Home and the world: What is behind unprecedented surge of 'Indian cinema'?

Kedar Shinde’s Marathi film Baipan Bhari Deva is a heart-warming story of six estranged sisters and their attempts to get together for a Manglagaur (festival) dance performance. This Jio Studios release, made on a budget of Rs 3 crore, had, at last count, grossed more than Rs 90 crore, making it one of the most profitable Indian films of 2023.

Sanjeev Bijli, executive director, PVR, India’s largest multiplex chain, points out that Baipan Bhari Deva is among the top five non-Hindi hits of 2023. (Hindi is the largest market by value.) The others include Carry on Jatta 3 (Punjabi) and Kushi and Bro (Telugu). Each has collected Rs 90 crore to Rs 180 crore at the box office. Jailer, starring Rajinikanth, primarily a Tamil language film, is the biggest non-Hindi film, collecting more than Rs 600 crore. A bulk of its ticket sales were from states other than Tamil Nadu, as well as from overseas.
 

“Audiences have become language-agnostic. People are willing to sample and see a film, not just on OTT (over-the-top) but in cinemas as well,” says Sanjay Chhabria, founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Everest Entertainment. Chhabria has produced 25 Marathi films, including hits such as Mee Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy. “You need to take that leap of faith in the story or emotions, like Baipan Bhari Deva or 12th Fail did.”
 

Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail (Hindi), the true story of a man’s positive attitude in the face of insurmountable odds, is one of 2023’s most acclaimed movies and also a very profitable one.
 

Giant leap
 

Many filmmakers and studios are taking that leap. Leo, Animal, Pathaan, OMG 2, Gadar 2, Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani, among the big hits of 2023, broke with convention either within the film or in the audiences they sought — and got. The biggest hit of 2023, the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Jawan, is directed by Attlee, known for Tamil hits such as Mersal. It had a cast and crew drawn largely from Tamil cinema and was released in Tamil and Telugu, other than Hindi. It collected a gross of Rs 1,160 crore at the box office globally. 

Of this, Rs 760 crore came from within India, about Rs 200 crore of this from non-Hindi markets.

“Earlier, a Pathaan or a Jawan would have done Rs 100 crore; now they do Rs 600 to Rs 700 crore domestically. These numbers are only possible with an all-India run,” adds Bijli.

These are films designed for a market beyond their state of origin. “[Domestic] crossovers are very normal now. Animal, Salaar, Kantara, every month or two, there is a pan-Indian film,” reckons Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media.
 

Ormax’s data shows that from just a handful in 2019, the number of pan-Indian films increased to more than two dozen in 2023. They are either shot bilin­gually or dubbed in two or more langua­ges, and released in a large number of screens beyond their home markets.
 

“Because of the way the project is put together, these films lead to an expansion in footfalls,” says Rahul Puri, managing director, Mukta Arts.
 

This is the first and most important reason why Indian cinema is expanding its viewership and revenues by 10 to 20 per cent in value as well as volume. The market for ‘Indian cinema’, not just Hindi or Telugu or Tamil or Marathi cinema but ‘Indian cinema’, has grown. The second reason is the falling barriers between big and small towns, and bet­ween India and global markets. Strange­ly, this has happened due to the pande­mic and the push it gave to streaming.
 

The result? Ticket sales have risen by more than 3 per cent and total revenue by 12 per cent in 2023.
 

“We have had the best year in the last decade,” says Ajit Andhare, CEO, Viacom18 Studios, whose distribution slate included Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani, Zwigato (a festival circuit hit), and OMG 2.
 

The total revenue in 2023 is within kissing distance of the figure for 2019, the last pre-Covid year. “There is more sales in all languages. By the end of the financial year, in March 2024, admiss­ions (ticket sales) will be 7 to 10 per cent higher than in FY23,” says Amit Sharma, managing director, entertainment, Miraj Group.
 

Kapoor of Ormax says: “The more interesting question is, can the Rs 12,000-crore (domestic box office) go to Rs 20,000 crore next year?”
 

The bridges they built

For years, Hindi and South Indian filmmakers tried their hand at pan-Indian films, but neither the storytellers nor the audiences were ready. Andha Kanoon (1983, Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan) and Sadma (1983, Kamal Hasan and Sridevi) were exceptions.

By the turn of the millennium, Hindi general entertainment channels started offering dubbed versions of Tamil and Telugu films. This brought in a large audience from the Hindi belt. When streaming took off in 2016, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, and all kinds of Indian films started finding audiences outside their core markets. The result of the smorgasbord on streaming transcended to the ground as well.
 

“Movies are crossing state boundaries,” says Bijli.
 

Every film can, in theory, target the national market. But there is a sub-text. “Films from the South can penetrate Hindi, but the reverse is not true,” says Andhare of Viacom18 Studios. Kapoor agrees. “Hindi films have no traction in the South beyond Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bengaluru. The only exception is Shah Rukh,” he says.
 

However, most analysts say it is merely a matter of time. The collapse of language barriers is accompanied by a collapse of geographical and demographic ones, both domestically and globally.

“The difference between Tier-I and II has narrowed from what it was, say, a couple of decades back,” says Sharma of Miraj Group. Of Miraj’s 200 screens, 120 are in the big cities, and the remaining in Tier-II towns, such as Hissar, Akola, and Sonepat. What is working across markets, says Sharma, is “larger than life visuals and sequels”. And yet, films such as 12th Fail and Mrs Chatterjee Vs Nor­way have had a good run, he adds.

This brings creative challenges. “Because the audience has become more discerning; nothing average will work,” says Chhabria of Everest.
 

Puri of Mukta talks about a viewer from Samastipur writing in to ask why the Joaquin Phoenix-starrer Napolean was not released in the original English version in his town in Bihar. “We did not even think that Napolean would work in Samastipur — definitely not in English,” he says.
 

This breaking down of barriers is true for the global markets, too. Much like Indian viewers enjoy a Money Heist, those in Germany or Poland may enjoy a Kohhra or Family Man. Streaming has created a broader interest in Indian stories. After a successful theatrical run, RRR was in the global top 10 on Netflix for 18 weeks. Most major Indian releases are now reviewed in the world’s top trade and news publications, from Variety and Hollywood Reporter to The Guardian and The New York Times. This translates into more interest. The value of the dollar means the $62 million Pathaan grossed worldwide converts to Rs 500 crore.
 

On January 25, Viacom18 Studios releases Siddharth Anand’s Fighter, based loosely on Top Gun, a franchise one of its parents, Paramount Pictures, owns. The collapsing of boundaries – creatively, demographically, and geographically – continues.

Lexicon

Box office: Tickets sold. After deducting the share of trade (theatres, multiplexes, distributors) and taxes, roughly a third of the box-office collection comes to the studio

Profit: Arrived at after deducting the expenses for a film’s making and marketing, and the director’s and actors’ shares from total revenue

Total revenue: The money a film makes from TV, streaming, music, and sale of tickets