South Indian cinema dominates OTT race, accounts for 60% of hit film acquisitions in 2025

Mumbai: From theatres to living rooms, South Indian cinema is increasingly dominating showbiz, accounting for nearly 60% of all theatrically successful films acquired by streaming platforms across Indian languages in 2025.

While this marks a significant shift in OTT content-buying strategies, it is driven by stronger viewer engagement for South Indian titles on streaming platforms, with a higher proportion of viewers tending to watch them till the end after starting them, senior executives at large media and entertainment networks said.

Of the 125 films that each drew more than one million admissions in theatres and were bought by leading streaming platforms, 74 were South Indian titles, according to a study by media and entertainment research firm Ormax Media.

"South Indian titles generally show strong engagement patterns, often delivering high completion rates and sustained viewing, which improve long-term platform value," said Krishnan Kutty, head of entertainment business, South cluster, at JioStar. "At streaming scale, consistent engagement matters more than opening spikes, and regional content is increasingly delivering that consistency," he added.

In addition, the share of South Indian content in total watch time on streaming platforms has been increasing, industry executives said.

"Across films and web series, we are witnessing phenomenal growth from the South, which accounts for more than 41% of total watch time on ZEE5," said Siju Prabhakaran, chief business officer at ZEE5.

"Every region in South India brings a unique flavour and intellectual depth that resonates across age groups and geographical boundaries."

Producers said South Indian titles also offer advantages in terms of acquisition costs and content supply compared with Hindi films.

"These titles also provide pipeline stability," said Suniel Wadhwa, co-founder and director at Karmic Films. "A larger volume of theatrical films with stronger audience retention in the post-pandemic period comes from the South, giving streamers a more dependable content acquisition ecosystem."

Language affinity and the cultural rootedness of South Indian stories have helped these films attract audiences well beyond their regional markets, independent streaming consultants said.

The next 100 million subscribers to India's streaming ecosystem are expected to come from markets beyond the major metropolitan cities.

According to the Ormax study, Netflix acquired 34% of all South Indian titles bought by streaming platforms in 2025, followed by JioHotstar (19%), ZEE5 (18%) and Prime Video (17%).

"We studied films that recorded one million footfalls in theatres across all languages in India. The South emerged as a bigger content market for streaming platforms," said Keerat Grewal, head of business development for streaming, TV and brands at Ormax Media.

Streamers also acquired 35 theatrically successful Hindi films, with Netflix accounting for 57%.