By Shailesh Kapoor
We are halfway through the year today, which is good excuse for a mid-year review. Here’s my pick of the five media and entertainment events that headlined the first half of the year, in chronological order of sorts:
Pathaan: An SRK reboot
Six months into the year, there’s been only one genuine blockbuster in Hindi cinema in 2023: Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan. The actor made a mini comeback of sorts (his last major hit dates back to 2013 – Chennai Express). Pathaan went on to become the highest grossing Hindi film of all time, both in terms of its opening and its lifetime business. In the process, it also put to rest the presumptuous argument that movie-going will be replaced by OTT. (I wrote about Pathaan and SRK’s superstardom in January in this column).
India Shining, at the Oscars
India’s brush with the Oscars has been, at best, a case of so-near-yet-so-far. There hasn’t been much to shout about in recent years, except AR Rahman, Gulzar and Resul Pookutty winning Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire (2008). This year, we had not one but two winners, in Naatu Naatu (RRR) and The Elephant Whisperers, and a creditable nomination for All That Breathes. The RRR song even got a stage performance at the Oscars, and there seemed more Indian presence at the Oscars in 2023, than across all previous years put together!
IPL: Bigger by the year
A long but immensely successful season of IPL dominated viewership, both on linear television and online, in the first half of 2023. The IPL’s ability to grow stronger each year is an incredible one. The league has been one of my go-to topics in this column, and I wrote about it twice this year, at the start and the end of the season.
JioCinema: Free for all
The IPL was the also the scene of a disruption that not many saw coming, till a few weeks before it: JioCinema, the newly relaunched service from Viacom 18, decided to remove the paywall behind which the league has streamed all these years on Disney+ Hotstar. The platform has followed it up with an aggressive AVOD-led strategy, putting out big theatrical films and a major web-series (Asur 2) as free content. This has set the proverbial cat among the pigeons in the OTT industry in India. There’s unlikely to be a dull moment around, anytime soon.
Cinema of the Right, by the right, for the Right
While The Kashmir Files stood out as an aberration in 2022, this year saw two major films appropriate the Hindutva narrative. The Kerala Story seemed like a direct inspiration from the success of The Kashmir Files, and did equally well too, and is the second-highest grossing film in India this year so far (across languages), behind Pathaan. Adipurush went the mythology way, riding on the unconditional reverence for the Ramayan in large parts of India. The film opened at staggering levels, but soon went on to become a victim of the very idea it was trying to ride on. Irony, you had me at the vacant Hanuman seat.
Shailesh Kapoor is Founder and CEO, Ormax Media. And is a long-standing columnist of MxMIndia and writes on Fridays. His views here are personal.