Bollywood has long been considered as the Big Brother of the Indian film industry.  Today, the Mumbai based film world is synonymous with glitz and glamour; big money and scandals; pan-India reach and an expanding global footprint; some hits and many more misses; a well-oiled PR machinery to spin the make-believe; and of course the mellifluous appeal of Hindi film music and songs.

Indian cinema, in other languages, were dubbed as Regional cinema. Yes, there was recognition and awareness about the Titans- MGR and Sivaji Ganesan from the Tamil film world, NTR and ANR from Andhra Pradesh, Kannada film star Dr Rajkumar and the prolific Prem Nazir from the State of  Kerala. The last named holds the Guinness Book record for playing the lead in 520 films. But all these legends did not have an All India audience for their movies.

The other X factor or dimension was that Raj Kapoor with his ‘Laal Topi Russi’ (from the song Mera Joota Hai Japani– Shree 420) had won a lot of hearts in the erstwhile Soviet Union and China. Amitabh Bachchan wowed audiences across the Middle East and South East Asia and clicked with the Indian diaspora everywhere. But the Bollywood media did not acknowledge the fact that the Rajnikanth phenomenon was not confined to Southern India but had spread to Japan- with the release of his film Muthu in 1998- or as the Japanese called it – Odura Maharaja or Dancing Maharaja.

But now the landscape has dramatically changed. By 2020, the combined revenues of the South Indian film industry had surpassed the collections of the Hindi film industry, with Tollywood (Telugu) and Kollywood (Tamil) leading the pack. The game changer has been the release of Baahubali –the Beginning in 2015 and Baahubali 2 in 2017. Part 1 grossed Rs 650 crs at the global BO and the Part 2 collected a staggering 1810 crs. Pipped at the post by only Dangal with Rs 2024 crs, with 60% coming from the China market. But in the Indian market Baahubali 2 The Conclusion reigns supreme at the cash counters with a net lifetime collection of Rs 510 crs. It also registered the highest estimated footfall for any film in India since Sholay in 1975. The ambition, scale and sheer imagination of these S S Rajamouli movies are in sync with the title. They delved into both the Indian tradition and the Epics and hence resonated across the country. Even those generally not interested in the movies flocked to the theatres to soak in the experience.  Baahubali 1 & 2 did not feature any major Bollywood star but won a pan India audience.  Instead Prabhas, Anushka Shetty and the character called Kattappa became household names. Even more significantly, the Baahubali mania earned respect for South Indian film makers and the technicians.

Other movie makers from the Regions stepped in to break the mould. Shankar’s Tamil sci-fi opus 2.0 was made at a budget of Rs 400 crs, probably the most expensive Indian film ever. KGF cost Rs 80 crs to make and market, unheard of for a Kannada film. The recent super-hit Telugu film Pushpa The Rise worked on a budget of Rs 180 crs. All these producers and financiers have shattered the local barriers and dreamt on an All India and even global scale. All the films have been released, dubbed in 3-4 South languages plus Hindi. All have broken records and ejected the status-quoist and even patronising mind-sets.  The Rajnikanth starrer 2.0 with its special VFX effects comes in at no 2 on the Indian BO ratings and pulled in around Rs 190 crs on the Hindi circuit. KGF has broken ground on both counts- breaching the Rs 100 crs barrier on home turf and crossing Rs 250 crs in total collections. The slow burn gangster drama, led by the charismatic Yash, had mixed reviews but resonated with single screen audiences well beyond Karnataka.  Allu-Arjun’s Pushpa has scored a century in BO terms in the Hindi belt and again mostly through single screens. A story about red-sandalwood smuggling it has the smell of the soil and has appealed to cine-goers especially in the tier 2 towns.  Whilst many Bollywood producers are stuck in their multiplex ivory towers. Another key factor in the success story are the peppy songs and the dance numbers which have gone viral on You Tube. The Hindi film industry has lost its feel for even catchy songs and groovy dance numbers which had contributed so much to its growth and appeal.

The theatrical release of Rajamouli Garu’s next magnum-opus RRR has been deferred because of Covid restrictions. This saga of freedom fighters in the India of the 1920’s has created huge hype and expectations. How times have changed. This time around the Bollywood bigwigs will carefully plan the release of their films after knowing when RRR is going to hit the cinema halls.

The OTT platforms and the prolonged Covid lockdowns have played a seminal part in changing both audience expectations and awareness. Now, with just 2 or 3 clicks they are watching a regional film or a foreign movie with sub-titles or dubbed in their preferred language. Good films from the South have piqued the interest of millions of film buffs and have ticked a lot of boxes. The natural acting of the Malayalam film icon Mohanlal in Drishyam 2 has simply blown away the watchers and social media has kicked in to spread the good word. Fahadh Faasil has created a fan following outside Kerala on the strength of his performances and especially his chilling portrayal in Kumbalangi Nights. Audiences woke up to the talent of Vijay Sethupathi after watching his depiction of a trans-woman in Super Deluxe. Then there are the inevitable comparisons with some much –hyped Bollywood stars who are trapped in their comfort zone and keep repeating themselves.

 Film audiences are also raising the bar on content. Even a masala film has to be entertaining, not mindless fare. Like Jathi Ratnalu the rollicking Telugu film of the Andaz Apna Apna genre. Take Jai Bhim the social-legal drama based on a true story in Tamil Nadu- It has the highest IMDb ratings of any Indian film on an OTT platform-9.3.  And one of  the lowest IMDb rating goes to- Salman bhai’s Radhe at 2.1. Tamil star Suriya who produced and acted in this intense and controversial film had earlier backed Soorarai Pottru, a fictionalised version of the book Simply Fly by Capt Gopinath the founder of Air Deccan. It was the only Indian film eligible for the Best Picture Oscar nomination in 2021. The political satire made for television, Mandela, is worth watching on Netflix because of the sheer quality of filmmaking.

The Bombay/Mumbai film industry owes a lot to the Southern fraternity. Studios like Vijaya Productions and Devar Films bankrolled major films like Ram aur Shyam and Haathi Mere Saathi. Of course, Padmalaya Productions kept a fit Jeetendra going through his PT exercise dance sequences with Sridevi and Jayaprada in loud, family melodramas. Let’s take a dekko at the never ending list of remakes. Hrithik Roshan”s next is Vikram Vedha based on the Tamil hit of the same name. Shahid Kapoor’s career was resurrected by Kabir Singh, a remake of the Telugu film Arjun Reddy. Ajay Devgan has featured in 10 such projects, the latest being Kaithi. And lest we forget the roll call of honour for famous Hindi film heroines- Vyjayanthimala and Waheeda Rehman, Hema Malini and Rekha, Sridevi and Jaya Prada….

Other than the big producers and financiers, the people who really call the shots in Bollywood are the distributors and theatre chain owners. They have burnt their hands badly over the last few years with debacles like 1983, Radhe, Thugs of Hindustan, Zero and Bombay Velvet all featuring the elite stars of the Mumbai filmi duniya. The South has taught them umpteen lessons on how mega films can deliver mega results. It is not a coincidence that Karan Johar who invested in Baahubali 2 The Conclusion is backing the much awaited Brahmastra with Randhir Kapoor. They are also keenly aware that the Return on Investment ( ROI) is much higher and the Risk factor considerably lower on movies shouldered by the second-line star actors like Ayushman Khurana (Andhadhun) , Vicky Kaushal (Uri) and the late Sushant Singh Rajput (Chichore).  Made at modest budgets ranging from Rs 50 crs to Rs 35 crs they have grossed Rs 435 crs  Rs 285 crs and Rs 225 crs respectively.  Despite having limited screen release in the range of 800-1200 screens. These movie mandarins are also clued in to the big Hindi movie release formula- Eid-Diwali-Christmas. 4000 screens and hiked up multiplex ticket rates. The footfalls dropping dramatically in the second week. And those with their ears to the ground know that the days of the Super Star may well be over. Actors like Manoj Bajpayee in Family Man and Pratik Gandhi in Scam 1992 have created a large viewership, who eagerly awaits their next venture, albeit on a streaming channel.  

For Bollywood, the writing is on the big screen. The language barrier is no longer holding. Their hold on the pan-India market is diminishing. On the world stage, the Indian film industry has a long way to go to feature on the same page as Hollywood or the Chinese film industry. China with 70000+ screens grossed over $9.3 billion in movie revenue in 2019 (pre-Covid). The Hollywood North America box office gross was $11.4 billion in 2019 plus the rich overseas collections for their Superhero and Fantasy offerings. Movies like Spiderman and Avengers with their multiple language release have a huge market in India.  With 44,000 screens in the US of A there is a robust infrastructure for the cine-goers. One of the biggest challenges for our film industry is the paucity of screens-only 6327 single screens and 3200 multiplex screens for the approx. 1700 films made every year. Many of them do not even find a release date.  The overall revenue of Indian cinema reached $2,7 billion in 2019. That same year the global box office was worth $42.2 billion.      

It’s also just a matter of time before a Bengali or a Marathi film becomes an All India rage. Some of the best Hindi film classics have been made by masters like Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. And Marathi movies have come of age with offerings like Tumbaad, a horror fantasy, Court, an intimate social-legal drama and Natsamrat which is influenced by Shakespeare’s King Lear and showcases Nana Patekar in the role of a lifetime. Also don’t be surprised if a Punjabi, Odiya, Bhojpuri or Gujarati film makes the breakthrough and punches far above its regional weight.

It’s a happening, exciting time for the Southern India film industry. Also a wake-up call for Bollywood to get its act together.

(Soures: Box Office Data/Stats/Figures  sourced from- Box Office Diary, Box Office Hungama, Indian Cinema-Wikipedia, SACNIK, Statista, Hollywood Reporter)