One of Bollywood’s biggest stars says people illegally downloading his films helped grow his audience internationally, while technology is helping fans in India find new ways to watch his movies.<\/p>\n
Aamir Khan has produced, directed and acted in some of Bollywood’s biggest films including 3 Idiots, Lagaan, PK and Dangal.<\/p>\n
Khan is in Australia as the guest of honour for the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, which will feature a major retrospective of his work as well as featuring his latest film, Sitaare Zameen Par.<\/p>\n
While audiences have traditionally watched his work on big screens, he told ABC’s The World new audiences had found his films on smaller screens.<\/p>\n
He said his film 3 Idiots “went viral all over the place” thanks to people illegally downloading it.<\/p>\n
“My audience grew a lot in the east in countries like China, Singapore, and Japan, Korea,” Khan said.<\/p>\n
“It happened, quite honestly, thanks to piracy.<\/p>\n
“I’m really happy that it did because it connected me to a huge audience that was otherwise not familiar with my work.”<\/p>\n
Khan released his latest film, Sitaare Zameen Par, on YouTube for $2 per view. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Despite international audiences growing, he became increasingly concerned about the challenges Indian audiences faced accessing his work.<\/p>\n
He said there were roughly 9,000 cinemas for India’s population of 1.4 billion people.<\/p>\n
In comparison, there are about 35,000 in the United States and 90,000 in China.<\/p>\n
“Of these 9,000 [Indian cinemas] around half service the south languages, so for a Hindi film, you have roughly 4,000-5,000 screens available, too small a number,” he said.<\/p>\n
While initially believing building more brick and mortar theatres was the answer, he has since turned to the internet and YouTube.<\/p>\n
His latest film Sitaare Zameen Par (Stars on Earth) has been released on YouTube at a cost of 100 rupees ($2) per view.<\/p>\n
Films from his back catalogue are also expected to become available.<\/p>\n
He said increasing internet access in India and the growing number of electronic payments inspired the idea.<\/p>\n
More than 419 million people use the platform in India, making it YouTube’s biggest audience in the world.<\/p>\n
Industry estimates suggest that some 10-12 million people in India have a Netflix subscription.<\/p>\n
“As a creative person, I want my film to be able to reach everyone across the country in India,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Now is the time finally where my film can reach a large audience and I think that really helps cinema on the whole.”<\/p>\n
Pay-per-view could democratise Bollywood<\/p>\n
Indian cinema expert at London Metropolitan University, Sunny Singh, told the ABC the move could help democratise Bollywood for domestic audiences.<\/p>\n
She said ticket costs were increasing and theatres were closing in small Indian cities and that some cinemas had become vandalised for showing films deemed to be controversial.<\/p>\n
“This could be the silver bullet that shifts things \u2026 you’re basically widening the demographic for multiple reasons \u2014 economic, social [and] safety,” Professor Singh said.<\/p>\n
“If you get a pay-per-view \u2026 you’re watching it at home, you’re watching it in ways where you can have family around, you can also work with issues around safety and security.<\/p>\n
“Lots of parts of India are not conducive spaces for women in movie theatres, especially if it is past certain times.<\/p>\n
“It’s a rather unprecedented move, I can’t say it’s a smart move, but it’s a very interesting move and I’m very curious to know how it pans out.”<\/p>\n