Hollywood goes Bollywood as US studios target India filmgoers

Twentieth Century Fox had almost as much success in India with a Hindi film that had no special effects as with James Cameron’s worldwide blockbuster “Avatar.” That’s a lesson for US studios on how to compete in the world’s most prolific movie market.

News Corp’s Fox, Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. are using local talent to produce Indian-language films as they try to crack a market that sold more than 3.2bn movie tickets last year - more than double the US and Canada combined. Ticket sales are expected to grow to 130bn rupees ($3bn) by 2013 from 87.8bn rupees last year, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Hollywood studios realize that if they want to increase their revenue, they are going to struggle to do that in America,” said Mike Ellis, Asia Pacific president for the Motion Picture Association. “Nearly every single studio is already in India. They are definitely here for the long haul.” “My Name is Khan” grossed $23m in India, just behind the $26m earned by “Avatar.” It tells the story, in Hindi and English, of a Muslim in San Francisco at the time of the September 11 attacks. The production by Fox-Star Studios India Pvt. and two Indian companies is the highest-grossing domestic film this year in India.