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Trade Tutor: Is regional cinema now Indian cinema due to the OTT revolution? RRR, Pushpa, KGF 2 prove it
Trade Tutor Vishek Chauhan analyses how regional cinema has become Indian cinema thanks to technological advancements
The most frequently asked question I encounter these days is, “When will the advance of KGF: Chapter 2 open at your cinema?”. I am currently playing RRR to very good houses and the audiences are loving Jr NTR and Ram Charan’s fabulous outing. Just before we were forced to close our cinema because of the Omicron Wave, we were screening Pushpa - The Rise to tremendous response. Regional Cinema never had such huge successes in such a short span of time. Today, actors from regional cinema are household names across the country and need no introduction. Audiences are lapping up their films if it captures their imagination. The whole language barrier has been broken down and adoption has become so easy for audiences at large.
This wasn’t the case earlier as it wasn’t possible for films to travel and reach out to different demographics so easily. There was a time when actors down south came to Bombay to work in films to gain the bigger audiences. It was a time when producers down south remade their blockbusters with Bombay stars to gain wider audiences and profits for their subjects. It was a very water tight set up with small chances of films crossing over and becoming huge successes. We all remember Jeetendra and Amitabh Bachchan doing a host of south remakes. Then we had Kamal Hasan, Rajnikanth and Chiranjeevi trying their luck in Hindi films.
All this started to change as technology and especially smart phones entered our lives. The way we interacted and shared information changed drastically. Our entertainment consumption patterns changed. OTT platforms and Social Media made everything so accessible and anything great went viral instantly. The first instance I personally remember was the song Kolaveri Di. It just took off and kids in Bihar were singing and dancing to it. It brought people closer to each other and it made them appreciate each other’s art and culture.
Social Media broke barriers and at the same time, OTT platforms and specially Youtube made all the films accessible to everyone across the country in the language of their choice. Television and Cinema are appointment based but OTT can be consumed as and when you like it. You can also decide the quantity you want to consume. It was greatly aided by cheap data made available by Telecom and The Great Indian Digital Revolution took off.
People started binging content and everyone was hooked onto their phones. To fuel this demand, other language content dubbed in one's own language was presented and people eagerly lapped it up. Regional cinema permeated across the country and boundaries began to disappear. Acceptance then adoption became the norm. Common folks started appreciating films from across the country, earlier to which they had no access other than in some small town cinema. Regional cinema beamed across TV and Mobile screens across the country finding hordes of fans and in the process making their stars household names across India.
Theatrically, the high point was Bahubali 2 and since then regional cinema hasn’t looked back. The kind of national success Telugu cinema has seen is especially commendable. Other languages are also seeing successes but the great thing is that audiences are ready to accept varied content theatrically. Bollywood has been finding success down south specially in bigger cities and Dangal remains a top performer with 90-95 crore gross coming from those territories.
The lines have blurred and boundaries have vanished into thin air. Today, we live in the times of Indian Cinema. The language may be different, the geography different and the sensibility varied, but, the Indian viewer is receptive of the same. He enjoys a good film irrespective of the language it speaks and I think this is an amazing achievement. Big Thumbs up to Indian Cinema.
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