MUMBAI - Bollywood is ready for a close-up. India’s Oscars were handed out on Wednesday night in Mumbai. It’s the first time the 20-year-old, star-studded event, a tribute to the world’s most prolific film industry, has been held at home. The return is timely.

India is a nation of movie enthusiasts. Tickets for the International Indian Film Academy Awards were on sale for as much $3,000, more than the average annual income. In the end, spy flick Raazi took home the prize for best film – losing out to Padmaavat, an epic period drama briefly banned in four states.

The frenzy hints at the scale of change, as a worldwide audience of over 800 million becomes wealthier. Already, cinema is coming of age, and snazzier multiplexes are popping up alongside shopping malls. Local box office receipts were up 15% to 125 billion rupees ($1.75 billion) in the year to March, almost as fast as those for Indian films overseas - a smaller but lucrative market, according to KPMG. Thirteen titles were big hitters, each pulling in more than one billion rupees in ticket sales, or $14 million. In all, the consultancy reckons, the best performance in a decade.

It’s a sweet-ish moment for content producers too, as Indians turn smartphones into handheld silver screens. Many filmmakers struggled in the past with huge losses after backing flops, and piracy hurt too. Walt Disney, for one, all but stopped producing domestic movies through its locally acquired production house in 2017. Now, with a staggering number of new streaming outfits racing to build libraries, including Amazon and Disney’s newly acquired Hotstar, revenue from digital rights sales rose 30% in the year to March, says KPMG. Video-on-demand is booming.

A happy ending for all does not necessarily follow, though. Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man and backer of telecoms upstart Reliance Jio, plans to deliver movies on the day of their official release. Add in the world’s cheapest mobile data, and India may also skip altogether the nearly sevenfold increase in cinemas seen in China between 2011 and 2018.

For now, the film world is benefitting. Director Karan Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment has signed a multi-year deal to create content, including films, for Netflix. Bollywood has a new home.

CONTEXT NEWS

- Raazi, starring Alia Bhatt, won the prize for best film at the International Indian Film Academy awards on Sept. 18. The ceremony was held in Mumbai, widely considered the home of the country's Hindi-language film industry, known as Bollywood. It’s the first time the event has been held in India in its 20-year history.

(Editing by Clara Ferreira Marques and Katrina Hamlin)

© Reuters News 2019