8 months ago
India's New Wave Cinema Overtakes Bollywood
In 2025, a big change happened in Indian movies.
Films from southern India, like Kantara and Homebound, became very popular.
These movies tell new stories and are in different languages like Kannada and Malayalam.
People are watching these instead of the usual Bollywood movies from Mumbai.
Kantara is about a magical forest and has scary screams, while Homebound talks about real problems like caste and jobs.
Bollywood is having a hard time because people prefer these new films.
Even big stars like Shah Rukh Khan aren't making the big hits they used to.
The new movies are doing so well that they are now part of the mainstream, and people are excited to watch them.
Kantara: A Legend — Chapter 1 became India's second-biggest box-office success of 2025, showcasing the rise of southern Indian cinema.
Southern Indian films like Kantara and Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra are gaining mainstream popularity with fresh stories and multilingual appeal.
Bollywood is struggling, with only a 4% increase in revenue from Hindi films compared to significant gains from Kannada and Malayalam films.
Homebound addresses real issues like caste and unemployment, offering a stark contrast to escapist Bollywood films.
Streaming services and manipulated social media reviews are deepening the crisis of credibility in the Indian film industry.
- Who
- Indian filmmakers and audiences, particularly in southern India.
- What
- The rise of new wave cinema in India, overtaking traditional Bollywood.
- Where
- Primarily in southern India, with significant impact on the national film industry.
- When
- Throughout 2025.
- Why
- Due to fresh stories, multilingual appeal, and a shift in audience preferences towards regional cinema.
Key facts
- Kantara: A Legend — Chapter 1
- India's second-biggest box-office success of 2025, a Kannada film about a mysterious forest and its supernatural forces.
- Kantara
- Directed by Rishab Shetty, focuses on faith, culture, and devotion, and is set in a southern Indian language.
- Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra
- A Malayalam superhero franchise with exotic folklore and fantasy elements.
- Homebound
- A film based on a true story of two young village boys trying to become police constables, addressing caste and unemployment.
- Dhurandhar
- A recent Bollywood hit with a gory revenge plotline set against military hostilities with Pakistan.
- PVR Inox Ltd
- India's biggest exhibitor, reporting significant revenue increases from Kannada and Malayalam films, but only a 4% increase from Hindi films.
- Neeraj Ghaywan
- Director of Homebound, who explained caste discrimination using a pandemic analogy.
- Martin Scorsese
- Helped produce Homebound and had a chat with director Neeraj Ghaywan.
- All We Imagine as Light
- A film by Payal Kapadia that won the Cannes Grand Prix and was nominated for two Golden Globes.
- Shaunak Sen
- An Oscar-nominated indie filmmaker who criticized streaming services for homogenizing film bets.
Quotes
Scroll review
A review published on the Scroll website
“The heroine in Sthal is almost a commodity, to be traded like the bales of cotton lying around her home. What Savita (Nandini Chikte) feels about being repeatedly paraded before strangers and asked the same banal questions is not known, since nobody asks her.”
scroll.in
“Well aware that the element of surprise – that first sighting of mortals driven to uncommon courage after being possessed by spirits – can’t be replicated, Rishab Shetty examines the human aspects of the encounter between tribals and their supposed rulers.”
scroll.in
Raj B Shetty
Producer of the film Su From So
“Our intention was to make a film that was entertaining, engaging and had a quality of goodness to it”
scroll.in
Fasil Muhammed
Director of the film Feminist Fathima
“a challenge to people who don’t want to change with the times”
scroll.in
Sources
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