Recent marker data looking at the hits and misses in Bollywood during the first quarter of 2008 suggests that the distinction between International and domestic markets for Bollywood is rapidly declining. The news is that what works best in the West is also what works best in India. With the advent of mass television, the cinema audience in India is increasingly a young audience and they increasingly share the same consumer values as their western counterparts. This trend is likely to continue with as rapid economic growth of India slowly reaches out to more and more people.
The big earners so far in 2008 have been ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ with its marvellous sense of spectacle and ‘Race’ with it marvellous sense of the spectacular. Both of these films were produced under the UTV banner. Siddharth Roy Kapur of UTV said, “It has been an exciting and rewarding time for all of us at UTV Motion Pictures, having had the opportunity to market and distribute two of the biggest successes in recent times. Our line up for the next 3 quarters of the year also promises to live up to the benchmark we have set for ourselves.” Jodhaa Akbar has made 45 lacs so far and Race has made 20 lacs – nothing else has come close.
There’s a message here: Big movies mean big risk but potential big income – Bollywood just became even more exciting!
