Hindi
New biz models, revenue streams emerging for film industry: Assocham
NEW DELHI: The digital revolution is visibly impacting distribution and exhibition of films in India as the industry marches towards completion of 100 years with revenue projection of Rs 128 billion by 2015, up 56 per cent from Rs 81.9 billion last year.
The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) in a recent study said rising disposable incomes, growing popularity of alternate delivery mediums, digitalisation of film distribution, and value-added services like movie on demand and pay TV are set to open up new revenue streams and business models.
“Going forward, digital cinema will enable worldwide release of films on the day one like television broadcast and shorten the theatrical window. From the demand side, increasing mobile and internet penetration is significantly changing consumption pattern of viewers within the country as well as Indian Diaspora overseas,”it said.
Over 1,000 films are produced every year in more than 20 languages and dialects. Regional cinema from the south – Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada – constitutes a large chunk of this. Backed with 12,000 theatre screens, 400 production houses and a huge viewership, the country has the world‘s largest film industry in terms of number of films produced and ticket size.
Nearly 14 million Indians go to movies on a daily basis (about 1.4 per cent of the one billion population) and pay equivalent of an average daily wage of one to three dollars (or Rs 45 to 135). Employing six million workers, the Indian cinema will complete 100 years in 2013, which marked the production of the country’s first indigenous feature film ‘Raja Harishchandra’ by D G Phalke.
Box office collections currently contribute about 80 per cent of total film revenues. But technological advancements like digitalisation, onset of next generation networks and availability of sophisticated devices to access media are contributing to a growing chunk of ancillary revenues that comprise about 15 per cent of film revenues.
“Indian cinema is undergoing remarkable changes from where it began. The aggressive expansion of multiplexes, access to organised funding, foray of leading corporate houses into film production and exhibition, and popularity of digital cinema prints have been some remarkable changes seen over the last decade.”
The Assocham study said there is requirement of more than 20,000 screens and the multiplex penetration is expected to improve further with the government allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investments through automatic approval route.
Though the number of multiplexes is rising, the average number of screens is extremely low in India at 12 screens per million compared to 117 in the United States. The film industry loses Rs 3 billion to Rs 4 billion a year due to piracy and there is a shortage of world-class institutions to provide training in film and media.
“With growing viewer expectations in terms of content’s quality and variety, film makers need to gear up and leverage global audiences as well besides making efforts to gain mindshare at international film festivals,”the study said.
Hindi
Jio Studios unveils AI-powered Krishna teaser at NAB Show 2026
Global first look of Krishna uses Galleri5 AI pipeline on Azure, Historyverse slate as Jio’s Dhurandhar crosses Rs 3,000cr worldwide.
MUMBAI: Krishna has just dropped a divine teaser and this time the gods are powered by silicon, not just scripture. Jio Studios and Collective Studios’ Historyverse stole the spotlight at the NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas with the world’s first teaser for their upcoming theatrical feature Krishna, directed by Manu Anand. The big reveal happened during Microsoft’s keynote “Powering Intelligent Media, From AI Experimentation to Real-World Impact,” where the film’s AI-native production pipeline took centre stage alongside Collective Artists Network’s in-house platform, Galleri5.
At the heart of this mythological spectacle lies a fresh cinematic workflow built by Galleri5 on Microsoft Azure’s advanced AI and cloud infrastructure. Forget bolting AI onto traditional VFX or animation, this is an end-to-end, production-grade system woven into every layer: world-building, character creation, shot design and final output. Yet the storytelling remains firmly director-led, emphasising emotional depth, stillness, music and performance rather than pure spectacle. The result? Large-format theatrical cinema rooted in Indian history and culture, but conceived in ways that were simply not possible before.
Collective Artists Network runs Galleri5 natively on Azure, leveraging Microsoft Foundry and cutting-edge AI tools to handle film, episodic and advertising workflows in a secure enterprise environment. Microsoft highlighted Collective as a “Frontier” organisation successfully moving AI from pilot projects to real production-scale deployment in cinema. The technology is also on display at Microsoft’s NAB booth in the West Hall (Booth W1731).
Jio Studios (Media & Content Business, Reliance Industries), president Jyoti Deshpande said the project advances the studio’s mission to take Indian stories global with scale, ambition and authenticity, “With Krishna, we are embracing cutting-edge AI-led filmmaking while democratising these tools to make them more accessible, intuitive and cost-effective for storytellers everywhere.”
Collective Artists Network founder & group CEO Vijay Subramaniam added, “We’re using technology developed in India to carry our culture and history to audiences worldwide at a scale never seen before.”
Microsoft, vice president for telco media & entertainment, gaming Silvia Candiani noted that the media industry has reached an inflection point, “AI is no longer about experimentation but delivering real impact at production scale… By building AI-native creative systems on Microsoft Azure, Collective exemplifies how storytellers can unlock new formats, move faster and realise a true return on intelligence while keeping human creativity at the centre.”
Krishna forms part of Historyverse, Collective Studios’ ambitious slate of history and culture-driven IPs. The slate draws from iconic figures and traditions that shaped the Indian subcontinent, including stories inspired by Kali, Karna and Durga. It builds on the already-released Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh series, showing how ancient narratives can be reimagined for modern screens.
Jio Studios, India’s leading content studio and the media and content arm of Reliance Industries, continues its blockbuster run. The studio’s Dhurandhar franchise led by Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge has become the first Indian film series to cross Rs 3,000 crore worldwide. It also delivered three consecutive years of India’s highest-grossing Hindi films: Stree 2 (2024), Dhurandhar (2025) and Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026). In just eight years, Jio Studios has assembled a library of over 160 films and series, with more than 60 titles winning over 500 awards. Other notable successes include Laapataa Ladies (India’s official Oscar entry 2025), Stree, Article 370, Shaitaan and Mrs.
The NAB unveiling marks another step in Jio Studios and Collective’s push to blend Indian storytelling talent with frontier technology proving that the future of cinema may well be both ancient in spirit and thoroughly modern in execution. For audiences who love epic tales with a fresh twist, Krishna promises to deliver divine drama, this time with a little help from the cloud.
