Why Salman Khan’s Next Big Film Stars A Chinese Leading Lady
When Salman Khan has a movie coming out, India waits with baited breath. So it’s no surprise that when the first look of Tubelight, his highly anticipated summer release, came out yesterday, it almost immediately started trending on social media. Globally. After all we, Indians, are everywhere. Arguably Bollywood’s hugest star, Salman Khan does only a few films every year, and those whose releases coincide with Eid-ulFitar, the Muslim festival following the month of Ramadan, have become an annual tradition that consistently break box office records.
His last four films have earned US$30-50 million (FJ$62.7-$104.5m) each. That’s the power of his celebrity in India alone—the power of being able to call the world’s second most populous nation his fan base.
Now imagine if Salman Khan had an equally avid following in the world’s most populous country as well. That’s exactly what he and his director would have envisioned when they signed two projects co-produced by Indian film production and distribution house Eros International’s franchise feature film studio Trinity Pictures, and Chinese film companies Peacock Mountain Culture & Media, and Huaxia Film Distribution. Tubelight will be the first fruit of this strategic Indo-China collaboration.
As Jyoti Deshpande, Group chief executive, Eros International, said in a press statement: “We believe China to be a significant market opportunity for Indian films. With Trinity, we want to tell stories that transcend the language barrier and have mainstream appeal. We believe our Indo-China co-productions will be game-changing as we pave the way to open up one of the largest film markets in the world.”
Set in Ladakh, the film tells the story of a cross border romance during the Sino-Indian war; Salman plays a differently abled character, and another colossal star, Shahrukh Khan, makes a cameo. If all of that wasn’t intriguing enough, the leading lady is Chinese actress Zhu Zhu. This isn’t the first time Salman Khan and director Kabir Khan have managed this sort of cross-border cinematic coup.
For example, in their 2015 release, Bajrangi
Bhai Jaan, Salman, who has long enjoyed a special popularity with India’s Muslim population, played Bajrangi, a devotee of Hanuman, a favourite Hindu God. Bajrangi makes it his mission to take a little Pakistani girl (who got lost in India while trying to feed a lamb by the border) home safely. The film was able to cleverly strike a strong emotional connection with both Muslim and Hindu audiences in India, as well as with Pakistani audiences. Needless to say it was one of the highest grossing Bollywood films in history.
Plotlines that span multiple geographies and an ethnically diverse cast have been reliable strategies in Hollywood to make big budget entertainers appeal to new and wider global audiences. Consider Vin Diesel’s comeback action flick XXX- Return of Xander Cage, which was released earlier this year.
It featured Indian star Deepika Padukone, Chinese actor Donnie Yen, Chinese-Canadian Kris Wu, Thai actor Tony Jaa, and Australian Ruby Rose among its deliberately diverse ensemble cast. Each of these actors has a significant global celebrity, but equally important, each has a tremendous local following in their home countries. The news of Zhu Zhu as Tubelight’s heroine has created major buzz--and she could well be the first of several Chinese entertainers to become a Bollywood star--or, among the first Chinese stars to help popularize Bollywood films back home. Rumour has it that Deng Chao may star opposite Deepika Padukone or Priyanka Chopra in director Siddharth Anand’s next venture, Love In Beijing, another similar co-production. And there’s meant to be a second Chinese backed film in the pipelines for Salman Khan and Kabir Khan too, tentatively titled The
Zookeeper, about an Indian zookeeper’s journey to China to find a panda to bring back, hoping to save his zoo.
Arguably, a marriage between India’s and China’s film industries has the potential to be the next big disruption in the entertainment space globally. It could perhaps even serve to strengthen social and political relations between these two behemoths. Forbes