Dubbed versions of and are hits in China Bollywood gets global promoter in CII

Indian films will soon go truly global with the CII assisting the industry to penetrate new markets and also helping with issues like sub- titling for which there is a lot of scope.

India is ranked fifth in global box office collections with $ 1.5 billion ( China is on top with $ 3.2 billion, Japan $ 2.4 billion, UK $ 1.7 billion and France $ 1.6 billion).

“The objective is to get the Indian film industry move up the ladder,” said CII’s Amita Sarkar, deputy director general, who has just returned from the Cannes Film Festival where the CII had a pavillion in the Cannes Film Market. Speaking to this newspaper she said in China for instance “Three Idiots” is a rage as it has been dubbed in Chinese; so also “Dhoom 3” which is showing on 23,000 screens. There is tremendous scope in China, Latin America and South East Asia, she said.

At the end of this month CII will be taking a delegation that will include media and entertainment representatives to the China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services ( CIFTIS) where the film delegation hopes to lobby for the increase in the number of Indian films that can be shown in China. Today there is an embargo of just two to three films in theatres.

Ms Sarkar said some of the most prominent issues to be taken up with the Chinese for productive cross- fertilisation are:

Landing Rights issues have been controlled very strictly in China. No international channel is allowed to have a landing right currently.

The domestic/ provin- cial channels are issued some quota of content hours, they can buy only those hours of programmes from overseas channels. The quota system is too strict to do the syndication business within the country.

Indian movie promotion wherein hardly any Indian movies are released in theatres in China. If at least 5- 6 movies a year can be released, there could be greater promotion of the movie and entertainment business.