Creator-led promotions records Rs 250 crore in Indian film marketing in 2025: Report

Creator-led content has emerged as a major driver of movie promotions in India, with the industry estimated to have spent over Rs 250 crore on such campaigns so far this year. This includes influencer marketing, meme marketing, paid user-generated content, and seeding strategies that often appear organic on social media.

Data from Qoruz, a creator intelligence and collaboration platform, recorded that creators and meme makers generated more than 610,000 posts about films in 2025, resulting in over 2 billion engagements across major social platforms. On average, this translates to roughly 400 creator-led posts per film, indicating that creator-driven promotions have become a baseline strategy, extending beyond big-budget releases.

Arts and entertainment creators and meme pages accounted for 61.67% of posts, while micro creators and smaller pages contributed over 51% of total posts and engagement.

The report also highlights how creator-led campaigns are increasingly executed through modular spends. For example, Rs 1 lakh in creator spend can drive 10 to 20 meme page posts, generating 500,000+ organic views, depending on page size, language, and target location.

Regional trends show that Mumbai leads with 26.53% of total engagements, followed by Chennai (9.13%), Delhi (8.28%), Hyderabad (7.51%), and Bengaluru (4.28%). While Mumbai dominates overall volume, Chennai shows stronger engagement intensity per post. Together, these five cities contribute 56% of all engagements, underscoring how movie conversations are concentrated in cultural hubs even as content spreads nationally.

Speaking about the findings, Aditya Gurwara, Co-Founder and Head of Brand Alliances at Qoruz, said, “When people ask why the spend range is so wide, it’s because ‘creator marketing’ in movies doesn’t mean one fixed thing. For one film, it could be paying ten meme pages Rs 5,000 each. For another, it could be a Rs 2 crore influencer rollout. Sometimes it’s barter collabs. Sometimes it’s paid UGC through micro creators. Sometimes it’s just pushing one trend hard and letting it run.”

He added, “A lot of this also happens through seeding networks. Money doesn’t always move through clean brand invoices. Payments pass through local distributors, PR teams, talent managers, and meme page brokers. That’s why a lot of movie buzz looks organic from the outside, even when there’s real spend behind it. A meaningful share of creator spend is still invisible, routed through seeding networks and local promotions rather than official brand invoices, which means the true creator economy in entertainment is likely even larger. The truth is, every big movie today uses some form of creator fuel. Reels trends, meme pages, fan edits, reaction videos, and interview creators. It’s all part of the mix now, even if nobody officially calls it influencer marketing. That’s just how films show up on feeds today. Not as ads, but as culture.”

Praanesh Bhuvaneswar, Co-Founder and CEO of Qoruz, added, “What’s surprising this year is the sheer scale of adoption. Our data shows that close to 60-70% of movies released in 2025 used creator-led promotions in some form. Not always loudly. Not always officially. But it was there. What’s even more interesting is how audiences are responding to it. Whether it’s Bollywood, Kollywood, or even Malayalam cinema, we’re seeing massive engagement around these cultural narratives across platforms. Everyone wants to trend on X, drive engagement on Instagram, hit millions of views on YouTube, and become meme material.”

He continued, “Big films like Chhaava, Coolie, Kantara: Chapter 1, and more recently Dhurandhar are clearly leading the engagement game. But what’s really changing the market is that mid-scale films like Su From So, Dragon, and Lokah are also able to generate real buzz and shares when they understand how meme pages and creators work. For many films, creator buzz has become the new ‘opening weekend.’ If a film doesn’t trend on X, spike on Reels, and hit YouTube reactions within the first 48 hours, the conversation moves on.”