When Aamir Khan’s Dangal released back in 2016, the film was a massive hit in India, making Rs 387.38 crore nett in the domestic market. But when Dangal released internationally, the movie’s box office figures went through the roof. Dangal was a humungous hit in China and made over Rs 2070 crore internationally, which was unprecedented at the time and no Indian film has matched this figure yet. Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, in a recent interview, reflected on the success of the Aamir film and tried to decode what made the movie an international success.
In a chat with Film Companion, Siddharth said that one cannot greenlight a film based on its potential to bring in an international audience. The primary goal has to be that the film works domestically, only then they can think of expanding its reach. Explaining the case of Dangal, he spoke about the cultural similarities between India and China, in terms of both these countries being patriarchal, and how that struck a chord with the Chinese audience.
“We knew that Aamir was a big star there after 3 Idiots and PK. But no one could have imagined that it would go on to do $200 million in China. That was just incredible,” he said and shared that they did some research in China to find out the reason for the same. “What I think really connected with people was that China is also a patriarchy in many ways. And therefore, the cultural connectivity was so strong in terms of them being able to appreciate this one wrestler from rural Haryana and being able to empathise with his dilemma of wanting to live out his dreams through his sons, not having any, and giving up on those dreams and then his daughters making him realise that he can live out his dreams through them, was so culturally resonant in a culture that we would have never imagined would be so similar to ours,” he said.
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Siddharth Roy Kapur said that they can’t fully claim the credit for having known this reason for their success in China “but in hindsight, that really is true. It was able to resonate with that culture so well. So I think if you are able to identify those themes in your film and be objective about it, don’t think that every film you make has that potential, and then try to take that out into the world, and make sure it gets a distribution that it needs, then you have the best chance of making it work,” Siddharth said as he spoke about making a dent in the international market.
He also added that one can’t work this formula backwards and create a story that will work internationally, and then make it work as per those standards. “You can’t start creating something in a theoretical way that you hope will work. You have to to be true to the story you want to tell.”
Dangal continues to the biggest international box office success from India, followed by Baahubali 2, which made over Rs 1700 crore and RRR, which made over Rs 1200 crore.
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