Editor’s Note

A Happy and Prosperous New year to our contributors & Readers

Films play a formative role in developing a culture or addressing a contemporary issue. In a multilingual country like India, the languages support their own film industry Marathi, Bengali, Tamil. Telugu. Kannada, Malayalam and many others.

Marathi films have created believable stories on-screen with a dash of humour and drama. Films from the South are also gaining recognition all over the world. S.S. Rajamouli’s Bahubali 2 100-day theatre run collected over Rupees 600 crores in India and had a worldwide box-office collection that stood a little over Rupees 1700 crore mark. It would not be a hyperbole to say that pre and post-Bahubali era. More than nine regional films that joined the 100 crore club in 2017 & 2018. Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati and others have also shown healthy figures.

Content-driven regional films are no longer isolated by language. The involvement of established Bollywood names and top studios have taken regional films overseas. The freedom to tell stories that may be local, but their reach is beyond boundaries and has helped regional films grab eyeballs at the international level.

Satyajit Ray’s Bengali Pather Panchali in 1955 to Abhishek Shah’s Gujarati Hellaro in 2019, has been the true hallmark of excellence in Indian cinema. The regional cinema in India has reached its creative peak. Regional films do not have a limited budget, any longer. The increase in budget for film-making has changed the promotion and marketing of regional films.

During the pandemic OTT platforms have gained popularity, viewers had time at their disposable. OTT platforms have collapsed the language and cultural barriers by providing English subtitles and provided a broader audience to regional cinema.

In this issue we have chosen papers with the focus on Assamese, Tamil and Malayalam Films.
We thank our contributors for the overwhelming response.

Stay safe &Healthy

Dr Padma Rani
Professor & Director
Manipal Institute of Communication
Co-ordinator Media Research Centre