Bollywood seems to be stuck in a cycle. The same content is being reused, dressed differently, and shoved down the throats of the audience.
Films feel like they’re made using a formula that guarantees success and the magic of films and the theatre experience is fading.
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But why is that? Why are half the theatres running half-empty? Is this why the business is on a downward spiral?
According to reports, Hindi cinema’s gross box office collections declined by 13% in 2024.
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There are many reasons. Firstly, despite living in the digital age, many still see OTT as inferior. Films released directly on OTT platforms are often deemed unworthy.
Post-COVID, the cinema audience has changed. The once whistling, masala-film-loving crowd has developed a better taste by consuming nuanced films from across the world.
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The bar has been set high.
The audience has evolved, but Bollywood hasn’t.
It continues to repackage the same tropes, the same characters, just under a different name, in a different setting, with a different appearance, hoping the audience will still like it.
This is one of the reasons why re-releases are working. Those were the audience’s first real connection with those characters. Everything else that followed felt like a copy.
Bollywood is now in a global blind spot. Films like Lagaan once helped place it on the international map, but what about now? All We Imagine as Light wasn’t a Bollywood film. Neither was RRR.
The industry is so enamoured with its own glamour that it has forgotten how to grind.
For Bollywood to rise from its own rubble, a serious effort is required. It needs to understand that its audience is far smarter now, and nostalgia alone won’t carry them for much longer.
