BOI article on Hollywood and PC/Deepika

Baywatch which has huge hype (media hype) in India released in its domestic market on Friday and tanked badly. It is pretty much the same scenario as XXX - Return Of Xander Cage which again had huge hype in India but also tanked badly in the States and almost as badly in India. These films are getting huge hype in India as the media believes that mainstream actresses like Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone have crossed over to Hollywood with big films. This cross over story is loved by the media when in real there is no such thing.

The disastrous fate of films like Baywatch and XXX - Return Of Xander Cage in the US has nothing really to do with Priyanka Chopra or Deepika Padukone but more to do the fact that they are B grade films for the US market. This is where the problem lies as its very unlikely that an Indian artiste will get a good role in a real Hollywood film which has chances at the US box office, just like a big Hollywood star will not get a big role in a potential Hindi blockbuster. The cross over story has been there for years but has never really happened and won't unless the US box office is cracked. Hollywood is seen as the holy grail by the media in India and probably by some artistes in India but its not going to happen.

The importance of Hollywood by some in the industry can be seen that the flop director of films like Parinda, Kareeb, Eklavya etc etc actually made a film (Broken Horses) for Hollywood which turned out to be the biggest disaster in the history of cinema be that Hollywood, Indian cinema or any other cinema across the world. If we compare to this then Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone have actually done very well. Hollywood will remain a dream for Indian artistes until the core audience in the States which makes films like Titanic, Avatar and Star Wars such big blockbusters changes.

Baywatch grossed $18 million over its three day weekend ($22m extended weekend) in US / Canada while XXX - Return of Xander Cage grossed $20 million over its three day weekend and finished on just $44 million.

XXX - Return Of Xander Cage opened at 7.21 crore nett (first full day) in India and finished with 38 crore nett. These are low numbers but even these will be impossible for Baywatch to match.