Investors like Adar Poonawalla may help smaller production firms gain scale

The Indian film business once had a well-oiled studio system but it imploded in the aftermath of the Second World War. Since then filmmakers have struggled to secure funding

A new story is unfolding on Indian cinema screens. In the early 1990s, Karan Johar topped the Maharashtra state board exams for commerce and was offered an MBA seat at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. Since he already held a diplôme supérieur, he decided to go to Paris and do an additional course in French. However, Johar, a South Bombay lad, was also a closet Hindi film buff. He had been helping his childhood friend, Aditya Chopra, write his first film.

 

Three days before he was scheduled to board his flight, Chopra called him and said, “You are