Highlights
- Online submissions for HYBE’s nationwide Indian talent search will be closing on July 31, ending a four-month audition process which launched in March.
- Not just through the auditions, but HYBE is also working alongside global casting executives and domestic film talent scouts to build the Indian act for global distribution.
- The expansion targets to capture a rapidly scaling Indian streaming audience estimated at up to 220 million users, where K-pop consumption is rising.
HYBE India will close its online applications for its first Indian talent search program on July 31, 2026, thus effectively concluding a four-month audition process to form another global girl group. Launched on March 31, the drive was aimed at Indian females born between 2005 and 2011 across the country and the global locations, accepting candidates across vocal, rap, dance, and visual performance categories.
Exporting the K-Pop Blueprint
The initiative marks the South Korean entertainment giant HYBE’s direct entry into South Asia, in an attempt to replicate its artist development model in overseas markets. To execute the search, HYBE worked together with global casting executive Michelle Chong and Mumbai-based casting director Panchami Ghavri.
Notably, Chong previously worked on the HYBE x Geffen Dream Academy venture that created the group KATSEYE, while Ghavri’s prior casting credits include Indian film titles such as Gehraiyaan and Kapoor & Sons.
The casting effort combined digital submissions with physical audition tours, with casting booths available across the cities where its pop-up park took place. The team centered around identifying talent capable of operating within HYBE's global training framework while retaining local cultural resonance.
"What's been most encouraging is not just the scale of participation, but how diverse it has been and how prepared everyone came," said Ghavri. "We've made a conscious effort to reach talent from every corner of the country, whether through local governments, performing arts academies, or music institutions."
Adding further, she said, “What excites me most is that the response has gone far beyond social media. The word has spread far and wide, and people genuinely see this as a landmark opportunity because HYBE has chosen India to discover its next girl group."
Market Scale and Streaming Growth
HYBE’s commercial push comes as India's digital entertainment sector experiences sustained volume growth. According to the FICCI-EY Media & Entertainment Report, India accounted for an estimated 178 million online music listeners in 2025, with total industry figures placing the country’s overall streaming audience between 175M and 220M users, emphasizing the country’s young, digitally connected music consumers.
At the same time, India has turned into one of the fastest-growing consumer markets for Korean cultural content, including K-pop, as noted by the South Korean government-backed 2025 Overseas Hallyu Survey. Notably, Spotify’s 2020 data placed India among the top 22% of global markets for K-pop listening, based on streaming activity logged between November 29, 2019, and February 27, 2020.
Amidst such trends, HYBE aims to secure this expanding digital music and Korean cultural economy, by anchoring a natively-formed group. The company aims to make them an export-ready pop act, which has the ability to lead in the international markets.
