Sad that festivals have to see self-buying and corporate bookings

Corporate bookings in Festivals:

In the beginning of 2020, Ajay Devgn's Tanhaji roared at the box office. The film opened to Rs. 13 crore nett and still there was no need for self-buying, ticket distributions to brands, or corporate bookings. The audience was the king, and it proved why. Tanhaji did a business of Rs. 269 crore in clash. After that, there was no such blockbuster in 2020 because the pandemic took over the globe in March and film industries shut down everywhere. Cut-to Diwali 2021, Rohit Shetty waited from March 2020 to November 2021 to release his film in theaters because he believed that mass cinema is best enjoyed in theaters. The film had a potential of crossing Rs. 300 crore on its earlier date (March 2020), but the post-pandemic effect halted Sooryavanshi's run at Rs. 195 crore, but that gave us all hope that the box office business is not gone.

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After that, suddenly we saw this south wave coming into Hindi markets and swiping the original Hindi films by margin. 2022 ended with 5 hits, but there was a lot of feeding behind the ticket windows. The bulk bookings started taking over, and BMS made this scam very visible, which wasn't the case in the pre-2019 era. Then, 2023 saw some big blockbusters, and the trend of self-buying became more visible. Some people dared to capture the video of empty cinema halls after showing the 70% booked hall on BMS, and then this South vs. Bollywood war became extremely unbearable. Nonetheless, Bollywood still has some genuine blockbusters and hits, with a slight boost that was negotiable. However, a few people took advantage of that and then went ahead with 20% bulk bookings from the overall collections. Earlier, clashes used to be so friendly, and there was only one judge—the audience. Nowadays, before the audience, there are PR agencies and paid influencers who will decide the fate through easily accessible mediums like BMS, IMDb, Ormax, Twitter polls, Dummi accounts, and whatnot. They even found an antidote to tackle those empty houses as they decided to get the crowd to the theater, but instead of the crowd, they were the ones who paid for the tickets. Where is the profit, bro? 

There are a total of three big festival dates every year: Eid, Diwali, and Christmas. There was a time when the biggest movies of the year used to release here and become huge grossers and huge openers. There was no need for any dirty tricks because the festival is the time when people would come out and head to cinemas. Many of the biggest openers and biggest grossers in the last 15-16 years have come on holidays for the same reason. Every star and producer knew that no matter what happens on Monday, my film will have a good/excellent opening day and weekend because of the product and holiday boost. Now, that faith in the audience is tumbling, and this is the worst thing that could happen to the film industry. Maybe the number games, opening day, and advanced sales have become more important than goodwill and legacy. It will get worse in the future, leaving us with no genuine superstar with no legacy and no genuine filmmaker or production house. Frankly speaking, if you have to buy tickets for your film on festivals, which used to be the guarantee of blockbuster openings, then there is something seriously wrong in the industry. The regular moviegoers and honest trade/media will never accept that. Doing this on a non-holiday or dry phase was still justifying (arguably), but doing this on festivals like Eid, Diwali, and Christmas puts a full stop on the authenticity of the numbers and verdict.

On the other hand, Hollywood has seen an even worse phase than Bollywood in post-pandemic times, but they are far from such practices. Many big franchise movies have flopped badly there, but there was no such dirty fiasco even though there was a lot of money at stake. Why can't we go this way? There is no excuse for the post-pandemic effect or how much a certain film would have done after or before the pandemic. For instance, you would never see any trade or fan on social media saying that Avatar: The Way of Water would have done $3 billion if released today or before the pandemic. The business has to be accepted the way it is because it is bound to change with the times. A film like Sholay became the biggest hit of Indian cinema during the worst period, like an emergency. Can anyone top that? I doubt so. With current happening around us, forget Sholay, Mother India, Mughal-E-Azam, Hum Apke Hain Kaun kind of blockbusters; we will even struggle to match Bajarangi Bhaijaan and Dangal kind of blockbusters. I won't say that it should stop because I know it is not going to stop. 

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