Malayalam cinema dazzles on silver screens in 2024

Mumbai: The Malayalam film industry is having a blockbuster year, with box office collections reaching ₹720 crore in the first five months and four films grossing over ₹100 crore each

According to Ormax Media, Malayalam films accounted for 19% of the cumulative box office collection of ₹3,791 crore across India during the five months through May. Malayalam titles Manjummel Boys, Aadujeevitham: The Goat Life and Aavesham were among the top 10 grossing movies in the country during this period, according to Ormax Media.

As per several reports, another Malayalam movie, Premalu, also made more than ₹100 crore in box office collections.

Experts attribute the success of Malayalam films to their diverse content offerings, bolstered by weaker line-ups in other languages, including Hindi. Malayalam films are gaining strong traction outside their traditional markets of Kerala and the UAE.

E4 Entertainment founder Mukesh Mehta, who has produced multiple Malayalam films, said films like Manjummel Boys, Aadujeevitham and Aavesham offered diverse stories to audiences.

“Every movie is different from the other, and there is no repetition of the subject. That has helped Malayalam cinema. Moviegoers got to watch different types of movies,” he said, adding: “We didn’t have strong films in other languages like Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. Hollywood releases were also impacted due to the writer’s strike.”

According to Mehta, Malayalam movies have started doing well in North America and Europe after Covid-19. Within India, these are finding traction outside Kerala as well, he added.

As per the Ormax report, Malayalam, along with Telugu, got the second-highest proportion of the cumulative domestic box office receipts behind Hindi, which had a 33% share. Malayalam films, which are produced at much smaller budgets compared with movies in other South Indian languages and Hindi, took home a larger portion of the box office collections than Tamil, which held a 13% share.

According to film trade website Sacnilk, Malayalam movies collected ₹406 crore outside India.

“Malayalam cinema has had a slew of hits over the last few months, and some of the movies even touched the magic ₹100 crore number, which was not a common phenomenon in Malayalam cinema until last year,” said NV Capital cofounder Nitin Menon.