Will South Indian cinema continue giving Bollywood a run for its money?

During a recent Indian Premier League match, West Indian bowler Obed McCoy celebrated taking a wicket by coolly swiping his chin with the back of his hand.

McCoy’s imitation of actor Allu Arjun’s gesture was a reminder of the phenomenal run of 'Pushpa: The Rise' at the box office since its release four months ago.

It was also a reminder of the fact that South Indian cinema has perfected the art of making pan-India movies, which appeal to both a larger domestic audience and foreign viewers. And, the results are showing where they matter the most, in terms of money earned.

And Salman Khan too acknowledged it. He said on Monday that it is the heroism in South films that is drawing audiences to theatres, which is lacking in Hindi movies today.

In 2019, Bollywood’s share in domestic box-office revenues was higher than that of South Indian films. The numbers stood at Rs 5,200 crore for Bollywood versus Rs 4,000 crore for South Indian films. Meanwhile, Hollywood’s share stood at Rs 1,500 crore.

Things, however, have changed. An EY-FICCI report has revealed that South Indian films dominated domestic box-office revenues for calendar year 2021 at 2,400 crore rupees. Bollywood was a distant second at 800 crore rupees and Hollywood third at 500 crore rupees.  

Till February this year, Telugu cinema was reportedly doing better business at the box-office than any regional language cinema.

According to Ormax Box Office Report 2020 and 2021, which had been shared exclusively with Business Standard back in February, Telugu cinema’s share in box-office revenues had risen to 29 per cent -- higher than Hindi’s 27 per cent and Tamil's 17 per cent share.  

Now, the Covid-19 pandemic definitely had a role to play here, but there are other reasons too.

So, what are the reasons behind South Indian cinema’s success? Within a week-and-a-half of its release, the Hindi-dubbed version of KGF2 has already hit the 300-crore-rupees collections mark. 

The time taken to reach that milestone was amongst the shortest for a regional film, even when compared to RRR and Pushpa.

Put simply, the southern film industry is getting savvier at creating content and marketing with each new release.

Inox Chief Programming Officer Rajender Singh Jyala gave Business Standard the example of Yash, the Kannada actor who features in KGF2. He travelled to different parts of India to promote his film. He did not simply restrict himself to the south. Moreover, Yash 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 from under many of the restrictions imposed by Covid-19, people are seeking big-ticket and action-packed films. And, the southern industry has understood this need, with all of its hit films being based on this formula. The combination of big stars, big directors, drama and high-octane action has caught the fancy of the people.

EY-FICCI report says that South Indian movies will continue to do better business than Bollywood films in 2022 because of their content clicking with audiences.

All of this comes on the back of the fact that more big-ticket regional films are awaiting release in multiple languages across markets.

But, there may be an elephant in the room. The dearth of big-ticket Hindi-language theatrical releases over the past two years due to the pandemic.

There is another factor to consider. Experts have also pointed Business Standard towards fatigue with Bollywood stars and scripts as one of the possible reasons behind the new preference for South Indian films.

Keeping both these factors in mind, what is the future likely to look like for the Indian box-office?  

According to Karan Taurani, SVP, Elara Capital, 18 to 20 Hindi films expected to collect over Rs 100 crore are lined up in CY22 and FY23. This is double the number of such Hindi films usually lined up in a year. He says regional film industry will continue to grow faster than Hindi film industry, while the Hindi film industry will come back to 45-50% share of box-office revenue  

The South Indian movie industry will struggle to hold on to its increased share of the Indian box-office. Going ahead, Hindi-language films are slated to make a strong comeback and will claw back a large portion of their pre-pandemic share of the box-office. However, many of South Indian cinema's defining characteristics, which also gave it a boost during the pandemic, will continue to pull audiences.