From Tamil filmmaker Pa. Ranjith바카라™s Rajinikanth blockbuster Kaala (Black) to Malayalam star Tovino Thomas바카라™ Kala (The Unwanted), South Indian filmmakers are experimenting in myriad ways. AmbÂedÂkarite Ranjith speaks out for the slum dwellers in the first and Tovino바카라™s macho image is completely inverted in the second, where a poor farmhand gets his revenge against the callous landowner. There are many films in between, from big commercial monsters like KGF: Chapter 2, Pushpa: The Rise, RRR (these three films together are estimated to have made a whopping Rs 2,500 crore at the box office) to small slice-of-life gems like Kumbalangi Nights, most of Fahadh Faasil바카라™s films, and quiet but powerful feminist takes like The Great Indian Kitchen, about the casual patriarchy in most Indian middle-class homes, the Southern cinema ecoÂsystem is taking on interesting subjects and putting them out in new, creative ways.