Golden Globes gives hope for Konkani cinema amidst its struggles

18th January 2023

The historic Golden Globes win by RRR and it’s impressive box office collection is proof of growing popularity of regional cinema. As other film industries experience increased popularity, Goa’s film industry battles against economic constraints.

SS Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’ made history this week, as it became the first Indian film to bag a Golden Globe award. The song ‘Naatu Naatu’ became the first Asian song to win the Golden Globe for best original track. ‘RRR’ with its massive box office hit grossing Rs 1200 crores worldwide, becomes the third highest grossing Indian movie of all time.

The release of ‘Bahubali’ created a wave of change in Indian cinema, where audiences across India became invested in regional cinema. These film industries are already powerful entities in their own states, but did not have a pan-India appeal due to the popularity of Bollywood. Many South Indian movies like ‘Shiva’ saw a remake in Bollywood. Over time, they discovered that they could dub their movies in Hindi and release them to national audiences. Lot of new talent, actors such as ‘KGF’ star Yash and ‘Pushpa’ star Allu Arjun portray these larger than life characters that appeal to audiences and know the pulse of the North Indian audience as well. During the pandemic, people could not watch films in cinemas but had enough free time to browse the content on OTT platforms. These platforms have played a major role in exposing people to regional cinema.

“In Goa, we are trying our level best to produce and release Konkani movies. The government’s subsidy withdrawal in the past six years affected the Konkani cinema. They don’t seem keen on promoting Goan cinema despite emphasizing on preserving our culture. Konkani cinema is an important medium through which we can preserve our culture, yet we do not have proper cinema halls for us to screen our movies. At Ravindra Bhavan, reserving a slot for a show is not viable, there are events such as Konkani nataks, Marathi dramas, Tiatrs and social gatherings taking place there as well. Most of our films do a limited amount of screenings, and the local audiences do not attend even then, especially after the pandemic. 

A Durga Prasad, whose film ‘Enemy’ won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Konkani in 2016, shares his opinion on why Goan cinema is currently struggling, “I am a producer of Goan cinema. Financially speaking, Goa’s smaller population means that local viewership for the films is not enough to sustain the industry without government aid. Money invested in films of local language do not get enough ROI. South Indian movies are now high budget movies starring talented actors. The content of a film is important for it’s success, and they ensure that their film’s content is of a certain quality, and they enjoy aggressive support from their governments.”

Renowned historian Ramachandra Guha once credited Hindi cinema as one of the major factors uniting our culturally and religiously diverse country. Yet, over the past decade, there has been a noticeable shift towards Indian regional cinema, and Golden Globes win by RRR is testimony of that. South Indian cinema has experienced an exponential boost in popularity over the past decade, with films like ‘2.0’ and the Bahubali film duology bringing in more revenue at the box office than nearly every Bollywood film and becoming part of the fabric of India’s pop culture.

Planet Goa Team

For us at Planet-Goa, our team is driven by that feeling of exhilaration that one gets when discovering that something ‘unique’ and ‘new’ about Goa for our ever-so-discerning readers.