South Korea: Bollywood’s Future Market?

[Abingdonboy]

It is often said that Bollywood is India’s greatest brand ambassador all over the globe perhaps even giving the Taj Mahal a run for its money. However, South Korea has been largely left untouched by Bollywood thus far. This is likely to chage in the coming years.

Many Indians viewing the South Korea-filmed Gangster were enthralled by the exotic locales and jazzy trains that looked far different from anything Bollywood had used as a backdrop in the past. This was the first Bollywood movie that was filmed in Korea – it was also the last.

Last week I had an engaging discussion with Charm Lee, head of the South Korean Tourism Organization, and five of my colleagues. Lee, a tall, well-built German who now calls South Korea home, seemed taken aback by the number of Bollywood questions I presented him with. He conceded that the South Korean government was seriously considering the possibility of promoting Korea as a film shooting destination, though the West and even Southeast Asian countries had a clear lead over South Korea in the contest.

China too is already known to have started work on developing an entire island as a film shooting hub, something Lee asked his advisors to take note of. Lee also conceded that a major issue plaguing the effort was the acute shortage of hotel rooms in Korea, which limited its ability to attract big functions like Bollywood’s IIFA awards that are usually held in Macau.

Brand Bollywood’s penetration of the South Korean market is an idea whose time has come. Films like Krissh, Kal Ho Na Ho, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Rang De Basanti have earned millions of dollars from overseas markets, and among Bollywood films are already catching on among the PSY-crazed South Korean youth, who know Bollywood actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan quite well.

South Korea: Bollywood’s Future Market?

 

[KRAIT]

PSY-crazed South Korean youth, who know Bollywood actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan quite well.

 

[Abingdonboy]

PSY-crazed South Korean youth, who know Bollywood actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan quite well.

LOLZ!!!!!..........

 

[Hellraiser007]

@Korean kindly shed some light on this topic.

 

[Korean]

The article is talking about shooting Bollywood movies in Korea using Korean studio and technology, not sell Bollywood movies in Korea.

Korea is one of few places on earth where the local movies have a larger market share than the Hollywood movies, so it's not possible for Bollywood films to move beyond the cult status. A completely different taste in movies.

 

[KRAIT]

The article is talking about shooting Bollywood movies in Korea using Korean studio and technology, not sell Bollywood movies in Korea.
Korea is one of few places on earth where the local movies have a larger market share than the Hollywood movies, so it's not possible for Bollywood films to move beyond the cult status. A completely different taste in movies.

Korean films are quite different in approach to subject and has good variety of subjects.

Few of Korean movies are among my top movies list. I hope Korean movies are dubbed in English and released in India.

Min-sik Choi's movie Oldboy and I saw the devil are just pure class and art.

 

[Hellraiser007]

The article is talking about shooting Bollywood movies in Korea using Korean studio and technology, not sell Bollywood movies in Korea.

Korea is one of few places on earth where the local movies have a larger market share than the Hollywood movies, so it's not possible for Bollywood films to move beyond the cult status. A completely different taste in movies.

In India we have some Korean influence in the movie called "awarapan" which is a story line based on Korean film.

 

[Shinigami]

Re: South Korea: Bollywood’s Future Market?

on behalf of all indians,
i would like to apologize to south korea

 

[Korean]

on behalf of all indians,
i would like to apologize to south korea

Why do you apologize?

India is one of few countries whose local content industry is strong enough to resist Hollywood dominance. However, the Bollywood content industry's heavy reliance on the large local market is what prevents Bollywood content from being more appreciated abroad.

This is not the case in Korea, where the local market is not large enough to support the local content industry and the local producers must export to sustain production. This led to customization of Korean content to make sure it sells abroad. Japanese content is not as popular as Korean content abroad because the Japanese domestic market is large enough to support Japanese content industry, thus Japanese content has not been adopted to win foreign audiences. The sole exception is anime, where the broadcasting rights for anime is so criminally low that it is not possible to recoup the investment from Japanese domestic markets alone and must export. This is why Japanese anime is still dominant and is highly competitive overseas, because the tough domestic market condition forced Japanese anime to become good enough to sell overseas.

Bollywood contents don't really click with overseas audiences yet, and this is where the Bollywood studios must do research on how to appeal to non-Indian audiences. Once Bollywood studios figure out the formula, I don't see why Bollywood movies and dramas can't sell outside of South Asia.

 

[JayAtl]

on behalf of all indians,
i would like to apologize to south korea

LOL , that was too funny.

 

[Korean]

LOL , that was too funny.

Bollywood has one thing that its competitors, namely China, doesn't have; the creative freedom. Make war movies about the exploits of Indian warriors during WW II and it would sell. After all, Koreans can make a movie about Korean Nazi in the battle of Normandy, so why India cannot?

 

[Arya Desa]

Why do you apologize?

India is one of few countries whose local content industry is strong enough to resist Hollywood dominance. However, the Bollywood content industry's heavy reliance on the large local market is what prevents Bollywood content from being more appreciated abroad.

This is not the case in Korea, where the local market is not large enough to support the local content industry and the local producers must export to sustain production. This led to customization of Korean content to make sure it sells abroad. Japanese content is not as popular as Korean content abroad because the Japanese domestic market is large enough to support Japanese content industry, thus Japanese content has not been adopted to win foreign audiences. The sole exception is anime, where the broadcasting rights for anime is so criminally low that it is not possible to recoup the investment from Japanese domestic markets alone and must export. This is why Japanese anime is still dominant and is highly competitive overseas, because the tough domestic market condition forced Japanese anime to become good enough to sell overseas.

Bollywood contents don't really click with overseas audiences yet, and this is where the Bollywood studios must do research on how to appeal to non-Indian audiences. Once Bollywood studios figure out the formula, I don't see why Bollywood movies and dramas can't sell outside of South Asia.

Bollywood is watched by an equal, or even greater, amount of people outside India. The problem is that the people that watch them, primarly Pakistan, the middle east, Africa and Russia, don't legally purchase the films. They torrent them so revenue does not go back to the studios. One could only speculate how large of an industry it could be if these regions actually purchased the films.

 

[SinoChallenger]

Ban ki Moon's daughter married an Indian, calls grandson best "joint venture" between Korea and India

 

[JayAtl]

Ban ki Moon's daughter married an Indian, calls grandson best "joint venture" between Korea and India

what! no mention of nuclear bombs in a post.... holy crappola the boy is slipping

 

[Shinigami]

what! no mention of nuclear bombs in a post.... holy crappola the boy is slipping

account hacked...