Baahubali 2’s Hindi version is the biggest Bollywood film of the decade

In the last ten years, Salman Khan emerges as the biggest male star, Katrina Kaif, is best female star and ‘Tum Hi Ho’ is the most popular song

Bollywood’s box office business (nett domestic) may have more than doubled from 2010 to 2019 — from about ₹1,700 crore to about ₹4,000 crore — but the biggest success story of the decade is not a Hindi film. According to the box office numbers compiled by Mumbai-based media consulting firm, Ormax Media, it’s the Hindi dubbed version of the Telugu-Tamil bilingual Baahubali 2: The Conclusion that has raked in the most money for Bollywood. Ormax Media estimates the Hindi version’s nett domestic box office earnings to be ₹510 crore, which is ₹135 crore more than the second biggest earner of the decade Dangal.

Top 10 box office grossers of the decade (net domestic box office in ₹ cr)

It’s interesting to note that none of the top 20 earners are led by female actors. Women-centric films, that too only two, feature in the list of the most liked films of the decade (based on positive Word of Mouth generated) with Kangana Ranaut’s Queen perched at the ninth position and Vidya Balan’s Kahaani down at No. 17.

While the footfalls have been stagnant in the ₹28-32 crore range for the last seven to eight years, the increase in nett earnings for the Hindi film industry has come largely because of a steady year-on-year increase in the ticket price and a more friendly tax structure because of Goods and Services Tax (GST). “The average ticket price today is about ₹140, compared to less than ₹100 in 2010,” says Shailesh Kapoor, CEO and founder of Ormax Media.

Most-liked films of the decade (based on Ormax Word of Mouth score)

Star power

While Salman Khan, with almost six films in the top 20 grossers’ list, is the top male star of the decade, Akshay Kumar has left the other two Khans — SRK and Aamir — behind to occupy the number two position. Kumar is also second after Ranveer Singh in the list of the rising male stars of the decade compiled on the basis of the growth in their popularity in 2015-2019 as against 2010-2014.

Katrina Kaif is the female star of the decade followed by Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Alia Bhatt. Alia followed by Deepika and Kangana head the rising female star list.

The most popular soundtrack of the decade is the music for Aashiqui 2 with ‘Tum hi ho’ sung by Arijit Singh at number one; and ‘Sunn raha hai na tu’ by Ankit Tiwari at the third spot. The list, otherwise, has a number of item numbers strewn all over — ‘Munni badnaam hui’ (Dabangg,2010); Sheila ki jawani (Tees Maar Khan, 2010); Baby doll (Ragini MMS 2, 2014); Chikni chameli (Agneepath, 2012); Chittiyaan kalaiyan (Roy, 2015)…

In vogue

What have been the big trends for the Hindi film industry in the last decade and what will be the future determinants? The explosion of digital content/OTT platforms in the latter half of the decade has meant that it’s either the big budget films like Baahubali and War, which offer a big-screen experience, that have been performing well in cinemas or it’s concept films like Badhaai Ho that have stood out. The middle-of-the-road content is not getting traction because the audience would rather watch it online later,” says Kapoor.

Top 10 stars of the decade (Ormax Stars India Loves)

It’s not just the language films like Baahubali that are setting the benchmark for Bollywood. An important shift this decade has been the growth of the Hollywood business in India, which has tripled from 2010 to 2019. Says Kapoor: “It has created more exposure to international content, often in dubbed formats, making the viewers expect a certain quality of production, VFX and story-telling from Indian content too.”

Top 10 Hindi film songs of the decade (based on Ormax Heartbeats)

*All Ormax Media estimates: Ormax compiles box office numbers of films in 10 languages in India from various sources, including producers, studios, distributors and secondary sources like websites and credible social media handles. Word of Mouth (WOM), Ormax Heartbeats (OHB) and Ormax Stars India Loves (OSIL) are parameters tracked on the basis of consumer research surveys conducted via telephonic and online surveys across 64 cities in India on an ongoing basis.