Looking eastwards

This year’s Academy Awards offered little cheer from an Indian standpoint, unlike the state of affairs five years ago when Lagaan was in contention for the best foreign film. No offering from India has walked the red carpet since then. But this year, a film vying unsuccessfully for the best visual effects award had a substantial Indian contribution that is a pointer to what lies ahead for India’s Hindi film industry. This film is the Chronicles of Narnia that incorporated the creativity of 50 Indians in Mumbai.

With India’s software prowess, Hollywood has already begun outsourcing creativity to countries like India. When $40,000 jobs can be done for $2,700, the differentials are attractive enough for Hollywood-based visual effects studios to set up local operations in India to get their work done more economically. Economics is also the driver of Hollywood’s efforts to introduce India’s films to a broader audience in the US with cheaper Indian stars in films such as Marigold with Salman Khan in the lead.

Hollywood studios have also begun to release globally Indian films like Mangal Pandey: The Rising to leverage their combined audience strengths. Meanwhile there are reports of growing numbers of foreign actors falling for the lures of working not just as extras but in leading roles in the Hindi-film industry. At the recent inaugural Oxford-India Business Forum meeting, Chris Patten, who was the last governor of Hong Kong, thus introduced himself: “I am probably best known as the father of Alice Patten who acted in Rang de Basanti.”

These new winds of change offer valuable opportunities for Bollywood to produce films that appeal to a wider international audience than the Indian diaspora. So far, however, a relatively insular Bollywood has resisted any such attempts. “We are probably the only movie-making nation in the world who can say no to Hollywood and still make a global impact,” argues a leading film director Karan Johar who fiercely defends continuing with the existing three hour long song and dance extravaganzas.

However, even Bollywood doesn’t dispute the need to aggressively explore markets abroad, even in regions where the Indian diaspora is not in full strength. The reasons are simple. With losses down to Rs 1.35 billion on an investment of Rs 10 billion last year, a greater degree of outward-orientation is, no doubt, necessary to improve its bottom line. Bollywood has so far focused on spinning dreams for nostalgic NRI audiences in the US and UK, but this strategy has come in the way of crafting a true international hit.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, in contrast was a stupendous success at the Academy Awards five years ago (in which Lagaan lost out) in more categories than just the best foreign film. The manner in which Ang Lee’s – whose latest film Brokeback Mountain secured him the best director award this year – directorial effort secured a greater mindshare of Hollywood’s attention also is a valuable pointer. That film was truly an international product right down to Yo-Yo Ma’s soulful cello music while being simultaneously faithful to a traditional Chinese theme.

That is a direction India’s film industry needs to venture into beyond making films for the diaspora. Producing films with local themes but with the best technical and directorial resources available globally is the path to acquiring a greater resonance with international audiences. Lagaan missed an Oscar, but was a huge success in China. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai became a national anthem of sorts in Malaysia. Tamil Nadu’s Rajnikanth has a cult following in Japan. Like Hollywood, Indian cinema thus cannot afford to ignore the all-important fact that the future of the world’s entertainment industry lies in Asia.

In a decade’s time 70 per cent of all movie revenues will come from Asia because of its higher concentration of people between 15 to 35 years of age who are important for the entertainment business, argues India’s leading international film-maker, Shekhar Kapur, who adds that “Ten years from now, Spiderman may be swinging from the skyscrapers of Shanghai, instead of New York, and the face behind that mask may even be Chinese”.
These globalising winds thus offer richer pickings for Indian cinema – a foretaste of which was provided at this year’s Academy Awards function.