Malayalam Cinema Shines as Bollywood Recalibrates in 2024, Says Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur in Indian Industry Analysis (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran As the Indian film industry reaches the midpoint of 2024, Malayalam-language cinema from the southern state of Kerala has emerged as the breakout success story, while traditional powerhouse Bollywood recalibrates after an uneven start to the year. “This year has been the year of Malayalam cinema,” says former Disney India head and veteran producer Siddharth Roy Kapur in his half-yearly analysis of the Indian entertainment business for Variety. “With four films crossing INR100 crore [$12 million] each at the box office, it has really come into its own commercially.” The four films Roy Kapur is referring to are “Manjummel Boys” ($29 million), “The Goat Life” ($19 million), “Aavesham” ($18.6 million) and “Premalu” ($16 million) that occupy positions three, six, eight and nine respectively on the 2024 Indian box office chart.

While Malayalam films have long been critically acclaimed for rich storytelling and filmmaking quality, 2024 has seen them achieve unprecedented commercial success on a national scale.

As they are made on relatively lower budgets, the return on investment is greater compared to their Hindi-language Bollywood counterparts.

This breakthrough represents a continuation of the pan-Indian cinema trend that has seen South Indian language films finding wider audiences across the country in recent years.