BRICS as a film journey: India
For the Indian film industry, 2023 was a particularly successful year. The total box office was almost $1,5 billion. This is not only 15% more than in 2022, but also than in pre-pandemic 2019: then it was $1,3 billion. True, skeptics cautiously note that attendance in 2019 was still higher, and the current record numbers are associated with rising ticket prices. In 2019, more than 1 billion tickets were sold, in 2023 - 943 million. It is worth adding: although India is very active in going to the cinema, the length of films there is traditionally longer than in the West, and is usually 2,5 hours, which automatically limits number of sessions.
Highest grossing film
The highest-grossing film of last year was the crime action film “Soldier” directed by Atlee (under this pseudonym is Arun Kumar). The fees amounted to $88 million. Atlee has given several commercial hits before this, but Soldier is his first Hindi film.
Find a common language
It's worth stopping here. India is a very specific market because the country does not have a language that is spoken by the entire population. Only the official languages of the states that make up the country are 22. This is not so many for a population of 1,5 billion, but still not very convenient for business. The most common language is Hindi, and Bollywood in Mumbai films in Hindi. But even such a super studio, known throughout the world for its productivity, cannot provide the market with content due to language restrictions. Therefore, other studios perform this task, and the population receives films that they understand.
If you look at the statistics for 2023, you will find that out of the $1,5 billion total box office, Hindi films collected $650 million, that is, less than half, 44%. 19% are Telugu releases, 16% are Tamil releases.
Well, Atlee has previously directed in Tamil, and his works include A Man and a Woman, Spark, Daze and Whistle.
And filming in Hindi in the case of “Soldier” is a transition, as it may seem, to a different weight category.
But this is still not entirely true. Suffice it to name two high-profile recent examples. One of the loudest (in all respects) Indian films of 2022 is “RRR: Revolution Roars Nearby.” This is the most expensive project in the history of Indian filmmaking, the budget was about $50 million. The title song won an Oscar and a Golden Globe, with a total gross of 150 million for the film - the third highest-grossing Indian film in history.
And “RRR: Revolution Roars Nearby” was filmed in Telugu. The director of the film is S.S. Rajamouli. His name is well known in connection with his previous triumph, the “Baahubali” duology, powerful fantasy blockbusters, and the second (its events preceded and continued the first film, that is, it is a prequel and a sequel at the same time) collected more than $250 million at the global box office. It is the highest grossing Telugu film in history and incidentally, the highest grossing film in Indian box office history. For comparison, it collected one and a half times more than RRR.
But what is remarkable is how exactly this result was achieved. The film was shot simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil, and the versions differ in timing. The difference between the two languages can be judged by the fact that the son of the main character is called Sivudu in Telugu, and simply Sivu in Tamil. Baahubali's elder brother is Ballaladeva and Palvaltevan respectively. After finishing work, Baahubali 2 was also dubbed in Hindi and Malayalam. In this way, a much larger audience was reached than is usually the case in India. In Russia, “Baahubali: The Beginning” was shown only in dubbing and collected 5 million rubles. Director S.S. Rajamouli is very excited about his success and publicly talks about how it's time for him to make a grand adaptation of the Mahabharata. According to the director’s calculations, it will take him a year to even just get acquainted with all the available versions of the ancient book, and in the end there should be about ten films, each three hours long. Perhaps this will be India's answer to Avatar, the way Baahubali was considered an alternative to The Avengers. And then Tollywood from Hyderabad will finally put Bollywood in its belt. But there is also Kollywood in Chinnai - they film there in Tamil. Plus there is Mollywood, Sandalwood and Ollywood. True, lately businessmen have been thinking about filming in Hinglish, the local dialect of English, which is also considered the official language in the country. Another thing is that such a decision will not have a very convenient image-colonial connotation, and it is not very clear how favorably the Indian diaspora in other countries will react to the fact that films from their homeland will not feature their native dialect.
Only the stars
The most successful films at the Indian box office are usually those from the masala genre. We are actually talking about a unique genre mix, where, of course, there is a place for musical numbers. “Soldier,” which we already mentioned above as a record holder for 2023, belongs to precisely this kind of movie. Masala requires artists to have perfect command of vocals and choreography, to be multi-stankers, working in all genres at once, and at the same time to have beauty and charisma. Therefore, the star institute in India works much more intensively than in Hollywood. So, the main star of “Soldier” Shah Rukh Khan plays father and son at once. In his 30-odd years in Bollywood, he played more than 100 roles and earned the nickname “King Khan.”
A superstar, producer and influencer, Khan is considered one of the world's most influential filmmakers. He is 58 years old, but he easily works with any action roles, and his name in the credits is a guarantee of success. In addition to “Soldier,” he also released “Patkhan” last year. Bout with Death,” which eventually made it to third place in the annual box office. Together, the two films earned more than $160 million at the domestic box office, meaning Khan contributed one-tenth of the box office gross. By comparison, all Hollywood films together earned less than $140 million in India last year, with Oppenheimer grossing the most, $19 million. “Barbie” got 6,6 million.
Other contemporary superstars include Ranbir Kapoor, the grandson of Raj Kapoor. He is 41 years old, he is in perfect shape, his films collect huge box office every year. Last year, his “Animal” earned almost $80 million, becoming the second highest-grossing release of 2023 (by the way, the highest-grossing project in Ranbir Kapoor’s long career) and striking everyone with an incredible duration, even for India, of 201 minutes. It was a very successful year for Sunny Deol, who at the age of 67 also has about a hundred roles. In 2023, he released Runaways 2, a sequel to his 2021 hit. The film earned $75 million at the domestic box office, and, if you count foreign releases, almost $90 million against a budget of $7,5 million.
Acute social
Along with commercial Indian cinema, auteur cinema has been developing for many years, enjoying well-deserved interest among cinephiles around the world and regularly included in the programs of leading film shows. The main name among art directors is Anurag Kashyap. Among his works are “Sacrifice”, “Search”, “She Smiles, She’s Trapped!”, “Water”. After years of difficult relations with censors, the director is working more often with Netflix, choosing sensitive social topics. Last year, his neo-noir Kennedy received its world premiere at Cannes. In my homeland it went straight online. The same can be said about the famous Vishal Bharadwaj, the composer-turned-director who created a fusion of music and politics on screen. It’s difficult for him to distribute films, and his new work “Catch a Mole” was released immediately on Netflix. Another leader of Indian art cinema, Hansal Mehta, is in a difficult situation: his film “Faraaz” was released on Netflix, but was banned from theatrical release.
