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Bollywood faces horror show at box office with viewership shifting to streaming services

Bollywood faces horror show at box office with viewership shifting to streaming services

Only one-fifth of the 50 films released last year met or surpassed revenue targets.
12 Oct, 2022

India’s Bollywood film industry, long part of the cultural fabric of the movie-mad country of 1.4 billion people, is facing its biggest-ever crisis as streaming services and non-Hindi language rivals steal its sparkle.

The film giant churns out on average 1600 films every year, more than any other country, traditionally headlined by glitzy Bollywood, with fans worshipping movie stars like gods and crowds thronging premieres.

But now cinemas have fallen quiet, even in Bollywood’s nerve centre of Mumbai, with box-office receipts plunging since Covid curbs were lifted. “This is the worst crisis ever faced,” veteran Mumbai theatre owner Manoj Desai said. Some screenings were cancelled as the “public was not there”.

The usually bankable megastar Akshay Kumar had three back-to-back films tank. Fellow A-lister Aamir Khan, the face of some of India’s most successful films, failed to entice audiences with the Forrest Gump remake, Laal Singh Chaddha.

Of the more than 50 Bollywood films released in the past year — fewer than normal because of the pandemic — just one-fifth have met or surpassed revenue targets, said media analyst Karan Taurani of Elara Capital. Pre-pandemic it was 50 per cent.

In contrast, several Telugu-language aka Tollywood movies — a south Indian competitor to Hindi-language Bollywood — have soared to the top.

Embarrassingly, around half the box-office takings for Hindi-language films from January last year to August this year were dubbed southern offerings, said State Bank of India’s chief economic adviser, Soumya Kanti Ghosh, in a recent report. “Bollywood, after decades of storytelling… seems to be at an inflection point unlike any other disruption it has faced before,” Ghosh wrote.

Out-of-touch

Bollywood, like other movie industries, has been hurt by streaming’s rise, which started before the pandemic but took off when millions of Indians were forced indoors.

Around half of India’s population has access to the internet and streaming services, including international players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ Hotstar, have 96 million subscriptions, according to a government estimate.

Some films released during the Covid shutdown went straight to these platforms, while others hit small screens just weeks after debuting in theatres.

With streaming monthly subscriptions lower or comparable to the cost of one ticket — Rs100-200 rupees ($1.20-$2.50) at single-screen cinemas and higher at multiplexes — price-sensitive audiences were avoiding theatres, analysts said.

Times have been so hard that INOX and PVR, two of India’s biggest multiplex operators, announced their merger in March to “create scale”.

Subscribers were meanwhile exposed to local and global streaming content, including southern Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada-language films that already had legions of devoted local fans.

“Regional cinema was not travelling beyond its borders. But now suddenly everyone is watching Malayalam cinema or Maharashtrian cinema and then you realise that… there are filmmakers who are telling more interesting stories,” film critic Raja Sen said.

Originally published in Dawn, October 12, 2022

Comments

Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad Oct 12, 2022 11:36am
Who cares?
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Factsmatter Oct 12, 2022 11:59am
Bollywood has low standards compared to South Indian movies.
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NYS Oct 12, 2022 12:18pm
Fall of Bollywood Resurrection Lollywood Pakistani cinemas are running Housefull however ,they are not making films in hundreds but even then not facing crisis like B.town
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Zak Oct 12, 2022 12:30pm
India’s Bollywood film industry, long part of the cultural fabric of the movie-mad country of 1.4 billion people, is facing its biggest-ever crisis as streaming services and non-Hindi language rivals steal its sparkle. Ever since Pakistani talent stopped saving them, they have collapsed.
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Dia Oct 12, 2022 12:37pm
And we buy 1USD for 220 PKR! Such a surprise ...
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Hassan Oct 12, 2022 01:13pm
Bollywood's fall started well before COVID. Once you start making propaganda movies under the garb of nationalism, this is what you get. People get tired. You can only bash a neighboring country so much for all your day to day problems.
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Irfan Huq Oct 12, 2022 01:53pm
Garbage in garbage out. Same thing happened with the music. how far can you take people based on advertisement only . No substance no story no direction only money's thrown. Need some educated people to save the industry.
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Armagan Oct 12, 2022 02:06pm
Meanwhile a little while ago, Lollywood was featured in the prestigious UK magazine The Economist; headlined "the new wave of Pakistani cinema." The story telling abilities of Pakistan with the reach of streaming bodes well for Lollywood.
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Mustafa Bellows Oct 12, 2022 02:41pm
@Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad For someone who claims not to care, you sure comment on such articles a lot. If it doesn't interest you, skip it Bhai.
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Guru Oct 12, 2022 02:42pm
It’s hard to imagine a hero as being dashing when he is also peddling toilet cleaner on TV like Akshay Kumar. That’s the crux of Bollywood’s problem.
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Johnw Oct 12, 2022 02:44pm
They make such crappy movies, Audience is more mature now and there are more than few options to get entertainment. Who wants to see stupid movies of Khans, kapoors,johars,.....etc,waste of time,waste of money.
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Ghajnavi Oct 12, 2022 02:53pm
Pakistani actors and musicians used to pull Bollywood movies to new heights. But they have been racially blocked and you can see the result.
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Murli Oct 12, 2022 03:40pm
@Zak LOL
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Punisher Oct 12, 2022 04:20pm
Most Indians prefer watching South Indian movies dubbed in various Indian languages. KGF, RRR, Pushpa etc have raked in thousands of crores.
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Gp65 Oct 12, 2022 05:19pm
@Hassan Please name one Bollywood movie with anti-Pak theme in last 5 years?
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Pandu Oct 12, 2022 05:20pm
Make better movies bollywood, you can’t expect people to show up anymore just because some big celebrity is there in the movie. Come up with mature stories.
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Sayyarkhan Oct 12, 2022 06:42pm
South Indian movies are a lot better
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M. Saeed Oct 12, 2022 10:34pm
@Factsmatter , yes, if vulgarity is the criteria!
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Secular Oct 12, 2022 10:38pm
@Zak Pakistani actors only acted in handful movies. Bollywood movies still breaking records at box office I mean good movies with well known stars
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John Oct 13, 2022 09:02am
Indian youth have switched over to webseries on OTT which have gained popularity and are much better.. be it sacred games or Delhi crime all have international recognition
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Zeeshan Oct 13, 2022 09:35am
@Zak read the article carefully, it’s because of covid. Cinemas are affected but not streaming services.
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