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Indian American filmmaker and stage director Krishna Shah passes away
Indian American filmmaker Krishna Shah, who had made several films in India before immigrating to the United States where he gained fame in Hollywood and the Broadway stage, passed away earlier this week in Mumbai.
Aged 75, he had been ill since he suffered a stroke last year.
Shah is best remembered in India for ‘Shalimar’, which he wrote and directed in 1978. It starred Dharmendra, Zeenat Aman, O P Ralhan, Shreeram Lagoo, Rex Harrison, Silvia Miles, John Saxon, Shammi Kapoor, Prem Nath, and Aruna Irani among others.
Other films that he is remembered for include ‘Cinema Cinema’, a documentary about Bollywood that screened at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes which he co-wrote and directed; ‘Hard Rock Zombies’, released by Cannon; and ‘American Drive-In’, which he also co-wrote, directed and produced. Indian films included ‘Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Ramayana’ (1992), which he re-wrote as ‘The Prince of Light’ in 2000 when it was directed by Yugo Sako.
In the last few years, Shah had been more involved with films about India, and had been working since 2009 on the research on an ambitious biopic of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
He held a series of story-telling seminars for aspiring filmmakers in Mumbai; while he also helped fledgling diaspora filmmakers such as Harish Saluja and Nagesh Kukunoor by presenting the films at festivals and in the marketplace in India.
Born in India and a graduate of Yale and UCLA, Shah was probably the first Asian-American writer/director/producer to win critical acclaim both in Hollywood and on Broadway.
He co-authored and directed a South African stage play called ‘Sponono’ on Broadway, and adapted and directed an adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘The King of the Dark Chamber’ which ran for a year and received two OBIE awards.
Other off-Broadway productions included Kalidasa’s ‘Shakuntala’, Athol Fugard’s ‘Bloodknot’ and Milton Hood Ward’s ‘Kindly Monies’ staged at the New Arts Theatre in London.
His screenplays included ‘Island in Harlem’ for MGM, ‘April Morning’ for Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and the psychiatric thriller ‘Rivals’ which he also produced and directed. ‘River Niger’ starring Cicely Tyson, James Earl Jones and Lou Gosset Jr. earned awards at festivals and a Golden Globe nomination as well. His animated feature film ‘The Prince of Light’ was long listed for the 2002 Academy Awards in its feature animation category.
He was known in American television as well, having written and/or directed several hit shows such as ‘The Man From UNCLE’, ‘Love American Style’, ‘The Flying Nun’ and ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’; and was an entertainment entrepreneur who served as president and CEO of Double Helix Films, the Carnegie Film Group and MRI Inc., a production and distribution company.
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.
