New Delhi, March 15 -- As tensions in the West Asia war escalate, the fallout could reach an unlikely corner of the global economy: Indian cinema's overseas box office. The US-Israel-Iran conflict since late February has led to widespread uncertainty in the region, a crucial overseas market for Indian, particularly Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films.

Over 9 million Indian expatriates reside in West Asia, primarily within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), making it the largest concentration of Indian diaspora globally. The South Indian diaspora in West Asia, particularly from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, forms a massive expatriate community, primarily in United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qata...