Why China loves Bollywood

Jackie Chan, China’s biggest movie star, has been extremely shrewd in choosing films with broad commercial appeal to his core audience, the moviegoers in the People’s Republic of China. The 63-year-old action star is a perennial favorite at the box office, with credits in such hits as live action films as Skiptrace ($133 million in 2016) and Dragon Blade ($117 million in 2015),and animated films like Kung Fu Panda 3 ($154 million in 2016) and Monkey King: Hero is Back ($153 million in 2015). His stardom stretches back for decades for good reason: he knows how to pick his films.

Given his long track record as a tastemaker, when Chan announced in 2015 that he would shoot an action-adventure comedy film in India called Kung Fu Yoga, the movie world took notice. Originally intended to be the first co-production under the new India-China co-pro treaty, Kung Fu Yoga’s story, written and to be directed by Stanley Tong (CZ12, Rumble in the Bronx) would feature Chan as an archaeology professor who embarks on a quest to find a long lost Indian treasure, a diamond artifact known as the “Eye of Shiva.” The film co-stars Indian actors Sonu Sood, Disha Patani and Amyra Dastur and was shot largely in India.

Sure enough, when Kung Fu Yoga released in China in January, it not only became a massive box office hit with a $254 million lifetime gross (the 6^th biggest in Chinese history), it also touched off an extraordinary run of hits that had India connections. The first half of 2017 would see three movies with strong India ties (Kung Fu Yoga, Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back, and Dangal) place among China’s four highest-grossing films, and two more (xXx: Return of Xander Cage and Buddies in India) in the top eleven.

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All told, five movies that featured Indian actors, Indian settings, or both, earned an aggregate $958 million in China in the first six months of the year, a 24 percent share of all of China’s movie ticket revenue. That’s more than just a coincidence, that’s a trend.

Why China’s filmgoers have gone gaga for Indian-themed content can’t be easily attributed to any single cause, but it can probably be boiled down to three main factors. First is the general audience backlash against half-baked domestic stories with uninspired plots, cardboard characters and humdrum settings.

Second is the gradual emergence in China of a beloved sub-genre, the Aamir Khan film. Khan’s Indian movies, starting with his 2009 social comedy 3 Idiots, have found an enthusiastic and rapidly growing audience, with his latest film Dangal, enjoying a record-breaking run of $192 million in collections to date.

Third is what appears to be a growing curiosity about and interest in China’s southern neighbor. The two ancient cultures share many values in common, including deep filial piety and appreciation for family, reverence for education, and respect for hard work as a conduit to success. Both countries are also at relatively similar points in their economic development, and thus the struggles Indian movie characters face with regard to such issues as female empowerment, the transition from a rural to an urban society, and the challenges of climbing the socio-economic ladder, all resonate nicely with Indian audiences who confront similar obstacles in their own lives