Exclusive: Tamil outshines Hindi, ranks 3rd in global content acquisition

Tamil language movies and TV shows break into the top 5 languages for global content acquisition for the first time.

The cast and crew of Ponniyin Selvan 2 at an event in Chennai. (Photo: Twitter/Lyca Productions)

In a significant development, Tamil has emerged as one of the top languages for content acquired globally, according to Vitrina AI, a global intelligence tracker. The trend was observed from April 2022 to March 2023, with Tamil making it to the top 5 languages for entertainment content acquired for streaming, broadcasting, and other rights.

"Tamil is now the number 3 language. We have not seen Tamil doing actually so well in the past. The data shows that there is a growing demand for Tamil content worldwide," said Atul Phadnis, CEO of Vitrina.

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Tamil has achieved a major milestone by breaking into the top 5 languages for global content acquisition, a list that was typically dominated by Spanish, French, Korean, and Turkish languages. This is a significant achievement for Tamil content as despite being a popular language in India, it typically receives fewer deals than Hindi content. "Even within Indian content, the usual pattern is that Hindi content does more deals than Tamil. The last 12 months have broken that usual pattern," added Phadnis.

The latest trend demonstrates a growing recognition and appreciation of Tamil content worldwide, opening up new opportunities for the industry to expand its reach. It also indicates that major global content acquirers have realised that Indian content is not just defined by Hindi or "Bollywood" movies.

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Big streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon are making big investments to acquire rights to Tamil content. "This investment is not into content production. This investment is buying past movies. What they have done is they thought 'there is an interesting set of stories here. It's an untapped market. These stories have not gone international. So maybe we can take Tamil stories and then dub them into Portuguese, French or German and tell those stories to their audiences," Phadnis explained.

The key takeaway from the surprising trend is that producers in other parts of the world seem to find the sensibilities of Tamil content appealing to the audiences in their region. This is a significant development for the Tamil entertainment industry, as it opens up new opportunities for global recognition and expansion. With the increasing demand for Tamil content worldwide, the industry has a chance to showcase the rich cultural and artistic heritage of the Tamil language to a wider audience.

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