India before the World

What is common between Hollywood movies like Avatar, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Adventures of Tintin and The Quantum of Solace? Apart from the fact that they all are big blockbusters, the common factor amongst them is that they all were released in India before they released in US. The releasing of Hollywood movies first in India than the traditional market of US or UK is the recent trend. Recent movie to join the bandwagon is 'Battleship' starring Taylor Kitsch and Rihanna which is released by Universal Pictures.

India, for a long time has been a secondary consumer of Hollywood movies and shows. Compared to our American cousins we used to receive our Hollywood dose of movies much later. In spite of being a huge market, India was not a key player till now. But from last few years the trend of releasing Hollywood movies and shows has taken a u-turn.

The first film to release in India before the US market was The Quantum of Solace from the James Bond series. Released in 2008 by MGM and Columbian Pictures, it raised a few eyebrows as to how successful the experiment would be. But the movie had the second largest opening ever for foreign-language films, quashing all the apprehensions.

There are several reasons behind this paradigm shift of the Hollywood studios. According to Vikramjit Roy, who worked for Sony Pictures India for eleven years before joining as GM of National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), the whole thing is an indication of the growth of Indian market and its increasing infrastructure. “The multiplex culture has added a lot to the box-office and the big production houses are tapping that factor.” says Roy.

According to Roy, the language customization by these studios has also added to their business and increased their market acquisition. Piracy could be seen as another reason behind this move.

“Films releasing in US before, find an easier way into the Indian market owing to the wide spread network of piracy in India,” said Saibal Chatterjee, a renowned film critic.He also said that the huge number of movie goers in India attract the studios to tap the market here. India produces the largest number of movies and has the largest audience base in the world and this is what these production houses want to bask into.

The trend has now entered the television industry as well, with an US show ‘Missing’ airing four days before in India than the world. With this continuing format one can definitely see that how the Indian market is slowly but surely gripping the attention of major players in entertainment field.