Going, going, gone

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: Don’t get taken in by surging crowds at Bollywood awards nights in South Africa to get a peek at the Indian film industry’s A-listers. Don’t get taken in by the fact that African night club DJs do play a mean mix of Vishal Bhardwaj’s Dhan Te Nan! Don’t get taken in by local South African dailies covering Bollywood gossip or of filmstars attending the Indian Premier League. Shah Rukh Khan and Shilpa Shetty may be a draw, but, sigh, not their films. Fact is, Africa is slipping down the pecking order for Bollywood films for various reasons.

Consider this: the latest Bollywood big-budget film, Blue, was released with 2,000-odd prints worldwide, but Shemaroo Entertainment, which distributed the film overseas earmarked only five prints for the Africa market. “Africa is a small market for us,” admits Hiren Gada, Director, Shemaroo Entertainment.

Prod him for a break-up, and he points out that of the five prints of Blue that were released, only two were for South Africa and three were for Kenya and Tanzania.

And yet, there’s a huge Indian population in South Africa, and both nations share a history of struggle going back to the time when indentured labour from India moved to South Africa. Indians now comprise 2% of South Africa’s population, but not many turn out to watch Hindi movies at the local multiplexes.

The last film that did well in South Africa was Race, which was partly shot there. “For the past few months the theatrical business has declined to a large extent,” says Amrita Pandey, VP, international distribution and syndication, UTV Motion Pictures. So, while Race, released last year in March, earned $95,000 at the Africa box-office, films such as Kismat Konnection did $45,000 worth of business and Ghajini $55,000, but Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminay, released this year, earned only $25,000 at the local BO.

“Perhaps, Kaminey was too dark and not a SA kind of film, but theatrical admissions have slipped drastically,” says Pandey. Analysts said Bollywood distributors are concentrating on other emerging markets like countries in Europe or even the untapped Far East even as Africa is struck off the priority list.

The other reason why the South Africa market is not getting enough returns for Bollywood is because of low ticket prices. “Most of the time ticket prices have to range between $2-$4,” points out Pandey, adding, “In Australia we can charge 8 dollars.”