At the CII - Big Picture Summit 2025, filmmaker and producer Dinesh Vijan brought a visionary perspective to the future of Indian cinema. As the force behind Maddock Films, one of the industry’s fastest-rising and most genre-diverse studios, Vijan spoke passionately about the next big leap for Bollywood.
He shared, “It’s time to take India global - to take our stories to the world with the help of technology and AI. And to go global, you have to be quintessentially yourself. It has finally become cool to be Indian. We’re proud of who we are, and that’s the sweet spot in content that we found, which helped us immensely. AI, today, is democratic. What we’re trying to do is tap into our labyrinth of stories - our culture is probably the richest and oldest - and use technology and AI to carry those stories to the world.
Vijan said that the industry sometimes needs an unexpected nudge - “an accident” - to realise what truly resonates & recounted how Stree became that “accident” for his team in 2017. Despite repeated doubts from many who said the film would never work in theatres, the supernatural-horror comedy overturned every prediction and cultural assumption.
He shared, “People told us a film like Stree could never work in cinemas. But look at where we are today Stree 2 is now the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time.
Vijan also touched upon how digital deals give producers a sense of comfort by helping recover a large part of production costs, but warned that depending solely on such recoveries can curb ambition. Speaking about the distribution of large-scale films, he referenced Mahavatar, one of his most ambitious projects. He explained: “When we make a film like Mahavatar, it is not for sale anywhere. We don’t know how far a film of this kind can go. It might be the most Indian film we’ve ever made but it’s taken us almost 20 years to reach a point where we can hold on to a film of this scale and not sell it. This kind of conviction requires patience and perseverance. It hasn’t been done before.”
Through his remarks, Vijan underscored a significant shift underway in the Indian film industry - a push toward confidence, creative ownership, and global ambition. As Bollywood continues to compete on international stages, he believes the biggest progress will happen when creators fully trust stories that arise from their own roots.
Through his vision, Vijan highlighted how Maddock Films is shaping the future of Indian cinema by embracing technology while staying deeply rooted in Indian identity and storytelling.
With a power-packed 2025, Maddock Films stands today as one of the fastest-growing production houses in the country, consistently delivering hits across an impressive range of genres - from patriotic dramas to horror-comedies, historic sagas, and heartwarming rom-coms. Now, the studio is all set to close the year on a high with Ikkis, releasing in cinemas on December 25.
