PK breaks box-office records in China

Barely three days after its much-anticipated launch in China, Rajkumar Hirani’s Aamir Khan-starrer PK is already breaking box-office records for a Bollywood film in the country.

As of Monday, the film had raked in 35 million yuans (`35 crore) in just three days after its Friday launch.

“This is record-breaking for an Indian film in China,” Gu Wancheng, partner (market strategy) for NPRG, the Chinese firm which introduced the movie to distributors here, told Mail Today.

Gu said prior to PK, the top-grossing Indian film was Dhoom 3. That film took in 19 million yuans through its entire release in China. “PK had made that amount by its second day alone,” Gu said.

Not only that, at the domestic box office, PK has now surpassed every Chinese film currently showing, and is second only to Avengers: Age of Ultron.This weekend, PK even outdid Avengers in terms of occupancy, taking the number one spot with 25 per cent. The film currently has 18,000 shows in China.

Gu said the two main reasons behind PK’s success were a high-profile launch involving Hirani, Aamir Khan and Vidhu Vinod Chopra in Beijing mid-May -rare for a Bollywood film in a market it has long ignored – and “very good reviews” in recent days that have driven audiences.

Aamir’s popularity in China has, no doubt, also helped the film. Hirani’s 3 Idiots was a cult hit in China, though it was released more than a year after it first went viral through Chinese online movie-sharing websites.

Chinese filmgoers have even taken to asking why Chinese directors were unable to produce films that were as creative. “I have to say Indian films are so much better than Chinese films,” wrote blogger Karem on Chinese Twitter equivalent Sina Weibo, “PK is an Indian film that is so comprehensive. After the first half, I thought it was a comedy. After the second, I thought it was a critical film, and then it ended as a love story.”

The film’s critical take on religious issues has also struck a chord in China, which is officially atheist, but is currently grappling with resurgence in spiritual practice. Zhan Tai Feng praised the film’s “tremendous courage” to take on a difficult topic “in a religious country like India”.

Another source of praise was the casting of popular Chinese actor and comedian Wang Baoqiang, who provided the voice-over for Aamir’s character. Wang’s distinctive provincial dialect – not dissimilar from Aamir’s delivery in the film – won plaudits. “I almost cried several times when watching PK,” said Wan Xiaoyun, “but Wang Baoqiang still made me laugh.”