RRR a stepping stone — The great Indian crossover film is still a ‘crouching tiger’

• Indian filmmakers believe that a ‘big’ Indian superhit movie like Oscar-winning Parasite is waiting to happen.
• RRR and Elephant Whisperers’ Oscar win has helped Indian filmmakers cross the bridge, they believe.
• India has the talent and technicians to tell a story-on-screen that the whole world will wake up to, says producer Guneet Mongia.
• A Parasite-like record-breaking success is waiting to happen, says Vishal Bharadwaj.

Film critic Anupama Chopra had one thought when she watched the Chinese movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in 2000, “When will India make a crossover movie like that?” Since the 90s, many Hindi movies have been released in the US and UK, entertaining Indians abroad and bringing in forex. A few even found success at film festivals, but no Indian movie could capture the hearts of people across countries – not the way Ang Lee’s movie did.

UK-based Gurinder Chadha too made superhit movies like ‘Bend it like Beckham’ and ‘Bride and Prejudice’ about Indians, but they were told from an immigrant Indian perspective. Even when Mumbai stories like Slumdog Millionaire were told, they were told by US-based directors like Danny Boyle. Desi movies were far from achieving any kind of acclaim or success.

Chopra was further disheartened when director Anurag Kashyap told her once that Indian movies were just a comic relief. She never believed that, she shared at Zee5 Global’s panel discussion on ‘Coming of Age of South Asian Entertainment: The Time is Now’ in Mumbai.

2023: The year that changed it all

Then Rajamouli’s RRR happened, and its song-and-dance number Natu Natu won an Oscar in 2023. That’s victory for the Indian way of story-telling on-screen that was once made fun of.

“RRR changed the way Americans saw Indian films. People in the US were having watch parties for RRR. We were no longer that awkward brown guy with a strange accent. There was a sense of crossover taking place and that got us ambitious,” said Archana Anand, chief business officer of ZEE5 Global.

Guneet Monga who also won the Best Documentary Short Film at the Oscars in 2023, believes that the path has been charted, and better things are waiting to happen. “We'll soon have our very own Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. We have the talent and technicians,” she added.

The director of Maqbool, Vishal Bharadwaj also chimed in, saying, “At the rate we are going, a Parasite is waiting to happen here. An Indian film that will break all records and make it big all over the world.”

Parasite is a South Korean black comedy which created history by becoming the first non-English language movie to win the Best Picture academy award. It swept the awards that year, bagging three more Oscar awards for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film.

Movies that went as ‘series’

Before the Oscar wins, Indian movies have been breaking through slowly albeit steadily, reminisced the film-makers. The West started looking at Indian movies differently after the iconic movie-maker Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen which released in 1994. He later went on to make a full-fledged international movie Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett.

“We’ve had AR Rahman’s success with his music in Slumdog Millionaire. I’ve had my own experience with Maqbool going to Toronto. With humility, I want to say that many people are doing doctorates on my Shakespeare trilogy,” said Bhardwaj. Music composer AR Rahman shared an Oscar for his song ‘Jai Ho’ with song writer Gulzar for the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

Distribution is key to taking Indian movies to lands afar, believes Monga, adding that streaming services play a role. “Gangs of Wasseypur was the first Indian five-and-half-hour film that was released as an eight-part miniseries in the US,” she told the audience.