Regional films continue to do well in overseas markets; Telugu movies now popular in Australia too

While films like Secret Superstar, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Hindi Medium are making headlines for their collections from the overseas markets, two Telugu films, BharatAneNenu and Rangasthalam, too are creating ripples  abroad.

The two films have entered the top 5 list of opening weekend grossers in Australia. While BharatAneNenu has added Rs 1.72 crore (A$ 339,133), Rangasthalam has earned Rs 1.47 crore (A$ 289,768) in the country.

According to film trade analyst Taran Adarsh, Australia was always dominated by Hindi and Punjabi films but two Telugu films doing well in that market is surprising.

The success story of the two films is not restricted to Australia only but they are also keeping the audiences in the US entertained. Rangasthalam has crossed Rs 22.53 crore mark (USD 3.4 million) and is likely to earn Rs 23.19 crore (USD 3.5 million), depending on how strong it holds over the next few days in USA. The film has released in 28 locations Down Under.

As for BharatAneNenu, it took a roaring start in USA and made its debut at number 8 at USA box office. The film has made Rs 9.26 from previews alone and has crossed USD 2 million, approximately Rs 13.90 crore, in two days of its release from 290 locations in USA.

It is just the beginning of 2018 and the year has already witnessed the strong reach of non-Hindi films, also known as regional cinema, in the international markets. In 2017, the Tamil action thriller Mersal crossed the USD 10 million mark (approximately Rs 66.33 crore) at the overseas box office, with the overall foreign earning at USD 11.1 million (Rs 73.63 crore) in 12 days.

The Vijay-starrer, which had joined the list of all time highest south Indian grosser worldwide made USD 372,000 in Australia, USD 649,000 in the UK, USD 655,000 in Malaysia and USD 26,000 in New Zealand.

Mersal isn’t the only regional film to overtake its Bollywood counterparts overseas. Even, Telugu action drama Jai Lava Kusa had collected close to USD 1.39 million over a five-day opening weekend in the US, compared to Sanjay Dutt-starrer Bhoomi, which managed to collect USD 200,000.

Over the same period, Punjabi film Nikka Zalidar 2 topped the box office charts in Canada, the UK and Ireland with weekend earnings of USD 250,447 and USD 88,400, ahead of all Hindi releases.

According to an EY report, Tamil cinema has about 50 percent of the kind of market Bollywood can currently boast of in the United Arab Emirates, while in Malaysia, it is ahead of Hindi cinema. Regional language films are also very popular in countries like Netherlands, Singapore and increasingly, South America.

In 2016, Tamil movies overseas box office collection had touched Rs 350 crore, while the top-10 Telugu movies garnered 13 percent higher overseas revenue in 2016 over 2015, according to a KPMG report.

For Tamil films, the overseas market is evenly spread across the globe. Malaysia is the largest market and controls 35 per cent of the trade. The other key markets are USA with a 20 percent share, Singapore with a contribution of 15 per cent, 10 per cent account for Middle East countries, Europe, UK and Sri Lanka stand at 7 per cent and Australia at 5 percent.

As for Telugu movies, US contributes 85 percent of the overseas revenues and 5-10 percent of overall box office collections.

Although the reach of a Hindi film is wider than that of its regional peers, the latter still gets higher footfalls.

So, if a big-ticket Hindi film gets 250-300 screens in the US, about 100 in the UK and 40-50 in Australia, it is capable of making only USD 5,000-6,000 (Rs 3.31 lakh- Rs 3.98 lakh).