India’s regional cinema landscape is vast and diverse, with each industry offering unique narratives, cultural contexts, and filmmaking styles. To better understand regional cinema success and growth, the entertainment content platform MovieMe did a detailed study comparing five key regional film industries—Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi—and their 10 most popular releases post-COVID (2020-2024).
The study looked at film budgets, box office earnings, and genres to get a sense of what makes each regional cinema industry in India unique.
The study reflects that, despite the significant average budget and average box office earning differences, each industry is contributing significantly to the Indian cinematic experience, delivering a variety of content that caters to both local and national audiences.
For instance, while Malayalam and Kannada cinema appear to deliver compelling narratives at relatively lower budgets, Telugu and Tamil films appear to be bigger-budget blockbusters that often garner massive box office success across India.
Hindi cinema, often regarded as mainstream, continues to dominate national box offices, but regional industries like Kannada and Telugu are catching up with high-grossing films like KGF 2, RRR, and Kalki 2898 AD. Certain genre preferences also stood out from these movies, with action flicks and family dramas dominant across most industries.
This data shows that Indian regional cinema is thriving, transcending linguistic barriers and appealing to diverse audiences across the country. Especially Tamil and Kannada industries with increasing competition amongst titles to capture attention at the box office, regional movies are set to get a growing share of the market in the coming years.
Moreover, as audience preferences shift towards authenticity, complex characters, and culturally significant narratives, regional cinema is well-positioned to establish fresh trends and explore artistic limits.