S.S Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Beginning will release next month in China in nearly 5,000 theatres. International distributors E Star Films will release the film in Mandarin and Cantonese. E Star Films had previously released Aamir Khan’s PK. Baahubali has already made over Rs.650 crore worldwide from its first theatrical run in India and a few other countries. The sequel to the film resumes shooting in November, with 40 percent of the film already complete.
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PK has been the highest-grossing Indian film in China with over $20 million, after a release in 4,500 screens. According to a Xinhua report quoting Wang Fenglin, vice president of the Chinese Film Producers Association, imported films make up almost 50 percent of the Chinese market. With an annual increase in theatres by 30 percent, he said the Chinese film market would overtake the US market to become the largest in the world by 2018. Since the release of Raj Kapoor’s Awara (1951), Indian films have had a market in China. In fact, Bollywood films in particular are so popular that some of the songs have been used as ringtones.