‘Bollywood panicked during pandemic,’ Resul Pookutty explains why South cinema is doing better than Hindi: ‘Roller coaster of crisis you created’

Hindi cinema has been facing tough competition from South Indian cinema ever since the lockdowns started getting lifted in 2021. Bollywood has witnessed many ups and downs in the years since but in 2024, it was evident that even the biggest Hindi hit of the year could not match the Hindi collection of the biggest Telugu hit of the year. Stree 2, which was the biggest Hindi success of the year made around Rs 600 crore but Pushpa 2 made over Rs 800 crore just in its Hindi version. This led to more comparisons between Hindi cinema and South Indian cinema. Now Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty, who worked on the sound of the Allu Arjun film, has said that Hindi cinema built an unsustainable model for itself after the pandemic and the current status of the industry is the result of the same.

In a chat with Zoom, Resul said that the Hindi industry “panicked” during the pandemic and started selling their films to OTT platforms. And now, because of the practices they started nearly five years ago, the making of a movie is dependent on the streaming platforms. Where as, such is not the case with the South Indian industry. “When the pandemic happened, the South Indian industry did not panic, whereas the Hindi film industry, they panicked and they sold everything to the platforms. So now, what they have done, they have reduced the whole industry at the mercy of two platforms. If the two platforms don’t want to take the film, then the film is not going to get made. Whereas the South Indian cinema, they refuse to sell their films to the platforms. They waited. And they released the film in theatres,” he said.

Resul Pookutty then gave the example of the first installment of Pushpa which released in 2021. At the time, theatres were operating with certain restrictions and were not allowed to have 100 per cent occupancy in many regions of the country. Resul said that despite the restrictions, Pushpa made over Rs 100 crore in Hindi, and this was in a year when most Hindi films hadn’t done well. “Pushpa released in theatres when there was only 40 per cent occupancy. Even then, Pushpa did Rs 120 crore in Hindi territory. Even after the film was released on OTT, it was still running in theatres, people wanted to go and see it in the theatres,” he said.

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Resul insisted that there is “nothing wrong with the audience” but it is actually the Hindi film industry that isn’t serving the right kind of films to its audience. “There is nothing wrong with the audience. The Hindi film industry has not given the right films to the audience. Audience will come to theatres if there is a right film,” he said.

The sound designer also spoke about the different South Indian industries and how they held their patience and were rewarded for the same by the audience. He shared, “Very interestingly, South Indian cinema, they all held together and they released films in theatres. They never let their audience go away from theatres whereas Hindi panicked. When there is a crisis, they were just willing to sell it off. That’s what happened. You are dealing with the roller coaster of crisis that you have created yourself.”