Tuesday 15 / April / 2025
SHANGHAI — In a dimly lit cinema hall in Beijing, 23-year-old Aire from Kashgar clutches a pirated DVD of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, her eyes gleaming with the kind of fervor usually reserved for rock stars. She’s here to catch a glimpse of Shah Rukh Khan, affectionately dubbed “Sha Sha” by his Chinese fans, who was in town for the Beijing International Film Festival.
Halfway across the country, in Guangzhou, a middle-aged couple wipes tears as Dangal’s credits roll, the story of a father training his daughters to wrestle hitting a nerve that transcends borders. Indian cinema, once a flickering memory from the days of Awaara in the 1950s, has staged a roaring comeback in China, the world’s second-largest film market, raking in billions of yuan and turning Bollywood stars into household names.
The numbers tell a story of obsession. Dangal, Aamir Khan’s 2016 wrestling drama, grossed a staggering 1.299 billion Chinese yuan (CN¥) in 2017—equivalent to $196.89 million USD or 1,652 crore INR—making it the 16th highest-grossing film in China’s history and the fifth highest non-English language film globally. That’s over 50% of its worldwide earnings of $303.72 million USD (2,548 crore INR), a feat that left Hollywood executives blinking. Then came Secret Superstar in 2018, another Aamir Khan vehicle, pulling in 747 million CN¥ ($113.23 million USD, 949 crore INR), shattering Dangal’s opening weekend record. Even Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan joined the party, earning 285.6 million CN¥ ($43.31 million USD, 363 crore INR) in 2018 with its tale of a man reuniting a lost Pakistani girl with her family.
The craze isn’t new—it’s a revival. Back in the 1970s and ’80s, Raj Kapoor’s Awaara (1951) and Mithun Chakraborty’s Disco Dancer had Chinese audiences humming Hindi tunes. But after a lull, it was Lagaan in 2001, Aamir Khan’s cricket epic, that cracked open the door with China’s first nationwide release of an Indian film. Then 3 Idiots, also starring Khan, slipped through the backdoor via pirate DVDs, climbing to No. 12 on Douban, China’s IMDb equivalent, outranking all but one domestic film, Farewell My Concubine. By 2013, with China boasting 86,000 screens compared to India’s measly 10,000, the stage was set for Bollywood’s second act.
The money keeps rolling in. Take Andhadhun, a twisty 2018 thriller with Ayushmann Khurrana—it nabbed 325.3 million CN¥ ($49.31 million USD, 413 crore INR) in 2019. Hindi Medium, a 2017 social drama about education, scored 210.4 million CN¥ ($31.90 million USD, 267 crore INR) in 2018. Rani Mukerji’s Hichki, about a teacher with Tourette’s, added 149.6 million CN¥ ($22.68 million USD, 190 crore INR) that same year. Even PK, Aamir Khan’s 2014 satire on religion, pulled 118.2 million CN¥ ($17.92 million USD, 150 crore INR) in 2015. Sridevi’s final film, Mom, a revenge tale, hit 113 million CN¥ ($17.13 million USD, 143 crore INR) in 2019, while Akshay Kumar’s Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, tackling India’s sanitation crisis, earned 94.6 million CN¥ ($14.34 million USD, 120 crore INR) in 2018.
But the latest jolt came in 2024 with Maharaja, a Tamil action thriller starring Vijay Sethupathi. Released after an October 2024 deal eased a four-year military standoff between India and China, it raked in 78.3 million CN¥ ($11.87 million USD, 99.5 crore INR) in under two weeks—over a third of its global haul of 724 million INR ($8.63 million USD, 57 million CN¥) from India. That’s enough to land it among the top 10 Indian films in China, a list dominated by Hindi cinema but now cracking open for regional heavyweights.
So why the frenzy? It’s the stories, stupid. Dangal’s gritty patriarch pushing his daughters past societal norms mirrors China’s own wrestling with gender roles. Bajrangi Bhaijaan’s cross-border kindness tugs at universal heartstrings. “Indian films tackle social issues we relate to—family, struggle, hope,” says Lee Yang, a businesswoman. She points to a shared cultural thread: emotional depth, served with a side of melodrama, something Chinese audiences lap up after decades of state-approved stoicism.
There’s history here too. Older Chinese still croon Awaara’s title track, a relic of the 1950s when Indian films first charmed Mao’s China. Add a dash of mystique—India as the land of Journey to the West—and you’ve got a recipe for fascination. Zhang Yi, an analyst at iiMedia in Guangdong, calls China’s middle class and massive screen count a goldmine for foreign films. “If it clicks, the market’s limitless,” echoes Gopi Rokkam, a Noida based international trader. And click it has—especially when stars like Aamir Khan, the “king of the Chinese box office,” deliver.
Khan’s the undisputed champ. Dangal, Secret Superstar, PK—his films don’t just sell tickets; they spark cults. 3 Idiots became a pirated sensation, its DVD hawkers outpacing official releases. Then there’s Shah Rukh Khan, “Sha Sha,” whose Xinjiang fans greeted him in 2019 with a dark embroidered hat and a dutar, a Central Asian lute, during his Zero promo at the Beijing festival. “We bonded over his films in college,” Aire told the Los Angeles Times than, recalling dubbed Bollywood nights in Beijing. Salman Khan’s got his corner too, with Bajrangi Bhaijaan proving his pull, while Vijay Sethupathi’s Maharaja signals Tamil cinema’s arrival.
It’s not all smooth sailing. China’s censorship caps foreign films at 84 imports a year (28 from Hollywood in 2023), and domestic sci-fi like The Wandering Earth hogs screens. Indian films, lean on promo budgets compared to Hollywood, lean hard on word-of-mouth and killer plots. Timing matters too—Maharaja rode a wave of thawing ties after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping’s October 2024 talks in Kazan, Russia, pledging to mend a relationship frayed since the 2020 border clash. The Chinese embassy even cheered its success on X, a rare nod.
What’s next? 12th Fail, a Bollywood gem that wowed the Festival of Young Cinema Asia-Europe in Macau in January 2024, is gearing up for a big China release. Laapataa Ladies, India’s Oscar entry for 2025, dazzled the Shanghai International Film Festival in June 2024. Both hint at a pipeline that could keep the yuan flowing—assuming geopolitics and censors play nice.
For now, the Chinese are crazy for Indian cinema, and the feeling’s mutual. As Aire clutches her DVD and the Guangzhou couple debates Dangal’s ending, one thing’s clear: Bollywood’s found a second home, 4,000 miles from Mumbai, where tears, cheers, and cash registers sing in harmony.
