Zee Music’s Big South Indian Slate
Zee Music Company has acquired the music rights to a wide range of upcoming South Indian films featuring marquee names such as Chiranjeevi, Nandamuri Balakrishna, Dulquer Salmaan, Vijay Sethupathi and Yash. The deals span Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada cinema and follow the label’s strong reception from the Malayalam film Balan: The Boy, which pushed the company to double down on the regional market.
The slate includes the Dulquer Salmaan-starrer I’M GAME directed by Nahas Hidayath with music by Jakes Bejoy, which is being positioned as a key Malayalam release. On the Telugu side, Chiranjeevi’s Mega 158 and Balakrishna’s NBK 111—both scored by Thaman S—feature alongside several other titles. The company has also picked up Yash’s multilingual film Toxic across Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, and the Tamil project Slumdog: 33 Temple Road with Vijay Sethupathi and Tabu.
Sujal Parekh, Chief Business Officer at Zee Music Company, said the partnership with Wayfarer Films on I’M GAME strengthens the label’s Malayalam presence and fits its broader pan-India ambitions. The newly acquired titles are scheduled for release across 2026 and 2027.
Why the South Indian Music Gold Rush Matters Now
From Regional Catalogue to Pan-India Play
The spate of acquisitions is less a sudden pivot and more a calculated acceleration. Zee Music already benefitted from the breakout of Balan: The Boy, which proved that strong regional film music can travel—and monetise—beyond its native language. By locking in rights to films with pan-Indian stars like Yash and Dulquer Salmaan, the label secures soundtracks that will have built-in multi-language audiences, feeding its ambition to become a Hindi- and South-language music force under one roof.
What the Slate Composition Tells Us
The list reveals a clear bet on star-driven theatrical releases from well-known directors and composers (Jakes Bejoy, Thaman S, G.V. Prakash Kumar). That suggests Zee Music is prioritising films with high visibility and established musical credibility—reducing the risk of a rights deal underperforming. The Toxic acquisition across all major South Indian languages and Hindi also signals a willingness to pay for multilingual mega-projects, a tactic that mirrors the distribution strategies of the films themselves.
Comments 0