Is Hollywood Becoming A Threat To Bollywood With Each Passing Day? Trade Experts Weigh In – Exclusive
We at Zoom asked some of the top trade analysts to weigh in, and their responses offered a mix of caution and optimism.
Hollywood’s rising popularity in India
According to Ramesh Bala, Hollywood’s strength lies in the quality of entertainment it offers. “Hollywood movies cannot match whether it was Mission Impossible or Avengers or Avatar, Fast and Furious, any type of movie — the writing, the making, the stars, everything is bigger than Bollywood. So there will always be an audience for Hollywood movies in India, irrespective of how the Bollywood movies are,” he told Zoom.
He further said that if Bollywood failed to deliver consistent hits, it could be at risk, “See, if Bollywood is not able to give bigger hits, at least it has to give one hit a month of ₹200–300 crores. If not, in the future there is a possibility. I was hoping Bollywood would improve and give a lot of blockbusters. Otherwise, it would be a problem.”
Promotions and recognition
Hollywood films often had massive global campaigns backing their releases, which added to the hype. Girish Johar agreed and told us, “Global promotions did help. When you saw Tom Cruise doing stunts all across and you saw them on social media, and you saw the trailer, you got excited. So definitely they had an edge. They had the mighty marketing push, global rollout across countries for their film release, and fans did get excited for sure.”However, Ramesh Bala pointed out that even without too much promotional effort within India, Hollywood films still performed well. “Global promotion was certainly responsible, but I hadn’t seen too many Hollywood stars coming to India, say compared to going to China or Singapore or Europe. But generally, there was an awareness of Hollywood movies in India and people watched the movies irrespective of promotion,” the trade analyst told Zoom.
Impact of global streaming platforms
One of the major factors influencing Indian audience preferences was the rise of global streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, JioCinema, and others. These platforms brought international cinema to Indian homes, expanding viewers’ tastes and expectations.
Ramesh Bala noted, “Certainly global streaming platforms influenced Indian audiences to prefer Hollywood style. It wasn’t only Hollywood – even nowadays, Indians were open to Korean and other international movies. See, the traditional Bollywood narrative had to improve. Generally, it was going through a lean patch.”
He added, “Post-COVID, 50 per cent revenue was down for Bollywood theatrical releases and certainly Hollywood movies enjoyed a good run because of the franchise value or because they were known very well.”
Is Bollywood really in trouble?
Despite all this, many experts believed Bollywood was still far from being truly threatened.
Komal Nahta firmly said, “There was no chance of Hollywood outperforming Bollywood because our heroes, our heroines, our stories had a different charm altogether. Yes, some Hollywood films did well, but that had been the case for so many years. So it wasn’t as if Hollywood was set to outdo Bollywood.”
Taran Adarsh echoed this sentiment. “I didn’t think Hollywood films were really outperforming. There were a few franchises like F1, Mission Impossible, Top Gun. Fans were always there in India. So these films, when they came, did well, but not all the films. So they couldn’t be a threat to Bollywood. It had always been there.”
However, both agreed that Bollywood needed to step up its game. Komal Nahta added, “Yes, definitely global streaming platforms influenced Indian audiences to prefer Hollywood-style storytelling. The bar was raised. Every Bollywood film was compared with Hollywood or Korean or whatever cinema. And therefore, Indian filmmakers had to pull up their socks.”
Taran Adarsh pointed out, “The South was doing pure masala films and we were kind of drifting away from that. And that was the reason we were not performing well. They particularly focused on it and worked on it. That’s why they were working.”
Final thoughts
While Hollywood movies continued to grow in popularity and set new benchmarks in production and storytelling, Bollywood still held a special place in Indian hearts. The cultural connection, emotional narratives, music, and iconic stars ensured that Bollywood wasn’t going anywhere — but it did need to evolve.
As Taran Adarsh summed it up well, “Good content always worked and will work…good films know no barrier.”
Whether in English, Hindi, or any language, the film that told the best story won the audience. That was the real challenge – and opportunity – for Bollywood today.
