From Cinema To Tourism: How The BRICS Joint Media Cultural Framework Challenges Hollywood’s Global Dominance

BRICS cultural cooperation moved from diplomatic language to a more concrete media and tourism agenda in 2026, as India’s chairship linked film markets, festivals, creative technology, heritage visits and tourism promotion under a broader Global South cultural push. The emerging BRICS media and cultural framework does not replace Hollywood’s global reach, but it signals a coordinated attempt to build alternative distribution routes, co-production networks and cultural visibility among member and partner countries.

What Changed in the BRICS Cultural Agenda?

The clearest shift is that BRICS is treating culture less as ceremonial exchange and more as economic infrastructure. At the XI BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meeting in Bhopal on August 8, 2026, Ministers adopted the Bhopal Declaration, which India’s Ministry of Culture described as a ‘practical and forward-looking framework’ for deeper institutional cooperation, cultural exchange and people-to-people connectivity among BRICS member states and partner countries.

That declaration followed three Culture Working Group meetings under India’s 2026 chairship, including sessions in Varanasi and Bhopal focused on the creative economy, cultural heritage protection, creator rights, digital tools and culture-led sustainable development. The process matters because it gives BRICS a recurring administrative track, rather than just a one-off festival calendar.

The cultural push is unfolding alongside the BRICS leaders’ summit in New Delhi on September 12, 2026, where the bloc is seeking a larger role in shaping the agenda for emerging and developing countries. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told leaders that ‘BRICS is not against anyone’, while also saying that the Global South should become a ‘rule-shaper’ in global governance.

Film Becomes the Front Door to Cultural Influence

Cinema is central to the strategy because it travels faster than formal diplomacy. India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said the BRICS WAVES Bazaar, launched in Mumbai on August 6, 2026, brought together more than 500 delegates from BRICS member and partner countries to create opportunities in the audiovisual and creative industries. The same announcement said the Bazaar and the BRICS Film Festival, scheduled alongside IFFI in November 2026, are intended to provide complementary platforms: one for business, partnerships and market access, and the other for films, filmmakers and audiences.

Officials framed the Bazaar as a marketplace where projects can be discovered, co-productions discussed, partnerships initiated and new markets opened. Its stated scope includes film, television, animation, VFX, gaming, music, digital media and emerging content formats, expanding the conversation beyond theatrical cinema into the wider screen economy.

This is where the challenge to Hollywood becomes practical rather than rhetorical. Hollywood’s power has long rested not only on production budgets, but also on distribution, marketing, technical standards, recognisable stars and global audience habits. A BRICS-backed network cannot overturn that overnight, but it can reduce dependence on a single cultural pipeline by helping local and regional stories reach large non-Western markets.

Tourism Is Being Tied to Screen Visibility

The cultural framework also connects film with tourism. In 2025, BRICS tourism Ministers approved the Cerrado Declaration in Brasília, identifying six areas of cooperation: infrastructure, diversification of tourism offerings, professional training, public-private collaboration, financing and incentives, and tourism promotion. The declaration treated tourism as a strategic tool for economic growth, cultural preservation and sustainable development in the Global South.

India’s 2026 Culture Track made that connection visible through curated heritage experiences in Varanasi, Bhopal, Sanchi and Bhimbetka. Delegates attended exhibitions, visited cultural institutions and experienced performances intended to showcase living heritage, traditional knowledge and historic sites.

For tourism boards, filmmakers and cultural Ministries, the implication is clear: screen exposure can become destination exposure. A film festival, co-production market or streaming partnership can introduce audiences to cities, landscapes, foodways, music and heritage routes before they ever book a trip.

Key areas to watch include:

• Co-productions: Whether BRICS producers can turn political goodwill into financeable projects with cross-border crews, casts and distribution plans.
• Distribution Access: Whether films and series from member countries receive meaningful release windows in cinemas, on broadcasters and across streaming platforms in BRICS markets.
• Creative Technology: Whether animation, VFX, gaming and AI tools become shared growth areas rather than isolated national industries.
• Tourism Conversion: Whether cultural showcases lead to packaged travel routes, heritage campaigns and stronger city branding.
• Creator Protections: Whether copyright, attribution and AI remuneration rules become consistent enough to support trust between markets.

Hollywood’s Dominance Is No Longer Uncontested

Calling Hollywood a monopoly is shorthand, not a strict legal description. The US industry still has unmatched global brand power, and American studio films remain among the world’s most exportable entertainment products. Yet the market is changing: the European Audiovisual Observatory reported that Asian films increased their global market share from 27% in 2019 to 36% in 2025, while a Chinese film, Ne Zha 2, became the first non-US studio film to top the world charts.

At the same time, production volume and cultural influence no longer map neatly onto Hollywood alone. WIPO noted that India remained the world’s largest feature-film producer in 2023, while the United States ranked second and accounted for around 10% of global feature-film production.

BRICS appears to be responding to that fragmented landscape by building connective tissue. The goal is not simply to make more films; member countries already do that. The harder task is making those films easier to finance, promote, subtitle, distribute, screen and connect with tourism and cultural diplomacy.

The Next Test Is Execution

The BRICS media and cultural framework will prove its value through results, not declarations. If the WAVES Bazaar produces repeatable deals, if BRICS Film Festival programming travels beyond host-country audiences, and if Tourism Ministries package screen-linked destinations effectively, the bloc could create a stronger South-South entertainment corridor.

The risk is familiar: cultural initiatives can become impressive events without sustained market follow-through. Hollywood’s advantage is institutional memory — agencies, studios, distributors, streamers, advertisers and exhibitors working at scale. BRICS now has the political language and early platforms to challenge that structure; the next question is whether it can build the commercial machinery to match.

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