It is believed that if you keep repeating something long enough, people will believe you—even if it’s true! So, as I reflect on Indian cinema in the next 100 years, pardon me if I quickly get a few facts—my favourite refrain—out of the way first.
India makes the most films in the world—1,000 to 1,300 feature films annually.
Hollywood makes about half of that, France a quarter. The Germans or Italians each make about 10 percent of India’s output.
Indian cinema is among the strongest in the world. In no other country is Hollywood small change—it is less than 10 percent of the Indian market. Hollywood has destroyed national cinemas worldwide: The French have barely 40 to 45 percent of their own market, the Italians and Germans barely 10 to 15 percent of theirs. Many nations—France, China, South Korea and Iran—have protectionist policies to defend national cinemas against Hollywood. But India has no protection: We just ‘lerve’ our own cinema.
India is the only country to make films in up to 39 languages and dialects, making for an incredibly rich and diverse cinema. This makes for splintered markets, but some of India’s regional cinemas are as prolific as other countries’ entire national cinemas. Marathi cinema produces about as many films as Italian cinema; Bhojpuri cinema is as productive as Mexican or Argentinian cinema.
India and the US have film industries with some of the biggest domestic markets. Even if they don’t sell much overseas, they can support a healthy film industry. Despite that, all Hollywood majors—Sony, Warner Bros, Fox, Disney, Universal and Paramount—have had far greater overseas revenues than domestic, sometimes more than double.
By comparison, India is still taking baby steps, primarily wooing the NRI market. And even when chasing that chimera, the ‘cross-over film’, Indian filmmakers are haring after two-and-a-half goras in the West. Funny. The whole world is furiously chasing the over 2 billion-strong markets in India and China, but Indian filmmakers don’t seem to have noticed either, even after a century of filmmaking.
It is only after Hollywood started making co-productions in regional Indian languages to tap those markets that Bollywood is playing catch up. Broad emotions, recognisable characters, SFX, dubbing and high quality English subtitles are ways to tap all-India and international markets. SS Rajamouli’s superbly inventive Eega (Makkhi in Hindi, Naan Ee in Tamil) and Shankar’s Enthiran (Robot) took that route to success.
As for China, Hollywood is far ahead of India in wooing it. Given China’s highly restricted film imports, Hollywood is trying co-productions to weasel in as Chinese films. In 2012, foreign films—mainly Hollywood—earned 8.8 billion yuan in box office revenue, while Chinese films earned 8.3 billion yuan. Again, it took a Hollywood studio operating in India—Warner—to try to tap the Chinese market with Chandni Chowk to China. Never mind if it was about a Delhi cook being mistaken for the reincarnation of a Chinese warrior. The last Indian film set in China that I remember is V Shantaram’s Dr Kotnis ki Amar Kahani in 1946. It was about a real-life Indian doctor who supports the Chinese resistance against the Japanese invasion.
But there have been brave attempts to tap the Indian and Chinese markets from our neighbours. Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon aimed at universal and especially pan-Asian markets. It starred Chow Yun-Fat (Hong Kong) and Michelle Yeoh (Malaysia-born), was directed by a US-based Taiwanese, and produced by the Japanese-bankrolled Hollywood studio Sony and Columbia. It won four Oscars, and did terrific box office collections worldwide. Lee also directed Life of Pi, set in India, with an Indian cast, but as a philosophical parable with universal appeal; it won another four Oscars.
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(This story appears in the 03 May, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
I agree. Our common sensibilities can serve as a good platform to attract the East Asian audience towards Indian cinema !
on May 2, 2013