Crafting Success through Frugal Innovation: Entrepreneurial Growth of Malayalam Cinema in South India’s Creative Sector

This chapter delves into the unique entrepreneurial growth of Malayalam Cinema (Mollywood) in the Indian media business. Unlike big-budget films globally and across the Indian film industry, Malayalam Cinema stands out for its frugal innovation, which optimizes its budget and minimizes expenses through outsourcing and other mechanisms. This research uncovers the fusion of creativity and business that propels Mollywood’s achievements, despite the challenges it faces. Within the Malayalam industry, this chapter looks optimistically toward the future of Mollywood and underscores the pivotal role of entrepreneurship in the success of the creative media industry. The research adopts a social constructivist approach and uses semi-structured interviews of ten participants who are a part of this industry, shedding light on recent events and perspectives. to gather comprehensive data from key industry stakeholders. The findings and analyses not only showcase the emergence of the Malayalam film industry on the global stage but also highlight the distinctive aspects of its entrepreneurial growth. The chapter looks into six different aspects that have contributed to the emergence and uniqueness of the Mollywood film approach. Due to lesser literature work focusing on this area, this chapter immensely contributes to the recognition of the industry, thereby providing grounds for further research. This not only contributes to the literature on innovation in creative industries but also sets the stage for future cross-industry and cross-country studies. Furthermore, the research findings serve as a valuable resource for heads of media houses, other film industries, and policymakers in adopting frugal innovation and innovative storytelling.