The last few weeks have witnessed changing trends and patterns in the film industry…

Bollywood films have dominated Indian cinema and theaters all these years, but Hollywood films have now started to compete in our market. Yes, films like The Jungle Book, Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse and The Angry Birds Movie have outdone films like Fan, Airlift, Sarbjit and a few others by a considerable margin (Eg: The Jungle Book earned Rs 183.94 crore till now, while Fan collected Rs 84.10 crore). With so many big star films not being able to compete against such Hollywood films, should Bollywood be apprehensive of English film releases? Here’s what our trade experts had to say:

Exhibitor and distributor Akshaye Rathi revealed to us EXCLUSIVELY that we have a huge advantage and we just have to concentrate on quality. As he mentioned, “I don’t think it is time for Bollywood film-makers to be scared of Hollywood films, but in fact it is time for them to pull up their socks and raise their game to be able to take on Hollywood. Ultimately, the audience they cater to is our audience. The audience on the streets speak Hindi, so the people are more comfortable with a certain culture that only Hindi films show on screen. So while the Hollywood films have really upped their game in terms of the scale of release and promotions, the advantage will always be with Bollywood films. The story in Hindi films are based on the culture of people that we see around and not of people in foreign countries, which we see in Hollywood films. So we have this advantage and the other advantage is that Hollywood films only release in theaters having 2K enabled projectors, which are a limited bunch in India, about 1500 screens compared to over 5000 screens where Hindi films can play. All the film-makers need to do now is that they need to improve the quality of story telling and the way a film is made. If you make a Baahubali, a Bajrangi Bhaijaan, an Airlift or a P.K., then numbers come and no Hollywood film will ever come close to that. But if you really make a bad film, irrespective of whether there is a Hollywood release alongside it or not, it won’t do well.”

Trade analyst and Editor of Super Cinema, Amul Mohan also mentioned to us EXCLUSIVELY, “I think they (Hollywood) were always taken as a serious contender. India is a very vast market and the Hollywood studios are up and running in India as they have been producing films like Disney, Fox and Viacom. They are all big production houses/corporate companies and they see a huge market in India to adapt for their overseas films and I guess we didn’t pay them so much importance coz earlier their movies used to release a couple of weeks later than the US release. It was not a prominent market for Hollywood films earlier, but now that trend has changed and we can see so much of importance given to the Indian market. Like The Jungle Book now released a week prior to its US release and it made a huge impact. We had seen something like that while growing up, so it had a nostalgic angle and it worked in their benefit. Captain America is a huge brand and the Indian audience has an idea of the Avengers and its franchise, so it helps the film.”

So what should Bollywood do now that Hollywood has started performing so well? Akshaye Rathi adds, “Content and story telling is the primary reason that Hollywood films are performing better. With due respect, I believe whether it is the production scale or the way of storytelling, Hollywood has always been advanced and they have upped their game always, but unfortunately we (Bollywood) haven’t been able to do so. For us the biggest film is still the film of the biggest star and as long as that happens and we don’t start spending on the film and its production value, rather than on the star, nothing will change. Your star can’t be your biggest expenditure. If you see film like Baahubali, rather than spending more on the star, they spent big on the production and only when you have a spectacle like that, people will feel their time and money is worth the film.”

Even Amul Mohan thinks that there is no point in being scared, in fact we should start concentrating more on quality, as he reveals, “I think Bollywood should not be scared of Hollywood’s films but in fact, they should concentrate on the content they are putting out there. When there is good content, the film will work. If it is not up to the mark, then there will always be a problem of co-existing and surviving with a Hollywood film.”

Also check out the story about how X-Men: Apocalypse beat Sarbjit at the box office in the video right here: