Malayalam cinema thrives at box office as other regional films falter

The Kerala film industry has notched up not just a big hit like Mohanlal’s L2: Empuraan but also a string of smaller successes such as Thudarum and Rekhachithram when the theatrical business in most other parts of the country is going slow.

Experts attributed this to a robust movie-going culture in Kerala, where cinema theatres are well-maintained, flexibly priced and easily accessible and there is no government interference on the number of shows per day.

“One of the key reasons behind the (Malayalam) industry’s recent box office highs is the ‘gradual massification’ of Malayalam cinema,” said Sanket Kulkarni, head of business development (theatrical) at Ormax Media. “Filmmakers are now exploring genres and production scales that were relatively rare in the past. This shift has also been influenced by the popularity of commercial Tamil and Telugu films in Kerala.”

Malayalam box office revenue more than doubled from 2023 to 2024, crossing the ₹1,000 crore mark for the first time.

Another contributing factor is the pandemic-era surge in OTT revenue for Malayalam films, which provided producers with the confidence and financial backing to attempt larger-scale projects that may not have been feasible earlier, Kulkarni added.

However, success has primarily come from mobilising the core Malayalam-speaking audience, rather than from a pan-India footprint, experts including Kulkarni emphasised. L2: Empuraan earned ₹117 crore from its Malayalam version, while its collections in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu were comparatively modest— ₹5 crore, ₹3 crore and ₹3 crore, respectively.

The notable exception was Manjummel Boys, which grossed over ₹50 crore in Tamil Nadu, setting a record for a Malayalam film outside Kerala. Yet, such cross-regional success remains more the exception than the norm.

Authentic storytelling

Malayalam cinema’s steady ascent to both national prominence and international appreciation can be credited to its unwavering emphasis on authentic storytelling and deep-rooted cultural connection, said Ashish Saksena, chief operating officer-cinemas of BookMyShow.

“This ethos has fostered a space where narrative innovation, emotional nuance and relatable characters take precedence. While Malayalam cinema features celebrated actors, their roles serve the narrative rather than dominate it, with prominent performers embracing grounded, character-driven parts that reinforce the industry’s commitment to realism,” Saksena said.

Films in regional languages including Punjabi, Marathi and Bengali haven’t found it easy to compete with the star-driven industries of Hindi, Tamil and Telugu cinema. A major challenge these smaller regional industries face is the intense competition from Hindi films—in terms of theatrical showcasing, budgets and size of the audience. 

This is compounded by the fact that audiences in these regions are largely bilingual, and there is a stronger cultural inclusivity for Hindi cinema. According to Ormax Media’s Sizing the Cinema 2024 report, 90% of the theatregoers in Maharashtra and Goa (those who have watched at least one film in the past year) watch Hindi films, whereas only 50% watch Marathi films.

Moreover, the size of the theatrical audience base is limited for Punjabi (4.3 million) and Bengali (4 million) compared with Malayalam (11.9 million). Engagement with cinema is also a critical factor. The average number of films watched in theatres per person annually stands at 5.6 in Malayalam, compared with 2 in Marathi, and 1.6 in Bengali—highlighting the comparatively active cinema-going culture in Kerala.

“Audiences are very clear that it’s all about the content at the end of the day. How much you’ve spent on the film doesn’t matter,” said Mukesh Mehta, founder of Malayalam film production and distribution company E4 Entertainment.

Mehta added that like other language films such as Salman Khan’s Sikandar (Hindi) and Suriya’s Kanguva (Tamil), even the Malayalam movie audience has learnt to reject big-star vehicles that don’t offer anything new, with Mohanal’s recent film Barroz 3D having tanked at the box office.