The failure of 83 and the success of Spiderman - No Way Home and also Pushpa in certain regions of the Hindi market has led to talk of how Hollywood and South can dominate over Hindi films when nothing can be further from the truth as its all film dependent. Also the Hindi film industry is the biggest film industry in the country and has the biggest stars so negativity towards it gets more traction in the media which will not happen with other industries and stars outside Hindi cinema.

On another Christmas week it could have been a clash of films like Sooryavanshi, Eternals and Master (Hindi) and Sooryavanshi would have left the other films dead on arrival but then no one will ever say how Hindi cinema killed Hollywood and South as that narrative does not seem to go down well in the media.

No doubt Hindi cinema has a content issue but for the India market that is a case for Hollywood and South also as very few Hollywood films (its another matter that they hardly care for India) actually work in India and its ditto for South as most of their bigger films dont hit their expectations in their own markets and the examples are their three biggest films this year, Pushpa, Vakeel Saab and Master. A Pushpa has succeeded due to business outside Andhra and for Master it was due to business in South outside Tamil Nadu as that home state was just about coverage. Vakeel Saab could not do well in the final count. The difference is they are making cinema and if they fail its due to the film going wrong a bit, we are not even making cinema so are a step behind already.

There is no issue of the audience supporting Hollywood or South over Hindi cinema as its all about the film. Spiderman - No Way Home and Sooryavanshi are good films so they have done well. Pushpa (Hindi) has done well because a certain area is starved of this sort of big cinema and this area is even prepared to accept it when it has a South flavour if it entertains. The failure of 83, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, Eternals and The Matrix Resurrections is because they are bad films for the audience in India, it makes no difference they are from Hindi cinema or Hollywood. 

The only threat to Hindi cinema is the THINKING of the industry which leads to failures. Today 90-95% of the industry thinks 83 is a better film than Sooryavanshi. In 2019 a similar 80-85% thought Gully Boy was a better film than Kabir Singh. If we go back to 2001 and however insane it maybe but 60-65% of the film industry thought Dil Chahta Hai was a better film than Gadar and since then the ratio thinking bad films are good has only gone higher. Simply put this thinking is going to lead to more and more failures especially as the budgets rise.

If we go back to 1975 then there will be 2-3% of the film industry that will think Nishant is a better than a Pratiggya or Sanyasi (we wont even put Sholay into this equation). Then further down the line in 1983 when Coolie, Hero and Ardh Satya released at the same time there will be 5% of the industry thinking Ardh Satya is better than the two blockbuster films. In these times no matter what the press said the big filmmakers of Hindi cinema used to look down at the so called Churchgate to Juhu cinema and rightly so as no one used to watch it.

These voices then get slightly more louder in say 89 when maybe 10% of the film industry thought that Parinda is better than a Tridev or a Ram Lakhan. Parinda was probably the first big Churchgate to Juhu film with big stars and the audience outside gave it the kick in the face it deserved. Then in 1992 it is even more when Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander is thought to be better than a Shola Aur Shabnam or Bol Radha Bol by maybe 20-25%.

Still till this time its a very minorty thinking this so we are getting less of the Parinda and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander sort of Churchgate to Juhu cinema and more of the better all India cinema so therefore more HIT films. In those days it was called to Chuchgate to Juhu cinema (others put in different areas of Mumbai but basically it was a way of saying that the problems started as you started to go North of Juhu). Also now there is support from other pockets outside Mumbai due to plexes but its little pockets and they cant drive a big film.

Now coming back to 2021 we have a huge chunk of the industry thinking that cinema like 83 is the way forward. Now we can laugh and joke about this lot and how idiotic they are but the fact is that THINKING is there and that is the scary part. If this THINKING remains then it is not about Hollywood or South beating Hindi cinema but Hindi cinema killing itself.

Its fine making these type of films like 83 but they should not be our bigger films which carry the expectations of an industry. Certain films may go wrong but if they were to work then they have a chance of getting huge footfalls. Here if an 83 goes RIGHT you know its not going to get much more than 1 crore footfalls. In 2019 when a Dabangg 3 goes horribly WRONG it tops 1 crore footfalls and Dabangg 3 does not have a production budget anywhere close to 83.

All it is about is meeting the demands of the audience and there they will always give Hindi films preference in general terms. They are maybe an Endgame, Bahubali 2 or Spiderman here and there but generally Hindi films is the preference in Hindi circuits. There are older stars ruling the roost but a big reason for this is also that the younger stars do far more of this 83 type of cinema but this can also easily change with the right films and it will have to change if Hindi cinema is to continue to make big films for theatrical exhibition. Of course all this stuff can be repetitive as we have been saying the same thing for years but just maybe post 83 it might just be registering more especially with the younger stars as they are the future and hopefully there are better times ahead.