Tollywood Is Becoming What Bollywood Could Have Become!

Bollywood has been sitting on a self-proclaimed throne for the past numerous decades, but this situation is changing now.

As Hindi was believed to be the most common language of India, powerful producers concluded that making movies in Hindi will have a mass appeal therefore the Bollywood industry flourished. But this industry had extremely set ideals and formulas of making a film. Stories which took place in large metropolitan cities were preferred and actors fluent in Hindi and with a fairer skin were given preference. Tollywood didn’t fit in this category therefore it was rejected entry into the industry.

But not much later, people became bored of the similar plots of Bollywood movies therefore a change was due. This was brought in the form of remakes. Successful South-Indian movies made in regional languages were remade by directors from the north in Hindi. The risk level in the production of such movies was low due to their already established fan base in the industry. This brought a change in the type of storyline to which the common consumer was used to. Some movies like Hera-Pheri, Singham etc were extremely famous but simultaneously movies like Dhadak, Jersey etc didn’t gain any popularity. This was because a direct comparison was being made between the original movie and the remade one. If the audience preferred the original movie over the remade one, then the success rate of the remade movie became much lower.

In 2016 Sairat’ a movie made by a new director, acted by a new cast and made in a regional language became the highest grossing Marathi film ever. This signified change in the industry. It was visible that the audience could and did accept a new language. The director of the 2020 Oscar winning movie ‘Parasite’ rightly said that “Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” In today’s world, language is no longer a barrier rather it is a bridge. All movies’ movies/series made regionally are being dubbed into internationally acceptable languages.

Since the past few years, every year, the Tollywood industry is coming out with a record-breaking movie. In 2017, ‘Bahubali’ was the first ever Telegu movie to be the highest grossing movie of India. And thereafter, a trend can be noticed. In 2018, there was 2.O, in 2021 there was Pushpa and in 2022 KGF and RRR are already dominating the industry.

Film critic Taran Adarsh feels that South industries are too big to ignore. He says, “I think Telugu is the bigger industry right now. The kind of films, budget, professionalism, and release patterns that they have, are impressive. The pan-India films that they plan are superb! Perhaps the image that Bollywood has had over the years makes us believe that it is big. I would like to correct the people who are associated with Indian cinema and say that is wrong to think of Bollywood as the biggest. Somewhere down the line, we should change our thought processes and realise that there are other industries too. It is unfair to South Indian cinema to keep them out and just say that Bollywood is the dominant industry. Not at all, I would say Telugu is ruling right now”.

While there is a popular perception that Bollywood is bigger, it’s not the former but regional cinema that is calling the shots in the Indian film industry. The latter, led by Telugu and Tamil movie industry, contributed 47 per cent to the Indian film industry’s overall revenues in 2019 while the former’s share was 40 per cent and total revenues of both stood at around $2.7 billion in FY 2018-2019 as per a report released at the FICCI Frames Summit in 2020.

On one hand, Bollywood is going full woke and is busy disconnecting with the audience, South Indian movies are being made on archetypal storylines of India. They do not degrade the family system in the name of criticism. Well, it is high time Bollywood start working on its creative aspects as the South Indian industry is all set to throw it out of the cinema world.