Uri: The Surgical Strike has helped Bollywood show strong first quarter earnings. The movie depicts the surgical strike conducted by Indian Armed Forces on terrorist launch pads in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and became a blockbuster at the Indian box office. The Vicky Kaushal starrer made 245.36 crore rupees on the Indian box office which made it the 10th highest grossing Hindi film in the history of Bollywood. The January to March quarter earnings of Bollywood was 1,150 crore rupees which is highest ever in the first quarter of the year. Generally the first quarter has the weakest performance given the small number of holidays and lack of festive seasons. “The first quarter of the year has traditionally been considered a dull period,” said film trade and exhibition expert Girish Johar.
The earning of Uri is almost a quarter of the total Hindi Film industry’s from the January to March period. Bollywood’s total quarterly revenue increased by 15-20 percent riding on the performance of Uri. The success of the movie is expected to start a new wave of ‘Nationalist Cinema’. It is the 10th highest grossing Hindi movie after Bahubali 2: The Conclusion, Dangal, Sanju, PK, Tiger Zinda Hai, BajrangiBhaijaan, Padmaavat, Sultan and Dhoom 3 in terms of domestic earnings.
Earlier the government reduced GST on cinema tickets under 100 rupees to 12 percent and the tax on ticket above 100 rupees was brought in 18 percent tax bracket. In the budget 2019-20, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced single-window clearance for shooting. Earlier this facility was available only to foreign producers. “To promote the entertainment industry, single-window clearance for ease of shooting films, available only to foreigners, is now going to be made available to Indian filmmakers as well. Regulatory provisions will rely more on self-declaration,” said Finance Minister Piyush Goyal while presenting the interim budget for the fiscal year 2019-20.
As per a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in consultation with Ernst & Young (EY), titled, ‘A billion screens of opportunity’, the Indian Media & Entertainment (M&E) Industry grew by 13.4 percent to 1.67 lakh crore 2018. The growth has been powered by the surge in digital media platforms that grew by 42 percent to 16,900 crore rupees. The digital media market is expected to overtake the films market by next year. Another sector which registered exponential growth is online gaming as it grew by 56.4 percent.
Television, the largest segment in the M&E industry with a revenue of 74,000 crore rupees grew by 12.1 percent. The Film segment registered a growth of 12.2 percent. Print, having the second largest share in the media market grew by 0.7 percent with magazines notching negative growth. The Radio sector witnessed revival with PM Modi popularizing the medium with much popular ‘Mann Ki Baat’. With the increasing use in Indian movies, Animation and VFX grew by 18.5 percent.
Although, the M&E industry does not form a large part of the Indian economy, it is crucial to project the soft power of the country. The impact of Bollywood and Cricket is enormous in many countries across the globe. The foreign market of Indian film accounts for more than 6,000 crore rupees with content from countries like Pakistan airing in Indian.