On the other hand, we have the rise of the films from the South which capture some of emotional power of an earlier era. A lot of these blockbusters are tapping into a strain of fantasised hypermasculinity that has been on the rise in both our society and our politics. But what makes them dazzle in a cinematic sense is scale of a different kind. The spectacle that they offer is awe-inspiring, even if the stories are basic; so much so that we are now seeing Western audiences, hitherto dismissive of the Indian style of filmmaking, behave like delirious teenagers while watching a film like RRR. It also helps that the Southern film industry is far more disciplined when it comes to costs which allows them to spend disproportionately on production rather than on stars.