Bollywood's conundrum and the way forward

This is just my hypothesis on why Bollywood movies haven't been working and why there is a need for a complete overhaul in the kind of movies we make.

I'm going to keep it short. India has a class divide, 10% (mostly urban, well educated, rich or aspirational class), 90% (mostly rural or tier 2/3 towns, semi-educated, middle-class or lower middle-class).

The classes: The 10% now have more access to better content; be it through OTT or Hollywood films. Hollywood movies are increasingly releasing on the same day here and we are no longer a bad market. So these people either watch Hollywood movies or the intellectual stuff made by Bollywood (for eg., the kind of movies Aamir Khan makes or some Indie movies like Masaan or SIR or Trapped).

The masses: The other 90% want a break from their lives and they want to watch larger than life movies. They don't care for logic or whatever. This is the segment that used to make the mindless Salman and Akshay Kumar films a hit. Notice when Salman or Akshay try to make content based films like Tubelight or Brothers, they bomb, unless the content is exceptional enough for the classes. For eg. Bajrangi worked because it was also a hit with the classes (around 100 cr came from single screens, but over 200 cr came from multiplexes, which are largely the bastion of the classes).

Post 2020, Bollywood has lost out on the class audience, because they either stick to OTT or if they have to watch something in theatres, they prefer Hollywood. Most Bollywood indies release directly online anyway... so that potential revenue is also lost.

For the masses, South is making exactly the kind of films that they like. Pushpa wasn't a great film by any means, but it had all the ingredients to work for the masses. Bollywood has become lazy and isn't making great masala films anymore. Most of the Bollywood films that work are remakes or biopics. Now remakes are out of contention since South movies are releasing directly in Hindi. All that is left is biopics.. But of late, the Bollywood biopics like 83, Saina, Thalaivi, etc. have all bombed. So audience is saying, we neither want remakes nor biopics.

Way Forward:

Bollywood would therefore be forced to start making original movies now. However, they will not be making movies for the classes much, as their focus would be the masses, who are still within their reach. So expect a lot of masala/commercial films to be made by Bollywood in the next few years.

P.S. Numbers are ballpark figures and have been used for illustrative purposes only.

Makes sense. This focus on repetitive biopics and "content" driven movies which is often praised by people on social media who want to feel smug has backfired on Bollywood.

Bollywood hasn't made a great masala movie in years. Its no wonder movies like Pushpa are working so well.

Ratio of mass to class should be 70 30 now not 90 10

And this is not mass versus class.

This is rather who will watch movies in theatres and who will watch at home. And the number of people who watch movies at home is gonna increase further from 30 percent to even higher

Two things are shifting people from theatre watching audience to at home audience

First is

Big screen LED TVs at low prices. Our house help has bought a 48” LED recently it's second hand. But nevertheless it is indicative of the trend of large screen flat TV becoming the norm in lower middle class homes too.

Second is

Huge expense of watching in theatres for a family.

If a family of four or six has to go for a movie in a single screen, then travelling to and from, ticket cost and food cost all comes to at least 1000 - 1500 while for a multiplex you can add another thousand to it.

So theatre viewing experience for families is restricted to just two or three movies in a year which are worth spending that kind of movie (either in terms of scale of action or visual effects).

Do you think any family will go to theatre spend 1000-2000 on a chappak or gunjan Saxena or Chandigarh Kare ashiqui. When they get almost the same experience at home for a fraction of that cost.

Covid and (JiO ± OTT) has just speeded up the process

It's not about mass or class or content based films or no brain action movies.

It's about movie worth the money being spent to watch in a theatre. Honestly suryavanshi has been the only release that is worth going to the theatre during covid and spending that kind of money because it's a multistarrer with decent action and comedy that a family can watch together.