Malayalam film industry suffers mammoth loss of ₹650 crore to ₹700 crore in 2024, says KFPA

Malayalam film industry faces ₹650-700 crore loss in 2024, with only 26 films making profits. Industry urged to cut costs.

Notwithstanding the critical acclaim it continues to garner from across the country and the world for its films and filmmakers, the Malayalam film industry suffered a mammoth loss of ₹650 crore to ₹700 during 2024, says the Kerala Film Producers’ Association (KFPA).

Out of a total of 204 films, including the re-release of five old films, released during the year, only 26 films managed to be qualified as super hit, hit, and average hit. While the total investment was around ₹1,000 crore, these 26 films alone managed to collectively reap in a profit of ₹300 crore to ₹350 crore as the rest of the movies sank without a trace, said a release issued by the KFPA.

The industry witnessed the release of over 200 movies for the second year running. But losses also did pile up like in the last year. This shows that numbers do not matter, but the audience is concerned about the quality of the content and narrative style, the release issued by the KFPA secretary B. Rakesh said.

“Films are now solely dependent on theatre collection as there is no pre-release business avenues. Movies that don’t do well at the box-office are not even bought by over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Many such films remain without takers in the OTT. This has led us to a situation where we will have to take close look at the production cost and effect cuts considerably,” said Mr. Rakesh.

He urged the actors to make a reasonable pay cut since their fees constituted the majority of the production cost. This will have to be effected unlike in the past when repeated requests for reduction in the actors’ fee had gone unheeded. “When producers are universally suffering huge loss, there is no other alternative but for the actors to bring down their fees,” Mr. Rakesh said.

The year witnessed Manjummal Boys directed by Chidambaram emerge as the biggest grosser of the Malayalam film industry. The film was a runaway hit in Tamil Nadu as well. Aadujeevitham, one of the most anticipated Malayalam movies of recent times and directed by Blessy based on Benyamin’s bestselling novel by the same name was also released this year. Devadhoothan, a movie directed by Sibi Malayil and starring Mohanlal, managed a decent collection from the theatres when it was re-released after 24 years.