By Vinod Mirani

It seems that the preferences of moviegoers have changed during the confinement. The whole idea of ​​going to the movies has always been to enjoy an entertaining fare. You would have observed that films that do not entertain or identify with the taste of the audience are rejected.

All parallel cinema, supported by the Film Finance Corporation (FFC), later renamed the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), ultimately came to nothing. NFDC was supported by the government and the only recognition these NFDC films got was from the government itself; they went on to win national awards.

It was funny because it amounted to government largesse going from pocket to pocket. In the process, the National Awards were never duly recognized by the real film industry, the filmmakers who mattered.

So moviegoers stuck to the usual commercial stuff. At least it wasn’t boring like parallel art and cinema. Audiences had no choice but to consume “the opium of the masses”, as Indian commercial films have been labeled over the decades.

It seems that the addiction to this opium was the only thing accessible to people. There was no alternative entertainment available. There was no exposure to any other form.

Suddenly, during the periodic shutdowns of the past two years, people’s preferences seem to have changed. They dismiss what is peddled as commercial artists.

Whether they come to cinemas or via OTT streaming platforms, audiences no longer want to be taken for granted! Whether it’s Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Ranveer Singh, they’ve come up with new films that haven’t really found a buyer.

While the rates remain high, the stars keep peddling the same stuff, movie after movie. Salman Khan has delivered a series of flops over the past few festivals of Eid, his favorite release date; Akshay Kumar delivered a dud, Bell Bottom, and an average film, Sooryavanshi, that even his co-stars Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh couldn’t save.

The films of all these stars also have no impact on OTT platforms. Surprisingly, however, movies, series and other content from lesser-known or old actors work on all platforms.

By non-star actors or outdated actors, we mean actors such as Saif Ali Khan, Kay Kay Menon, Manoj Bajpai, Abhishek Bachchan, Susmita Sen and many others whose appearance in feature films was rare. The careers of these actors have been revived on OTT.

What is also evident is that while Hindi stars are being rejected, Southern dubbed films are being swallowed up.

One of the reasons why some of the dubbed South Indian movies are easily accepted is that they lack nothing compared to Hindi movies. In fact, they feature different subjects and are spectacular, providing a visual treat.

These films are made with huge budgets, which they justify. The acceptance of these dubbed South Indian films seems to have been made gradually by the television channels. In the absence of new Hindi movies, most of the filmed TV channels broadcast the dubbed versions of South Indian movies day after day.

Watching movies on TV was good, but what finally worked was the release of “Baahubali”. The film took the Hindi box office by storm. Nothing like this had been seen in the Hindi film industry. Hindi filmmakers have claimed that millions of dollars have been spent on their films which has never been shown in their films!

‘Baahubali: The Beginning’, in particular, was an out of this world experience. “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” came across as half-baked but still enjoyed the fairness of its predecessor.

Baahubali succeeded in neutralizing Hindi film audiences’ aversion to Tamil and Telugu films.

Check out the recent release, ‘Pushpa: The Rise’. The directors dared to release the film in direct opposition to ’83’. The story of the 1983 Cricket World Cup winning team under Kapil Dev, a legend in his day, ’83’ broke down while ‘Pushpa’ turned out to be a hit.

Imagine, a dubbed South Indian movie taking over the most promoted Hindi movie with a top star!

The saga of dubbed films is long. Southern dubbed films were never bought up by distributors in the hope of making money. They were bought mainly to fill gaps or for tuning. Previously, cinemas were controlled by exhibitors.

For example, in the Bombay circuit, cinema owners in remote locations of Gujarat, Kutch or Maharashtra would not be able to manage week-to-week movie bookings from where they are. They delegated this task to an individual or a group of people in Mumbai whose responsibility it was to ensure that the cinemas received a film every week. Some of these operators controlled several cinemas.

Certain phases of a year were considered unproductive for the film industry. No new movies were released during these times. March to April (due to exams) then September to Diwali was boring for business. The days of Ganesh Chaturthi, Shraddha and Navratra and the pre-Diwali fortnight were disastrous for business.

But the cinema exhibition activity could not be closed. There had to be a movie every Friday. That’s when these dubbed movies helped fill in the gaps. In order not to incur losses on the transaction, certain interpolations took place. Many times, pornographic clips have been inserted into these films and they have managed to attract a certain type of audience.

The other reason a distributor would buy a Southern dubbed film was if they had had a good year distributing their other mainstream films. The income tax slabs were very high and a way had to be found to retain the profits made. After all, how many little expense reports could an accountant do?

The idea was to buy the rights to a dubbed movie at a comfortably inflated price and get most of the money back in cash.

Now, dubbed movies are big business. Especially thanks to Hindi movie TV channels. Initially, even these channels used dubbed movies as fillers for late-night or all-night time slots. There were no viewers, so it didn’t matter. (IANS)