Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna in Germany
This week there is only one Bollywood topic worldwide: Karan Johars Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna Release on August 11th. All over, as we read on several news pages, cinema halls are sold out. Reallly worldwide?
German speaking countries don’t have any KANK release yet. The situation is something between rights, dubbing and business - three things, we freaks don’t want to talk about. We just want to see movies as soon as possible. KANK, a movie to reach a lot of interested people on the screen (Shahrukh is still the only bollywoodstar known by non-bollywood people), is not available. Some lucky ones are going to Amsterdam looking it with dutch subtitles - better not to understand detais than miss the whole release. Others as Maria (shes some Shahrukh girlie) have well planned her holidays to see KANK in New York right now. But the majority has no chance to see legally anything. And that’s not good at all, neither for bollywood developement generally nor especially for cinema success of indian movies in german speaking countries. If some movie is dubbed month later less people will see it. We the people buy dvds as soon as possible, and some incorrigible ones will look out for pirated dvds. That all is clear. But RapidEyeMovies, rightholder for germany, doesn’t manage to make a german subtitled version and doesn’t allow the original one to be shown.
Others as Ashraf, the guy who brought bollywood to germany for many years can’t afford rights for such popular movies.
So we, the german community, discuss if germany is - in filmmakers opinion - still some bollywood developing country with less worth for rightholders, only good to get some fast money. On the other hand, if we look on dvd sales, bollywood in germany is a great dvd business. Many dvd releases manage to climb the ladder of sales.
Does bollywood in cinema not sell in germany? And does this affect bollywoods future in germany? If we talk with babasko or marco, there are neither big audiences in vienna or zurich cinema halls, only some hundred guys ‘n girls visiting movies in original audio with english subtitles. This does not make it necessary to focus on cinema releases, as long as bollywood on dvds sales hundred thousend times per copy.
But is it possible to survive a long time with delayed releases? Or is it counterproductive for whole fan commmunity? We freaks awaits the dvds. But also we don’t want to wait month.
Thats how it looks like in germany with the major cinema release KANK in germany. Sad, but the truth. Germany was for a long time spoilt with dubbed cinema. So only dubbed cinema sells. What future brings, we’ll see. Neither community nor rightholders nor publishers earn more in this situation. The only one lucky with that will be pirated copy sellers.
August 13th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
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August 13th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Doesn’t the dubbing bother you?
It even drives me up the wall if I see an Indian movie that’s been dubbed.
I love the sounds of Hindi and Tamil in the original, and then just muddle through with the subtitles.
Also, don’t know if it’s the same in Germany, but when I lived in Madrid and went to see any dubbed films, it soon became obvious that there were only about 6 people doing all the dubbing and so whether it was Denzel or Deniro, they both had the same “voice”, which just totally ruins the experience for me.
August 13th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Yep. Now everything seems to be working perfect right now. The last couple of days, I was finding it difficult to post comments, and was wondering what cud have gone wrong!! Great!!
And yes, Michael, saw ur gracious invitation to join u folks over here. Would certaimly love to, thanx!!
:)
August 13th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
Not to put salt in wounds, but since Michael asked, I’ll give a brief report here on the atmosphere in the theater here in NYC.
I was at the 2.45pm showing on Friday at the ImaginAsian theater, which was the first showing of the film in Manhattan (if you don’t could the screening that YashRaj Films did the night before exclusively for NON-Indian media outlets). There was a long line outside waiting to get in, and by the time the lights went down, every seat (the cinema hold 300) was filled.
The movie started a little late because of some glitch with the theater’s computer and the online ticketing system, so while they were sorting that out, they asked a few questions and gave away a few prizes (CD, DVD, or poster) to the first person to answer correctly. (Questions: What channel in NYC is ImaginAsian TV on? What’s the name of the first movie in the Munnabhai series? Who directed KANK?)
They also ran the trailers for Kabul Express and Dhoom 2 while the last people were taking their seats.
As for audience demographics, I’d say the gender ratio was 70% female, 30% male, and about 90% Indian versus about 10% non-Indian, agewise, I’d guess that about 50% or more fthe audience was between 20 and 40 years old.
The one big surprise I had was that this movie ran with no Interval, which, for such a long movie, was a pity. And it was disorienting, because you get used to the big dramatic climax just before the break, but KANK has so many, I kept expecting the word INTERVAL on the screen and it never came.
You could sense the expectation in the audience and there was noticeable reactions for a few things (special gues spoilers ahead): first, for all the references to Sexy Sam’s sex life, you could actually hear people gasp a bit and say “Oh!”, second, during the two musical numbers, when Kajol appears (Rock and Roll Soniye) and John Abraham (as the DJ in Where’s The Party Tonight) you could also hear people exclaim and say their names. Kajol got a bigger reaction than John. Finally, you could also hear a good bit of sniffling, as there are some tearjerker moments in the film.
People clapped when the film ended and the credits rolled.
Due to the fact that there was no intermission, quite a few of us made a beeline for the ladies room, so I didn’t get to hear a lot of post-film chat, and most of the woman on the queue were more focused on when their turn would come, so nobody was talking about the movie at all.
I don’t know if they skipped the Intermission because of the start-time delay, or because the cinema is aiming to attract a non-Indian audience, but I think the should include it, to give people a chance to be more comfortable in the 2nd half (stretch their legs, go to the loo, get some snacks).
I saw the movie with two girlfriends, both Mumbaikers, one who lives here, one who was on holiday, and they had mixed reax to the movie. They both felt it was too long and the slapstick comedy was too much. They also spotted a (non-Indian) woman wearing an Amitabh Bachchan shirt, jacket AND cap when exiting the theater! And they overheard one Angrezi telling an Indian woman who complained about the length and all the musical numbers “Oh, but that’s part of what it’s all about, you just have to accept it!”
Overall, I enjoyed the experience, but 4 hours is a long time to stay seated (when you factor in the movie time plus the time you’re there before it starts). I really wanted to see it as soon as I could when it opened.
Listen, on the lack of screenings in Germany, have you guys tried contacting the YashRaj Films people? I know in NY they’re a small team of people and take forever to get back to you if you’re not in an obvious position to be of any interest to them from a business perspective, but maybe the other overseas reps are less stressed out.
Is it a problem of small audience size? How large is the interest for Hindi movies?
August 13th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
The interest is quite big - and that is part of the problem. It used to be smaller companies and even individuals who brought the films to Germany (or Switzerland / Austria), subtitled in English, ideally on the day of the worldwide release. But since the potential audience got bigger in the German speaking countries, bigger companies stepped up to claim the rights. In the case of KANK, it seems Rapideyemovies wants the best and biggest release possible, which probably means German subtitled prints.
If they\\\’d allow an English subtitled release first, they would divide the potential audience into two parts and therefore a) have to advertise twice and b) would not the same impact in the charts. I have a feeling that the film would break the top 10 in Germany with a good, countrywide release with German subtitles. That would be a first (\\\”Kuch Kuch Hota Hai\\\” made No.1 in the DVD charts, but there\\\’s no such impact yet in cinema halls yet). But I am not sure if REM will try this approach or if they go for some kind of road show which they did with past releases. Since they need so much time, I really hope they go for a big release - otherwise there will be even more frustration since some cities will have to wait even longer.
Just to complete the picture: We Swiss will probably get the same release date. The local distributor Cinedrome, as far as I know, will have to follow REM\\\’s plan. They usually go for an English subtitled early release.
To complete this rather heterogeneous post
I\\\’d like to post the audience numbers in Switzerland (7 million inhabitants) for some Bollywood or India related films with language / distributor information attached. They show that if you go for a big, German subtitled (early) release, your chances of scoring nice numbers are a lot better. I\\\’d have loved to see how much KANK would do with a countrywide subtitled release - but alas, I guess it will not happen.
Monsoon Wedding 74.646 (German subtitles, big distributor)
Lagaan 51.999 (German subtitles, big distributor)
Water 24.352 (German subtitles, big distributor)
Devdas 23.013 (German subtitles, big distributor)
Main Hoon Na 3.135 (English subs first, later German, Cinedrome)
Paheli 1.761 (English subtitles, Cinedrome)
Rang De Basanti 1.656 English subtitles, Cinedrome)
Krrish 1.564 (English subtitles, Cinedrome)
Veer-Zaara 761 (late release, as far as I remember)
August 13th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
thanks, marco, but waiting doesn’t solve the problem. what you’ve called divide the potential will happend either this or that way: cause there will dvds available soon. and then, there will happen exactly what will happen with an early english subtitled movie release. don’t you think so?
August 13th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
Of course, that’s exactly the flip side. Their release plan makes sense but it only works when they act quickly. Otherwise the black market will fill the gap - and that’s in nobody’s interest.
PS: That quoting in my posting didn’t work. Did that screw up the whole thread now? Sorry!
August 13th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
I can’t really decide how to feel about the delay - of course, I’d like to see the film as quickly as possible, but then again I think REM are trying to reach a much larger audience this time than they did with their previous releases. And that would be a really good thing because it would pave the way for “normal” cinematic releases instead of the special screenings with only one or two copies of the film shown at the same time. This could be a real improvement especially for people outside the few cities where Bollywood films have been shown so far. Now, I’m not really convinced that KANK will get a very wide release, especially because it’s most probably subtitled instead of dubbed because the German mainstream audience is really not used to subtitles.
) so I can understand REM’s reluctance to do that again.
On the other hand, Michael’s concerns are justified - the pirated DVDs will be out next week (I still wonder how these people manage to get huge amounts of pirated DVDs shipped to Germany in no time at all while my orders from the US or India always take ages before they get through customs …) and most of the South Asian audience will have seen the film pretty soon after that.
In my opinion, REM will definitely need very good promotion, a wide release which reaches a larger audience than before and they will have to show the film before the official Indian DVD is can be ordered if their KANK release is to succeed.
Lately the actually tried to show some films (e.g. Veer-Zaara and Rang De Basanti) at the same time as they were released in India/worldwide with Englisch subtitles and for a second time with German subtitles at a later date. In Munich at least those screenings with German subtitles weren’t very successful (there were about 6 people in RDB - but then again that release coincided with the World Cup and brilliant weather
@Filmiholic:
As for the dubbing, most people in Germany are just so used to it that they won’t even consider watching anything with subtitles. And of course, they don’t really notice that they’re missing anything. I personally think dubbing is rubbish. Once you know how an actor really sounds and once you’ve realized the way different modes of speech are used in the original, dubbing just sounds far too fake and lacklustre. For example, most of the time accents are eliminated in the dubbed version because in Germany accents are very often used for caricature and so the different accents used in Englisch language films can’t really be imitated without sounding ridiculous. And then there’s the problem that most speakers just have no chance to get even close to the actor’s performance even if they are really good actors themselves.
What I find very funny is the reaction that the German versions of Indian films met at the beginning. The dubbings, which are actually quite OK, met with huge criticism because most of the audience discovered for the first time the difference between an original (subtitled) version and a dubbed one and so were quite shocked by that.
Ok, this is a really long comment - so I’ll stop rambling now