In the last year or so, Hollywood films such as ‘Black Panther’, ‘Avengers’ ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Deadpool’ have contributed for more than 70 per cent of the total box office (BO) collections in India. Trade pundits believe, the figure is on an upward spiral. In fact, according to trade analyst Taran Adarsh, “A superhero blockbuster or a big production Hollywood film such as ‘Dunkirk’ makes as much money in the BO as 20 Bollywood releases and a couple of big ticket regional films. ‘Baahubali’ is the only exception to this rule,” he informs. ‘Baahubali-I and II had total gross earnings of $ 12.3 million and managed to make an impact on the global BO (around 600 million was recovered from North America and East Asia). However, for an industry that is considered as one of the largest across the globe, what makes these big production rip offs from Hollywood such a huge hit? We find out...
Pre-sold audience
According to filmmaker Shoojit Sircar, “Hollywood movies, especially the superhero movies, make a lot of money in India because they feature characters who have a pre-sold audience.” Concurs Gauri Sinha, an ex-student of Lotus Valley School, Delhi, “We have grown up with characters like Thor, Hulk, Batman, etc. We wait to see Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk and Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man. It is an instant connect. Unfortunately, there is no such popular series in India.”
FOMO is a reason
The fear of Missing out or FOMO, as we put, is yet another reason, feel many. With the country ranking second in comic book readership (according to a Nielson 2017 survey), Indians, especially the generation that was raised on superhero cartoons and comics, want to watch it at any cost. In the words of Swastik Patnaik, a class XII student of Mothers International School in Delhi, youngsters like him go and watch it only “to check it out, even if it hasn’t fared well in other parts of the globe”.
cool to watch western films
Students said they prefer a Hollywood big ticket release (usually a superhero film) over any Bollywood or regional movie because it is considered cool. “It adds value if you say you have watched Avengers; my friends would tease me or feel I was not conversant in English if I said I prefer a film from KJo’s kitty,” said Aarushi Singh from Birla Vidya Niketan.
History Of Hits
With big money, huge-scale productions are a part and parcel of movies these days. In fact, even in the past, movies like ‘Gone With The Wind’, ‘Ben-Hur’ and ‘Cleopatra’ attracted large audiences with the promise of a cinematic spectacle.
Will this formula work in B-wood?
Bollywood superheroes haven’t yet done a good job of minting money, accounting for only 4.17 per cent of the entire revenue share of the box office collections (taken over a period of 3 years). “It’s a vicious circle out here. Producers don’t want to back big budget superhero movies in India because they feel the film won’t be able to recover costs. The moment they try to cut corners, it has an adverse impact on the film and watchers give it a miss. We need more big names having faith in this kind of cinema,” says director Shoojit Sircar. Lack of original script and inept story telling is also a problem: “The last time we delved into this genre, the film didn’t even recover production costs. Audience blamed it on laughable stunts. But I think lack of story is what defeats the purpose,” feels professor Shyam Dua. Moreover, the reluctance of superstars in Bollywood to share the same screen space could be yet another reason. In ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, there were eight superstars who shared screen time to make the film a big success. “We like to see them together — RDJ, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson — they are all big heroes in their own right but when they come together they weave magic. However, this doesn’t translate into a Bollywood film. I can’t imagine seeing the Khans and the Kapoors come together for a movie, “ says Arpita Bhonsle, class XI student of BVN, Delhi.