According to the Indian publication Business India, there is a juggernaut of movies from South India that has taken over the Indian box office as Bollywood films are turning out to be a “feeble competitor.” Quoting a CII South Media & Entertainment report, Business India reports that 62% of the all-India box office collections of movies in 2021 came from South Indian films and the trend is getting stronger. A big part of the reason is that South Indian producers have upped their marketing strategies and taken the audience’s tastes into account through pre-production surveys to understand what moviegoers want to see.

We interviewed Meenakshi Shedde, India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin Film Festival and independent curator based in Mumbai, who follows the Indian film industry closely, by email to get an understanding of the shifting tastes of Indian moviegoers.

Why do you think Bollywood films are having such dismal numbers at the box office this year?

First, Bollywood or mainstream Hindi cinema in India – like film industries worldwide – is struggling to figure out what the post-pandemic, OTT-addicted audience wants to see in the theatres. True, a number of Bollywood big-starrers did not do well at the box office this year, including Shamshera starring Ranbir Kapoor, Samrat Prithviraj with Akshay Kumar, Laal Singh Chaddha with Aamir Khan (a remake of Forrest Gump), Jayeshbhai Jordaar with Ranveer Singh, and Jersey with Shahid Kapoor (remake of Jersey in Telugu). Even Rashtra Kavach Om with Aditya Roy Kapoor, a macho, patriotic film with religious undertones that ticked all the boxes in today’s right-wing India, keeled over. But I think it is a passing phase; all film industries go through ups and downs.

However, as Gautam Jain, Partner at Ormax Media, points out, “It’s not true that all Bollywood is flopping as some Bollywood films got good box office in 2022 too, including Gangubai Kathiawadi [which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival], Kashmir Files [a right-wing, nationalist film on the 1990 Hindu exodus from Kashmir that had the backing of prime minister Narendra Modi], and now Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva [a right-wing pleasing, pseudo-religious sci-fi VFX-laden film].

“Moreover, the Hindi-dubbed versions of South Indian films like SS Rajamouli’s RRR [Rise, Roar, Revolt in Telugu], Prashanth Neel’s KGF1 and KGF2 [Kolar Gold Fields in Kannada], Sukumar’s Pushpa: The Rise-Part 1 [Telugu] and earlier, Rajamouli’s Baahubali – The Beginning and Baahubali 2 – The Conclusion [Telugu], earned healthy returns.” 

India is the second-largest internet market worldwide and streaming platforms, including Netflix, Amazon and Zee, have for the first time created a level playing field for Indian films from all regions via English sub-titles, demolishing Bollywood’s primacy.

Also, the back-to-back success of big South Indian films in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam further demolished the idea that only Bollywood could create an all-India success. And Hollywood films Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness drew healthy box office in India as well, including Hindi-dubbed versions.

The growing right-wing Islamophobia that called for the boycott of Bollywood films like Laal Singh Chaddha (starring Aamir Khan who is Muslim), has hurt the industry further. Note that Khan’s Dangal remains the biggest Indian box office success to date ($260 million worldwide, driven by success in China). By comparison, Baahubali 2 earned $240 million, and KGF 2 earned $146 million.

On the other hand, the stumbling of big Bollywood starrers has suddenly meant small, exciting indie films like Ghode ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon (Taking the Horse to Eat Jalebis) could get a theatrical release (it also had a New York screening at the Museum of Modern Art this month), along with risk-taking films like Badhaai Do on same-sex relationships. 

Why do you think films from South India are doing so well at the box office?

Actually, the South Indian film industries, including Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu-language films (the latter has often produced more films than Bollywood annually), have had strong industries for over a century, but they were ‘discovered’ only recently by Bollywood-obsessed north Indian critics, audiences and OTT platforms. While South India has had hits and flops like any other film industry, the coincidence of their rapid successes has created the impression they have cracked the formula for success, leaving Bollywood lagging.

Films like SS Rajamouli’s RRR, a period film about two nationalist heroes revolting against the British colonizers, did really well. It was also released theatrically in the US – director Rajamouli was in a ‘Visionaries’ discussion at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and the American Cinematheque is presenting “Beyond Fest — From Tollywood to Hollywood: The Spectacle and Majesty of SS Rajamouli” from September 30-October 23, 2022, with six films and a personal appearance by the director.

Other recent South Indian hits were KGF 1 and KGF2, Pushpa: The Rise-Part 1, and earlier, Rajamouli’s Baahubali The Beginning and Baahubali 2 The Conclusion. Most of these films have grand spectacle, gob-smacking action and strong emotional undercurrents. South Indian films are also closer to their roots, often drawing from Indian epics and myths, with spectacular visual imagination and VFX, and they are unapologetic about their storytelling, which Bollywood doesn’t do.

But South India has no magic wand either: their flops this year include Acharya (with Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan) and Radhe Shyam (with Prabhas). For perspective, India produced 2,446 feature films pre-pandemic in 2019, while Hollywood distributed merely 792 feature films in North America in 2019, or barely a third of India’s production, though its global box office is much greater than India’s.

What do you think Bollywood should do to compete?

No one has the magic formula for success. But Bollywood’s films lately seem more built on calculation, ticking boxes and dazzling with special effects, but not paying enough attention to the narrative, emotions and real-life stories all around us. Bollywood had traditionally ruled the roost and held South Indian cinemas in contempt; now its strategy is if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.