The footfalls of Hindi Films in the last couple of years has declined. Around 33 crore tickets were sold in 2013, which dropped to 32 crore in 2014 and went down further in the last two years with Hindi films selling just 30 crore tickets in 2015 and 2016. A drop of 10% from 2013 to 2016 is quite significant – more so with the increase in the number of multiplex screens across the country.
Out of the 125 crore ticket sales in the last 4 years, majority of tickets have been sold for Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar films. Akshay may not deliver those big grossers, but he has done 12 films in the last 4 years and has helped sell nearly 10 crore tickets. He is the lifeline for exhibitors in the Hindi markets. Aamir does very few films, Shah Rukh Khan films are not sustaining after the weekend and Hrithik Roshan is going through a tough patch.
Remove the Top 3 ticket-sellers and the industry is as good as dead. The internal battle of trying to pull each other down is increasing with ‘clash’ announcements almost every other week. 95% of film releases are failing, yet we continue to churn out more rom-coms than we ever have. Top directors like Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar, who once made pan-India films, are now making films that can only be watched by the high-society or urban audience in 4-5 cities. Even that section of audience is rejecting films like ‘Befikre’ which was directed by the man who once gave us a film like ‘DDLJ’.
As far as content-driven films are concerned (i.e when the audience come to watch a good film and not the star), the Hindi film industry has very little to show apart from ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’ which went on to collect 150 crore at the domestic box office. That aside, no other film has even crossed the 125 crore mark without an established star and a non-Khan film is yet to cross 200 crore.
To coincide with the Bollywood decline is the growing strength and acceptance for Hollywood and other regional films. A film like ‘Sairat’ is grossing 100 crore even though its business is mainly restricted to just one major state in the country. Hollywood films like ‘Fast and Furious 8’ without any major promotional campaign or city tours by stars, should finish with India business of 90 crore. ‘The Jungle Book’ last year went on to collect nearly 200 crore in India.
And then we have a Telugu film which has shown the potential of film business in the country by collecting nearly 130 crore net on a single day, that too on a non-holiday without any ‘festive’ advantage. Even the combined might of two major Hindi superstars – Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan – only resulted in collections of 30 crore net on the first day.
Like S.S. Rajamouli, another visionary South director – Shankar – will soon extend his base throughout the country and his films have the potential to be equally big with the added advantage of star-power. It might feature a Akshay Kumar, but it’s still a film produced in the south.
It’s quite clear that the weakest link of the Hindi Film Industry is its content and the lack of visionary writers and directors. But we continue to invest more time, effort and money into marketing and getting the perfect release date – both of which, a good film doesn’t even need.
@beingpremfan Akshay Kumar has sold the highest no. of tickets…So far he’s the leading actor of India in terms of box office…
Indicine,what’s the reason that only 5 south states total collection are more than all 24 states?
Bahubali is unique case ..
@navin
First time I agree with u! After a hectic week we want to entertain ourselves. That’s why we prefer to watch movies like Golmaal type films in big numbers.
The problem is that there is a lack of good commercial films in Bollywood these days. That’s the reason footfalls are going down. Except Salmir films, no other universal films are working. Even Akshay is focusing more on multiplex films.
Just look at the last year top Bollywood grossers:
Dangal- Universal
Sultan- Universal
Rustom- Non-Universal
Airlift- Non-Universal
MS Dhoni- Non-Universal
Housefull 3- Universal but underperformer
ADHM- Non-Universal
FAN- Non-Universal
Shivaay- Universal but flop
Other surprise hits were Neerja, Pink and Kapoor and Sons all of them multiplex oriented movies.
Only 2 films were universally loved by the audience last year and their business is in a complete different league. U can also take The Jungle Book that earned 185 cr+. These 3 were the only films that earned the blockbuster tag and crossed 150 cr mark last year.
The audience want to be entertained but audience isn’t doing it properly.
Recent examples- Welcome Back, SIB, Dilwale, Housefull 3.
When too many films like Main Hoon Na, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Garam Masala, Partner, Heyy Babyy, Om Shanti Om, Welcome and Singh is Kinng were coming regularly audience used to love to come in big numbers but that isn’t happening now.
The industry* isn’t doing it properly
@skb in AP/Tg when big stars movies release, the number of shows are huge in the first weekend. Also Baahubali released in every theater in the two states. They have a huge number of benefit shows for fans which add to the first day collection. For example, In bhimavaram, which is Prabhas’s hometown, there were 97 shows on the first day and all were full. Telugu people are movie mad lol.
Extremely well written..I think now it worries every Bollywood fan.baahubali deserves all the success it’s getting but actually it shows how bad Bollywood is going.need to do something Mr.shahrukh Mr.aditya Mr.karan and even Mr.hirani(try something on larger scale,y you have earned the trust of audience). please…it feels bad seeing all others success and looking ourselves failing
Seriously North Indians are big Chu*****… When south ppl outright reject hindi movies these North ppl r licking south crap films… Shame on them
Ppl can say Bongubali is masterpiece (though it’s a copy paste of Hollywood Films vfx) n bla bla…
Tell me how many hindi films does South recieved and accepted???
@karthik 4:16pm
WTF are you blabbering??? Just bcz of 3-4 (2006-09) bad years are chanting that Salman wasn’t a superstar till 2010! Have a look at Salman’s box office achievements till 2010 and let us know which bollywood star among his contemporaries achieves those things……..
ATHG – 1
ATBB – 3
HGOTD – 2
BHOTD – 2
HGOTY – 5
Blockbusters – 6
Clean Hits – 20
If you have doubt then check here http://www.indicine.com/boxoffice/india/salman-khan/.
This article must be read by every bollywood stakeholder. Ouch! Sorry i doubt if some will even understand what it trying to adress. Idiots. Fighting over holiday releases and fake glamour instead of investing in creative minds
come on salman take on this south industry.. make an ambitious high risk film n show who is the boss.. the only man who could do it in bollywood is u.. make an ambitious film with quality n collaborate with hollywood n make an international film.. the time is just right.. if u are reading this plz go on.. don’t worry about failure.. if u believe u r the only man who could make it happen
Super article!
Wake up call for Bollywood but yes,it will continue to rule !
Thanks Sonia,for answering my question…
As far as emperor and biggest megastar aamir khan is in the indystry there is no threat for bollywood.
Problem with Bollywood are that good movie clashes with other movie if Movi es like Airlift ,rustom ,jolly llb 2 are solo release on holiday they were easily crosses 150+ cr
As far as emperor and biggest megastar aamir khan is in the industry there is no threat for bollywood.
Im very disappointed with Bollywood.
Yeah Akki rocks.
actors doing good but its director,writer who are not getting fed up of old wine new bottle love stories. why people will pay that much to watch such movies which they can watch in mobile,laptop etc. they will pay for content oriented movies with large grandeur scale or cinematic experience. 2nd thing is festive releases. biggest superstar like aamir salman is sticking to eid xmas like fevicol. baahubali proved the potential of hindi marked so rather then clashes big superstars movie should also release on non holiday to balance. head of biggest prod. house making movie like befikre thats says all.
Actually bollywood after 2010 revolving around south industry istead of setting example that how can we grow in making movie. All are busy to making money by short cut. For example Aamir came with gajhani south remake which was already made in 8 languages if you see rest of 8 movie you find from hair style to expression every thing almost same in that movie. And when it earn huge even over the other blockbuster of that year RBDJ which was original scripted movie. Than that times bollywood got shortcut to success and result is there was start a havoc to make south remake without changing a single scene some stars who is struggling in last decade cash this short cut recipe to review their career for example salman who made back to back 5-6 south remake in a row on a particular edx date. You can easily see that time almost 5 movies came with police uniform hero and all became superhit even still till date akki’s rowdy rathod (remake), and ajay’s singham (remake) remain their Carrier highest grosser. So for these movies what bollywood find new ??? Nothing only stars making money by using shorcut method because they had not to do much in these movies bcoz “ring ringa” became dhink chika and from location to fight sequence and even facial expression every thing were copy from south and in the name of creativity we got a big zero they do this bcoz movies completed in less time some time for money some star made movies less than 2hr duration ex. Dabaang2 for getting more show and earn huge so how can this types of mentalities can help to grow industry??
But due to these south obsession slowly slowly south industries enter in hindi film industry. And even after these remakes every movies channel show south hindi dubbed movies in their primetime slot now south industry became a big threat for bollywood bcoz imagine if a movie like bahubali want to came on eid 2017 with tubelight than ???? The problem will creat only for other movie because hindi highest first day is 40cr which is only divided between both but what’s about south marekt where no one can challenge south movies so wake up bollywood do some great work instead of booking edx and using short cut
@veer
Thanks.
At the end of day the ordinary working class people still perceive the ‘day out at the theatre’ the same as a day out at the fair which imo is to be entertained…! They will come back every friday if the industry offers more entertaining films for sure…!
Spot on….nothing to add,sad but thats the truth. Yes its a good boost if the SS R and Shankar maintain a universal Indian movie as a whole(integrating Bollywood stars too) for now they are the ones with visions and think far ahead.
Hirani and Kabir too have a way of polishing their movies.
Rohit Shetty as @Navin stated is still very valuable…he can make entertaining movies for the masses his Successful streaks will keep counting.
I dont Much of Imtiaz
Karan Johar keeps on recycling his romcoms pretty boring n fantasy world oriented but youths do appreciate them
Neeraj Panday I admire his concepts he still has a very bright future. Content driven movies that keeps audiences glued to their TV like Hirani too ,just larger budgets ,his trusted actors not too many songs he is on track then.
Finally I always say it we need few more Megaplexes …you know you are coming to watch any budget movie and you have varieties to choose about ticket cost from a common man perspective I think Demand and Supply backed by the government will ensure a mutual coexisting still with their fellow Multiple and Single Screen friends. Though the main problem will be space… Shopping Mall rentals but with time and planning it will work and that means more footfalls for now in cities like Bangalore hyderabad where its a international multilingual metropolis ,people will come and watch either of the Malayalam, Tamil Marathi Bengali English Hindi movies and thats why you can see places like Nizam/Andhra Karnataka collected that whooping 50-60cr alone for Bahubali. All the best Bollywood for me you guys are still my Numero Uno!!
Writer should go down to Bangalore and Hyderabad to see th craze Salman khan has. He is as equal to Rajini.
One should not forgot BAHUBALI is movie driven by RAJAMOULI sir… even mahesh or any other actor would have been the hero the result would be same.
If aprabhas sahoo upcoming movie makes even 20 cr net on day one then we can say the threat is bigger.
So please be proactive writing any article.
I don’t know about other actors But Salman is a numero uni Megastar all his movies have done prettu well in south.
Shankar and RAJAMOULI directions are different if they start making movies with Salman then 1000 cr club would be on cards
This is the best article u have written till date. This is what I believe in. I always say that all actors should choose good script n good director.Cheers
Actually bollywood after 2010 revolving around south industry istead of setting example that how can we grow in making movie. All are busy to making money by short cut. For example Aamir came with gajhani south remake which was already made in 8 languages if you see rest of 8 movie you find from hair style to expression every thing almost same in that movie. And when it earn huge even over the other blockbuster of that year RBDJ which was original scripted movie. Than that times bollywood got shortcut to success and result is there was start a havoc to make south remake without changing a single scene some stars who is struggling in last decade cash this short cut recipe to review their career for example salman who made back to back 5-6 south remake in a row on a particular edx date. You can easily see that time almost 5 movies came with police uniform hero and all became superhit even still till date akki’s rowdy rathod (remake), and ajay’s singham (remake) remain their Carrier highest grosser. So for these movies what bollywood find new ??? Nothing only stars making money by using shorcut method because they had not to do much in these movies bcoz “ring ringa” became dhink chika and from location to fight sequence and even facial expression every thing were copy from south and in the name of creativity we got a big zero they do this bcoz movies completed in less time some time for money some star made movies less than 2hr duration ex. Dabaang2 for getting more show and earn huge so how can this types of mentalities can help to grow industry??
But due to these south obsession slowly slowly south industries enter in hindi film industry. And even after these remakes every movies channel show south hindi dubbed movies in their primetime slot now south industry became a big threat for bollywood bcoz imagine if a movie like bahubali want to came on eid 2017 with tubelight than ???? The problem will creat only for other movie because hindi highest first day is 40cr which is only divided between both but what’s about south marekt where no one can challenge south movies so wake up bollywood do some great work instead of booking edx and using short cut…..
@indicine… it’s a very honest and unbiased report by you people… 100% agreed
Your article is an eye opener for Hindi Film industry (hate the word ‘Bollywood’) !
I wonder what happened to the producers of Hindi Film industry why don’t they invest time in search of good writers and back them instead of making films like ‘Guddu ki gun’ and producing actors like ‘Kunal Khemu’, Kunal Roy kapoor, Soha Ali Khan and very many non-talented star offsprings !
Babu Bhaiya Aamir khan ka naam suna hai? the one megastar is enough for all bahubali all robot, khano ka khan king khan Aamir khan. In China storm is coming by the name of “Let’s wrestle father”.
@Veer little correction..
MSD biopic was not non universal though..
2.0 vll massive as well, shankar is a scientist in film making not a directors, u have directors in hindi industry where as rajamouli is best story teller n shankar is scienctist in direction, even rajamouli openly accepted he learned how to use VFX from shankar.
Legendary rajesh khanna was the only super-duper of Indian cinema whose all hit movies ran for 50 weeks approx. Some even 75 or 100 weeks like aradhana or haathi mere saathi which ran in whole india including north east states also southern states….no other star till date has this unique record. …so kaka was the ultimate first and last genuine megastar ever…