India, July 4 -- Would you watch a movie, promote it and post online about it, if you had helped write the script? Of course you would.

How about if you had been chatting with the director-producer for years, following his work since he first started tinkering with the camera as a teenager?

YouTube fandom may be taking shape as the mainstream movie studio's newest challenge.

Films made on budgets of $15,000 are being released in theatres and drawing crowds. Stories crowd-sourced on YouTube are turning into major hits.

The dominant genre, so far, is horror.

There has been a cultural shift here, from spectatorship to participation, says Dahlia Schweitzer, pop culture critic and professor of film, media and performing arts at Fashion In...