Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

What started as an innocuous experiment by the producers of Hollywood, when they released the film, it being the first to be released only in Hindi without having an original version in English also being released in India as MUSEUM KE ANDAR PHANS GAYA SIKANDAR seems to have met with a huge success. Buoyed by the success, and by the jingle of the cash at the box office, the SPIDERMAN-3, when it hits the screen in May 2007 in India, would herald a point of departure for the passionate viewers of the Hindi films. This is because, they have sort of forced the English film producers to step out of their ivory towers and to facilitate the films in the language of the masses, and not let it be a prerogative of the English speaking intelligentsia only.

Economics also governs the development, as the revenue that Hollywood earned in 2005, saw an increase of more than 35% in 2006, though it may be 4% of the overall revenue for Hindi Films, industry, for Hollywood this has opened a new window to make money. So the SPIDERMAN would be speaking in Bhojpuri and when he speaks in Bhojpuri then it is for sure that he would be getting the maximum responses and the catcalls, and Ravi Kishan has been selected as the voice for Spiderman, it being a smart move, as Ravi Kishan has already emerged as a face to be reckoned with in the Bhojpuri film world. It had to happen with Sony Entertainment, the producers of the films, as they being a company with managerial control being exercised from Asia, are in a better position to understand the Asian market.

The move is also smart from the fact that there are seven brands which are associated with the SPIDERMAN, which otherwise have an urban presence and have been fighting to break ground in the Hindi speaking world, but piggy-backing on the shoulders of SPIDERMAN-3 would be able to gain some recall and acceptability, the major brands being Yamaha, HDFC Standard Life Insurance, Baskin Robbins, Pidilite, etc.

Bhojpuri belt, is after all the most populous belt and with the families returning to their annual holidays in droves, to their native places, and they being able to see the films which they otherwise be seeing in their places of work in Metros, would themselves also emerge as the brand ambassadors for the films like SPIDERMAN to their brethren, as they enjoyed its enigma earlier. From this perspective the timing of releasing SPIDERMAN in Bhojpuri as well, is a marketing marvel. Apart from releasing SPIDERMAN-3 in English, Sony pictures is also for the first time releasing SPIDERMAN in four Indian languages simultaneously viz., Hindi, Bhojpuri, Tamil and Telugu. Interestingly enough, this would be probably the first Hollywood film to be released in Telugu officially, and this might have been prompted by the unofficial release of CASINO ROYALE in Telugu and the huge success that it attained.

Now the international studios are aspiring to foot map whole of the country and provide the experience of movie viewing of a different genre to the movie viewing public of the country. This is going to whet the appetite of the average moviegoer, and the Indian film fraternity would have to tighten their loin clothes and girdles to come up with the films of the same technical finesse and excellence as Hollywood is embarking to do for India.