Indian footprints on global film market, bleak: Gaurang Jalan

Cairo: Gaurang Jang, who is the designated representative for the Indian films in Cairo film festival says despite being making 1000 films, Indian footprint in the global market is bleak.

Jalan is the adviser & representative of the Festival International du Film d'Amour de Mons (MonsInternational Love Film Festival).

"In the global context, Indian footprint is small. Though we make over 1000 films, Indian films are mostly seen by the Indian diaspora. We have to focus on global content. We have to focus on a niche audience.

"We have to connect with them with a world story," Gaurang told PTI during his recent visit to the city.

This year two Indian films, "Majhi the Mountain Man" and "Rangrasiya", were selected in the year's Festival International du d'Amour de Mons.

"We can actually send a lot of films once the appetite picks up and festivals pick up. But for French speaking places and Spanish speaking countries, we have to arrange for French subtitles and Spanish sub-titles where English will not work. In Cairo, we are doing Arabic sub-titles and that clicked."

Jalan was instrumental in releasing "Chennai Express", "Krishh 3", "Dhoom 3" and "Happy New Year" at the festival theatres in Egypt.

"The new generation (in Egypt) love to watch our kind of films. Aamir (Khan), Shah Rukh, Salman Khan are liked by them very much. Mr Amitabh Bachchan is still very popular. Among present age actors, Irrfan Khan has a wide fan following. The new generation is liking our stars now."

"In Cairo, the situation is unlike Belgium and some other French/Spanish-speaking nations as all Indian films are subtitled in Arabic and the blockbuster genre films by the popular stars are screened in theatres and local channels which draw from Indian showbiz content," he said.

When asked about the most important factor in selecting an Indian film to the prestigious film festivals, Jalan said, "Our jobs as representatives is to send the best film every year."

The Cairo film festival consists of two segments, the children's section which will be screened in March this year for which a number of Indian entries have been sent. The other section will take place in November-December.

"Several of our (Indian) films had been going to Cairo since 2001 and the package now consists of different Indian languages Punjabi, Bengali, others besides Hindi," he said.(Inputs from agencies)