At India’s inaugural WAVES (World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit) in Mumbai, Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan highlighted the striking cultural similarities between Indian and Chinese audiences as a foundation for deeper collaboration between the two film industries.
Khan’s films have been phenomenally successful in China, including “Dangal,” which grossed some $193 million.
“The cultural flavor in China, the emotions of the people in China, they’re very similar to the emotions of Indians,” Khan said during a panel focusing on China at WAVES. “The Chinese audience reacts in a very similar way to content the way that Indians do. That’s what my experience was when I was watching a number of my films on the screen in China, and the audience was reacting to ‘Dangal’ – there was absolutely no difference between an Indian audience reacting to the film and a Chinese audience, almost identical, the reaction.”
Khan said that collaboration between the two countries represents an opportunity. “I think that whether it’s creatively, whether it’s on an emotional level, or whether it’s even from a business perspective, I think it is only a win-win, if we collaborate with China,” he said. “If you look at an film Indo-Chinese film, if you have a star from China and you have a star from India, that’s roughly half the population of the earth,” he noted, adding that both countries are ancient civilizations with rich histories that can offer much to each other.
The panel, which included Shanghai-based Indian producer Prasad Shetty, Hong Kong filmmaker Stanley Tong, and Hong Kong director-producer Peter Chan Ho-sun, explored various avenues for increasing Indo-Chinese film cooperation.
Shetty reinforced Khan’s observations about shared values. “The way human emotion works, the way family emotion works, the way the value system about parents aspiring for their kids to be successful, worried about their marriage… it’s very similar,” he said. Shetty suggested that Indian filmmakers have a significant opportunity in China by telling stories authentic to Indian culture, as the emotional resonance translates effectively.
Stanley Tong, who has shot three films in India including “The Myth” and “Kung Fu Yoga” with Jackie Chan, spoke about his fascination with Indian architecture, martial arts, and culture that inspired him to film there. “Indian film always [is] about family value, friendship, love and social issues. All of these issues really resonate to the Chinese audience,” Tong said.
Chan, whose musical “Perhaps Love” utilized the services of top Indian choreographer Farah Khan, underscored looking beyond simply inserting stars from each country into formulaic productions. “We should make the movie that we believe, we love. If it’s a local movie, make it local,” he said, adding that “local is global” when stories connect emotionally with audiences.
The panelists agreed that one immediate action point could be establishing an Indo-China film festival with events in both Shanghai and Mumbai to facilitate interaction between creative communities from both countries.
Throughout the discussion, Khan repeatedly emphasized that successful collaboration must arise organically, particularly through writing and story development. “For me, I have to say that the way I approach cinema and approach films that I work in, it has to be a very organic process,” he said.
The panel was part of the first WAVES summit, which brings together stakeholders from various entertainment sectors to explore collaboration opportunities in the rapidly evolving global media landscape.
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