Inside Bollywood’s documentary boom: Stardom, legacy and OTT economics
Recent documentaries on prominent film families like The Romantics and Dining with the Kapoors, tap into audience curiosity while helping families build brand equity. These shows offer personal look into the lives of stars, promoting legacy and creative control for the next generation, say experts.
A barometer check of India's obsession with its movie stars can be had on weekends outside an unmistakable bungalow in Juhu, central Mumbai. Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, when he's in town and can, steps on to a raised platform at the gates of his home, Jalsa, Sunday evenings to wave at a thronging crowd of fans. Sunday after Sunday fans from far and near gather just for a glimpse of the man and return thrilled that the superstar of their times acknowledged them.
Such a fixation with stars is now being sated on a screen by a spate of documentaries on film celebrities and families such as The Romantics on filmmaker Yash Chopra, Angry Young Men on writer duo Salim-Javed, and Dining with the Kapoors launching on streaming platforms.
The Romantics ran on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video had Angry Young Men, and Dining with the Kapoors is on Netflix.
The popularity of the documentaries points to the intrinsic curiosity around stars, which OTT, short for over the top media services, that companies are cashing in on, said industry experts. At the same time, some of these that are commissioned by the families themselves, help brand equity and feed marketing in a cluttered digital content space.
“The Indian audience is a hard-core endorser of fandom. OTT platforms have found an opportunity to showcase documentaries which will satisfy this latent need," said Dr Abha Wankhede, associate professor - marketing and international business at K.J Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai.
Documentaries on film celebrities are a growing but niche content category. According to data from media consulting firm Ormax, The Romantics and Angry Young Men clocked in viewership of 6.1 million (2023) and 6.6 million (2024) respectively.
While this may seem dwarfed in comparison to 2024 shows such as the third season of Bigg Boss OTT that drew in 17.8 million viewers and top fiction show Mirzapur season three (30.8 million), the level of intimacy in the relationship between audiences and the stars is striking, an expert said.
“'Cinema about cinema' has always been a fascinating territory. Movies stars are much revered in our country, and people have always been curious about what happens behind the curtain," said Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO and co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea, a digital marketing agency. Access to movie stars through social media is still curated, controlled and strategic, he added. "These shows, on the other hand, make it deeply personal."
The Indian docu-series are different from the likes of The Kardashians that ran on the Hulu platform in the US. While the idea there was more for viewers to derive vicarious pleasure from the lives of the rich, famous and controversial, the ones serving in India are slightly more serious focusing on the careers and journeys of iconic movie figures.
Other than a way for film families to stamp their legacy and position their journey for posterity, the shows also serve as launchpads for the next generation where younger members of film families can take creative control like in the instance of Armaan Jain, the late Raj Kapoor’s grandson, who helmed production of Dining with the Kapoors.
Real reel, relatively speaking
Even if bits are edited out in documentaries, they still remain credible compared to other story forms. Jitendra Hirawat, co-founder and CEO at advertising company TITO Films, said feature films on movie celebrities streamline and polish reality with even biopics smoothening the rough edges to fit in the dramatic arc. Documentaries, on the other hand, keep contradictions, the awkward pauses and the unfinished emotions alive. That honesty creates a level of credibility that fiction cannot fully replicate.
Prof. (Dr.) Supriya Chouthoy, associate professor of marketing, BITS Law School agreed feature films made about the Indian movie industry rely on a narrative which portrays concepts of fame, success and motivation but not a “real" account of a cultural personality’s life. This probably explains why such docuseries on Bollywood have increasing custom.
There are other advantages to docu-series over films. Vaibhav Gupta, co-founder chief product officer of KlugKlug, an influencer marketing tech platform, said feature films about filmmakers or industry icons are comparatively rare in Bollywood partly because biopics and studio dramas often require significant investment and box-office risk.
On OTT, by contrast, documentary shows don’t need theatrical revenue; they benefit from subscription models. Unlike films, these docu-shows can deliver an episodic narrative without the typical commercial constraints, allowing deeper exploration of creative processes, personal histories, and industry impact.
Such series are 50-60% cheaper to make since the only cost is related to production and marketing with no star fees.
That said, industry experts point out these titles also serve as branded content marketing for the film families in question. Calling them brand films disguised as documentaries, Rajnish Rawat, co-founder and CEO at digital marketing agency Social Pill point out how Angry Young Men was produced by the writers' families, The Romantics had Yash Raj Films' Uday Chopra listed as producer, and Dining with the Kapoors was created by the late Raj Kapoor’s grandson Jain and produced by his company Aavashyak Media. The Kapoor family series was to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of the late patriarch Kapoor.
“The families are very much in control. Branded content has matured to the point where brands can be integrated relevantly without being too obvious about it. These documentaries celebrate legacies, remind younger audiences why these families matter, and make sure the next generation keeps the family brand alive in Bollywood," Rawat added.
Another industry insider called it “a subtle form of legacy building". Said Vishal Prabhu, creative director – strategy at digital agency White Rivers Media, "These projects sit at the intersection of storytelling and soft branding. They preserve history while shaping how the next generation interprets Indian cinema."
The film celeb docu-series trend, for now, seems to meet multiple needs: a streaming platform wants content, the movie family wants its story told its way, and sometimes there's production house money involved. In a win-win situation, the platform gets guaranteed buzz, family gets to control the narrative, and audiences get something more interesting than another rom-com — with a peak into the lives of their favourite stars sans the trip to a Mumbai suburb.
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