I am glad Mr. A.R. Rahman received the Oscar. Although I agree with people who say this is not the best of his work, he deserves world wide recognition. And I am happy for the lyric is written by Gulzar Sahib. I interviewed him when he came to Japan.
My friend(Japanese man) publishes a free Bollywood magazine to cultivate the Bollywood awareness in Japan. I met some people from the industry by translating the interviews. Since we have no competitors it's not difficult to get appointment. I also write some articles.
I guess Japan is the only country that doesn't show any Bollywood films at movie theaters and no rental DVD shop carries it even though they carry Uzbekistan or Iranian films.
Several attempts were made in the past. "Hum dil de chuke sanam"and "DDLJ" were promoted and screened but failed in the box office. Years ago, Rajinikanth's Tamil film became a hit and still some people are enthusiastic as cult fans. However, only a handful of small theaters show it if they ever show it.
Possible reasons,
- Language problem
Japanese people are bad at foreign language. We are islanders and foreign language never became prerequisite of life. So the subtitle in English is out of question. I think Hindi is very informative language and it can convey a lot of contents in one breath of line. That's why English subtitles are so fast even I have to stop the DVD to read once in a while otherwise I can't watch actors at all. Japanese language is opposite. It takes 4 syllables just to say "Main(I-Watasiwa)". I think it's necessary to dub adequately in order to make Japanese watch Bollywood films. Like SRK became an icon in Germany is because they had superb voice over actor. Once they are fond of the film, they would probably want to listen to the original actor's voice.
- Japanese are busy
Bollywood films are long. But these days, it's getting shorter. However, I love the lengthy films and I don't welcome the trend.
- We only followed what Americans like.
It's also going off the track these days. We watch Asian films and the Arabian music is popular here too. Box office record of Hollywood films are declining.while Japanese films are increasing.
I think there is a chance if only proper promotions are done.....
Just then! I heard a news that CC2C will be officially screened in 2 theatres from May. Only 2 theatres and only CC2C....well, better than nothing.