Daybreak - Bollywood invented the studio model, then abandoned it. Reliance brought it back — on steroids

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Jio Studios is now the largest production house in India by revenue, catalogue, and box-office share. It got there fast. Stree 2, Laapataa Ladies, Dhurandhar, all Jio. The Dhurandhar franchise alone is closing in on Rs 3,000 crore worldwide. Meanwhile, Dharma, Excel, Maddock, and Bhansali have all sold significant stakes just to stay in the game. Jio simply does not need to. It has Reliance's telecom network, streaming platform, and marketing muscle all working together. The studio model that Bollywood once abandoned is back. But can Jio can build an identity to go with it?Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Every few months, you'll see some viral reel on social media, maybe Ranvir Singh dancing at an Ambani event, or Shah Ruk Khan attending an Ambani birthday party. Most of Bollywood A-listers are there. Now, you would usually scroll past it thinking, of course the Ambani's are rich and powerful, and celebrities love being around rich and powerful people. But there is more going on behind the scenes.

And it has a lot to do. do with a production house that most people haven't really thought about. Geo Studios, which operates under Reliance's Media and Entertainment Division, is now the single largest production house in India by revenue, catalogue size and also box office share. That is per Reliance's own FY2026 financial results. For example, Street 2, a Bollywood movie released in 2024, became the highest grossing Hindi film. ever, 698 crore rupees, and this was before Duranar came along and surpassed it. The two films in that franchise have made about 2,200 crore rupees combined, and Reliance's

presentation says that it is on track to be the first Hindi franchise to cross 3,000 crore rupees in worldwide box office earnings. Geo Studio basically went from nothing to owning the top of Bollywood's leaderboard in literally a matter of a few years. So when Ranvir Singh shows up at an Ambani event and dances, and he is also the lead in Duranar, which is a Geo Studios production, and when you see Sharuk Khan sitting in the front row at an Ambani function, you should know that his production house, Red Chilis,

is operating in an industry that Geo is actively reshaping. So how did Reliance pull this off? and what does it mean for everyone else in Bollywood. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from The Ken. I'm a host Nick Dal Sharma and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, every day of the week, my colleague Rachel Vargis and I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and with your time. Today is Friday, the 15th of me.

Most film studios in India are essentially agents. They fund projects, offer creative direction and handle market. marketing and distribution. A few have expanded. For example, T-Series controls a record label. Excel and Bhanzali have moved into music ownership. YRF has a visual effects arm. But the core business remains narrow. Geo Studio sits inside something that is fundamentally different. As we know, Geo is the largest telecom operator in India, serving around 500 million people as of late 2025. Reliance also controls news, TV and streaming. It recently acquired storytelling IP from Sikyar, Balaji Telefilms and Disney Star. The result is a closed loop, which is content

made by Geo Studio, travels through Reliance's pipes and lands on Reliance's platforms. The most visible safety net in this system is Hot Star. The streaming platform has the first right of refusal on any Geo Studios project. A hot-star employee actually put it quite simply to my colleague, the Ken reporter Devanjali Biswas. They said, it comes down to whichever deal works best for reliance's overall profit and loss. In practice, this has meant real flexibility. For example, Dunki, Lapata ladies and Article 370 went to Netflix.

Street two went to Amazon Prime Video. Even Duranar's first part was actually sold to Netflix, which was a very calculated move given the uncertainty around its commercial appeal before Hot Star bought the streaming rights to the second part once the franchisee success was proven. And when no rival streamer stepped up for Bhaedia, Hot Star took it. Competing studios do not have this question. Karan Johor's Dharma sold a 50% stake to Adar Punawala's serene productions for $1,000 crore rupees in 2024.

Excel forked out 30% to Universal Music Group for $720 crore Rupes. Madak films sold 50% to Napien Capital and Bensali Productions bought in 325 crores from Saregama. As Ashish Patil, the former head of MTV and YRF Youth Films, puts it, everyone is bringing in partners and capital using a risk, of profit double strategy.

Geo Studios simply does not need to look outside. Add to this, the distribution and marketing muscle. When Geo releases a film, ads run on the petrol pump screens, on the geo app where people pay their phone bills, across meme pages and through influencer networks. A filmmaker who has worked with Hot Star told my colleague Di Banjali that Duranthar ran full houses in Tamil theaters, uncommon, even even. for many South blockbusters. A lot of the viral buzz around these films is actually engineered.

Studios allocate specific budgets to meme pages, a spoof, a catchy dialogue, a dancing entry. For example, Akshya Kana's entry scene and Aditya Dhar's peak detailing moments from Duranar spread across the internet in a concentrated burst. An assistant director in Mumbai pointed out to Dibanchali that when something goes densely viral within a specific time window, it is usually paid for. More on this in the next segment. GEO Studios now has shown that volume, diversification and backing wide experimentation can work at scale.

And the industry seems to be taking notes. Ashish Bartle draws a parallel to UTV in its heyday. At the turn of the century, filmmaking in India was a family. business, creators investing their own money. UTV pioneered the studio model in the 2000s, producing big budget films like Rang De Basanti and Guzarish alongside experimental ones like Dave D and O'Don. The math was pretty simple. Spread across 7-8 films a year, even if one underperforms, combined profits would compensate. Barton's read on Geo is basically that UTV brought films to the spreadsheet, and now Geo has injected that same concept with steroids.

The influence is actually rippling outwards as well. Excel has invested in an offbeat thriller like Dubba Cartel, and Dharmah has backed the fabulous lives of Bollywood Bives. Studios are treating streaming platforms as labs for experimenting with formats and genres to earn licensing income while reducing box office dependence. But Geo Studios has one unresolved problem and it is identity. You see, YARF or Yashraud Studios is known for romance and its spy universe. Maddox brand is horror comedy.

Red Chili is associated directly with Sharu Khan. Jiu is harder to place. Barton says that he cannot pinpoint what Geo really stands for. It is designed like everything for everyone. The studio is trying to carve out stories from India made for the world kind of a niche, but the identity remains quite blurry. This creates a sort of a dependency. When audiences show up for a Geo Studios film,

they are often showing up for an Aditya Dhar or Ranvir Singh or Amir Khan's stamp of quality. The platform itself is not the draw yet. If Arijit Singh's song is playing, as Bartle points out, nobody cares whether it is on T-Series or on Sony. Geo Studios has, in a short time, reshaped how Bollywood thinks about risk, scale and also distribution. The question of whether it can build something audiences come to on its own terms, the way Disney Pixar draws attention regardless of the plot or the director, remains open.

What is settled, though, is this. The Pipe's reliance laid for telecom, news, TV and social. streaming now run content through them as well. Ambani, as Bartle puts it, wants to own the hands holding the phone. And Geo Studio is how he gets there. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of a subscriber-only offerings and a full subscription offers daily, long-form feature stories, newsletters and a whole bunch of

premium podcast. To subscribe, head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. Today's episode was hosted and produced by my colleague, Snitha Sharma, and edited by Rathif CN.