This Bond Speaks Tamil

After being dubbed in regional languages,popular Hollywood films are finding newer audiences on the small screen.

Written by Jaskiran Kapoor
December 16, 2011 03:23 AM IST

3 min read

Fridays in November were special. Not only did they Bond with the best,but they gave Indias Hindi belt a taste of the worlds favourite spy,James Bond. Set Max channel kicked off their film festival titled Bond Shukravaar,bringing to the small screen a selection of the best of Bond movies in Hindi. Around the same time,UTV audiences were spoilt for choice with not one,but two channels UTV Movies and UTV Action airing Hollywood blockbusters dubbed in Hindi.

UTV Action,in fact,showed popular movies such as Kung Fu Hustle,Salt,Angels and Demons,Resident Evil-Afterlife,Karate Kid and Hancock on their Diwali Action Daredevils,a 20-day festival of Hollywoods action blockbusters. While Paramount tied up with Viacom18 to bring in their films to a Hindi-speaking audience,along with exclusive film merchandise,the broadcasting arm of UTV associated with Warner Bros International Television Distribution for the telecast rights of power-packed blockbusters. Through this deal,UTV Action and UTV Action Telugu will have access to respectively 60 and 50 titles annually from the Warner Bros library.

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Research showed us that action as a genre has no language barrier. Be it English,Hindi or regional films,action movies get a better response as compared to other genres, says Sameer Ganapathy,Business Head,UTV Movies and UTV Action. Neeraj Vyas,EVP & Business Head,Max,also has similar argument. There is a significant viewership for Hollywood movies when made relevant to the Indian audiences, he says.

Analysing the tremendous growth experienced by the factual entertainment genre in 2011,Discovery Network India launched Discovery Channel Tamil (DCT) last August. More than just a local feed with dubbed programming,DCT shows are scheduled as per the Tamil viewers preference. Post the launch of DCT,Discovery Channels rank moved up by 31 positions .

As TVcustomises content to suit the desires of target audience,theres a shift towards a strong regional base,in programming as well as distribution. According to Ganapathy,the growing viewership of dubbed films across Hindi movie channels and across Hindi-speaking markets is a proof of it.

With Hollywoods share of domestic box-office collections expected to grow by 20-25 percent this year from 14 percent in 2010,one can assume this trend will also rub off on the small screen programming.