The fall of Bollywood’s hubris as OTTs, regional movies’ reel journey through magnum opus to hinterland steal limelight

It is also about perspective these days to judge who is the right or wrong guy in a movie. The Dark Knight for example was a movie where the audience was split in their praise for Batman, the protagonist, and the Joker. Or should we say, the Joker was the protagonist? Many believe the existence of goodness harps on evil. For Sherlock Holmes to awe us, his nemesis in Moriarty is crucial too.

Similarly, it is debatable to understand the real villain for the recent miseries that most Bollywood movies suffered on opening days and thereafter.

The rise of the OTTs, the changing preference of audience in new India, the social media boycott trend for various reasons, faltering content quality and the power shift to the south with the emergence of Baahubali-like Tamil, Kannad, Telugu and Malayalam movies, all have played a role in the dwindling box office collection for the opening day of Hindi movies. While we can’t blame the factors, it is for certain that the hubris of Hindi movies’ Friday blockbuster day is shaken.

“The Hindi film industry, aka Bollywood, after decades of storytelling that has made us elated and exuberant, or sad and thoughtful at times seems to be at an inflection point unlike any other disruption it has faced before,” according to a

research note authored by Group Chief Economic Adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh.

The Covid pandemic also killed some of the enthusiasm for bollywood as collections and the number of movies released fell. As against 70-80 movies released every year in Hindi language and collection between 3,000-5,500 crore rupees, 61 movies have been released since January last year till August 11 in Hindi, including original and south or english movies dubbed in Hindi. They have collected merely 3,200 crore rupees, of which 48% came from 18 dubbed movies, the report stated citing data from Koimoi.com.

The average rating of the hindi movies since January last year has been 5.9, compared to 7.3 rating for the 18 dubbed movies. An extra point IMDB rating leads to 17 crore rupees of more collections, the report said.

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan returned to the silver screen after years with Laal Singh Chaddha, an official adaptation of

winner Forrest Gump. However, the movie, made on a budget of 180 crore rupees, opened at 11.7 crore rupees, releasing in 3,500 screens across the country. The lukewarm response continued in the second weekend where it managed to collect just 55 crore rupees in India. The collections were worse than Khan’s previous debacle, Thugs of Hindostan, which had opened at 55 crore rupees. The same actor’s Dangal movie reportedly had a worldwide lifetime collection of 2,100 crore rupees to then become the highest-grossing Indian film ever.

“Bollywood has been delivering very poor content and that is the reason for the downfall. The day we start giving better content, that’s the day when cinemas will be back to very good business and people will be coming back to cinemas in a big way,” Taran Adarsh, Indian film critic and trade analyst said, adding that the recently released Laal Singh Chaddha’s second half was “unbearable”.

Adarsh said people are ready to go to the theaters provided they are served good content. Kannada movie KGF 2, which was also dubbed in Hindi, was screened at theaters as early as from 6 a.m. and the halls were packed, proving good content will attract the audience, he said.

In fact, KGF 2 is the highest grossing movie in India so far this year, followed by Telugu movie RRR and Tamil film Vikram. Made on a budget of 100 crore rupees, KGF 2 has collected 1030.1 crore rupees in India and another 205.1 crore rupees overseas, according to IMDB data. RRR has earned 1,135.8 crore rupees worldwide.

In comparison, the highest worldwide box office collection by a Hindi movie is 337.2 crore rupees, earned by The Kashmir Files. In the top 10 highest grossing movies this year from India, the only two other Hindi movies are Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Gangubai Kathiawadi.

Taran Adarsh said among Hindi movies, The Kashmir Files, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Gangubai Kathiawadi were the few to provide good content, but they were not followed by better or equally good content. Even ‘A-list’ actors and big stars, apart from Amir Khan, such as Akshay Kumar with Samrat Prithviraj, Raksha Bandan and Bachchhan Paandey; Shahid Kapoor with Jersey; Ranbir Kapoor with Shamsera; and Ranveer Singh with Jayeshbhai Jordaar have all failed to deliver the numbers.

The rise of multiplexes such as PVR and

has ironically also been detrimental for Bollywood’s revenues.SBI notes that the ticket prices in multiplexes are three-to-four times more than single screen theaters, which can be attributed to the high entertainment tax for Hindi movies.

Interestingly, 62% of the single screen theaters are in South India, with North India having a share of only 16%, followed by West with 10% of all single screen cinema halls, the report added. This could also be the reason why South Indian movies are generating more revenues than Bollywood movies recently, it said. South India is also seen to have a passionate movie-going audience and crazy fans who can start a riot or even kill themselves when their superstars are kidnapped or they die.

Nonetheless, a major disruptor in the entertainment industry is the emergence of over-the-top (OTT) platforms that have taken people back to the good old days of watching movies at home just like the DVD era, only with enhanced choices, SBI said.

Reportedly, there are 45 crore OTT subscribers in India and it is expected to reach 50 crore by the end of next year. “The rise in OTT is expected to eat into cinemas viewers and profits, as more than 50% of the people use OTTs more than 5 hours in a month. Also options like Smart TV, Chromecast coming into the picture have impacted the traditional mode of entertainment the most.”

The OTT market in India is expected to reach 11,944 crore rupees by 2023 from 2,590 crore rupees in 2018, representing a CAGR of 36%, SBI said citing independent estimates.

When the cinemas were shut during the pandemic, people started watching movies, shows, series on OTTs with choices across the world and regional offerings including Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali and others, Adarsh said.

“That is when you realise there is so much to watch and there is so little being offered by the Hindi film folks. Indian audience was already smart, but that is when the audience became smarter. Movies such as Pushpa and KGF delivered content then and set a benchmark,” he added.

Human behaviour perhaps has changed. In fact, in the past many Hindi movies have been clinical in bringing about changes in Indian lives as well. Be it gaining muscles like Salman Khan, learning dance tricks of Hrithik Roshan, being a romantic like Shah Rukh Khan or every young kid planning a Goa trip with friends someday after watching Dil Chahta Hai. While a change can come again, SBI said, who knows, one blockbuster could again set the cash ringing at the box office!

Taran Adarsh is also hopeful of a turnaround with plenty of good-content Hindi movies lined up for 2023. He expects the Karan-Arjun duo of Salman Khan with his Tiger 3 and Shah Rukh Khan with Pathaan and Jawan to potentially rake in the moolah and get the Indian audience back in large numbers.