and the mystical presence of a deity protecting the land and its people from all harm.
8. Baahubali: The Beginning and the Conclusion (2015, 2017)
Cast: Prabhas, Anushka Shetty, Rana Daggubati, Ramya Krishnan, Sathyaraj, Nassar, Tamannaah Bhatia
Genre: Epic action-drama
Direction and Screenplay: SS Rajamouli
Story: V Vijayendra Prasad
Runtime: 2 hours and 38 minutes, 2 hours and 47 minutes
IMDB rating: 8/10, 8.2/10
Where to watch: Disney+ Hotstar
Baahubali: The Beginning and The Conclusion are two humongous films in Indian cinema that went on to become a global success unlike any other movie before. The film revolves around the fantastical story of Sivudu, a young man who is extremely powerful and adventurous and goes out of his way to save Devasena, the former queen of Mahismati, to help out his love interest, Avantika’s mission.
The film only develops more when Sivudu realizes that Devasena is his actual mother and he is the rightful king of Mahismati, Mahendra Baahubali, son of the crown prince Amarendra Baahubali, who was wrongfully killed. The two-part film franchise explores the events that led to Devasena’s capture and Amarendra Baahubali’s demise so their son could seek revenge upon the wrongdoers.
9. Jailer (2023)
Cast: Rajinikanth, Vinayakan, Ramya Krishnan, Vasanth Ravi, Tamannaah Bhatia, Sunil, Shiva Rajkumar, Mohanlal, Jackie Shroff
Genre: Action-comedy
Director: Nelson Dilipkumar
Screenplay: Nelson Dilipkumar
Runtime: 2 hours and 48 minutes
IMDb rating: 7.1/10
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
After much waiting, the year 2023 saw the epic, stylish character of Superstar Rajinikanth in a commercial action-comedy film as ‘Tiger’ Muthuvel Pandian IPS. The film revolves around a retired jailer who lives with his wife, son, and grandchild, leading a typical retired life. The film takes a turn for the worse when he is son is believed to have been kidnapped and killed by a group of antique smugglers led by Varman (Vinayakan). The film takes on a course of revenge and a heist-filled narrative with some epic cameo performances by Shiva Rajkumar and Mohanlal.
10. KGF: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 (2018 and 2022)
Cast: Yash, Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon, Srinidhi Shetty, Ramachandra Raju, Achyuth Kumar, Anant Nag, Prakash Raj
Genre: Period-action
Director: Prashanth Neel
Screenplay: Prashanth Neel
Runtime: 2 hours and 35 minutes, 2 hours and 48 minutes
IMDb rating: 8.2/10, 8.3/10
Where to watch: Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video
The Rocking Star of Kannada cinema became the Rocky bhai of Indian cinema in a span of four years and two films from the films KGF: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.
The film features the story of Rocky, a high-yielding mercenary from Bombay (present-day Mumbai) who seeks to find unimaginable wealth and power to satisfy the last promise he made to his dying mother. The leaders of the gold mafia plan to use him as a tool to fend off the now-leader of the gold mafia, but Rocky has some other plans in mind, turning him from a mere tool to the menacing beast all of them have to fear.
