In an industry long powered by hype, three recent Hindi films are forcing a rethink.
Dhurandhar: The Revenge, now the highest grossing Hindi film with domestic collections crossing ₹1,100 crore, along with its predecessor Dhurandhar (Rs. 895 crore) and romantic drama Saiyaara, which made over ₹300 crore last year, have shown that minimal promotions paired with strong content can deliver outsized returns.
For years, studios leaned heavily on television, print, outdoor, social media campaigns, influencer collaborations and brand tie-ups to generate pre-release noise. But in an increasingly cluttered content economy, awareness alone is no longer enough. Films must enter popular discourse — become memes, music loops and everyday references — to sustain momentum.
Beyond paid hype
Dhurandhar avoided extensive media interactions, instead letting its mass-market storytelling, retro-style music and punchy dialogues travel across meme pages and fan communities as box office numbers climbed. Saiyaara leaned on a popular music score and ‘organic-seeming’ fan accounts for its lead pair.
“Paid marketing in film will become more selective and less volume-driven. Studios will concentrate their spend on triggering cultural moments early, through storytelling, community building, and creator collaborations that feel native to the platform rather than transactional,” said Rohit Singh, account director, White Rivers Media, the digital marketing agency that worked on Dhurandhar.
He added that paid campaigns are losing their ability to rescue weak content. A film that fails to generate genuine audience buy-in within the first 24 to 48 hours will see limited returns from continued paid spend.
“The most effective model going forward integrates paid, owned, and earned channels… Paid marketing's incremental impact has already begun to plateau,” Singh added.
Cost of noise
Paid marketing today spans Meta, YouTube, and Google ads, influencer tie-ups, meme integrations and music amplification. For a mid-to-large release, digital spends alone range between ₹5 crore and ₹20 crore. Influencer collaborations can cost from a few lakh rupees to ₹20–30 lakh or more for top-tier creators.
This has made paid amplification almost universal across major releases.
Referring to Dhurandhar as a case study in the changing economics of breakout success, Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of Ormax Media, wrote that in a fragmented market like India’s, marketing can no longer “carry” a film beyond a point.
What carries it is organic discourse: the unpaid, unplanned conversation that makes a film feel like a cultural event rather than just another Friday release, Kapoor wrote in a recent blog.
“The franchise has delivered a rare mix of “mass” and “cool”. The dialogues…can be lifted, repurposed, and used as everyday punctuation. The music, too, has helped. If a song catches the internet’s fancy, it becomes free distribution,” Kapoor wrote.
“Dhurandhar suggests a more current playbook, where popular culture penetration, and not marketing, holds the key… the real decider of breakout success won’t be how loudly a film is marketed. It will be how naturally it enters conversations,” he added.
In Dhurandhar’s case, selective influencer collaborations focused on retro-style music, dialogues and the return of stars like Akshaye Khanna. Conspiracy theories around the plot and sequel circulated via fan accounts, while growing box office milestones were amplified by media outlets.
Word-of-mouth wins
Industry experts say box office trajectories back this shift.
“When a film’s second weekend is significantly larger than its first… It comes from audiences genuinely recommending the film,” said Ashish Misra, head of commercialization, Cinepolis India.
Saiyaara opened at around ₹21 crore and grew to over ₹320 crore. Mythological epic Mahavatar Narsimha opened at approximately ₹2 crore and crossed ₹200 crore — growth curves driven by audience advocacy rather than pre-release spends.
Dr Anjali Chopra, professor at K J Somaiya Institute of Management, said strong content allows filmmakers to take calculated risks on lighter promotions.
“Strong word-of-mouth and social media conversations have the power to drive footfalls. This suggests that when the content resonates, filmmakers can afford to take calculated risks and avoid heavy pre-release spending,” Chopra said.
Blended model
That said, experts caution against romanticizing “purely organic” success.
Bhuvanesh Mendiratta, managing director, Miraj Entertainment Ltd, noted that even apparent organic buzz is often supported by structured amplification through collaborations, partnerships, or promotional tie-ups.
Going forward, marketing and content will need to work together — scale for reach, credibility for resonance.
“Audiences today are more selective. They wait for credible feedback from people they trust before committing to a theatrical visit. That means the marketing conversation needs to shift from just creating noise before release to ensuring the film delivers an experience worth recommending,” Misra added.
The lesson for studios: paid marketing may spark interest — but conversation sustains success.