Synopsis: On the one hand, while many a Hindi film with a marquee star cast have bitten dust, Hollywood in 2022 has created three unicorns in terms of the revenue generated- if one were to extend the definition and make the argument stand on its head, as per the Hegelian premise.
When seed investor Aileen Lee had defined UNICORN for the world of startups, it meant that a unicorn is a proposition that has reached valuation of $1 billion. Application of his analogy was primarily for the world of startups who could reach the magical figure of $ 1billion.
Well, if one were to make the argument stand on its head and extend the analogy to the world of entertainment, specifically for FY 2022, then Hollywood has emerged triumphant given three Unicorns for the current year. It is more so a glaring contrast with the world of Hindi cinema where the audience has outrightly rejected the approach to Hindi film making by the filmmakers per se, CIRKUS of Rohit Shetty being a live example.
Moot point of the premise is, should the cinema when it reaches the magic figure of $ billion in collection worldwide, that too within 14 days as it happened in the case of Avatar: The way of Water and within one month for TOPGUN MAVERICK and above four months for JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION.
The concept of startup is all about taking an idea to an actuality and make a success out of it and the world of creative expression, cinema being its most visible medium is a living testimony to it. Should not then the analogy of UNICORN be extended to the realm of filmmaking?
The phenomenal success that AVATAR2 has achieved is celebration of the idea and its wholehearted acceptance by the consumers. A start up obviously searches for eyeballs and then the end use application of the idea. Well, Avatar: The way of Water, TOP GUN MAVERICK etc., are ideas which have the quotient of novelty associated with them, that enticed the audience all over the world and they whole hearted endorsement is manifest in the success these 3 cinematic UNICORNS have achieved for themselves!
So far, this magical figure of $billion revenues worldwide has not been achieved by any Hindi film so far. BAHUBALI-2, THE CONLCUSION is the biggest grosser in the history of Indian films, having done the business of Rs.1429 crore (around $230 million), followed by KGF-2 which did a business of Rs. 1000 cr (around $ 152 million). (Source: Wikipedia)
Bottom line is there is not much difference between startups and the world of entertainment. The valuation is for the aspect of creativity that has the element to become disruptive and shatter all the established paradigms. Hindi cinema is not able to break the shackles and try Outliers. It continues to revel in the template of remixes, songs set to Punjabi beats, has the false notion of packed a hit product based on a hit through social media platforms.
It is high time this Spanish prison in which the notion of film making has locked itself, in particular, the world of Hindi cinema, need to break out of or else it would never be able to create a UNICORN which now Hollywood is churning out with relative ease. It is the idea, which needs to be reinvented and not rehashed, till it is done, no media management and publicities would bring the audience back to the cinema halls, who would focus their eyeballs on the supposed spectacle (which is more often than not a damp squib).
