Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Live
Bollywood reaches far and wide
That Bollywood films enjoy a huge fan base in foreign markets such as Switzerland, Dubai, UK and the US is a known fact. But interestingly enough, the non- English speaking territories are also emerging to become a favourite among filmmakers now. Recent films such as Pari, Pad Man, Secret Superstar, Hindi Medium (2017), Dangal (2016) and Padmaavat have already broken records in countries such as Russia and China, Norway and Portugal.
Pad Man collected ₹120.56 crore worldwide. Dangal collected ₹1,850 crore, and Secret Superstar also did well by registering a business of ₹760 crore in China.
Dangal’s director Nitesh Tiwari says, “It’s an extremely welcome development, and a good prospect for the industry. When you decide the budget, you always keep in mind the revenue sources. So, with more markets opening up, budgeting has become easier.
Producer Bhushan Kumar, whose Hindi Medium has so far collected ₹218.91 crore in China, says it is about how real a movie’s story is. “It is the real cinema which is working all over. Foreigners get excited to see what happens in a country like India, so watching Indian movies is informative for them. The film connected with people in China because the Chinese also emphasise a lot on their native language, and that is what we have shown in the film,” says Bhushan.
According to Bhushan, Korea, Taiwan and Japan are among other emerging nonEnglish speaking markets for Bollywood.
Producer Prernaa Arora, whose film Pad Man became the first Hindi film to release in Russia, Iraq and Ivory Coast, the same day as it did in India, says, “When a film deals with an issue and is high on content, it can go global, but we shouldn’t take advantage of this phenomenon. We must offer
ilms that are solid and make us proud. It shouldn’t be just about the business.”
Adding to this, producer Kumar Mangat reveals that in Abu Dhabi, investors are ready to put ₹5,000 crore in the movie business. He says, “Theatres were closing down, or were inactive for the last 35 years there.
Now, they have announced that they will hire as many as 20,000 people and open 500 new theatres.”
Trade analyst Atul Mohan reasons that since Indians are now settling in different parts of the world, which has led to the acceptance of Hindi films abroad. He says, “Norway and Germany are fast emerging markets for Bollywood.”