There as an article last week here about there only being nine male star who have some clout at the box office to varying degrees (The Stardom Race). The industry is at a low that has not been seen in the last 10-12 years and generally its seen that better content is the only way out but that is not exactly the case as we are not really going to get numbers unless its content with these nine stars. Yes a Bahubali - The Conclusion has come but that is an exception rather than a rule. The industry is at a stage that mediocre success like Bareilly Ki Barfi and Lipstick Under My Burkha are called major successes and some even call them HITS. The problem is the industry and media can call they what they like but bottom line is the public has hardly seen these films and many will not even know they exist. The producers may have made some money on the film but they do nothing for the actors in the film as they hardly find an audience.

So going forward the need is the talent outside the nine saleable stars being able to bring in an audience so a film like Bareilly Ki Barfi can find an audience or newcomers coming in and adding to that saleable star list. The reason why we say a newcomer has a better chance adding to the nine star list is because the present lot outside the top nine have probably had their chances. Both these options look tough so where does it leave us.

The options above are difficult to occur so it basically boils done to the top nine male stars. Last year these top nine male stars had 11 eleven releases out of 200 plus films giving a success ratio of 7%. So far this year these stars have 8 out of the 140 odd releases.

Now if we go back 20 years to 1997 then the top nine stars had 30 out of the 92 releases and the success ratio was 25%.

Going back another fifteen years to 1982, the top nine stars had 49 releases out of 125 odd releases and the success ratio stood at 38%. 

Back further to 1972 and it gets even better with 39 releases from the top nine stars out of 100 odd releases and the success ratio was 47%.

Whether anybody likes it or not its a star dominated industry, there is always talk about content but even that only really works with a star and without a star, the numbers remain limited. The box office stars become even more important today as its a game of 3-7 days. So the best way for the industry to grow today is that there has to be more work from these nine stars. It is no coincidence that the success ratio has dropped when the main stars are contributing lesser ratio of the total films. 

There is always the talk of more screens but that will only come if the screens have the software to exhibit. Generally its these weird Indie film makers that complain about the screens but despite their films getting limited releases even these releases are actually too wide and they actually have no reason to complain. The fact that two major films find it difficult to release on the same day is a huge problem. But for this to change these nine stars need to contribute around 20 films a year which is nearly 2 films a month. Not all these films are going to be hits but what is certain is that footfalls will go up by a margin and with that comes demand and with demand there comes expansion leading to more screens and more business. 

Just to have 10 odd releases in a year by the top stars and even there one of them is contributing 3-4 of them leaving eight other major stars giving just 7-8 releases a year is going to take us nowhere. There are two ways out either these nine up the volume or newcomers get added to this list without and of the present nine dropping out which automatically ups the volume.

In conclusion the only hope right now for some solid growth is for these actors to have more films, if not 20 then at least higher than the 10-12 which is happenning at present.