EXCLUSIVE: India’s cinema business is dominated by mass market movies and star names, but the search for the new Shah Rukh Khan is likely to come up empty.
That’s the word from a landmark report from IMDb that we can bring you exclusively today. Along with outlining how Indian film is evolving and highlighting the enduring star power of a select few actors, the 25 Years of Indian Cinema (2000-2025) report also shows how viewers are divide the country’s growing market segments up by genre.
Among the trends identified is how the rise of South Indian cinema highlighted a continuing demand for movies made for wide audiences.
While Hindi cinema and the traditional Bollywood biz has broadly moved towards “urban-centric” storytelling, the popularity of South India movies such as Animal, Pushpa: The Rule – Part 2 and Kalki 2898AD highlights a demand for films targeting broader audiences, the report suggested.
In fact, only on Hindi-language film, 12th Fail, made the top ten most-popular Indian films among India’s southern states, according to the number of IMDb page views they garnered between 2020 and 2024. IMDb suggested 12th Fail‘s popularity was another indicator of mass market movies’ popularity. The Vikrant Massey-starring 2023 film followed the story of Manoj Kumar Sharma, a man who escaped extreme poverty to become a police officer.
The success of 2023’s 12th Fail across regional lines is notable in this regard. It signals that the conversation is no longer about Hindi versus Southern cinema,” the report claimed. “Instead, India’s mass audience is seeking stories in which they feel seen.”
The report also found that star power among Bollywood’s traditional stars remains the case, with Rukh Khan’s first five movies of the millennium, from 2000 to 2004, ranking as India’s top-rated movie each year. He also appeared in eight of the top 25 during this time, and in 20 of the top 130 over the 25-year period. Hrithik Roshan appeared in four top-rated movies the first five years of this century, while Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar and Kamal Haasan each starred in two. A total of 13 male leads appeared in the films.
IMDb noted that even the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth and Mohanlal, who debuted in the 1960s and 1970s continue to lead “marquee releases.”
“Their longevity illustrates how stardom was once built on volume, consistency, and a fan contract that transcended mediums, spanning single screens, multiplexes, television, streaming, and even global markets,” said IMDb.
In contrast, the past five years have seen 23 different male leads in the top 25 films, with only Prabhas, Allu Arjun, Suriya and Vijay registering more than once.
“The actors that debuted later in the 2000s do not have the same density of releases, and therefore they do not have the same number of hits,” noted IMDb’s report. “Actors do fewer movies each year, sometimes one in two or three years. They are more expensive to hire, event movies require greater time commitments, and fragmentation of audiences just does not allow for the same intensity of releases that earlier stars were able to deliver and build their superstardom on.”
Furthermore, IMDb added: “As stars become more relatable and fandom less devotional, the star-fan contract is less sacrosanct today.”
The reported noted that each of the Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada language industries had developed their own “unique cinematic dialect.” This means that when audiences think of those segments, they often associate each one with a certain genre or genres.
Telugu and Kannada blockbusters isuch as Pushpa and KGF have become “synonymous with maximalist spectacle and heightened heroism,” while Malayalam cinema is distinctive for its rooted realism, the reported noted. Tamil movies assessed are tonally “more versatile and characterised by ideological themes balanced with commercial grammar.”
“Language is no longer a barrier, it’s a genre,” the report added. “As more movies are filmed in multiple languages simultaneously and as collaborations make it harder to bracket a movie into a specific industry, the director’s narrative style will help audiences navigate content with greater confidence and select movies that align with their preferences.”
Other finding from the report show 3 Idiots is the most popular films of the past 25 years worldwide, holding top spot in the UK, Europe and Australia, while RRR is the most popular Indian movie of all time in the U.S.
The most popular directors are Lokesh Kanagaraj, S.S. Rajamouli, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani and Farhan Akhtar, who have each delivered four successful hits in the last 25 years in the report’s dataset.
The 25 Years of Indian Cinema (2000-2025) report is based on analysis of IMDb data from over 250 million monthly users worldwide. It examined the top five most popular Indian movies released each year between January 1, 2000, and August 31, 2025. These 130 movies collectively account for more than 9.1 million IMDb user ratings, an average of over 70,000 per movie, which IMDb says provides a “unique, longitudinal view of global audience interest 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,” said Yaminie Patodia, Head, IMDb India. “IMDb data offers a singular, global proxy for audience engagement, one that is neutral to platform, geography, and 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. We are immensely proud to showcase Indian cinema’s representation across the world and look forward to its excellence being celebrated on screens globally.”
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