At a recent FICCI session, Arjun Kapoor spoke candidly about the complex interplay between story, star, platform, data, and marketing in Bollywood. Addressing a younger audience, he said, “I'll start a side conversation first with them. And not do it on a public platform because they're going to wonder why you guys are making films. There's no reason for you all to be making films? Because there's no upside. There's literally no upside, and I think that's a realization that a lot of people who come in from outside have realized, okay, this is a business, which is Russian roulette, which is gambling.”
Kapoor elaborated on the emotional and instinct-driven nature of filmmaking: “They don't look at it like an Excel sheet. Because then you can't make films. Because it's a very gut and emulsive profession. It's a profession that you have to leave a lot of your education aside when you look at doing something. Yes, then in that chaos, you find structure and order to do it with. Some numbers come in, but the first impulse is you can't rely on an MBA to make a film. You can rely on an MBA in the process of making a film. But your choice to tell a story has to come from a US audience, from you understanding why the director, why the makers, why the actors have a vision.”
He also highlighted the central role of theatrical revenue and the shifting economics of Indian cinema: “Just for the bare essential conversation, your core business is theatrical. Revenue is what designs and defines the budget of a film. You don't look at the ancillary income, which today is digital sales—Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar, Zee, etc. Or there's satellite, which today is on a downward swing because advertising has shifted to social media, YouTube, and digital. Earlier, satellite was the biggest place to make money post-release of a film. Now these are your three big revenue streams outside of theatrical revenue.”
Kapoor broke down how revenue actually reaches producers: “Now theatrically, when you hear that the picture has made 100 crores, the distributor's share is 50 crores because he wants 50 taka for exhibition and taxation. That means we, as producers, when I make a film, if the film has done 100 crores, the revenue is 50 crores. That's to the distributor, which is what gives you the ability to release the film. So you're sharing that 50 crores with the distributor. The distributor will pay you an MG mostly upfront to acquire your film because that's how they get the cash flow, so you can make the film. So when you look at the numbers, the film has done 500 crores. Eventually, when you get the brass tax, after everything else, you'll roughly get 200–525 crores… Okay? So when you're looking at a number like 500 crores, ultimately, the money you're getting is from theatrical is 150–200 crores. Overseas might be another x amount of money. Again, the revenue sharing is very different. It could be 60, 40, 55%. There are 45 different revenue models.”
On the unpredictable nature of the industry, he added: “Now that's changed because the theatrical business has no minimum. Today a film can do 500, it can do five. There's no middle path. When you make a film, you need to spend more than you imagine, on print and advertising, which is expensive.” Kapoor illustrated the unpredictability with an example: “We did a business of 50 crores in India. If Anka made it for 30 crores, you would make 50 crores. How much does 40 taka of a crore make? 202 crores, so we made 20 million in India theatrically. Overseas, the film had done over 5 million dollars.”
His insights reveal Bollywood as a high-stakes mix of art, instinct, and business acumen: “Yes, numbers matter, but you must first love the story you’re telling. The process requires balancing creativity with business savvy—a chaotic, thrilling mix that defines Indian cinema.”