Why are Hindi films struggling at the box office?

Fridays are no longer the same. Movie lovers hardly wait for the day now as new Hindi releases rarely catch their fancy. Movie halls don’t see those long queues, and frantic rush for tickets is missing. Filmmakers, actors and producers now approach the day with caution, and nervousness.

Hindi cinema is churning flops after flops. But why an industry, known for its path breaking content, is struggling to captivate the audience?

Recently, the box office saw three high-budget and much-awaited movies biting the dust. Aamir Khan’s Lal Singh Chadha, Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan and Ranbir Kapoor’s Shamshera failed to draw the crowds to the theatre.

Only two films -- The Kashmir Files and Bhool Bhulaiya 2 -- have received positive reviews this year, according to Emkay Global Financial Services. The rest of the movies have met with either mixed or negative reviews from the critics. According to a Reuters report, producers were “re-calibrating everything” for new projects in the works, from budgets and scripts to the choice of actors.

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap in a recent interview with film critic Baradwaj Rangan said that the Hindi Cinema cannot work on ‘STAR’ value alone in today's day and age. The content that is being put out is not just engaging enough. It has to be rooted and original, the maker of Gangs of Wassepur and Dev D said.

Analysts and experts agree. A report by Emkay Global Financial Services says that poor content performance is largely underscored by deprecatory critics-reviews and social media influence. Content quality has superseded star power which is evident in the recently-released movies being a letdown.

Karan Taurani, Senior Vice-President, Elara Capital says content for Hindi cinema has not been up to the mark. The backlog of content has not worked. Audience consumption habits have changed and they want to watch differentiated content. Strong growth versus pre-Covid levels will only comeback in second half of next year. 

The poor content is being reflected in the box office numbers. According to a Koimoi website, 77% of bollywood releases have been flops this year. In the January-July period this year, overall gross box office collections stood at over Rs 6,000 crore.  Of which, Hindi cinema's share was just 34%, lower than the pre-pandemic levels, according to Ormaxe media, a media consulting firm.
 

Interestingly, the Hindi box office was also largely driven by dubbed regional films like RRR and KGF-2. In the ongoing July-September quarter revenues from Bollywood films are expected to fall 45%, compared with pre-Covid levels, according to Elara Capital.

Meanwhile, southern cinema had a riot at the box office this year. RRR and KGF 2 minted close to or over Rs 1,000 crore, while Vikram delivered massive numbers for Tamil cinema.

Southern cinema’s share in overall box office collections stood at over 50% till July this year.

The rise of OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime have opened up content that was once inaccessible to the loyal Bollywood audience and streaming with subtitles proved a game changer for regional cinema. Tollywood’s ‘Pushpa - The Rise’ became a bigger success and garnered a cult-like status in north India after it was released on Amazon Prime. Experts say, with no dearth of content on OTTs, audiences are demanding better storytelling from Bollywood. High-ticket prices in multiplexes, the reduction of single screens and social media campaigns against the film industry haven’s helped either.

So is everything gloomy for Bollywood? Not so much. It’s not that every regional cinema is doing well. Recent Liger fiasco shows that only gripping storytelling works irrespective of where it is produced. A few good successes at the box office could turn the tide. 

Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Joint Managing Director, PVR, says this phenomenon is not new. It is just an aberration and not a trend. For films, that haven't done well, the content has not resonate with consumers. It is just a matter of two to three movies doing well. One good hit can change the fortunes of the industry to change.

But it also depends on how the filmmakers adapt to the changing tastes of audiences. Currently, the industry is playing catch-up and trying too many things. Experts say audiences will make up to Bollywood if the industry engages them. 

In a recent interview, Amir Khan said Bollywood has stopped making movies for the masses and the content is too niche. That could be the restart maybe: Picking subjects that appeal to a larger audience that make for compelling viewing.