India-South Korea: K-Culture Meets Bollywood

Policy Update
Aashvee Prisha

India and South Korea are experiencing vibrant cultural rendezvous. In the past decade, the Korean Wave, from K-pop and K-dramas to K-beauty and K-food, has surged across India, especially among young people. Conversely, India’s own cinema and traditions are gradually finding audiences in Korea. This cultural dialogue is underpinned by active diplomacy, film festivals, cultural centres, artist exchanges and government co-production pacts now knit the two countries together.

Concrete examples abound: BTS concerts and Korean skin care brands are redefining India’s youth culture, while Indian films like Dangal and classical arts like Kathakali are being showcased in Seoul and Busan as symbols of India’s soft power. Together, India and Korea are leveraging this cultural affinity to deepen their strategic partnership.

The Korean Wave in India: A New Youth Craze

K-pop concerts and TV shows have become staples for Indian youth. Data from the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange show that K-pop streaming in India surged 362% between 2018 & 2023- a reflection of booming online fandom. South Korea bands like BTS & BLACKPINK have broken language barriers, attracting millions of Indian fans with catchy music videos and energetic performances. As one music critic notes, India’s young population is driving the growth aided by booming smartphone and Internet access. Special concerts and fan-fests have started appearing, for example, Korean singer Arora toured India and performed at festivals like Hornbill, underlining that even dedicated Korean artists see India as a promising new market.

Beyond music, Korean dramas and variety shows are also gaining ground. Streaming platforms are expanding subtitles and dubs for India’s many languages – as happened with Netflix’s Squid Game, which added Hindi and Tamil subtitlesin its second season to reach more viewers. Meanwhile, K-beauty is increasinglybecoming part of the culture. Indians’ beauty preferences are shifting towards Korean skincare’s natural, “glass-skin” look, and industry forecasts project the K-beauty market in India to grow from $400 million in 2024 to $ 1.5 billion by 2030.

Monthly spending on Korean cosmetics in India is modest but with 11.9 million k-beauty buyers expected to rise to 27 millions by 2030. Young people in India are already familiar with Korean pop stars and TV shows and are naturally developing an interest in Korean beauty, notes an industry insider. Similarly, Korean cuisine and language are gaining fans: imports of Korean foods jumped sharply and Duolingo reports Korean as India’s fourth most learned language after Hindi, English and French.

Bollywood and Indian Culture in Korea : A steady Presence

Indian culture, while less dominant in Korean pop culture, has been making inroads. Film is a key bridge: since 2016, the Indian Embassy and Korean Film Archive (KOFA) in Seoul have held annual India Film Festivals, screening Hindi and regional films for Korean audiences. For instance, in Nov 2024 Seoul hosted an Indian Film Festival showcasing six Indian films- from the blockbuster Bahubali to the rural drama Kantara and Aamir Khan’s Dangal-explicitly to give Koreans “a glimpse into Indian culture and storytelling”. These festivals, often presented by the Indian Embassy and cultural centres, underscore the role of cinemain strengthening cultural tie.

Cultural events have broadened beyond film. In October 2025, the city of Miryang- Known as “Yoga Culture Town”- hosted a landmark performance of Indian Kathakali dance narrating the Mahabharata, as part of the annual Sarang Festival of India. The Indian Embassy reports that this Kathakali troupe also performed at Busan Citizen’s Hall, blending India’s classical dances with local audiences. The Sarang Festival each year introduces Koreans to facets to Indian culture- classical dance, music, films and food- drawing hundreds of guests from Korean universities, government and media. Yoga itself has become a popular export, Yoga, continues to attract millions all around the world – and Korea is no reflection.

Indian pop culture in Korea remains somewhat peripheral,: Bollywood films do not dominate Korean cinemas, and aside from the occasional cricket or dance enthusiast, mainstream Korean youth media closely follows global trends from Hollywood, K-pop, and Japan. Yet events such as Indian film and dance festivals, Bollywood nights (where Koreans gather to screen Indian films), and Indian restaurants introduce everyday Indian life. For instance, biryani and masala chai are included in Sarang Festival menus; guests commonly share on social media that they enjoyed Indian cuisine and dance performances. Maybe not as prominent as the K-pop craze in India, such exchanges are indicative of growing bilateral curiosity and respect.

Performance and Impact

Growth of cultural exchange & Industry Gains

The Korean Wave (Hallyu) that is K-pop, k-dramas, k-beauty, cuisine etc. has significantly penetrated India. According to a 2025 study, many Indian youth report that Korean entertainment influences their lifestyle choices, fashion, beauty routines and even aspirations.

This isn’t just “fun and fandom” on the economic side, cultural exports like these have helped generate billions for Korea’s economy, and boosted tourism, consumption of beauty products and cross-cultural media demand.

On the flip side, Indian youth’s growing fascination with Korean content has increased India- Korea travel interests : a 2024 survey of Indian students found that enthusiasm for k-culture strongly correlated with intent to visit Korea.

Soft Power and Perception Transformation

For South Korea, this cultural success is a textbook example of soft power: K-pop and associated cultural exports project a desirable image of modern Korea — cosmopolitan, creative, youthful — which helps draw global admiration and networks.

For India, greater exposure to Korean culture encourages cultural fluidity among youth; but also, via events like film/dance festivals and cultural diplomacy programs, it creates a channel for mutual respect and cultural understanding between Indians and Koreans.

Entertainment Industry Convergence & Collaboration Potential

The interest in Korean content has encouraged Indian production houses, artists and youth to explore K-pop, K-beauty, K-drama inspired styles or even fusion content.

Streaming platforms and social media are playing a major enabling role — making Korean content widely accessible, easing cultural diffusion, and building

Emerging Issues and Challenges

When two vibrant cultures collide, friction, complexity and unintended consequences may emerge. Some of the issues:

Cultural displacement & identity concerns: Several studies caution that intense fascination with Korean pop culture might overshadow or marginalize local/traditional cultural expressions.

Homogenization / loss of diversity: With globalized pop culture (K-pop, drama tropes, beauty ideals) dominating youth tastes, there’s a risk that varied regional cultures get sidelined, especially among impressionable youth.

Language & cultural barriers: Despite popularity, differences in language, cultural context and storytelling sensibilities mean not all elements of Korean culture translate smoothly, making deeper exchange or “fusion content” challenging.

Uneven access and urban-rural divide: The cultural wave, consumption of beauty products, streaming, access to festivals, tends to concentrate in urban/more affluent pockets; large swathes may remain unaffected or disconnected, potentially exacerbating cultural inequalities.

Soft power imbalance & dependency: Heavy consumption of another nation’s culture can tilt influence, that is India’s youth might internalize Korean values/styles more than nurturing home-grown creative output. That may limit domestic creative industries unless India also invests deliberately in promoting its own culture abroad.

Diplomacy: Formal Initiatives and Events

Government and embassy-driven programs amplify this people-to-people exchange. On the Korean side, the Korean Cultural Centre India (KCCI) in New Delhi acts as a hub for cultural diplomacy. Since its inception in 2012, KCCI has arranged language classes, film screenings, K-pop and K-drama fan events, and an annual “Rang De Korea” festival celebrating Korean culture in India. The 2025 Rang De Korea, which literally means “Colour Me Korea,” drew thousands to K-pop dance contests, traditional craft workshops, and K-food stalls in Delhi. KCCI also arranges art exhibitions, such as a 2024 Jeju Haenyo diving women exhibit, and contests, such as a youth multimedia contest in Korea.

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These all serve as a “bridge” between India and Korea, in the words of one expert blog, which makes Korean pop culture a soft power tangible in India. On India’s side, the Indian Cultural Centre in Seoul, which is run by the country’s Embassy, also puts together events: it co-hosts the annual Sarang Festival, film festivals, Carnatic music and Bollywood dance concerts, even cooking demos of Indian cuisine. An official press release describes “Sarang” as a showcase of India’s “rich, diverse culture” and emphasizes film and dance as a means of “power of storytelling to connect people.” Apart from these cultural centers, there are formal agreements and inter-governmental dialogues that emphasize culture.

Under the India–RoK Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement 2010, there was an audiovisual co-production pact in 2015, which allowed film and TV collaborations to be considered domestic productions in both countries. This pact has set up a framework with the aim of incentivizing joint projects-where at least 20-30% of the budget must come from each side-by offering financial and distribution benefits for such projects.

According to India’s Information & Broadcasting Minister L. Murugan, “industry-to-industry partnerships” will enable India and Korea to “co-create movies, series and animations travelling far beyond their borders”. In reality, Korean studios, including CJ ENM and Hybe, have taken the first steps: at the 2025 Mumbai “Waves” summit, CJ ENM spoke about a deal with Amazon to take K-content global, while Hybe opened its subsidiary Hybe India-under the slogan “Where Voice of India Becomes Global Stories”, it plans to train Indian idol groups. The two governments also convene cultural committees and strategic dialogues.

During these, broadcasters, studios, and cultural agencies discuss exchanges and co-productions. Discussions on incentives for co-productions and remakes have featured in, for example, the 23rd India–Korea Strategic Dialogue in Delhi, in November 2024, and film market meetings in Busan, in October 2024 and 2025. These high-level forums clearly signal that both countries regard culture as not just entertaining but as a pillar in their “Special Strategic Partnership” agreement.

https://www.indembassyseoul.gov.in/eventsphoto-gallery

Soft Power and Strategic Significance

Why does all this matter? Culturally, K-pop and Bollywood are prime examples of soft power – a country’s ability to attract and influence through its culture. For South Korea, the success of Hallyu in India enhances “Brand Korea,” winning goodwill among Indian youth and even helping Korean companies by association. One Korean diplomat noted that after Hallyu swept Asia, India was the “next frontier” for K-pop, especially as China’s market tightened.

On the Indian side, showcasing icons like Mahabharata dance, yoga and Hindi cinema in Korea helps India be seen as a rich cultural partner, aligning with India’s own aim to boost its global image. In Brand Finance’s 2023 Global Soft Power Index, South Korea ranked 15th and India 28th, illustrating Korea’s cultural brand strength, and India’s potential to grow. Deepening cultural affinity can thus tip this balance, making India’s narratives more visible in East Asia.

Diplomatically, culture cements ties that go beyond government. People-to-people connections, fans, artists, students, entrepreneurs, create a reservoir of trust and mutual understanding. Every BTS fan in Bangalore or Kathakali performance in Busan is a small human link. Such ties also have economic spin-offs: for example, growing cultural interest boosts tourism and trade.

Strategically, India and Korea share democratic values, a stance on a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” and converging interests in technology and security. Culture bolsters these connections at the societal level. Analysts point out that in a region facing competition and uncertainty, soft-power cooperation can be as important as formal treaties. In practical terms, cultural affinity means smoother collaboration in other fields, think educational exchanges, joint tech ventures, or aligned positions in multilateral forums. As Minister Murugan put it, today’s “youngsters…are driving soft power and the creative economy,” so India and Korea “must harness” this shared cultural wave to drive their strategic partnership.

Way Forward: Recommendations & Strategic Path

If India and South Korea want this cultural exchange to be healthy, mutually beneficial and sustainable, rather than a one-way fascination, the following steps could help:

Support genuine cultural diplomacy & bilateral exchange programs: Expand joint festivals, film/dance/music collaborations, artist-in-residence schemes, language-and-culture centers. This builds mutual respect, not just fandom.

Encourage co-productions and creative collaborations: Use frameworks like the existing trade/trade-plus cultural cooperation to fund joint films, music videos, web-series combining Indian and Korean aesthetics, giving birth to hybrid, global-ready content.

Invest in preserving and promoting home-grown cultural content: India must simultaneously promote its rich regional languages, traditional arts, and local stories, to prevent cultural homogenization. Incorporating regional narratives in collaborations might appeal globally while preserving identity.

Promote cultural literacy & critical consumption among youth: Schools, universities, media groups should foster critical media literacy so youth appreciate K-culture without uncritically adopting all values, encouraging thoughtful hybridization rather than wholesale adoption.

Leverage soft power for broader cooperation, beyond entertainment: Use cultural affinity as a foundation for deeper collaboration: education exchange, technology & innovation partnerships, tourism, people-to-people diplomacy. Soft power creates familiarity; that can be converted into stronger bilateral cooperation across sectors.

References

Korean Cultural Centre India. (2025, January 20). K-Wave in India: Its impact on Indian youth. https://koreacentre.org/2025/01/20/k-wave-in-india-its-impact-on-indian-youth/

Pudas, M. (2023). Soft power in India–South Korea relations and the role of cultural and popular connects. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/375630148_Soft_Power_in_India-South_Korea_Relations_and_Role_of_Cultural_and_Popular_Connects

Mahajan, S. (2024). The impact of Hallyu (Korean Wave) on Indian youth’s intention to visit South Korea. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381382370_The_Impact_of_Hallyu_Korean_Wave_on_Indian_Youth%27s_Intention_to_Visit_South_Korea

Journal of Contemporary Affairs & Studies. (2023). Hallyu and South Korea’s soft power influence. https://jcas-journal.com/index.php/jcas/article/download/30/82

Indian Journal of Legal Medicine & Humanities. (2024). Cultural relations and people-to-people diplomacy between India and South Korea. https://ijlmh.com/wp-content/uploads/Cultural-Relations-and-People-to-People-Diplomacy-between-India-and-South-Korea.pdf

Rx Rejuvenate. (2024). K-pop’s impact in India: A cultural phenomenon. https://rxrejuvenate.in/k-pops-impact-in-india-a-cultural-phenomenon/

Sophia College for Women. (2024). Korean wave and its influence on Indian youth – Cultural implications. https://www.sophiacollegemumbai.com/upload/Chapter-7.pdf

International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts. (2024). The rise of Korean culture in India: A socio-cultural analysis. https://ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT2401641.pdf

Brand Finance. (2023). Global Soft Power Index. https://brandirectory.com/global-soft-power-index

About the Author

Aashvee Prisha is a Research Intern at IMPRI. She is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree in Political Science, with a deep interest in international relations, gender diplomacy, and digital storytelling.

Acknowledgment: The author sincerely thanks Ms. Aasthaba Jadeja and the IMPRI team for their valuable support.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organization.