By Sanjay Chhabria
Regional films particularly South Indian Films have been growing at a rapid pace for a long time. The foundation stone for this was laid by the premier movie channels of broadcasters such as Star Gold, Sony Max and Colors who started airing Hindi dubs of South films on their channels.
Hindi Films for a while have been catering to a discerning audience in the top 8 – 10 tier 1 cities of India leaving behind a large gap to be filled in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Regional cinema which talks more about tier 2 and tier 3 has been filling this gap and more so post-pandemic.
The pandemic saw a boom in OTT viewership thanks to all other avenues of entertainment being shut. Resultantly audiences became language agnostic. Films occasionally viewed on Pay TV Channels were available at the viewers’ disposal on streaming platforms and have become a staple diet.
Between the four southern languages there are about six to eight releases a week and the audiences can see the Hindi dub versions of these (mainly the Biggies) first in the cinemas and later within four to five weeks of theatrical release on major streaming platforms (Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hotstar).
Telugu and Tamil box office numbers have grown exponentially since 2022. Telugu box office jumped from Rs 1404 crore in 2019 to Rs 2145 crore in 2022 whereas Tamil Box Office grew from Rs 1460 croreore in 2019 to Rs 1724 crore in 2022. Thereafter, 2023 too saw the Telugu and Tamil Box Office numbers rising.
Post-pandemic, the majority of movie audiences frequent cinemas only for special films, event films and big experiences which can’t be replicated at home. The mid-budget and smaller films can be consumed on OTT in a few weeks! Such is the mindset now.
Bollywood has taken cognizance of this and 2023 was a comeback year for Bollywood with Box Office collections of Rs 5380 crore buoyed by mass actioners like Pathan, Gaddar 2, Jawan and Animal. Hindi filmmakers for long were not churning out the quintessential masala films which appeal to an audience outside of the metros. South filled that gap with Bahubali 1 and 2, KGF 1 and 2, Pushpa, Jailer and more recently Salaar.
Going forward be it Bollywood or Tollywood or Kollywood whichever churns out more massy actioners will rule the box office!
The author is the founder and CEO of Everest Entertainment