Salman Khan has reportedly tapped Telugu director Vamshi Paidipally for his Eid 2027 release, reuniting the Dhurandhar action team under Dil Raju's production banner. The move marks back-to-back Eid slots handed to South Indian filmmakers, raising questions about whether Bollywood's own directors have lost the megastar's confidence for delivering vintage mass spectacle.

Here is a question nobody in Juhu seems willing to ask out loud: when did Salman Khan stop believing that a Mumbai director could give him the one thing his career runs on — the mass hero entry, the slow-motion walk, the punch that rattles a theatre's subwoofer?

The answer, if you trace the breadcrumbs, is hiding in plain sight. According to The Times of India, the ace action team behind Dhurandhar has now reunited for Salman Khan's next with Telugu director Vamshi Paidipally, targeting the Eid 2027 window. And according to Bollywood Hungama, the project is being produced under Dil Raju's Sri Venkateswara Creations banner — the same Hyderabad powerhouse that bankrolled Varisu and has quietly become the go-to production house for cross-border megastar vehicles.

This is not a one-off experiment. This is a pattern, and the pattern is the story.

India Herald reached out to representatives of Salman Khan, Vamshi Paidipally, Kabir Khan, and Ali Abbas Zafar for comment. No response was received as of publication.

Key Takeaways

• Salman Khan has handed back-to-back Eid slots to South Indian directors — AR Murugadoss (Sikandar) and now reportedly Vamshi Paidipally — marking what appears to be a decisive strategic pivot away from Bollywood filmmakers for his marquee releases.
• According to Bollywood Hungama, Dil Raju's SVC has onboarded the Dhurandhar action team, signalling that large-scale action choreography is the project's creative centrepiece.
• Vamshi Paidipally's Varisu crossed ₹300 crore worldwide per trade tracking estimates, demonstrating the director's ability to deliver unapologetic mass-hero cinema — precisely what Salman's brand requires.
• The Bollywood-to-Tollywood pipeline is not limited to Salman; Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan (Atlee) and multiple Bollywood projects now rely on South Indian technical ecosystems for action, VFX, and production infrastructure.
• Trade speculation suggests Nayanthara may be attached to the project — though this remains unconfirmed — which would represent a calculated pan-India casting strategy over traditional Hindi-belt star pairing.

The Eid Slot and Its New Landlords

For two decades, the Eid release window belonged to Salman Khan the way Diwali once belonged to Shah Rukh. It was sacred real estate: a guaranteed opening-weekend surge, a holiday audience primed for mass entertainment, and a box-office floor that made even mediocre Salman films commercially viable. The directors who delivered those films — Kabir Khan, Ali Abbas Zafar, Prabhu Deva — were all Mumbai-bred or Mumbai-adopted.

Then came the wobble. Tiger 3 underwhelmed. Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan was a commercial disaster by Salman standards. The template that Bollywood directors had been recycling — the formulaic comedy-action hybrid with a romantic subplot that went nowhere — started looking like a photocopy of a photocopy, fading with each iteration.

Salman's response was instructive. He did not retire. He did not pivot to content cinema. He went south. Sikandar landed with AR Murugadoss, the man who gave Vijay Ghajini before Aamir Khan ever wore the tattoos. And now, as per reports, Vamshi Paidipally gets the next Eid.

Two consecutive Eids. Two South Indian directors. That is not a coincidence. That, trade analysts argue, is a verdict.

What Vamshi Paidipally Actually Brings

Vamshi Paidipally's last major film was Varisu with Vijay — a film that, for all its mixed reviews, crossed ₹300 crore worldwide per trade tracking estimates and demonstrated one thing Bollywood directors have increasingly struggled with: how to stage a mass hero without irony. No winking at the audience. No post-modern self-awareness about how silly the slow-mo is. Just unabashed elevation.

That is precisely the raw material Salman Khan's screen persona requires. The 'Bhai' brand does not survive deconstruction. It survives amplification. And the South Indian director's toolkit — built on decades of unapologetic star worship, military-grade stunt choreography, and an instinct for the interval block that makes a theatre erupt — is purpose-built for that amplification.

The Dhurandhar action team's return, as reported by Bollywood Hungama, is the clearest signal yet. When you rehire the stunt unit before you have locked your leading lady, you are telling the industry exactly where your priorities sit: the action IS the film.

Inside Talk

The buzz in Film Nagar — and increasingly in Bandra coffee shops — is that Salman Khan's team ran a quiet internal audit of his last five Eid releases and the numbers told an uncomfortable story. Trade circles suggest that the per-screen average of his Bollywood-directed actioners had been declining steadily since Bajrangi Bhaijaan, even as the South Indian film industry was demonstrating, with RRR and Pushpa and KGF, that mass spectacle done right could crack ₹1,000 crore worldwide.

Sources in the know hint that Dil Raju personally pitched the Vamshi collaboration, reportedly leveraging a simple argument: Telugu production infrastructure delivers Hollywood-grade action at a fraction of Mumbai costs. The stunt teams are sharper. The VFX pipelines are leaner. The directors do not treat mass as a dirty word.

Some fans and trade observers have speculated that Nayanthara may be involved in the project, though this has not been officially confirmed by any party. If true, it would mark only the second time a South Indian leading lady has headlined a Salman Khan Eid vehicle — a casting choice that trade pundits say would reflect a calculated bet on pan-India appeal over North Indian star recognition.

(This reflects industry chatter and unverified speculation, not confirmed fact.)

Bollywood's Director Problem, Plainly Stated

The uncomfortable read India Herald draws from this situation: Mumbai's top-tier action directors have either graduated to 'prestige' projects (Kabir Khan making 83, Ali Abbas Zafar chasing Hollywood co-productions) or have, in the view of some trade analysts, run out of ideas within the masala framework. The mid-tier Mumbai directors who remain willing to do star-driven mass films, critics argue, simply do not have the visual grammar to compete with what Hyderabad and Chennai are producing.

To be clear, this is India Herald's editorial read of the structural trend — not a statement from Salman Khan's camp, and the directors named have not had the opportunity to respond to this characterisation. Their bodies of work speak for themselves, and a shift in one megastar's hiring preference does not constitute a verdict on their abilities across all projects.

Consider the economics. A Tollywood action director comes with an entire ecosystem — stunt choreographers who have worked on 200-crore spectacles, DI labs that have colour-graded Baahubali, and a production culture that shoots 18-hour days without the cost overruns that plague Mumbai sets. When Dil Raju puts his SVC banner behind a Salman film, he is essentially exporting an entire filmmaking operating system, not just a director.

This is not about individual talent. It is about industrial infrastructure. And right now, that infrastructure lives below the Vindhyas.

The Larger Pattern: Who Is Really Driving Pan-India?

Step back and the pattern extends well beyond Salman. Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan was directed by Atlee, a Tamil filmmaker. Hrithik Roshan's next is reportedly being developed with South Indian technical teams, though details remain unconfirmed. Multiple Bollywood tentpoles now quietly rely on South Indian stunt units, VFX houses, and post-production facilities.

What is happening is not a simple talent migration. It is a structural realignment of Indian commercial cinema's power centre. The mass-action film — once Bollywood's core product — has effectively been outsourced to the South, the way Detroit outsourced manufacturing to places that could do it better and cheaper.

The question for Mumbai is not whether this is happening. It is whether it is reversible.

What Comes Next — The Forward Read

If this Eid 2027 film delivers — and by 'delivers,' the trade means ₹250 crore-plus domestic — expect the Bollywood-Tollywood crossover pipeline to become the default template for every ageing Bollywood megastar trying to protect his opening-weekend floor. Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, and even Aamir Khan's teams will be watching the SVC63 numbers with calculators, not popcorn.

Watch for two signals in the coming months: first, whether Salman Khan formally announces the Eid 2027 slot at a Hyderabad event rather than a Mumbai one — the geography of the announcement itself will tell you where the power sits. Second, whether the film's music is handled by a South Indian composer or a Bollywood stalwart. If the background score goes south too, it is not just the director who has been outsourced — it is the entire creative vision.

Vamshi Paidipally, for his part, has everything to prove. Varisu showed he could handle a South Indian megastar on an enormous canvas. But Salman Khan's Hindi-belt audience is a different animal — less forgiving of dubbed sensibilities, more impatient with pacing, and deeply attached to a 'Bhai' formula that is specific, familiar, and allows almost no deviation.

The real gamble is not whether a Telugu director can make a mass film. That question was settled a decade ago. The real gamble is whether the 'Bhai' persona — ageing, increasingly reliant on goodwill rather than box-office hunger — has one more genuine blockbuster left in it, regardless of who is behind the camera.

And that is the question no hiring decision, however shrewd, can answer. Only Eid 2027 will.

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Key Takeaways

• Salman Khan has handed back-to-back Eid slots to South Indian directors — AR Murugadoss (Sikandar) and now reportedly Vamshi Paidipally — marking what appears to be a decisive strategic pivot away from Bollywood filmmakers for his marquee releases.
• According to Bollywood Hungama, Dil Raju's SVC has onboarded the Dhurandhar action team, signalling that large-scale action choreography is the project's creative centrepiece.
• Vamshi Paidipally's Varisu crossed ₹300 crore worldwide per trade tracking estimates, demonstrating the director's ability to deliver unapologetic mass-hero cinema.
• The Bollywood-to-Tollywood pipeline is not limited to Salman; Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan (Atlee) and multiple Bollywood projects now rely on South Indian technical ecosystems for action, VFX, and production infrastructure.
• Trade speculation suggests Nayanthara may be attached to the project — though this remains unconfirmed — which would represent a calculated pan-India casting strategy.
• India Herald reached out to representatives of Salman Khan, Vamshi Paidipally, Kabir Khan, and Ali Abbas Zafar; no response was received as of publication.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which movie is coming in 2027 for Salman Khan?

According to The Times of India and Bollywood Hungama, Salman Khan is working on a film with Telugu director Vamshi Paidipally, produced by Dil Raju's Sri Venkateswara Creations, targeting the Eid 2027 release window. The Dhurandhar action team has reportedly been reunited for the project.

Which was the last film of Vamshi Paidipally?

Vamshi Paidipally's last major directorial was Varisu (2023) starring Vijay, which crossed ₹300 crore worldwide per trade tracking estimates. He is now reportedly directing Salman Khan in a new action film under Dil Raju's SVC banner.

Who is directing Salman Khan's Eid 2027 film?

Telugu filmmaker Vamshi Paidipally, known for directing Varisu and Maharshi, is reportedly directing Salman Khan's Eid 2027 film, as reported by Bollywood Hungama and The Times of India.

Why is Salman Khan choosing South Indian directors for Eid releases?

Trade analysts speculate that Salman Khan's pivot to South Indian directors like AR Murugadoss and Vamshi Paidipally may reflect a strategic recalibration after several Bollywood-directed action films underperformed. South Indian production ecosystems are seen as offering superior action choreography infrastructure, cost-efficient VFX pipelines, and directors who specialise in unapologetic star-elevation filmmaking. However, no official statement from Salman Khan's camp has confirmed this rationale.