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Bollywood's fabled male stars Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh, Ajay Devgn and Amitabh Bachchan are not pulling in the audiences as the movies they released in the first five months of this year have flopped or performed far below expectations at the box office.
Instead, South Indian movies featuring local stars and dubbed in Hindi are raking in a substantial slice of the Hindi box office sweepstake.
In recent months, RRR (right), featuring Telugu stars N.T. Rama Rao Jr and Ram Charan, and KGF2, starring top Kannada actor Yash, have together earned Rs683 crore ($122 million) in the Hindi box office.
On the other hand, four Bollywood movies - Bachchhan Paandey (featuring Akshay), Runway 34 (Ajay and Amitabh), Gangubai Kathiawadi (Alia Bhatt and Ajay) and Heropanti 2 (Tiger Shroff) - bagged only Rs230 crore in total.
Ranveer, whose Jayeshbhai Jordaar was made with a budget of Rs90 crore and released last Friday, seems to be suffering big time as it collected only Rs4 crore on the first day. The next day, it inched up to Rs8 crore, but on Monday it came crashing down to Rs1.8 crore to finish with total collections of Rs13.7 crore.
The figures don't augur well for the Bollywood star whose last movie 83, which told the story of how India won the 1983 cricket World Cup, also performed below par. Despite critical acclaim, the film made only Rs109 crore in the domestic box office from a budget of Rs200 crore.
Akshay's reputation for producing hits also suffered a blow when Bachchhan Paandey flopped. Made with a budget of Rs105 crore, the film failed to recover even half the amount.
Interestingly, the controversial The Kashmir Files, which has no known stars but an engaging content, made a stunning Rs250 crore.
Ranveer himself acknowledged that South Indian films are a class apart.
He recently said: "I saw Pushpa, I don't know Telugu. I saw RRR, I don't know that language - but I was completely impressed with these films and creativity.
"All I can say is that I can appreciate the excellence of the craft seen in these films. And I'm really proud of how well they're doing. They are well-liked and accepted by all types of audiences. I am very proud of this because I have not seen such films in other places."
In 2019, Bollywood's share of domestic box-office revenue (Rs5,200 crore) was higher than that of South Indian films (Rs4,000 crore), while Hollywood's share was Rs1,500 crore.
In 2021, South Indian films dominated India's box-office revenues at Rs2,400 crore. Bollywood was a distant second at Rs800 crore and Hollywood third at Rs500 crore.
Till February this year, Telugu films were reportedly doing better business (29 per cent) at the box-office than Hindi (27 per cent) and other regional language movies (17 per cent).
So, what are the reasons behind South Indian cinema's success?
Obviously, the southern film industry is getting savvier at creating content and marketing with each new release.
Inox Chief Programming Officer Rajender Singh Jyala gave the example of Yash, who travelled to different parts of India to promote his film KGF2.
He did not restrict himself to the south and also engaged with bloggers and YouTubers to build up hype.
According to Shringar Films chairman Shyam Shroff, the southern industry has understood what a Covid-exhausted audience wants.
"As they come out of the Covid restrictions, people are seeking big-ticket and action-packed films and the southern industry has understood this need, with all its hit films being based on this formula," he said.
"The mix of big stars and directors, drama and high-octane action has caught the fancy of the people."
Indo-Asian News Service
"I saw Pushpa,
I don't know
Telugu. I saw RRR,
I don't know that language - but I was completely impressed with these films
and creativity."
- Ranveer Singh
