Bollywood: To the Next Level

India’s Bollywood, a prolific producer of films, but a marginal player in the global market, has launched a film designed to win over foreign audiences. Ra.One cost $30 million, a record for Bollywood but inexpensive for Hollywood, reports the Financial Times. It combines traditional Bollywood song and dance themes with state-of-the-art visual effects and fast action to appeal to Western audiences. Bollywood has one advantage in global film markets: “India’s emerging middle-class enjoys watching its favourite beautiful stars cavort in exotic locales such as Thailand, Singapore, Australia, the US and Europe,” explains Amy Kazmin. “That trend has been facilitated by tax breaks and other production incentives from foreign countries.” A goal of Bollywood’s heartthrob, actor-producer Shah Rukh Khan, is to create a cultural icon, attracting critical acclaim and huge box-office sales along the lines of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Chinese-language film based on a Chinese novel and directed by a Taiwanese-American director. In India, ticket prices are low and screens are few. So for now, Bollywood filmmakers depend on the diaspora and Western audiences for revenues and growth. – YaleGlobal