New Delhi, Oct 12: Inspite of a large expatriate population, Indian cinema is yet to create a market it deserves abroad. "Even in countries where we have a large NRI population, there is demand only for a certain kind of films, mostly Hindi movies with a big star cast," Secretary of Indian Film Exporters Association Nandkumar Bele said. "Countries like China and Japan which are slowly opening up to Indian cinema are interested in buying only for their television thus orders placed or discussed are very miniscule," he said. "The need of the hour is to send as many copies of our films to the embassies of these countries as possible and also organise free screenings for them in business centres like Shanghai, to make them aware of the kind of movies we make," Bele said. Contending his claims about only mainstream films by big names like Yash Chopra or Subhash Ghai making it to countries like US, UK and Canada, D Mukhopadhyay, Managing Director, National Film Development Corporation, said, "big budget Indian films are not doing well even in India. How can they claim that there is a big market for them abroad".


"Small budget films made by us like `Jogger`s Park` are doing very well both in India and overseas," according to Shenazz Nadirshah, Vice President(Marketing) of `Mukta Arts` owned by well known film maker Subhash Ghai.
“The important factor here is to create a market for our films in countries as varied as South Korea and Canada. It is for this that we need film festivals of this kind where we can meet delegates from outside," Nadirshah, here to participate in the 34th International Film Festival of India, said.
According to Mukhopadhyay, however, films like `Bend It Like Beckham` and `Monsoon Wedding` have belied claims of niche films not doing well.
“It is a myth that only Hindi films do well. South Indian films have a very good market in the parts of Middle-East because of the large Malayalee population there," he said.
One factor which could help Indian exporters immensely, he says, is the setting up of offices in major centres of the world.
"Till we had an office in London (which was closed down due to financial problems) we were doing quite well in the European film markets, specially in Germany and France," he says, adding that Iranian films inspite of being small budget are popular only because they make efforts to sell themselves through such centres.
Pirated discs and cassettes are another hindrance towards legal sale of Indian films, Nadirshah said.
"The moment a film is released in India video CDs and cassettes make their way through illegal channels to countries outside making it very difficult for us to make any legal exports," she said.
Bureau Report