US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 100 per cent tariff on movies made outside the country is a wall between America and the rest of the film world. Will this mean roadblocks for Indian cinema, or open new doors?
Donald Trump’s star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame was vandalised in 2018. Pic/Pinterest@Saf
The American dream has lived as vividly in Indian cinema as it has in Hollywood itself. Bollywood has had its Swiss meadows and London skylines, but the United States has always represented something more aspirational. In Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), New York’s skyline and lifestyle are inseparable from the storytelling. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) uses the city’s loneliness and urban pace to frame extra-marital relationships. Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007) is perhaps the ultimate representation of the American dream — fame, cars, and money, and what it means to lose it all.
My Name Is Khan (2010), New York (2009), and English Vinglish (2012), are stories that would make no sense if they were not set in the US, these cities almost becoming characters themselves. English Vinglish famously described Manhattan as aadmi, topi, dhoop ki chhaon (man, hat, tan). When he thinks of Times Square, film commentator Pulkit Kochar doesn’t picture the blinding lights or dazzling billboards. Instead, he remembers, “Salman [Khan] in the song Sau Dard [from Jaan-E-Mann (2006)] crying there.”
Pic/iStock
“My Name is Khan encapsulates modern US [culture] like no other movie, with dark themes like racism and gun culture in schools,” says Kochar. “But beyond that also what comes to my mind is Rizwan [Shah Rukh Khan] showing a sunrise spot in San Francisco to Mandira [Kajol] and her immediately proposing marriage to him there,” a reminder of how deeply these cities are stitched into Bollywood’s imagination.
“The American dream’s kind of turned into a nightmare now, na?” laughs culture writer Sucheta Chakraborty, as the week brings a stunning new reality: US President Donald Trump has announced a 100 per cent tariff on all films made outside America. “Our movie-making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other countries, just like stealing candy from a baby,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Ram Charan and Jr NTR’s Naatu Naatu brought us closer to the Indian Oscar dream. Pic/X@Shan9091
Every expert we spoke to admitted they are still unsure of how the policy would work in practice. “At this stage, there are more questions than answers. Would the tariff apply to licensing deals? If a US distributor buys rights from an Indian producer, would that distributor then pay tax on the value of the licensing agreement? Or would it be applied on the final product — the DCP, the digital cinema package [the encrypted exhibition copy sent to theatres]?” asks Chakraborty.
The scope is also unclear. Director of Academics at Whistling Woods International Rahul Puri asks, “Does this tariff apply to films shot abroad, or only to films whose production has taken place abroad? If it turns out to be an import tariff — a tariff on films being imported into the US — then yes, it will have a significant impact on Indian films.”
Rahul Puri, Director of Academics at Whistling Woods International
If the first interpretation is to be held true, the move could even hurt Hollywood itself. “About half of the $3.7 billion spent on making 40 of Hollywood’s biggest hits last year was spent outside of America,” says media and entertainment specialist Vanita Kohli-Khandekar. The US is a notoriously expensive shoot location, and recent box office successes like Dune (2021) and its sequel were filmed extensively abroad because of lucrative tax rebates offered by other countries. If the tariff is to take back Hollywood’s stolen candy, how come it hurts Hollywood the most?
“For India, the US is a secondary market. But it’s Hollywood’s primary market. This policy will hurt them more than us,” says Kohli-Khandekar, suggesting that domestic shooting should be incentivised if the goal is to promote the US as a shooting location.
The US plays an important character in Jaan-E-Mann, Kal Ho Naa Ho, and English Vinglish. PIC/PINTEREST@Sonika Kara; Pic/Dailymotion; Pic/Pinterest@Zofia Dycfeld
The implications could be serious. Puri, who is also managing director of Mukta Arts, says, “The Hindi market alone makes around $100 to $150 million a year from the US; that’s what is at stake.” Kalki 2898 AD (2024) earned US $18.57 million in North America, making it the second highest-grossing Indian film in the region, behind only Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), which grossed at approximately US $20 million. Big budget blockbusters like Jawan (2023), Pathaan (2023), RRR (2022), and Pushpa (2021) also shone in American waters.
“Kalki perhaps did not do as well domestically. It relies on the diaspora audience for that extra bang,” says Puri. Big-ticket spectacles are increasingly struggling to resonate with Indian audiences but continue to draw NRIs to theatres, fuelled by nostalgia.
Vanita Kohli- Khandekar and Pulkit Kochar
“The average ticket price in India is about Rs 120, whereas in the US it’s $15 to $20 (Rs 1300 to Rs 1700 approximately). So the overseas market offers a much higher bang for the buck,” Puri explains. “For producers, it’s almost pure profit, with costs mainly for marketing and distribution — not production. That profitability will suddenly be eaten away if such a tariff is applied.”
The US is considered the halo market — the one every film aspires to crack. China is the only other territory that compares in scale. “China allows about 32 foreign-language films a year. Around 18 of those slots are for US films; the rest are shared worldwide,” says Puri.
Sucheta Chakraborty, culture writer
If America closes its doors, India could pivot harder toward China, where stars like Aamir Khan already enjoy massive followings. “The Indian government has already signalled a thaw in certain areas of its relationship with China,” Puri notes, “There’s no doubt we’ll need to push harder there.”According to him, Trump’s move is “yet another way to squeeze the diaspora”.
Culture wars increasingly blur into political ones under the Trump administration. In 2020, when Parasite won the Oscar, Trump mocked the decision: “What the hell was that all about? We got enough problems with South Korea with trade. On top of that they give them best movie of the year? Was it good? I don’t know. Let’s get Gone With the Wind. Can we get Gone With the Wind back please?” The prestigious EGOTs (Emmy, Grammys, Oscar, and Tony Awards) are all American. If all high honours remain American and Trump remains hell-bent on only letting American art win them, it may spell doom for the Indian Oscar dream.
The policy is especially bad news for Indian indie cinema. These films rarely thrive at home and rely heavily on US screenings to recover costs. In 2023, Kill completed a long festival run before its India release, even premiering in the US first. Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (2001) became a global phenomenon through festivals before gaining distribution. Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound (2025) created a name for itself through festival runs. Without the US festival-to-distribution pipeline, many such projects could struggle to exist. “If we won’t get picked up there, maybe indie films will stop going to Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW,” speculates Chakraborty.
She also points to the deeper cultural loss. “Roger Ebert once called cinema an ‘empathy machine’ — a way to step into someone else’s shoes and see from their perspective. With this tariff, we lose that multiplicity of voices, narratives, and viewpoints. It stems from a move toward economic and cultural nationalism, but it also means perspectives outside the dominant narrative will be erased.”
The films that thrive under this policy, Chakraborty warns, will be the ones with the most “homogenised, myopic, inward-looking ‘American’ perspective.” For Indian filmmakers, this could mark a turning point in their long relationship with America. “People from every walk of life are revisiting their relationship with the US in the current climate. Young filmmakers will look at the US through a different lens,” says Puri, “The allure of Hollywood may just be dying.” “We may have spent years looking at the US in this wide-eyed manner,” adds Chakraborty, “but that quality is getting shattered.”
The uncertainty spreads across other sectors of filmmaking as well. India’s technical prowess has made it a hub for Hollywood VFX work. Would such collaborations also be hit? What about licensing for streaming platforms? “He’s [Trump] made similar threats before — in May, for instance,” Puri reminds us, “Often, he makes big announcements but later rolls them back. Even if implemented, it usually takes months for the fine print to be worked out. We’ll only know the exact scope when that order comes out.”
Chakraborty wonders whether the way out is collaboration with US-based productions houses, adding, “Even Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light [2024] was an Indo-French co-production. As they say, it takes a village to make a film, right? Different stages of work in these co-productions can also be outsourced.”
Rs 120
Average ticket price in India
Rs 1300
Average ticket price in the US
$20 million
Box office collection of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion in the US
$100 –$150 million
Size of Hindi film market in the US
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