Can Bollywood Stage A Recovery In 2022? As ‘Shamshera’ Opens, Hindi Film Industry Pins Hopes On Packed Schedule, New Theatrical Windows

deadline.com:

When Yash Raj Films’ Shamshera opens at the Indian box office tomorrow, all eyes in Mumbai’s Hindi-language film industry, popularly known as Bollywood, will be closely watching the release.With a big star, Ranbir Kapoor, major studio and reported $20m budget behind it, hopes are high that the period action film will signal a recovery for Bollywood, which has had an underwhelming first half of 2022.

While a few Hindi films have performed well this year – The Kashmir Files, Gangubai Kathiawadi and most recently horror comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 – an alarming number of titles with big stars and high expectations have flopped, despite the fact that Indian cinemas have been open with no Covid restrictions for several months.Adding insult to injury, films from the South Indian film industries, made in other languages – most notably Kannada-language K.G.F.: Chapter 2 and Telugu-language RRR – have been breaking box office records in India and overseas.

India’s overall box office is estimated at around $712m (Rs56.9bn) for January-June 2022, comparing favourably to 2019’s pre-pandemic $1.4bn year-end haul.

But Hindi releases accounted for just 34% of that first half total, of which 45% were not even made in the Hindi language, but Hindi dubs of South Indian and English-language films.Bollywood producers point the finger at changing consumer habits during the pandemic, a story familiar in other territories, which have also seen a shift towards big event movies at the expense of smaller films, as the rise of streaming has encouraged audiences to consume more content at home.