Bollywood Won’t Find An Intervention On The Outside, It Needs To Look Within

Once upon a time, all was (relatively) well in Hindi cinema. Sure, the greed, the cynicism and the market-driven decisions existed even then – leaving little money for risky, independent initiatives. But ‘parallel films’ were still being made. Not as frequently as their mainstream counterparts, but there was still space for a Ram Gopal Verma to try and run a parallel industry of his own. Thanks to corporates and a few independent producers the 2000s and 2010s witnessed many experiments – Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan (2010), Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani (2012), Anushka Sharma-led NH10 (2015) and Taapsee Pannu-starrer, Thappad (2019) – all of which teased like Hindi cinema had turned over a new leaf. We were bracing ourselves for more ambitious, progressive films🍸 – until the pandemic hit. Bollywood has been in a freefall since.

It might not be immediately apparent when one looks at the numbers. Hindi films grossed Rs 4,679 crore in 2024, according to an . This is 13% lower compared to 2023’s Rs 5,380 crore – which might seem like a reasonable dip. But that changes once you realise that three of the top five highest-grossing films are Hindi dubs of Telugu films. Pushpa II, Kalki 2898 A.D, and Devara - Part 1 – 🍒account for an approximate 30% of the total gross of Hindi films. If they’re removed, then the di🌠p in Hindi film earnings becomes more apparent – 37% – as per the Ormax report.

As producers battle it out on roundtables, trying to win a mine-is-bigger-than-yours debate around box office figures – it’s crucial for Hindi film producers, directors, writers, actors to stop looking outside for intervention. No amount of reverse-engineering Telugu, Tamil blockbusters will help tide over this difficult period – as we saw with Baby John last year. There might be the odd success in Jawan or Drishyam 2, but the only way across the wall is through it. Trying to conjure a 500 crore/1000 crore box office with each undertaking is a less sensible approach, considering the significant downside a studio or a producer is exposed to when a film fails (which is more frequently the case). Tryin𝕴g to cheat one’s way through a creative crisis in Hindi cinema – is like treating a brain aneurysm with a band-aid. Hindi cinema will have to look deeper within, and find the answers for more ambitious films, made on conꦿtrolled budgets.

Filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee is of the opinion that for creativity to flourish, the industry will have to find a way to break the star system. If that’s not possible, maybe temper the fees down. "Today films grossing a hundred crores are being called flops,” observes Banerjee, “because the budget was astronomical without showing up on screen." Facing a delay with the release of his debut, Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), the likes of Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap, Rajat Kapoor were rescued by the likes of UTV Spotboy (with Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur at the helm) and Pritish Nandy Communications – who took a gamble on urban, ♈new-age storytelling.

Today, Anurag Kashyap has confessed to having five unreleased films lying in the cans. Banerjee’s last two theatrical releases were snuffed out within two weeks of their run, and one film was put on indefinite hold. Vikramaditya Motwane hasn’t made a film for theatres since 2018’s Bhavesh Joshi Superhero. Sujoy Ghosh’s last theatrical film was Badla (2019), as was Zoya Akhtar’s.

There was a brief period in the 2010s when Hindi cinema could do no wrong, when everything was succeeding. Vidya Balan-starrer, Kahaani – made on a reported budget of Rs 8 crore – recovered its money 13 times over. Mainstream studios like Dharma Productions and Excel Entertainment took gambles on Kapoor & Sons (2016) and Gully Boy (2019) – films that would most likely be shipped off to OTT platforms in 2025. An Andhadhun (2018) or a Badlapur (2015) – would not make it to a theatre in this climate. Neither of the Sriram Raghavan directorial ventures could be considered mainstream, but they made several times their investments. It was possible because male actors weren’t charging Rs 30-40 crore per film – something that unfairly burdens a film especially during an industry’s lean phase. It’s been a ma💙jor point of contention, but one that hasn’t seen a solution, with actors putting out sincere sound bytes through their PR machinery – without actually lowering their fees.

Also the box office discourse has overtaken everything else in Hindi films. Recently, when Vasan Bala’s Jigra (2024) didn’t perform as well as the trade had expected, the discourse became about Alia Bhatt’s ‘first failure’ in years. As much as producers express their envy for the box office exploits of the ‘pan-India’ film – a post-pandemic phenomenon. Most producers, studios pouring money into films have an eye on the astronomical figures of Rs 700-800 crore at the box office. It’s no surprise then that Singham Again uses all the star-power at its disposal and is considered ‘underwhelming’ by t🍰he trade; despite making Rs 400 crore at 🐠the box office.

As Cody Jefferson, writer/director of American Fiction (2024), said in his last year – studios betting $200 million on one film, should instead try making 20 $10 million movies, or 50 $4 million movies. The risk is the same – in fact this one’s more diversified. The probability of one out of 20 movies becoming an Andhadhun (which made Rs 450 crore against its Rs 30-crore budget) is surely higher than someone setting out to make the next Andhadhun on a Rs 150-crore budget.

The only way for Hindi cinema to get out of this box office rut, is not by comparing itself to its earnings with the Telugu, Tamil or Malayalam entertainers, or mimicking their blockbusters. All regional film industries have different cultures, a less/more-discerning fan base. For Hindi cinema to succeed – it has to put its blinders back on – and make thematically ambitious, risky films at tightly-controlled budgets. Only when we start making a variety of films – will we have a shot at an uptick. It’s something Hindi films can inculcate from American distribution company, A24, which put out a list of its sixteen releases from 2024, with a cumulative budget of about $250 million – which made close to $280 million at the box office. Among them are Oscar-contenders like The Brutalist, which are yet to find mainstream distribution.

To fight the brain rot in Hindi films today, Banerjee 💮concludes in no uncertain terms – “We need to pay writers. We need to find writers. Writers who come from all corners of India with new Indian stories. Jaded English-speaking, Crossword bestseller-reading, Soho House-dwelling ‘scriptwriters’ brain damaged by demands of OTT platforms targeting addiction rather than engagement – will not deliver 🐼a fresh wave of creativity.” The only way out of this hell for Bollywood is through it.