Hindi
What has made Saiyaara a Rs 300 crore box office wonder?
MUMBAI: The box office success of Saiyaara has been a topic of wide discussion over the past month. The film has performed exceptionally well, crossing Rs 300 Cr at the domestic box office, and becoming the second-highest grosser of 2025 in India, behind Chhaava, at the time of writing this report. A popular theory attributes this success to the influence of Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012, currently aged 13-28). It’s an easy conclusion to draw, given the film’s genre and debutant cast. But is it really true? Can one audience segment alone propel a film with no franchise or star value to cross the Rs 300 Cr mark? This analysis explores that question.
According to Ormax Media analysis, the remarkable box office success of Saiyaara is less about a single generation’s love affair with a fresh romance and more about how different cohorts engage with emotion on screen. On paper, the culprit seemed obvious. Gen Z—those aged 13 to 28—looked tailor-made for the film’s youthful leads, moody soundtrack, and breakneck visuals. Social chatter, sneaker fashion and music streams all suggested the movie was “their” moment. But Ormax Media’s data complicates the narrative.
The firm’s proprietary OPR (Ormax Power Rating), a 0–100 index that tracks likeability and advocacy, is a trusted predictor of word-of-mouth and sustained collections. A score above 60 typically signals robust engagement, translating into strong box office legs beyond opening weekend. Over four weeks of tracking, Saiyaara notched a sturdy OPR, with Gen Z audiences scoring it at 68 and those aged 29+ close behind at 63. A respectable gap, but not wide enough to explain the runaway commercial phenomenon.
The real story, says Ormax Media, emerges when the data is split by gender. Women across generations responded almost identically strongly, suggesting that themes of love, empathy and sacrifice cut across age barriers. Among men, however, the divergence was stark. Gen Z men mirrored women’s enthusiasm, while older men slipped sharply, delivering an OPR of just 56.
Why does this gap matter? For Ormax analysts, it reflects shifting life priorities. Gen Z men—many still students, young professionals or in early relationships—saw in Krish Kapoor, the protagonist, an avatar of their own anxieties and aspirations. At 22, Krish is all swagger and style: racing bikes across Mumbai flyovers, flaunting Air Jordans, and smoking defiantly. But when his girlfriend Vaani is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he doesn’t flee. Instead, he pauses his rising music career to stay by her side. The arc resonated with younger men who are wrestling with questions of identity, love and loyalty in their own lives.
“Cinema becomes a tool of self-discovery for this cohort,” Ormax Media notes. “It validates emotions that are difficult to articulate, reassuring them that ‘forever’ love is not entirely a myth.”
Older men, by contrast, appear to want films to serve as escape hatches from the daily grind of careers, mortgages, and parenting. For them, Saiyaara may be admirable cinema, but not essential viewing. As Ormax points out, this explains the 10-point OPR gap between the two male groups.
For women, the generational divide all but vanishes. Ormax’s data highlights how relationship-driven storytelling continues to resonate across age brackets, aligned with academic research suggesting women are both socialised, and to some extent biologically primed, to prioritise empathy and relational bonds in narrative consumption. Saiyaara capitalised on this, shaping Krish’s trajectory not as a melodramatic sacrifice but as a nuanced portrait of resilience and commitment.
The outcome: a Rs 300 cr-plus blockbuster that defied industry cynicism around non-franchise, debutant-led films. Saiyaara’s triumph is not solely Gen Z’s doing. Rather, it is the uncharacteristic enthusiasm of young men—an audience often elusive for romantic dramas—that Ormax Media credits with tipping the film from respectable hit to cultural juggernaut.
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.
