Hindi is a great connecting language with a wide reach in the Indian subcontinent. More often than not cinema viewers from the northern regions of India have been swayed by what Bollywood had to offer for several decades. Films, actors, musicians, playback singers, directors and producers who gained celebrity status amongst the public from the 1950s to around 2020 are a testimony to this.

A few decades ago, movies made in Southern languages, more so the movies that were remade had been hits. Bollywood star Jeetendra nicknamed Jumping Jack was able to carve out success with this formula of rehashing Telugu and Tamil movies in Hindi. Major superstars from the South like Kamala Hassan and Rajnikanth also tasted varying degrees of success in Bollywood. South actresses have also done well in Hindi cinema. 

All these were often far between and far too less as compared to the number of original releases from Bollywood which were garnering the moolah at the box office. What changed in 2020 was the onset of the global pandemic which swept through vast geographic regions without making any distinctions. 

The disruption wrought was on an unprecedented scale in recent public memory with more than 90 per cent of the public being confined to their homes. Undoubtedly sectors such as hospitality, tourism, exhibitions, sports and entertainment programmes were shelved. Bollywood too had to bear the brunt with theatres being shut and when they did open finally, the public wasn’t reluctant to watch films on the big screen due to the virus threat looming large.

What changed in the interim was the rapid-scale digitalization of almost all spheres of public life. Many online mediums such as Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar, Netflix, BIGFlix, and so on began streaming movies, old ones, and new releases as well as regional cinemas. Everything was watchable from the comforts of your study rooms or bedrooms with the click of a mouse on laptops or with the screen touch of smartphones. 

Subscribers gained access to a plethora of options that otherwise wouldn’t have been the case had the pandemic not made inroads. Importantly they got acquainted with content beyond what Bollywood was offering which struck a chord with them. 

Negative sentiments that entered the public mindset following the death of Sushant Singh Rajput which became a rage in media channels also perhaps played a role in the decline in the popularity of Hindi movies. 

A southern surge

The south Indian film industry, specifically, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam movie makers have long been releasing content-rich films in their respective languages. Many films produced from the south had gone on to bag national awards year after year. Superstars from these industries could whip up passion with their charisma and acting abilities.

The Kannada film industry has now joined the bandwagon with the success of Yash’s KGF 1 and 2 and Rishab Shetty’s Kanthara which will go down in history as one of the pan-India movies that have attained cult status. 

The year 2022 was a big breakthrough year for the South Indian film industry in terms of making its presence felt among Hindi audiences as seen from the positive response to movies like Pushpa – The Rise, RRR, KGF 2, Kanthara, Sita Ramam, Karthikeya 2, among others. What makes it interesting is that these were made at price-competitive budgets as compared to what Bollywood movie producers shell out for a film.

Relatively, south Indian film producers struck gold at the box office in 2022 with these movies which were well-accepted by Hindi audiences. For Bollywood, Vivek Agnihotri’s Kashmir Files or R. Balki’s Chup: The Revenge of an Artist which starred Sunny Deol and Dulquer Salman did well at the box office.

The geographical and language barriers have already been broken with the southern filmmakers releasing Hindi language versions for northern audiences. Film industry analysts however argue that it isn’t much about South versus North. It is more to do with the content as even films from the South fail when the content is poor. 

The advent of OTT

Nonetheless, the medium for watching movies is changing with many among the current generation preferring to watch YouTube, social media channels and other online platforms.

Moreover, the public doesn’t watch every single movie that is released blindly. Many online platforms such as IMDB rate these movies and the public also watch the many YouTube channels that give feedback from the public who have already watched these movies. Where the reviews are good, they make up their mind to watch, else prefer to wait until the films are released on OTT platforms.

Finance matters a lot, especially when we are witnessing an economic slowdown and job losses. An average middle-class family would perhaps have to spend around INR 1500 to watch a movie in the big screen theatre. If the film is not up to the mark, the spending will then be deemed a waste of hard-earned income. 

On the other hand, movies released on OTT platforms work for them as they have the option to switch to something else if they do not find one particular movie interesting and which is not the case on the big screen.

Multiplexes and theatre businesses will still get good business when they release a popular movie on the big screen. On the other hand, for filmmakers, content is becoming the king, something which the entire film fraternity has to keep improving to stay relevant in business. 

When content is good, it will find its success, mostly through word of mouth and through various other mediums and as things stand, this is perhaps going to stay in the short to medium term.