New Delhi (Sputnik) — Tang Yungai or Sapna (her Hindi name), a Chinese reporter working with China Radio International’s Hindi service department, says that she loves India and has formally studied Hindi at a university.
“As a Hindi learner, I would just like to say that I love India and I traveled with many Indian people and after meeting so many Indian people I came to know that Indians are very honest and they are very good and that's why I love India so much," ANI quoted Tang Yungai, as saying in fluent Hindi.
Yungai, like many other fellow Chinese, seemed particularly fascinated with Indian cinema; her latest favorite movie was ‘Dangal’ starring Aamir Khan. A Bollywood flick which is typically released in just around 5,000 screens, could rake in big money in China, where Indian movies and TV series are gaining a huge following.
“People in China watched the film ‘Dangal’ and loved it here. Aamir Khan’s character was not handsome looking in the film, but the Chinese people still loved him,” she said.
Dangal was released in China as Shuai Jiao Baba (Let's Wrestle, Dad) on May 5 and has been dominating box office ever since, collecting a massive $200 million in box office collections. Forbes named Dangal the fifth highest earning non-Hollywood film in the world.
"Dangal’s success in China is very encouraging. Even if a Bollywood or other Indian movie is able to run even in 50% of theaters in China, it opens a massive opportunity. And we can’t ignore the fact that Dangal was not your typical Bollywood masala film. Its success comes from the strong script, realistic cinema. If there is an international audience, more filmmakers could experiment with bold and new ideas,” Anupam Shukla, Director, at Mumbai-based P&A Media Ventures told Sputnik.
Many Chinese movie distribution companies are entering agreements with their Indian counterparts to market these movies. The hiccup, however, remains the Chinese government’s restrictions, which prioritizes local content and limit the number of foreign films released in the country to 34 a year.
