Samsung’s 2026 startup incubation program is offering grants of up to $50,000 without taking equity, highlighting growing interest in non-dilutive funding for deep-tech founders.
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India’s student founder movement is expanding beyond traditional IIT-centered narratives as young entrepreneurs increasingly launch startups directly from campuses across the country.
In the winter of 2025, a spy thriller starring an actor whose commercial appeal was still being debated by the trade released to an opening weekend that exceeded every pre‑release projection. By the time it finished its theatrical run, Dhurandhar had grossed approximately ₹878 crore worldwide—the highest‑grossing Hindi film in history at the time of its release. Four months later, its sequel, Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge, opened even larger and ran even longer, crossing ₹1,789 crore globally and establishing the franchise as the most commercially potent intellectual property in the history of Hindi cinema. Together, the two films have grossed over ₹1,700 crore at the global box office, on combined production budgets of approximately ₹550 crore. The return on investment is not merely impressive. It is structural. And the franchise's performance has already begun to reshape how every major Indian studio thinks about sequel economics, star compensation, and the value of intellectual property.
Maharashtra’s ambitious AI roadmap aims to attract ₹10,000 crore in investments, create AI innovation cities and generate over 1.5 lakh jobs, positioning artificial intelligence as a core economic growth strategy.
In the winter of 2025, as Dhurandhar completed its record‑breaking rampage through the global box office, Ranveer Singh sat down with his financial team and made a decision that would, in retrospect, mark the moment the Indian film industry's oldest hierarchy was formally inverted. He would no longer be merely the star of his films. He would be their primary financier. His production company, Ma Kasam Films—launched quietly during the pandemic and previously limited to smaller, experimental projects—would now co‑finance every film he starred in, committing tens of crores of his own capital to each production, assuming a share of the risk in exchange for a larger share of the upside. The actor who had spent his career as the highest‑paid employee on every set he worked on was now becoming the employer. The distinction was not merely financial. It was structural. And it represented the culmination of a shift that has been building for years and that is now, unmistakably, reshaping the power dynamics of the Indian film industry.
While Bengaluru remains India’s startup capital, Mumbai is increasingly emerging as the country’s enterprise AI hub as major banks, healthcare companies and large corporations accelerate real-world AI deployment.
June 2026 is witnessing a fresh wave of SME IPO activity led by Merritronix, Aureate Tradde and Liotech Industries, highlighting strong fundraising momentum among emerging Indian businesses.
In the spring of 2024, a film released in India that spent approximately ₹80 crore on prints and advertising. The figure was not remarkable—the largest Hindi releases had been crossing the ₹50 crore P&A threshold for years. What was remarkable was the line item that had disappeared from the budget. The film's lead actor, one of the most recognisable faces in the country, had taken no upfront fee. His compensation was structured entirely as a share of the film's profits, and the money that would have been allocated to his salary—approximately ₹60 crore—had been redirected into the marketing campaign instead. The film was Jawan. The actor was Shah Rukh Khan. And the decision to swap star fee for marketing spend was, in retrospect, the moment the Indian film industry's centre of economic gravity shifted from the face on the poster to the machinery that sold it.
In the summer of 2024, a 21‑year‑old woman with no film lineage, no social‑media following, and no prior acting experience walked into a casting office in Andheri and auditioned for a role that would, within eighteen months, make her one of the most talked‑about faces in the country. The film was Saiyaara, a romantic drama produced by Dharma Productions and directed by a debutant. Its budget was approximately ₹60 crore. Its lead actor, who had appeared in two moderately successful films, was paid ₹3 crore. Its lead actress, the 21‑year‑old who had walked into the casting office, was paid ₹35 lakh. The film grossed nearly ₹500 crore worldwide, and the actress is now negotiating her fourth film, with offers that reportedly exceed ₹8 crore per project. The studio that bet on her—that bet on an unknown face, a modest budget, and a script that had been rejected by three established stars—has earned a return on investment that no star‑driven blockbuster of the same period has matched.