ISLAMABAD: Bollywood has released more than 45 films since 2019 revolving around Pakistan, Kashmir, cross-border terrorism or Muslim identities, accounting for roughly one movie every two months. While a handful became commercial successes, nearly half underperformed or failed outright at the box office despite India's film industry continuing to invest heavily in the genre.

Bollywood has long used Pakistan to build a narrative of war, espionage, and patriotism. Earlier films such as Border (1997), LOC Kargil (2003), Baby (2015), Phantom (2015), and Raazi (2018) established a familiar formula in which Pakistan was the main antagonist.

Surge after 2019

From Uri: The Surgical Strike to Shershaah, Mission Majnu, Fighter, Article 370, Ground Zero, Sky Force, Dhurandhar and Border 2, nearly every year has seen multiple big-budget productions centered on Pakistan, Kashmir, military conflict, intelligence operations or cross-border terrorism.

Pakistan TV Digital's investigation found that this 'trend' in Bollywood movies focusing predominantly on Pakistan accelerated considerably after the February 2019 Pulwama attack and Balakot airstrikes.

Some of these films proved commercially successful and drew large audiences.

But for every Shershaah or Gadar 2, there is a growing list of heavy-budget productions that failed to attract audiences. Pakistan TV Digital’s investigation built a snapshot of what Bollywood has been doing since 2019.

A string of failures

Battalion 609 (2019), the India-Pakistan war drama, reportedly earned just one lakh Indian rupees (around $1035) during its theatrical run.

Code Name: Tiranga (2022), starring Parineeti Chopra as a RAW agent, was made on a reported budget of ₹20 crore (about $2.3 million) but recovered only ₹1.41 crore (roughly $163,000) at the box office.

Then came Tejas (2023). Produced for an estimated ₹70 crore (around $8.1 million), the Kangana Ranaut-led fighter pilot drama became one of the year's biggest commercial disappointments, losing more than ₹50 crore (about $5.8 million), according to Indian media.

Operation Valentine (2024), built around the Pulwama attack and Balakot airstrikes, also failed to recover its reported production costs.

This year, India’s biggest production house, Yash Raj Films, released Alpha, the latest entry in its spy universe starring Alia Bhatt and Sharvari. The film opened to the weakest first-day collections in the franchise despite a reported budget exceeding ₹100 crore.

Rise of anti-Muslim narratives

The investigation also found a parallel rise in films portraying an anti-Islam narrative or some that are laden with Islamophobic tropes.

Films such as The Kerala Story, Ajmer 92 and The Sabarmati Report have drawn criticism from rights groups, opposition politicians, and media for reinforcing anti-Muslim stereotypes or presenting disputed historical and political narratives.

Why keep making them?

Pakistan TV Digital estimates that Bollywood has spent more than ₹3,000 crore (approximately $347 million) on these propaganda films alone.

The persistence of the genre, despite repeated commercial disappointments, suggests that box-office performance or a profit incentive does not explain Bollywood's continued investment.

Narratives built around a clearly defined national adversary have long been a staple of popular cinema, particularly during periods of heightened political tensions, but loss-making propaganda films on Bollywood's scale is unprecedented.

In 2025, a peer-reviewed paper in a Taylor & Francis journal traces how Hindi cinema's portrayal of Muslims as terrorists or anti-nationalists intensified after the 1990s, and argues the genre constructs Pakistani Muslims as “external threats” and Indian Muslims as “internal ones”.

In cinema, that often translates into stories built around patriotism, national security and an identifiable external enemy. In this case, the paper also argues that depictions of Muslims and Pakistan have become central to nationalist storytelling in contemporary Bollywood.

The analysis found that despite mixed box-office returns, major studios have continued to produce such films. Whether driven by market demand, political climate, or a combination of both, the trend shows little sign of slowing.

Articles tagged with "Film industry"

One film every two months: Bollywood's fixation on Pakistan outlives box office failures

One film every two months: Bollywood's fixation on Pakistan outlives box office failures