With Varisu, Thunivu, Waltair Veerayya, Veera Simha Reddy, south shows Bollywood how festive releases are done right

Festive weekends are a bonus for any film industry. For years, Hindi cinema has banked on Diwali and Eid weekends to infuse new life into their box office collections. Down south, for the Tamil and Telugu film industries, the biggest weekend of the year in terms of release is Pongal/Sankranthi. The festival, which falls in the second week of January each year, is a week-long affair that sees mega releases. This year, for the first time in years, both industries had two big releases each on the mega weekend. And to everyone’s surprise, all four films were successful at the box office.

In contrast, the Diwali weekend has been barren for Bollywood since the pandemic. Even Salman Khan has not kept his date with Eid for some time now. As the Hindi film industry looks to change things in 2023, they can take note of how the south recaptured the Pongal weekend post-pandemic and learn from it.

The two Tamil films that were released on January 11 are Thalapathy Vijay’s Varisu and Ajith Kumar’s Thunivu. These are two big films starring two of the biggest names from Kollywood. As of Wednesday night, the two films combined had earned Rs 373 crore worldwide, including an astonishing Rs 180 crore nett in Tamil Nadu alone. Days later, they were joined by two Telugu titles – Chiranjeevi-starrer Waltair Veerayya and Nandamuri Balakrishna’s Veera Simha Reddy. Just like their Tamil counterparts, these two films have a combined gross of Rs 265 crore worldwide with nett collections of Rs 206 crore in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

So, how did they achieve this mammoth success? Trade experts believe it is a combination of right release strategy and content. Film trade analyst Ramesh Bala says, “Both Thunivu and Varisu released on Wednesday. So, the die-hard fans of the actors watched the films in the first three days. Then, by the weekend, the family audiences came and the films continued to do good business.” But in order to sustain that momentum, the films needed the content to work, argues Bala. “The content is everything. Both these films got above average reviews. That is not exceptional but for festive releases, that is good enough to stay afloat.”

Each day from January 11-15 saw a combined domestic nett of at least Rs 50 crore from these four films. In comparison, on Diwali 2022, the two big Hindi releases – Ram Setu and Thank God – had a combined opening day haul of Rs 23 crore. The combined first week worldwide gross of the two films was just Rs 90 crore as opposed to the Rs 638 crore amassed by the four south films on Pongal 2023.

Trade experts say that Bollywood is going wrong in its content selection. Trade analyst Atul Mohan explains, “We are moving away from what our core strengths have been for festivals. In trying to reach to the multiplex crowd and niche audiences, we are not creating the content that has always worked on festivals – family entertainment that has something for everyone. Then, we have also divided many weekends now. Earlier, Diwali was the big day. Now, we have Independence Day releases, Raksha Bandhan releases, and so on. But not all of these festivals are meant for family movie viewing is something the makers are not getting.” Ramesh Bala echoes this sentiment and adds that Bollywood is not selecting massy content for festivals. “People want to see song and dance, action, and wholesome entertainment on festivals. Niche films don’t work on Diwali or Pongal,” he argues.

But there is a lesson in all of this for the Hindi film industry, say industry insiders. Having seen how the Tamil and Telugu industries are reclaiming the festive weekend, Bollywood can follow that template. “It’s actually Bollywood’s own template that the south is following now. We used to have these family entertainers on festivals,” argues Atul Mohan, adding, “We just need to go back to that.”

There is some basis to this argument. From the mid-90s, there is a progression of family entertainers that released on Diwali and went on to be blockbusters, right from Dilwale Dulhanie Le Jayenge and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai to Veer Zaara and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. So far, this year, the one big release slated around Diwali is Salman Khan’s Tiger 3. Can that revive Bollywood’s Diwali festivities? Only time will tell.