Mollywood Regains Its Mojo

In recent years, the Malayalam film industry, renowned for its compelling storytelling and well-developed characters, has experienced a decline in artistic standards characterized by compromised content quality and shoddy filmmaking. But more than four months into 2024, Mollywood is regaining its lost glory with the release of a string of high-quality movies that registered box office success even in other languages.

Last year, the Malayalam movie industry’s total revenue was around Rs 100 crore. However, within just the first three months of this year, the industry has clocked more than Rs 600 crore in revenue. This remarkable achievement is attributed to a series of back-to-back mega-hit movies, revitalizing thousands of cinema screens across the state.

Manjummel Boys, Aadujeevitham, Premalu, Bramayugam, Anweshippin Kandethum, Aattam, and Ozler were among the movies that raked in crores at the box office. Among them, Mammootty’s black-and-white movie Bramayugam directed by Rahul Sadasivan, and Prithviraj-starring Aadujeevitham, directed by Blessy, were both groundbreaking experiments in terms of theme and filmmaking.

Film professionals and studios believe fresh content and new cinematic styles were behind the success of these movies that saved the industry, which was in the doldrums last year. According to Sumesh Joseph of Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala (FEUOK), the rejection of poor-quality movies by OTT platforms prompted Malayalam filmmakers to concentrate on producing higher-quality content.

“After the boom of the OTT business, there was a trend in the Malayalam movie industry to make movies aimed solely at generating revenue from streaming services. With OTT platforms signing agreements with film producers even before theatrical releases, filmmakers often disregarded the importance of a successful theatrical run, leading to compromises in the quality of movies. However, the situation changed when many movies streamed on OTT platforms failed to attract new subscribers. Consequently, OTT platforms have decided to negotiate streaming deals only after a successful theatrical run. As a result, movie makers are now compelled to prioritize creating valuable content that receives positive responses in theatres,” he said.

The theatre owners’ stand that an OTT release could happen only 42 days after the theatre screening also played a major role in the change of scenario. Aadujeevitham, based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Benyamin, is poised to become the biggest success in the history of the Malayalam film industry, judging by the response it has garnered in its initial days of release. The shooting of the movie commenced even before the onset of Covid. The remarkable box office performance of the film made on a budget of Rs 82 crore is certain to inspire many production houses to invest in creating big-budget movies.

Manjummel Boys has already made history in the Malayalam film industry by becoming the first film to surpass Rs 200 crore in earnings. It set numerous box office records, including becoming the highest-grossing Malayalam film ever, surpassing the previous record set by 2018: Everyone Is A Hero. According to film industry trackers, the film grossed over Rs 50 crore at the Tamil Nadu box office, while the Telugu version of Malayalam sensation Premalu, starring Naslen and Namitha and directed by Gireesh A D managed to collect Rs 10.54 crore in 10 days in Telangana and Hyderabad.
Suresh Kumar of the Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce believes the trend is here to stay. “The success of the movies released in the past few months underscores the importance of content over publicity and pre-release hype,” he said, adding that the success of these films will likely inspire others to produce more experimental movies that entertain audiences while maintaining the quality of filmmaking as an art form. It is to be noted that there was minimal publicity in the media before the release of Premalu from Bhavana Studios, one of the prominent production houses in the Malayalam film industry.

The success of these movies in the past few weeks has greatly aided numerous theatre owners in offsetting their losses incurred from the many box office flops released last year. The industry is anticipating the continuation of the trend of significant success in theaters, especially with the upcoming releases like Avesham starring Fahadh Faasil, and Varshangalkku Sesham starring Pranav Mohanlal and Dhyan Sreenivasan, scheduled to be released during Vishu days. Mohanlal-starring Empuran, a sequel to Lucifer is also one of the highly anticipated big-budget movies scheduled for release in the coming months.

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