, Columnist
Bollywood Is No Match for India’s New Wave Cinema
Let’s hope that movies like Homebound will have better luck finding an audience in 2026.
Source: Dharma Productions/Dharma ProductionsThe signature motif of Kantara: A Legend — Chapter 1, India’s second-biggest box-office success of 2025, is a primordial scream. It may as well be the sound of old Bollywood in its death throes, or the birth pangs of a new industry.
Kantara, described by its writer-director Rishab Shetty as “faith, culture, and devotion in all its glory,” isn’t standard Bollywood fare. For one thing, the film wasn’t made in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital. Nor is it targeted primarily at a Hindi-speaking audience.