Aamir Khan’s Dangal becomes the highest-grossing Indian movie in China

The Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal on Tuesday became the highest grossing Indian movie in China, making more than $18 million (Rs 116 crore) in less than five days.

The sports movie with a social message broke the record of PK, another Aamir-starrer, which had done well two years ago.

Dangal released in about 7000 screens across China on Friday after Wanda Cinemas, the owner of the largest number of screens worldwide, decided abruptly not to show the movie at the theatres it had allotted.

No reasons were given and speculation was rife in Chinese social media that the decision would have been triggered by business rivalry in China.

Rumours were also making rounds that the decision taken by Wanda Cinemas had to do with its projects in India hitting roadblocks and not taking off.

A number of emails sent to Wanda Cinemas haven’t got a response.

Despite the blank out by Wanda, the movie has done and has certainly got China’s urban audience talking.

The movie continues to be a hot topic of discussion on Weibo with thousands of online users praising its theme and acting, especially that of Aamir.

Many users rued that China doesn’t make similar movies with social themes, talking about issues that impact people’s lives.

The movie is also doing well because of the “word-of-mouth” phenomenon.

Both critics and audience reviews have been universally positive and many took note that it was a departure from the routine “song and dance” movies from Bollywood.

Aamir’s high-profile promotional tours in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, helped in Dangal’s promotion; his public events were packed in all three cities.

A few of China’s top film stars also promoted the movie on social media including actor Yao Chen who has millions of followers on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.

The movie has become a talking point among a wide range of urban Chinese – students, academics, government officials, journalists and those doing white collar jobs.