These old films, already widely available on streaming platforms, are being sent to China to fill the void left by its local film industry, which has been idle of late. The Chinese film exhibition market has also suffered with many cinemas having shut down.

Director Ram Gopal Varma’s new action film Ladki will release in China this weekend in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. The film is estimated to manage a screen count of 40,000.

Indian films, which stopped screening in China because of political tensions and then the pandemic, are now available in theatres across the country for movie-starved Chinese fans.

In the past few months, Sushant Singh Rajput’s Chhichhore was released, followed by theTamil film Kanaa and Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam.

These old films, already widely available on streaming platforms, are being sent to China to fill the void left by its local film industry, which has been idle of late. The Chinese film exhibition market has also suffered with many cinemas having shut down. Indian producers spotted an opportunity even as the industry limps back to normalcy.

It is clear that China, which has never been very generous in allowing foreign films to play in the country, is now facing a huge shutdown of theatres and has to feed local cinemas with new content, according to trade experts. Releasing films in China may help Indian studios and producers in the long run, not only bolstering popularity in the neighbouring country but also making for a good opportunity to negotiate with Chinese distributors for better revenue-sharing terms. Until now, Chinese theatre owners and distributors would only pay 25% of the box office collections of an Indian film to the producers.

The Chinese government controls the country’s entertainment industry and only allows 34 international films to be screened annually—occasionally a few more. It determines release dates, advertising, and the number of theatres for screening. Trade experts said some of this may be re-negotiated as the Chinese film exhibition business recovers from the pandemic.

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