Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath believes the way forward for leisure could not lie in ultra-refined productions or big-budget spectacles—however in one thing way more grounded and participatory: dwell occasions. In a current put up on X, Kamath wrote, “High quality is subjective. Intelligence is possibly in figuring out what might work. I, for one, will decide a very good native biryani place over a Michelin-star high quality fancy restaurant 99 occasions out of 100… Additionally, constructing one thing within the area of dwell occasions often is the contrarian wager to make in a post-AI world.”
Kamath’s put up was accompanied by a sequence of visuals that map India’s shifting leisure preferences since 2018.
The info exhibits that cinema attendance, as soon as peaking at 945 million in 2018, has but to return to these highs—reaching 883 million in 2024 regardless of the return of big-budget movies.
In the meantime, the dwell occasion area has doubled: from 8,000 concert events in 2018 to over 16,700 by 2025, with small-format exhibits (underneath 2,000 attendees) seeing the quickest development.
The development displays a deeper cultural shift. As Kamath’s visuals counsel, Indian shoppers are leaning towards experiential, participatory codecs like concert events over passive consumption like movie-going. This shift has challenged long-held trade assumptions—that solely large spectacles might draw audiences again within the OTT period.
Digging additional, Kamath factors to a compelling perception: most of 2024’s prime Bollywood grossers weren’t mega-budget movies however under-₹100 crore productions steeped in traditional “masala” storytelling. These movies, which ship drama, emotion, and escapism, tapped right into a deep-rooted viewers choice—a reminder that for a lot of Indians, cinema remains to be a automobile for emotional launch, not mental realism.
In distinction, South Indian cinema has maintained its cultural integrity whereas increasing its narrative kinds—from the grounded realism of Malayalam movies to the mythic scale of RRR and Kantara. These movies have a good time emotion, folklore, and drama with out apology—placing a chord each at house and overseas.
Kamath additionally attracts a worldwide parallel: anime, which grew right into a worldwide phenomenon by doubling down on emotional storytelling and stylized extra, not firming it down. Western exhibits like Stranger Issues now borrow from that formulation. For Indian creators and founders, Kamath’s message is evident—don’t dilute the insanity. Construct on it.
In an period the place AI is redefining digital interplay, Kamath sees dwell, collective, and deeply cultural experiences as the following frontier—one which’s rooted in India’s strengths, not indifferent from them.
