Why Bollywood Has No Lights, Camera, Action

Producers aren't making films if Netflix or Amazon Prime Video haven't bought streaming rights

- Lata Jha

As Eid came around last April, Bollywood was watching closely. It was supposed to be one of the most lucrative periods of the year for the Hindi film industry, as people normally descend on theatres in droves over the holiday weekend. Aiming to make the most of it, two big-star films, each released on more than 2,000 screens simultaneously, awaited the multitude. However, Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff-starrer Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Ajay Devgn's Maidaan, made with staggering budgets of ₹350 crore and ₹250 crore, respectively, bombed at the box office.

The flop shows were a slap in the face for an industry that had increasingly begun to think of mega stars and action spectacles as the answer to all box office woes. Both films struggled to cross the ₹60 crore mark in domestic box office collections.

But Eid 2024 wasn't the only bad weekend for Bollywood. There were many throughout the year. Hindi cinema suffered a massive decline at the box office in 2024, with collections dropping 13% to ₹4,679 crore from ₹5,380 crore a year earlier, according to media consulting firm Ormax. And even in that ₹4,679 crore, nearly a third (31%) came from dubbed versions of South Indian movies. If only original Hindi language films are to be considered, the box office decline was a steep 37%.

"The drop in box office is sizeable and even big-budget films no longer have any legs in theatres," said Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO, Ormax Media. "Earlier, with a certain star, there would be a minimum opening and box office guarantee but now there are no limits to how low the opening can go, which makes the proposition riskier for a producer."

Several producers blame the Lok Sabha elections and the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 cricket tournament, both of which ran through much of the April-June quarter, leading to many releases being deferred. But that feeble defence does not quite tell the real story.