Bollywood Exported: The Brain Drain
Hindi cinema, aka, Bollywood has been the torchbearer for Indian cinema for decades. It has been the major source of entertainment for people across India since time immemorial. Be it he famous dialogues from Sholay or the evergreen DDLJ, there’s something about Bollywood which has kept people glued to the cinema halls. If we rewind a decade ago, all of us used to eagerly wait for a Khan (Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, and Salman Khan) movie to release. Each of their movies would go on to break records and entertaining the audience. Though all movies did not always have a good storyline, but they were good enough to keep people hooked to the cinema.
The 3 Khans are considered superstars not only in India, but also outside India as well with a huge fan following. However, it is expected that their movies will fare extremely well in India while giving a decent business overseas. This was the case until an inflection point came around 5–6 years ago when people started valuing films of other actors more and started looking out for different content. It could have been thought of as a global phenomenon to be more interested in high quality content-based movies, but that was not the case. The movies of these superstars continued their momentum overseas and as of today, their movies end up earning more in a lifetime overseas than in India. Recently Aamir Khan starrer Laal Singh Chaddha released among hue and cry of boycotting. Though movie may have been good content wise ( I am yet to watch it), it could garner only INR 57.5 crores till now. Overseas numbers, however, told a completely different story with the movie having collected INR 115 crore till now with the movie getting great reviews. This story has been continuing since 2017 for all Aamir Khan releases and Shahrukh Khan released. Is this a case of brain drain happening for overseas audience toward the export of Bollywood?
There could be multiple angles that can explain this anomaly, but there is a deeper thread that is running across the people’s psychology that is influencing such differences.
1. Evolution of Indian Audience: Over the years, the Indian audience has become more engrossed to content-based films without major superstars. They are more interested in storyline than fandom of their superstars. This has been owing to the influence of OT platforms which is causing Indian audience to look at entertainment in the form of unconventional movies. On the other hand, the superstars try to make movies that could connect with masses, but the evolution has not happened from their side.
2. New content for overseas audience: While people overseas are spoilt for choices in their offerings of series and movies, but the genre of mass entertainment is often covered up by movies by the superstars of Bollywood. This results in people heading over to the theatres to watch their films as it gives them a change from the usual thriller, comedy, or medieval times.
3. Emotional touch is still missing in overseas movies: While the movies overseas do have an emotional touch, most of them have hard storylines revolving around thrillers or dreamy romances. The movies by the Bollywood superstars captures the pulse of the audience through emotions and not the brain. This exposure to the emotional angle in entertainment makes people outside India value the Bollywood movies even more and make them flock to the theatre.
4. Superstardom is perennial overseas: While the concept of superstardom may be dying down in India owing to different content of movies, the people outside India still believe heavily in the concept of superstars. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are still considered as heartthrobs and people still run to watch movies like Top Gun Maverick. Similarly, they are in awe of Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan and will always love to catch a glimpse of the Indian superstars.
All being said, the brain drain has taken a reversal role with it happening to people outside India and keeping the longevity of the Bollywood superstars. There is no guarantee that they will continue to have the same following. However, the continued success of their movies indicate that India is just adapting late to content based movies, but superstardom is permanent and will always remain across the world. The brain drain is real, and it is heartening to see Bollywood getting exported instead of importing Hollywood.
