Bollywood and bonhomie

Bollywood can now put up a good fight for the third slot against Korean, French and Spanish productions at the Chinese box office, which is ruled by Hollywood and local movies. Few Chinese directors have also praised their Indian peers for handling comedy well.

Still, it's hard to imagine how Bollywood would compete with Hollywood in filmmaking equipment, he adds. "But, it can work on good storytelling."

Many Chinese moviegoers are familiar with Aamir Khan and Hirani owing to the success of 3 Idiots, their 2009 Hindi movie on India's education system that resonated with young Chinese. It lampooned societal dependence on conventional exam as the chief marker of a student's ability.

What worked for Chinese audiences this time? I asked Hirani.

"Good stories travel irrespective of country, so the key challenge for Indian filmmakers will be to make good movies with an emotional connect to an universal audience," he told me via an e-mail.

Movie historians in Beijing complain that India doesn't do enough to promote its industry in China, the world's largest cinema consumer after the United States, and ordinary moviegoers say they find lengthy musical sequences in Hindi movies irrelevant.

Indians on the other hand say winning licenses for general screening of their movies isn't easy and some subjects are off-limits. China clears 34 foreign movies a year.

A Chinese colleague, who follows local and foreign movies keenly, doesn't think PK outshined 3 Idiots in content, but he links the fantasy movie's box-office success to marketing. "After all, Aamir Khan came (to China) this time."