Indian movies and TV soaps in China

[qilaotou]

Through 1970s to early 1980s there were few movies available in Chinese cinema. Among those old movies taken from 1950s, one is from India, Awaara. This is the only one Indian movie I ever watched.

In the desert of entertaiment the movie touched the hearts of majority Chinese of all ages. The film figures, Rita (丽达） and Raj （拉兹），as well as the songs, became and still is popular in China. The evidence is that the movie and the main title song "Awaara Hoon" are high-hit downloadable on China's web:

The movie (With Chinese sound tracks) clips on CCTV:
µçÓ°¡¶Á÷ÀËÕß¡·ÊÓƵƬ¶Î1 Á÷ÀËÕß CCTV.com

The Awaara Hoon song:
Original track: Ó¡¶È¸èÎè-À*×ÈÖ®¸è_ÔÚÏßÊÓƵ¹Û¿´_ÍÁ¶¹ÍøÊÓƵ Ó¡¶È¸èÎè MV Á÷ÀËÕß À*×ÈÖ®¸è

With Chinese instruments: 78À*×ÈÖ®¸è(d)-¶þºú°é×à ÇúÆ× ÔÚÏß¹Û¿´ - ¿á6ÊÓƵ

Modern MTV singing in Chinese text： http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/3989341/v.swf

拉兹, pronounced as La-Zi, may be among top 10 best known Indian names in China.

---------------------------------------------------------------

From the year of 2007 Chinese Free TV channel CCTV8 has showed three Indian TV soup operas nationwide (they were all re-recorded with Chinese actors sound tracks):

CCTV8
2007 Karishma: A Miracle of Destiny
2008 Mehndi Tere Naam Ki
2009 Miit (On-going ¾ªÊÀÇéÔµ µÚ58¼¯ ¾ªÊÀÇéÔµ CCTV.com)

These shows are popular in China and the actors (actresses) got their local fan clubs.

 

[tarunraju]

Of all the songs, you liked Awara Hoon? It's not a bad song though. And yes, you would rather watch Indian TV than western, which is saturated with oneliner sitcoms, or over the top action.

By the way, that's called soap operas, not soup operas, just for the know.

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/肥皂剧

 

[Flint]

Very interesting. Thanks!

A lot of old Indian movies were shown in the eastern bloc countries during the cold-war era, as an alternative to hollywood movies which were generally banned.

 

[ShyAngel]

through 1970s to early 1980s there were few movies available in chinese cinema. Among those old movies taken from 1950s, one is from india, awaara. This is the only one indian movie i ever watched.

In the desert of entertaiment the movie touched the hearts of majority chinese of all ages. The film figures, rita (丽达） and raj （拉兹），as well as the songs, became and still is popular in china. The evidence is that the movie and the main title song "awaara hoon" are high-hit downloadable on china's web:

The movie (with chinese sound tracks) clips on cctv:
µç󰡶á÷àëõß¡·êóæµæ¬¶î1 á÷àëõß cctv.com

the awaara hoon song:
Original track: ó¡¶è¸èîè-à*×èö®¸è_ôúïßêóæµ¹û¿´_íᶹíøêóæµ ó¡¶è¸èîè mv á÷àëõß à*×èö®¸è

with chinese instruments: 78à*×èö®¸è(d)-¶þºú°é×à çúæ× ôúïß¹û¿´ - ¿á6êóæµ

modern mtv singing in chinese text： http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/3989341/v.swf

拉兹, pronounced as la-zi, may be among top 10 best known indian names in china.

---------------------------------------------------------------

from the year of 2007 chinese free tv channel cctv8 has showed three indian tv soup operas nationwide (they were all re-recorded with chinese actors sound tracks):

Cctv8
2007 karishma: A miracle of destiny
2008 mehndi tere naam ki
2009 miit (on-going ¾ªêàçéôµ µú58¼¯ ¾ªêàçéôµ cctv.com)

these shows are popular in china and the actors (actresses) got their local fan clubs.

Raj kapoor sab and his RK banned movies rocks! It doesn't matter which era it was from but all his movie rocks. You should watch mera naam joker. Most of his films are very toucy with good songs. None of his movies has forein influence. All his movies are purely very much indian & they are just too good<3

 

[Quickgun Murugan]

Nice info qilaotao. This stuff was news to me.

I love Chinese Kung-Fu movies. Jet Li and Jacie Chan are my fav. I remember seeing lot of Chinese movies every sunday which were Tamil translated. Man, were they funny. Armour of God part 2 by jackie chan made my stomach hurt and is my all time fav movie.

 

[qilaotou]

Of all the songs, you liked Awara Hoon? It's not a bad song though. And yes, you would rather watch Indian TV than western, which is saturated with oneliner sitcoms, or over the top action.

By the way, that's called soap operas, not soup operas, just for the know.

??? - ????????????

Thanks for correcting my wrong spelling.

It's not only me who liked it very much but millions. If you ask a Chinese over 35 most people would know the music of the song and the name Lazi. What's funny was that many people thought they got married in real life. In late 1980s a newspaper published a report on that Mr. Kapoor was indeed from a big famous family and the lovely "Rita" had then passed away. It was like a big news.

Raj kapoor sab and his RK banned movies rocks! It doesn't matter which era it was from but all his movie rocks. You should watch mera naam joker. Most of his films are very toucy with good songs. None of his movies has forein influence. All his movies are purely very much indian & they are just too good<3

Since I am not much cinema goer now I don't know if there have been other Indian movies. In the summer of 2007 I happened to have watched a few episodes of Karishmar and was happy to hear Indian music again. The Indian movie music is always inspiring and positive. It feels good.

The reason they picked up Karishma for a start might be that Ms Karishma Kapoor is the grand daughter of La-zi. I had also found the site of her Chinese fans and there are plenty of photos and news about her activities even pregnancy.

Indian movies might have good market potential in Chinese audience.

I love Chinese Kung-Fu movies. Jet Li and Jacie Chan are my fav. I remember seeing lot of Chinese movies every sunday which were Tamil translated. Man, were they funny. Armour of God part 2 by jackie chan made my stomach hurt and is my all time fav movie.

Yeah I like Jackie's movie too. Very entertaining.

 

[nimo_cn]

I have watched several Indian movies, like "fashion", "new york", etc, i don't know if they are popular in India, anyway they gave me a fresh feeling. I didn't watch them in cinema, but on my computer, because they are not available in cinemas. I have to say, Indian movies are special , making a feature of the beautiful songs. I love the songs, altough sometimes they are so long and drive me crazy.

But honestly speaking, Indian movies are not popular among Chinese youth at all, which makes me a little sad. Half of the movie market in China is occupied by foreign movies, and over 90% of the foreign movies are Hollywood-produced, which in fact has reduced the diversity of Chinese movie market. I think it is an unhealthy trend which we should turn around. Why can't we import more movies from other countries like India, Russia or Middle East?

 

[no smoking]

I think india movie has a long way to go if bollywood wants to take its share in chinese market.

Yes, the dancing and songs in these movies can bring some kind of fresh air to chinese audience. But only dancing and singing is not enough, india movie has to improve its stories, which is the weakness of these movie. After seeing more than 10 india movies, the only thing I can remember is the dancing and singing, nothing more.

 

[thakur_ritesh]

I have watched several Indian movies, like "fashion", "new york", etc, i don't know if they are popular in India, anyway they gave me a fresh feeling. I didn't watch them in cinema, but on my computer, because they are not available in cinemas. I have to say, Indian movies are special , making a feature of the beautiful songs. I love the songs, altough sometimes they are so long and drive me crazy.

But honestly speaking, Indian movies are not popular among Chinese youth at all, which makes me a little sad. Half of the movie market in China is occupied by foreign movies, and over 90% of the foreign movies are Hollywood-produced, which in fact has reduced the diversity of Chinese movie market. I think it is an unhealthy trend which we should turn around. Why can't we import more movies from other countries like India, Russia or Middle East?

i think it is because bollywood has really not seen china as a potential market which could yield them desired results. the question in the mind of the producer and the distributor of the movie would be, will the movie be able to get the desired roi, no one would like to do a business in loss.

bollywood movies being marketed internationally more aggressively has been a more recent development where the release of the movie happens simultaneously both in the domestic market and in the international market and the primary focus has been all such countries and regions (US, EU, australia, NZ, ME, russia) where there is significant presence of subcontinent population (indians, paks, b'deshishs, srilankans, nepalis, afgans, etc) and i guess they have not entered all such markets where such kind of audience is not present in abundance.

its good to see that you all are well aware of all such movies, whether you like it or not is another story, but it certainly means if people start looking at alternate markets to expand business in future then such virgin territories wont be as bad.

 

[Quickgun Murugan]

I think india movie has a long way to go if bollywood wants to take its share in chinese market.

Yes, the dancing and songs in these movies can bring some kind of fresh air to chinese audience. But only dancing and singing is not enough, india movie has to improve its stories, which is the weakness of these movie. After seeing more than 10 india movies, the only thing I can remember is the dancing and singing, nothing more.

Well, Indian movies are not restricted to Bollywood(Hindi cinemas) alone. There are Tamil, Malayalam, telugu, Bengali, Gujrati , Kannada movies too which generally do not get much international attention. Sometimes these regional movies have a more powerful storyline compared to hindi movies.

What I will recommend international audience to do before watching an Indian movie is to read it review, story line and ratings and then make a decision to watch the movie. More than 90% of the movies are pure garbage.

If I can recommend you a movie, please watch "A Wednesday" movie in hindi. It does not have songs or dance. Very good story line too.:goodstuff:

 

[tarunraju]

Non-Bollywood mainstream (excludes art-films) movies are more cliched (boy meets a girl, they sing and dance). Seldom do mainstream movies with fascinating stories or something serious/witty come out of the south. Bollywood filmmakers with their cash-rich producers have the flexibility to experiment with new, bold concepts better than filmmakers from other parts of the country.

Yes, A Wednesday was a superb movie.

 

[qilaotou]

Non-Bollywood mainstream (excludes art-films) movies are more cliched (boy meets a girl, they sing and dance). Seldom do mainstream movies with fascinating stories or something serious/witty come out of the south. Bollywood filmmakers with their cash-rich producers have the flexibility to experiment with new, bold concepts better than filmmakers from other parts of the country.

Yes, A Wednesday was a superb movie.

Thanks. I found an online site that has it. I may find time to watch it just to have a taste about modern Indian movies.

 

[no smoking]

Well, Indian movies are not restricted to Bollywood(Hindi cinemas) alone. There are Tamil, Malayalam, telugu, Bengali, Gujrati , Kannada movies too which generally do not get much international attention. Sometimes these regional movies have a more powerful storyline compared to hindi movies.

What I will recommend international audience to do before watching an Indian movie is to read it review, story line and ratings and then make a decision to watch the movie. More than 90% of the movies are pure garbage.

If I can recommend you a movie, please watch "A Wednesday" movie in hindi. It does not have songs or dance. Very good story line too.:goodstuff:

Thanks, I will have a look.

 

[mikephillip17]

Well, Indian movies are not restricted to Bollywood(Hindi cinemas) alone. There are Tamil, Malayalam, telugu, Bengali, Gujrati , Kannada movies too which generally do not get much international attention. Sometimes these regional movies have a more powerful storyline compared to hindi movies.

What I will recommend international audience to do before watching an Indian movie is to read it review, story line and ratings and then make a decision to watch the movie. More than 90% of the movies are pure garbage.

If I can recommend you a movie, please watch "A Wednesday" movie in hindi. It does not have songs or dance. Very good story line too.:goodstuff:

Yeah, You are right man..Yeah " A Wednesday" is really an awesome movie...
I completely agree to you. There are many big bluster movies made in regional languages. They are just lacking behind of the lack of promotion in international market...
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