Films from South India rule international market in 2017, Mersal continues dream run

Indian films have a huge market abroad and in recent times movies from the southern region of the country have gained more prominence. This year’s release Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, Vivegam, Spyder, Mersal have all grossed good collections in foreign markets giving a tough competition to Hindi films that had ruled this space for a long time.

Vijay-starrer Mersal, which faced a lot of controversy back home, had a phenomenal run overseas. The film chased a massive total despite the release of two Hindi movies Golmaal Again and Secret Superstar.

Mersal started on a strong note in US with collections going up to Rs 2.25 crore from 129 locations. Malaysia witnessed Mersal mania and added Rs 90.31 lakhs on first day of its release and went on to gross Rs 3.57 crore till Sunday. Mersal gathered steam even in Australia with collections worth Rs 2.07 crore. In North America, the film earned Rs 7.61 crore in four days of its release.

In April this year, films from the South saw a turning point in the overseas market post the release of Baahubali sequel that set a benchmark even for Hindi films. Directed by Rajamouli, the magnum opus earned Rs 801 crore worldwide out of which overseas collections were around Rs 93 crore, according to Box Office India.

The share of overseas market grew 14 percent to Rs 1,090 crore from Rs 950 crore in 2015. This growth can be attributed to the strong performance of South Indian films which has increased by around 10 percent over the previous year to reach 62 percent of the overseas theatricals in 2016, according to a FICCI-KPMG report.

Holding their ground in countries abroad, box office collection of Tamil movies increased in 2016 as against the previous year, reaching around Rs 350 crore. The Tamil film industry is the second largest film market overseas after Bollywood and it looks like it is continuing its winning streak this year as well.

Last year, top 10 Tamil films garnered nearly 27 percent higher revenues compared to the previous year in overseas market. For Tamil films, the overseas market is evenly spread across the globe unlike other South Indian films. Malaysia is the largest market and controls 35 percent of the trade. The other key markets are USA (20 percent), Singapore (15 percent), Middle East (10 percent), Europe and UK (7 percent), Sri Lanka (7 percent), Australia (5 percent), the report added.

As for Telugu movies the main market is US which contributes to 85 percent of the overseas revenue and 5-10 percent of overall box office collections.

What makes these films popular in US? The large Telugu speaking population in the US is driven by mainstream family entertainers and star-driven commercial movies. A big Telugu movie gets a similar screen count as a Hindi movie, around 300-400 cinemas.

One of the reasons why international markets welcome South Indian films with open arms is that there is a large population of NRIs looking to consume Indian content which helps them maintain a connection to their culture. In addition to that the craze to catch up on southern Indian films first day first show has resulted in paid premiere nights.

This in turn has led to wider releases with greater number of screens. And, the market continues to grow for these films due to a rising diaspora population and aggressive marketing of films abroad which may lead to a steady growth in overseas revenue.