Trump vs movies? How new US tariffs will impact Bollywood, Tollywood, Indian films at large
Indian diaspora spends around $100 million a year to watch Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi and other Indian language movies released in US
American President Donald Trump's decision to finally impose a massive 100% tariff — import duty or tax — on movies made outside the US comes as another major blow to India, which has been facing his wrath, with blips of bonhomie, for the past three months and more.
It was not immediately clear how such a tariff on movies, a software, would be implemented given that modern film-making is mostly digital and done across countries, much of the production work being online.
But one impact could be on ticket prices if producers pass on the tax burden to consumers.
The Indian diaspora in the US spends around $100 million a year to watch Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali and other Indian language movies released in the US country, according to the Producers Guild of India.
Indians are about 1.6% of the total US population, with other South Asians also being audiences of Indian language movies, such as Pakistanis for Punjabi and Hindi, Bangladeshi for Bengali, or Lankan Tamils, besides locals who enjoy diverse films.
Vivek Lath, a distributor of entertainment content, said in May: “US accounts for roughly 5-7% of box office revenues for Indian movies. Already stressed US theatre owners will not be happy with this and if the rest of the world reciprocates, Hollywood will also lose a large share of its international revenues. Let’s see how this plays out."
Trump, who posted about the decision on Truth Social on Monday, spoke about the 100% tariff first in May. At the time, Shibasish Sarkar, president of the Producers Guild of India told The Hindu: “Definitely there will be impact in footfall if ticket prices go up and it will also cut into the share of producers.”
Not only theatrical but any other streams of revenue or business coming from digital or satellite or from the US will be impacted, he'd said.
Telugu forms the largest chunk of Indian movies released in the US — sometimes called Tollywood — followed by Bollywood or Hindi movies, and then Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi and other languages.
“Under such a high tariff regime, all channels of movie showing and viewing will be impacted and become more costly. It will overall increase the cost of content consumption for the Indian diaspora,” Ashish Kulkarni, an animation and visual effects industry expert and founder of a production house, told The Hindu then.
Trade expert Sreedhar Pillai has explained this to India Today: "What the distributors are saying is that, for example… you have bought a film for ₹5 crore to screen in the US, then you will have to end up giving ₹10 crore. And suppose the average price of a ticket in the US is $10-15 right now, that will be increased to around $20-30 — straight double."
Recent Indian movies that earned major revenues in the US, as per IMDb include ‘Baahubali 2’ at $22 million, followed by ‘Kalki 2898AD’ ‘Pathaan’, ‘RRR’, ‘Pushpa 2’, ‘Jawan’, and ‘Animal’, all grossing $15–19 million each.
Trump has been high on tariffs ever since he returned to power in January of 2025.
At present, Indian goods are charged at least 50% tariff — half of that is “penalty” for India's purchase of Russian oil despite the Ukraine war. India has insisted it has a sovereign right to buy at the best prices it finds.
While talks for a trade deal have since resumed after President Trump and PM Narendra Modi had some pleasant exchanges, the tariff on movies means Trump inward-looking trade policy is now entering the cultural industries.
This raises uncertainty for studios that depend heavily on cross-border co-productions and international box-office revenue, news agency Reuters reported.
Trump argued in his post: “Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing candy from a baby.”
It was unclear what legal authority Trump would use to impose a 100% tariff on foreign-made films. The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Top American studios Warner Bros Discovery, Paramount Skydance and Netflix, all of which produce for and in the massive Indian market too, did not say anything immediately either.
"There is too much uncertainty, and this latest move raises more questions than answers. For now, as things stand, costs are likely to increase, and this will inevitably be passed on to consumers," movie business analyst Paolo Pescatore told the news agency.
Studio executives had said earlier this year that modern films often use production, financing, post-production and visual effects spread across countries.
Hollywood has increasingly relied on overseas production hubs such as Canada, the UK and Australia, where tax incentives have attracted big-budget shoots. Co-productions with studios in Asia and Europe are common too.
