Don’t think Bollywood needs to reinvent itself: T-Series’ Bhushan Kumar

At a time when big-banner films like Samrat Prithviraj, Jugjugg Jeeyo and Shamshera are tanking at the Box Office, India’s top film producer Bhushan Kumar told Business Today that Bollywood, in fact, is on a growth curve. 

“I don’t think that Bollywood needs to reinvent itself. It is one of the greatest entertainment industries worldwide and it is only expanding. Today you see the most talented and famous directors and producers making blockbuster hits for theatres, OTT platforms, the music industry and more. The industry is also collaborating with others from India itself as well as abroad, and it doesn’t get bigger than that,” said Bhushan Kumar, chairman and managing director, T-Series.

T-Series-backed Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 managed to earn Rs 184.32 crore (India net collections) and has become one of the biggest hits of 2022 so far. However, other co-productions like Jhund, Radhe Shyam, Anek didn’t even manage to cross that mark when combined together. 

Kumar said that cinema is a constantly evolving process and the Bollywood industry is always progressing along with the changing times. “Reinvention comes inherently to us. The genre of films and topics that are selected are catering to the audiences’ ever-changing preference and I think the industry has hit the nail on the head with that one,” he adds.
 
The production house is banking on its upcoming bilingual magnum opus Adipurush which will be headlined by Prabhas and Saif Ali Khan, and expected to hit the big screens in January 2023. 

“Bollywood has always been a part of big budget films. We have had many films in the past that have been made on such a grand scale and our film, Adipurush too, will be a magnum opus like never seen before. The audience is now accepting regional language films and hence we are also collaborating with several teams from the South industry to cater to the audience because at the end of the day, it’s all about the audience. They make or break one,” he said.

He said that going forward, scale is what everyone is eyeing with mass entertainer films like Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Pushpa and RRR. 

“They all are mass entertainers and worked wonders at the cinema because the makers didn’t hold back in creating them. Even our upcoming films such as Vikram Vedha, Adipurush, Animal and Ek Villain Returns, they all are being made on humongous scales and will be mass entertainers with all the works,” he said. 

He added that one big business trend in the film industry is the comeback of the yesteryears with iconic dialogues, song sequences, action, etc.

For Kumar, the rise of OTT (over-the-top) has led to quite a stir in the theatrical world and it is apparent. However, there are several cases wherein the theatres are running houseful as the audience dearly missed the entire experience that is the big screen, he said. 

“Currently, we see that films are tilting towards an OTT release purely because of budgets. Big ticket films which are confident of their content, actors and crew are going in for theatrical releases. There is definitely a disparity between the both and that’s why we also opt for both types of releases,” he said.

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