In an unprecedented gesture, Chinese President Xi Jinping has told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that his country is ready to provide all the necessary support to release Bollywood movies in a much bigger and coordinated way.
It has now been confirmed that the Indian prime minister has agreed to the Chinese proposal.
It is also learnt that the Chinese premiere has asked for more Bollywood movies to be released in China because his “countrymen just loves Bollywood movies”.
The Chinese president actually wants Bollywood movies to simultaneously release in China as it happens in Dubai or the UK.
China and India will soon be working together to establish a content sharing and marketing model where China will see a simultaneous release of Bollywood films along with India.
Right now, Bollywood movies are simultaneously released in roughly 25 countries across the world. Apart from the Gulf, USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are some of the countries where Bollywood makes considerable revenue. Bollywood films enjoy a same-day release in these countries.
Bollywood heavily loses revenue in Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Burma where the movies are pirated as soon as the master prints reach those countries.
Recently Bollywood films have found a great box-office response in China has been fabulous where the Indian films have topped the charts as the most favourable foreign film in China.
However, like every apparently ‘generous’ strategy from China, there’s a secret strategy here which the Chinese president is not talking about.
By opening the door ajar to Bollywood, China will try to free its market from the chokehold of Hollywood movies. USA and China have never been great friends and Chinese state media has repeatedly attacked the “Hollywood Culture” in countless editorials.
So, as China wants to ward off Hollywood films from its markets, it has found an able ally in Bollywood. Using of Bollywood films to ward off Hollywood films is a unique strategy never ever seen anywhere across the world.
“Indian movie Secret Superstar topped the imported movies at the Chinese box office with 746 million yuan ($118 million ). However, it didn’t achieve the success of a predecessor, Dangal, which took 1.29 billion yuan ($200 million ) in 2017,” a state media report said, talking about how Bollywood films have lately enjoyed a golden run in China.
In this May 22, 2017 photo, a group of Chinese women take a selfie with a poster of Indian Bollywood blockbuster film “Dangal” on display at a cinema in Beijing. The Aamir Khan film has become China’s biggest grossing non-Hollywood foreign movie. The Indian film was released in China on May 5. By Tuesday, the Indian film had pulled in 806 million yuan ($117 million) in mainland China, according to data from EntGroup, a leading entertainment consultant. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
“The stories in the Indian films are like the stories in China, stories the Chinese relate to. The Chinese audience could identify with them,” said Tan Zheng , editor of Diangying Yishu (Film Art) magazine.
