Bollywood, Hollywood, books and the arts: films, stars, music and the stories Indian audiences in India and abroad are talking about.
226 articles
Five days before its November 5 release, Sacnilk put Nitesh Tiwari's epic at more than ₹24 crore in Indian advance sales and about $3.5 million overseas.
By Thoughtful India Staff||4 min read
Nelson Dilipkumar's Tamil sequel finished ninth on the US weekend chart from 800 theatres, and trade trackers put its four-day worldwide gross above ₹400 crore.
· 4 min read
A 1989 Miyazaki classic is selling out IMAX screens in 2026. Why Kiki's Delivery Service — and Studio Ghibli's whole catalogue — became Gen Z's comfort cinema.
· 2 min read
27,000+ international runs and a T20 World Cup final Player-of-the-Match award: Kohli's career is the case study of individual brilliance inside a team sport.
· 4 min read
Bollywood's family advantage is real and structural — but new platforms are cracking it open. The nepotism debate is more nuanced than the binary suggests.
· 4 min read
Streaming made Indian classical music accessible — and stripped the context that makes it comprehensible. Raga on shuffle: democratization without transmission.
· 4 min read
Hindustani and Carnatic are revered high art — yet command a tiny fraction of young India's listening time. Preservation kept them alive but elite.
· 3 min read
Bollywood built its empire on opening weekends; Netflix builds on subscriptions and algorithms. Talent, money, audience are moving — theaters now the exception.
· 3 min read
India-Pakistan is the world's most politically charged sporting rivalry — hundreds of millions watch, and the match has become a proxy for a conflict
· 3 min read
Indian films dominate screens from Dhaka to Kathmandu — by scale and storytelling, not force. How Bollywood won the region, and the cost to local cinema.
· 4 min read
After Kamal Haasan claimed his 1988 divorce from Vani Ganapathy left him bankrupt, his ex-wife hit back: 'Can alimony make a man bankrupt?'
· 1 min read
Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet dazzles with jazz, art deco and grandeur, but the storytelling falls flat. Our 2015 review of the Ranbir Kapoor starrer.
· 4 min read
Arup Raha reviews Shoojit Sircar's Piku — a father-daughter road trip built on great performances by Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, and Irrfan.
· 5 min read
Chicago-area Hindi theater group Ekjut called for local talent — stand-up, shayari, and one-act plays — for its May 2015 event.
· 1 min read
Shah Rukh Khan's Fan (2016) cast him in a double role — a superstar and his obsessive lookalike fan — in one of his most challenging performances.
· 1 min read
In January 2015, Deepika Padukone spoke openly about her depression and anxiety — one of Bollywood's first major stars to do so.
· 1 min read
At the 2015 Golden Globes, Boyhood won Best Drama while Transparent became the first streaming series ever to win a Golden Globe.
· 2 min read
Arup Raha's Bolly Volley column reviews PK and picks the Top 10 Bollywood films of 2014 — from Queen and Haider to Dedh Ishqiya and Filmistaan.
· 4 min read
Rajkumar Hirani's PK, starring Aamir Khan as an alien baffled by organized religion, released December 19, 2014 — and went on to become the highest-grossing
· 1 min read
Indian singer-songwriter Surjo released his debut album 'The Key Has Turned' in November 2014 — twelve acoustic songs written over three months.
· 1 min read