. “They loved this concept of action mixed with the multiverse, which is something they’d seen in Marvel movies, but not in an indie film.”
India has always been a notoriously tough market for independent and foreign-language films, with even Hollywood movies only accounting for a 10-15% market share. That situation has only deteriorated during the pandemic, when Indian audiences started to expect most films to pop up on streaming platforms, and became much choosier about what they’d step out of the front door to see.
Even local-language films are not having the easiest ride in India following waves of cinema closures during the pandemic. Despite the outsized success of a few films like Telugu-language blockbusterBut Sharma is a believer, despite what he describes as a steep learning curve and some much less successful experiences. Previously a producer, Sharma launched Impact Films in 2017 because there were so few world cinema titles being released theatrically in India.
“We acquired several titles during the pandemic, when nobody else was buying, so we had this opportunity because the bigger players were inactive,” Sharma explains. During this period, the company bought films including US sci-fi romcom