Production houses in the mainstream Indian film market have traditionally invested their resources in making Hindi movies, or what we colloquially refer to as ‘Bollywood’ films. Over the years they have reaped monetary rewards and viewers accepted this form of Hindi films over regional ones. Sure, there are content-driven films, too, but the focus until recently remained on traditional Hindi movies. Lately there has been a shift towards the viewers shifting their attention to cinema from other languages as well, and these movies are doing exceedingly well. Here’s examining this gradual yet very real change that we are witnessing in the audience's tastes and why it makes good business for producers to invest in regional cinema.

OTT expanding horizons

It was in 2016 when India witnessed the launch of two of the biggest OTT platforms, Netflix and Prime Video. The two rivals initially started with mostly English content. Later, Indian originals were introduced which was soon followed by regional content in other Indian languages including Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, and more recently even Assamese, among others. Over time, these OTT channels along with several others drew viewers and expanded their libraries. Viewers got a chance to witness content from around the world and then, in 2020, we witnessed a tectonic shift with the advent of the pandemic-induced lockdown which has worked brilliantly for regional cinema.

Lockdown being the game-changer

With people being unable to step out of their homes, and no new content being made as movie production came to a screeching halt, the thirst for content became even more intense. This is when viewers turned to existing libraries of movies from regional languages. With availability of subtitles and dubbed versions of cinema, Hindi movie watchers suddenly found themselves experiencing cinema from across India, with personal stories that exposed viewers to cultures across the world and widened their movie horizons. Their tastes evolved and stories from around the world, on the strength of their content, found an entire new audience.

Post-pandemic

As theatres opened up, we witnessed that Hindi movies were now not such a huge draw anymore. On the other hand, crowds lapped up regional cinema with Telugu and Tamil films. With this shift in audience tastes, it is prudent that Indian production houses venture into creating regional cinema. Today it is important for production houses, big or small, to have a varied slate of movies across languages and genres. Take for example our production house, Golden Ratio Films. While we do produce movies in Hindi, a large portion of our slate of films varies from Marathi, Tamil and Telugu to even Hollywood films. This gives us an edge and helps us offer unique cinematic experiences to our viewers.

The business case for production houses

When it comes to making regional films, mainstream production houses have realized that the budgets are far less when compared to mainstream Hindi cinema. Given that the marketing and promotions are far more in Hindi cinema, the case for making regional cinema is even stronger. Apart from OTT platforms, which are always looking for good quality regional content, the market for regional cinema is also growing with each passing year. Not only in the state where the language is spoken where that film finds a market, but there is also the regional diaspora abroad who look forward to these films. To add to that, technically, regional cinema has technicians that are quite talented, and their work speaks for themselves through their films. Take the case of Bahubaali. Its breathtaking visuals and spectacular technical effects took the nation by storm. Even while the movie was made on a huge budget, it opened doors for other regional films like Puli Murugan (Malayalam), Chal Jeevi Laye (Gujarati), Amazon Abhigyon (Bengali) or even the 2022 film Kantara (Kannada).

With such glaring examples of cinema successes achieved on a budget that is safe and too small to affect a production house even in case of a flop, one can say without fail that small, mid-sized or large production houses in the Hindi mainstream will be increasing regional Hindi films on their slate. This, more than else, will just benefit and enrich the landscape of Indian cinema.

The author of this article is Golden Ratio Films president Ashwini Chaudhary.