At WAVES Summit 2025, Aamir Khan said it’s shocking that for a cinema-loving country, several districts have no theatres. “Our biggest hits over the years have had a footfall of merely two percent of our population"
Aamir Khan at WAVES Summit 2025 Pic/PTI
“Why is Bollywood failing at the box office?” is a question that echoes in every corner of the Hindi film industry today. Barring a few hits— one can count on their fingertips— Bollywood continues to struggle to get on its feet after suffering the Covid-19-caused blow five years ago. Inadvertently, it has become a talking point at the ongoing WAVES Summit, where superstars and producers Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan have shared solutions to the problem.
Aamir Khan bats for more theatres
A day after Shah Rukh called for an increase in the number of cinema halls in India, Aamir broke down how it’s unfortunate that for a hugely populated country like India, there were at most 10,000 screens available to watch movies. “In the US, which is one-third of our population, they have 40,000 screens, and China has 90,000 screens! In the 10,000 that we have, half are in the South and the other in the rest of the country. So for a Hindi film, there are only 5000 screens available,” he said.
Aamir said it’s shocking that for a cinema-loving country, several districts have no theatres. “Our biggest hits over the years have had a footfall of merely three and a half crore people, which is just two percent of our population. So, where is the remaining 98 percent watching our films? We need to have a lot more theatres in India. There are so many districts that don't have a single theatre to watch films. So, I am from a place which has no cinema halls. I might read about a film online, but I will never get to watch it. This is one of our biggest issues, which we have been facing over the decades. India's huge potential can be realised if we have that many screens," he said.
Need a longer window between theatrical and OTT releases
Not just that, Aamir feels the industry needs to look at another business model, which he calls “faulty”. The actor spoke about the need for a longer window between theatrical and OTT release of a film. Aamir said the current window of eight weeks makes no sense to him as it only encourages the audience to wait for two months after a film’s release to catch it on an OTT platform, which he/she has already subscribed to for a year.
“Earlier, films would come to theatres, and a year after that on satellite. Then it became eight months, and later six months. So, I had a choice. I can either watch films in theatres or wait six months and watch on satellite. Now, what’s happening is, let’s take this bottle in my hand, and imagine you are told, ‘Please buy this bottle right now or I will drop the bottle at your home after eight weeks.’ This is a business model we are currently following. If I have to be honest to my audience while marketing my film, I have to tell them, ‘Guys, my film is releasing, but all those people who have bought subscriptions to a particular OTT platform have already bought my film. They don’t need to come to the theatres. Those who are not on any OTT platform, please come and watch my film.’ This is the communication I will have to have with my audience, and it’s very awkward. So, this window between theatrical and OTT release is too small. You are killing your own business. In a price-sensitive country like India, this is a big deal. We need to look into it,” he said.
Aamir said it doesn’t matter whether a film is good or bad; it will be killed by the current business model. “When we (film artistes) meet, we have this discussion, 'Why are our films not doing well?' I say, ‘Hello! You are telling your audience to not come.’ The quality of the film is a separate topic. Whether your film is good or bad, this business model doesn’t make sense to me. If I make a very good film, this business model still doesn’t make sense to me. The current business model is faulty.”
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