Thousands of Germans queued up for hours in sub-zero temperatures to watch My Name is Khan at the recently held Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival and broke into thunderous applause inside the theatre as soon as they saw, 'Dharma Production' on screen!
A sight which caught festival delegate Dorothee Wenner by surprise. "I have never seen a German audience express themselves like that over the name of a production company!"
When Germans, known for their reserve, go berserk inside a movie theatre for a Bollywood film, it is time to sit up and take notice. Wenner, in fact, finds many German movie buffs, reacting in a whole new way, 'a typical Indian way' as a result of a Bollywood craze that has taken the German cinemaspace by storm over the past six years.
Today, Hindi films are all over Germany, from theatres to TV which are giving them primetime slots, to a flood of home videos which are readily available in the market.
The star or the centre of all focus is of course none other than SRK. When My Name is Khan (MNIK) was screened at the Berlinale in February, thousands of enthusiasts from all over Germany, converged at Berlin, throwing traffic out of gear. The more than 3,000 tickets for all screenings of MNIK, were sold within minutes. In fact, tickets were reportedly auctioned on e-Bay for e1,000 (around Rs 60,000) each.
"Bollywood is no more a niche choice, it is becoming mainstream and MNIK marks the beginning of the conquest of world popular cinema by Bollywood." says Hanns-Goerg Rodek, the film editor at Die Welt, a German daily.
Shah Rukh Khan remains the biggest craze, though Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan, too, have their following. "I like Aamir more," says Antje Glück, a research scholar at Freie Universität, Berlin. Cricket-lover Antje has watched Aamir's Lagaan (thrice), Rang de Basanti and The Rising with friends in Germany. But it was after watching Main Hoon Naa that she decided to learn Hindi.
"I want to watch the Bollywood movies in the original. Dubbed SRK is really funny!" says the 30-year-old. The leading lady for the moment is Kajol with MNIK, but Rani Mukherjee and Aishwarya Rai are also much loved with their films like Chalte Chalte and Dil Ka Rishta.
Although still hooked on to Hollywood, German audiences are getting more aware of Indian cinema and want more. Berlin-based Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art has lined up a series of Indian films to be screened at an ongoing event, 'Moving Politics: Cinemas from India' (June 27-Sept 29, 2010).
"This is an effort to bring all kinds of Indian cinema, including regional and modern, to the German audience," says Wenner, who is also a film curator. Cashing in on all things filmi, is Naseem Khan, publisher of Ishq, a Bollywood lifestyle magazine which the 31-year-old NRI launched four years ago and which sells 30,000 copies not just in Germany, but also in Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium, as well as online.
"The unique thing is that the local, German-speaking people have caught the Bollywood fever and its not just films, it's the Indian lifestyle as reflected in Bollywood, including food, clothes and travel, " says Khan.
Bollywood theme parties and special events — like the 'Ladies Night' special screening of MNIK at a Cinemax theatre a day before its release — are common. "Even learning Hindi and Bollywood dance moves is a craze," adds Wenner. While the cinema of Ray to Raj Kapoor was known, it was not until entertainment channel, RTL II, started telecasting Hindi films dubbed in German in primetime slots that Bollywood became a mass phenomenon.
The overwhelming response to Karan Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, the first film to be screened in 2004 set off a trend which just caught on big time. "We picked films sensing the factors responsible for that success: a love story, a colourful and feel-good-decor, opulent dance scenes and SRK," says Ronja Witt, spokesperson for RTL II.
The channel's programming is a mix of a lot of SRK films along with others like Roshan and Rai, saw it capture a sensational market share, especially with the female audience and what was dismissed as kitschy two decades ago became very 'in', says critic Rodek.
"There is a naiveté which is missing in Hollywood films which are still calculative, whereas these films are still very naïve in their emotions, besides being exotic," adds Rodex who also attributes the experimentation, time edits and entry of the Hollywood studios and their distributor strength too growing the phenomena.
"MNIK was 165 minutes in Berlinale and in cinemas it is 130 minutes long. They are cutting out the portions in a manner that the films retain the distinct their 'Bollywoodness' yet adapt to Western tastes. Kites, released in both in the short and long versions across global markets is another example of how Bollywood is trying to woo different kind of audiences," ends Rodek.
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