Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limited All rights reserved. Cinema about films: Bollywood discovers its most bankable subject— Lata Jha herself 5 min read 18 Dec 2025, 06:00 am. IST Many of these, commissioned by the families themselves, help build brand equity and make for a valuable marketing exercise in a cluttered digital content environment. Summary Recent family documentaries such as The Romantics and Dining with the Kapoors tap into audience curiosity while helping families build brand equity. These shows offer a personal look into the lives of stars, promoting legacy and creative control for the next generation, experts say. A barometer test of India’s obsession with its movie stars can be taken on weekends outside an unmistakable bungalow in Juhu, central Mumbai. Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, when in town and able, walks on Sunday evenings on a raised platform at the gates of his home, Jalsa, to wave to a throng of fans. Sunday after Sunday, fans from far and wide gather just for a glimpse of the man and return excited that the superstar of their time recognized them. Such a fixation with stars is now saturated on screen by a wave of documentaries about film celebrities and families such as The Romantics about filmmaker Yash Chopra, Angry Young Men about writer duo Salim-Javed, and Dining with the Kapoors launching on streaming platforms. The Romantics was 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, is what companies make money from, industry experts said. At the same time, some of these, requested by the families themselves, help brand equity and drive marketing in a cluttered digital content space. “The Indian audience is a die-hard supporter of fandom. OTT platforms have found an opportunity to showcase documentaries that will satisfy this latent need,” says Dr Abha Wankhede, Associate Professor – Marketing and International Business at KJ Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai. Documentaries about movie celebrities are a growing but niche content category. According to data from media consultancy Ormax, The Romantics and Angry Young Men had 6.1 million (2023) and 6.6 million (2024) viewership respectively. While it may seem dwarfed by 2024 shows like the third season of Bigg Boss OTT which attracted 17.8 million viewers and the 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 on film’ has always been a fascinating field. Movie stars are highly 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 film 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 is different from The Kardashians which was presented on the Hulu platform in the US. While the idea that there was more for viewers to derive vicarious pleasure from the lives of the rich, famous and controversial, those serving in India focus slightly more seriously on the careers and journeys of iconic film figures. Apart from being a way for film families to stamp their legacy and position their journey for posterity, the shows also serve as launching pads for the next generation where younger members of film families can take creative control as in the case of Armaan Jain, the late Raj Kapoor’s grandson, who helmed the production of Dining with the Kapoors. Real footage, relatively speaking Even if bits are edited out in documentaries, they still remain believable compared to other story forms. Jitendra Hirawat, co-founder and CEO of ad company TITO Films, said feature films about movie celebrities streamline and polish reality with even biopics smoothing out the rough edges to fit the dramatic arc. Documentaries, on the other hand, keep contradictions, the awkward pauses and the unfinished emotions alive. That honesty creates a level of believability that fiction cannot fully replicate. Prof. (Dr.) Supriya Chouthoy, Associate Professor of Marketing, BITS Law School agreed that feature films made about the Indian film industry rely on a narrative that portrays concepts of fame, success and motivation, but not a “real” account of a cultural personality’s life. This probably explains the increasing use of such documentary series on Bollywood. Documentaries have other advantages over films. Vaibhav Gupta, co-founder chief product officer of KlugKlug, an influencer marketing technology platform, said feature films about filmmakers or industry icons are relatively rare in Bollywood, in part because biopics and studio dramas often require significant investment and box office risk. On OTT, by contrast, documentary shows do not 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 as the only costs are related to production and marketing without star fees. That said, industry experts point out that these titles also serve as branded content marketing for the respective film families. Rajnish Rawat, co-founder and CEO of digital marketing agency Social Pill, calls it branding films disguised as documentaries, noting how Angry Young Men was produced by the writers’ families, The Romantics listed Yash Raj Films’ Uday Chopra as producer, and Dining with the Kapoors was created by the late Raj Kapoorhy and produced by his grandson Jainavas 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 relevantly integrated without being too obvious about it. These documentaries celebrate legacies, remind younger audiences why these families matter, and ensure that the next generation keeps the family brand alive in Bollywood,” added Rawat. Another industry insider called it “a subtle form of heritage building.” Vishal Prabhu, creative director – strategy at digital agency White Rivers Media, said: “These projects sit at the intersection of storytelling and soft branding. They preserve history while shaping how the next generation interprets Indian cinema.” The trend in the celebrity film docu-series for now seems to meet several 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 story, and audiences get something more interesting than another rom-com – peaking into the lives of their favorite stars without the trip to a Mumbai suburb. Get all the industry news, banking news and updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. more topics #OTT platforms #Indian Cinema #Entertainment Read next story