If you haven’t heard already, The Immortals of Meluha novel series, which is one of the best selling Indian fictional/mythological series released in the past few years, is being adapted for television. This Shekhar Kapoor directed mythological TV series has started pre-production and will now join a long list of other Indian mythological content that is going to be released around the globe soon. With Indian cinema expected to release five mythological films in the next two years – these movies just might be the answer for Hollywood’s international box office dominance.
Hollywood has been ruling the international box office for decades now. Sure, once in a while, an odd unconventional non-Hollywood film excites the global audiences for a few weeks before another major Hollywood film drops and the American film industry starts to dominate theatres again. But in the past few years, the domination has skyrocketed especially in India. MCU films, Christopher Nolan movies, animated movies, even brilliant TV series and much more releases by Hollywood has been attracting Indians to theatres (or the small screen) than Indian content themselves.
The coronavirus pandemic has been an especially tough time for Indian film producers with big-budget Hollywood films like TENET, No Time To Die and Spider-Man: No Way Home attracting people out of their homes during Covid, instead of Indian films themselves. Multiple Indian film stars and producers have urged their countrymen to go watch their films in theatres but many Indians feel that those movies don’t provide the same entertainment value as the Hollywood ones.
So, it makes sense that Indian filmmakers have turned to Indian mythology to take on Hollywood in their “home turf” as well as try to get the attention of the international audience. Hollywood has proven that the film lovers will watch fantastical films if done right and with Indian mythology being more extensive than Marvel or DC comics – Indian artists may have just found their answer.