While Bollywood cinema may be one of the best-known entertainment industries globally, South Asian countries have thriving national cinemas. Even inside India, Bollywood only tends to cover Hindi-language cinema; in a country with 447 native languages, it seems only natural that other regional movies, specifically Telugu and Tamil-language films, exist outside the limelight. Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka also produce their fair share of movies. Lollywood, the movie industry in Pakistan, is actually in the top 20 list of countries producing films, per Culture Trip.
Whether movies are coming from Dhallywood, Bollywood, or Lollywood, South Asian cinema is rising. As government spending on cultural industries increases, so has the presence of the international film festival circuits. Considering the region’s deep influences on world cinema — some of the greatest directors, like Satyajit Ray, have had prolific careers exclusively discussing uniquely South Asian contexts — one could even say that the lack of discussion about these movies is quite disappointing. That said, these are the best South Asian movies from the 2010s.
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7 Aynabaji / Mirror Game
Content Matters
Aynabaji was released in 2016, but it has now become one of the most beloved movies to come out of Bangladesh in recent years. Bangladeshi actor Chanchal Chowdhury portrays a struggling actor willing to do anything for some quick cash. He could not make it in the film industry, so he chooses something much darker for his career: he impersonates powerful, wealthy people in prison so that they can walk free, and he takes their place. But when he finally falls in love and decides to leave this life behind, it comes back to drag him deeper into the dark underbelly of contemporary Dhaka.
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6 Nagarkirtan
Acropolis Entertainment
Nagarkirtan netted four awards at the National Film Awards, one of the most prominent awards ceremonies for Indian cinema. Riddi Sen is Porimal, an intersex woman from rural West Bengal. She runs away from home and starts a new life in a ghetto of people just like her. There, she falls in love with a boy working at a Chinese restaurant, but the pressure from a transphobic society continues to chip away at her mental health and wellbeing. Although Nagarkirtan is in Indian Bengali, with its LGBTQ+ representation, it forces a prominent issue in contemporary Indian society to rise to the surface: intersex, transgender, and hijra communities have existed in South Asia historically, but their stories are often buried.
5 Baaji
Page 33 Films
The Pakistani romance film Baaji packs quite a bit of punch with its universal themes. An aging Lollywood actress (Meera) discovers that she is quickly fading into the background and will soon no longer be relevant to society. Unable to accept her situation for what it is, she scrambles to try and find herself more work, so she hires a salon girl (Amna Ilyas) to become her assistant. Baaji is a throwback to the golden years of Lollywood, as well as what it is like to be an actor in Pakistan.
4 Visaranai
Wunderbar Films
The Telugu-language crime drama Visaranai made its mark on the international film circuit when it first appeared at the Venice Film Festival in 2015. Four Tamil laborers living in Andhra Pradesh, a state in Southern India, are accused of committing a crime that they did not do, leading the police to torture them. Their case extends for months as the police continue to manipulate facts and details about the crime, leading to a series of tragic and cruel events. Though violent, the film’s insight into police brutality in southern India and the conditions migrant workers face are critical in today’s world.
3 Masaan
Drishyam Films
Masaan takes place in the holy city of Varanasi, which is adjacent to the Ganges River. Richa Chadda and Vicky Kaushal star as two young people living in the city, but their stories are separate until they are not. Chadda’s character is bribed by a local policeman after she is caught having sex with a student, thus leading her family into a situation they cannot afford. She dreams of leaving the city and starting anew. In the second story, a boy named Kaushal was born into a low-caste family working at the ghats, the cremation sites at the foot of the river. When he falls in love with a girl from a higher caste, heartbreak comes in many different forms.
2 1: Nenokkadine
14 Reels Entertainment
1: Nenokkadine was released to great international acclaim, cementing its status as one of the best Telugu films released in the decade, according to Film Companion. Gauthem (Mahesh Babu) is a rock musician suffering from schizophrenia and health problems; these lead to him having a series of hallucinations. The story revolves around his search for his parents, who he believes were murdered by a trio of men, but others, including a journalist, think these are just symptoms of his hallucinations. 1: Nenokkadine shifts between reality and fiction, forcing viewers to doubt what actually is happening.
1 Gully Boy
Excel Entertainment
Released in 2019, Gully Boy shows the power of rap and storytelling to low-income communities globally. It was inspired by the lives of two Indian street rappers that made it big, despite them being from the streets of Mumbai. Gully Boy’s titular character, Murad, is an engineering student from an abusive household in the slums of Mumbai. In order to cope with his situation, he turns to rap and finds newfound popularity with his work. The movie is a classic story about climbing your way to the top, especially as Murad battles against those from more privileged backgrounds.
