In a highly engaging fireside chat at FICCI FRAMES 2025, India’s leading media and entertainment conclave, Prime Video India’s senior leadership delved into the growing global popularity of Indian content, and the service’s plans to deepen its engagement with customers even further in India and beyond. Themed “Made in India: I-Dramas — Are Our Stories Ready to Travel Across Borders?”, the session featured Shilangi Mukherji, director & head of SVOD business, Prime Video, India, and Nikhil Madhok, director & head of Originals, Prime Video, India, in conversation with renowned journalist and National Editor, Fortune India, Ajita Shashidhar.
Underlining the global ascent of Indian content, the Prime Video heads revealed that Indian content was trending in top 10 on the service worldwide every single week in 2024. “In fact, nearly 25% of the viewership for Indian content on Prime Video comes from outside India,” mentioned Nikhil Madhok signifying how stories have become a window into India’s evolving identity.
Sharing his thoughts on what makes Indian stories travel outside the country, Nikhil spoke about how original, rooted authentic stories travel beyond Indian shores, “What we have learnt is that imitation will not take you far; what travels well is originality and authenticity. For our content to be loved the world over, we must stay true to what we do best. Our shows and movies compete with the finest content internationally, and the way we differentiate our content is by being original and authentic. While the quality of storytelling the craft, the investment in production must meet international standards, it is that rooted authenticity which truly matters. We encourage creators to write for local audiences first, be as authentic to the world that they’re creating, the characters that they’re creating.”
Shilangi Mukherji threw light on Prime Video’s efforts to ensure that local authentic stories reach diverse, multi-lingual audiences not just in India but around the world. “We create stories that surprise and delight our customers and ultimately offer something that customers can relate to. Through localisation, we also cater to audiences who are not of Indian origin or do not understand Indian languages.” These localisation attempts have also helped make Indian content truly pan-Indian as almost 60% of the customers on Prime Video India stream content in 4 or more Indian languages.
Talking about how Prime Video developed original programming from scratch in India, Nikhil explained, “We had to build this initiative from the ground up -identifying creators and writers and training them to develop long-form original series. Our journey began with seasoned filmmakers who were taking their first steps into streaming. This new and exciting long form format allowed us to experiment with different styles of storytelling and to take stories to a global audience. The journey has played out quite well for us, whether you look at The Family Man, Mirzapur, Made in Heaven, Panchayat, Call Me Bae, or Paatal Lok, they are some of the most loved franchises on streaming and we are grateful to be the home for these remarkable stories. Over time, these franchises, among others, have become quite successful. More than 60% of our fiction shows have gone into multiple seasons or their new seasons are under development—a very healthy success rate.”
Nikhil added that along with working with experienced filmmakers, Prime Video also works with fresh voices, new talent, both in-front and behind the scenes, sharing, “We are now witnessing a fresh wave of new voices and emerging talent joining us on this journey. Take Dupahiya, for example, which premiered earlier this year. Created by first-time creators and writers and featuring an ensemble cast, the show was so successful that we announced a second season within a few weeks of its launch.”
Talking about Prime Video’s growth in India, Shilangi emphasized on the service’s focus on expanding selection, choice and access for customers, and the role this has played in helping the service gain a deeper footprint in India. Talking about selection and choice, Shilangi said, “The Indian slate is pretty much the biggest slate outside of the U.S. It’s massive, and it’s across languages.” With 100 Originals in various stages of production, development and negotiation, Prime Video’s pipeline going forward is significant in scale and ambition. Shilangi also spoke about how Prime Video as an entertainment destination expands selection and choice for its customers, whether its Originals and licensed content on the SVOD service or through partnerships with other streamers through its video entertainment marketplace. “The only way for the streaming industry to be really inclusive is by bringing partners on board,” she added, referring to 25+ Indian and international add-on subscription partners offering 75,000+ hours of additional content selection on Prime Video, as well as the 8500+ titles available through its Movie Rentals offering making it the biggest movie rental catalogue in the country. Highlighting the success of its video entertainment marketplace, Shilangi added, “We’re seeing that 60% of our movie rental catalogue is rented every month, and we receive rental transactions from customers from 95% of pin codes in India.”
Shilangi also highlighted Prime Video’s segmentation strategy across product, content, and distribution to improve access. Through worldwide-first innovations like Prime Lite, expansion of the Prime program to offer different tiers at different price points to cater to different customer segments, Prime Video Mobile Edition annual plan for India’s mobile-first customers, Prime Video makes high-quality entertainment accessible to an even wider customer base. Prime Video also programs in 10 languages in India through Originals as well as licensed content, with localization through subtitles and dubbing in multiple languages. The service has a multi-pronged film strategy comprising licensed post-theatrical, direct-to-service movies, Original movies, and co-productions that have premiered first in theatres. Further, Prime Video is one of the only streaming services do theatrical distribution both within India and globally. Summarizing the impact of its strategy in India, Shilangi said, “All of this put together, what it does for us is that we receive viewership from 99% of pin codes in India. We continue to see strong adoption of Prime Video in India, as in the last twelve months, nearly 25% of our streamers have been completely new to the service.”
Discussing how Prime Video’s theatrical and streaming model can help make Indian content a global phenomenon, Nikhil said, “While our core business is streaming, we really believe in the theatrical window and the magic of theatres. And depending on the kind of movie that we are producing, we take a joint call with our creators in terms of which movie can go to theatres first.” Starting 2026, Prime Video will premiere 3 to 4 local Indian films from Amazon MGM Studios in theatres every year. He added that creators find this model particularly exciting because Prime Video backs passionate filmmakers with great stories, ensuring their movies get made—whether for theatrical release or for streaming.
When asked how India could ensure that more of its content resonates globally, especially when compared to countries like South Korea or Turkey, Shilangi emphasized the need for the industry to come together to create meaningful change. She noted that while India is known for strong storytelling, there is still work to be done in presenting its content more effectively to international audiences. One of the key factors for driving global success, she explained, is intentional localization by investing in adapting content for different regions from the very beginning rather than treating it as an afterthought. Concluding the conversation, Nikhil said that while the industry continues to see encouraging signs, global breakthroughs are often hard to predict. He explained that all it takes is one standout story to spark wider recognition and inspire creators everywhere, “We have seen green shoots on the surface of all our Original content.”
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