Bollywood loses out as Netflix, Amazon Prime, K-dramas become popular with Indians: ‘Films are not working – it’s our fault,’ says a movie star

Of the 26 Bollywood releases this year, 20 have been flops, defined as losing half or more of their investment. That’s double the proportion of flops in 2019

Experts say international streaming services, which came to India relatively late, are becoming more popular – think Squid Game and Game of Thrones

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Akshay Kumar (left) and Sahil Mehta in Raksha Bandhan, which tanked at the box office this year. Bollywood is losing its allure in India as more people turn to streaming services.

Published: 7:15am, 14 Sep 2022

Bollywood may be broken, and it has itself to blame.

That is the verdict of one of its biggest and brightest stars after the latest flop in a Hindi-language movie industry that has long mesmerised Indians, and the world, with its dazzling all-singing, all-dancing brand of big-screen escapism.

“Films are not working – it’s our fault, it’s my fault,” Akshay Kumar said last month after his new movie, Raksha Bandhan, tanked at the box office. “I have to make the changes, I have to understand what the audience wants. I want to dismantle the way I think about what kind of films I should do.”

Indeed, times have changed and Bollywood, a cultural pillar of modern India, is losing its allure.

Akshay Kumar and actresses in Raksha Bandhan, which tanked at the box office.

The rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime during the Covid-19 pandemic has coincided with growing Bollywood fatigue among younger generations who view many of its films as outdated and unfashionable.

Of the 26 Bollywood releases this year, 20 have been flops, defined as losing half or more of their investment, according to the Koimoi website, which tracks industry data.