Pushpa: The Rise beats Sooryavanshi to become the highest grossing Indian film of 2020-21

Allu Arjun’s _Pushpa : The Rise_ has heralded a new age for Telugu cinema. According to a report in Business Standard, the film has become the highest-grossing film in Indian cinema in 2020 and 2021 after Ajay Devgn’s _Tanhaji_.

Pushpa: The Rise, which also stars Fahadh Faasil and Rashmika Mandanna in pivotal roles, has managed to earn Rs 100 crore in Hindi, and over Rs 300 crore overall since its release on 17 December 2021. This has made the Telugu film industry, the most successful one in the pandemic era.

The year also saw the Telugu film industry’s share in box –office revenues rise to 29 percent, higher than Tamil cinema’s 17 percent and Hindi cinema’s 27 percent, according to the Ormax Box Office Report 2020 and 2021. Furthermore, the report also stated that the combined contribution of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam cinema was 59 percent of the domestic box office revenue in 2020-21.

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This is in sharp contrast to their combined contribution reaching 36 percent of total box office earnings in 2019. In the same period, Hindi cinema’s share fell to 27 percent from 44 percent.

According to Business Standard, the change in Hindi cinema from single screen-oriented mass movies to realistic multiplex-oriented stories have resulted in the industry see few moviegoers even when theatres opened during the coronavirus pandemic.

Furthermore, according to Ormax Media CEO Shailesh Kapoor, Hindi films need to be released in multiple states to gain huge profits since the language is spoken about 8-10 times more than any other. This is in contrast to Telugu or Tamil cinema, which need only one or two states for box office earnings. The differing COVID-19 norms in many states made it difficult for Hindi films to release and mint money at the box office.

Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi was the only film, which managed to buck the trend and collect over Rs 200 crore at the box office.

The release of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man: No Way Home also set cash registers ringing, both in India and the rest of the world. According to NDTV, the superhero drama has grossed over $1.74 billion worldwide. As per a Business Standard report, the film has earned over Rs 249 crore in India, making it the second highest-earner of 2021 after Pushpa: The Rise.