INDYWOOD CALLING

Shyam Kurup is on a mission to take regional cinema to global audiences

- BECHU S.

When it comes to cinema, the Chinese have a complex way of arriving at closure: it is not enough for good to simply conquer evil; the bad guy should also accept his mistake before meeting certain death.

The Chinese also love it when female characters, powerful yet elegant, save the day. However, the communist nation is not very fond of same-sex themes, just as it is disinclined towards stories involving spirits or ghosts or time travel. Jana Gana Mana (2022), a courtroom drama, fits the bill. Before you wonder how the low-key Mollywood thriller made its way to dragon land, there is more.

In South America, people prefer survival stories that pit humans against nature's fury, which strikes at the core of their lived reality. No wonder, 2018, India’s official Oscar entry in 2024, was loved by audiences in Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia. It will soon be playing across 400 screens in South America, with releases in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Chile in the near future.

Uyare (2019), Devara: Part 1 and Ayalaan (both 2024) may have little recall value outside their states of origin, but outside India, these films have found a loyal audience. Uyare's heart-warming story of an acid attack survivor reclaiming the ruins of her dreams to pilot an aircraft found a connect with filmgoers in South Korea. The Portuguese watched Jr NTR's action extravaganza in Devara across 100 screens—the first time an Indian movie went beyond the two screens that would usually rely on the Indian diaspora to fill up the seats. Cambodians marvelled at a dashing youth from Kodaikanal and an alien becoming friends in Ayalaan—the first south Indian film to be released in the country.