The Telugu film industry, generally labelled as Tollywood, had a handy 29% share of box office (2020 & 2021 cumulative), ahead of Bollywood, whose share sharply declined from 44% to 27%.
Further, four Telugu films --- Pushpa, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, Sarileru Neekevvaru and Vakeel Saab --- feature in the top 10 films across the two years, compared to only three Hindi films --- Tanhaji, Sooryavanshi and 83. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Hollywood), Master & Darbar (both Tamil) complete the top 10 box office list.
The cumulative share of the four South languages went up from 36% in 2019 to 59% in 2020 & 2021.
These numbers emerged from media consulting firm Ormax Media's annual report --- The Ormax Box Office Report 2020-21. The report, first launched in 2016, looks at the Indian box office across languages, highlighting key trends in the theatrical sector.
South Indian films, it should be said, also dominate the OTT circuit.
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Indian films lost Rs 15,000 crore due to the pandemic
The report also analysed the impact of the pandemic on the Indian box office. Compared to gross box office of almost Rs 11,000 crore in 2019, the cumulative revenue across 2020 and 2021 put together stood at only Rs 5,757 crore (an annual average of less than Rs 2,900 crore. "If 2019 is taken as the benchmark, the Indian film industry lost at least Rs 15,000 crore at the box office because of the pandemic," the report said.
The footfalls also understandably came down from 103.0 crore in 2019 to 22.5 crore and 42.7 crore in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Shailesh Kapoor, Founder & CEO, Ormax Media, said: “The pandemic has severely impacted the Indian box office, with five out of the eight quarters in 2020 and 2021 having zero or negligible business, because of theatres being shut in all or most parts of India."
The last quarter of 2021 (Oct-Dec), however, has seen good recovery, registering gross box office of more than Rs 2,000 crore. This offers hope to the industry, which is seeing its thunder being stolen by the arrival of the OTT platforms.
Movies like Gehraiyaan (Hindi), Mahaan (Tamil), Bhamakalapam (Telugu), which otherwise would have released in theatres, are releasing on OTT platforms directly this week.
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