Panaji, Dec 5, 2004
IANS
Indian films, which claim an annual turnover of Rs.9 billion ($200
million), are venturing into new markets like China and Europe to capitalise
on their growing global popularity.
"With the size of the population it has, sky is the limit in China.
We are trying hard to enter China though we have to overcome language
problems there," Nandkumar Bele, the Indian Film Exporters Association
secretary, told IANS here.
Taking part in a Film Bazaar on the sidelines of the 35th International
Film Festival of India, Bele said export of prints earned about one-third
of the film industry's revenue, roughly Rs.3.5 billion ($79.5 million).
To this can be added the growing earnings reported from animation,
telecasting rights for films, repeat telecasts and short films.
"Our markets have so far largely been made up of non-resident
Indian audiences. But now audiences in some countries have begun to
show interest. Countries like France, Spain and Brazil have for long
had an interest in things Indian," he said.
Russia too has long been a market for Indian films, but the problem
of piracy is acting as a strong deterrent, Bele added.
"Ninety-five percent of our exports are of Hindi films. We rarely
export Gujarati, Marathi or Bengali films," he said. "Films
for the Tamil diaspora in countries like Malaysia or Switzerland go
out of Chennai."
So far, the bulk of Hindi film exports have been to countries such
as the US, Canada, Britain, Mauritius, Fiji, South Africa, Tanzania,
Kenya, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia.
The Mumbai-based Indian Film Exporters Association deals mainly in
Hindi films.
Its aim is to promote export of Indian films and explore new ways of
doing so. For this it networks exporters of Indian films and TV programmes.
It also acts as a platform to tackle problems of law, decrees, administrative
regulations beneficial to the motion picture industry in general, and
export trade.
Bele pointed to the complexities of exporting Indian movies to non-Hindi
audiences, saying dubbing was near impossible given the role songs played
in the films.
Subtitling is a possibility, but this is acceptable only in the smaller
centres, where language-groups are accustomed to foreign language films
being subtitled.
For instance, smaller markets like Finland and Sweden accept a lot
of sub-titled films from across the globe. But the French, being a far
larger market, expect films to be dubbed into their language.
"We currently export only mainstream cinema. We've not yet looked
at documentary or non-feature films, though there is a market for these
too in some European countries," Bele said.