RELIANCE

May 21 (Reuters) -

• CAPITAL GROUP BUILDS $2 BILLION ADANI BET IN PIVOT FROM RELIANCE - BLOOMBERG NEWS

Source text: https://tinyurl.com/ynsdr6a9

Further company coverage: ADEL.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

May 20 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES - MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ANNOUNCED A PARTNERSHIP WITH RISE WORLDWIDE

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES - PARTNERSHIP TO SUPPORT GROWTH OF BASEBALL IN INDIA

Source text: ID:nBSE5WlthD

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

By Ira Dugal

May 19 - India’s IPO queue is lengthening as market heavyweights hold back plans, waiting for geopolitical tensions to ease and for foreign inflows to pick up.

Reliance’s Jio and the National Stock Exchange are among the listing hopefuls banking on a turn in investor sentiment in the months ahead. But there may be a silver lining in the IPO slowdown for both investors and the broader economy. Is it a warning sign, or a much-needed reality check? That's our focus this week. Share your views with me at ira.dugal@thomsonreuters.com.

And, billionaire Gautam Adani's conglomerate sees a key regulatory overhang lift. Scroll down for more on that.

THIS WEEK IN ASIA

• Trump's geopolitical brinkmanship has hit a wall with Iran

• Iran, Ukraine wars deliver worst hit in years to oil refining output

• Carry on trading: rate-based G10 currency bets make a comeback

• US clears H200 chip sales to 10 China firms as Nvidia CEO looks for breakthrough

• China's economy loses steam at start of Q2 as consumption, output disappoint in April

COURSE CORRECTION

India’s IPO boom is waning.

After two consecutive years in which companies raised more than 2 trillion rupees ($20.78 billion) annually, deal flow has slowed sharply as weaker markets and sliding valuations prompt issuers to wait.

Big-ticket listings expected in the first half of the year have been pushed back, with billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms now more likely to list later in 2026. Walmart-backed PhonePe has also delayed plans, while the National Stock Exchange is expected to come to market in the coming months.

Just four IPOs were launched in April, raising a modest 11.71 billion rupees, a fraction of the levels seen over the past two years.

While the pause reflects a more challenging market backdrop, it may also bring some benefits.

A cooling of initial public offerings could ease foreign exchange outflows that had risen alongside large exits by private equity investors and other early backers. It may alleviate some pressure on the rupee and also restore pricing discipline after a period marked by aggressive valuations and heavy secondary-market selling.

Jio, for instance, has shifted from a predominantly offer-for-sale (OFS) structure for its IPO to one involving a fresh issue of shares, signalling existing investors will hold on for longer and perhaps more moderate valuations, as Reuters Breakingviews columnist Shritama Bose wrote.

Offers for sale accounted for 59% of total funds raised in the last financial year and 67% the year before, according to a KPMG study.

Such selling, cited by the central bank, contributed to relatively weak net foreign direct investment (FDI) of just over $6 billion in April to February last fiscal year, despite gross inflows of $88.3 billion.

"A shift away from OFS towards fresh fundraising will be beneficial for the market and all classes of investors because it will help IPOs come to market at more reasonable valuations," said Arun Kejriwal, founder of Kejriwal Research and Investment Services.

"When you are raising fresh money, the valuation focus is a little diluted. When you or large investors are selling their own shares, you are more focused on maximising returns," he said.

Block deals by large shareholders that had surged last year, adding to secondary-market supply and weighing on prices, have also eased in recent months.

PRICING DISCIPLINE

The market correction is likely to make investors more selective.

More than half of the IPOs launched in 2025 are now trading below their issue prices, forcing companies to recalibrate expectations on pricing and size.

Amid the global volatility impacting equity markets, pricing discipline will now play a more central role in the IPO market, KPMG said.

India's IPO pipeline, nevertheless, remains strong.

At the start of the financial year in April, 143 companies had approval to raise a combined 1.745 trillion rupees through IPOs, according to Prime Database.

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India has extended the validity of such approvals and allowed greater flexibility on issue size, giving companies room to wait for improved conditions.

For a well-priced issue, this would be a good time to come to market given that IPOs have dried up over the past four months, Kejriwal said.

He pointed to a June 2003 public offering by Maruti Suzuki India, where the automaker offered shares at a discount in the midst of a market slump, helping revive broader sentiment.

More than two decades later, will Jio's change of heart have a similar effect?

MARKET MATTERS

A surge in global bond yields is becoming yet another factor putting pressure on the rupee and capital flows into India.

The rupee fell to a record low of 96.38 versus the dollar on Monday and India's benchmark 10-year bond yield rose to 7.13%, a 10-week high.

A study by JPMorgan found that short-term and even longer-term FDI flows are strongly correlated with the U.S. 10-year yield.

"The rapid drop-off in India’s FDI since 2023 has coincided with central banks hiking rates from 2022 and global financial conditions tightening sharply," JPMorgan economist Sajjid Chinoy wrote in a report dated May 16.

Catch up on India's dollar deficit in the previous edition of the India File.

THIS WEEK'S MUST-READ

Adani group companies are in focus after the Trump administration moved to dismiss criminal fraud charges against billionaire Gautam Adani, while also settling alleged Iran sanctions violations involving one of his companies. The conglomerate has proposed to invest $10 billion in the U.S.

A civil fraud lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to an alleged scheme to bribe Indian government officials was also resolved.

The Adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing.

The likely resolution of the two cases eases the regulatory risk surrounding the group, Reuters Breakingviews columnist Una Galani wrote last week. Read here.

Indian regulators are yet to close or rule on at least nine allegations that Adani Group and its offshore funds broke securities regulations.

($1 = 96.2575 Indian rupees)

​

(Reporting by Ira Dugal; Additional reporting by Jaspreet Kalra; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

((ira.dugal@thomsonreuters.com))

By Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil

DELHI, May 18 (Reuters) - FIFA media rights officials are visiting India this week, three sources said, ahead of next month's World Cup for which soccer's ruling body has not struck a broadcast deal with India due to differences over pricing.

Millions of soccer fans in India risk not being able to watch the tournament due to a deadlock over broadcast rights. China Media Group, the parent of China's state broadcaster, agreed a World Cup broadcasting deal last week to end a standoff over TV rights there.

The three sources familiar with FIFA's plans said the media rights executives are in India, though details of who they are meeting and the exact agenda were not clear.

In a statement to Reuters, FIFA said it concluded agreements with broadcasters in over 180 territories and discussions in India regarding the sale of media rights were ongoing and "must remain confidential at this stage".

Discussions between the Reliance-Disney joint venture, India's biggest media company and FIFA have not materialised, and Sony, another big player, has refrained from bidding, Reuters has previously reported.

Reliance-Disney joint venture offered $20 million for the FIFA rights. That led to a disagreement because FIFA had initially sought $100 million but was last looking for around $60 million at least, Reuters has reported.

It is not clear if FIFA is meeting with Reliance-Disney joint venture. The venture, led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani's ​Reliance RELI.NS, declined to comment.

The World Cup kicks off on June 11, leaving only three weeks for a deal to be finalised, broadcast infrastructure to ​be set up and advertising inventory to be sold.

With about 85 million fans, soccer is popular in India but lags behind cricket which has 492 million fans, according to a 2024 report from Deloitte and Google.

India accounted for 2.9% of the global linear TV reach at the 2022 World Cup.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil, editing by Ed Osmond)

((Email: aditya.kalra@tr.com; X: @adityakalra;))

Adds share price reaction in paragraph 9

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, May 15 (Reuters) - India's JioStar, the TV and online entertainment venture of Reliance and Walt Disney, has initiated legal measures against rival Zee Entertainment for alleged unauthorised broadcast of Bollywood films it has the rights to, documents show.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's JioStar is the No. 1 player in India's vibrant $30 billion media and entertainment industry, while Zee ZEE.NS, one of India's oldest media groups, is a smaller rival. They are already locked in a $1 billion arbitration in London over a collapsed cricket licensing deal in 2024.

In April, Zee sued JioStar in a Delhi court for unauthorised use of its copyrighted ‌music. In an apparent tit-for-tat move, JioStar filed a case on May 4 with a legal mediation committee challenging Zee's broadcast of some Bollywood movies last year even though their rights at the time vested with the Reliance-led entity, according to legal documents reviewed by Reuters.

JioStar alleges Zee telecast 12 distinct films around 20 times, including some blockbusters starring popular Bollywood film actors like Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan.

Zee "is a habitual infringer", JioStar said in its 120-page plea, accusing Zee of continuing to "engage in the unauthorised broadcast and exploitation of the films".

The filing has not been reported previously.

The plea was filed at the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee, which provides a dispute resolution mechanism aimed at amicable settlements. If it is unresolved, JioStar could escalate the case to a court.

The documents said the committee has asked Zee to appear before it on May 25, adding that a failure to do so will be considered a refusal to participate in the mediation.

Shares in Zee extended losses after the Reuters story, falling 3.4% in Mumbai trading.

JioStar, formed from Reliance RELI.NS and Disney's DIS.N $8.5 billion ​merger of their Indian media assets in 2024, and Zee both declined to comment.

BIG PLAYERS, MANY LEGAL NOTICES

JioStar and Zee reach hundreds of millions of viewers through scores of TV channels and a streaming platform each. Reliance says JioStar has a 34.2% market share of India's TV market, while Zee says its share is at a four-year high of 18%.

In the music case filed in April, Zee is seeking $3 million from JioStar for allegedly using its music at least 50 times after certain licensing agreements expired.

Two sources with direct knowledge said JioStar is likely to seek upwards of 250 million rupees ($2.61 million) for alleged infringement of its rights to the Bollywood films, though a number is yet to be finalised.

The Bollywood film case reached the court committee stage after the two sides exchanged more than a dozen legal notices and letters starting February 2025, documents show.

The films involved include runaway hits like the 1975 Deewaar (Wall), starring Amitabh Bachchan, and Tridev (Trinity). Jio said it has the rights to these films and Zee allegedly broadcast them without having permission to do so.

Zee said the broadcasts were "inadvertent and unintentional" and it would exercise due caution, but declined any liability for damages that Reliance was seeking.

JioStar has also accused Zee of unauthorised broadcast of Aamir Khan starrer Dangal (Wrestling Bout). The 2016 movie, based on a real-life Indian wrestler, was a big Bollywood hit and won several awards.

Zee denied any wrongdoing, and argued it had permission from the production house to broadcast the movie.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

((Email: aditya.kalra@tr.com; X: @adityakalra;))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, May 12 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Jio Platforms owns a data network boasting India's quickest downloads, but its investors aren't feeling the benefits of speed. The telecom and digital unit of tycoon Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries RELI.NS will only sell new shares in an initial public offering, the Economic Times reported on Monday, citing unnamed people involved in the process. KKR KKR.N, Meta Platforms META.O and other existing investors may be holding on to their stakes in the hope of higher returns, but the delay will come at a cost.

The offering is a departure from an earlier plan: shareholders, among them Vista Equity Partners, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, were to sell 8% of their stakes in the IPO, per a Reuters report from March citing unnamed sources.

Now these global investors, who own 33% of Jio, will be waiting even longer to exit their position. The change may have been prompted by Reliance's keenness to prioritise leaving value on the table for mom-and-pop investors who subscribe to the IPO. It means the company is unlikely to aim for a more ambitious valuation of up to $180 billion estimated by analysts.

Assuming a price tag of $140 billion, roughly 13.4 trillion rupees, for Jio would imply an annualised return in local currency terms of roughly 18% over its 2020 equity valuation of 4.9 trillion rupees, and less in U.S. dollar terms. Anything below 20% would be considered sub-optimal for private equity backers like KKR, Silver Lake and General Atlantic.

It may be reasonable for them to stick around for longer to maximise gains from rising earnings in a business that's growing the top line at nearly 15%, twice the pace of the country's GDP. Its net income is likely to expand too, by 25% for the year to March 2027, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.

Pricing dynamics may also turn more favourable once fighting in the Middle East ceases to weigh on Indian equities. Selling the minimum mandated 2.5% stake in a company valued at $140 billion would send Jio's bankers including Kotak and Morgan Stanley in search of buyers for $3.5 billion of stock, ranking amongst the biggest-ever Indian IPOs, at a time global sentiment towards the emerging market is exceptionally weak.

Yet waiting would mean passing up a chance to reduce an overhang on Jio's shares created by the expectation that its financial investors will eventually look for buyers. Ambani appears determined to avoid any further delays to listing the business. For Jio's current backers, the bar for a meaningful payoff is rising.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Reliance Industries is reworking the listing structure for its telecom and digital unit Jio Platforms, the Economic Times reported on May 11, citing three unnamed people involved in the process. The Indian group is now working towards an initial public offering only of new shares in Jio, as opposed to the previous plan of existing investors selling some of their stakes. A disagreement over pricing drove the change, the report added.

(Editing by Una Galani and Antony Currie; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/shritama.bose@thomsonreuters.com))

Updates to add context, source comments in paragraph 3-14

By Aditya Kalra and Vibhuti Sharma

MUMBAI, May 11 (Reuters) - Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Platforms has shifted its planned Mumbai IPO to a pure fundraising exercise, abandoning earlier plans that would have allowed major foreign investors to sell some of their shares, two sources said on Monday.

​Jio Platforms, which owns the world's second-largest telecom company by users after China Mobile 600941.SS, counts Meta META.O, Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google and Vista Equity Partners among its investors. Its initial public offering has been long-awaited and could be India's largest ever.

The firm earlier held discussions with its foreign investors for each to sell 8% of their individual holdings in the IPO, totalling 2.5% of the company, Reuters reported previously. That would have allowed new investors to come in and let foreign investors sell some of their holdings without any fresh fundraising in a process called an offer-for-sale in India.

That plan has been dropped, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. They requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Reliance now plans to raise fresh funds totalling 2.5% of the company's size. "Investors were not keen to sell and wanted to stay invested for the long term," one of the sources said.

The Economic Times was first to report on the company's plans to pivot to a fresh fundraising with the offering on Monday.

Jio Platforms did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

WAR OVERHANG

The filing for the Jio Platforms IPO, which was expected as early as March, was pushed back following the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, with investors losing appetite for new listings.

In March, Walmart-backed WMT.O Indian fintech firm PhonePe paused plans for an IPO, citing geopolitical ​tensions and volatility in global capital markets.

The Iran war is certainly an "overhang," said the first source, speaking about Jio Platform's delayed IPO filing.

Jio Platforms' listing is a key plank of Ambani's long-term vision to transform Reliance from an oil-and-chemicals giant into an "everything company" spanning consumer, retail and technology.

In 2020, Jio raised funds from major global investors who were betting on India's rapidly expanding digital economy where smartphone penetration is accelerating, internet costs are among the lowest in the world and a young, mobile-first population is coming online.

In November, investment bank Jefferies estimated Reliance Jio's valuation would be $180 billion. Sources told Reuters in January that the IPO could be worth as much as $4 billion, though final numbers would be decided later.

Reliance Jio Platforms has hired 17 banks to manage its Mumbai listing.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Vibhuti Sharma; Editing by Sonali Paul and Thomas Derpinghaus)

((Vibhuti.Sharma@thomsonreuters.com;))

By Florence Tan and Jonathan Saul

SINGAPORE/LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) - With their location trackers shut off to avoid Iranian attacks, the United Arab Emirates and buyers have recently sailed several tankers loaded with crude through the Strait of Hormuz in a bid to move oil bottled up in the Gulf by the Middle East conflict, according to industry sources and shipping data.

The volumes are a fraction of the UAE's typical exports before the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran but they demonstrate the risks the producer and buyers are willing to take to free up oil sales. The other Gulf producers - Iraq, Kuwait, and Qatar - have either halted sales, deeply cut prices to entice uninterested buyers or are shipping only through the Red Sea in the case of Saudi Arabia.

In April, the UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Co managed to export at least 4 million barrels of its Upper Zakum crude and 2 million barrels of Das crude on four tankers from terminals inside the Gulf, according to three sources, shiptracking data from Kpler and an analysis of satellite data from SynMax.

The shipments were either unloaded by ship-to-ship (STS) transfer to a vessel that later carried the oil to a Southeast Asian refinery, unloaded into storage in Oman or sailed directly to South Korean refineries, according to the three sources, one with direct knowledge of the matter and two familiar with ADNOC's operations, and the Kpler and SynMax data.

Reuters is reporting this system of exports for the first time.

ADNOC declined to comment on the shipments.

Tehran responded to the U.S.-Israeli attacks that began on February 28 by effectively shutting the Strait of Hormuz to exports other than its own, bottling up a fifth of global oil and gas supply. The closure and a U.S. blockade that has halted Iranian exports in recent weeks has pushed global oil prices over $100 a barrel.

ADNOC has had to cut exports by more than 1 million barrels per day since the start of the war, from the 3.1 million bpd it shipped last year, Kpler data showed. Most of its exports are its Murban grade exported by pipeline from onshore fields to Fujairah.

RISKY SAILING

ADNOC's shipments risk attacks from Iran. This was highlighted by the UAE's accusation on Monday Iran used drones to attack an empty ADNOC tanker, the Barakah, passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The ships move with their automatic identification system transponders turned off, which reduces the chance they will be spotted by Iranian forces. The tactic is commonly employed by Iran to skirt U.S. sanctions on its oil exports.

It also makes it difficult to track the total volumes of ADNOC's exports through industry shipping data, meaning the volumes it shipped from the Gulf in April could be higher.

Still, Kpler data showed the VLCC Hafeet loaded 2 million barrels of Upper Zakum inside the Gulf on April 7 and exited the strait on April 15.

Outside the strait, the cargo was transferred to the Greek-flagged VLCC Olympic Luck on April 17-18 and shipped to the Pengerang refinery in Malaysia, a joint venture of Malaysia's state-owned oil company Petronas and Saudi Aramco, Kpler data and SynMax analysis showed.

Hafeet is managed by the Logistics and Services unit of ADNOC, which declined to comment. Greece-based Olympic Shipping & Management, which manages the Olympic Luck, and Petronas did not respond to requests for comment.

Splitting up the oil by STS allows ADNOC to sell smaller cargoes and free up the VLCCs to move quickly back inside the Gulf to load again.

One of the broken up cargoes of Upper Zakum sailed to a Northeast Asian refinery and sold at a record premium of $20 a barrel over ADNOC's official selling price, said the source with direct knowledge of the matter.

For Abu Dhabi's Das crude, the VLCC Aliakmon I loaded 2 million barrels of the grade on April 27 and exited the strait on May 2, discharging at Oman's Ras Markaz storage terminal on May 3, Kpler data showed.

Kpler and SynMax also found two Suezmax tankers - the Odessa and Zouzou N. - carrying 1 million barrels each of Upper Zakum, headed to South Korea after exiting the strait.

All three tankers are managed by Greece-based Dynacom Tankers Management. It was not clear who chartered the Dynacom tankers and the company did not respond to a request for comment.

ADNOC intends to continue to sell oil from inside the strait, notifying some customers in late April they could load Das and Upper Zakum crude from May via STS transfers at ports outside the Gulf including Fujairah and Oman's Sohar.

The company is holding talks with Asian refiners to sell May-loading Das and Upper Zakum cargoes, said the source with direct knowledge of ADNOC's plans, and an Indian refining source, who declined to be identified as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

(Reporting by Florence Tan and Siyi Liu in Singapore, Jonathan Saul in London and Nidhi Verma in New Delhi; additional reporting by Renee Maltezou in Athens; Editing by Tony Munroe, Simon Webb and Christian Schmollinger)

((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com;))

Removes extraneous million next to $1 billion figure in paragraph 5

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, May 6 (Reuters) - India's Zee Entertainment ZEE.NS has sued the Reliance-Disney joint venture, the country's biggest entertainment company, alleging it used Zee's copyrighted music after licence agreements expired, court documents show.

Zee is seeking $3 million in damages, alleging unauthorised use and exploitation of works from its music division on the Reliance-Disney streaming platform and some of its TV channels, according to previously unreported court papers seen by Reuters.

The lawsuit, filed in New Delhi and reported by Reuters for the first time, marks the latest legal clash between Zee and the group formed from Reliance and Disney's $8.5 billion merger in 2024. The dispute underscores rising tensions over content rights as India's streaming and broadcast market consolidates.

Zee and JioStar, the name of the Reliance-Disney venture led by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance RELI.NS, declined to comment.

Zee and Reliance are also locked in arbitration in London, where Reliance is seeking $1 billion in damages from Zee for quitting a cricket licensing deal in 2024. Zee denies any wrongdoing and is contesting the demand.

In its 1,800-page lawsuit filed on April 14, Zee alleges that Reliance-Disney used its music at least 50 times after certain licensing agreements expired in 2024 and 2025 and were not renewed due to disagreements over commercial terms.

"The illegal exploitation thereof amounted to copyright infringement," Zee said in the filing, asking the court to stop any ongoing infringements of its music works.

JioStar owns a library of thousands of shows and broadcast rights for top sporting events across its TV channels and its streaming app JioHotstar, India's biggest with about 500 million monthly users.

Zee, one of India's oldest media groups, also has several TV channels and a streaming app, and says it owns a catalogue of more than 19,450 songs in 17 languages.

RELIANCE REJECTED DAMAGES DEMAND

The case was briefly heard on Tuesday, when the judge asked JioStar to ensure there is no ongoing infringement of Zee's works on its platforms while the matter is heard, and to comply within 15 days, according to a source with direct knowledge.

The next hearing is scheduled for July 23.

The lawsuit comes amid Zee's broader push against what it says is abuse of its music catalogue. Reuters reported on Tuesday that Zee has sued fashion-to-beauty retailer Nykaa FSNE.NS, alleging it used Zee's copyrighted songs in Instagram reels to promote products, and is seeking $210,000 in damages.

In the case against JioStar, Zee says its music was infringed across music and dance shows that appeared on TV and the streaming platform.

Court papers show Zee and JioStar have held discussions in recent months and exchanged several letters and legal notices over the disputed use of music.

In December, JioStar told Zee it had "taken extensive steps to remove any infringing content across its portfolio", including legacy programming.

However, it said residual and passive archival hosting did not amount to infringement or unlawful communication, a position Zee disputes, the documents show.

JioStar "categorically rejects" the "coercive demands" for damages, it said in a letter dated March 16, adding that it "remains open to an amicable and commercially sensible solution".

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra. Additional reporting by Munsif Vengattil and Arpan Chaturvedi. Editing by Mark Potter)

((Email: aditya.kalra@tr.com; X: @adityakalra;))

By Abhijith Ganapavaram

NEW DELHI, May 5 (Reuters) - India's biggest listed company, Reliance Industries RELI.NS, has handed over documents demanded by federal police investigating a drone import bribery case involving one of its senior vice presidents, according to a court order.

The order by a New Delhi court issued on Monday night did not specify what documents were demanded by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The CBI arrested a Reliance senior vice president, Bharat ⁠Mathur, and an official from the country's ‌aviation regulator last month, accusing them of agreeing to a $16,000 bribe to ​clear drone import applications by Asteria Aerospace, a Reliance unit.

The court also granted bail to Mathur, 64, on a personal bond of 100,000 rupees ($1,050). Both he and the government official, who is still in custody, have denied the allegations.

Reliance, which is led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and Asteria did not respond to Reuters queries. The CBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The investigation and arrest of the senior Reliance executive come as Ambani's Jio Platforms, which owns Asteria, is gearing to file papers seeking regulatory ​approvals for a Mumbai listing, ​in what is likely ⁠to be India's biggest-ever stock offering.

Reliance has previously said Mathur ​was engaged as ​a consultant ⁠and the company neither knew of nor approved "any such unauthorised transaction."

Asteria Aerospace describes itself as a drone technology ​company that provides "actionable intelligence from aerial data". It provides services to agriculture, construction, telecom, and oil and gas sectors through the more than 400 drones it has deployed.

The CBI investigators have also questioned co-founders of Asteria Aerospace as part of the probe, the order said. The company was started in 2011 and Reliance bought it in a $2.45 million deal in 2019.

(Reporting by Abhijith Ganapavaram; editing by Aditya Kalra and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

((Email: Abhijith.G@thomsonreuters.com; Mobile: +91-9019785574;))

May 4 (Reuters) -

• FIFA HAS CONCLUDED AGREEMENTS WITH BROADCASTERS IN OVER 175 TERRITORIES AROUND THE WORLD AHEAD OF FIFA WORLD CUP - FIFA SPOKESPERSON

• DISCUSSIONS IN CHINA AND INDIA REGARDING SALE OF MEDIA RIGHTS FOR FIFA WORLD CUP 2026 ONGOING AND MUST REMAIN CONFIDENTIAL AT THIS STAGE - FIFA SPOKESPERSON

Further company coverage: DIS.N

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

May 1 (Reuters) - Venezuela's oil exports rose 14% to 1.23 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, fueled by more sales to the United States, India and Europe, shipping data and documents from state company PDVSA showed on Friday.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga and Mircely Guanipa; Editing by Nathan Crooks)

((marianna.parraga@thomsonreuters.com; +1 713 371 7559; Reuters Messaging: @mariannaparraga))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, April 30 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The jobs crisis stirring in India’s vast outsourcing industry spells trouble for the country’s $4 trillion consumption-led economy. With the gap between household income and spending already widening, the consequences of the churn on finance and markets will be far-reaching.

White collar jobs are starting to disappear in the world’s services capital where many global firms employ thousands of staff in global capability centres that are responsible for everything from back-office functions to fraud detection to critical research and development.

Following the launch of artificial intelligence tools by Anthropic and others that allow companies do the same amount of work with fewer people, Oracle ORCL.N laid off 10,000 workers, or one-fifth of its India workforce in March, and Amazon.com AMZN.O let go of 500 people in the country in January, the Economic Times reported, citing sources. It looks like just the beginning of the headcount reductions.

One executive of a global bank told Reuters Breakingviews their workforce in India could shrink by one-third. This could happen quickly within just one or two years because of the double digit attrition rates at offices of global firms in cities including Bengaluru, Gurugram and Pune. JPMorgan Chase JPM.N has a whopping 55,000 employees in the country, which equals about one-fifth of its total workforce and includes one-third of all its technologists; HSBC’s HSBA.L 47,000 local employees make up 23% of its global headcount.

Then there is also “AI deflation” – the term Indian IT firms that typically lap up fresh graduates use to refer to slowing revenue growth. Annual revenue in U.S. dollar terms at industry leader Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS shrunk for the year ended March 2026, marking the first decline since the $97 billion company's initial public offering ​in 2004.

Altogether, global capability centres and the IT sector employ up to 15 million people who anchor India’s middle class and whose jobs are under threat from generative AI, Bernstein analysts Venugopal Garre and Nikhil Arela said last week in an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Though this is a small fraction of India’s 616-million-strong workforce comprised mostly of swathes of informal and agricultural workers, the AI vulnerable cohort represents a sizeable chunk of the employed within the rising middle class. With fewer jobs, there will also be pressure on salaries for those who keep theirs.

For India, advances in generative AI are intensifying the intractable challenge of creating enough jobs in a country that skipped over the traditional manufacturing route and where 8 million people enter the workforce each year. Modi's push to drive manufacturing isn’t softening the blow much either, thanks to factory automation.

There are already signs that India’s world-beating 7.8% growth is decoupling from employment generation: New Delhi’s latest Economic Survey notes that since 2022 – the same year that OpenAI launched ChatGPT -- the labour intensity of output has marginally declined. That rupture will deepen unless workers upskill, the survey says, with the change coming “not in a single shock, but in a quiet, steady drift”.

This threatens a blow to spending on what people want, rather than what they need. Private consumption accounts for about 60% of GDP and the top 140 million Indians who on average each earn roughly $15,000 per annum, according to Blume Ventures, drive two-thirds of discretionary spending.

Any contraction in their incomes could force them to cut back, hitting sales of goods from new homes to cars and demand for experiences from dining out to live events. There will be a ripple effect too: Middle-class homes in India employ cooks, cleaners and drivers.

Demand for their services, and those of India’s vast gig economy servicing the middle class, would recede. That puts at risk earnings of carmakers, consumer groups and financial services providers which, together with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries RELI.NS – the owner of India’s largest retailer - account for nearly 62% of the benchmark Nifty 50 index .NSEI. Sluggish consumption is already hurting some of them: small car sales slowed at Maruti Suzuki India MRTI.NS last year and Unilever's ULVR.L Indian unit has been grappling with weak urban demand.

A potential 30% reduction in the 15-million-strong outsourcing and global capability centre workforce over the next two years could shrink the top consuming class by about 5 million to 135 million.

Assuming Blume Ventures' annual income estimate of $15,000, this cohort's total spending power stands to fall by roughly $75 billion a year, assuming those people don't find other employment or sources of income. That's equivalent to 10% of the Nifty 50 constituents’ net sales of 71.3 trillion rupees ($755 billion) for the financial year ended March 2025, per data from the National Stock Exchange.

Overall household savings are already declining as indebtedness mounts: Indians saved barely 23% of their personal disposable income in the financial year to March 2025, according to an estimate by CLSA, down from nearly 30% two decades earlier. Debt as a share of disposable income surged to 55% from 31% over the same period.

While India’s household debt to GDP ratio is much lower than for most peer economies, meagre earnings mean Indians end up spending 13% of their income on repaying borrowings, higher than 8.5% for China and 8% for the US.

Much of what Indians borrow goes towards financing consumption rather than creating assets. Households are leveraging up to pay for everything from overseas vacations to weddings and smartphone purchases.

Such financing, which the Reserve Bank of India calls non-housing retail loans, makes up 55% of household obligations and is growing faster than mortgages. India's household debt to GDP ratio stands at 41.9%. If half of those borrowings are consumption-linked, it implies household discretionary debt amounts to roughly 21% of GDP. Apply that to India’s nominal GDP of 331 trillion rupees for 2024-25 and you have at risk loans worth 69 trillion rupees across the country’s banks and non-bank lenders.

This threatens the loan quality at financial institutions led by the $130 billion HDFC Bank HDBK.NS as well as lenders backed by global investors from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial 8316.T to Blackstone BX.N who are accelerating their expansion in India to tap retail credit demand.

The impact of AI on the global workforce may ultimately create more jobs. First, though, it may turn India’s already weak consumption and much-vaunted demographic dividend into a nightmare.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/shritama.bose@thomsonreuters.com))

By Ira Dugal

April 28 (Reuters) - (India File is published every Tuesday. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also subscribe here.)

Reliance Industries is offering the clearest signal yet on how the Iran war, now in its third month, is rippling through the real economy.

The refining giant, India’s biggest company by market value, late last week flagged “unprecedented” supply disruptions and a sharp hit to profit in its March-quarter earnings. Can a hike in retail prices of fuel products bring partial relief to oil companies while allowing the economy to adjust to the new realities? Write to us at ira.dugal@thomsonreuters.com.

And, the central bank's digital currency, the e-rupee, is being used to make welfare payments more efficient. Scroll down for more on that.

THIS WEEK IN ASIA

• Could Asia be the unlikely winner in the fallout from the Iran war?

• Under cover of trade truce with Trump, China expands economic pressure toolkit

• Iran war disrupts the circuit board supply chain, raises costs for tech firms

• Japan launches financial task force amid AI security fears

• Giant ice tower delays opening of Everest climbing route

A SHORTAGE LIKE NO OTHER

"Never have we seen this kind of shortage in the market," said Srinivas Tuttagunta, chief operating officer for supply and trading at Reliance, on the company's quarterly earnings call on Friday, referring to a paucity of raw material.

Reliance missed analyst estimates of quarterly profit, which fell 12.5% on-year in the final quarter of India's financial year. Core earnings at its refining business, a key profit driver that ​contributes nearly a third of group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), fell 3.7% in the fourth ​quarter from a year earlier.

"The war in West Asia has led to an unprecedented dislocation in global supply chains," said Chairman Mukesh Ambani in a statement accompanying the earnings, adding that the current situation has underscored the need for India to boost its energy security.

Amid disruptions to supplies from the Middle East, India has diversified its crude imports, relying more heavily on Russia, Reuters' Nidhi Verma reported.

The impact of the Iran war, which has driven up crude prices and caused large-scale supply disruptions, has led to multiple issues for Reliance's oil-to-chemicals business. Crude procurement costs, including freight and insurance, are elevated, while margins in the naphtha, polymer and auto fuel businesses have declined, Mumbai-based brokerage Dolat Capital said in a report after the earnings.

While Reliance, which has seen its share price fall by twice as much as India's benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI so far this year, has buffers on its balance sheet via its telecom and retail businesses, the country's other oil companies - many of them government-owned - do not.

Indian fuel retailers ​are suffering a revenue ‌loss of 100 rupees ($1.06) per ​liter on the ​local sale of diesel ⁠and 20 rupees ​per liter on ​gasoline for selling the two fuels at below-market ​rates, a bureaucrat in the federal government's oil ministry said.

According to estimates by Mumbai-based ICICI Securities, profit after tax for these oil retailers likely declined by 82% in the March quarter over a year ago as crude oil costs soared but retail prices did not move up in tandem.

While fuel prices in India are technically decontrolled, government retailers rarely move prices in line with global prices.

TIME TO ACT?

Two months into the war now and with no immediate resolution in sight, analysts are questioning whether the government needs to bite the bullet and raise retail fuel prices.

Based on the current estimated price of the Indian oil basket of $120/bbl and low margins for petrol and diesel, "there is a case to raise prices by 25 to 28 rupees/liter", analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities wrote in a note last week.

While actual increases may be more modest due to "political considerations", the analysts said price hikes are likely after a round of key state elections conclude on April 29. The report met with strong pushback from the government which called it "fake news" via social media handles.

But raising retail fuel prices may be unavoidable. Not doing so will only delay an adjustment in demand in the global economy in response to higher prices. For India, which runs a current account deficit, this can lead to imports remaining high and the gap remaining wide, thereby weighing on the rupee.

"We don't have oil. We don't have energy. Energy needs to be more expensive for everybody, so that the adjustment happens and we consume less,” Rodrigo Valdes, the IMF's new fiscal affairs chief, told Reuters. “It's a global shock and if countries suppress the price signal, the global price will be higher,” he said. Read the IMF's views here.

MARKET MATTERS

A sharp fall in the Indian rupee has reduced its valuation compared to its trading partners, data from the central bank's monthly bulletin showed.

The South Asian currency's 40-currency ‌real effective exchange rate, which accounts for inflation differentials between different economies, fell to 92.72, the data showed. The undervaluation, however, does not suggest an immediate rebound, analysts pointed out. Read here.

THIS WEEK'S MUST-READ

India is chipping away at use-cases for its central bank's digital currency, the e-rupee, even as global attention shifts towards stablecoins. At least 10 pilot projects - from climate aid to food subsidies - are underway to test the use of the e-rupee, Reuters' Jaspreet Kalra and Ashwin Manikandan reported.

Read here for more .

(Reporting by Ira Dugal; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

((ira.dugal@thomsonreuters.com))

April 24 (Reuters) - Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries RELI.NS posted a 12% slump in net profit for the fourth quarter, missing market expectations.

Consolidated net profit fell to 169.71 billion rupees ($1.80 billion) for the quarter ended March 31, missing analysts' average estimate of 201.16 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.

($1 = 94.2475 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

((Chandini.M@thomsonreuters.com; https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandini-monnappa-8a37b013b/;))

April 20 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• INDIA'S RELIANCE INDUSTRIES SAYS BHARAT MATHUR, ACCUSED IN BRIBERY CASE BY FEDERAL POLICE, WAS ENGAGED AS A CONSULTANT BY COMPANY-STATEMENT

• INDIA'S RELIANCE INDUSTRIES ON BRIBERY CASE ALLEGATIONS: NOT AWARE OF ANY TRANSACTION INVOLVING MATHUR IN NATURE BEING REFERRED TO

• INDIA'S RELIANCE INDUSTRIES SAYS IT HAS NOT APPROVED ANY SUCH UNAUTHORIZED TRANSACTION

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

April 15 (Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery Inc WBD.O:

• WARNER BROS DISCOVERY INC: JIOHOTSTAR AND WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY EXPAND PARTNERSHIP WITH EXCLUSIVE LAUNCH OF HBO MAX IN INDIA

• WARNER BROS DISCOVERY - HBO MAX ADD-ON PACK LAUNCHES ON JIOHOTSTAR AT ₹49 PER MONTH

Further company coverage: WBD.O

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

** Shares of India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS fall 2.8% to near one-week low of 1,313 rupees

** India raises export duties on diesel, aviation turbine fuel

** Refiners MRPL MRPL.NS and Chennai Petroleum CHPC.NS fall 2.4% and 1.9%, respectively

** Nomura says MRPL, Nayara, CPCL, HPCL Mittal Energy, Numaligarh and domestic refineries of RELI will be subject to windfall tax on export of diesel and air turbine fuel

** Adds that RELI's export refinery, which accounts for almost half its refining capacity, not impacted

** RELI rated "buy" on average by 32 brokerages, median PT is 1,700 rupees, per data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, RELI stock down 16.4%

(Reporting by Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru)

((Brijesh.Patel1@thomsonreuters.com; Ph no. +91 9590227221;))

Adds details on Iranian tankers heading to India paragraphs 13-14

By Nidhi Verma and Jonathan Saul

NEW DELHI/LONDON, April 10 (Reuters) - India's shipping ministry has granted special permission to four vessels carrying Iranian oil - as requested by Reliance Industries RELI.NS - to berth at the western port of Sikka, three industry sources said.

India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, has not received a cargo from Tehran since May 2019 following U.S. pressure not to buy Iranian crude.

However, the U.S. last month temporarily waived sanctions on the purchase of Iranian oil at sea to ease oil prices.

The waiver is due to expire on April 19.

India's oil ministry, shipping ministry and Reliance did not respond to requests for comment.

Iranian oil is often transported by a shadow fleet of vessels that lack internationally recognised insurance and safety certifications.

But this requires special permission from the government as exemptions are required under Indian rules for the berthing of ships.

ONE-TIME EXEMPTION

One of the sources said the shipping ministry has granted a special one-time exemption to vessels requested by Reliance, operator of the world's biggest refining complex, due to the emergency situation created by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Apart from Comoros-flagged aframax Kaviz and Curacao-flagged very large crude carrier (VLCC) Lenore, permission has been granted to Iran-flagged VLCCs Felicity and Hedy, a second source said.

All four U.S.-sanctioned vessels are more than 20 years old. Each VLCC supertanker can carry a maximum of 2 million barrels of oil.

India typically requires tankers that are more than 20 years old to have seaworthiness certification from a member of the industry's leading body, the International Association of Classification Societies, or an entity authorised by India's maritime administration.

The Hedy has been positioned near Chabahar port since April 1 and Felicity was seen near Chabahar since April 3, according to analysis from U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic through ship and satellite tracking.

The Kaviz exited the Gulf on Thursday, while the Lenore loaded crude from Iran's Kharg Island on March 20, UANI senior adviser Charlie Brown said.

However, another source said, despite the grant of permission, it was not certain Reliance would process Iranian oil, as it wants to ensure that transactions are sanctions-compliant and are in line with Indian rules.

Indian Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, has purchased Iranian oil carried in the sanctioned tanker Jaya, ship tracking data shows.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; editing by David Holmes, Rod Nickel)

((nidhi.verma@thomsonreuters.com; X: @nidhi712))

April 9 (Reuters) - Indian fuel retailers are buying diesel from refiners at discounted rates to shield customers from any price hike, an industry source said on Thursday.

The new pricing formula is based on India's crude import price, the source told reporters.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

((aleefjahan.cs@thomsonreuters.com;))

Adds Iranian navy quote in paragraph 4, attacks on ships, graphic

By Jeslyn Lerh and Nerijus Adomaitis

SINGAPORE/OSLO, April 8 (Reuters) - Shippers on Wednesday said they needed more clarity on the terms of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire before resuming transit through the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran said the waterway remained closed to vessels sailing without a permit.

The six‑week conflict had brought traffic through the strait - a chokepoint for about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments - close to a standstill, pushing global energy prices sharply higher.

Iran said it would offer safe passage in coordination with its armed forces, though its coastguards warned on Wednesday that any ship attempting to sail without permission would be "targeted and destroyed".

"Transit in the Strait of Hormuz is closed yet, and you must receive permission from Iranian Sepah navy," the radio message received by two ship owners and shared with Reuters said.

MAJOR SHIPPING COMPANIES REMAIN CAUTIOUS

The first vessel had transited the strait with Iran's permission following the ceasefire, its state TV said on Wednesday.

The ship's identity was not immediately clear, but MarineTraffic data showed two Greek-owned and two Chinese-owned bulk carriers passing through since early Wednesday.

Iran has previously agreed safe‑passage arrangements with several countries, including India and Iraq.

Major shipping companies remained cautious.

Denmark's Maersk MAERSKb.CO said the ceasefire may create transit opportunities for vessels but did not yet provide full maritime certainty.

German container carrier Hapag‑Lloyd said it needed to see that the ceasefire holds before starting to take orders for selected markets.

INTEREST PICKS UP AMONG ASIAN REFINERS

Restoring flows to normal could take at least six to eight weeks, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen told a call with customers.

Lars Barstad, CEO of oil tanker group Frontline FRO.OL, said the firm was still assessing what the ceasefire meant for shipping. "I want to see the fine print," he told Reuters.

Bimco Chief Safety and Security Officer Jakob Larsen warned that vessels leaving the Gulf without prior coordination with U.S. and Iranian authorities would face heightened risk.

Since the start of the war on February 28, almost 30 maritime incidents involving commercial vessels and offshore infrastructure have been reported across the region, the U.S. Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center said in a note dated April 7.

Some 187 laden tankers carrying 172 million barrels of crude oil and refined products were inside the Gulf as of Tuesday, according to ship tracker Kpler.

Shipping sources said interest in loading Gulf cargoes had picked up among Asian refiners, as well as trader Glencore and French oil major TotalEnergies TTEF.PA, both of which declined to comment.

Asian economies are the main buyers of oil shipped through the strait and have been hit especially hard by the disruption.

"We expect tankers and oil flowing to Iranian‑friendly countries to be the first ones to transit," said Anoop Singh, global head of shipping research at Oil Brokerage, adding more than 50 VLCCs and about 15 Suezmaxes could soon exit the Gulf.

Britain said on Wednesday it would work with the shipping, insurance and energy sectors to try to restore confidence in use of the Strait of Hormuz.

(Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh, Siyi Liu in Singapore, Bernadette Christina in Jakarta, Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Ahmad Ghaddar in London, Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo, Renee Maltezou and Yannis Souliotis in Athens; reporting; Writing by Florence Tan; Editing by Alexander Smith, David Holmes and Keith Weir)

((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com;))

Adds details from filing, related criminal case, background, paragraphs 4-11

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, April 7 (Reuters) - Gautam Adani, India's second richest person, will ask a U.S. judge to dismiss the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil fraud case stemming from an alleged bribery scheme, his lawyers said on Tuesday.

Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani were charged by the SEC in November 2024 with orchestrating a scheme to pay or promise to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian government officials to benefit Adani Green Energy ADNA.NS, where both men are executives and directors.

The securities fraud case is tied to Adani Green's alleged failure to disclose the scheme in documents for a $750 million bond offering in 2021.

In a filing in the Brooklyn, New York federal court, the Adanis' lawyers said their clients disputed there was any credible evidence supporting the alleged bribery scheme.

The lawyers said the Adanis' lack of involvement in the offering, and the absence of any intent to defraud or negligence, supported a dismissal.

They also called the SEC claims "impermissibly extraterritorial," reflecting how the Adanis and all alleged misconduct were in India, and the bonds were never traded on a U.S. exchange.

The SEC had no immediate comment. Lawyers for the Adanis said they will formally seek a dismissal by April 30.

U.S. prosecutors filed a related criminal case in November 2024 against the Adanis and several other defendants. There have been no public developments in that case since December 2024. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn declined to comment.

Gautam Adani, 63, founded and chairs the conglomerate Adani Group, and is chairman of Adani Green.

He is worth about $60.6 billion, ranking 30th worldwide according to Forbes magazine.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of the conglomerate Reliance Industries RELI.NS, is India's richest person, worth about $91.4 billion and ranking 20th worldwide, Forbes said.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York
Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Bill Berkrot)

((jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com ; +1 646 223 6317; Reuters Messaging: jon.stempel.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net /))

Updates

** Shares of India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS settle 3.4% lower at a near-one-year low of 1,304.70 rupees

** Stock posts fourth session of losses in five after India imposes windfall tax on diesel exports

** RELI fell as much as 4.5% earlier in the day

** Analysts expect refining margins of RELI, India's largest fuel exporter, to be impacted

** Recently imposed export taxes and oil marketing companies reportedly sourcing discounted crude to ensure refiners also absorb a meaningful share of sector-wide losses as consumers remain protected, says Citi Research

** Says this is the first instance where the burden of under-recoveries has been concentrated on downstream refiners and marketers, alongside partial fiscal absorption

** Other refiners MRPL MRPL.NS and Chennai Petroleum CHPC.NS also down 1.8% and 5%, respectively

** RELI rated "buy" on average by 32 brokerages, median PT is 1,700 rupees, per data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, RELI stock down ~17%

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Kashish Tandon)

((VivekKumar.M@thomsonreuters.com;))

By Munsif Vengattil

BENGALURU, April 4 (Reuters) - Welcome to the new-look movie set, where the quiet hum of a coding floor has replaced the cacophony of cameras, clapperboards and shouted directions.

The Collective Artists Network, a top talent agency for Bollywood A-listers, has long brokered the careers of real-life superstars. Now, it’s engineering digital ones. In its Bengaluru premises, filmmakers use artificial intelligence tools to create content based on Hindu mythology – a popular genre in India. One movie, based on the religious text “Ramayana,” has a scene showing the god Hanuman flying while carrying a mountain. A show based on a separate ancient epic, “Mahabharat,” features a sequence depicting the princess Gandhari, who blindfolded herself upon marrying a blind king.

India produces the most movies of any country, and stars such as Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan command cult-like followings. But shifting audience habits, including the rise of streaming, are squeezing production budgets, many industry players say. The number of moviegoers fell to 832 million in 2025 from 1.03 billion in 2019, according to consulting firm Ormax Media. While box-office sales hit a record $1.4 billion last year, revenue has been choppy since the pandemic and reliant on a handful of hits and pricier tickets.

(To view the story on Reuters.com, go to https://www.reuters.com/technology/ai-is-rewiring-worlds-most-prolific-film-industry-2026-04-04/)

Studios in India are responding by deploying AI at a scale unseen elsewhere: creating full-fledged AI-generated films; using AI dubbing to release movies in numerous languages; and recutting endings of older titles to eke out additional sales. In the process, they are reshaping the economics of filmmaking, compressing production timelines, and pitting AI-driven efficiency against a recurring problem: Audiences have often reviewed AI content harshly, even when it sells.

“AI is slashing production costs to one-fifth of what they used to be for traditional filmmaking in genres such as mythology and fantasy,” said Rahul Regulapati, who heads Collective’s AI studio, known as Galleri5. And production time? “Down to a quarter,” he said.

The approach differs from Hollywood, where union contracts and fears of job displacement have constrained studios’ use of the technology. In India, at least one major production house is reviewing its entire library for AI re-releases, and Google GOOGL.O, Microsoft MSFT.O and Nvidia NVDA.O have made early bets by partnering with local filmmakers.

Previous reporting has explored how Indian filmmakers are harnessing AI, and India’s divergence with Hollywood. But Reuters is detailing for the first time the extent to which India’s film industry is reorganizing itself around AI and the economics driving the shift. Reuters visited two AI studios and tested moviemaking tools, attended film festivals and interviewed 25 people for this story, including directors, studio heads, industry executives and startup figures.

American and British studios have experimented with AI filmmaking – producing the first full-length AI animated features in 2024 and an AI-powered immersive version of “The Wizard of Oz” last year.

But the ambitions of India’s filmmakers are on a different level, said Dominic Lees, a film and AI researcher at Britain’s University of Reading. “If they can deliver, then the shift in AI filmmaking will be to India,” he said.

The pivot to AI reflects India’s embrace of the technology broadly. Last year, Reuters detailed India’s wager that leaning in to AI will create enough opportunities to offset shorter-term disruption. AI could boost Indian media and entertainment firms’ revenue by 10% and reduce costs by 15% over the medium term, according to analysis by consulting firm EY.

Vikram Malhotra, founder of Abundantia Entertainment, told Reuters the Bollywood production house, which recently announced investment in an $11 million AI studio, is building its AI capability from scratch and expects content generated or assisted by AI to account for one-third of its revenue within three years.

NEW ENDINGS FOR OLD DRAMAS

Last year, India’s Eros Media World re-released a 2013 hit, “Raanjhanaa,” with an AI-altered twist. It replaced a tragic ending, in which the protagonist died, with a happier finale where he opens his eyes to the surprise of his lover, who smiles through tears.

The rewrite drew backlash. Dhanush, the lead actor, who goes by one name professionally, said on X that the AI remake had “stripped the film of its very soul” and set a “deeply concerning precedent for both art and artists.”

Still, the re-release of “Raanjhanaa” drew audiences. India’s largest cinema chain, PVR Inox PVRL.NS, told Reuters that 35% of available tickets to the Tamil-language version of the movie were sold during its release month, August. That was 12 percentage points higher than the average in 2025.

Now, Eros is going further: Pradeep Dwivedi, its group CEO, told Reuters the studio is reviewing its 3,000-title catalog “to identify candidates for AI-assisted adaptation.” The group’s Indian unit, Eros International, last year warned of “competition from digital platforms” as its consolidated annual revenue from operations fell 44%.

“It’s both a revenue opportunity and a creative renewal strategy,” Dwivedi said of the plans for AI rewrites.

In Hollywood, such alterations would face barriers. Under an agreement with U.S. actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, studios cannot digitally alter an actor’s performance or create a digital replica without the performer’s informed consent. The Directors Guild of America contract bars studios from using AI for creative decisions without consulting the director and prevents AI from doing the work of its members.

Indian studios, by contrast, are pushing into aggressive experiments using AI, including in Hindu mythological tales – big business in a country with millions of devout followers. Collective is planning eight AI-generated titles focused on deities such as Hanuman, Krishna, Durga and Kali.

JioStar, a media joint venture between billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance RELI.NS and Walt Disney DIS.N, has been airing an AI-generated adaptation of the ancient Hindu epic “Mahabharat” – the first episodic series to emerge from Collective's cinematic AI lab.

The AI rendition of the tale about a dynastic war between princes has recorded at least 26.5 million views since its October release on JioStar’s streaming platform, the company told Reuters. An earlier TV adaptation drew 200 million viewers between 1988 and 1990.

The show has faced a rocky reception with audiences, however. “Mahabharat” holds a rating of 1.4 out of 10 on IMDb, with some reviewers criticizing lip-sync issues and others saying some sequences felt low-quality or lacked authenticity due to unnatural styling.

Alok Jain, a senior executive at JioStar, told Reuters the response “has been a mix of appreciation and healthy debate, which is natural for any ambitious creative leap.” He said JioStar is exploring making original stories in AI format.

Some industry figures lament the rise of AI in filmmaking. Jonathan Taplin, an American writer and producer who has worked with Hollywood studios, said the use of AI to create entire feature films is “an affront to the whole history of cinema.”

“It will fill your cinemas and screens with formula slop,” he said.

DUBBING WITH AI

Dubbing may offer a smoother path to acceptance of AI in film.

India’s 22 official languages and hundreds of dialects split the country into micro-markets, making dubbing essential for any movie to become a national blockbuster. Audiences have long griped about mismatched lip movement – a problem AI is beginning to address.

During a Reuters visit to NeuralGarage, an AI startup in Bengaluru that provides dubbing for top studios like Yash Raj Films, co-founder Subhabrata Debnath demonstrated a clip of an AI-generated character speaking in English. He then superimposed a German audio track, and within minutes the character was speaking fluent German, lips and jaw in sync.

Debnath said the technology preserves “the performance, identity and the speaking style of the person” while altering the face enough to make the dubbing look natural.

NeuralGarage’s AI technology was used last year to dub Yash Raj’s Hindi movie “War 2” into the Telugu language of south India. The production house didn’t respond to Reuters questions.

TECH MAJORS MEET THE RED CARPET

Global tech majors also want a piece of the action.

Google partnered with Bollywood director Shakun Batra in August to produce a five-part cinematic series using its Veo 3 video-generation and Flow AI tools to experiment with AI-powered filmmaking. Mira Lane, Google’s vice president of technology and society, told Reuters that AI could also allow independent artists to create complex sequences that “might otherwise be out of reach due to budget or logistical constraints.”

Collective has been working with Microsoft, which told Reuters it is providing AI computing power to help “shape the next wave of global storytelling” through such collaborations.

To bypass the limitations of standard text prompts, Collective uses a hybrid of physical recording and digital animation. Actors wear sensor-equipped motion-capture suits to record body movements as 3D data, while smartphones capture facial expressions. This data is fed into the AI pipeline, allowing for nuanced control over the AI-generated characters.

The ripples are reaching beyond the studio. Globally, festivals dedicated to screening AI-generated shorts have proliferated in cities including Los Angeles, Cannes, and Barcelona. India’s first took place in November at Mumbai’s Royal Opera House, where young storytellers walked the red carpet alongside a dancing robot.

And in February, Nvidia shared the stage with aspiring AI filmmakers at the second edition of India’s AI film fest in New Delhi. Pradeep Gupta, a global vice president of Nvidia, told the audience the company is working to slash computing costs so that anyone can “create something substantial without putting a lot of money” into production.

Anurag Kashyap, a Bollywood director, told Reuters he is concerned about the growth of AI in filmmaking in India and the lack of guardrails around its use. But he grudgingly conceded the economic case for studios to deploy the technology.

“In India, cinema isn’t about art. It’s purely business, so studios are going to use it to make mythologicals,” Kashyap said of AI. “Our audience is a sucker for it.”

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru and Mumbai. Additional reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Sunil Kataria. Editing by Aditya Kalra and David Crawshaw.)

((munsif.vengattil@thomsonreuters.com;))