How old are you?

As you can see, the majority by far of fans are in their mid-thirties.  This lines up with several other data points.  Most importantly, those who are in their thirties today would have been in their late teens and early twenties at the turn of the century.  After the film industry gained industrial status in 1999, and following the international success of DDLJ, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, K3G, and others, Indian filmmakers truly went after the international market with Lagaan and Devdas in 2001 and 2000.  Moreover, after the burst of international immigration from India the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the first generation of westerners to grow up with large numbers of South Asian contemporaries would come of age in the late nineties.  As young adults in that era, today’s thirty year olds would have been at a transition point in their lives, receptive to new interests and hobbies, and already more familiar with South Asian culture than the previous generation when the first big promotional push for Indian film happened (not to mention the technological changes in DVDs, the internet, etc. which occurred in the same era and supported this push).

This is not to say that fandom ends with the thirty year old generation.  As you can see, the number of respondents rises steeply to that point and drops off slowly.  There are already 25 respondents around the age of twenty, the fandom will not disappear.  Moreover, it is a slow decline on the other side.  There were several respondents in their forties and fifties, it is only around age 60 that there is a definite decrease.  Based on my interviews and further interactions with respondents, what might be more accurate to say is that since at least 2000 there has been a growing number of people discovering Indian film, most of them while in their early twenties, and that their interest remains steady, peaking often around age thirty before life and other responsibilities causes them to step back.  It is possible that the same survey, conducted ten years from now, would find the same pattern as today’s twenty year olds have grown into rabid fans by age thirty, while today’s rabid fans are slowly losing interest as other aspects of life take hold.