Film exhibitor Daggubati Suresh Babu recently participated in an exclusive roundtable interview with his contemporaries organized by Pinkvilla. During the interview, the filmmaker was asked to name the big star in Telugu cinema based on box office collections.

In response, the filmmaker said, “It’s a mix always. Independent stars have phenomenal pull. A director without a star doesn’t have the same pull as they have with a star. An independent star with a seriously brilliant director probably will get bigger.”

“In Telugu, Pawan Kalyan independently might have the best opening, Prabhas will have a phenomenal opening, Bunny (Allu Arjun) will have an opening. All of them are capable and again the kind of film and kind of combination would help,” the exhibitor added.

Suresh Babu further said, “Now is Prabhas the biggest hero in the country? We don’t know because he has Kalki and he has Baahubali…but in between he didn’t have any major things. It is also good to have these conversations like is Ajith bigger, is Vijay bigger, or is Rajinikanth bigger…the discussion goes on.”

“I wouldn’t want to pinpoint and say, This is the biggest. See, in Andhra, we would say Pawan Kalyan has the biggest following. Now, when Pawan Kalyan also comes with some small directors, he comes with a big opening. We won’t know what will happen if he comes with a bigger director. Also, if you do a film which is not what the audience wants and he does something like Johnny or something…they don’t want it,” he added.

Suresh Babu concluded by saying it is good that such conversations continue to happen and that people can discuss stars and directors.

Watch Pinkvilla’s exclusive exhibitors’ roundtable interview here: