Bollywood critic and film trade analyst Adarsh Swaroop speaks about the importance of content in Bollywood films.

There are tons of industries doing exceedingly well across the world in ways more than one. Amidst this, it is quite natural for people to question the credibility that the Indian film industry, famously known as Bollywood, has in today's time and age, where audiences have become smarter and more vocal about their choices and taste in cinema and do not accept anything in the name of quality content. The proof is the disastrous collections that many Hindi films earned at the box office in the past few years, especially after the pandemic. Adarsh Swaroop, a well-known Bollywood critic and film trade analyst says that after the pandemic, there were only three major successes - Sooryavanshi (2021), Pushpa: The Rise - Part 01 (2021), a Telugu actioner dubbed in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Kannada, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, but with the onset of 2022 things looked dull at the box office, and so far only a handful of them have done proper business like Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Kashmir Files and Gangubai Kathiawadi. Add to this S.S Rajamouli's Telugu film, RRR, dubbed in Indian languages, and Prashanth Neel's KGF: Chapter 2, a Kannada film released in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam.

Adarsh Swaroop points out that even the big budget films like Ajay Devgn's Runway, Tiger Shroff's Heropanti 2, Shahid Kapoor's Jersey, Ranbir Kapoor's Shamshera, Akshay Kumar's Bachchhan Paandey, Samrat Prithviraj and Raksha Bandhan, John Abraham's Attack: Part 1 and also Aamir Khan's Laal Singh Chaddha couldn't make numbers at the box office and proved to be a dud. He highlights how OTT has played a huge role, both positively and negatively. Positive because more content is created now for the OTT, bringing in great money for the producers, and negative because people hardly choose to go to the theatres for films that don't feel appealing at all.

However, Adarsh Swaroop also says that in the end, it is the content that wins, and no big-budget films, big-star films, or any such criteria works if the content is not excellent enough to pull crowds. Films like RRR and KGF 2 worked even in Hindi belts because the vision of these films and the magnificent content of the film appealed to everyone. The Boycott culture, he says, is definitely there, but great content can withstand IPL matches, exams, bad weather, and even these Boycott calls.

Bollywood needs to wake up and understand that the real hero will always be excellent content, and instead of focusing on star power and big budgets, they must make sure to build strong storylines and content that can face the storms, no matter what.

There are many new Hindi films with big stars in them, but Adarsh Swaroop (@adarsh_swaroop_) hopes that no other Bollywood film, big or small, disappoints audiences anymore.