September looks set to be an exciting month for the theatre business in India – no wait, let’s correct that to Hollywood’s business in India.
For those of you living under a rock, here’s news – a host of high profile Hollywood films are set to premiere in Indian theatres in the month of September. Marvel’s outlier film “Shang-Chi” has already released in India to impressive country-wide box office collections. So has “F9/Fast And Furious 9”, which is doing average business too. Coming up soon, all in September, are Free Guy, Jungle Cruise, The Croods: A New Age, Don’t Breathe 2, Malignant, and finally the biggest of them all, the 25th film in the James Bond franchise, No Time To Die.
Hollywood has geared up to release its prime properties in India, and at a time when cinemas in most Indian states have opened up. Akshay Kumar’s Bell Bottom, which released on 19th August, didn’t enjoy that privilege. The film still did decent business in the rest of the country, proving that watching a film in cinema theatres is a human need, how much ever OTT pervades our lives.
However, Bell Bottom was but a flash in the pan. September is set to be Bollywood, Tollywood and Kollywood’s loss, and solely Hollywood’s gain. Shang-Chi is going great guns, and subsequent Hollywood releases are sure to do even better as more markets open up, most significantly, Maharashtra. But even as Hollywood is set to make good gains in India, Indian films themselves are fighting to make good.
“Thalaivii” is locked in a battle with multiplex chains who are not ready to screen its Hindi version due to a short theatrical window of two weeks. Its Tamil and Telugu versions are better off, as they might get screened at the big multiplex chains. Much-awaited Telugu film “Tuck Jagadish“, a Nani starrer, has abandoned theatrical release plans completely and will release directly on digital, on Amazon Prime Video on 10th September. Same with buzzy Tamil film, Vijay Sethupathi’s Tughlaq Durbar.
But the biggest blow to all three major Indian film industries is that the biggies have failed to keep their release dates. Hotly anticipated pan-India films, the Kannada KGF Chapter 2 and Telugu RRR have postponed their release dates straight to the summer of 2022. Buzzy Tamil films Valimai and Doctor are yet to announce their release dates, but it is unlikely to be in the near future. No big Bollywood film is releasing any time soon – out of Sooryavanshi, ’83, Prithviraj, Shamshera, and others, none has announced a release date yet.
The biggest Indian release is straight in November, as a Diwali release, in the form of Rajinikanth’s Annaatthe. There’s no big Indian film releasing before that – only small, relatively inconsequential ones.
It’s thus a clear field for the aforementioned Hollywood films to make merry in the Indian cinemas landscape. In fact, several are coming on the strength of strong word of mouth and proven box office performance in foreign markets—Free Guy and Jungle Cruise, for instance.
September is certain to prove to be Bollywood, Kollywood and Tollywood‘s loss, and Hollywood’s gain. The Indian film industry desperately needs a saviour. And the faster that film makes its appearance, the better.
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
