Hindi
Ormax Box Office Report 2024: a mixed bag for Indian cinema with a record-breaking highlight
MUMBAI: The annual Ormax Box Office Report (Obor) for 2024 reveals a year of highs and lows for the Indian film industry. The Obor states that despite a 13 per cent decline in Hindi box office collections, 2024 emerged as the second-best year of all time for the Indian market, with a total gross box office of Rs 11,833 crore, just three per cent shy of 2023’s record-breaking Rs 12,226 crore.
Key Highlights of the Report:
Overall Performance:
o With gross box office collections of Rs 11,833 crore, 2024 became the second-best year in Indian cinema history, despite a dip in footfalls and ticket price stabilisation.
Language-wise Trends:
o Hindi Cinema: Collections dropped from Rs 5,380 crore in 2023 to Rs 4,679 crore in 2024, with its market share falling to 40 per cent (a decline of 4 percentage points). Notably, 31 per cent of Hindi collections came from dubbed versions of South Indian films. Excluding dubbed films, original Hindi cinema witnessed a steep 37 per cent decline.
o Malayalam Cinema: A standout performer, it doubled its market share from five per cent in 2023 to 10 per cent in 2024, crossing the Rs 1,000 crore milestone for the first time.
o Tamil & Telugu Cinema: Maintained stable market shares with only marginal fluctuations.
o Hollywood: Experienced the steepest drop, with a 17 per cent decline in collections compared to 2023.
o Gujarati Cinema: Recorded a remarkable 66 per cent growth, second only to Malayalam cinema.
Top-Grossing Films:
o Pushpa 2: The Rule dominated the box office with Rs 1,403 crore, making it the highest-grossing film of 2024. Its Hindi dubbed version collected Rs 889 crore, setting a new record as the highest-grossing ‘Hindi’ film of all time.
o Other high-performing films included Kalki 2898 AD and Stree 2, which joined Pushpa 2 in crossing the Rs 500 crore mark.
o Films like Devara – Part 1, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, and The Greatest Of All Time grossed above Rs 300 crore.
Footfalls & Ticket Pricing:
o Total footfalls stood at 88.3 crore (883 million), reflecting a six per cent decline from 2023 and remaining below pre-pandemic levels.
o The Average Ticket Price (ATP) grew marginally by three per cent, from Rs 130 in 2023 to Rs 134 in 2024, marking stability after two years of double-digit growth.
Industry Insights:
The Obor highlights a shifting landscape in Indian cinema, with regional industries like Malayalam and Gujarati gaining prominence and south Indian films, particularly Pushpa 2, dominating national and Hindi markets. At the same time, challenges such as declining footfalls and a drop in Hollywood collections signal areas for growth.
Ormax Media, recognized as a credible source for domestic box office analytics, continues to shed light on these evolving trends. For more detailed insights, the full Ormax Box Office Report: 2024 is available for download.
Hindi
Remembering Gyan Sahay, the lens behind film, television and advertising
From a puppet rabbit selling poppadums to Hindi cinema, he framed it all.
MUMBAI: There are careers, and then there are canvases. Gyan Sahay, the veteran cinematographer, director, and producer who passed away on 10 March 2026 in Mumbai, had one of the latter. Over several decades in the Indian film and television industry, he turned lenses, lights, and the occasional puppet rabbit into something approaching art.
A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Sahay built his reputation as a director of photography across a career that stretched from the early 1970s all the way to the digital age. He was the kind of craftsman who understood that a well-composed shot is not merely a technical achievement but a quiet act of storytelling.
For most Indians of a certain age, however, Sahay will forever be the man behind the rabbit. His direction of the iconic long-running television commercial for Lijjat Papad, featuring its now-legendary puppet bunny, gave the country one of its most cheerfully persistent advertising images. It was the sort of work that sneaks into the national subconscious and takes up permanent residence.
His big-screen credits as cinematographer include Anokhi Pehchan (1972), Pagli (1974), Pas de Deux (1981), and Hum Farishte Nahin (1988). In 1999, he stepped behind a different kind of camera altogether, making his directorial debut with Sar Ankhon Par, a drama that featured Vikas Bhalla and Shruti Ulfat, with a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan for good measure.
On television, Sahay was particularly prized for his command of multi-camera production setups, a skill that made him a go-to technician for large-scale shows and reality programmes. In an industry that has never been especially patient with complexity, he was the calm hand on the rig.
In later life, Sahay turned teacher. He participated regularly in masterclasses and Digi-Talks, often hosted by organisations such as Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna, sharing hard-won wisdom on cinematography, the comedy of timing in a shot, and the sweeping changes brought by the shift from celluloid to digital. He was also said to have been involved in a project concerning a biographical film on Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Tributes from the film industry poured in following the news of his passing, with colleagues remembering him as a senior cameraman who served as a rare bridge between two entirely different eras of Indian cinema. That is, perhaps, the finest thing one can say of any craftsman: he kept up, and he brought others along with him.
