At WAVES 2025, Aamir Khan addressed Bollywood's box office struggles, citing limited theater access, poor audience reach, and flawed OTT release models as key issues affecting the industry's performance.
At the recent WAVES 2025 summit, Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan opened up about a topic that’s been on everyone’s mind: why aren’t Bollywood films performing well at the box office anymore?
Speaking candidly, Aamir pointed out that the problem isn’t just about bad scripts or lackluster performances—it runs deeper than that. According to him, one of the major issues is the lack of accessibility. India has only about 10,000 cinema screens, and just around 5,000 of them show Hindi films. Compare that to the U.S., which has around 40,000 screens, or China with nearly 90,000, and it becomes clear how limited the reach of Indian films really is.
Aamir also revealed a surprising fact: even blockbuster hits in Bollywood only reach about 3.5 crore people—that’s just 2% of India’s population. “That means 98% of people are not watching our films in cinemas,” he said. This low penetration is alarming in a country that’s often called movie-obsessed.
Another major concern he raised is the shrinking gap between theatrical releases and OTT (streaming) platforms. Most films are available online just eight weeks after their cinema debut. For many people, especially those living in smaller towns without easy access to theaters, it makes more sense to just wait and watch movies at home. Aamir believes this business model is hurting the entire film ecosystem.
During the same event, Shah Rukh Khan echoed similar concerns, calling for more investment in affordable theaters across the country. Both actors stressed that if Bollywood wants to bounce back, it needs to not just focus on storytelling, but also on building the infrastructure that allows those stories to reach the people.
In essence, Aamir’s message was clear: Bollywood doesn’t have a creativity problem—it has a distribution and accessibility problem. Fixing that, he says, is the key to bringing audiences back to the big screen.