PremiumNEW DELHI: American streaming platform Netflix will bring out a sequel to the mystery film Knives Out that had released in cinemas in 2019. The film had made ₹5.88 crore at the box office in India.
Directed by Rian Johnson, the plot follows a master detective investigating the death of the patriarch of a wealthy, dysfunctional family. The film features an ensemble cast including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer.
According to a recent report by The Hollywood Reporter, actor Kate Hudson is the latest to join the sequel. Other franchise newcomers include Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn, Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista, and Edward Norton, as well as returning star Daniel Craig.
To be sure, foreign movie titles and their spin-offs are increasingly finding an audience in India. Exposed to global content across a plethora of video streaming platforms, Indian audiences are lapping up Hollywood films even as foreign studios enhance their marketing and localization initiatives for the market that they’ve learnt to consider extremely critical.
In 2019, Hollywood, with a combination of spectacular superhero movies and smaller budget, softer films, notched up box office collections of nearly ₹1,225 crore in India. Film trade and exhibition experts said this was several notches above ₹900-950 crore and ₹800-850 crore earned by Hollywood in the country in 2018 and 2017 respectively.
Foreign studios have done much to localize and market films for Indian audiences. Apart from releasing the film and its trailer in multiple Indian languages, sometimes as high as 10, it is now common practice to get popular Bollywood stars to dub for local versions, besides getting them to promote the film on their social media accounts.
The localization is also reflected in the writing, where film industry writers are roped in to make the Indian versions seem authentic and fun, and not just translated from English. Another visible change is an increase in the number of Indian brands now wanting to partner with Hollywood films beyond just Hindi movies.
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