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IMDb: Indian cinema sheds its Bollywood skin
MUMBAI: Forget popular Hindi movies (read that as a word we, at indiantelevision.com prefer not to use: Bollywood). The Hindi film industry’s stranglehold on Indian cinema is over, replaced by a dazzling mosaic of regional powerhouses that are collaborating, competing and conquering audiences from Chennai to Chicago. That is the striking conclusion of a new report from IMDb, the world’s most popular film database, which has crunched data from 250 million monthly users to chart 25 years of transformation in Indian cinema.
The analysis, released on 30 September and titled 25 Years of Indian Cinema (2000-2025), covers the top five most popular Indian films released each year between January 2000 and August 2025. It paints a picture of an industry in flux, one that has moved decisively away from the Hindi-centric model that dominated the turn of the millennium. The 130 films examined collectively garnered more than 9.1 million user ratings—an average of over 70,000 per film—offering a unique longitudinal view of global audience tastes across languages, formats and release models.
“The Indian film industry has always been cyclical, so this quarter century mark is a good vantage point to look forward and see what that evolution means for stories and storytellers in the years ahead,” says IMDb India. head Yaminie Patodia. The data, she argues, provides a singular, neutral proxy for audience engagement, independent of platform, geography or release window. “This moment marks a coming of age for Indian cinema—one that embraces a richer tapestry of voices from across industries, driven by collaborations and diverse narrative styles.”
The numbers tell a compelling story of disruption and democratisation. The mass-appeal film is staging a remarkable comeback, with audiences across India gravitating towards stories in which they see themselves reflected rather than aspirational fantasies set in foreign locales. 12th Fail (2023), a gritty drama about civil service examination candidates, stands as the sole Hindi film to crack the top ten most popular Indian films in southern states over the past five years—proof that regional boundaries dissolve when the story resonates with universal themes of struggle and ambition.
This shift represents a fundamental recalibration of audience preferences. For decades, Hindi cinema dominated through sheer industrial muscle and distribution networks, even in markets where Hindi was barely spoken. Now, audiences are voting with their attention spans, and they are choosing authenticity over linguistic familiarity. The mass movie—once derided by critics as lowbrow—has been rehabilitated as the truest expression of popular sentiment.
Cross-industry collaboration is driving unprecedented scale. Twelve of the 25 most popular films from the past five years feature substantial partnerships across direction, casting, music and distribution. Directors such as Lokesh Kanagaraj and S.S. Rajamouli, each with four titles in the dataset, are the architects of this new pan-Indian cinema, crafting spectacles that transcend linguistic lines. Rajamouli’s RRR and the Baahubali franchise exemplify this approach: Telugu-language films with national appeal, global reach and budgets to match Hollywood blockbusters.
These collaborations are strategic, not accidental. A Tamil director might cast a Kannada star, commission music from a Hindi composer and distribute through a Telugu production house. The result is a film that feels local everywhere and foreign nowhere, a cinematic Esperanto that speaks to shared cultural touchstones rather than regional peculiarities.
The star system, too, is evolving in ways that would have seemed unthinkable a generation ago. Shah Rukh Khan remains king, appearing in 20 of the top 130 films analysed—a testament to his enduring appeal and canny project selection. But the nature of stardom itself has changed. Today’s stars function less as guaranteed box-office magnets and more as multipliers of a film’s inherent strengths. The days of a star “carrying” a mediocre script through sheer charisma are largely over. Audiences, empowered by streaming services and social media, are savvier and more demanding.
Hrithik Roshan and Aamir Khan follow Shah Rukh with 11 films each in the dataset, then Deepika Padukone with 10, Ajay Devgn with seven, and Amitabh Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Rani Mukerji with six apiece. The report suggests it is time to stop searching for “the next Shah Rukh Khan”—not because there are no talented actors, but because the industrial conditions that created such singular dominance no longer exist. The market is too fragmented, the competition too fierce, and audiences too diverse for any one star to achieve comparable hegemony.
Perhaps most intriguingly, language has morphed from barrier to genre. Telugu and Kannada films excel in spectacle-driven entertainment—think gravity-defying action sequences and operatic emotional beats. Malayalam cinema has carved out a reputation for grounded realism, tackling social issues with nuance and restraint. Tamil films have found success in balancing social themes with commercial appeal, delivering messages wrapped in entertainment.
Audiences now use language as a reliable shorthand for narrative style, choosing films based on preferred storytelling approaches rather than viewing language as an obstacle. A viewer seeking escapist entertainment might opt for a Telugu film regardless of whether they speak the language, trusting subtitles to bridge the gap. This represents a profound shift in how Indian cinema is consumed and understood—not as a collection of separate industries defined by linguistic boundaries, but as a spectrum of narrative styles that happen to be expressed in different tongues.
Aamir Khan dominates the “crossover hits” category—films with high global popularity that have travelled far beyond the usual markets for Indian cinema. His Dangal, PK, Taare Zameen Par and 3 Idiots have conquered international audiences with their universal themes and emotional accessibility. Indeed, 3 Idiots is the most popular Indian film worldwide on IMDb, with 468,000 user ratings and an aggregate score of 8.4 out of ten. The film’s critique of India’s pressure-cooker education system resonated from Beijing to Berlin, proof that specific cultural contexts can illuminate universal human experiences.
Geography matters, and the report reveals fascinating regional preferences. RRR is the most popular Indian film of all time in America, where its action spectacle and historical themes found an audience hungry for something different from the Marvel formula. 3 Idiots holds the top position in Britain, the rest of Europe and Australia, markets where Indian diaspora populations remain substantial. Dangal tops charts in the UAE and China—the latter a particularly significant achievement given China’s restrictive quotas on foreign films. K.G.F: Chapter 2 is most popular in Pakistan, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion in Singapore, and Taare Zameen Par in Brazil.
These geographical variations underscore how different markets respond to different aspects of Indian cinema. American audiences seem drawn to epic scale, European audiences to social commentary wrapped in comedy, Chinese audiences to sports dramas, and Pakistani audiences to action thrillers. Understanding these preferences is crucial for an industry that increasingly depends on international revenues to justify its ballooning budgets.
Directors have emerged as the key architects of this new era. Lokesh Kanagaraj, S.S. Rajamouli, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani and Farhan Akhtar have each delivered four hits in the 25-year period analysed. Their success underscores a broader truth: in this new era of Indian cinema, the director’s vision matters as much as the star’s wattage. Rajamouli’s name alone can guarantee an opening weekend; Bhansali’s aesthetic is instantly recognisable; Hirani’s brand of socially conscious comedy has defined a genre.
This directorial ascendancy mirrors global trends. Just as audiences flock to see “the new Christopher Nolan film” or “the latest from Denis Villeneuve”, Indian audiences are beginning to follow directors as much as stars. The auteur theory, long dismissed in India’s star-driven industry, is finally finding purchase.
The report, drawing on IMDb’s vast database and global reach, provides a rare neutral perspective on an industry often analysed through the distorting lens of box-office collections—a metric plagued by opacity, manipulation and regional variation. User ratings, whilst imperfect, offer a more democratic measure of engagement and satisfaction.
The data suggests Indian cinema has reached a genuine coming of age—one that embraces a richer tapestry of voices from across industries, driven by collaboration and diverse narrative styles. The old Hindi cinema hegemony is dead, replaced by something more complex, more interesting, and potentially more sustainable: a true national cinema that honours regional identities whilst building bridges between them. Long live Indian cinema.
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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.
