Wary Indian producers, already hit by the coronavirus pandemic, are planning to pause releasing films in China, a still small but emerging market for Indian movies.
Bollywood’s brief romance with Chinese audiences seems to have hit a rough patch with nationalistic sentiments on both sides on the rise after violent border clashes left 20 Indian soldiers dead.
Wary Indian producers, already hit by the coronavirus pandemic, are planning to pause releasing films in China, a still small but emerging market for Indian movies.
The Chinese moviegoers’ love affair with Hindi films started almost a decade ago with actor Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots generating ₹16 crore in box office collections in 2011. Since then, Khan has delivered several blockbusters in China, including PK, which collected ₹123 crore; Dangal’s ₹1,200 crore; and Secret Superstar’s ₹700 crore.
Such releases will now have to wait till tensions between the two Asian powers ease.
“All markets, including China, have anyway come to a standstill due to covid. So, I don’t think any production house would think about releases till the situation improves but even then, we would have to look at the existing political situation and I think producers will be compelled to stay away from releasing films in China," a filmmaker who has taken his movies to China said on condition of anonymity.
China anyway didn’t allow more than three or four Indian films from India a year, “so it was, at best, a good add-on", said film distributor and exhibitor Akshaye Rathi. “We can always let it go."
Apart from Khan’s films, big Bollywood hits in China include Irrfan Khan’s Hindi Medium ( ₹300 crore) and Ayushmann Khurrana’s Andhadhun ( ₹324 crore).
Industry experts said the massive screen count is an important factor for Indian films to have managed such impressive theatrical returns in China. The country almost quadrupled its screen count in the past few years, from around 10,000 in 2007.
Then there is the difference in ticket rates. The average ticket price in China is $12 compared with India’s $1.5. But most importantly, Indian stories with their strong emotional chord have resonated with Chinese audiences, who are used to either Hollywood spectacles or Chinese mythologies and fantasies.
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