JOIN OUR WHATSAPP CHANNEL
Trade Tutor: Is Bollywood under attack from South and West?
It’s clear that Bollywood is being challenged in its own backyard because the highest grossing Hindi Film happens to be Bahubali2, a Telugu film. Why is this shift taking place?
The trailer launch of RRR created quite a stir and especially folks up north went gaga over the trailer. Many calling it a Blockbuster in the making, Hindi version too. Then came the news that the advance ticket sales of Spiderman: No Way Home are phenomenal and the demand for tickets is simply phenomenal across India. Small towns TOO are showing unprecedented appetite for the web slinger. Even Pushpa is garnering good interest in the northern markets and could pleasantly surprise on 17th December. While most films released by the Mumbai Film Industry are finding the going tough. Producers of Medium/Small budget films that are due for a theatrical release are not very comfortable at the scenario.
It’s clear that Bollywood is under attack from the Southern Industries and Hollywood. Their products are occupying too much mind space from North Indian Audiences and that is not a healthy sign for the Mumbai Film Industry. Bahubali 2 broke the floodgates and it showed the makers down South that their products could successfully perform theatrically rather than doing the heavy lifting on satellite channels. It opens up new revenue streams and they can bring in higher production values to dazzle audiences.
Avengers Endgame showed Hollywood Studios the potential they have in this market and specially brand Marvel. From then on it has been a rise for Hollywood Studios and market share has been subsequently increasing. It’s clear that Bollywood is being challenged in its own backyard because the highest grossing Hindi Film happens to be Bahubali2, a Telugu film. Why is this shift taking place?
These are the major issues that plague Bollywood today. If an incumbent will not serve his market and focus on few segments of his market. It is only a matter of time when others spot a huge underserved market up for grabs. Bollywood sits on the biggest geography in India as its dedicated market and is clearly not optimizing it. If a Telugu Film dubbed in Hindi can rake in 511cr (Bahubali 2) in India and the next Hindi film is at 385cr (Dangal). There are serious issues that the local industry needs to sort out or it would keep losing market share in its own backyard.
