South Indian Films Eclipse Bollywood's Glory
It is said that there are only seven stories in the world, which are told alternately. Similarly, there are seven people who are constantly repeated in Bollywood – Akshay Kumar, the three Khans, Deepika Padukone, the Kapoor family and Karan Johar, these people repeat the same story over and over again. This quote recently came true when the PVR auditorium was silent on the occasion of the opening show of 'Housefull 5'. Despite the fact that the top booking app was misleading about 60 percent of its tickets sold, the auditorium was almost empty. Akshay Kumar's latest comedy film, which has a total of 19 film stars including Abhishek Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Nana Patekar, could earn only Rs 24 crore on the opening day of June 6. The film failed to earn even a hundred crores in the first week.
Desperate social media called the film ridiculous. In the first 21 hours, the number of people watching its trailer on YouTube was only 80 lakhs, which was less than Akshay Kumar's films. As if the film's flop is not enough, the discussion about exaggerating ticket sales to divert attention from the emptiness of the theater speaks about the crisis associated with Bollywood's big names. Clearly, the sheen of Bollywood stars is fading, putting the country's Rs 19,000-crore entertainment industry in jeopardy.
Ironically, at a time when Hindi cinema is on the rise, South Indian cinema is on the rise. It tells about the drought of creativity in Bollywood, due to films like 'Hera Pheri' and 'Welcome', 'Khiladi' Akshay Kumar once spoke in small towns but his films like 'Sky Force', 'Kesari 2' and now 'Housefull 5' have flopped and could not even do business of 100 crores.
Even Amitabh's Instagram initiative to make 'Housefull 5' a hit, especially for son Abhishek, could not make the film earn more than 54 crores in two days. The audience of South India has contributed a lot behind the discussion of his role in the film 'Kalki 2898 AD'. This speaks volumes about the dependence of Bollywood stars on outsiders now, more or less.
Salman Khan's film 'Sikandar' was able to earn 26 crores, while its budget was 200 crores. Kangana Ranaut's film 'Emergency' was able to earn only 18.4 crores. While Anupam Kher praised Kangana's directorial vision, the audience rejected the film, just as they rejected Kher's "The Vaccine War".
In the year 2023, Shah Rukh Khan again shone with the business of 1055 crores of 'Pathaan', but in 2024, the controversy related to the negligible film and pan masala advertisement spoiled his image. Ranbir Kapoor's Animal grossed Rs 553 crore, but a Rs 400 crore film with Madhuri Dixit in 2024 could not do the same business, while 2022's 'Shamshera' was a super flop. While Deepika Padukone's 'Chhapaak' flopped, she relied on the South Indian audience for the success of 'Kalki 2898 AD'. The failure of even films with famous stars is strangling the entertainment industry. Total ticket sales stood at 1.2 billion in 2024, but compared to 2023, the number of moviegoers in cinemas decreased by 10 per cent and revenues by 13 per cent.
In the year 2024, a total of six Hindi films, including 'Stree 2', 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3' and 'Singham Again', were able to do business of more than a hundred crores, while in 2023, the number of Hindi films doing business of more than a hundred crores was sixteen. The OTT platform with a subscription of about 9.6 crore shows a lot for a hundred rupees a month which is a very cheap deal, in the year 2023, 400 films came on OTT instead of theaters, which was 30 percent more than in 2022. This void in theatres is being filled by South Indian stars like Prabhas and NTR Jr, while Malayalam and Gujarati films have increased market share.
On the other hand, South Indian films are making a blast, the dubbed Hindi version of 'Pushpa 2' has earned 889 crores, 'Kalki 2898 AD' has earned 550 crores and 'Devra' has left behind the best Bollywood films by doing business of 300 crores. Though Chhava showed that Bollywood can still produce good films, the Marathi pride in the film is reflected in the cultural strength of South Indian cinema. According to Javed Akhtar, with dark-skinned South actors like Allu Arjun connecting directly with most audiences as compared to Bollywood's urban elite, Bollywood's focus on selling fashion and glamour is driving rural audiences away from these films. Political ideology is also one of the reasons why Bollywood films are beaten, Kangana's 'Emergency' and 'The Kashmir Files' have nationalistic overtones but the audience rejected them.
Similarly, Shah Rukh and Aamir Khan's films are not liked by Hindutva supporters, despite Deepika Padukone, Akshay Kumar and Kangana Ranaut appreciating Operation Sindoor, the films of these stars are not becoming hits, because the audience is rejecting films based on ideology. Tired stories, inspiring tunes and the difference between the vast population of the Hindi state vis-à-vis the urban elite, the star of Bollywood is about to go down. The number of people going to cinemas has come down from 1.6 billion in 2018 to 80 million in 2025. If Mumbai fails to understand its destiny, it is quite possible that Bollywood will turn into a ghost town in 2035. By then, the single screen will disappear completely, the screens of multiplexes will show hit films from the South, and the superstars of Hindi cinema will remain in YouTube.