Are elections keeping the big filmmakers away?

The drought has set in. And we are not talking about the climate here. On Friday, April 19, 21 states went to the polls in the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The combined assault of this once-in-five-years political event, and the on-going Indian Premier League (IPL) which has become an annual fest, has resulted in the drying up of big-budget, pan-India releases.

Nag Ashwin’s Hindi-Telugu bilingual, ‘Kalki 2898 AD’, was scheduled to open on May 9. But with 12 states voting in the third phase of elections on May 7, and 10 states in the fourth phase on May 13, the makers of the Rs 600 crore sci-fi dystopian extravaganza have prudently decided to push forward the release to May 30. Should ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ keep its May 30 date with the audience, ‘Baby John’, the official Hindi remake of Atlee’s 2016 Tamil film ‘Theri’, touted as the biggest action entertainer of 2024, could move to June. The Varun Dhawan-Keerthy Suresh starrer is already clashing with Janhvi Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao’s sports drama, ‘Mr And Mrs Mahi’ on May 31.

Buzz is, ‘Kalki 2898 AD’, which is still in post-production, could even opt for June. S Shankar’s ‘Indian 2’, with Kamal Haasan returning from the 1996 original as the freedom fighter turned vigilante Senapathy, is already slotted for a June 13 unveiling.

Pa Ranjith’s historical adventure, ‘Thangalaan’, with Vikram in the lead, which will release globally in five languages, has already shifted from January 26 to April. The new date is yet to be announced. The Neeraj Pandey-directed ‘Auro Mein Kahan Dum Tha’, with ‘Drishyam’ duo Ajay Devgn and Tabu, earlier set for April 26, will now probably come in June-July.

“Hectic campaigning over the last few weeks and now the polls has definitely impacted the big pan-India releases. Since our economy is not yet 100 per cent digital, the Election Commission of India’s ruling that individuals cannot carry more than Rs 50,000 in cash without supporting documents is also a problem when it comes to MG (minimum guarantee), advance and other cash transactions in the ‘B’ and ‘C’ centres,” points out entertainment industry tracker, Ramesh Bala.

Interestingly, even the political dramas which had mushroomed following the stupendous success of ‘The Kashmir Files’, ‘The Kerala Story’ and ‘Article 370’, and were looking to make a quick buck during the election season, have faded away after the debacle of ‘Bastar: The Naxal Story’ and ‘Swatantra Veer Savarkar’. ‘JNU: Jahangir National University’, scheduled for April 5, has been indefinitely postponed. ‘The Sabarmati Report’, which revisits the Godhra Express tragedy of 2002, will keep its May 3 deadline, four days before Gujarat votes, but Kangana Ranaut’s ‘Emergency’ has moved to June 14, 10 days after counting on June 4. The film’s writer-director-producer, who plays former prime minister Indira Gandhi, is the BJP candidate from Mandi.

“From one film in six months to a couple every month, audience fatigue has set in. But I expect the phase to end soon and the genre to make a return with a few good films,” Bala prophesies.

Meanwhile, with the two big Eid releases, ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ and ‘Maidaan’, failing to live up to expectations, even Bollywood producers have started playing the game of musical chairs, wary of coming up against a southern biggie, particularly a Telugu film. Ruing the fear psychosis which has gripped the industry, exhibitor-distributor Akkshay Rathie says, “The core revenue of Tamil films comes from the five southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. For Bollywood, it’s primarily the Hindi speaking states. But in recent times, Telugu films like ‘Baahubali’, ‘KGF’, ‘Pushpa: The Rise’, ‘RRR’ and ‘Kantara’ have fared phenomenally, both in the north and south in terms of footfalls and revenue. As a result, Bollywood filmmakers are running scared which is sad because unless you own the big release dates, how can you maximise collections?”

Amit Sharma, managing director of Miraj Entertainment, acknowledges that during the election season, exhibitors are looking at small and mid-budget films to keep ticket counters jingling. Also, Hollywood films like ‘Kingdom of The Planet of the Apes’ and ‘The Garfield Movie’ which cannot move because of a simultaneous global release. “It’s not as if people stop watching films during elections. Voting takes place across multiple states on multiple dates and since election day is a holiday, once inked, people are free to catch a movie,” Sharma reasons, pointing out that even the IPL after 17 years is no longer a determining factor.

Rathie asserts that there is always scope for good films to do well at the boxoffice. “But for that to happen, filmmakers have to stop being afraid, show confidence and conviction in their content, actors, filmmakers and most importantly, their audience,” he says.