MUMBAI, India—When James Cameron’s magnum opus opened in India, a small over-zealous group of Hindus apparently took offense to the term “avatar,” which in Sanskrit means reincarnation or descent from a higher realm to a lower realm.
According to this group, they felt they had proprietary rights over the word “avatar,” and to taint its meaning for the purpose of fiction on-screen could be offensive to Hindus. The controversy died a natural death when people were transported into another virtual reality world, which had no connection with Hinduism.
Avatar surprised the trade pundits and the Indian movie industry with a movie that the world is calling a phenomenon. In fact, the opening of the film in India ranked among the top 10 countries for a weekend’s performances, beating the likes of traditionally better performing countries like Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand, Sweden, Holland, and Hong Kong.
What is interesting is that Avatar was released across India in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. Dubbed films started to be taken seriously when the likes of Anaconda, X-Men, and Spider-Man fetched higher returns in their dubbed versions compared to their English releases.
Dhiraj Shah at Big Entertainment believes that the dubbed market always had potential. “Gandhi, Jurassic Park, and Titanic all did great business in their dubbed versions. Yet, it was completely overlooked until a few years back when the sheer magnitude of the dubbed films’ success begged attention,” he said.
According to this group, they felt they had proprietary rights over the word “avatar,” and to taint its meaning for the purpose of fiction on-screen could be offensive to Hindus. The controversy died a natural death when people were transported into another virtual reality world, which had no connection with Hinduism.
Avatar surprised the trade pundits and the Indian movie industry with a movie that the world is calling a phenomenon. In fact, the opening of the film in India ranked among the top 10 countries for a weekend’s performances, beating the likes of traditionally better performing countries like Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand, Sweden, Holland, and Hong Kong.
What is interesting is that Avatar was released across India in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. Dubbed films started to be taken seriously when the likes of Anaconda, X-Men, and Spider-Man fetched higher returns in their dubbed versions compared to their English releases.
Dhiraj Shah at Big Entertainment believes that the dubbed market always had potential. “Gandhi, Jurassic Park, and Titanic all did great business in their dubbed versions. Yet, it was completely overlooked until a few years back when the sheer magnitude of the dubbed films’ success begged attention,” he said.
Avatar earned a record INR 10 million ($216,000) for its paid previews across India—the highest for any Hollywood film ever. The film then created a record by grossing INR 67.5 million ($1.5 million) on opening day itself, making it the biggest Friday opening for any Hollywood film in Indian history.
The epic action adventure raked in a whopping INR 220 million ($4.75 million) in its opening weekend, which not only makes it the highest ever weekend take for a Hollywood film, but it beat 2012, Titanic, and Spider-Man 3 combined. The number of 3D screens has also increased from 12 screens to over 50.
Mr. Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox Star Studios in India says, “The movie is being appreciated across all age groups and languages. Even theatres in the interiors, where the film is being shown in Hindi in 2D format, have been doing fantastic business, as also theatres in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.”
And given the recent spate of Hollywood films like Slumdog Millionaire, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ice Age 3, and 2012 beating out “Bollywood” at the box-office, looks like B-town has got some strong competition!
Warner Brothers also released Ninja Assassin in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu along side its English version. The view is that English films, which have a more limited viewership in India compared to locally made films, can pull in bigger audiences if they can be delivered in languages more Indians can understand. Even people conversant with English often prefer to watch dubbed versions of English films, finding it difficult to follow American or British accents.
The epic action adventure raked in a whopping INR 220 million ($4.75 million) in its opening weekend, which not only makes it the highest ever weekend take for a Hollywood film, but it beat 2012, Titanic, and Spider-Man 3 combined. The number of 3D screens has also increased from 12 screens to over 50.
Mr. Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox Star Studios in India says, “The movie is being appreciated across all age groups and languages. Even theatres in the interiors, where the film is being shown in Hindi in 2D format, have been doing fantastic business, as also theatres in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.”
And given the recent spate of Hollywood films like Slumdog Millionaire, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ice Age 3, and 2012 beating out “Bollywood” at the box-office, looks like B-town has got some strong competition!
Warner Brothers also released Ninja Assassin in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu along side its English version. The view is that English films, which have a more limited viewership in India compared to locally made films, can pull in bigger audiences if they can be delivered in languages more Indians can understand. Even people conversant with English often prefer to watch dubbed versions of English films, finding it difficult to follow American or British accents.
Sony Pictures Entertainment (India) followed a similar formula, releasing 2012 in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, in addition to English. The film had the second highest box office take for a Hollywood film in Indian history after Spider-Man 3 in 2007.
Mr. Singh from Fox says: “Big Hollywood films do very well in dubbed versions. If it’s a big movie, then almost two-thirds of collections come from the dubbed versions. Our biggest earnings came from X-Men and Ice Age 3, both of which gave us good collections … The market itself is growing and in the next five years, dubbed English films will contribute even more to the overall pie.”
Fox Star’s Slumdog Millionaire, with 363 prints released in English and dubbed in Hindi also did very well bringing in INR 400 million ($8.64 million) at the box office. The Hindi version, Slumdog Crorepati, bested the English version in sales by 30 percent.
Sony Pictures Entertainment (India), which dubbed Gandhi for the first time in 1982 in six Indian languages, is now investing more in this recipe. Managing director Kercy Daruwala says, “It’s an old trend, which was later revived in the mid-90s with Lost World. It has huge commercial potential now. Most metros contribute extra revenues from dubbed films, with Hindi contributing the majority share.”
The next in the lineup from Sony Pictures, which is considering dubbing into Bengali too, are The Stepfather, Zombieland, and Did You Hear About The Morgans?
Smita Jha, associate director entertainment and media practices at PricewaterhouseCoopers, comments: “At 50-60 films a year, the English film market in India is not very big yet, but it is growing. Increased multiplex penetration in Tiers 2 and 3 cities, and dubbing combined with local promotions will fuel the growth of foreign films in India.”
Industry experts, however, warn that not all dubbed films do well. Films with a bigger brand and star, value work. Action, horror, thriller, adventure, romance, and sex-oriented films are the best bets as they bring revenues from smaller towns. Animation and alternative content also work. A film can be dubbed for as low as $2,000 or as much as $150,000 to $175,000.
While the rest of the world prefers subtitles, Indians would rather see a dubbed film. Though purists might object to the dubbed versions and find them hilarious and crass, the number of dubbed language versions of Hollywood films is likely to multiply. They are here to change the way Indians see Hollywood Films and possibly create a demand for the same aesthetics and technical finesse in their own regional films.
Industry experts, however, warn that not all dubbed films do well. Films with a bigger brand and star, value work. Action, horror, thriller, adventure, romance, and sex-oriented films are the best bets as they bring revenues from smaller towns. Animation and alternative content also work. A film can be dubbed for as low as $2,000 or as much as $150,000 to $175,000.
While the rest of the world prefers subtitles, Indians would rather see a dubbed film. Though purists might object to the dubbed versions and find them hilarious and crass, the number of dubbed language versions of Hollywood films is likely to multiply. They are here to change the way Indians see Hollywood Films and possibly create a demand for the same aesthetics and technical finesse in their own regional films.
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