Hollywood finds formula to beat Bollywood in India

Dubbing Hollywood films like Spider-Man has led to box-office success.

from the May 17, 2007 edition

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Bollywood also lacks the financial wherewithal to compete with Hollywood marketing. Movie tickets in many part of India cost $1, meaning Bollywood's global revenues are about 2 percent of Hollywood's, says Mr. Bose.

"Hollywood can spend 8 percent of its normal marketing budget for a film and get the same amount of exposure as a top Hindi film," says Sanjay Ram of BusinessofCinema.com in Mumbai.

The most lavish Bollywood films rarely cost more than $10 million. "Spider-Man 3" is thought to have cost $260 million.

Now, the release of several massive Hollywood franchises this summer – "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Shrek," and "Harry Potter" – are expected to sweep away any Hindi-language competition. In what is shaping up to be an off year for Bollywood, "Spider-Man 3" has already been blamed for taking the momentum from one of the few major Hindi releases this year, "Ta Ra Rum Pum" ("Don't Worry, Be Happy").

But experts say that the new multiplexes have created space for everyone. No one expects Hollywood to trump Bollywood in India. But this summer presages a future of more choices for Indian moviegoers, and that sounds just right to Sabayasachi Banerjee, who is at the Saket multiplex to see the world's favorite wall-crawling mutant. "We like Western movies because they are different," he says. "But we still like Bollywood movies, too."

Adds friend Reshu Kandani, "We are starting to have some variety, and that's good."

• Mr. Sappenfield is the New Delhi correspondent for the Monitor and USA Today.

 

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