Abhinav Kashyap is on a rampage. One can understand his angst. The first film he directed, Dabangg (2010), was not only a monster hit but also ushered in a wave of small-town cinema while making kitsch fashionable. His later career could not match the highs of that first outing. But he is now seeing a different kind of high.
Kashyap has been making a series of appearances on Bollywood Thikana, a podcast with which this writer was not familiar until the Kashyap bomb began to explode on it, firing a fusillade of allegations against some of the biggest names in the Hindi film industry.
Full marks to the podcast host for generally keeping a straight face and often asking reasonable questions in a measured manner. For whatever it is worth, these videos are getting impressive viewership numbers and comments.
The intention of this column is neither to extol Kashyap’s outpourings nor to examine their veracity. Just that it is impossible not to marvel at the mushrooming of podcasts that, one way or the other, have something to do with the film industry. Anywhere you look, there is someone talking to an actor, director, producer, music director, scriptwriter, lyricist, playback singer—the whole lot.
On YouTube, the mother of all streaming platforms, you cannot avoid a chat related to the film industry unless you completely stayed away from it. It may have something to do with my watching behaviour influencing YouTube’s algorithm, but sometimes I feel surrounded by luminaries holding forth on everything from the genius of Kishore Kumar to tracing Shakti Kapoor’s journey to stardom, and from investigating who really directed Taare Zameen Par to why female actors dated—and married—men who were already married. If nothing else, you are sure to run into Javed Akhtar or Ram Gopal Varma talking about something or the other in a way that will have you hooked.
You would think the burgeoning talk show industry is relying largely on stuff related to the film folk. And these videos get insane viewership—that Shakti Kapoor one has clocked 2.1 million views in the year since it was uploaded (one view got added while this piece was being written).
This is where you pause and wonder why Forbes India is devoting time, space and attention to film industry gossip shows. Simple: Talk shows have become a big, burgeoning business. They have their own dynamic, revenue model and cost structure. Some highly viewed ones, such as the Bollywood Thikana ones with Kashyap, involve nothing more than two persons sitting on sofas and chatting. One day not too far, you could see a deeply reported and sharply analysed story on talk shows in this magazine (here is a sideways glance at my colleagues who are not moving fast enough on it).
Secondly, it will be fascinating to see how the business of talk shows can be influenced, moulded or disrupted by artificial intelligence (AI). Sure, it is possible to use AI to create actors on screen without their participation or change the ending of a movie set in Varanasi that released years ago and was panned for its stalker energy. But can you possibly use AI to create thoughts and ideas and reminiscences and anecdotes and memories and debates that real people indulge in? What is happening in the information technology industry today, as captured in this issue, is redefining a sector that employs 6 million people in India alone. Can that happen in talk shows?
Until we figure that out, we will have to make do with the disruption by Rakhi Sawant, who has threatened to beat up Kashyap with her footwear.
Suveen Sinha
Editor, Forbes India
Email: suveen.sinha@nw18.com
X ID: @suveensinha
First Published: Nov 05, 2025, 12:41
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