Crunchyroll sees uptick in active users as anime finds favour in India

“India as a market continues to grow along with the overall popularity that anime has found across the globe. It is the second largest market after Japan, outside of the US for us, and our localization initiatives have been significant drivers here,” Rahul Purini, president of Crunchyroll, said.

Crunchyroll’s original content comes in English. For India, it dubs all its content in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Purini says 58% of all engagement comes from these dubbed versions. Out of its total catalogue of 830 titles, about 10-15% is also available to users to sample for free.

Over the past nine months, the company has added 70 titles dubbed in Hindi, 45 of which are also available in Tamil and Telugu. About 10% of its overall catalogue is dubbed in local Indian languages.

“It is clear that Indian audiences prefer dubbed versions and once we’ve achieved some kind of base among the critical mass, we will look at other languages, too,” Purini said. Among these, Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and Gujarati will be top of the list, he added.

Over the past few weeks, shows like Solo Leveling, Jujutsu Kaisen, Mashle: Magic and Muscles, One Piece, and The Daily Life of the Immortal King have found traction in India.

Crunchyroll, LLC is an independent joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment in the US and Aniplex in Japan, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., both subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group Corp.

Crunchyroll opened its second office in India in Hyderabad earlier this month. Its first office was opened in Mumbai last September. It has 20 employees currently. Purini said the company is investing in scaling up talent and hiring the right team to expand in the country.

The company has so far focused on distribution channels such as mobile packages and smart TVs. Going forward, it will look at partnerships with aggregator platforms soon. It is already accessible on Prime Video Channels, a content aggregation service that makes subscription-driven video-on-demand platforms available on the Prime Video app and website, in countries like the US and Canada. The partnership could soon make its way to India as well.

To be sure, Indian audiences have been exposed to Japanese anime since the early 2000s thanks to television, and the category has benefited from a loyal fan base that has been exposed to popular shows such as Digimon Adventure, Ghost in the Shell, and Princess Mononoke.

Over the years, anime’s popularity has grown significantly through social media, driven by interest groups and local online communities. Japanese animation film Suzume surpassed ₹10 crore in box office sales when released in Indian theatres last year.

Industry experts say Japanese anime fills a unique void in the country, appealing to not only young children and teenagers, but also to adults. These films and series tackle complex themes such as friendship, loss and racism.

Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, executive director of cinema chain PVR Inox Ltd, had said in an earlier interview that Indian and Japanese traditions, culture, beliefs and value systems are quite similar, and audiences relate to these, which find expression through anime movies.

“There is a lot of piracy and it takes some effort to convince audiences in India to switch to official, compelling sources of content,” Purini said, adding that the platform is increasingly seeing traction from even smaller towns such as Patna and Visakhapatnam thanks to its localization initiatives.