The Hindu Business Line : Hollywood formula clicks better

BOLLYWOOD may have delivered duds this year, but Hollywood has sure had its share of hits in India. So while you had the spooky Vikram Bhatt-directed Raaz generating revenues of Rs 20 crore, Marvel comic character Spiderman grossed around Rs 26.1 crore here.

Are Indians preferring `phoren fillums' to Hindi masalas?

The appetite for English films has been growing over the years. According to estimates, the size of the Indian film industry is about Rs 3,000-3,500 crore and the share of Hollywood films is about 10 per cent, about Rs 300 crore. This has been growing at around seven per cent each year. The Hindi film industry is already facing losses of about Rs 300 crore this year.

Mr Sanjay Bhutiani, General Manager, Leo Entertainment, says Hollywood has delivered more hits in India than Bollywood. "The movies that do well here are either action movies or children's films with adult appeal. Also, these movies have been marketed well with good brand fits, promotions and merchandising,'' he says.

According to an equity analyst, the huge disparity in pricing of Hollywood and Bollywood movies has vanished, thanks to the multiplexes. Earlier, the rates for tickets were different for English and Hindi films. This has been evened out, he says.

However, according to Mr Uday Singh, Managing Director, Columbia Tristar Films of India Ltd, the success of Hollywood films in India is in sync with the global trend . His company has already done Rs 100 crore in revenues in India this year, while globally the company has grossed $2.8 billion. Also, India is among the top 15 markets for the company now, while it was at the bottom of the heap some years back.

"The reason why the movies have done well is because of some good marketing initiatives and bringing in the movies early to India. Because the lead time between a movie's release abroad and India has been brought down, we have managed to take the money away from pirates,'' Mr Singh says.

It's dubbed `moolah'

ENGLISH movies dubbed in Hindi and other regional languages have huge takers.

Columbia Tristar claims that about 50 per cent of its India revenues are from the dubbed releases.

And if that is not enough, Star Gold's weekend fare of Hollywood films dubbed in Hindi has done well.

"If one looked at the share among the three channels -- Star Gold, Zee Cinema and SET Max - this experiment has consistently delivered and the channel has emerged as No 1 in the Hindi movie market,'' said a Star official.

Doordarshan is also looking at this segment and is planning to invite bids to acquire rights of English films which could be dubbed in Hindi.

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