Indian film and television veteran Siddharth Roy Kapur points to increasingly polarized theatrical results and a period of strategic recalibration in streaming as key trends that shaped Indian entertainment in 2024, characterizing it as a “hiatus year” dominated by business-to-business developments rather than consumer-facing initiatives.

“People are getting much more particular about which films they will watch in a movie theater,” says Roy Kapur, founder of Roy Kapur Films and former Disney India head in his yearly analysis of the Indian entertainment business for Variety. “The habits that got reinforced through Covid have only accelerated in terms of people deciding to come out for very specific films in a year theatrically.”

Roy Kapur notes that while successful theatrical releases are performing better than pre-pandemic levels, films that don’t generate strong word-of-mouth are underperforming compared to previous years. This polarization was amplified by fewer theatrical releases in 2024, which he attributes partially...