Alchemy of Languages

The Indian box office is turning vibrant as Hollywood, Marathi, Punjabi and other non-Hindi films are drawing audiences to the theatres

- VIDYA S

51 PER CENT contribution The of regional language movies to total box office collections during January-June 2023

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.