While Hollywood spent the first half of the summer fretting over its soft box office, the Tollywood-made blockbuster Kalki 2898 AD quietly entered the fray, earning a surprisingly healthy $5.4 million in its late June debut in North American. While in the grand scheme of things that’s a modest number compared to Hollywood blockbusters, it was a win for Indian cinema, and signals that the Bollywood of India‘s South is expanding on the potential reach for the country’s cinema.
India’s massive and expanding population — with 1.4 billion people spread out over 28 states and eight union territories and over 200 languages spoken — combined with moviegoers’ devotion to local movie stars and films are just a few factors driving growth in a film industry that has three key regional hubs: the well-recognized Hindi industry of Bollywood in Mumbai; Telugu cinema, which is primarily concentrated in Hyderabad and is referred to as Tollywood, and the Tamil film industry, i.e. Kollywood, in Chennai.
Kalki 2898 AD is a mega-budget production (for India, that is, at $65 million) and is directed by Tollywood’s most preeminent filmmaker, Nag Ashwin. The film’s debut was the biggest since Oscar winner RRR bowed to $9.5 million in March 2022 It has taken in around $100 million at global box office and $7.3 million in the U.S so far, and stands as the highest grossing Hindi film of the year.
For those who didn’t head to an AMC or local theater to catch Kalki 2898 AD, a brief on what the movie is all about and what it represents is probably required. First, the script is based on Hindu scriptures and its complex plot follows the effort to protect the mother of an unborn reincarnation of Vishnu, who will protect humanity from encroaching evil. Secondly, this is the first film of a planned Kalki Cinematic Universe. Last summer, it became the first Indian film to be given a Hall H panel at the San Diego Comic-Con, which essentially says to film buffs, critics and the press, “This will be a thing, so pay attention.”
Finally, the success of the most expensive film yet out of the region could indicate that the Hollywood model of big-budget, big-swing blockbuster releases out of India’s southern region is here to stay and may give the filmmaking hub a stronger foothold in the global box office. Kalki, along with recent success stories out of Tollywood, represents a major turnaround for the region’s film industry, which 10 years ago was mired in severe turmoil.
In 2013, accumulated losses in Tollywood hit 4 billion rupees, or $64.6 million, according to a New York Times report, with eight out of 10 Tollywood movies flopping both spectacularly and quietly. Still, 135 mostly star-powered, weak-scripted movies were produced each year on average in the first decade or so of this century. Production value, crisp writing and innovative ideas all fell by the wayside to pay for the biggest stars cast in soulless productions the region was spinning out.
But over the past decade, Tollywood has been the center of the Pan-Indian movement toward unity among the country’s different cultural groups and has led to films playing well across India’s 28 states and their many distinct cultures.
Tollywood’s big swings don’t only play well across South Asia’s most populous nation. They permeate global markets as India’s robust diaspora remains deeply engaged in the country’s film culture. In 2017, Baahubali 2 The Conclusion — India’s all-time highest-grosser ($254.1 million globally), for now — was universally praised for the story’s themes and its visual effects, action sequences, and the fine performances from its stars. Five years later, the musical RRR became an international sensation after a wise decision was made to re-release it, propelling the song “Nattu Nattu” to go viral and win the Academy Award for Best Song.
Ormax Media is India’s first specialized analyst for films, television, and over-the-top home entertainment insights consulting firm. Its head of business development, theatrical, Sanket Kulkarni, tells The Hollywood Reporter that four factors brought about Tollywood cinema’s surge ahead of Bollywood in 2021 to become the king of Indian markets’ box office grosses: The region’s considerable diaspora; the highly engaged audiences of the region’s films; star power and the mass appeal of the region’s storytelling.
The Indian diaspora is the tenth largest in the United States at 4.9 million strong, U.S. census data indicates, and of this, the 320,000 Telugu speakers here in 2016 has exploded, quadrupling in size to around 1.2 million in 2024. The population ranges from fourth-generation immigrants to recently-arrived students, but nearly all of them bring the die-hard love of movies unique to the region when they move abroad, according to Kulkarni.
And this is an audience engaged with its film culture at a level unseen in the U.S. Allegiances to stars are akin to our political affiliations and can be taken to the extreme. Screenings have been stopped when rowdy fans grow too unwieldy. Police in the eastern India city of Chennai reportedly said a 19-year-old named Bharath Kumar’s died when he was dancing on a truck and fell while celebrating star Ajith Kumar’s latest release ; fans of one actor damaged nearly 200 seats at a cinema in Chennai and fans created a stampede in Salem during a screening earlier this year.
Of course, fandom doesn’t always turn violent or tragic. Mostly, it’s a healthy outlet that speaks to the massive appeal Tollywood stars have enjoyed. The top stars have their own monikers, which highlight their popularity or achievements: Superstar Mahesh Babu, Victory Venkatesh, Young Tiger Jr. NTR, and so on. When their signature font with their monikers pop up with their signature music in a film, entire theaters will erupt in joyful applause.
But this star power, which can still guarantee a strong opening, may be waning.
“There have been multiple instances in the last two years when even the best of the actors have opened at a quarter of the potential box office,” Kulkarni said. “That’s because audiences’ tastes have changed.”
Kalki 2898 AD, in many ways, represents this shift away from over-reliance on Tollywood megastars and instead on innovation in storytelling. Sci-fi is not a classic Tollywood genre by any means, and a captivating story that incorporates Hindu scriptures is something audiences haven’t seen. But at the same time, this is not niche in approach — Kalki incorporates mythology and, as Kulkarni puts it, “has a sense of urgency” that’s fresh for its audience. Tollywood is certainly pulling ahead of Bollywood in this respect. Innovative storytelling — also a reason for RRR’s huge success last year — is a part of a shift seen in what audiences want to watch in theaters.
While other trends of how cinema is consumed in India are familiar — the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered theaters and kept audiences at home and over-the-top media entered the market — as in the U.S., lasting changes in viewership habits mean that audiences have become much more discerning about theatrical worthiness. But Kulkarni remains confident that Tollywood’s surge will continue, with Kalki 2898 AD’s huge success displaying how its film industry incorporates the factors that play to what audiences want, in India and globally.
“They all work towards one big point,” says Kulkarni. “It all makes Tollywood very well aligned as a commercial endeavor.”