From Taskaree to Aamir Khan’s KSI collab, films now launch on creator feeds before cinemas

When Emraan Hashmi appeared in a tongue-in-cheek Instagram reel with television actor and Big Boss 19 winner Gaurav Khanna to promote his upcoming web series Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web and when Aamir Khan and Vir Das had collaborated with British YouTuber and influencer KSI ahead of Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, tapping into a global creator audience is far removed from traditional Bollywood marketing circuits. The message across both campaigns was clear: films are no longer waiting to meet audiences in theatres. They are entering conversations where audiences already are, “on creator feeds”.

These recent collaborations are not outliers. They are signals of a larger shift underway in how films are being marketed in India, where creator-led content has moved from being supplementary buzz to becoming a core pillar of promotional strategy.

According to data shared by Qoruz, a Creator Intelligence and Collaboration Platform, the Indian film industry has spent over ₹250 crore on creator-led entertainment promotions in 2025 alone. This includes influencer collaborations, meme pages, reaction videos, fan edits, short-form content and paid UGC designed to blend seamlessly into social feeds and trigger organic engagement.

In 2025 alone, creators and meme-makers have produced over 6.1 lakh movie-related posts across platforms, generating more than 2 billion engagements. With over 1,500 films released in India this year, the average film now sees nearly 400 creator-led posts, underlining how creator marketing is no longer reserved for tentpole releases alone.

Movie-related creator content has emerged as one of the highest-engagement categories on social media, often outperforming traditional promotional assets like trailers and interviews in terms of reach and recall.

Arts and entertainment accounts, along with meme pages, accounted for nearly 62% of all creator-led movie posts. Fashion and beauty creators followed closely, showing how film conversations are increasingly spilling into non-film communities.

More importantly, over 51% of total posts and interactions came from micro-creators and smaller pages. This reflects a clear shift away from reliance on high-cost celebrity influencers towards high-volume, culturally fluent content that can travel faster and wider.

Film marketers are now optimising campaigns for speed, relatability and repeatability, leveraging networks of smaller creators to push multiple formats across regions, languages and audience segments within hours of release.

The strategy behind the ‘organic’ buzz

Praanesh Bhuvaneswar, Co-Founder and CEO of Qoruz, noted that close to 60–70% of films released in 2025 used creator-led promotions in some form, even if not officially acknowledged.

“Big films like Chhaava, Coolie, Kantara: Chapter 1 and more recently Dhurandhar are clearly leading the engagement game. For many films, creator buzz has become the new opening weekend,” he said.

According to him, if a film doesn’t trend on X, spike on Reels and trigger YouTube reaction content within the first 48 hours, the conversation quickly moves on in today’s attention economy.

On the other hand, Co-founder of B.I.G Media, Suyog Kiran Jadhav, said that creators are increasingly transitioning into mainstream cinema, citing examples such as Dharna Durga being produced under Dharma Productions and creators like Bhuvan Bam following a similar trajectory. “Creators today carry aspiration value. When production houses cast a creator with millions of followers instead of an unknown artist, they are not just casting for talent but also for built-in reach and promotion,” he said.

Jadhav added that while many creators are launching their own brands, not everyone wants to become an entrepreneur. “Some creators prefer to remain artists rather than business owners. For them, partnering with platforms or production houses becomes the natural next step,” he said.

Recent collaboration for film promotions

1. Aamir Khan and Vir Das collaborated with British influencer KSI ahead of the release of their film Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTdwPfsjSM8/?igsh=MWZpZGRzNzdnbzR2cw==

2. Emraan Hashmi collaborated with Gaurav Khanna ahead of the release of his web series Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTaUfhtE_67/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

3. Netflix roped in stand-up comedian Aaditya Kulshreshth for promotion of Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTU1qtmkmKa/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

4. Amazon Prime Video and Manoj Bajpayee collaborated with Samay Raina, Tanmay Bhat and Apoorva Mukhija aka The Rebel Kid to promote the release of Family Man Season 3

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQ6eoMuDYCL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

The creator-driven model, however, is not only being adopted by the Indian film industry. Foreign production houses and streaming platforms are also increasingly tapping local creators for promoting foreign films and shows in India to build relevance in the market. By collaborating with Indian influencers, global titles are able to localize narratives, and reach audiences in a way that traditional global marketing assets often cannot. For example:

1. Ajey Nagar aka Carryminati alongside Samay Raina, Zayn Saifi, Abhishek Malhan (Fukra Insaan), Mithilesh Patankar (Mythpat) collaborated with Mr. Beast for promoting Mr. Beast Games show

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDyq0aux4aq/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

2. Srishti Garg, Rida Tharana, Sufi Motiwala, Apoorva Makhija (The Rebel Kid) and Ankush Bahuguna collaborated with Netflix to capture and amplify the promotional event for Wednesday Season 2 Show.

How Indian influencers became the face of Netflix’s ‘Wednesday’ Season 2 in India

3. Malvika Sitlani collaborated with Netflix to Promote Emily in Paris

https://www.instagram.com/p/C_xdXipM1cz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Industry expert also noted, “For one film, it could be paying ten meme pages ₹5,000 each. For another, it could be a ₹2 crore influencer rollout. Sometimes it’s barter collaborations, sometimes paid UGC through micro-creators, sometimes just pushing one trend hard and letting it run. Every big movie today uses some form of creator fuel, reels trends, meme pages, fan edits, reaction videos, interview creators. It’s all part of the mix now. Films don’t show up as ads anymore. They show up as culture.”

As films like Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos demonstrate, the real opening no longer begins on Friday at the box office, but much earlier on social feeds where culture is formed in real time.