Oscar award-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty claims the character Katappa from the blockbuster movie "Baahubali: The Beginning" is more popular than the three Khans of Bollywood — Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan.
"Today, the character Katappa from the film is more popular than all the three Khans of Bollywood put together," Resul was quoted as saying by IANS. The Academy award-winner made the statement during the launch of the first edition of International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) Utsavam on Sunday, 24 January, in Hyderabad. It has to be noted that soon after the release of SS Rajamouli's epic drama "Baahubali", search engine giant Google was bombarded with the question "Why did Katappa kill Baahubali?" by the audience.
Pookutty also claimed he always wondered why Bollywood was given more importance all these years even when 45% of Indian cinema's total revenue came from the southern film industry.
"I've known the people at IIFA for many years. I've always wondered why the focus was always on Bollywood when southern cinema constitutes 45% share of the total revenue of Indian cinema," said Pookutty.
During IIFA Utsavam, the best talents across the southern film industries — Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada — are being honoured. While the awards for the Kollywood and Mollywood industries were distributed on Sunday, the winners of Tollywood and Sandalwood industries will be announced on Monday.