India Box Office 2024: Why Are Hindi Films Struggling While Telugu Triumphs?

Looking in general at the film industries that have recovered at the box office since the pandemic, and those that are still struggling, it does seem that the more established production hubs of Hollywood, Bollywood and South Korea (I have an aversion to the term Hallyuwood) are having a tough time, whereas some industries that were less well known previously have come to the fore.

Hindi-language cinema, popularly known as Bollywood, may still be the biggest category at the Indian box office, but hasn’t returned to its former glory, and last year saw receipts decline by 13% to $543.9M (Rs46.8BN), according to a report from Mumbai-based analytics firm Ormax Media.

Two Telugu-language titles, Pushpa 2: The Rule and Kalki 2898 AD, topped India’s 2024 box office with $162m and $90m, respectively (see Top 15 chart below). The Hindi dubbed version of Pushpa 2: The Rule took $103m alone, out-grossing the biggest Hindi film of the year, horror comedy Stree 2, which took $80m.

Indeed, if the Hind…