The Indian movie industry has been booming in the past half-decade, with epics and sagas being produced on a large scale, with budgets of nearly 55 million dollars per movie (for the epics).

Many of these new and fresh ideas began with the COVID lockdown, where many people began coming up with stories that focused more on family and treasuring what we have now. This specifically led to a major increase in the number of blockbuster Malayalam films that were released on OTT (over-the-top) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Before the release of such movies, the Malayalam film industry was not very widely acknowledged; these movies have consistently been of very high quality, while also depicting a very simple life and typically contain a general moral, grabbing the attention of all sorts of people looking for simple relaxation.

While we just focused on the Malayalam movie industry in particular, it is also important to note that the entire South Indian movie industry has scaled up massively as well. With the release of movies such as “Ponniyin Selvan 1 and 2” – a Tamil 2-movie series – and “Kalki 2898 AD” – A Telugu movie with a sequel coming soon – the Kollywood industry has showcased its prowess in terms of both the quality of sets and storyline.

A more famous example of these large-scale films is RRR, a title that is indeed an acronym meaning “Roudram Ranam Rudhiram” or “Rise Revolt Roar” in English. This movie was the most expensive Indian film at the time of release, with a budget of 550 crore rupees, or 63 million USD, and soon became one of the highest grossing films, both nationally and internationally.

Though Bollywood movies have long been popular, South Indian movies have started hitting the markets primarily from the late 2010s. With the rise of movies like Baahubali 1 and 2 (a Telugu movie franchise), I (a 2015 Tamil movie), and KGF (a 2018 Kannada movie) – all movies that have made a big impact on the industry overall – many great writers and directors have sprung up, some creating their own cinematic universes similar to the Marvel and DC Cinematic Universe.

A prime example of this is Lokesh Kanagaraj’s LCU (Lokesh Cinematic Universe). This includes movies like Kaithi - starring Karthi -, Vikram - starring Kamal Haasan -, and Leo - starring Vijay -, with many more on the way. This franchise focuses on a spy organization, all connecting to the overarching theme of eliminating drugs and crime in India, and all of these movies are a must-watch!

It also goes without saying that without the background music and songs, just the video would not do the scenes justice. As the scale of these movies has grown exponentially, so has the number of high-quality music directors and artists entering the industry. The one that grew the fastest, and absolutely deserved his popularity, was Anirudh Ravichander, the mind behind the music for many of Rajinikanth’s movies and most of the LCU movies thus far.

Singers such as Dhee have also grown in popularity. She began singing in movies along with her father Santosh Narayanan, but her popularity truly exploded with the release of Enjoy Enjaami through the Maajja program run by A.R. Rahman - a program to support developing artists.

Though these blockbuster South Indian movies often carry a heavy theme and feature strong, bass-heavy soundtracks, the Bollywood movies - though almost equally action packed - don’t often place such an emphasis on the feeling of “mass.” You would often find more feel-good or romantic movies, though they would also have their moments of action. This primarily applies to the most popular and regularly watched movies, however, it is very easy to find horror and mystery movie watchers as well!

Some feel-good and happy movies you have to watch include 3 Idiots (a 2009 classic movie), Dil Dhadakne Do (a 2015 family comedy), and Ye Jawaani Hai Deewani (a 2013 film, and my personal favorite). If you’re looking for something with a more historical vibe, you might enjoy something like Bajirao Mastani or Padmaavat, both of which feature Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, as well as beautiful sets and background music.

In all, Indian cinema has been flourishing thus far, and there is a lot to expect from these industries in the future!