JAI HO!

Indian cinema globalised, corporatised and digitised, embracing box-office metrics and superstardom while quietly losing its cultural monopoly as online platforms and fragmented audiences reshaped storytelling and power

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The decade marked Indian cinema's most consequential transition since liberalisation. It was a period when Bollywood simultaneously looked outward to the world and inward at its own machinery, when box-office metrics became more corporate, creativity more segmented and popular culture more porous to technology. Cinema was no longer just about films. It became a convergence point for global recognition, digital disruption and celebrity spectacle.

The global moment arrived in 2009. Slumdog Millionaire's sweep at the Academy Awards was less about a single film and more about validation. With eight Oscars, including two for music composer A.R. Rahman and one for sound engineer Resul Pookutty, Indian creative talent stood centre-stage at Hollywood's most exclusionary altar.