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It’s a curious paradox: 2024 was a banner year for Malayalam cinema when the survival drama Manjummel Boys, with a Rs 20 crore budget and gross earnings of Rs 240+ crore, became the highest grossing Malayalam film ever, while Gen-Z romance Premalu, with a Rs 3 crore budget and Rs 136 crore in revenue, emerged as possibly India’s most profitable film of the year. There are plenty of others that left a lasting imprint on the cultural landscape.
Aavesham, an action film starring Fahadh Faasil, became a phenomenon, dominating social media with viral reels and memes. Aattam, a movie that deals with sexual harassment and brought to life by a cast of nine actors from theatre, clinched the National Award for Best Feature Film as Malayalam cinema swept eight awards at the 70th National Film Awards. The critic’s darling of Indian cinema was finally getting its due.
Meanwhile, in Kerala, producers stared at their balance sheets with such desperation that you would think they were mentally cataloguing their organs by market value.
The brutal economics of filmmaking has always involved risk—most businesses understand that failure is more common than success. But in Malayalam cinema, we are witnessing a particularly perverse form of capitalism: actors pocket 60% of production budgets and walk away unscathed when films tank, only to demand higher fees for
