Beyond Bollywood: Streaming Regional Indian Cinema in 11 Languages in 2026

Ask any Indian living abroad what they actually want to watch and the answer is rarely "the latest Bollywood blockbuster." A Marathi family in Houston wants to see Sairat. A Bengali couple in London is looking for the new Hoichoi original everyone's talking about. A Punjabi friend in Toronto wants the new Diljit film the week it drops. A Malayali in Dubai is trying to figure out which streamer has Manjummel Boys this month.

For all four of them, the global streaming-discovery tools are practically useless. Most international guides start and end with Hindi cinema as if "Indian cinema" and "Bollywood" were synonyms. They are not. India has at least eleven major film-and-streaming language industries, each with its own stars, its own audiences, its own preferred platforms, and its own diaspora scattered across forty countries.

What follows is the cleanest map of the regional Indian streaming landscape I can draw, language by language, with the dedicated OTTs and the global streamers that matter for each one. Bookmark it. The contracts shift, but the structural picture rarely does.

Why regional Indian cinema is hard to find outside India

The fragmentation has a few specific causes. First, the rights to regional films are usually sold language by language, region by region, often to smaller dedicated platforms rather than the global services. A Kannada film that lands on Sun NXT in India might be impossible to find on Netflix in Germany, even if a German Kannada family is the most obvious target audience.

Second, the dedicated regional OTTs (Sun NXT, aha, Hoichoi, Planet Marathi, Chaupal, ShemarooMe) have global subscriptions, but most people outside India have never heard of them. They don't market themselves in the West the way Netflix and Prime Video do, and they rarely appear in "best streaming services" roundups written by non-Indian outlets.

Third, theatrical-to-OTT windows for regional Indian films are shorter than they used to be, but they vary wildly by language. A Malayalam film might be on streaming within four weeks. A Bhojpuri film might never get a formal OTT release at all and instead live on YouTube. A Tamil release might drop on a different platform depending on which company financed it.

The good news is that for a viewer in 2026, there is now a real answer for every one of these languages. You just need to know which platform to look at, and you need a way to check what's on each platform in your specific country. (That second part is what we built OTTASIA for, but more on that at the end.)

The eleven languages, ranked by streaming depth

Here are India's eleven major language industries, ordered roughly by how deep their current streaming catalogs are in 2026, and which platforms carry them.

1. Hindi (Bollywood)

The most visible Indian language industry globally, with the deepest catalog across every major streamer. JioHotstar carries most of the Disney/Star Studios slate. Netflix carries Bollywood originals and a rotating back-catalog. Prime Video and ZEE5 carry overlapping but distinct libraries. SonyLIV holds the Sony Pictures India films. For finding what's where, see our Bollywood browse page and the Best Bollywood Movies of 2026 list.

2. Tamil (Kollywood)

Tamil cinema has one of the strongest dedicated OTT presences in India thanks to Sun NXT and aha Tamil. Sun NXT carries the deepest Sun Pictures back-catalog and is the default for most older Tamil films. aha competes for theatrical releases and originals. Netflix, Prime Video, JioHotstar and ZEE5 all carry significant Tamil libraries, and major Tamil releases now usually drop on at least two of those services within six weeks of their theatrical run. Browse our Tamil Cinema page or the Best Tamil Movies of 2026 list.

3. Telugu (Tollywood)

Telugu cinema has had the biggest global breakout of any regional Indian industry, with Baahubali, RRR, Pushpa and Salaar redefining what an Indian blockbuster means internationally. aha is the dedicated Telugu OTT and the place to find originals plus theatrical-window releases. Netflix and Prime Video carry the biggest pan-India films, often as multi-language drops with Hindi and Tamil dubs. JioHotstar handles the Disney/Star Telugu slate. Telugu Cinema on OTTASIA covers all of it.

4. Malayalam (Mollywood)

Critically the most respected Indian film industry today, with an unusually high hit rate on indie breakouts (The Great Indian Kitchen, Manjummel Boys, Premalu, 2018). Malayalam films land most often on Sun NXT, Netflix, Prime Video, JioHotstar and ZEE5, with theatrical-to-OTT windows often compressed to four to six weeks. See our Malayalam Cinema browse page, Best Malayalam Movies 2026, and Top Rated Malayalam Cinema for the all-time greats.

5. Kannada (Sandalwood)

Kannada cinema has been on a tear since KGF and Kantara reset expectations for what Sandalwood blockbusters could mean globally. Sun NXT carries the deepest Kannada catalog. Netflix, Prime Video, JioHotstar and ZEE5 carry the major pan-India releases. Browse Kannada Cinema or the curated Best Kannada Movies 2026 list.

6. Marathi

Marathi cinema has been quietly producing some of India's best small-scale dramas for a decade. Planet Marathi is the dedicated platform. JioHotstar, Prime Video, Netflix and ZEE5 all carry significant Marathi catalogs, and Sony LIV picks up select Marathi originals. Theatrical Marathi films often land on JioHotstar within a month of release. Marathi Cinema on OTTASIA or the new Best Marathi Movies of 2026 list.

7. Bengali

Bengali cinema spans two countries (West Bengal in India and Bangladesh) and a passionate global diaspora across the UK, US, Middle East and Australia. Hoichoi is the largest dedicated Bengali OTT with the deepest catalog of originals and modern films. Netflix, Prime Video, JioHotstar and ZEE5 all carry Bengali content but typically the more commercial releases. See Bengali Cinema and Best Bengali Films of 2026.

8. Punjabi

Punjabi cinema has one of the most active global audiences of any Indian regional industry. Chaupal is the dedicated Punjabi OTT, focused on theatrical releases and originals aimed at the worldwide Punjabi-speaking audience. Netflix, Prime Video, JioHotstar and ZEE5 carry significant Punjabi libraries, with stars like Diljit Dosanjh, Ammy Virk, Sonam Bajwa and Gippy Grewal crossing into Bollywood and back without losing their core fanbase. Browse Punjabi Cinema or the all-time Top Rated Punjabi list.

9. Gujarati (Dhollywood)

Gujarati cinema had a creative resurgence in the last decade, with hits like Chhello Divas, Kehvatlal Parivar and the award-winning Hellaro. Distribution is split between ShemarooMe, JioHotstar and Prime Video, plus a growing free-with-ads layer on platforms like MX Player. The Gujarati diaspora in the US, UK, East Africa and Australia is one of the most active Indian audiences globally, but international availability still lags the audience. Browse Gujarati Cinema on OTTASIA.

10. Bhojpuri

Bhojpuri cinema serves a massive audience across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and a global diaspora that stretches from Mauritius and Fiji to Trinidad, Suriname, Guyana and the Gulf. Stars like Khesari Lal Yadav, Pawan Singh and Akshara Singh pull numbers that rival mainstream Bollywood. Distribution is fragmented across JioHotstar, ShemarooMe, Prime Video, and YouTube (where many Bhojpuri films effectively live). Browse Bhojpuri Cinema for what's currently on streaming.

11. Odia and Assamese

Odia cinema (sometimes called Ollywood) and Assamese cinema are smaller industries with steady annual output. Both produce films that travel well at festivals, with Assamese directors like Rima Das and Bhaskar Hazarika winning international recognition for films like Village Rockstars and Aamis. Streaming presence is still sparse but growing on JioHotstar, Prime Video and select regional services. Browse Odia Cinema and Assamese Cinema.

The regional OTTs you should actually know about

Beyond Netflix and Prime Video, here are the six dedicated regional Indian streaming services worth knowing about. Most are available globally with a subscription, even if their interfaces and marketing rarely speak to the diaspora directly.

• Sun NXT - the deepest South Indian library on the web. Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam in one place. The essential subscription if you watch any of those languages. What's on Sun NXT.
• aha - Telugu primary, Tamil secondary. Originals and theatrical-window releases. What's on aha.
• Hoichoi - the Bengali OTT. Strong originals, deep film library, global subscription. What's on Hoichoi.
• Planet Marathi - dedicated Marathi platform with originals and theatrical releases. What's on Planet Marathi.
• ShemarooMe - Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bhojpuri and Punjabi back-catalog from Shemaroo Entertainment's enormous film library. What's on ShemarooMe.
• Chaupal - Punjabi originals and theatrical releases for the global Sikh diaspora. What's on Chaupal.

The honest part: this still takes work

Even with the right map, finding a specific regional Indian film from outside India in 2026 still often means checking three or four services and accepting that one of them will lie about availability somewhere in the chain. The rights landscape is genuinely complex, and no single streaming service is going to fix it.

OTTASIA exists for exactly this problem. We pull live streaming data daily from TMDB across 33 countries, so when you click a title you see exactly which service has it in your country - not what was true last year, not what's true in the US when you're in Singapore, but what's true today where you actually are.

Pick your country from the top-right of any page. Browse a language. Pick a film. We'll tell you where to watch it. Save it to your watchlist and we'll email you when it becomes available somewhere new. That's the entire product.

The regional Indian expansion shipped today (May 15, 2026) is the biggest single content addition we've made: eleven languages, six dedicated regional OTTs, six new curated lists, more than 20 new indexable landing pages. If you watch regional Indian cinema, OTTASIA is now the most complete free discovery tool that exists.

And if there's a language or platform missing - Tulu, Konkani, Sindhi, anything else - reply to hello@ottasia.com and we'll add it. The whole point is to be the place that notices the audiences global discovery tools never quite got around to serving.