Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma's new movie about a past famous wrestler making a comeback titled "Sultan" is set to be released on Chinese theatres starting on August 31.
"Sultan" is produced by Yash Raj Films and has been picked up by E Stars China, the indie distributor behind many of the other Indian movies in China. According to Yash Raj, "Sultan" will be released on 11,000 screens in China with about 40,000 screenings per day.
For the past two years, Indian movies continued to be successful when it comes to theatrical release in China. Moreover, most movies have been described as "content-driven" titles rather than "star-driven" and Masala movies from Bollywood.
Last year, Aamir Khan's "Dangal" was reported as the biggest Indian movie success which earned $193 million. That success inspired the release of more unlikely titles including "Hindi Medium" and "Ek prem Toilet." "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" in March this year also became the first Salman Khan movie to get a release in China with fellow superstar Aamir Khan having until then been the most successful Indian actor in China.
"China is without doubt the new frontier for Indian cinema today, and our collective successes there ratifies the belief that art has no boundaries [or] borders. Our strength has always been to tell emotional human stories, and humans are the same everywhere so it's very encouraging to see this connect," said Avtar Panesar, VP of international operations at Yash Raj.
"Every time a film releases and newer set of audiences see it, you get a different perspective altogether. China is a fast-growing market for Indian cinema. I'm really excited and looking forward to people's reaction to 'Sultan' in China," said the film's director, Ali Abbas Zafar.
