For what producers had described as the widest ever release of an Indian film in China in more than three decades, Dhoom 3 arrived here on July 25 not with a bang, but with a whimper.
There were no major promotional activities. There were no trailers. There weren’t even any teaser posters in sight in three of Beijing’s biggest cinema halls in the weeks leading up to the film. Neither were there promotional campaigns ahead of the launch, despite the fact that the film was set to face tough competition from three Chinese films set to open on the same day.
The film’s lengthy, and unwieldy, Chinese title further puzzled moviegoers, who were left wondering what the The Magical Car God: The magic thief’s passion could possibly be about. Marketing failures aside, the launch of Dhoom 3 in China has served another reminder of the vast — and untapped — potential of the Chinese film market for Bollywood. Films from India were hugely popular here in the 1970s, the only overseas films allowed back then. Raj Kapoor is still a household name in China, and ‘Awara Hoon’ still crooned by taxi drivers in Beijing.
Indian films faded from Chinese screens from the 1990s onwards as China opened up to Hollywood and the government put in place restrictions that, even today, allow only two dozen foreign films to be shown every year, a quota usually filled by Hollywood.
The unprecedented success of Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots , which garnered popularity through online movie-sharing websites and became a cult hit in Chinese colleges, rekindled interest, prompting the State-run China Film Group to bring the film to Chinese screens two years after it became a hit.
The success of 3 Idiots likely prompted the China Film Group to bring Dhoom 3 to China. The State-run company, according to reports, secured rights to screen the film in 2,000 screens around the country. Opening on July 25, the film has brought in $ 2.65 million in its first week, according to the Chinese box office. Producers Yash Raj films hailed the earnings for breaking into the Chinese top ten for the week, coming in at ninth.
The view in China, however, was that the film’s performance was underwhelming in comparison to usual China Film Group releases — which are backed by the government — and the performance of low budget domestic films that made more in a single day then Dhoom 3 did in a week.
Local hit The Continent , written by blogger Han Han, opened on the same day and made $64 million in the first week. A horror movie set in Beijing called The House That Never Dies made $59 million. In a competitive box office where earnings have of late been dominated by overseas imports — only last month Transformers 4 became the most successful film in Chinese box office history making $300 million — Dhoom 3 ’s $2.65 million barely left a mark.
Interviews with moviegoers in Beijing suggested that poor marketing, rather than audience reception, may have been a reason. Some speculated the China Film Group had taken less than ideal interest in promoting the film, perhaps because it had not, in the first place, paid a large amount for the rights. Yash Raj Films had also appeared to play no role in the process.
“Aamir Khan is very, very popular in China after 3 Idiots, I came here to see him,” said Han Lei, following a screening in Beijing on Saturday at a downtown cinema hall that had cut screenings to one show for the second weekend. There were 12 people in a hall that seats 150. “I loved the movie, and would love to see more Indian films here,” he added.
His wife, Hu Rui, said Chinese moviegoers would love the colour and elaborate dance sequences, “different from Hollywood.” Others wished that Aamir Khan or Katrina Kaif made the journey to China for the opening. “Maybe more people would have heard about this movie then,” suggested one college student.
