Bollywood’s impact on the Indian Economy!

Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s five year jail sentence earier this month has sparked concerns about the investments made in his under production movies. He was later released from Jodhpur Central jail after an Indian court granted him bail.Indian films have been breaking box office records this year, certainly a good omen for a host of sectors from advertising to tourism, considering the far-reaching economic impact of one of the world’s biggest film industries, more commonly known as Bollywood around the globe.

“The contribution is huge,” says Tinku Singh, the group president and chief strategy officer at SRS Group, one of the largest cinema chains in north India. “There are a lot of industries that are getting impacted [positively with Bollywood’s growth].”

Revenues for India’s film industry, including box office collections, digital rights, and in-house cinema advertising, recorded a 27 per cent year-on-year growth in 2017 to 156 billion rupees (Dh8.78bn), according to a report by global consultancy EY, which estimates the revenues will climb to over 191bn rupees by 2020. The year has been going well for the industry so far.

Padmaavat, an historic drama directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, starring Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, one of the most expensive Bollywood films ever made, with a budget of 2.15bn rupees, took the box office by storm, raking in more than 5bn rupees globally since its release in January.

“There’s a huge fan following for the big Indian stars, and whenever their film hits the screen, people go mad about it,” says Mr Singh. “Especially, for Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Indians go crazy. What I feel is that in India people would be happy to give up their food for one day, but they won’t give up entertainment.”

When Salman Khan was given a five-year jail sentence this month in a case of poaching an endangered blackbuck, Bollywood producers went into a frenzy over the economic impact the judgment could have, given the fact that a huge amount of funds had already been invested into Mr Khan’s under production films such as Race 3. Two days later, he was released on bail, to the relief of the industry.

Given his popularity, Salman Khan commands 600 million rupees per movie, while Deepika Padukone, one of the industry’s biggest female stars, was reportedly paid 110m rupees for Padmaavat, according to figures cited by the Times of India newspaper.

These hefty fees are eating into the profitability of some of the big star films, but overall a greater number of Bollywood movies are enjoying healthy profits, data reveals.

Of the 50 top Hindi films released last year, 14 of the them managed to record a positive return of more than 100 per cent, compared to 8 in 2016.