For the first time ever an Indian movie will be made in China!

There are plans by Warner Brothers to make an Indian – Hindi movie in China. This will also be their maiden entry into Bollywood. The shooting starts somewhere in January next year and it will be titled: Made in China.

An interesting thing is that this movie is going to have both Indian and Chinese actors. Blaise Fernandes, Country Manager for Warner Bros. Pictures (India) commented, “We are excited to be a part of this production because of the outstanding talent that is associated with it”.

Commenting on the same Ramesh Sippy, the famous Indian movie producer said “India & China have captured the public imagination like no other countries at this point in time. We’re making a film that marries together the best of their filmmaking traditions- which merges Indian style dance and masala with Chinese Kungfu and Beijing Opera.”

With this movie being produced and directed in China, I hope that – one -the cinemas out here in Beijing show it for Hindi movies don’t play in here atleast- don’t know about the rest of the country- but believe that it’s the same case and second hope that they have Chinese subtitles and get dubbed in Chinese. Its intersting to know that you do get a few Indian movies in Chinese DVD shops but then they are the same in each.

I believe the benefits from making the movie here are going to be in long term. Firstly, Chinese audience may actually end up finding them interesting. India will definitely take back a lot from China in terms of its culture and traditions but China will be no less a beneficiary. With Indian movies being watched and liked around the world, China will be known to billions for reasons other than pure business. It seems like the words of Mahesh Bhatt, Indian Film Producer, fit the timing: “The Chinese believe in two things: The money in the bank, and the family. That’s very much the Indian philosophy too.”

And if the Chinese do end up liking it, which I know many do – for colleagues atleast are enthusiastic to see an Indian soap called : Koshish Ek Asha on CCTV which is dubbed in Chinese and the songs and dances associated with Indian movies; there will be definitely more demand from the Chinese for them. China imports about 20 foreign movies a year. In 2005, 16 out of 20 of those movies came from the US; no Indian movie made to the list. The only movie that was shown in China since 1960’s was in 2002. Hence hope that “Made in China” works for both India & China.

Bollywood refers to the Mumbai-based Hindi-language movie industry.  It is the world’s biggest movie industry that churns out nearly 1000 movies each year and stands today at an estimated USD 1.7 Billion with projections to reach around USD 3.8 billion by 2010.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 5:11 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.