Last year’s Bollywood box office report has sent out a clear signal: when a film does well, it shatters all records, and when it fails, it vanishes instantly. Filmmaker Siddharth Roy Kapur, at a recent interaction, shed more light on this, stating that the industry is not healthy and is showing signs of a ‘winner-takes-all’ model.
At a roundtable discussion around the O Womaniya report, the founder and managing director of Roy Films mentioned that 40 per cent of last year’s collections came from the top three films – Chhaava, Saiyaara and Dhurandhar. If the top 10 films are taken into account, they would account for somewhere between 80–90 per cent. “That is not a healthy industry; that’s a sign of a winner-takes-all industry. That’s just a fact, and we have to accept it,” he said.
The filmmaker added that because of this, everyone is now “in a protective crouch”. He said the industry is paralysed because greenlighting a theatrical film – if it doesn’t have the traditional trappings of something that could work – has become very difficult. “Is it a spectacle? Has it got a big male superstar? Is it going to have enough to drag people into cinemas? That’s the thinking,” Kapur added.
He further shared that earlier there were many films fronted by women, such as Queen, Tanu Weds Manu, The Dirty Picture, Kahaani and English Vinglish. At that point in time, even the 20th highest-grossing film would still make Rs 50–60 crore. Today, however, the 20th highest-grossing film makes less than Rs 20 crore.
“Because of this polarised winner-and-loser scenario, everyone has gone into a shell, and unfortunately, the brunt has been borne by women-oriented films, as it is the easiest thing to say, ‘That’s not going to work anymore.’ But the good part is that this industry is completely driven by profitability. When a film like The Girlfriend works, it gives girls a lot of confidence. We need the same thinking to happen in Hindi cinema,” the producer emphasised.
Kapur also spoke about post-COVID theatrical economics and the gender imbalance in big-screen filmmaking. He shared that in the streaming space today, we see women in leadership positions, women directing films and series, and fairly balanced casts and crews.
“The theatrical space has changed significantly since COVID, with fewer films being made and the ones that work tending to be hypermasculine and mass-driven. Indian cinema audiences have historically been predominantly male, leading to hero-driven storytelling, which is why a big theatrical film directed by a woman still feels rare,” he highlighted.
