Cinema is often referred to as a reflection of the society. The filmmakers over a period of time try to conjure up storylines that reflect the micro and macro aspects of the society. The type of cinema that works is often that connects with the larger societal overtones. Like the ‘angry young man’ era of the 1970s in which the larger-than-life cinematic hero fought societal evils. This largely reflected the aspirations of the society suffering from extreme poverty and influences of phenomena like the national emergency. Similar influences are observed in the later decades as well, where a similar type of cinema resonated with the audience.
But what is the current trend line with respect to successful cinemas? How has the pattern for successful cinemas changed post Covid? We, as a society, are still normalising our lives post Covid. Our cinema preferences are also witnessing a shift. In the post Covid era, the landscape of the Bharatiya film industry, spread across different languages and states, is undergoing a transition as well.
The Covid era coupled with the rise of OTT platforms, has significantly changed audience preferences. This has led to the drying of sales at the box office. The earlier storylines and plots considered panaceas, and presumed to deliver definite hits are no longer getting the expected audience. Even the cinemas of so called ‘stars’ are subjected to immense scrutiny. No longer fame and stardom is able to pull cinema goers towards the theatres.
Cinema stitched with stereotypical storylines are having a dry run at the box office. It is a matter of serious discussion. The discussion demands us to answer two most prominent questions. First, what is the new trend of success in the Bharatiya cinema? And Second, what is driving this change in preference of cinema goers leading to poor box office outcomes?
The first question is very tricky and demands analysis of success trendlines especially post Covid. Post Covid transition has forced filmmakers to rethink and realign their strategy regarding how cinema is to be made. A core part of the new strategy is rooted storytelling. Cinema that tell the tales of ancient Bharat or small town stories, tier 2 plots, rural landscapes, folklore et al.
Recent successes across languages testifies that this formula has provided filmmakers with wide scale success. Let’s understand this trend in more detail. In the past 3 years, if an honest analysis is pursued, one realises that most of the successful cinema lacking a famed actor has some things in common, that is, filmmaking based on interesting content, content which is either very local, very rural or very middle class. These cinemas aim to produce emotions of the common people on the big screen.
The charming rural or ordinary landscape adds to the storytelling. It has been an open secret that Bharatiya cinema, especially the Hindi cinema, has over the decades mostly failed to capture the aspirations of the real people. Instead, it has peddled narratives and often painted untrue picture of the nation. This all came crashing down in the post Covid cinematic era. No longer random narratives appear to be working. People appear to be liking content that is more rooted both culturally and visually. This trend is reflected in the success of the movies like RRR, Ponniyin Selvan, Brahmastra Part One: Shiva, Kantara, Kashmir Files, Pushpa, 12th Fail, The Kerala Story, and Akhanda post Covid. But will it be correct to say that rooted storyline the new panacea for success? Let’s analyse this with respect to movies of 2024.
If we analyse some of the most successful cinema of 2024, we find cinema like Kalki 2898-AD, Stree-2, HanuMan, Article 370, Munjya, Laapataa Ladies etc. These films tell tales of either a common man, or small town folklore, or take inspiration from our rich history. But can we observe a trend? Let’s dig a little deeper to understand storylines.
The highest grosser of the year Kalki 2898-AD is based on our epic Mahabharat and the Vishnu Avatar, Kalki. In the theatres, the cinema was very well received with the scenes depicting the events from Mahabhara getting the loudest cheer. The weaving of our Samskrutik past with the profoundness of our future connected very well with not just the audience in Bharat but also globally.
Another cinema HanuMan based on the fictional depiction of the resurgence of Bhagwan Hanuman had the audience hooked. The cinema was a fictional depiction of the powers of Hanuman Ji wielded by a rural boy. The rural landscape and the story of the victory of good over evil were very well received. The theme of weaving our samskritik stories with fiction has pulled the cinema goers to the theatre.
Another successful cinema this year is Stree -2 that tells a haunted tale of a small town in Bharat where the protagonist is a small town boy working as a tailor. The audience connected to the scenic landscape as well as with the innocence of the protagonist. The movie also covered local folklore as a part of Chanderi Puran which is quite common in many small towns and rural areas. This further added relatability to the cinema. Both the laughs and horror of the movie got an overwhelming response from the audience.
Also, successful movies like Munjya, critically acclaimed Laapataa Ladies are set in small towns or rural Bharat depicting our society and our heritage. These cinema tell the hardships that we face at the societal level and wonderfully depict the goodness as well as the anti-fragility in us. They tap into the purity of human-to-human relations that we possess with our loved ones. The deep care and our attitude of fighting against all odds is also depicted in these movies.
We can also take the example of Srikant where we see the rise of a Divyang person from a tiny village to new height of success. To take this analysis further we also need to see movies like ‘Veda’ which was almost based on the same theme but didn’t do well. Though the caste issue depicted in the movie is still a major theme but the depiction in the movie is no longer part of our society at large and can be considered to be a part of the silo microcosms with no larger relativity.
The practice of ‘Ghunghat’ as depicted in Laapataa Ladies is also such type of practice. But the difference between Veda and Laapataa Ladies is the overall message of the movie. Thus, the filmmakers need to be mindful while depicting our culturally rooted stories focusing on a positive and solution-oriented approach. Hence, barring a few exceptions, culturally rooted stories have done relatively well. However, is this a trendline? Also what is also important to answer is, have the filmmakers identified this pattern? And is the new shift in audience preference going to drive change in Bharatiya cinema? This is yet to be seen.
Let us also understand what is driving the transition in audience preference. Things changed drastically during Covid. Home bound cinema lovers were exposed to world content with the rise in OTT platform. Is exposure to better-quality content driving change in preference? Its true that the audiences in Bharat was able watch global content and compare it with the cinema being made in Bharat. As a result, the mediocrity in storylines, lack of aesthetics and grandeur in our cinema stood exposed. Can we say that this comparison brought about a preference change? Or is it that the Bharatiya people during covid were not just exposed to world content but they also have come closer to their own Bharatiya identity?
A pattern has been observed that there is a growing realisation of the profoundness of our samskriti and heritage. Many call it a renaissance moment for Bharat where there is an imminent urge to understand and live the essence of our motherland. People have been exposed to facets of Bharat which was unknown to them. They are relating more to their own stories rather than a superficial world disconnected from reality. Is this the reason why a lot of biased narrative driven tales are finding no takers? Or cliched cinema storylines with very little connection to our Samskriti being rejected by the audience? It has also been observed that a large part of this change in preference is driven by people from Tier II and Tier III towns or even from villages who form a large chunk of the cinema goers even in metropolitans. This audience appear to have moved on from hero worshipping and wants to see cinema from an alternate perspective. The aspiring youth exposed to a plethora of online content has given up on stereotype content and wants its own relatable stories on the big screen.
Is this the reason why the stories that navigate through the emotions of a small town doing well? There are multiple questions that come about as we explore the reason driving the change with each question being more complex than the other. But time will be our guide to understand these reasons a little more.
It is safe to say that in the post Covid era, the industry is trying to identify new formulas for success. There have been multiple re-releases as well to pull the audience towards the theatres. But a formula that has clicked is culturally rooted cinema.
Another clear example of this is the success of the re-release of a movie like Tumbbad over a movie like The Buckingham Murders. Tumbbad rereleased in the theatres, beat a Kareena Kapoor starrer like The Buckingham Murders on the first day. An example that appears to epitomise the successful phenomena of culturally rooted movies doing very well at the box office.This also brings us to a question as to why Bharatiya cinema is not exploring its own stories. Why can’t movies on the stories of our own rich Literature be made? Why can’t stories of authors like Munshi Premchand, Bhisham Sahni, Jaishankar Prasad, Dharamveer Bharati or Srilal Shukla be brought to the celluloid to name a few in Hindi literature. There are many such great luminaries in every Bharatiya language but have the writers read them is a big question. Why can’t movies from our local folklore be made more often?
This is especially true after seeing the success of Kantara & recently Munjya. What is stopping the industry from exploring our Puranas, Panchtantras and stories of Upanishads? Why such a vast repository of storylines not being utilised for exploring success on the big screen. Why is the film industry hell bent on promoting unrelatable content or peddling narratives. Even when we do a comparative analysis we see movies like Gehraiyaan and Bad News performing badly. Also, series like Call me Bae unconnected from the Bharatiya reality was rejected. On the other hand we observe movies like Manjummel Boys, Avesham, Garudan and Bramayugam with their culturally rooted storylines and filmmaking doing very well at the box office.
Even after seeing such a trend why are the filmmakers still not ready to shed their inertia and adopt a more culturally rooted story telling? Why do some filmmakers want us to watch content that is identifiable to a micro minority. Micro minority tales and culture can no longer be imposed on the majority. This is also reflected in the box office numbers. The filmmakers still involved in telling superficial stories or weaving false narratives should soon realise that such things are no longer going to work as it doesn’t resonate well with the audience. When the filmmakers themselves have always said that Cinema is the reflection of Society, then whey are they not able to understand what society today is or is it that they selectively are ignoring it to forward their agenda?
With the mentioned analysis it is time for filmmakers to ponder upon what is working at the box office. They need to be mindful of what the audience wants. This brings us to the question of whether going back( back here means roots) is the way forward? And can the Bharatiya filmmakers tap into the growing trend in the short and long run to revive box office collections? Will Local be Global? All the answers will be given by the Audience Mai Baap every Friday.
