Anime streamer Crunchyroll is making its most aggressive push yet into India, backed by audience data showing watch time in the country has grown 3.5 times in a year, a mass-market brand campaign and an exclusive on “Chainsaw Man the Movie: Reze Arc” — all part of a long-term bet that the country can become one of anime’s defining international markets.
Ekta Gulechha, director of marketing for India at Crunchyroll, says viewer response to the title has been emphatic. “Fans were thrilled to hear about the ‘Chainsaw Man’ movie, and we can’t wait to bring it to the service,” she says, describing major releases as crucial entry points that draw both longtime devotees and first-time viewers into the anime ecosystem.
The exclusive comes as Crunchyroll positions tentpole IP as the primary engine for subscriber acquisition and retention in growth markets. “Our goal is to be everything to someone, and that someone is the anime fan,” Gulechha says, outlining a strategy that pairs a broad catalog with event-driven flagship releases.
India is central to that calculus. The platform’s internal data shows minutes watched per viewer have doubled over the past year, while total watch time has grown 3.5 times. Indian anime fans now average more than 60 minutes of daily viewing. Akshat Sahu, Crunchyroll VP of go to market and partnerships marketing for APAC and MENA, says the figures have fundamentally shifted how the company thinks about the market.
“India combines several factors that make it especially promising for anime,” Sahu says. “It has one of the world’s youngest and most digital-first audiences, which is highly open to discovering global storytelling formats. Combined with growing theatrical interest, brand partnerships and fan events, anime in India is expanding not just as a streaming category but as a broader cultural experience.”
A Crunchyroll-commissioned study found that 62% of general entertainment audiences in India say they like or love anime, while 74% of teenagers identify as anime fans. Those numbers underpinned the company’s “Ready to Anime” campaign, which brought in actor Rashmika Mandanna and Indian cricket captain Shubman Gill as brand faces — a move designed to plant anime within the two cultural forces that dominate Indian popular consciousness.
Gulechha says the two ambassadors were chosen to reflect the current shape of Indian anime fandom. Mandanna represents the organic fan with an established affinity for the medium, while Gill embodies the growing wave of curious newcomers. “That dynamic mirrors what we’re seeing in the market,” she says.
Localization has been critical to driving that expansion. Sahu notes that over 65% of anime viewership in India now comes from dubbed content, pushing penetration well beyond the traditional early-adopter base.
Theatrically, Crunchyroll sees India as a market in transition. Gulechha points to encouraging early signals — particularly around major franchise titles — and says the company expects India to grow into a meaningful box office territory for anime IP as distribution infrastructure catches up with audience appetite.
Sahu is blunt about the competitive differentiation. “For Crunchyroll, anime isn’t just a category — it’s our clear focus,” he says, contrasting the platform’s depth of catalog, localization and fan-culture investment against general entertainment services that carry anime as one genre among many.
Long-term, Sahu says India has the potential to stand alongside the U.S., Japan and Latin America as one of anime’s defining international pillars within the next decade. Success, he adds, will be measured not by subscriber numbers alone but by the combined weight of fan engagement, regional-language expansion, live events and brand partnerships — all built, as he puts it, around keeping the anime fan at the center.
English (US) ·