On Episode 919 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Sanket Kulkarni, Head-Business Development (Theatrical) at Ormax Media as well as Vivek Ramji Iyer, Partner and National Leader Financial Services - Risk Advisory at Grant Thornton Bharat.

SHOW NOTES

(00:00) The Take

(04:50) Markets Set For Firmer Week Ahead As Oil And Rupee Consolidate

(06:46) Oil Markets Continue To Point To Potential Oversupply And Thus Stable Prices

(08:38) Govt Launches Fresh Defense Of E20, Ethanol Blended Fuel

(12:42) Gold Loans Are The Second Largest Retail Credit Category After Home Loans And Why Their Growth Is Encouraging And Worrying

(20:00) The Surprising Box Office Shift In May Which Saw Bollywood Films Kicked Off The Top 5

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NOTE: This transcript contains the host's monologue and includes interview transcripts by a machine. Human eyes have gone through the script but there might still be errors in some of the text, so please refer to the audio in case you need to clarify any part. If you want to get in touch regarding any feedback, you can drop us a message on feedback@thecore.in.

Good morning, it's Monday, the 6th of July, and this is Govindraj Ethiraj broadcasting and streaming weekdays from Mumbai, India's financial capital. Yes, it has been another rained-out weekend with heavy rains lashing the city as well as winds leading to, among other things, the airport being shut down.

The Take

Residents of Bandra, a bustling Mumbai suburb, are currently fighting a rearguard action to save a local football ground from being paved over for a new convention centre. This proposition defies economic logic. World-class convention centres already exist a mere 5 kilometres away in the Bandra-Kudla complex on the other side.

Why civic authorities are so eager to pour more concrete over scarce urban open space is a mystery. Or, given the track record of local governance, perhaps it isn't. This local skirmish over a patch of dirt is a microcosm of a much larger crisis in India's financial capital.

As the monsoon season has arrived, predictably intense though somehow always treated as a surprise by city officials, Mumbai is once again buckling under the weight of misplaced priorities. The daily news reads like a grim ledger of civic failure. Trees, their roots suffocated by improperly poured tar and concrete or left unpruned by municipal workers, are collapsing and killing pedestrians and some, like a student two weeks ago, inside a school van.

Even more perilous are the city's manholes. To manage excessive flooding, officials routinely leave sewer and storm drain portals open. Last week, yet another citizen fell to his death in an unprotected manhole.

It's highly likely the victim was walking on the street because a safe walkable pavement simply did not exist, a standard feature of Mumbai's inner city layout. This tragedy echoes the high-profile 2018 death of a Dr. Deepak Amrapurkar, a prominent gastroenterologist who slipped into a drain after abandoning his stranded car to walk home in central Mumbai. Following his death, the Bombay High Court mandated protective grills over the city's vast network of drains and yet the bureaucratic gears grind so slowly that the victim who perished last week died while this very installation drive was still sluggishly underway.

Thieves apparently love these cast-iron manhole covers. But that a city styling itself as a 21st century economic hub, or hopefully so, cannot innovate a tamper-proof drain cover is a staggering indictment of its administrative capacity. The absurdity of this situation as a whole was captured perfectly in a recent viral video.

A municipal supervisor tumbled into an open drainage chamber while the city's mayor was in the very same frame ostensibly inspecting flood preparedness. The contrast between the city's aspirations and its reality is jarring. The same newspapers reporting these preventable infrastructural fatalities also carry splashy advertisements for new expressways across the country which reliably develop potholes and cracks within months of their ribbon cuttings.

Mumbai's current showcase project is the coastal road on the city's southwestern rim and being extended northwards. Soon to be adorned with corporate-sponsored parks, the operational part of the road is a grand multi-billion dollar engineering feat. And yet, the coastal road cannot compensate for the decay within.

The deeper one travels into the city, the more the illusion gives way. Visitors arriving at the airport expecting the gleaming promise of India's economic engine are instead greeted by fluttering blue tarpaulins, perpetual construction debris, and deafening gridlocked traffic. The incessant honking alone across the is a recognised public health hazard and yet one entirely ignored by behavioural interventions within the city.

Rapid urbanisation strains any municipal government. It's entirely expected that civic authorities will struggle to keep pace with a booming populace. But in its haste to erect shiny new monuments to progress like unnecessary government-owned convention centres, Mumbai's civic leadership appears to be struggling with its most basic duties.

Allowing rampant unchecked construction when the existing grid is failing is not a sign of progress, it is a recipe for urban misery. True progress is not defined by vanity projects, it's defined by clean streets, functioning drainage, and safe public spaces. A simple radical place for Mumbai's leaders to start, build, and maintain walkable pavements in the inner cities.

That would signal a genuine commitment to public welfare and safety that no splashy coastal highway can ever match.

And that brings us to the top stories and themes…

The stock markets are set for a firmer week ahead as oil and rupee consolidated.

Oil markets continue to point to potential oversupply and thus lower prices.

Government launches a fresh defence of E20, the ethanol blended fuel.

The surprising box office shift in May which saw Bollywood films kicked off the top five.

And gold loans are the second largest retail category after home loans and why their growth is encouraging and worrying.

Markets, Oil, E20 and The Rupee

The markets locked their fourth consecutive weekly gain last week on Friday, even as among other things declining oil prices continue to keep the mood upbeat for now. At this point indications do suggest that foreign portfolio investors have slowed their selling, in India that is, and are likely turning around or set to do so in coming weeks, assuming there are no other surprises.

Remember the AI frenzy that swept the global markets or has been sweeping the global markets appears to show signs of slowing down and that predictably could benefit Indian markets. Back home, the Nifty 50 and Sensex were up on Friday. The Nifty 50 was up 95 points to close at 24,270 and the Sensex was up 262 points to close at 77,763.

The broader markets saw the Nifty mid cap fall 0.2% and the small cap rise marginally. The rupee closed higher on Friday but was down for the week thanks to dollar demand related to merchant flows, arbitrage trades, and maturities in the non-deliverable forward market, according to Reuters, which added that the rupee declined about a percent in the week to close at Rs 95.21 per dollar, going past the Rs 95 per dollar level for the first time in three weeks. But the reason the rupee is steady to stronger is going back to the improved foreign portfolio inflows into government bonds, which we have been discussing on the core report and expectations, as Reuters says, of a balance payment surplus for the year ended March 27, though day-to-day flows continue to put pressure on the rupee.

And now on energy, while the state of Hormuz did see some stress points emerge over the weekend, well, once again, there is much action in the energy markets nevertheless, with continued signals of oversupply and thus stable to lower prices. Brent crude futures have erased all their wartime gains, tumbling 43% from a high in late April, while the physical oil market is flashing signs of weakness more extreme than any time since the demand collapse of COVID, according to a Bloomberg report. Meanwhile, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus is agreeing on another increase in output targets from August, according to Reuters, which added that global supply amid falling oil prices due to a gradual reopening of the state of Hormuz for oil exports will add to this.

The oil-producing OPEC has agreed in principle to increase quotas by 188,000 barrels per day from August, on top of similar increases for previous two months. Brent crude prices were at about $72 per barrel on Friday, and back to levels traded just before the US and Israel attacked Iran on the 28th of February. OPEC Plus also saw the departure of the United Arab Emirates in late April, and Iraq has signalled it wants higher quotas, according to the Reuters report.

Back home, the government has withdrawn an order imposing curbs on gas suppliers as supply of liquefied natural gas has resumed from the Middle East, according to a notification issued over the weekend. In March, the government had invoked emergency measures to divert gas supplies from non-priority sectors to key users after the disruption of LNG shipments to the state of Hormuz, according to a Reuters report which summed it up. Meanwhile, India will continue to build new crude oil refineries in order to ensure supply chain security even as western nations close them, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking at the inauguration of a new refinery in collaboration between HPCL and the Government of Rajasthan in Rajasthan, which is also the first new refinery in a decade.

The Prime Minister said that no new refinery has come up in the US in the last five decades, and capacity in Europe too has been constantly declining. The 180,000 barrels a day Greenfield refinery in the heart of Rajasthan's Thar Desert has 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemical capacity annually and was built at a cost of $8.3 billion and is likely to be the only new refinery commissioned globally this year, according to Bloomberg analysts as well. Sticking to oil or more specifically fuels, the government and various auto industry officials once again defended the mandatory rollout of petrol blended with 20% ethanol.

Their response a more structured and sharp one than previous attempts, which included half-baked attempts like working with social media influencers lacking connect with the subject, said that years of testing and service data showed no evidence of widespread vehicle damage despite public concerns over lower fuel efficiency and engine safety. E20, as it's called, has faced rising criticism, mostly on social media in recent days, with motorists questioning whether older vehicles designed for regular petrol could suffer corrosion, wear or reduced performance, according to that Reuters report, which also quoted automakers like Maruti Suzuki, Hero, Motocorp and Toyota Kudloskar all assembled for that conference saying that even older vehicles can run safely on E20. Maruti Suzuki, who's also India's largest car manufacturer, said it had serviced more than 15 million older cars over the past two years that were not certified for E20 and did not find fuel related problems.

But they did acknowledge a minor trade-off that E20 reduces fuel efficiency by about 3-3.5% because of its lower energy content. The word in the street, of course, is that the trade-off is much higher, but tests, I guess, are still on. The manufacturers also said that the fuel's higher octane rating can help carmakers design future engines with higher compression ratios, which could improve performance, torque, drivability and even fuel efficiency.

They also rejected viral claims that E20 had caused engine failures, saying at least one widely shared case was linked to contaminated fuel rather than standard E20. They said that E20 is the highest ethanol blend currently tested for regular petrol vehicles and any move to higher blends would need fresh trials. The core report had earlier reported on testing efforts being done by various bodies for higher ethanol blends but also pointing out that higher ethanol blends require converters to be installed with the engines, like in the case of compressed natural gas or entirely new engines as the proportion of ethanol rises.

Why Have India’s Textiles Exports Gone Up?

Textile exporters and their stocks are up more than 30% this year compared to an 8% fall in the NSE Nifty 50 index, according to a Bloomberg analysis. This tailwind is coming from the upcoming free trade agreements as well as a friendlier tariff regime, at least compared to the near embargo slapped by the United States last year. The Bloomberg report points out that companies like Espy Apparels, a supplier of garments to Tesco, has gone up 60%, that's the stock this year.

Arvind, which supplies to retailers like Gap, has gone up 74%. Indocount Industries, which supplies bed linen to Walmart and Target, has gone up 54%. Bloomberg reported Motilal Oswal, the brokerage, saying in a note week before that with global retailers improving order visibility and brands consolidating towards larger compliant suppliers, major Indian textile exporters are well positioned to capture disproportionate market share in the up cycle.

India, however, accounts for only 4% of global trade in textiles and apparel. The government wants to expand the textile market to $350 billion by 2030, which is in four years' time from an estimated $194 billion last year.

How has the Monsoon Disrupted Flights?

We touched upon the heavy rains in Mumbai. Four IndiGo flights were cancelled and 13 arriving aircraft of various operators were diverted to nearby airports as heavy rains and gusty winds forced Mumbai International Airport authorities to suspend all runway operations for an hour on Sunday, according to a report published in the Business Standard. The flights that were diverted due to bad weather, however, landed back in Mumbai later. Now, with the week starting off, if you are on flights heading to Mumbai or in Mumbai heading out, obviously, these are signs to be looking out for.

At the same time, the report also pointed out that on Sunday, 90% of outbound flights were delayed by an average of 65 minutes and about roughly half of incoming flights were arriving late.

What Are Trends in Gold Loans in India Indicating?

India's gold loan market has touched about 18 lakh crore rupees last year, up 50% from a year earlier, making it the second largest retail credit segment after housing loans, according to a recent report in the Mint newspaper. The rising value of gold loans, also worrying on some counts, demonstrates how the precious metal is moving further from being a store of value and a family treasure to be pledged only in extreme financial stress situations to more frequent monetization to meet more regular expenditures as well.

Hence the worry, not to the banking system because it appears to be better secured, but to the policy makers to look out for social financial stress points amongst borrowers. Because in many cases, stretched borrowers are also taking multiple loans against multiple sets of collateral or sometimes without collateral. Outstanding gold loans, according to that Mint report, have expanded nearly four times since March 2022 and their share of retail credit has doubled to 11% in December 25 from about 6% in March 2022, the report said, quoting a TransUnion Sibyl report.

I reached out to Vivek Iyer, Partner and National Leader, Financial Services Risk Advisory at Grant Thornton Bharat, who also works with clients in this space, and I asked him whether these galloping numbers should be a cause for worry.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Vivek Ramji Iyer: See, from a gold loan standpoint, given that India as a country looks at gold as a very, you know, from an emotional perspective, from a security standpoint, that's something that's available with everyone. So, from a growth perspective, very much understandable that when there is access to credit available, when gold as a security is offered, it is definitely going to pick up. So, from a growth perspective, obviously, a great opportunity from a credit standpoint for people.

Obviously, because it's a great opportunity and there is significant growth, there are associated regulatory concerns, primary being that gold essentially has been associated with a very money lender mindset. So, essentially, it means that when a customer deposits a gold and takes a loan, the mindset of a financial institution cannot be that, oh, I have gold. So, it is the customer's responsibility to come to me because he has to get the gold.

Otherwise, I'm good because given the loan to value ratio and the gold that I have, you know, I don't really need to worry about it, which is the biggest concern of the regulator.

Govindraj Ethiraj: So, where are we in terms of loan to value ratios today? And where were we, let's say, a year ago?

Vivek Ramji Iyer: Roughly, I think the loan to value ratio for this is somewhere between about a 70% to 80%, if I'm not wrong. And that's been the range, usually. But what has technically happened is that as the value of gold increases, you know, naturally, there are top up gold loans, etc, that each one of the institutions also encourage the borrowers to take, which is also sort of a worry towards, you know, in the interest of growth, you're potentially, you know, spoiling the credit culture.

So, that's one of the concerns, which is what, at least over the past three to four years, from a regulatory perspective, we've seen that that's the concern that the regulator has been having from a gold on business standpoint.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. So, gold prices themselves, you know, they've gone from under 4000 to over five and a half thousand dollars per ounce. And what does that come back subsequently, quite sharply?

So, what is that meant to the portfolios and their values in the hands of the banks and institutions who've been giving these loans?

Vivek Ramji Iyer: So, honestly, in terms of from a gold as a security standpoint, I don't think that the market fluctuations are significantly in terms of impaired the value of the gold that each one of these institutions are holding, because there is a value of gold is moving. It's usually in the form of jewellery, there are making charges, there are values, etc., that are kind of associated with it, which gives a certain value. Any change in the gold values usually has not kind of given a dramatic fluctuation to each one of them, because gold as an asset is not that people kind of buy it over a period, people buy gold over a period of time and it averages the price.

As a result of that, the holding price at which each one of these borrowers actually have the gold at is at a different price. When they value it, this is a valuation that is actually received and the making charges, etc., that are put in. From that perspective and the loan to value difference that is also maintained, there is sufficient cover that is actually maintained to ensure that even if there is a gold price correction, it is not so significant to actually have an equivalent of a margin call with respect to in the gold loan business.

Govindraj Ethiraj: And what are the other trends that you're seeing in gold loans in relation to other kinds of loans, Vivek?

Vivek Ramji Iyer: See, one of the things that we are definitely in terms of seeing from a gold loan standpoint is that there is a lot, whenever an economy is going through a certain, you know, a surge in gold loans, essentially means that in some way, the sentiment is a bit muted. Because if people are going to actually in terms of give a gold and take a loan, you know, it is not the most preferred option. But a surge in gold loan is also a reflection of a muted global sentiment.

So, every time a gold loans are essentially in terms of picking up, that's essentially in terms of how you read it. If the economy is sound, then there will be a lot of personal loans that will be available. There will be a lot more new loan variants that will be available and people's desire to basically pledge gold for the purpose of loans, you know, from a gold standpoint would be on a lower side.

So, at least I see that it is a, I would say counterintuitive in terms of what the overall sentiment is. Great sentiment, people essentially in terms of wouldn't go for a gold loan. Muted sentiment, people would say that from a credit standpoint in terms of I would need gold.

At least that's how, you know, is a sense and that's how it performs in relation to other products. It's a good mix from a diversification standpoint, you know, from a financial institution portfolio standpoint.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. So, obviously, a lot of financial institutions have grown on the back of gold loans, and some much more than the others. So, would you say that the market from the institution side should now maybe mature a little bit now and we should grow more slowly?

Or do you still feel that there is very large potential for growth?

Vivek Ramji Iyer: No, I genuinely feel that in terms of there is a large potential for growth. The reason I will tell you is because what is the collateral that is really available to people? You know, you know that the title deeds, properties, land, these are still evolving.

One of the things that is very clear from a title standpoint is gold. And that is an asset that is actually available to, you know, the lower segment of the society in terms of the bottom of the pyramid. And the only form of getting credit against a collateral for them is gold.

Irrespective what the sentiment may be in the world, it may be very great sentiment. But do they have a collateral? They do not.

And primarily because of this reality at the bottom of the pyramid, I do believe that gold loan has a potential to grow. So, so far as from an inclusion standpoint, you can actually target these people where gold can actually be used for the purpose of providing loans and guiding them towards upward social mobility. I think that would be a great way for, you know, gold loan to actually make a difference.

So, I do believe that there is a lot of growth potential on the product. And because of the fact that there is this growth potential, regulatory concerns continue.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. That's a useful note to end on, Vivek. Thank you so much for joining me.

Vivek Ramji Iyer: Thank you.

What Does High Performers at the Indian Box Office Indicate?

For the first time, going by Indian media and entertainment industry insights consulting firm Ormax, none of the top five films of a particular month, in this case, May, at the Indian box office are original Hindi language films. While this may be a one-off, it is a sign of how language content has grown at the Indian box office in the last decade in particular, according to Ormax.

Elsewhere, the May report also shows that 2026 has been so far better than 2025. Total box office collections for films released between Jan and May 26 has touched about 5,300 crore rupees, which is about 12% higher than the corresponding period in 2025. South Indian films dominated in May, Tamil film Karuppu emerged as the month's biggest hit, followed by Malayalam blockbuster Drishyam 3. They were joined by Marathi film Raja Shivaji and international horror film Obsession, with the four films crossed the 100 crore rupees mark.

I reached out to Sanket Kulkarni, Head Business Development-Theatrical at Ormax Media, and I began by asking him what was driving these big shifts and whether we are seeing a more long-term reshaping of the entertainment industry in India.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Sanket Kulkarni: To be really honest, I think looking at only the May data would be a little unfair, because that happens to be that one month where you don't have a Bollywood. But if you look at the top 10 films list for the last five months, because we are in May now for the last month, you would find a Durandar at 1120 out there, right? So just not being there in one month could be just an aberration.

But I think what makes this whole part interesting is there has been a 12% growth over last year. But what has this growth come from? That's a really interesting thing.

Because if you look at the breakup of these top 10 films for the last five months or so, right? And I think in that you would see like there are three Hindi films, there are two Telugu films, there are two Marathi films, there are two Malayalam films, right? And there is also one Tamil film also.

Now, this mix of languages coming all together in a matter of five months, this is one interesting part. And if you look at the range of genres that it covers, right? So it covers from comedy, biopic, thriller, horror, action, everything.

So I think it's this balance of genres and languages, which makes this top 10 list really interesting. And if you kind of think about it, I think there are like the biggest underlying reason that everything why this is happening points toward is I really think there's a gradual decline in formalisation of content, right? So industries in general, from the sense of safety, we're running on certain set of formulas, which I think over a period of time, gradually, especially after pandemic, are reducing with each possibility.

And that is kind of visible in at least two metrics. So there is this one metric that we look at, which is contribution of top 10 films. Now, box office in general has always been relying on that.

So even for the last three years, which is 2024, 2023 and 2022. If you look at the contribution of top 10 films was almost 40%. And it was constant over there.

But in 2025, this picture kind of changed that 40% reduced to 33%. Now, another way to look at the same information is you look at how has the contribution of long tail increased, which is films beyond top 10. Now, even in the same year 2025, long tail contribution increased by almost 2000 crores.

So all these things kind of link and hint towards the fact that there is a second chance that the long tail is getting and audiences are now open to more and the same is visible. So you look films like Ek Diwani Ki Diwaniyat, you look at films like Munjiya, you look at films like 12th Fail. All of these films are films which did not have much of a stack but have gone on to do a great business per se.

The second metric which you see again is contribution of franchises. Now, again, in this formulaic nature of the world, franchises form a key role. And if you look at so in 2019, franchises contributed to somewhere around 19% of the total box office.

The same number in 2024 grew to almost 50%. So by 2024, the sentiment was okay, we've cracked it post pandemic. One thing that's definitely working is franchises.

But in 2025, the audience is corrected again. And now that number has dropped from 50% back to 33%. So again, that is telling you one more thing that the audiences are more in it for the content rather than the familiarity with the content.

And the third key metric, I really think is, and you must have heard it, seen it in the last two and a half years, star power is something that cannot be taken for granted. So there are multiple actors who used to have an average first day of 8 to 10 crores. But the last two, three films have opened at around 2.53 crores. There are multiple examples. So I think lack of dependency, like reduced percentage share of franchises, reduced dependency on top 10 films, and the mere fact that 10 pools like star power are not working kind of tells you that it's becoming more of a level playing field with each passing day. And that is a reflection in that top 10 mixed list that you have.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Right, let me come back to the language part first, and then the genres. Are there shifts on the demand side as well? I mean, is purchasing power and therefore people watching more or spending more on those films in those languages higher than before?

And therefore, that's causing the shift as well?

Sanket Kulkarni: So to be really honest, last year was the highest grossing box office year ever. 2023, when it happened, also was the highest. So now it's the second highest.

But with each passing year, our footfalls have dwindled, but the box office collection has increased. So the growth has clearly come from increasing that of a ticket price. So now what has happened is the frequency of audiences going to theatre has reduced.

So for example, pre-pandemic, a Hindi audience was watching around four and a half films in a year. The same number now is down to three. So yeah, I think people are walking in less.

So cinema going, which earlier was more like a habit, is gradually becoming more like an event. And yeah, so maybe I can spend a little more, but then my frequency to go to theatre is reducing.

Govindraj Ethiraj: And to sort of pick up on that same question. So therefore, let's say people who are watching in other languages, so let's say Tamil could be watching more or spending more. And therefore that's causing this spike in non-Bollywood films.

Sanket Kulkarni: So spike in non-Bollywood films, I think it's actually a function. It's not that the contribution of South has increased per se, right? Because 2023, Jamaan Pathan, Animal Gaddar, four films happened, that was more like a resurrection of Hindi, right?

It's just that Hindi hasn't kind of gone down. I think everyone has maintained their own share per se in each of the markets. And the frequency of going to theatres has reduced for each language.

I'll give you an example. So for the longest time, South markets, especially Tamil and Telugu did have ticket caps. They did have a 120 rupees, 150 rupees ticket cap.

And if you had to kind of remove that cap, you have to take like a CM's permission. But in the last one and a half, two years, at least for top Pavan Kalyan films, Rajini films, they would make it a very frequent thing. So even that has changed for them.

They used to have this as a habit, because there was a ticket cap earlier. But in the last two, three years, that has also kind of changed.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. And to come back to the genre, you said, you know, across genres, comedy, biopics, thrillers, all have done well. And therefore, it's tough to I guess, or rather, let me put the question to you.

So how do filmmakers or how are filmmakers now deciding what they want to put out as a big hit if they can?

Sanket Kulkarni: Yeah, so that's been the holy grail of the quest, I think for the last 100 years or so. But to be really honest, there is something that they call as which is a film sleep, which they'll plan two to three years in advance. And obviously, you would see one horror comedy will work.

And then everyone wants to make a horror comedy. And then they also want to build it into a franchise. But some of them work, some of them don't work.

But to be really honest, I think because a mixed variety of genres is working one way to look at it is let me make this. But another way to look at the same information is audiences are open to watching something which does not mostly have a star cast in it. And they're open to watching something that they don't have a reference point for before.

And Durandar is a great example of that, although with a star cast. But there is no reference for having an experience like this. And this film goes on to 900 crore and 1200 crore, right?

So from that perspective, I think the thing to take away from it is post pandemic, the majority of the studios had reduced their slate and reduced the experimentation. I think in the last two years, the data points that I just said you that kind of gives you confidence that you can actually increase the slate and try out newer things. Right.

And obviously, data backed and testing and understanding kind of goes a long way to give you a feedback in terms of what audiences would want to see. Right. So how are you seeing the rest of the year, Sanket?

So again, five months down the line, we are almost 12% more than what the number was last year. So that's a great head start to kind of have. And you will have Ramayana releasing this year over Diwali.

Right. So I think there are a couple of great releases that are kind of lined up and King will come at the end of the year. So you have Shah Rukh also returning this year.

So I think this year should definitely be strong. And but my bigger point is it'll be a sweeter year if this share of long tail continues around 30, 33%. Because see, a top film is job is to get newer people in the universe of film.

But for a film, which is not in the top 10, its work is to kind of work towards what we just talked about increasing the frequency of audiences coming to theatre. And the biggest challenge for the industry today is to make it into a habit again. So I think that is really important.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Good note to end on, Sanket.

Sanket Kulkarni: Thank you so much for joining me. Same here.