Bollywood Movies In China: Is India Playing It Right?

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Bollywood Movies In China: Is India Playing It Right?
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The relationship between India and China can be compared to that of neighbours who cordially greet each other on formal occasions but are wary of each other’s achievements and failures. Despite the three conflicts in 1962, 1967 and 1987, and India offering asylum to Tibetans and the Dalai Lama, it cannot be denied that China and India have managed to coexist peacefully for millennia through trade and cultural exchanges.

The Silk Road paved the way for traders, artists, doctors and many more who moved from the Orient to the rest of Asia (including India) and back. Both India and China are literally obsessed with each other’s culinary traditions. The number of Chinese restaurants in India and Indian eateries in China helps prove this point further. But due to China’s foreign policies and the Communist history, Indian movies could not find a sweet spot among the Chinese audience for years, in spite of the fact that Indian viewers grew up with Chinese flicks like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Bruce Lee movies and more recently, a slew of Jackie Chan films.

Current rule in China
Culturally, China has always done its best to keep itself isolated from foreign influences. This is also reflected in its outlook towards foreign films in general. Every year, the Chinese government allows only 34 foreign films to be screened publicly in the country. Out of these 34, India is to sell five films to the China Film Group Corporation (CFGC) every year. However, the Indian government has not been doing that for the past few years. But whether it is due to the lack of marketable movies or due to bureaucratic incompetence – remains to be seen.

It’s all about money
The trade deficit between China and India is about $35 billion in China’s favour but since India has a more trade-friendly government in the Centre now, there is a sense of hope right there. One of the ways through which this gap can be narrowed is the marketing of Bollywood in China. In 2009, the Bollywood film 3 Idiots earned Rs 11 crore in the first couple of weeks of its release in China. And this year, Aamir Khan-starrer Dhoom 3, which had earned more than Rs 500 crore worldwide, is set to be screened across 200 theatres in China on July 26.
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In October 2014, the CFGC president will visit India and a wide range of Hindi movies will be shown to him. The Indian ministry is expecting the CFGC to purchase at least 2/3 films for screening those in China.

But is China keen about it?
Now, the real question is, is there a crowd for mainstream Bollywood films in the Chinese movie market? According to a news report in January 2014, a 23-year-old Chinese citizen, Jiachen Fang, told a visiting IANS journalist “youngsters in China love to watch Indian love stories.”

While Bollywood is not lacking in love stories, the worrying factor for the Indian film industry is the lack of quality content. The CFGC is a government body and this means it will have to toe the line of screening Bollywood films that are culturally significant. While Dhoom 3 was a hit in India, it did not do well with critics. A huge number of Aamir Khan’s fans even panned the film.

Other films that might be up for sale in the Chinese market are Kangana Ranaut-starrer Queen and the biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. Both the films were critically acclaimed, compared to Dhoom 3, and they do stand a better chance of being more meaningful cultural exports.

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Thanks to the Internet and the rise of movie piracy, the Chinese audience already has access to good foreign movies. For a film to make money abroad, the key lies in offering something to the crowd that they cannot access otherwise. India has a plethora of options when it comes to selling movies but the Indian ministry may have to look at promoting regional films abroad that do not have pan-India releases.

The Chinese watch Bollywood films and base their assumptions about Indians on these movies. What they don’t see is that most of these films do not really portray the real India. Perhaps there will be a day when a Gujarati film like Kevi Rite Jaish or a Marathi film like Fandry will see a Chinese release. But until that happens, Indians cannot blame the Chinese for assuming that we have a song and dance for every occasion.