This year, the Hindi film industry has seen more shockers than surprises. Some highly anticipated – even heavily promoted – films saw a tepid response at the box office. On the other hand, south films like Vikram and Ponniyin Selvan - Part 1 are sending cash registers ringing across India, while RRR is making waves globally. It’s also been an especially good year for the Kannada film industry, that gave hits like KGF - Chapter 2 and Kantara.

In Hindi film industry, while Gangubai Kathiawadi, The Kashmir Files, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Brahmastra and Drishyam 2 struck gold, there were also many disappointments.

Still, the industry insiders says that it has been a year of immense learning, and one that is winding up with a lot of hope and promise. In a panel discussion, filmmakers, exhibitors and trade experts discuss the ups and downs of 2022, the myths that need to be busted and how the chaos has given them clarity for the way ahead. Excerpts:

Kamal Gianchandani, CEO, PVR Pictures, agrees that the exhibition industry has been slow to recover since the pandemic. However, he adds, “I think, for the lack of a better word, there has been a lot of negativity in the media about people not going to the theatres in big numbers. It is maybe partly correct for some languages, but for the whole cinema exhibition business, when you compare 2022 with 2019 (pre-COVID times), the admissions are down only by 10-15%.”

Having said that, he says that the box office collections are where they were in 2019, since ticket prices have gone up by 14-15% or more. “One could argue that we have lost out on business from 2020 to 2022, therefore, the collections now should have been 10-15% more, but we, as exhibitors, are taking solace in the fact that people have gone back to the theaters in such large numbers despite the two year-break. It’s true that a good number of films in several languages – Hindi films most notably – have underperformed. But it’s also true that our business is of peaks and valleys and we have had similar phases in the past. We are drawing a lot of confidence and inspiration from the learnings of 2022, and I think 2023 will hopefully correct some of the anomalies that we have seen in Hindi cinema and some other languages,” says Kamal.

Director Abhishek Pathak, who delivered one of the biggest Bollywood hits of the year with Drishyam 2, which he also produced, excitedly adds, “I think Drishyam 2 broke the myth that only spectacle films are bringing back the audience. We didn’t rely on songs or heavy promotions. It is pure content that drove the audience to watch the film. The franchise also has a fan following that helped the film. Today, the audience knows what they want to watch. The myth that people won’t come to the theatres has been broken. People don’t want to sit at home and watch movies on OTT all day, they want to go out and watch films on the big screen.”

Director and producer Nikkhil Advani whose Emmay Entertainment and Motion Pictures has backed films like Batla House, Marjaavaan, Indoo Ki Jawani and the web series like Unpaused, is convinced that a certain section of people can’t control the narrative anymore,

“The big learning this year has been that the spin doctors have to pack up their business. They can’t spin anything. Pre-pandemic there was the notion that they could control the narrative by putting out reviews, ratings and influencers to talk about the film. You can’t rely on that anymore. The guy who has paid for the ticket is on a chat group where he will send a message to 300 other people and by evening, the word will be out. Why did people go to watch KGF 2, RRR, Kantara? It is because they felt they would get value for their money. The narrative has now become universal. I think 2023 is going to be a big year.”

Vikram Malhotra, CEO and founder, Abundantia Entertainment, who has backed films Ram Setu, Jalsa and Shakuntala Devi, is all charged up about the slate of films in the coming year and believes that the recent learnings have given him a lot of clarity for the way ahead. He says, “I am walking into 2023 with some mixed feelings, but a whole lot of clarity. Mixed feelings because we are coming out of a challenging year, especially for the Hindi film industry, but what we are positively happy about is that there’s an absolute demand and people are willing to come to the theatres in big numbers. An industry goes into a challenging situation and existential crisis when the demand dries up. What we are seeing with films like Drishyam 2 is that people are willing to come in and spend their time and money, provided they see value in it. The reason I am saying we have some clarity is because we know content is what is pulling people back to the theaters. We even know that the conventional markers of what would draw people to the theatres and result in success – whether it was star appeal, budgets, or genres – we have to throw all of that out of the window. For the last decade or so we have been dealing with truckloads of myths. Self-created myths and markers – like ‘this hero will work or won’t deliver’, ‘this genre will work’, et al. What we now know is that we cannot go back to the audience with sub-standard content or take them for granted.

Stressing how the second half of 2022 brought a lot more stability with it, Akshaye Rathi, Director, Saroj Screens, explains, “The first half of 2022 was shaky, but in the second half, we started seeing a degree of stabilization and consistency, in terms of footfalls. Earlier this year, we were seeing a lot of mid-segment films not making any impact at all. But films like Bhediya, which is still running, brought back the audience for the non-tent-pole films. There was a notion that only films like KGF - Chapter 2 and Brahmastra would work, so it was good to see Bhediya do well, and Drishyam 2 perform exceedingly well. Let’s face the fact that the two years of sitting at home and consuming online content changed the audience’s palate. Unfortunately, a lot of movies that were made before the pandemic had to bear the brunt of rejection from the audience. The failures and successes of all these films will make our industry and our entire value chain wiser. We are now moving towards consistency and we will end the year with a bang.”

Excited about the bouquet of films awaiting us on the other side of 2022, trade analyst Girish Johar says, “I am bullish about 2023. We have big titles coming our way, also from the Hindi film industry (which has taken a beating this year). The other languages have come up in a big way too. Today, the screen no longer matters, it’s the content that is the key here. Earlier we would say that the audience can see the trailer and decide, now we say that they can smell the product. One thing I see increasingly diminishing is the language barrier. Earlier, the audience who consumed Hindi movies knew of Rajinikanth, Mohanlal sir and a few big south stars. Today, so many of them are household names. It is a positive sign.”