Abheet Gupta 
In recent years, Delhi has seen a quiet but passionate rise in a new generation of cinephiles. This isn’t your typical movie-going crowd — it’s a bunch of young, media-savvy, globally exposed film lovers who don’t just watch films, they live them. While OTT platforms have made cinema more accessible than ever before, they’ve also pulled audiences away from the one place cinema was always meant to be experienced — the theatre.
Today, most theatrical success in India is reserved for the few massive blockbusters that either rely on heavy doses of masala or serve agendas with little room for true cinematic artistry. As the theatre-going culture fades, especially for films that fall outside the mainstream net, certain groups have emerged as torchbearers. In Delhi, Delhi Movie Club (DMC) is at the forefront of this movement.
What is Delhi Movie Club?
Delhi Movie Club (DMC) is a vibrant and ever-growing community of passionate cinephiles dedicated to preserving and promoting the theatrical experience. Whether it’s the latest blockbuster or a niche indie gem, DMC makes it a point to catch everything on the big screen — the way it’s meant to be.
From Bollywood, Hollywood, and international cinema, to regional and parallel films, DMC celebrates it all. But this isn’t just about watching movies. It’s about experiencing them together — as a community. Over the years, DMC has also branched out into hosting screenings, attending film festivals, visiting fan events like Comic-Con, and organizing online watch parties. But the fun doesn’t stop at cinema. DMC brings its members together for Halloween parties, potlucks, food walks, and live sports screenings — turning what began as a film club into something that feels a lot more like family.
The Journey: From WhatsApp Group to Cinephile Community
DMC was founded by Yashvardhan Singh in 2021, starting as little more than a WhatsApp group with a couple of friends and acquaintances. The real shift happened in 2022, when a Korean Film Festival became the unlikely setting for a spark. A few strangers with shared love for cinema found each other — and something just clicked.
By March 2023, DMC had become a consistent, tightly knit group. Every week, members gathered to catch the latest releases — not because it was a trend, but because it was a shared ritual. The turning point? Barbenheimer. The joint release of Barbie and Oppenheimer brought over 50 cinephiles together for one electric mega-meetup — and suddenly, DMC wasn’t just a club. It was a movement.
Since then, to summer to 2024, the community kept growing, driven by consistent weekly meetups for everything from Oscar contenders (The Zone of Interest, The Holdovers, Anatomy of a Fall) to early 2024 blockbusters like Dune: Part Two, Furiosa, and The Fall Guy. The love for cinema was real — but the camaraderie was even more powerful. Yet the same heights of Barbenheimer were proving difficult to match until…
A New Era: Screenings and Soul
The game-changer came when DMC hosted its first private screening: Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. It wasn’t just about watching a classic — it was about reclaiming the theatre space for pure cinema. Since then, DMC has screened films that never released in India like Godzilla Minus One and Monkey Man as well as modern classics like Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, and Memento.
But alongside the screens, the bond between members only grew deeper. From Halloween party and costume contest (with the admins somehow pulling off never before like event), to potluck dinners, to World Cup cricket and football screenings — DMC has become a space where cinema is the reason, but community is the reward.
Where Delhi Movie Club Stands Now
Today, Delhi Movie Club is a thriving collective of over 600 members, and growing stronger every week. But numbers were never the goal. The real goal? To build a tight-knit, inclusive community of cinema lovers who don’t just talk about films but live them.
We aren’t here to worship directors, or turn our tastes into a cult. We’re not about gatekeeping. We’re not here only for artsy films — or only for big-budget ones. We’re here to celebrate all kinds of cinema, and to catch as many as we can together on the big screen. That’s what makes DMC special!
Come Be a Part of the Club 
If this story resonates with you — if you’ve ever wished for a bunch of people to share that excitement of catching a film on Weekend 1, or to talk about that one long-take or that haunting background score — Delhi Movie Club is waiting for you.
We don’t ask for much. Just your passion. So simple follow us on Instagram @delhimovieclub, fill out the form in our bio, and get ready to bring your love for cinema into conversations, screenings, and friendships with like-minded movie lovers across Delhi NCR!
If you have any questions regarding movies or Delhi Movie Club, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!
