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Join UsBollywood superstar Aamir Khan’s Dangal has grossed over Rs 200 crore in China within the first week of its release, becoming the first Indian film to achieve the feat in the country. The movie, released in around 7,000 screens in China as “Shuai Jiao Baba” (“Let’s Wrestle, Dad”), had raked up 216 million yuan (over Rs 201 crore) by Friday evening.
The movie, which is about a gritty wrestler from small town training his daughters to become world-class wrestlers, has already broken the record of “PK” which earned Rs 100 crore in China.
China is still viewed to be a patriarchal society but the masses have connected with Dangal. Aamir is among the most popular Indian actors for the Chinese who also are fans of South Koreans artistes. “All those issues touched on in his works also exist in China, but no Chinese has ever made that type of film,” Wu Qian (pseudonym), a 29-year-old fan of Aamir, was quoted as saying by Global Times.
Just last month, Aamir and “Dangal” director Nitesh Tiwari were in China to promote “Dangal”, which officially opened this year’s edition of the Beijing International Film Festival.
“They received a tremendously positive response from the audience, press and trade there,” Amrita Pandey, Vice President, Studios, Disney India — the movie’s co-producer said.
For an audience heavily fed on action-oriented films, “Dangal” could be a dekko into the world of wrestling in Indian hinterlands, very powerfully brought out on the screen by a cast led by Aamir, and including Sakshi Tanwar, apart from debutantes Fatima Sana Sheikh, Sanya Malhotra, Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar.
The film features Aamir in a diametrically different character from his part in “PK”, which saw him play an alien. The Rajkumar Hirani directorial had minted over Rs 100 crore in China with a release across 4,000 plus screens. Raj Kapoor’s “Awara” was perhaps one of the earliest introductions to Indian cinema in the country.
