Southern language box office in 2024 may rise 15%, lifted by Malayalam flicks

With hits like Manjummel Boys, Aadujeevitham-The Goat Life, Premalu, Aavesham, Vashangalkku Shesham and Brahmyugam, Malayalam cinema witnessed an extraordinary year, with gross collections of ₹743 crore between January and June alone, higher than total collections for calendar years 2022 and 2023. Tamil cinema notched up impressive numbers too, with titles like Amaran, Maharaja and Vettaiyan standing out.

However, earnings for Telugu and Kannada cinema remained mostly subdued, even though the former has managed all-time hits with Pushpa 2: The Rule and Kalki 2898 AD, they said.

“The only two industries that managed to see some kind of an upside in 2024 were Tamil and Malayalam that clearly overperformed as compared to last year. Like Bollywood, the performance by Telugu movies, was mostly disastrous,” said Amit Sharma, managing director of Miraj Entertainment, a company that operates multiplex theatres. Sharma said the strategy by both Tamil and Malayalam cinema was clear—a mix of high-budget star vehicles interspersed with smart, content-driven films releasing at regular intervals so as to keep the supply for theatres going.

In contrast, Hindi movies remained absent for long periods of time and then arrived in a bunch, leading to several box-office clashes. Telugu titles, on the other hand, with the exception of Pushpa 2, Kalki and Hanu-Man, barely brought any good news for exhibitors.

“Southern cinema displayed varied performance in 2024. While Malayalam films had a breakthrough year, Kannada and Telugu cinema saw muted results,” agreed Devang Sampat, managing director, Cinepolis India. In 2025, all southern industries are expected to thrive, Sampat added, with sequels like Rolex 2, Kaithi 2, and Kantara 2 poised for success. Additional titles such as Toxic, Raja Saab, Coolie, and Game Changer also hold significant potential, he pointed out.

Mukesh Mehta, founder of Malayalam film production and distribution company E4 Entertainment, pointed out that like Hindi, southern language films, too, are seeing big stars increasingly manage only limited returns at the box office if the films don’t generate positive word-of-mouth buzz. Even Tamil cinema, for instance, saw big-budget films headlined by mainstream stars such as Vikram’s Thangalaan and Suriya’s Kanguva, fail miserably. 

That said, trade experts point out that southern films are mostly pushing the pan-India narrative aggressively, given that they now have more than a foot-in-the-door as far as box-office success in the Hindi-speaking belt goes.

Producers and distributors are targeting wider releases across the heartland, and even scheduling films for festive weekends and holidays that earlier were the stronghold of big Bollywood films. Several clashes between Hindi and southern movies are expected in the coming months, with audiences keen to view content from those industries.

“Quite a few films have done well (across the southern languages) but they have mostly been medium-budget titles. While that proves audiences are coming back for good content, the big titles haven’t really held up,” Mehta said.