Alchemy of languages: How non-Hindi films are changing the Indian box office

Whether it is the Marathi film Baipan Bhari Deva or the Punjabi movie Carry on Jatta 3, a slew of recent Hollywood hits or last year’s breakout performance of Kannada films such as Kantara and 777 Charlie, Indian exhibitors are seeing a diverse array of films from different languages drawing crowds to multiplexes.

The numbers say it all. According to India Box Office Report 2023 by consultancy firm Ormax Media, Hindi-language movies accounted for 37 per cent of India’s cumulative box office collections from January to June 2023; Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi and other regional languages together contributed 51 per cent, while Hollywood made up for the rest 12 per cent.

The trend is also clearly visible in the leading multiplex chain Cinépolis India’s figures. “Five years ago, English [language movies] contributed to 20 per cent of box office collections, regional films contributed another 20 per cent, while 60 per cent came from Hindi movies alone. This year so far, Bollywood has brought in 50 per cent and the other two categories have gone up to 25 per cent each,” says its CEO Devang Sampat.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, theatres in the Hindi-speaking regions struggled to draw audiences back as they were hooked to streaming platforms and back-to-back subpar Hindi films made matters worse. The only saving grace was the phenomenal box office success of South Indian films and their dubbed versions, even in theatres. Since May 2023, it seems the fortunes of theatres, especially multiplexes, have reversed due to hits across languages.

Hollywood set the ball rolling with at least eight big releases since then—Fast X, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, The Flash, Insidious: The Red Door, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, Oppenheimer and Barbie. The last three alone, released in July, have pulled in an estimated total Indian net collection of Rs 265 crore and counting. Regional super hits such as 2018 (in Malayalam, released on May 5, collections of Rs 92 crore+), Baipan Bhari Deva (Marathi, June 30, Rs 73 crore+), Carry on Jatta 3 (Punjabi, June 29, Rs 45 crore+) and Baby (Telugu, July 14, 2023, Rs 63 crore+) have peppered the past three months at the cinemas. Rajinikanth’s Tamil movie Jailer as well as the Hindi films Gadar 2 and OMG 2 made for a triple delight over the Independence Day weekend.

“Hollywood and regional films have picked up in a big way,” says Nagpur-based exhibitor and distributor Akshaye Rathi, Director of Aashirwad Theatres, adding that it’s almost a three-way split now between Hindi, regional languages and Hollywood in some multiplexes. “Earlier, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi or Marathi films were only limited to their respective states and

did not have a larger piece of the overall national box office pie. But now the Indian box office is gaining more width and depth,” says Tushar Dhingra, Founding CEO of Dhishoom Cinemas.

Earlier this year, another Marathi film, Ved, earned a brisk Rs 61 crore in net Indian box office collection, while 2022’s Kannada films Kantara (Rs 300 crore+) and 777 Charlie (Rs 84 crore+) earned nearly Rs 400 crore at the Indian net box office across the languages they were released in. All these indicate a growing appetite for regional cinema. However, the growth, experts say, is not coming at the cost of Hindi films; instead the overall consumption pie itself is increasing. They point to the successes of Hindi films Pathaan and Gadar 2, which have become all-time highest grossers after regional cinema became popular in the Hindi belt during the pandemic.

Rathi says this is a result of behavioural patterns changing for everyone during the pandemic. “People consumed content from Kerala, Andhra, Telangana, Punjab, Bengal, Korea, Japan, Bollywood, Iran and so many other fraternities on streaming platforms…These languages are complementing Hindi cinema and the consumption pie is increasing,” he says.

“When you look at a pie chart of 100, regional and Hollywood have increased their share. But in absolute numbers, all three are growing because the overall consumption has increased,” adds Cinépolis India’s Sampat. Dhishoom’s Dhingra puts it like this: If the content is correct, a language-agnostic audience is now available over and above the native speakers.

But, is the overall consumption pie really growing? That will be only known after the total box office collections in India are tallied at the end of 2023. Between January and June 2023, the cumulative gross India box office collection for releases stands at Rs 4,868 crore. Ormax pegs this to be 15 per cent lower than the same period in 2022. At this rate, 2023 is expected to end at Rs 9,736 crore, 8 per cent lower than last year. However, the second half of 2023 has a strong line-up of films that are expected to perform well, especially Jawan, Salaar and Tiger 3. This puts the year in good stead to surpass the 2022 gross box office collections, or at least get very close to them, the Ormax report says.

Pre-pandemic, the record for the best year for the Indian box office was for 2019, with its gross collection of Rs 10,948 crore. After the Covid-19 lockdowns severely impacted the revenues of theatres for about two years, the year 2022 saw a rebound, with an annual gross box office collection of Rs 10,637 crore, according to Ormax Media’s report.

Exhibitors, meanwhile, are confident that the Indian gross box office collection for 2023 will surpass last year’s figure. Dhishoom’s Dhingra estimates the collection will touch Rs 7,000 crore by the end of August and wrap up the year close to Rs 11,000 crore. Sampat is more optimistic. He estimates Cinépolis’ collections during July-December to be twice what they did during January-June. If that is to be extrapolated to the Indian box office, the collections could touch Rs 12,000 crore.

@SaysVidya