This photograph features two actors from the Telugu film industry. One fondly referred to as the Megastar and the other Rebel Star. And over the next few days and weeks, both find themselves in the same boat. Of attempting a crossover. 

Prabhas goes first. With expectations skyhigh after Baahubali, the actor is looking at the Hindi market with Saaho. With the success rate of South Indian actors in the Hindi space not exactly flattering, Prabhas has his task cut out. He would be hoping his desi James Bond act of sorts in an action flick that has taken two years in the making, will endear him to the Mumbai crowd and beyond. 

For Chiranjeevi, this will be the second coming. Like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Venkatesh and Nagarjuna, he too had ventured into Hindi cinema with movies like Pratibandh in the 1990s. Like Prabhas, Chiranjeevi’s challenge also is Baahubalian. The storyline of a freedom fighter in Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, pitches the movie in a period drama replete with forts, horses, heavy costumes and the look of a bygone era and the tone and tenor will inevitably draw comparisons with the SS Rajamouli flick. 

But for both Prabhas and Chiranjeevi, the temptation of reaching a bigger pan-India market is huge. The casting of both Saaho and Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy has been done keeping the larger audience in mind. So if you have Shraddha Kapoor playing the lead in Saaho, you have Amitabh Bachchan acting as a bridge between Hyderabad and Mumbai.