The last one year has probably been one of the toughest for the Indian media and entertainment industry in decades—though not many are speaking about it openly.
The satellite market, once the safety net for films, has shrunk to a shadow of what it used to be. And while everyone points to a “digital boom,” those on the inside know that OTT platforms have been slashing budgets left, right and centre. Originals are fewer, cheques are smaller, and even greenlights are taking longer than ever.
What this has meant is that only a handful of big studios with slate deals are able to stay afloat. The independent producers—the ones who used to make small or mid-sized projects, nurture new voices, and bring fresh stories to screens—have been wiped out of the equation. The result?
A drop in the quality and variety of cinema we’re seeing.
Decline of Satellite TV
Ask any studio if they’d consider backing a film with newcomers and they’ll recoil. Saiyaara-type exceptions are still too few and not the norm. Without a star cast, there are no pre-sales. Platforms won’t underwrite. So, we’re left with the same old formula films being recycled—even when audiences, especially Gen Z, are demanding change and calling out the monotony. Ironically, those very formula films still manage pre-sales, while smaller, deserving stories are squeezed out.
To make matters worse, regulatory headwinds have chipped away at revenue streams that once cushioned the industry. The recent blanket prohibition on real-money online gaming hasn’t just hit gaming companies—it has also gutted a major source of sponsorship and advertising money for media and entertainment. Platforms like Dream11 and MPL had become some of the biggest spenders on IPL sponsorships, sports marketing, influencer campaigns, and digital ads. Overnight, that flow of money—running into thousands of crores annually—has dried up. Production houses, broadcasters, and digital publishers that had come to rely on these spends are now left staring at a vacuum.
Star costs haven’t helped either. In Bollywood, an A-lister charging INR 70–100 crores has become the norm. In Tollywood, that number is often double. Add entourages, vanity vans, and other overheads—and producers are bled dry before the first shot rolls. The only way to survive is by banking on pre-sales, which again keeps the industry hostage to names over narratives.
Shrinking Space for Independent Producers
The one “new” trend filling some of the vacuum is micro-dramas. Originating in China, they’re now being tried by Indian platforms too. Short, vertical dramas—snackable cliff-hangers—are seen as a cheaper, faster bet. But whether they can build the kind of lasting ecosystem that nurtures serious cinema is still a question.
Unless actors begin to support producers by moving towards profit-sharing models instead of bloated fixed fees, unless platforms start allocating fair budgets across genres and formats, and unless we consciously rebuild a market for diverse stories, we risk hollowing out the industry.
The Indian M&E sector still looks shiny from the outside, but beneath the headlines, the middle has fallen out. And without the middle, the foundation for the future—of talent, of stories, of risk-taking—remains deeply shaky.
(Anushree Rauta, Equity Partner - Head of Media, Entertainment and Gaming Practice, ANM Global.)
Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.
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