The Convergence of Bollywood and Gaming: How Entertainment Brands Are Entering the Gaming World

While developing an online card game, the considerations are quite simple. Take a rummy app for instance. If your target audience is passionate about rummy, you have a head start to begin with. But for games that need a story, developing a narrative plot is crucial. This is where the world of gaming and the world of cinema often converge.

When D 2.5 appeared as a full-length PC game more than a decade and a half ago, it opened the floodgates for this convergence. Based on the superhit multi-starrer, Dhoom 2, this was the first gaming adaption of a Bollywood movie. Since then, Bollywood and gaming have often crossed paths to come up with new forms of gaming entertainment for the masses.

Movie Gamification in Bollywood

The pattern that started with Dhoom 2 continued with movies like Ghajini and Krrish. Ghajini, in particular, was tailor made for a gaming avatar, leading to the release of Ghajini - The Game. These early movie-based games were underwhelming at times. Common issues noted include borrowed storylines, sub-par graphics, and a consequent lukewarm response.

At the same time, there were a few head-turning developments as well. The Ra.One franchise partnered with Sony for the game version of Ra.One. Dhoom 3 publicised its game in a big way, prioritising it over the song and teaser releases of the movie. An endless bike race with 32 levels, the game got a positive response from gamers.

In recent years, this converging pattern has continued. Last year, the Akshay Kumar-starrer Ram Setu was developed into an endless runner game. Back in 2017, a strategy game was developed around the plot of Bahubali-2. It was seen as graphically fit for purpose as a mobile game. However, to understand the convergence between Bollywood and gaming better, we have to also look beyond the movie-to-game adaptations.

How Gaming Emerged as a Mainstream Entertainment

Leading entertainment industries have always converged to appeal to audiences. A Bollywood biopic on a cricket superstar would attract two distinct legions of fans, as would a movie featuring a celebrated singer. Bollywood venturing out to gaming reflects the fact that gaming itself has become a massively popular source of entertainment.

The global gaming business is estimated to have a higher value than the television, music, and movie industries combined. The gaming industry is valued at more than $200 billion, with more than 3.1 billion active gamers. Even in India, gaming is estimated to be worth $3.1 billion and has a consumer base of around 568 million.

A major reason for the recent dominance of the gaming industry is its popularity as a mobile source of entertainment. Mobile phones are readily available as a source of entertainment and contribute to 90% of the gaming revenue in India.

For entertainment houses like OTT platforms and movie studios, tapping into the gaming potential serves as a hotline to the target audience. Almost every youngster is a gamer at some level. A global survey indicates that 90% of the Generation Z population is used to gaming. Among the even younger generation, i.e. Generation Alpha, this is 94%!

Emerging Cinema/Gaming Mashups

While Bollywood movies releasing games is one side of the story, gaming studios are collaborating more and more with the cine stars too. Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone recently collaborated with a popular mobile battle royale game. She will appear in the game as a playable character and be available in two avatars.

Entities like Shemaroo Entertainment are blurring the distance between movies and games even further. The owner of popular Bollywood movie titles like Disco Dancer and Amar, Akbar, Anthony; Shemaroo has ventured into metaverse gaming. Its partnership with an AI-powered immersive learning and game development company will see the creation of Shemarooverse. It is poised to become their metaverse platform, where popular Bollywood movies will see gaming adaptations.

When it comes to success in entertainment, it is important to come up with innovations every day. To break the mould of simple rummy games, popular rummy app RummyCulture went on to organise the world’s largest online rummy tournament. Basic cricket video games paved the way for hugely popular cricket fantasy league games. Movie and gaming companies collaborating on new ideas are a continuation of this pattern.

The Movie/Game Role Reversal

The logical next step for Bollywood could be to try game adaptations. Hollywood has experimented with this and enjoyed enviable success. From the adaptation of the game Lara Croft into an Angelina Jolie movie to the recent Sonic the Hedgehog, game-to-movie treatments have delivered strong responses.

Hollywood has seen adaptations of games like Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Gran Turismo and many more. Closer home, hawk-eyed audiences noted similarities between the Tamil movie Velayudham and the game Assassin’s Creed. However, Bollywood has yet to come up with major and well-publicised adaptations of a game storyline.

Will the Plot Thicken?

If the pattern so far is anything to go by, the confluence between Bollywood and gaming will continue in the years ahead. As two of the leading sources of entertainment in India, the creative exchange of ideas between games and movies can yield a lot of entertaining showtime for gamers and viewers alike.