What is common to Aavesham, Premalu, Manjummel Boys, Aadujeevitham, Bramayugam, Aranmanai4 and Hanu Man? All these South films were made on budgets ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 40 crore and were blockbusters, with some even collecting over Rs 100 crore. Though South does have big star flicks too, small- and medium-budget films have always been part of the industry’s oeuvre. They form its backbone, and they are what many filmmakers strive for. 

Cut to Bollywood, where after a revival of sorts in 2023, the industry is again seeing itself go kaput this year. Big Hindi films like Maidaan, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Chandu Champion fizzled at the box office, stunning filmmakers. On the other hand, medium-budget films like Munjya (Rs 30 crore), Article 370 (Rs 20 crore), Madgaon Express (Rs 30 crore) and Srikanth (Rs 45 crore) turned out to be hits.  Karan Johar and Guneet Monga’s recent release, Kill, made at just Rs 25 crore, is also performing very well at the box office, despite the Kalki 2898 AD juggernaut. 

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Even so, the risk appetite for most producers remains intact as they sign on A-listers and make big-budget, lavish (Rs 80 crore and above) films. But is the box office giving them the desired results? Sadly, no.

What The Audience Wants

It’s no secret that the Hindi film industry has been going through a tough time this year. Many producers and corporates have seriously started introspecting on what needs to change.

In a recent interview, producer and director Karan Johar said that with shifting audience tastes and high filmmaking costs due to inflation, the Hindi film industry and filmmakers must stop chasing trends and write fresh stories that are culturally rooted. “Firstly, the audiences’ tastes have become very definitive. They want a certain kind of cinema. And if you (as a maker) want to do a certain number, then your film has to perform at A, B, and C centres. Multiplexes alone will not suffice. Simultaneously, the cost of filmmaking has increased. There has been inflation. There are about 10 viable actors in Hindi cinema, and they are all asking for the sun, moon, and earth. And then your film doesn’t do the numbers. Those movie stars asking for Rs 35 crore are opening to Rs 3.5 crore. How’s that math working? How do you manage all these? Yet, you have to keep making movies and creating content because you also have to feed your organisation. So, there’s a lot of drama, and the syntax of our cinema has not found its feet,” he said in the interview.

Can’t Just Dismiss Spectacle Cinema

Of the 1,000-odd movies that are released in India each year (across various film industries), most are small- and medium-budget ones. Spectacle movies number just around 12. While they are important for the Hindi film industry and contribute a significant portion to the box office each year, smaller films are also needed to provide a continuous flow of content to distributors and keep the business going. Plus, the risks for the producer are much lower – smaller and mid-budget films are known to give major returns on investment. Thus, a producer needs to be strategic not just in terms of the number of films he finances each year, but also the budgets.

While scale may matter, substance does too. Where the South film industries are scoring sixes after sixes is content. Small and mid-budget flicks give more room to filmmakers and writers to experiment and be more creative with new themes, genres and storylines. Content-driven films do bring the audience to theatres, as seen across states in India.

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This phenomenon was new neither to the South film industry nor to Bollywood. But over the past several decades, Hindi film producers slowly started looking the other way as they felt such films weren’t able to draw enough people to theatres. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the burst of OTT platforms changed the game altogether in India.

The Economics Of The Film Industry

Director Gauravv Chawla, who’s known for Adhura and Baazaar, says, “Tentpoles will always be present and should be. As an industry, we need those big films. But these are few and far between because of the time and scale it takes to mount them and the risks of getting them just right. What has been heartening this year is the number of medium-budget films that have performed well at the box office. This used to be the case pre-pandemic too. We need to make sure we build on this audience appreciation by creating more films where content is the star, be it comedy, drama, supernatural or romance. The steadier the flow of these films, the better it will be for all – makers, exhibitors, distributors and audiences.”

From a film distributor’s point of view, it can be said that both big films and small films have been doing well at the box office. Akshaye Rathi, a film exhibitor and distributor, says, “I think it’s important for all sorts of movies to be made. As much as Laapataa Ladies and 12th Fail have done well, these are very niche successes in terms of their geographical impact. These are movies that have done well in 15-20 large cities. For the entire exhibition sector of the country to sustain, you need big-ticket films or tentpole blockbusters like Gadar, Animal, Pathaan and Jawan to set the box office on fire across the length and breadth of the country. Only that will allow the exhibition sector of the country to sustain well. Simultaneously, it’s important for mid-segment and small-budget movies to fill the gap and keep the scorecard ticking between the tentpoles.”

A Healthy Mix

Ultimately, filmmakers in the Hindi industry feel that a mix of movies across genres – and across budgets – is what is needed to keep the audience happy. As Rathi puts it, the more the Hindi film industry churns out just large-scale, big-ticket actioners, the more fatigued the audience will get. Badly made films will not help the industry either. “We need all sorts of genres and styles of film-making to coexist so that there’s something in the cinemas at any given point of time for every audience category,” he adds.

The Hollywood in the 2000s had witnessed a similar situation. Studios had been consolidating budgets to make blockbuster films, and consequently, the number of smaller films reduced drastically on studio ledgers. In 2013, predicting the end of this cycle, director Steven Spielberg warned makers of an ‘implosion’. “There’s going to be an implosion where three or four, or maybe even half a dozen mega-budget movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that’s going to change the paradigm,” he said. Hollywood ultimately went through an upheaval at the time. Of late, that cycle has re-emerged after COVID-19 as Hollywood studios bat for big blockbusters and mid-range films are premiered directly on OTT platforms.

The bottom line is that movie theatres can’t survive on blockbusters alone, whether it is Hollywood or Bollywood. Perhaps, it is time for the Hindi film industry to rethink its model.

(The author is a senior entertainment journalist and film critic)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Last month saw the release of Kalki 2898AD, and as of July 4, the Prabhas starrer has grossed more than Rs 700 crore at the box office. The success of this Tollywood film has naturally sparked comparisons with the Hindi film industry, with its recent flops coming into sharp relief. The recent Bade Miyan Chote Miyan fiasco only highlighted those concerns. Its box-office failure was followed by allegations from crew members that Pooja Entertainment, the production house backing the film, was yet to pay them their dues. In fact, actor Akshay Kumar reportedly had to step in and ask the company to clear the dues before paying him. 

The churn Bollywood is going through has stirred up a hornet’s nest, with many feeling that there is a serious need for course correction. There is widespread chatter about exorbitant star fees and their entourage costs, and writers, DOPs and other crew members have started speaking up about the extreme disparity in pay structures in the Hindi film industry.

Every Friday counts

While Bollywood stars have for years now been able to charge exorbitant fees, the Covid-19 pandemic set in motion a lot of changes. The Hindi film industry went through deep turmoil, and some say it has still not been able to regain its footing. Only Shah Rukh Khan has managed to deliver blockbusters in the last two years. A slew of big-star Hindi films, like Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Laal Singh Chaddha, Ram Setu, Cirkus, Adipurush, Selfiee, Maidaan and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, have all flopped at the box office, causing great worry to producers and actors alike.

Back in 2022, ace director S.S. Rajamouli had pointed out that the downfall of Hindi cinema in that year – considered one of the worst periods for Bollywood ever – was because of the high fees of actors and directors. “What happened once corporates started coming into the Hindi film industry and paying high fees to actors, directors and companies, was that the need to ‘I have to succeed at any cost’ has come down a little bit; the hunger [to succeed] has come down a little bit. Here, down South, that was not there. You have to swim or you are going to sink.”

A popular filmmaker from the Southern film industry who wished to remain anonymous reflects on the high star fees and entourage costs. “Remember, every Friday counts. If a star becomes too expensive for a producer to manage and they’re already on tenterhooks and the star pushes it – as long as the star is succeeding and selling tickets on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, they’ll curse under their breath but they’ll keep hiring the star. But the minute the star has two or three flops, they’ll drop him or her like a hot potato and the person becomes invisible. At that point, no one wants to put up with it anymore. Thus, the stars need to strike a balance and know when they’re hiking expenses for a producer beyond limits.”

The Economics Of A Project

However, Pankaj Jaysinh of UFO Moviez India says it’s the producers who have the ultimate say in a project and that stars shouldn’t be blamed for their high fees and costs. “No doubt that big names are expensive, but it’s all economics (demand vs supply). If several movie producers are chasing a star, he or she is going to up their fees, and vice-versa. And it’s not that only movies with stars are hits. There have been content-based movies made in Rs 20-40 crore, like Munjya, Madgaon Express, Teri Baaton Mein Uljha Jiya, which did well. Audiences love good content too and stars don’t matter in this case. There are also experiential films made on Rs 100-300 crore budgets, like Kalki, Fighter and Pathaan. Here, the audience wants to see grandeur and stars. Thus, a producer, depending on his budget, always has the option to go for either of these categories. It’s the producer’s call. I don’t think we can blame stars for their high costs,” he emphasises.

The fact, nonetheless, remains that most Bollywood stars come to sets with their entire entourage (of up to even 20 people at times, including stylists, nutritionists, hairdressers, gym trainers, bouncers, etc), and the producer usually has no issues – sometimes, no choice – in coughing up money. It’s the writers and other crew members who bear the brunt and get short-changed for their work. It’s no secret that screenwriters are some of the most poorly paid members of the Indian film industry. Atika Chohan, who is known for Margarita With a Straw (2014), Chhapaak (2020) and Ulajh (2024), says, “The production budgets leave no room for writers and development, and this is a fact. No one takes risks with new ideas and voices, while everyone bleeds money on actors who bring nothing new to the table but extreme losses. This is one of the biggest contributing factors to the current industry recession and market correction. In Bollywood, actors consider it an insult if they are not pampered like gods. It’s embarrassing.”

A Better Business Model

Perhaps there is another business model that could work. Director Anurag Kashyap recently spoke about how the big Khans of B-Town – Shah Rukh, Salman, and Aamir – don’t charge fees for their films and thus, their movies are easier to produce. “They take backend profits, so their films are never costly,” Kashyap said. 

The South has lessons too. While Bollywood producers are struggling with star fees, entourage costs and the like, the South film industry has shown remarkable cost-sensitivity. Kannada filmmaker Anup Bhandari, who worked recently with superstar Sudeep in Vikrant Rona, says the actors here are very aware. “In the South, especially the Kannada film industry, the actors are far more conscious about not burdening the producers. Their entourage mostly consists of their staff and a few key people. I have also seen actors asking producers to ensure they stay within the budget and some who have gone out of their way to help producers with costs,” says the RangiTaranga director. True, even South has expensive big names, but film trade analysts say that this is justifiable due to their huge market not just across India but internationally as well. 

Post-COVID-19, many in the Hindi film industry, including producers, studio heads, and top executives, are looking for a market correction, beginning with star fees. The unpredictability of the entertainment business coupled with a changing audience that is flooded with options means that quality and fulfilment of expectations are paramount today. 

The need of the hour is a cost-effective and healthy ecosystem.”Compare the Hindi film industry to the business models in Kerala, where actors produce good cinema. Take, for instance, Mammootty’s Kaathal The Core, and every Fahad Faasil film. They are examples of a healthy film economy and a creative ecosystem.”

As one trade analyst pointed out, Bollywood should perhaps take a leaf out of the South film industry to get back on the road to profitability – not just in terms of content but in terms of production costs as well.

(The author is a senior entertainment journalist and film critic)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author