[DNA India]

Huan Xiangyang was 11 when he gathered with hundreds of his compatriots in an open ground in China to watch the Raj Kapoor classic Awaara. This was in 1979. China was still reeling from the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese were starved of social and cultural stimulus and eager to control unrest, the government decided to open up the economy. Awaara, released in India in 1951, was one of the first foreign films allowed in. It was a massive hit with approximately 30 million tickets sold, estimates Beijing-based film critic Raymond Zhou. …

CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA
One would have thought that after that 1979 Bollywood breach of the Chinese market, Indian movies would have found slow but ready acceptance in that country. However, the next Bollywood film to make as massive an impact was the Aamir Khan starrer 3 Idiots, nearly 32 years later.

The reasons for this are many. Till 2001, China only allowed 10 foreign films in. That quota was increased to 20 in 2001 with an additional 14 for the big screen format. This means that Bollywood films jostle for space with big-budget Hollywood blockbusters that smash Chinese box office (BO) records with mind-numbing regularity.  …

When Zhou watched Lagaan on DVD, he was impressed by the way the movie was intelligently edited and cut short by 40 minutes.

But there is definitely a market in China to be tapped. Post 3 Idiots’ success, distributors like UTV are looking at China and Hong Kong to release Hindi movies in theatres, admits Amrita Pandey, senior VP, UTV Motion Pictures, who refused to divulge any movie names though.

However Vachani and Rakesh Gupta, her business partner, feel that Bollywood is not taking China seriously enough. “The film industry has largely ignored the Chinese market. They have to focus on it. China has multiplexes even in remote cities now,” says Vachani. Gupta says he’s had a tough time convincing Bollywood stars and producers to even come to China for events.

“They are ready to go to Dubai, US, UK to perform but not to China, because they still don’t see it as a market.”

The fact that China’s box office collections has grown in leaps and bounds since 2001 might spark some interest. In 2001, its takings were a paltry $143 million (Rs7.4 billion). Ten years later, the figure is a whopping $2 billion (Rs106 billion). What is Bollywood waiting for?

See the full story here: http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report_has-bollywood-breached-the-great-wall_1678982