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Indian films that are shown in Britain have recently outshone the homegrown variety in terms of earnings and box office rankings. The figures for 2005 have revealed that of the 74 Bollywood movies released in the UK, nine made it into the top 10 charts as compared with seven out of 61 of the British efforts. The fact that most of the rest of the flicks released in Britain came out of the Hollywood fun factory is a story for another day. Anyway, the questions to be asked are: Should Bollywood product be afforded more respect, more outlets and more publicity in Britain, given the sales revenue such works achieve from so few outlets? And, also, why are the films not available to a wider audience already? The Eastern Eye newspaper asked Dr Anil Sinanan, senior lecturer at the London Metropolitan University and Bollywood expert and film critic for Time Out magazine, for his views on all of this and he said: "Bollywood is partly to blame due to poor marketing and lack of publicity. Also, do not forget that most of the films remain terrible. The figures are impressive not only because it is a Bollywood film released with no mainstream publicity and on so few screens, but also because it is a sub- titled movie and foreign language films struggle to cross the #1million mark in the UK." One of the biggest Indian hits this year in Britain has been Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, starring Shah Rukh Khan among others, and this film hurtled into the box office league table at number 7, outperforming such eagerly awaited efforts as M. Night Shyamalam’s Lady in the Water. The fact that the reviews for this latter masterpiece were somewhat less than ecstatic may have had something to do with that. Nevertheless, the fact remains that KANK grossed a record #755,000 at a mere 60 sites across Britain on its opening weekend. Impressive figures to say the least. The company, which released KANK in Britain, is Yashraj Films, one of the biggest Bollywood production and distribution companies in the country and its sales and marketing executive is Prakash Bakrania. He is confident that international recognition for Bollywood output is gradually building up: "Mainstream reviews are where we lack exposure. This, I believe, is because non-Asian audiences are not yet watching Indian films in their masses...However, Indian films are changing and becoming more varied in their subject matter...generally speaking, films are getting better in quality". So, perhaps it will not
be too long before white Brit audiences are trundling down to their
local fleapit to see the latest Bollywood, rather than Hollywood,
blockbuster. — ANI
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