India's Bollywood at a crossroads: Beyond the glitter, a crisis brews

If there was one sure shot in Bollywood, it was that a film starring one of the Khans would be a blockbuster hit, especially over Eid. But this year, Salman Khan’s latest film, ‘Sikandar’ has struggled at the box office. It only crossed the Rs1 billion mark more than 8 days after its release, symbolising the current crisis facing the Hindi film industry. Over the last couple of years, big-budget films, once a guaranteed draw for Indian audiences, are now routinely falling flat. Lavish productions with A-list stars, expansive sets, and aggressive marketing campaigns are delivering dismal returns.

And it is the Hindi film industry that has been hit the hardest. Take a huge star like Akshay Kumar. His last big hit film was back in 2021. Since then, at least 8 of his films have flopped, in a row. 2025 has been pretty dismal on the whole for Bollywood so far. Apart from ‘Sikandar’, films like ‘Sky Force’, ‘The Diplomat’, ‘Kesari Chapter 2’ have all fallen short.