Hindi
Indian cinema: east wants funding; south, showcasing strength
NEW DELHI: The government needs to do its bit for dying cinema in the eastern region and earmark a certain budget exclusively for them, though the South showed how strong it is, and only prayed with the media to showcase them to the world.
These are the two contrasting views that emerged from the panel discussion titled “Relevance of regional media and entertainment industry in the global context” during the Assocham Global Media and Entertainment Summit, Focus 2007, being held here.
Award-winning Bengali cinema director Raja Sen made the point strongly, “I have received three President‘s Awards, and one of them is for a children‘s film. However, till date, none of the Central agencies meant for funding films have done anything for me.”
Sen obviously meant that if awarded directors have to face this plight, the situation for unrecognised directors could well be imagined.
“I come from Bengali cinema, but I also have to represent cinema from the entire east, which is dying in the absence of government support,” Sen said, adding that even Assamese and Oriya cinemas are facing the same situation.
As most leftist intellectuals would have it, Sen reiterated that this is because of the unrelenting march of globalisation, and that funding is an immediate necessity if new life is to be infused into eastern Indian cinema.
He was seconded by the young singer-turned-actor from Bhojpuri cinema, Manoj Tiwari, who said that corporates should look at Bhojpuri as well as eastern cinema in general.
Tiwari stated that one film, Sasra Bada Paiseywallah, made at a cost of Rs 37 lakh, has grossed Rs 34 crore and exemplified the potential of Bhojpuri cinema.
However, L Suresh, a producer of Tamil films, stressed that southern cinema was going great guns, pointing out at a Cannes Film Festival 2005 official document that said that globally, the biggest grosser for the year had been a Tamil film Chandramukhi, followed by Bunty Aur Babli at the seventh place.
Suresh also said that the Rajnikath starrer Shivaji was released across the globe and grossed Rs 175 crore, and that of the 12,000 theatres across the country, 6,000 are in the south and 60 to 65 per cent of India‘s total film produce comes from there.
“I want to state that regional cinema is big, but the limelight has been taken away by the big brother Hindi films, and the media needs to spread the achievements of southern films,” Suresh said.
The Marathi cinema actor Mahesh Manjrekar said that the state had a tradition as old as that of Indian cinema, but it had been almost dying till the late 1990s, till the advent of the film Suhas.
Manjrekar said that with that film, Marathi cinema found back its content and revived itself.
Interestingly, Javed Akhtar, poet-lyricist and screenplay veteran, observed that Hindi cinema itself has weakened, pointing out that there is no strong hero today and hence, no strong villain, and the films themselves are weak, though they could be grossing well often.
Akhtar showed how society drove film content, rather than the reverse. In the early 40s, when land issues were central in society, the villains in Hindi films were the zamindars, and then in the 50s, as industrialisation grew, it was the mill owners, the capitalists.
“During the 60s came the dadas (dons), but suddenly, as and when the moral fabric of the society started weakening in the 70s, those very dadas became the heroes in the films, and were slowly replaced by the politicians and police as villains in the 80s.”
Akhtar said that after flirting for a while in the 90s with Pakistan as the evil force, now there are no villains and no heroes either.
Hindi cinema is in a dilemma, Akhtar said, because “We cannot have a strong society without dreams, but today our dreams are very personal because there is no collective aspiration and no collective dream in a society which has become extremely individualistic.”
Hindi
GUEST COLUMN: Why film libraries & IPs are the new engines of growth
Unlocking value through catalogue strength and IP synergy
MUMBAI:In a media landscape defined by fragmentation, platform proliferation, and ever-evolving audience behavior, the economics of filmmaking are undergoing a fundamental shift. No longer confined to box office performance, a film’s true value is now measured across an extended lifecycle that spans digital platforms, syndication networks, and global markets. As content consumption becomes increasingly non-linear and algorithm-driven, film libraries and intellectual properties (IPs) are emerging as strategic assets, capable of delivering sustained, long-term returns. For Mohan Gopinath, head – bollywood business at Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd., this transformation signals a decisive move from hit-driven models to portfolio-led value creation. In this piece, Gopinath explores how legacy content, when intelligently repurposed and distributed, can unlock recurring revenue streams, why the interplay between catalogue and original IP is critical, and how media companies can build resilient, future-ready entertainment businesses.
For all these years, we thought that a film is successful if it performs well in theatres. There are opening weekend numbers, box office milestones, and distribution footprints that gave a good picture of how the movie has done commercially and also tell us about its cultural impact. However, there are multiple platforms today, always-on content ecosystem, which has caused a shift. Today, the theatrical performance is not the culmination of a film’s journey but merely the beginning of a much longer and more dynamic lifecycle.
Film libraries today are emerging as high-value, constantly evolving assets that deliver sustained returns well beyond initial release cycles. This becomes a point of great advantage for legacy content owners with diverse catalogues, to shape long-term business outcomes.
According to FICCI-EY, the media and entertainment industry of India achieved a valuation of Rs 2.78 trillion in 2025 which is expected to reach Rs 3.3 trillion by 2028 through a compound annual growth rate of approximately 7 per cent and digital media will bring in more than Rs 1 trillion to become the biggest sector which generates about 36 per cent of overall market revenues.
This shift is the expansion of distribution endpoints. We know how satellite television was once the primary secondary window but today, it coexists with YouTube, OTT platforms, Connected TV, and FAST channels. Each of these platforms caters to distinct audience demographics and consumption behaviors, helping content owners to obtain more value from the same asset across multiple formats.
For instance, films that had great reruns, now find continuous engagement across digital platforms. On YouTube, classic Hindi cinema continues to attract significant viewership, reaching audiences across generations and geographies with remarkable consistency. At Shemaroo Entertainment, this is reflected in our film library shaped over decades as part of a long association with Indian entertainment. From classics such as Amar Akbar Anthony to much-loved entertainers like Jab We Met, Welcome, Dhamaal, Phir Hera Pheri, Dhol, Golmaal, and Bhagam Bhag, many of these titles continue finding new audiences while retaining their place in popular memory. Their enduring appeal reflects how culturally resonant stories can continue creating value over time. Similarly, FAST channels have created curated, always-on environments where catalogue content can continue to thrive through star-led and genre-based programming.
This multi-platform approach has very well transformed films into long-tail IP assets which are capable of generating recurring revenue across advertising, subscription, and syndication models.
The evolution of audience behavior is equally important. Nowadays, it’s more important to find what’s more relative than what’s recent as viewers are more influenced by mood, memories, and algorithmic suggestions than by release schedules. Even if a movie was released decades ago, it can trend alongside a newly released movie, if surfaced in the right context. Thoughtful packaging, whether through festival-based playlists, actor-driven collections, or genre clusters, allows catalogue content to remain dynamic and continuously discoverable. Shemaroo Entertainment has built extensive film libraries over decades and its focus has mostly been on recontextualizing content for the consumption of newer environments. This process doesn’t just include digitization and restoration, but also re-packaging of films as per platforms.
Syndication itself has evolved into a key growth driver. In perspective, when looking at the domestic market, curated content packages continue to find strong demand across broadcast and digital platforms. Meanwhile, in the international market, especially in markets like Middle East, North America and Southeast Asia, the appetite for Indian content is opening up new monetization avenues. Here, the ability to package and position catalogue content effectively becomes as important as the content itself.
Importantly, the need to re-package catalogue content does not diminish the role of new content. In fact, originals and fresh IP are essential to sustaining the long-term value of a film library because they act as discovery engines that bring audiences into the ecosystem, while catalogue content drives depth, retention, and repeat engagement.
This interplay between the “new” and the “known” is what defines a robust content strategy today. While new films generate spikes in consumption, catalogue titles offer familiarity and comfort. These are factors that are increasingly valuable in an era of content abundance and decision fatigue. This is also shaping our strategy, drawing value from both a deep catalogue assets and a growing focus on original IPs to strengthen long-term audience engagement and build more predictable revenue streams.
There is growing recognition that long-term value in entertainment will be shaped not only by how intelligently existing content continues to live, travel and find relevance, but also by how consistently new stories are created to renew that ecosystem. In that sense, film libraries and original IP are not parallel bets, but reinforcing engines of growth. For media companies, the opportunity lies in making these two forces work together, because that is increasingly where more resilient and predictable businesses are being shaped.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
