Authenticity in storytelling is a currency that can never be demonetised: Kamal Haasan

Chennai: Actor and Rajya Sabha MP Kamal Haasan said India’s media and entertainment business is entering a phase where change is being driven less by devices and more by audience behaviour, as stories become “screen agnostic” and travel with viewers across formats.

Speaking at JioHotstar’s ‘South Unbound’ event in Chennai, Haasan framed the moment as a structural shift in how platforms, creators and audiences relate to one another, arguing that “the audience has become the platform”, and that when this happens, “the relationship between media and message changes forever.” 

His remarks came as JioStar laid out a major southern content and ecosystem push, with Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin announcing an investment plan of Rs 12,000 crore across the four southern states over the next five years, including Rs 4,000 crore for Tamil Nadu’s creative industry. The plan is expected to generate 1,000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs, according to the company and state leadership at the event. 

Earlier in the day, JioHotstar formalised a Letter of Intent with the Tamil Nadu government in the presence of Chief Minister M K Stalin, positioning the partnership as a move to accelerate the state’s creative and production ecosystem and expand opportunities for young talent.

On stage, Haasan linked the investment and platform strategy to what he called an “architecture of opportunity” for creators, arguing that the South should no longer be viewed as a set of language markets but as a creative centre of gravity that can supply stories to the entire country and beyond.

“Regional is becoming the new national, and ethnic, the new international,” Haasan said, pointing to the way South-origin stories now travel with ease across geographies and screens, often becoming national conversations rather than niche successes.

He cited the recent wave of pan-India hits and breakout titles to make the point that scale is no longer limited by language. Stories “born in Madurai, Malappuram, Mandya, and Machilipatnam” are now “national cultural events,” he said, referencing films such as Kantara, Baahubali and Pushpa, and Malayalam’s Drishyam, as examples of rooted storytelling finding mass acceptance.

For Tamil cinema, he pointed to the reach of films such as Vikram and Amaran, arguing that what travels is not the size of the budget but the sincerity of the storytelling.

“These successes affirm a simple truth. Authenticity is a currency that can never be demonetised,” Haasan said, in one of the lines that drew the loudest response in the room.

Haasan also put the South’s scale in a global context, citing the rise of Korean shows as proof that regional language is no longer a barrier in an era of platform-led distribution. Referring to Squid Game, he said a show in a “regional dialect” could be watched worldwide, and added that southern Indian languages, collectively, speak to a very large audience base, making the opportunity “exponentially larger.”

However, he warned that storytelling cannot thrive on talent alone. Creative economies, he said, flourish when ecosystems grow together: creators, technicians, platforms and policymakers moving in alignment.

That is where, he argued, leadership and institution-building become central. Haasan publicly credited Kevin Vaz, CEO – Entertainment Business at JioStar, for giving the South “clarity of purpose,” and also referenced Sushant Sreeram, Head – SVOD Business and Chief Marketing Officer at JioStar, and Krishnan Kutty, Head – Entertainment (South), for translating that vision into a platform strategy that expands opportunity for regional creators. 

In parallel, JioStar executives used the event to underline why the South sits at the heart of the platform’s next phase. Sreeram and Kutty said the business is seeing faster-than-expected connected TV adoption in southern markets, with a significant share of South consumption coming from CTV devices, driven by family-oriented viewing. 

JioStar also said JioHotstar plans to roll out 1,500 hours of fresh South programming over the next 12 months across series, films and non-fiction, as it expands its commissioning pipeline and deepens its creator relationships. 

Beyond content, the Tamil Nadu partnership is being pitched as a pipeline and skilling play. As per the Letter of Intent coverage and event statements, JioHotstar is expected to introduce regional-first formats and back creator-focused initiatives such as writing labs, mentorship programmes and skill-building workshops to nurture emerging filmmakers, writers, editors and digital storytellers. 

Haasan amplified that theme and made a direct appeal for structured training across India. He urged JioStar to partner in pioneering media studies programmes across colleges, arguing that formal training in writing, cinematography, sound, editing, animation and VFX will create not just content, but long-term careers.

He described skill development as a continuous process, saying creative talent needs upgrading every few years to remain competitive as tools and formats evolve.

The actor closed by positioning the moment as an inflection point for Indian media and entertainment. He pointed to a “young audience with limitless appetite,” a digital universe expanding at pace, and a regional boom shaping national taste. 

He urged stakeholders to “commit boldly” to taking the sector toward a “hundred billion” future, while also linking it to Tamil Nadu’s ambition of building a one trillion economy.

To creators in the room, Haasan’s message was direct: access has widened, tools are democratised, and the differentiator is courage. “The barriers are gone. The tools are in your hands. Permission is irrelevant. Courage is the differentiator,” he said, calling for collaboration over fear and experimentation over formula.

The South Unbound event, hosted by JioHotstar in Chennai on December 9, brought together senior JioStar leadership and the Tamil Nadu government to signal a longer-term South strategy that combines content commissioning with ecosystem-building, talent development and institutional partnerships.