Thesis SouthKoreaIndianFilmsFutureMarket1

Master’s Thesis
SOUTH KOREA, INDIAN FILMS’

FUTURE MARKET
Graduate School, Catholic University of Korea

Department of Digital Media
Jinu Kunjumon Varghese
June 2013
1
Master’s Thesis
SOUTH KOREA, INDIAN FILMS’ FUTURE

MARKET

June 2013
2
SOUTH KOREA, INDIAN FILMS’
FUTURE MARKET
THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF KOREA
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
Master of Engineering
By
Seoul, South Korea
3
The undersigned certify that they have read this thesis and that in
their opinion it is satisfactory in scope and quality as a thesis for
the degree of Master of Engineering.
THESIS COMMITTEE
______________________________
Chairman Professor Im Haksoon
______________________________
Member Professor Kim Kyeong Ho
______________________________
Member Professor Yun Jeongu
2013 JUNE
The Graduate School

Catholic University of Korea
4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am what I am by the help of many. I am grateful to all those who have

shown me the path to tread upon. I thank my parents and family for what
they are to me.
For this thesis I am indebted to my thesis director Professor Haksoon Im and

other members of the committee Professor Kim Kyeong Ho and Professor
Yun Jeongu. It is their directions that blazed the beacon of hope in the
oblivion of cogitation. Also I thank Prof. Mari Kim for her pedagogic
excellence.
I am extremely thankful to all my Korean friends who helped to complete

my survey and interviews. I am grateful to Kwanghyun Jung, the president
of KOIFA.
My Media Department Mates Fr. Eby Sebastian and Kerwin Fortes had been
a great support and I always will be grateful to them.
Finally, above all, I am thankful to God to have me live in the media centric
world of 21st century. Rapidity of the Internet and the profundity of data
available search engines made my endeavour easy and accurate.
5
DEDICATION
My family, for fostering in me the passion to follow a dream.
All the kind-hearted university students in the South Korea
The Indian film industry, for capturing my imagination

from as far back as I can remember.
Above all this paper is for the greater glory of God!
6
Table of Contents
Title Page………………………………………………......ii
Thesis Submission Form …..………………….….…...….iii
Thesis Approval Form …….………..……………..……...iv
Acknowledgements………..…………………….…...…....v
Dedication………………………………….……….....… vi
Table of Contents………………...……….………….......vii
List of Figures………………………………………..........x
Abstract………….………………………….………….....xi
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………....11
Thesis Objective…………………………………………………14
Chapter 2 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……………...…….. 17
Literature review………………………………………………...21
Survey Analysis…………………………………………………24
Chapter 3 - BRIEF HISTORY OF INDIAN FILMS…………....…35
Silent Era…………………………………………………….…. 35
Talkie Era………………………………………………………..36
Golden Era………………………………………………………37
Modern Era (Globalizing Bollywood)……………….………….39
Conclusion………………………………………….……………44
Chapter 4 - INDIAN FILMS IN SOUTH KOREA-
…………...“YESTERDAY”……………………………………...45
Films and Korea (History of Korean films)…………………….45
South Korea- unknown land to Indian films……………………48
Emergence of Indian films in Korea……………………………50
Indian Film Association of Korea (KOIFA)……………………53
3-Idiots phenomenon……………………………………………56
7
Chapter 5 - INDIAN FILMS IN SOUTH KOREA-
…………..“TODAY”……………………………………………..64
Film Festivals…………………………………………………...65
Effect of Indian Films on Korean Society
(Indian foods, Dance, yoga and tourism)……………………….71
Chapter 6-INDIAN FILMS IN SOUTH KOREA-
…………“TOMORROW” (Future Market)……………….……...78
Business Perspective and the scope of collaborative productions78
South Korea as a Shooting Location of Indian Film……………82
Marketing Mix of Indian Films for South Korea……………….84
1. Actors-Role of the star……………………………………..85
2 Script/Genre………………………………………………..87
3 Release strategy………………………………………..…..88
CONCLUSION……………………………………………..….…91
BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………….………..……94
8
List of Figures
Survey results………..………………………….……………..…………..pg 27-35
KOIFA website’s home page …………..………… ……………...pg 59
3 Idiots movie poster…………………………………………………...pg 62
Box office result of 3-idiots …………… ………………………….pg 64
3 Idiots movie and TV program poster……………………....pg 67
“Raven” promotion in Busan, Haewondae…………………pg 74
Kim Jae-Hee Kathak dancer ……………………………………….pg 81
9
Abstract
With more than 1000 films produce annually, India is one of the top films
producing industry in the world. In recent years, there has been a growing interest
and awareness of Indian cinemas. Scholars and academicians are showing keen
interest in, and are actively involved in teaching and research on different aspect of
Indian cinema. But there is hardly a study conducted about Indian Films in North
East Asian countries especially South Korea. This thesis argues South Korea as a
possible future market of Indian films in the coming years by explaining the past,
present statuses of Indian films in South Korea. This thesis also explain the effect of
Indian films on South Korean society by analyzing the other aspects like popularity
of Indian restaurants, yoga, dance and emerging number of tourists to India. Also
by stating the tremendous effect of 2009 released Hindi (Indian National Language)
film ‘3-Idiots’ on South Korean student’s life, it unveils the fact that films are
playing an important role for the increasing popularity of the Indian culture
especially among youngsters. It concludes by forming a perfect Market Mix for
widening the market of Indian films in South Korean peninsula.
10
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
“In the golden age of Asia

Korea was one of its lamp-beares
And that lamp is waiting to be lighted once again
For the illumination of the East”
- Rabindranath Tagore
With more than 600 television channels, 100 million pay-tv households, 70000
newspapers, more than 1000 films produced annually; India is one of the biggest
culture content tycoons in the century. Indian film industry produce highest number
of films than any film industry in the world even more than Hollywood which
produce only 400 (2009) movies a year.1 Also India is the biggest country in terms
of number of theatrical admission (around 3 billion) in the world. “Every 3 months,
audiences as large as India’s entire populations flock to the cinema halls”. 2 India has
mainly 14 regional film industries in different languages. Among them, Hindi film
industry, popularly known as Bollywood is the largest contributor to the industries
revenue. Bollywood is the Bombay centred film industry which is also one of the
oldest film industry which dates back in 1896 when Lumiere Brothers showed their
11
The Guardian, Sunday 18 October 2009 14.33 BST
22
The Central Board of Film Certification, (CBFC) a government of India enterprise.
11
six soundless short films at Watson Hotel, Bombay. 3 Other major film industries are
Tamil (Kollywood), Telungu (Tollywood), Malayalam (Mollywood) which centred
in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kerala respectively.
The boundary of the Indian film market is not only limited to its domestic market,
but also it made its way to the outside India especially in large part of Middle East,
South East Asia, the UK, USA, Europe, Pacific and Caribbean countries. Nasreen
Munni Kabir, curator of Channel 4's annual season of Hindi movies, writes: "They
are unquestionably the most-seen movies in the world (watched) well beyond the
Indian continent and the diaspora, in such unlikely places as Russia, China, the
Middle East, Australia, Turkey and Africa. People from very different cultural and
social worlds have a great love for Indian popular cinema, and many have been
Hindi film fans for over 50 years”. Mao Tse-tung was a fan of Indian films
especially Bollywood films, as were millions of others in communist countries like
Russia and China.4 Earlier Raj Kapoor's (Actor and director) ‘Awara’(1951), Shri
420 (1955) and other movies created a major fan following in Beijing as communist
China and Soviet Union swayed to "Awara Hoon"(song in Awara). 4 Bollywood
was a globalised phenomenon long before our age of globalisation. In Europe there
is a growing interest among the distributors and broadcasters to look at the Indian
contents. In US, a record number of Indian films reached the blockbuster status in
the US in 2006 with half of the 14 foreign language films that grossed over US$
33
http://www.bollywoodvillage.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47
4
.Bollywood Scales the Great Wall of China- Spectrum- The Tribune -Sunday, November
25, 2012
12
2mn being in Hindi. No other language came close to contributing so many box
office hits to the list.5 Indian films also becoming popular among the indigenous and
non-Indian origin population in South East Asian countries like Singapore,
Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.6 In 2003 Indian films viewers reached 3.4
billion in all part of the world.7
South Korea, a small North East Asian country which is well known for its rapid
economic growth within a short span of years and also for its success in culture
content businesses.
After the Japanese colonization (1910-1945) and dreadful Korean War (1950-1953),
its skyrocketed economic growth, rapid urbanization, infrastructure development
and technical advancement tempted foreign countries to invest in South Korea.
USA was the major player in South Korea since Korean War. South Korean market
was the one of the most profitable market of Hollywood films for US. In 1988, a
change in the Korean policy lifted import restrictions on foreign films which were
resulted in setting up new branch offices of Hollywood companies on Korean soil.
Over the next few years Korean domestic film companies failed to compete to big
budget Hollywood films, reaching a low point in 1993 where Korean films made up
only 16 % of overall attendance figures. All the rest of the percentage was enjoyed
by Hollywood film companies.8 However since late 90’s, Korean film began to
5
.Kumar, A. (2006) Hindi films boom in US, 7 break $2mn barrier Retrieved on April, 14th
2006, from www.hindustantimes.com
6
.“Bollywood in Southeast Asia” article by Yogendra Singh
7
Indian diaspora constitutes more than 20 million people, settled in around 70 countries of
the world.
8
A Short History of Korean Film by Darcy Paquet
13
regained their market with the help of chaebol (large conglomerates). Even though,
with its highest number of cinema halls (CGV), advancement in the IT (internet),
strong piracy laws; South Korea is one of the most fertilized markets for any film
industry in the world including Indian films market.
Thesis Objective
The central objective of this research is to state that South Korea will be a potential
future market for the Indian films in the coming years. Even though Indian films are
growing phenomenon all over the world and many academic researches have
already conducted by many film and marketing scholars about the Indian films
markets and related topics; the lack of research on ‘South Korea, a market for
Indian films’ makes my research more relevant and worth in the current days. Thus
my research will also help Indian entertainment industries to set up a new market
for their films by making a perfect market mix for the Korean people.
In order to study Korean society and their consumption of Indian films in deep, I
have chosen a multi-perspective approach for my research. In the first approach, I
study audiences responses towards Indian films by conducting a survey,
investigating articles and blogs (‘Naver’ 9-popular Korean search engine) related to
Indian films, examining the discussion about Indian films on Social Networking
9
www.naver.com
14
sites like Facebook (Korea Indian Film Association-[KOIFA] Facebook page) 10,
also by interviewing the university students. In the second approach, I study the
current state of Indian films in Korea by finding out the number of hit films released
in Korea, number of box office hits in Korea, presence of Indian films in the famous
film festivals like Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Jeonju International
Film Festival (JIFF) by attending (JIFF-2013) those festival during Indian films
screenings, also by attending the Indian Film Festival 11 (Busan-2013, 4/26~4/26),
analysing the Korean newspaper articles and Naver film pages and finally by
interviewing the film distributers in Korea. In the final section, I try to make a
perfect market mix for the marketing of Indian films in Korea based on the findings
which I accumulate in the previous two approaches. Also I will states number of
related aspects which can be beneficial for both Indian and South Korean culture
content industries such as the need of collaborative efforts in the media sector which
also will be resulted into each country’s economic growths. Also I will state that
consumption of Indian films helps to promote Indian culture as well by cultivating a
perfect atmosphere for tourism, Indian foods, yoga, Indian language studies and
Indian dance.
A multi-perspective approach offers readers a holistic understanding of the
consumers as a market actor and a member of culture and society. According to the
AMA definition, consumer market refers to:
10
https://www.facebook.com/KOIFAs
11
http://iff.or.kr/sub02.php
15
An in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour that is more qualitative than
quantitative. Specifically, it describes the role played by the product (in this case
Indian films) in question in the life of its consumers-and their general stance
towards it including the way they acquire information about the category or brand,
the information attached to generic and specific values, attitudes, expectations as
well as the choice-making progresses. It refers to a holistic appreciation, which
used it to be traditionally split by market researchers and brand managers as
qualitative and quantitative research.
(American Marketing Association 2009)
By using this multi-perspective approach readers can get a holistic understanding of
the Korean consumers (viewers) and their attitudes, expectation towards Indian
films which will help the Indian film marketers a better understanding of socio-
cultural dynamics of market place behaviour. By broadening the focus of analysis
from the psychology of the individual Indian film consumers to the social
psychology and sociology of groups and communities (like Indian Film
Associations) and their local culture (unique Korean culture) helps to explore and
gain strategic insights about Korea as a future market for Indian films. So this kind
of multi-perspective interpretive marketing research well suited for gaining
consumer market insight and for developing customer oriented strategies in the
contemporary multicultural and continuously changing market environments 12. One
of the main advantage of this research is that the two year living experience in
12
Interpretive market research by Johanna Moisander and Anu Valtonen
16
South Korea and involvement in various projects activities like Film festival
volunteering and Film Supporters Association; helps me to gain many friends from
all around the Korea and to get chances to meet many film professionals and film
distributors in the South Korean film industry.
CHAPTER 2
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
As I mentioned earlier I use a multi-perspective approach to this research in order to
answer the thesis question whether South Korea will be a future market for the
Indian films or not. This kind of interpretive approach is argued to be well suited for
gaining consumer market insight and for developing customer oriented strategies.
Here I focus more a qualitative approach to my study than a quantitative approach.
Because since Indian films are very distinctive unlike other conventional types of
films of example Hollywood films, in order to find a new market in an entirely
different culture, marketers should understand the consumers and their attitudes,
expectation, factors which determine the decision making and also the society itself
especially the uniqueness of their culture, their style of mass media consumption
and the history of that particular society. Interpretative approaches to social inquiry
are generally based on the idea that the social action can only be interpreted by
17
contextualizing it in the cultural system of concepts, rules, conventions and believes
that give meaning to that action.13
As I mentioned earlier I have three approaches towards this research. In the first
approach, I study audiences responses towards Indian films by conducting a survey,
investigating articles and blogs (‘Naver’-popular Korean search engine) related to
Indian films, examining the discussion about Indian films on Social Networking
sites like Facebook (Korea Indian Film Association-[KOIFA] Facebook page) also
by interviewing the university students. In the survey my target group was
university students aged between 19 to 27. The reason why I chose this age limit is
that, unlike other countries; there is 2 years mandatory military service for male
students in South Korea. So usually after one year studying in university, they go to
military and do service there for two years. Once they finish their mandatory
service, they resume their study in the university. So there is a two years difference
in a Korean university student’s age unlike other countries. And also young people
are the main consumers of culture contents including films all over the world.
The South Korean telecommunications system is among the best, the most modern,
and the fastest growing in the world. With 14 million Internet users in 2000, South
14
Korea ranked third in the world after the United States and the United Kingdom.
15
In a nation with 81.1 % of internet users, the importance of blogs and social
13
Interpretive market research by Johanna Moisander and Anu Valtonen
14
Encyclopedia of the Nations Korea-South - Infrastructure, power, and communications
15
World internet status- Korea
18
networking sites is unquestionable. Naver is the most popular search engine which
holds 70% of market share at least since 2001 16. By constantly checking the Naver
Indian film page and the comments about various Indian films helps me understand
the Indian film audience in Korea. Also I analysed different Korean blogs about
Indian films. Unlike Google search engine, Nave has a different style. When you try
to search something first set of list are blogs. So blogs perform a great role in
getting information about a particular product; in this case, Indian films in Korea.
Now a day’s social networking sites are an essential part of one’s life. Here I
analyse the Facebook and Twitter page of Korea India Film Association (KOIFA-
the first and biggest Indian film community) in deep. The Facebook page of
KOIFA, 3,354 people have already liked it and Twitter page is rich with 10,217
followers and 3,451 tweets about Indian movies. Also articles in Korean
newspapers like Dongailbo, The Korea Herald, The Korea Times and magazines
about emergence of Indian movies was also study to a certain extent.
Seoul is the capital of the South Korea. Students from all around the country prefer
to choose universities in Seoul for their studies. So universities are like a hub of
entire Korea. In this scenario, the interview I conducted consists of students from
different province of Korea including Gyeonggi-do, Jeollanam-do, Gyeongsang-do
which make my interview more meaningful in a collective aspect. Two years living
and studying in Korea helped me to interact with Korean students more and helped
me to understand about the culture and life style of Korean people. Films as an
16
Wikipedia
19
interesting topic always come among our conversation including about Indian films
as well. That’s where I came to know more about their understanding about Indian
films and their perception.
In the second approach, I mentioned above that I participated in the various film
festivals. Film festivals are in a way pride of Korean film industry especially
internationally acclaimed festival like Busan and Jeonju film festivals, especially
their Indian film retrospective. Also participation in the Indian film festival in
Busan helped me to interview the audiences and helped me to get a clear idea about
their consumption of Indian films. From there I also got many chances to meet
many film professionals and film distributors including Indian film distributors in
Korea which gave me insights to the distributors’ perspectives towards Indian films.
Based on the qualitative data which I collected from above mentioned data
collection techniques, I create a perfect market mix for Indian films in Korean
market. In order to make a market mix, I researched film marketing techniques in
other countries which contributed many aspects in shaping (by shaping mean,
changes from today) Indian films according to the preferences of Korean audiences.
By considering and other sectors related to India and its culture, especially tourism,
Indian language studies, Bollywood dance and yoga, I try to add points to the topic
Indianization (spread of Indian culture) in South Korea.
20
Quantitative surveys and research offer little intelligence for managing the strategic
challenges and opportunities that will arise from the currently on-going
technological and cultural market transformations such as media convergence.
Interpretive approaches to marketing research are increasingly popular, particularly
in the field of consumer marketing. Another advantage of this approach is that they
help to understand the socio-cultural dynamics of marketplace behaviour.
Literature review
This paper is the pioneer in the study about Indian films in Korea. Before this
research there isn’t any study conducted on this topic except some articles on
newspapers. But there are numerous studies conducted about Indian films, the
Bollywood style, its international audiences etc.
One of the notable researches conducted about Indian films and Globalization is
Sharmistha Acharya’s paper “Bollywood and Globalization”. This paper explains
the impact of globalization on entertainment sector in India especially on film
industry. It also states how globalization affected Bollywood and how it deals with
the crisis of globalization. In short it examines the indirect and direct effect that
globalization has had on Bollywood. 17
Farrukh Dhondy’s paper “Keeping faith: Indian films and its world” gives a more
holistic understanding of how international audience conceive Indian films by
17
[ CITATION Ach04 \l 1033 ]
21
stating the first Indian films especially Raj Kapoor’s films which break the domestic
boundaries and became popular in the international arena. 18
MEGHANA DILIP’s paper “RANG DE BASANTI - CONSUMPTION,
CITIZENSHIP
AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE”.19 This research explores whether the consumption
of the film Rang de Bassanthi stimulated citizenship among young audiences and
caused an expansion of the public sphere in India by investigating blogs, discussion
boards and news reports. Also it investigates the link between the consumption of
RDB, citizenship (both on the Internet and in real life) and the expansion of the
public sphere in India.
Timm Neu’s research paper “ [ CITATION Tim \l 1033 ]” where he describes
deferent Copyright and Film Industry issues in international markets. It also states
the number of issues having in the international productions in the Indian film
market. 20
Andrian Mabbot Athique (university of Wollongong) paper [ CITATION andal \l
1033 ]. This also argues that Australian media environment is constituted by a
complex matrix of transnational cultural flows that spread beyond the boundaries of
18
[CITATION Far \l 1033 ]
19
[ CITATION Meg081 \l 1033 ]
20
[ CITATION Tim \l 1033 ]
22
nationalist discourse. It seeks to locate the cultural geography of Indian films in a
global context.21
Eva Losh (Technical University of Chemnitz), “the construction of social distance
through code-switching, an exemplary analysis for popular Indian cinema”-
explains the code switching of Indian films from Masala films to more realistic
based films by describing the films of Mira Nair. Also it sates the sociolinguistic
approaches to code switching and structural approaches to code switching of Indian
films. 22
Ashwin Puanthembaker (university of Allahabad) “We are like this only: Desis and
Hindi films in the diaspora” which develop a theoretical frame work and a set of
analytical tools that might help to understand how Hindi films are watched in the
Indian American diaspora and what viewers, situated in particular historical, socio-
political contexts, bring to bear upon their engagement with these films.
Sngitha Shresthova (university of Princeton) “Strictly Bollywood? Story, Camera,
and movement in Hindi film dance” explain about the ubiquitous presence and
under theorization which raises many questions about why these dances emerged as
a key ingredient of films, how their production is, how dance and cinematic content
21
[ CITATION andal \l 1033 ]
22
[CITATION Eva \l 1033 ]
23
has evolved over time and finally to set a foundation for an analytical frame work
23
for understanding dances in popular Hindi films.
Survey Analysis
The focus group of my survey is university students aged from 19 to 27. I have
chosen this age limit because unlike other countries, in South Korea male students
have to do two years compulsory military service which students usually do after
one year studying in the universities. Even though these students are studying in the
universities in the Seoul region, most of them are different parts of Korea. So in that
aspect my survey data consists of results from not only from Seoul region itself, but
also the rest of the region in Korea. Also Korea is a homogenous society unlike in
India where almost each state has its own culture, language and lifestyle where the
percentage of accuracy of the survey is very minimal. I have chosen online survey
because in South Korea the percentage of internet users is 81.1% and also the
approximate number of smart phone users is 30 million in 2012 24. Thus a country
like South Korea, web survey is always best chose because of its accessibility, less
time consumable compared to other forms of survey.
I have got 479 responses from the respondents of my survey. And these respondents
are just students, not any Indian film association members in order to avoid any
prejudice to the integrity of the results. For analyzing the survey data I am using one
23
[CITATION San \l 1033 ]
24
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2012/09/123_117820.html
24
way tabulation method which is most straight forward form of analysis, one that
often supplies the basic information need, is to tabulate result, question by question.
I will be analyzing each question by examining the frequency of the answers of the
question which is very simple and easy to understand.
Below shown picture is the graphical summary of the responses.
Figure 1. How many Bollywood movies have you been watched for last six
month? 2 - 191 (40%)

5 - 16 (3%)
More than 5 – 27 (6%)
None - 245 (51%)
From this we can understand that more than half of the respondents haven’t watched
any Indian films because of many reasons, but 40 % of respondents watched at least
2 films within 6 months. The rest 9% are active consumers of Indian films. Most
likely this 49% constitute a potential market for Indian films in South Korea.
What is your favorite Indian Movie?
25
The second question in the survey was what’s your favorite Indian film? 312 out of
479 respondents voted 3 Idiots (2009) as their favorite film. 105 responded My
Name is Khan (2010) as their favorite movie and 43 for Stanly’s tiffin box (2011),
10 for Slumdog Millionaire (2008 British movie about India) and rest of them voted
for other movies like Robot (2010), Billu Barber (2009), Munna Bhai MBBS (2003)
etc. From this it is evident that the popularity of 3 Idiots on South Korea.
Figure 2. From where do you watch Bollywood movies?

DVD – 94 (18%)
Theatre – 92 (17%)
Online -222 (42%)
Television (TV) -118
(22%)
Above graph depicts that 222 students (42%) watch Indian movie by online. 22% of
people (118) depended on TV to watch Indian films. There is a slight difference
only between students who watch Indian movie on theatre (CGV) and by
purchasing DVD which is notable.
Sharukh Kha - 74 (15%)

Figure 3. Who is your favourite Indian actor?
Amir Khan - 298 (59%)
Amitabh Bachan - 19 (4%)
Others - 115 (23%)
26
Above graph depicts that Amir Khan is the most popular actor (298-59%) in South
Korea. 74 (15%) students voted for Sharukh Khan and 19 (4%) for Amitabh Bachan
respectively. But 115 (23%) students voted for other actor which in otherwise shows the
popularity of Indian films here.
Figure 4. From where did you get the information about Indian movies?
Friends - 138 (26%)

SNS - 24 (5%)
Internet - 302 (57%)
Other - 67 (13%)
Above bar graph illustrate that 57% (302) students get to know about the
information about Indian films from internet. Friends (26%) also playing a vital role
in spreading information about films. But social networking sites has least amount
27
of students (only 5 %) voted for. The remaining 13% (67) students get information
from other sources.
Figure 5. What do think more interesting in Bollywood movies?
Song -212 (37%)

Story -260 (45%)
Actors - 31 (5%)
Technology -21(4%)
Other -51 (9%)
More students think that story 260 (45%) is interesting in Indian movies. On the
other hand 37% (212) students voted for song. Actors and technology got least
amount of votes 31 (5%) and 21 (4%) respectively. Rest of the students think that
there are some other 51 (9%) things interesting than these elements.
Figure 6. If a Bollywood movie released in a nearby theatre (CGV), do you go
there and watch?

Yes - 396 (83%)
No - 83 (17%)
28
Around 83% of students (396) will go to watch Indian movies if a movie release in
a nearby theatre. Only 83 students (17%) voted No.
Figure 7. Whom do you go with to watch Bollywood movies?
Friends - 313 (52%)

Alone - 93 (15%)
Boy (Girl) friend- 120 (20%)
Family- 77 (13%)
52% (313) of students prefer to watch Indian movies with their friends. 20% (120)
of students go with their girl or boy friend. 15% (93) goes alone and 13% (77)
prefer to go with their family.
Figure 8. What is the main hindrance to watch Bollywood movies?
Songs - 64 (12%)
Length of the movie- 90 (17%)
Language - 103 (20%)
Culture difference - 158 (30%)
Other - 107 (20%)
29
30% (158) students believe that culture difference is the main hindrance to enjoy
Indian movies. 20% (103) think that language is the problem and another 20% (107)
believe that other things are the hindrances. So length of the movie, 17% (90) is not
a big problem for most of the students. But as a whole, there is only a slight
difference between each other except cultural differences which is the highest.
Figure 9. Do you know any other Indian film industry other than Bollywood?
(Mollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood)
Yes - 36 (8%)
No - 443 (92%)
Most of the students believe that there is only one film industry there. Most of them,
92% (443) are unaware of the other film industries in other languages other than
30
Hindi film industry (Bollywood). Only 8% (36 ) of students have knowledge about
the other language films.
Figure 10. Do you want to go to India?

Yes - 372 (78%)
No - 89 (19%)
Already been there- 18 (4%)
78% (372) of students want to go to India. 19% are not interested to go there. 4%
(89) of students already been there.
Figure 11. Do you go to Indian restaurants?
Yes - 238 (50%)

No - 241 (50%)
31
Among 479 students surveyed, 238 students go to Indian restaurant. And 241
students don’t go to Indian restaurant. But there isn’t much difference each other.
Percentage wise its 50% each.
Figure 12. Are you interested in learning Hindi language to watch Bollywood
films?
Yes – 133 (28%)

No - 346 (72%)
Most of the students (72%) are not interested in learning Hindi (national language
of India) to watch Bollywood films. But 28% (133) students are ready to learn
Hindi to watch Bollywood films.
32
Figure 13. If you get a chance to learn Bollywood dance, do you go there and
learn?
Yes – 220 (46%)
No - 259 (54%)
Around 46% (220) students are interested in learning Bollywood dance after
watching Bollywood films, and 54% (259) are not.
Figure 14. Are you interested in Indian yoga?

Yes - 288 (60%)
No - 191 (40%)
60% (288) students are interested to learn Indian yoga and the rest 40% (191) are
not.
33
In total 479 respondents, 296 students are female and 183 students are male. Also as
I mentioned earlier the respondents consists of students from almost all province of
South Korea including Gyeonggi-do, Jeollanam-do, Gyeongsangnam-do, Gangwon
Province and even from Jeju Island.
From the above mentioned graphical summary of the survey results, it is evident
that there is potential market for Indian films here in Korea. Many of them are
interested in Indian films and willing to watch in the theatres with their friends and
family. Also by studying the survey, one can understand that Indian films also help
to spread the Indian culture in the Korean society. But there are many ways to
improve to shape South Korea as a potential future market for Indian films.
Especially there is only limited knowledge about Indian films among student here.
Also gives the light to know the hindrance to watch Indian films which will help me
to find well suited way to overcome those hindrances.
34
CHAPTER 3
BRIEF HISTORY OF INDIAN FILMS
Silent Era
The first cinema show was occurred in July 7, 1896; soon after Lumiere Brothers
introduced the art of cinematography in Paris in 1895. Lumiere brothers held their
first public showing at Mumbai’s (Bombay) Watson Hotel on July 7, 1896 and the
Times of India glowingly referred it to as the “miracle of the century”. However this
phenomenon didn’t create much of a ripple. Indian viewers took this experience as
something already familiar to them, as an extension of shadow play and the
tradition of storytelling with hand drawn images accompanied by live sound. 25
Though since then number of short films have made by different known and
unknown directors, the honour of making the first Indian feature film goes to
Dhundiraj Govind Phalke. His film ‘Raja Harischandra released on 3 rd May 1913,
was totally an Indian in terms of production, and was shown as an independent and
self-contained work on its own. It laid the foundation of the thriving film industry in
India and for vastly popular genre of mythological films. So this year 2013, Indian
film industry celebrates its 100th year of cinema.26
25
India net zone- films-
26
http://entertainment.indianetzone.com/films/1/history_silent_films.htm
35
By 1929, that is seven years after the first Indian feature film was produced, Indian
cinema appeared to be established on secure foundation – 18 feature films were

27
produced in 1920, 40 films in 1921, 80 in 1925. As cinema began to grow more
and more among the masses and a lucrative industry was established, and the
number of indubitably gifted film directors made their debut: among them Suchat
Sing, Dhiren Ganguly, Himansu Rai and V. Shantharam.
Talkie Era
The Jazz singer (1927) is the first feature length motion picture, with synchronized
dialogue sequences which proclaimed the end of silent era. In 1931, first Indian
talkie film “Alam Ara” was released on 14 th March 1941 at Majestic Cinema,
Giragon, Bombay. It was a costume drama full of fantasy with number of melodious
songs to intensify audience’s emotions and it was a stunning success in that year.
This film had 7 songs. The success of Alam Ara inspired many other directors to
follow its footstep. In that year 27 films were produced in 4 different languages,
Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Telungu28.
The introduction of sound generated ever-increasing emphasis on music and songs.
Music and fantasy came to seen as vital elements of filmic experience. At that
times emphasis on music was overdone. For example, historians recorded that
Indrasabha (1932) contained 70 songs. But what is important is that music came to
27
Indian net zone- silent era on Indian film history
28
Wikipedia
36
be regarded as a defining element in Indian cinema. Even to this day some movie
29
goers repeatedly go to the same film because of its music. By 1940, the winning
formula for success at the box office had been forged, consisting of songs, dance,
spectacle, rhetoric and fantasy. The foundation of Indian popular cinema as both
entertainment and industry were laid in the 1940’s during the period of great social
change and trauma for Indian (independence and Indo-Pakistan patrician).
Golden Era
Film historians regarded 1950s as the golden age of Indian popular cinema. Gifted
film directors like Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor won increasing recognition
for Indian popular cinema in many parts of the world. By now cinema was firmly
established as art, entertainment and industry. It was during this time, a different
types of cinema evolved. Art cinema or Parallel cinema took shape mainly after the
release of “Pather Panchaly” (1955) by world renowned art film director Satyjith
Ray.30 Pather Panchali was given ‘best human document’ award at the 1956 Cannes
Film Festival and went on to win award in San Francisco, Vancouver, Ontario and
elsewhere. Also was awarded an Oscar for life time achievement shortly before his
death in 1995. Pather Panchali along with “Aparajito” are regarded as the
masterpieces of world cinema. Ray’s cinema with his emphasis on realism,
psychological probing, visual poetry, outdoor rather than studio shooting and the
use of non-professional actors were in sharp contrast to the practises of popular
Indian cinema. Very quickly other talented art directors like Mrinal Sen, Adoor
29
Cinema zone- talkie era.
30
wikipedia
37
Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindhan, Mani Kaul etc. emerged as able expositors of Art
cinema. Their body of work is referred to as “New Cinema”, as characterised by the
qualities stabled by the Satyajit Ray.
In the case of popular cinema Raj Kapoor (14 December 1924 – 2 June 1988) also
known as “Show man” became a celebrity not only in India but also other parts of
South Asia, South east Asia, East Africa, middle East and Soviet Union. It is the
post-independence that saw the golden era of Indian cinema with melodious social
and melodramas. Raj Kapoor’s “Awara” (1951) set the agenda for popular cinema
was hit both in India and overseas. The international popularity of the many of these
movies and film actors like Raj Kapoor made the Indian government recognize the
revenue-earning capacity of the film industry. 31 The films with various themes were
now being made. The theme of lost brothers, tear jerking melodramas was being
repeated (as many as 50 films). “Mother India” (1957), a Hindi epic melodrama
directed by Mehboob Khan was a spectacular success in India. This film was
India’s first submission for ‘Best foreign language film’ in 1958. 1970s witnessed
the theme of ‘Angry young man” in popular Indian cinema especially films of
Amitabh Bachan. Sholay (1975) directed by Ramesh Sippy was one of the notable
action-adventure melodrama films of 70’s. It was a box office phenomenon which
ran more than five years in Mumbai which achieved unbroken record of 60 golden
jubilees (50 consecutive weeks) across India. While movies of 70’s were influenced
by social and political trends, 80’s witnessed the emergence of violence in films.
31
38
Some of the popular movies of this period included Naseeb (1981), Coolie (1983),
Hero (1983), Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985) and Sagar (1985).
Modern Era (Globalizing Bollywood)
By modern era I mean here that Indian films since globalization has been introduced
to India. In order to understand how globalization affect the Indian film industries
especially Bollywood, one should scratch a little into the political situation of India
during 90’s. After participating (or being forced to participate) in largely one-way
trade via British colonization (which was initially started by the British East India
Company), independent India retreated behind a wall of protectionism and socialist
style economic planning.32 It can be argued that in the '80s, India avoided
hyperinflation and a Latin America style economic crisis largely due to this type of
tight foreign-exchange controls and prudent economic management.
India had started depleting its foreign exchange reserves in the late 80’s mainly to
hard currency payment for a flood of imports and an increasing amount of foreign
debt. A severe fiscal crisis brewed in 1991, when the country only had enough
foreign exchange left to pay for a few weeks of imports. The government went to
World Bank and International Monitory Fund (IMF) for help, and consequently
32
from Global Policy Web site: http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/econ/
2001/0917india.htm
39
33
India opened up the economy and deregulated the private sector. Thus restrictions
on the multinationals and private sector have been greatly relaxed.
The effect brought by these changes in India has been dramatic. The main reason
for this is the rise of information technology; wireless phones, satellite television
and internet were all made available in India through various government policies.
Indian film industries especially Bollywood also affected directly and indirectly.
The direct causes have been the rise of alternative means of entertainment such as
TV both satellite and Doordarshan (the state run media) and internet. On the other
hand rise of the middle class which was the result of new jobs emerged during that
period due to globalization and Indian diaspora abroad created audiences in other
parts of the world for the Indian films.34
Indian films in 90’s saw a string of big budget melodramas aimed at both
burgeoning middle class and the diasporic Indian audiences, who the producers
quickly recognized as the potential group of people who hold the power to increase
the size of the film industry. Thus a new a new breed of films had merged which is
called “urban tales”, “diaspora films” or “NRI (non-residential Indians) films”
which were ‘glossy, consumerist fantasies featuring middle class worlds and
transnational life styles’ that ‘captured the imagination of the audiences within India
and abroad’. 35
33
The Great Divide: India Confronts Globalization. Retrieved January 29,
2004
34
35
[CITATION Sri051 \l 1033 ]
40
In 1995, Adithya Chopra son of Yash Chopra (director and producer) made his
directorial debut with “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge” or ‘DDLJ’ (The brave heart
will take the bride). This beautiful love story depicts Raj, a rich and spoilt British
Asian boy who falls in love with Simran, a modern British Indian girl who is still
firmly rooted in her traditions, on a tour across Europe. Even though this popular
them where lovers rebelling against their families to be together inspired from
Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ were already shown in number of films prior to
‘DDLJ’ , Chopra added a new Bollywood formula by creating a westernized hero
whom parental consent is vital to the success of his relationship with the woman he
loves. Thus Chopra created a film that was young and universal in its appeal, yet
traditional roots.
DDLJ became one of the biggest grossing and longest running film in the history of
the Indian cinema. As of April 13, 2007, DDLJ entered its 600 th week of continuous
36
run in theatres, a record perhaps unmatched anywhere in the world. Many
historians and sociologists suggest that DDLJ marked the beginning of diasporic
Bollywood films. The success of DDLJ made Yash Raj films to produce more and
more big budget films which mainly aim the diasporic viewers abroad. It also
followed by the box office hit films like “Dil Toh Pagal Hai” (My heart is crazy,
directed by Yash Chopra-1997), “Taal” (Rhythm,directed by Subhash Ghai-1999),
“Hum Tum”, (You and I, directed by Kunal Kohli, 2004), “Salam Namaste”
36
[CITATION Cho02 \l 1033 ]
41
(Greetings.. Greetings, directed by Siddharth Anand, 2005) etc. These films marked
the transition phase of Indian films.
In 2000, Indian government gave film-making as official “industry” status opening
it up to more conventional sources of bank finance, including loans from the

37
government's own Industrial Development Bank of India. Additional money
making opportunities extended the boundaries of Indian films especially with the
boom in satellite television India and the global market for Indian films. More than
60 satellite channel began to telecast Indian movies and movies songs. Big
television production houses like Sony Entertainment and Star TV pay huge sums to
buy the right of the Bollywood movies. Often producers were able to get the large
portion of their next films production costs by selling the music rights. The revenue
from the movie export has almost doubled. The cost of making Indian movies can
be covered from the distribution of overseas market alone. For example, Subhash
Ghai’s biggest-grossing film “Taal” (Rhythm) ensured it to be the first film to open
38
in the Top 20 in the US and Top 10 in UK. Ghai sold the world screening right to
the Eros Entertainment, a global distribution company of the Bollywood films for
80 million rupees (1.5 million dollar). “They have recovered the money within two
weeks” said Subhash Gai the director who spent 30 million rupee (0.5 million
dollar) to make the movie. Ultimately Taal grossed $ 2 million in the US. Dilwale
Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) brought approximately $1.6 million in the US and
37
Cash boost for Bollywood. (2001, July 25). Bbc. Retrieved January 29, 2004, from BBC
News Web site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1456962.stm
38
Business Asia. Retrieved January 29, 2004, from http://www.findarticles.com/
cf_0/m0BJT/22_7/58079840/p1/article.jhtml
42
1.5 million pound in the UK. Top grossed films like “Koi Mil Gaya” (directed by
Rakesh Roshan-2003), “Baghban” (directed by Ravi Chopra-2003) earned large
portion of their earning from overseas particularly from UK and US 39. Furthermore
new and unlikely market also opened up: Taal attracted large audiences in Japan. 40
Also Bollywood studios have started to distribute Bollywood movies.
India’s popularity in the international arena spread at a higher speed. In addition
with Indian films become popular in overseas, the nation was also taking noticeable
strides in the international beauty pageants. Within the decade, three Miss World
titles (Aishwarya Rai, 1994; Diana Hayden, 1997; Yukta Mookhey, 1999) and one
41
Miss Universe title (Sushmita Sen, 1994) came to India. As a result, Bollywood
film producers casted those models to their films. Simultaneously, Bollywood
rapidly became the “new cool in international cinema” 42 as posters of Bollywood
productions adorned London Underground stations and billboards around the U.K.;
“Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India” (directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar 2001)
nominated for the Academy Award (Oscar); actor Amitabh Bachan was voted the
film star of the millennium on a BBC online poll in 2000, pushing Sir Lawrence
Olivier down to second place; director Baz Luhrmann paid tribute to the
conventions of Bollywood cinema in his hugely popular Moulin Rouge (2001); and
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber roped in Indian film composer A.R. Rahman for the
West End and Broadway musical success Bombay Dreams which played from 2002
39
Top Grosses by Decades and Years - 2003
40
Growing up. (2000, August 10). The Economist. Retrieved January 29, 2004, from http://
www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=S%26%29%28%3C%2FQQ7%24%0A
41
[ CITATION Pul08 \l 1033 ]
42
[ CITATION Kau05 \l 1033 ]
43
to 2004.43 Also A. R Rahman has won two Academy Award and a BAFTA award
for his music composing in Slumdog Millionaire (directed by British film maker
Danny Boyle-2008) and his song “Jai Ho” swayed all around the world.
Conclusion
In a history that spans almost the entire existence of the technology of film itself,
Indian cinema has clearly emerged as one of the most inimitable forms of popular
culture seen anywhere in the world, and one that constantly attracts its masses of
loyal patrons globally. This brief history helps ones to understand the significance
of Indian films in the contemporary world. How Indian films gone through all these
years and significant changes occurred in the history of Indian cinema. Indian films
already set their market in UK, US and Middle East countries and continue its
journey by discovering other markets in South East and North East Asia. This brief
history helps one to get a holistic understanding of the Indian films in the past and
its international recognition and fame achieved for past 10 decades. Since this paper
is pioneer about the presence of Indian films in Korea, one should understand
Indian films in general and also current status of Indian films in the rest of the
world. By comparing Korean case to other similar cases, help to get a good result
and also help to create a perfect market mix for Indian films in Korea.
43
[CITATION Cre06 \l 1033 ]
44
CHAPTER 4
INDIAN FILMS IN SOUTH KOREA-
“YESTERDAY”
Films and Korea (History of Korean films)
According to the Article “Short History of Korean Films” by Darcey Paquet, first
public screening occurred in Korea in 1903 (exact year is still debated). And in
1910, Korea formally annexed by Japan after several years of effective
colonization.44 During the 35 years (1910-1945) of colonization different films were
mad, but under strict censorship, most of the films were suppressed and enabled to
preserve the copies of films made those years. In 1945 by the end of the World War
II and the defeat of Japan, Korea regained its independence. But soon after the
independence, Korea divided into two; South and North. Here i want mention a
similarity in India’s and Korea’s history. India also gained its independence in 1947
from Britain after the 200 years of colonization. Soon after the long awaited
independence India also partitioned as Dominion of Pakistan (later Islamic Republic
of Pakistan) and the Union of India (Republic of India) on the basis of religious
demographics.45
44
[ CITATION Dar01 \l 1033 ]
45
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_India
45
Korean War which longed three years (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) affected
countries social and economic sectors. Soviet and US carved up the Korean
peninsula in two dominion North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-
DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea- ROK) instituting governments
beholden to the competing ideologies of Communism and Capitalism. During the
Korean War most of the film infrastructures was destroyed and the centre of the
industry temporarily moved to Busan. The latter half of the 1950’s considered as the
revival of the Korean film industry as the number of domestic productions increased
from 8 in 1954 to 108 in 1958. 1960’s considered as the Golden age of Korean
cinema with the emergence of some of the Korea’s talented directors. But in 1962,
military dictator Park Chan Hee instituted a highly constrictive Motion Picture Law
which caused a number of a severe consolidation in the number of film companies
and thus strengthened government control over all aspect of the film industry.
In the 70’s industry faced a long period of declining admissions and increased levels
of government censorships. In 1973, the Korean Motion Picture Promotion
Corporation was formed in an effort to revive the industry. But as an industry
Korean cinema would not reverse its commercial slide until the mid-90. 46 1980’s
witnessed some major transformations with several important developments. Also
in 1988, a change in the policy lifted some of the restriction on foreign films and
allowed other film industries especially Hollywood to open up the market in the
Korean peninsula. Up until this time the screening of Hollywood and Hong Kong
46
[ CITATION Dar01 \l 1033 ]
46
movies had always been strictly controlled and limited by the government various
ways. So after implementing this law, Korean films had to compete directly with the
international films mainly Hollywood movies. But Korean movies didn’t have the
strength to compete with the stunning Hollywood movies. Over the next few years,
domestic films gradually lost their share in the market which was resulted at the low
rate of 16% of overall attendants in 1993. The screen quota system where the
theatres are obliged to screen Korean feature films 10-146 days out of the year,
remained the only protecting factor against foreign competition during those times.
However in the mid 90’s Korea’s major conglomerates entered in the film market
which began to deviate the flow of Korean cinemas. Samsung one of the five
chaebols47, entered in the industry firstly. These conglomerates transformed the
structure of the film businesses by introducing a vertical integrating system whereby
financing, producing, exhibiting, distributing and video releasing of the film where
all these process controlled by a single firm.
In the beginning of 1996, new generation directors like Hong Sang-soo, Kim-Ki
Duk, Lee Chang Dong began to take over the industry. Also the success of Kang Je-
gyu's 1999 film Shirii accelerated the growth of the Korean film industry. Although
many chaebols including Samsung gave up their film businesses after the 1997
(IMF) crisis, other conglomerates like CJ, Orion Group (Showbox) and Lotte
remained in the industry and still they are active players in the present day. Finally
local audiences rushed to watch local films which was resulted in 2001, 60-70 films
47
South Korean form of business conglomerate - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol
47
sold significantly more ticket than 200-300 Hollywood and foreign films released
on the same year.
Today Korean film industry has its own place in the World cinema. Many Korean
films won number of award in major film festivals in Cannes, Toronto including
last year award winning film “Pieta” by Kim-Ki Duk in Venice International Film
Festival (Golden Lion Winner). Also South Korea is the venue of reputed film
festivals like Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Jeonju International Film
Festival (JIFF), Bucheon Fantastic film Festival etc. Also South Korean films and
drams are very popular in South East Asian countries. The recent Gangnam Style
phenomenon swapped all around the world which was end up in the most viewed
music video ever on YouTube.
South Korea- unknown land to Indian films
It took a while for Indian films to enter in the Korean market unlike other markets
of Indian films. Because as I mentioned earlier, Korean cinema market has been
tampered by Japanese colonization, national division, civil war, authoritative
military government, strict censorship, highly restrictive and distortive film
regulations. With this constrains Indian film marketers didn’t considered South
Korea as a good market for their films. Unfortunately there isn’t any single book or
articles about the history of Indian film in Korea. So its very difficult to pinpoint the
48
history of Indian films in Korea with exact dates. But with the information from
different related articles, blogs and interviews one can get the a picture of the
presence of Indian films on Korean soil.
According to Kwanghyun Jung the president of Korea Indian Film Association
(KOIFA) travellers who visited Indian had been watching Hindi movies through
VCDs which they bought from India till 2001. But small screen and reduced picture
quality reduced the enjoyment of the movies. Travellers purchased those movies
from the pirated movie sellers. So it was very poor in quality. Also those movies
didn’t have subtitle as well. Even if it had the subtitle to some movies that would be
in English and only few people understand English at that times. These all factors
made South Korea as an unknown land to Indian films.
It is considered that the first Indian film officially released here in Korea is “Muthu”
(1995) a Tamil (South Indian) film directed by K.S Ravikumar where Rajanikanth
played lead role. In fact it is surprising element, because “Muthu” was not a
Bollywood (Hindi film industry) movie. And during those years Tamil movies are
not as much as popular like Hindi movies.48 One of the reasons behind the release of
“Muthu” is that the actor “Rajanikanth” is very popular in Japan even till the
present day. And South Korea which is so close to Japan also one of the previous
colonies tempted the film distributor to release the movie in Korea. But this movie
caused some misunderstanding about Indian movies. Even though Rajanikanth is
48
Tamil movies – movies made in Tamil Nadu (South India) , Bollywood- Hindi language
film industry.
49
the second highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan 49, his movies may seem
illogical to the audiences especially to those who does not know much about
Rajanikanth and Tamil film industry. His movies are crammed with comedy action
and musical numbers and they take great delight kicking narrative logic in the face.
Even he can dodge bullets with his bare hands. So this movie with extreme
dramatic, illogical action sequences caused some misunderstanding about Indian
movies. Most of the Korean people thought that all the Indian movies were like
“Muthu” where in fact Tamil movie is one of the many film industries in India with
unique style. However this particular type of Indian film made to build a prejudice
about Indian films in the minds of Koreans.
Emergence of Indian films in Korea
After the “Muthu” the Tamil film, some Bollywood (Hindi Film) movies released in
Korea which had broken the prejudice of Indian movies. One of the popular Indian
50
movies in Korea is Devadas (2002) directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansaly starred by
Sharukh Khan. Devadas unveils the story of a wealthy young man whose family
prohibits marrying the women he loved. His life spirals further and further thus he
turned into alcoholic and died out of great sorrow. This melodramatic movie
attracted Korean audiences. Kwanghyun Jung says “Devdas" is a painful love story
with classical beauty and its magnificent sets, that’s why people got impressed with
this title”. This movie created some Bollywood fans in Korea. Kim So Hyun, a
49
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajinikanth
50
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238936/
50
blogger says “I became a huge fan of Sharukh Khan after watching Devadas
movie”.
Kal Ho Na Ho (2003) directed by Nikhil Advani starred by Sharukh Khan and Saif
ali Khan was also popular here. The story of the life of a serious girls whose life
changes on the arrival of her new neighbour Aman (Sharukh Khan) who teaches her
a new way to live. This movie changed the view which Korean people considered
about Indian films. In an interview Kwanghyun asid “A film like "Kal ho na ho" has
broken our prejudice about Indian movies-In Korea what movies like MUTHU
created”.
The most popular Indian movie of all time “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge”
(DDLJ) was not exceptionally popular here in Korea. But once Indian films became
popular in Korea, people came to watch this movie. “Kuch kuch hota hai” (1998),
"Dil chahta hai" (2001), "Dil se" (1998), "Kabhi Khushi Kahbie Gham" (2001),
"Salaam Namaste" (2005) were also seen by many Korean people especially
university students. “Black”51 (2005-directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali) was got a
wide popularity throughout the peninsula. A cathartic tale of a deaf, mute and blind
girl, and her teacher who brings ray of lights to her world of blackness influenced
many Koreans including older people as well. It is one of the main Indian movies
which you can find in the local DVD store with Korean subtitle. According to
Hancinema, Korean movie data base “Hindi Film Black has taken the number 5
51
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375611/
51
spot at the Korean Box Office. The film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, not
exactly commercial Bollywood fare itself with only one performed song, has
managed to penetrate a market usually dominated by either Korean films or
Hollywood commercial heavyweights”52
Among all the Indian movies released here in Korea, Three idiots (2009-directed by
Rajkumar Hirani) and My name is Khan (2010-directed by Karan Johar) were the
most popular ones. Especially Three idiots swayed all-round the Korea including
kids, youngsters, adults etc. My name is Khan also received by many people
because of the universality of the story and popularity it gained all the rest of the
world. Also Korean channels like KBS and MBS aired number of Indian movies
with Korean subtitle or sometimes dubbed Indian movie. Jodha Akbar (2008-
directed by Ashutosh Gowariker) was one of that movie aired by KBS which tells
the sixteenth century love story about marriage of alliance that gave birth to true
love between a great Mughal emperor, Akbar, and a Rajput princess, Jodha. This
historical love story, magnificent art direction and the presence of Aiswarya Rai
(Miss World in 1994) attracted many people.
The huge success of 3 idiots and My name is Khan made initial market for Indian
films here in Korea. After those movies number of other movies also released here.
“Taare Zameen Par-like stars on the earth” (2007-directoed and acted by Aamir
Khan), “Rang De Basanti- Colour it Saffron” (2006-directed by Rakeysh
52
Hancinema – Korean movie data base- retrieved from http://www.hancinema.net/hindi-
film-black-diversifies-the-korean-box-office-20829.html
52
Omprakash Mehra), Om Shanti Om (2007-directed by Farah Khan), Rab Ne Bana
Di Jodi (2008- A Match Made by God: directed by Adithya Chopra), Enthiran- The
Robot (2010-directed S. Sankar and acted by Rajnikanth-Tamil film) were other
popular Indian films in Korea.
Indian Film Association of Korea (KOIFA)
KOIFA, Korea Indian film association played vital role for creating first Indian film
lovers in Korea. The formation of KOIFA was simple. According to Kwanghyun
Jung, president of KOIFA; “travellers, who visited India had been watching Hindi
movies through VCD, which they got from India, till 2001. But small screen with
no subtitle and also bad picture quality reduced the enjoyment of Hindi movies. So,
a few people gathered and made a community to watch Hindi movies together (No
matter whether subtitles were in English)”. 53 At first they hired a café equipped with
projection facility and started screening Hindi movies. The first movie shown in the
community was “Mohabbatein” (2000-directed by Adithya Chopra and acted by
Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachan) in e with English subtitle. Later they changed
VCD to DVD and about after one year, on May 2003 they opened their own office
and started showing Hindi films Korean subtitle which they made by themselves. At
the beginning they made Korean subtitles for around 40 Bollywood movies from
“Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)" to "Kaal” (2005). And they had shown these
in a rotatory basis 4 times a week.
53
Bollywood in Korea-interview with Kwanghyun Jung
http://www.hangulo.net/bollywood_lovers_KOREA.htm
53
And the interesting thing is that they watch Indian movies in an Indian style. In
Indian, people watch movies with making noises in the theatre, laughing and
cursing villains unlike in Korea where people watch movies in utter silence, because
they wanted to taste the real experience of Indian movies. This unique style of
watching Indian movies attracted many in to this community. Now this community
has around 14,000 members and more than 2000 passionate members. In Facebook,
KOIFA is very active with posting pictures and information about Indian movies
and Indian actors daily.
Figure 14: Home page of KOIFA
Shahrukh Khan is the favorite Indian actor for most of the club members.
Kwanghyun Jung (president of KOIFA) is a diehard fan of Shahrukh Khan. He says
“How one cannot be his fan by watching Devdas’s tears or Aman’s love in Kal ho
54
na ho?” Most of the members have Shahrukh Khan T-shirts, cups, and mobile
phone cover. Some KOIFA members went to Calcutta, India, to support Shahrukh
Khan’s cricket team “Kolkata Knight Riders” even though they don’t know
anything about cricket. And the newspaper “The Telegraph wrote a special article
about them in India” (Friday, May 4, 2012 issue)54
Around 90% of KOIFA members are women. In Korea women are more interested
in Indian movies than men. In his interview with The Telegraph Jung said “Most of
our members are women, and they fall in love with SRK (Shahrukh Kahn). They
like his dance and acting. When he cries, almost all of us cry with him”. In addition
most of the KOIFA members are interested in learning Hindi. Even the president of
KOIFA Jung can speak a little Hindi. He introduces himself as “Mera nam Rahul.
Naam to sunai hoga?” (my name is Rahul (Indian name). You have heard about my
name) which reminds me the dialogue of Shahrukh Khan Sharukh Khan’s line from
his movies “Dil Toh Pagal Hai”(1997) and Om shanti Om (2007).
KOIFA runs with donations. According to Jung “we don’t want money; we just
want to watch Indian movies”. Now KOIFA is supported by number of leading film
distribution companies like Yashraj films, UTV Motion Pictures and EROS
International. KIOFA’s operations is not only limited with watching Indian movies
alone, but also it promotes Indian culture through Yoga and Henna classes, Indian
dance classes especially Bollywood dance. They get information about Indian
54
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120504/jsp/calcutta/story_15449784.jsp#.UZwrFaIwfzx
55
movies mainly from internet. KOIFA subscribes film magazines like ‘Filmfare’ and
‘Stardust’ to know latest updates of their favorite Indian movies and actors.
With continues screening of Indian movies in weekly basis and promoting Indian
culture through yoga, dance etc., KOIFA plays a vital role in planting a seed for
Indian film market in Korea. Through social networking sites like Facebook and
Twitter it extends the popularity of Indian movies all over the country. The main
achievement of KOIFA is that it found the corner stone for the Indian movies in
Korea by creating opportunities to watch Indian movies in big screen with Korean
subtitle. Also KOIFA became discussion topic many times in number of channels
and newspapers in Korea and abroad. Kwanghyun Jung, the president of KOIFA
interviewed by many channels and newspapers including The Korean Times. 55
3-Idiots phenomenon
3-idiots (2009) a Hindi movie directed by Rajkumar Hirani where lead role played
by Amir Khan, was one of the highest grossed Blockbuster ever in the history of
Indian cinema. It is estimated that 3-idiots’ gross collection was around $70 million
( 385 crore)56 where the cost of production was only 50 crore ($10 million).57 Its
success swayed all over the US, UK, Middle East, South East and North East Asian
countries. This film is loosely based on Chetan Bhagath’s novel Five Point
Someone - What Not to Do at IIT! - a 2004 bestseller itself.
55
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?
mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=108&oid=040&aid=0000015826
56
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Idiots#Production
57
http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2009/dec/231209-3-Idiots-Movie-Review.htm
56
Figure 15: 3-idiots poster
The film begins with two characters Farhan (played by R. Madhavan) and Raju
(Sharman Joshi) searching for their third roommate from college whom they had
lost touch with for the past decade. While reminiscing about their college lives, they
recall hilarious incidents from the past, thanks to their dear friend Rancho (Aamir
Khan). During the intermittent flashbacks, the three "idiots" enter Imperial College
of Engineering (fictional), one of the most prestigious colleges in India. From his
first day, Rancho stands out among his co-students due to his eccentric behaviors
and personality. For instance, while his roommates entered ICE to fulfill their
parents' wishes or secure themselves desirable jobs, Rancho is apathetic about his
grades and seems to attend ICE for the pure joy of learning. However, due to his
57
idiosyncratic behavior and rebelliousness against the school's education system,
Rancho exasperates his professors and is soon under strict surveillance by Dean
Viru Sahastrabudhhe (Boman Irani), also known as Virus. The ceaseless
catastrophes caused by the trio is further complicated when Rancho begins to
develop romantic feelings for Virus's youngest daughter Pia (Kareena Kapoor).
Coming back to present time, Farhan and Raju set out on a road trip from Delhi,
looking for Rancho after his mysterious disappearance from school ten years ago.
The surprise ending is satisfying and hits the sweet spot for the audience.
Three idiots was the most popular Indian movie in Korea. Even though it was
released in 2009, in Korea it officially released on August 2011. ‘3-idiots’ was a

58
huge box office hit in Korea where it gained $ 1 million at the first week itself. It
released around 285 theaters nationwide. This movie rated 9.4 out of 10 stars in
Naver which is one of the popular web portals in Korea. According to Korean Film
Council 3-idiots attracted around 4, 00,000 viewers around the country. Even
though it released in Korea after 2 years of official release in the rest of the world, it
held the first place for 4 weeks in the Korean box office. 59
58
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&country=KR&id=3idiots.htm
59
http://herald.kaist.ac.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=285
58
Figure 16: Box office result of 3-idiots retrieved from ‘Box Office Mojo’
So the question is ‘why did this particular film become sensational in Korea?’
According to Jellyfish (pen name of “Korea in your mind” blogger), 60 “the theme of
3 Idiots is universal. It is modern and traditional, it is funny and sentimental, it is a
love story, it is a musical and it is a social satire”. But it is not the only reason
behind the huge success of 3-idiots in Korea. As per my research and interviews,
the educational background of Korea was well suited for a movie like 3-idiots
especially in the student community. Korean students live in a particular
environment where expectation of the peers, parents, and society put pressure on
students for scoring high on exams and getting good grades, getting admission in
the top university University), getting the best job (in Samsung, LG, Hyundai) and
the story goes on. Though this pressure is everywhere, it is bit much higher in
60
http://jellyfish1616.blogspot.kr/2012/03/3-idiots-comedy-2009.html
59
Korea. It starts the moment the kid starts speaking. Korean parents expect their kids
to talk in English the moment they start uttering their few words. And the trend goes
on. The kid is expected to excel in school, sports, college, in job etc. As a result,
students have to keep up with good grades and research in the fiercely competitive
environment. Also student suicide rate is very high in Korea. Korea has the highest
suicide rate among the 30 OECD countries61
3-idiots managed to highlighted the seriousness of this issue in a very light-hearted
manner with its message – “Whatever the problem in life is… just say to yourself
‘Aal Izz Well’ (all is well). This won’t solve your problems but it will give the
courage to face it.” Yet, the film never harshly denounces the educational system
but instead uncovers disturbing truths and unseen consequences of tremendous
pressure upon students. It also confronts and questions the integrity and principles
behind these unrelenting academic systems that continue to suffocate us. In the
article which appeared in “The KAIST Herald” (KAIST is Korean MIT) Chaerim
Oh says, “In Korea, students of all ages - from young elementary children to
university graduate students - are trained to study under overwhelming pressure and
extremely high academic standards. In short, this movie is, really, our own story”.
62
61
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_South_Korea
62
Embrace Your Nerdiness with 3 Idiots- [ Issue 110 Page 14 ] Sunday, December 04,
2011, 23:26:48
60
According to my survey result, 312 out of 479 respondents voted 3 Idiots as their
favorite Indian film. Also all the people I interviewed have seen 3-idiots at least two
times. Sung Jun, a university student told me “it is the 3-idiots that made me to
watch more and more Indian films”. Some of them, ‘3-idiots’ also changed the
view towards India as well. “I’ve seen a lot of films shot in India but never until 3
Idiots have I gotten a glimpse of how beautiful India is. No Taj Mahal, no temples,
no congested streets and markets teeming with spice stalls. Instead, wide expanse of
greenery, pristine desert sand, endless mountain roads and a very modern Imperial
College of Engineering.” (“Must See: 3 idiots” blog). 63 The same blogger says again
“If, like me, you know very little about Indian films and Bollywood, 3 Idiots is a
good introduction. Watch it with an open mind and heart, and fall in love with
Indian cinema”. There are hundreds of blogs about 3-idiots in popular Korean web
portals like ‘Naver’ and ‘Daum’ (in Korean, English blogs are few).
Increasing popularity of 3-idiots movie made some television channels to broadcast
programs with the same name. “Se Olgani”, (세 얼간이) which means ‘three idiots’
in Korean, telecasted by TVN one of the cable TV channels in Korea is one of
them. It’s a comedy program anchored by 3 people like in the movie. The fame of
the movie helped this program to gain viewers around the country.
63
http://entertainment.casaveneracion.com/must-see-3-idiots/
61
Figure 17: original movie poster (left), TV program poster (right)
‘Se Olgani’ started telecasting on July 10 th 2012, around one year after the official
releasing of 3-idiots in Korea. TVN channel airs this program every Sunday at
7.40pm till this date. Yoo Hakchan is the director and Eun Ji Won, Yi Sugeun and
Jeon Hyeonmu play 3 main characters respectively.
Undoubtedly one can say that ‘3-idiots’ is the most watched and influenced Indian
movie on Korean people. With 2 years living experience in Korea and having many
friends from all parts of Korea, i can honestly say that how much Korean people
especially students loved this movie. Whenever I introduce myself to Korean
students, the first thing they say is that ‘I love 3-idiots’. Also I have few Korean
friends who wish “Aal izz well” (All is well) instead of Anjo hasseyo (greeting in
Korean) whenever they see me, like in the movie. Even though 3-idiots’ depicts the
62
educational theme which fits in the Korean society, it is still an Indian movie. By
stating Indian movie I mean that 3-idiots is a perfect Indian movie which is very
long (170 minutes) and with seven songs and dances which satisfies all the feature
of typical Indian movie. But still they liked it. Even three students I interviewed
watched this movie more than 3 times.
I am also stating here two other popular Indian movies which have the similar
educational themes with 3-idiots (stories are different). “Taare Zameen Par", ‘Like
Stars on the Earth’ (2007, directed and stared by Amir Khan) and Stanley Ka
Dabba; ‘Stanley’s tiffin box’ (2011, directed by Amole Gupte and stared by Amole
A Gupte) are two other Indian films which had the similar themes. The success of
3-idiots made film distributers to screen more Indian movies in Korea. They also
realized that the movies with educational theme play well in Korean theatre than
anywhere else in the world. Many schools (elementary and high school) screen 3-
idiots and Like stars on the earth for the students with Korean subtitles. Therefore 3-
idiots helped to create a positive impression about Indian films which made people
to find and watch more and more Indian films.
CHAPTER 5
63
INDIAN FILMS IN SOUTH KOREA-
“TODAY”
“I had never seen or heard about Bollywood movies before. When I saw some
videos in a lecture about Bollywood, it was pretty interesting. They were
fascinating with dance and songs. Now I am interested in Indian movies. I like
music and dance. So it would be good for me. I’d better borrow Indian film’s DVD
and watch it!” 64
A blog by Yakshina, 2010/08/20
It has been 100 years since Dadasaheb Phalke made the first Indian feature film
“Harishchandra” on 3rd May 1913. Interestingly this year is the 100 th year of Indian
cinema. Indian cinema has gone through series of transformations from silent movie
to technically advanced 3-D movies. Indian cinema market extended from India and
other neighbouring countries who have shared culture to other foreign countries
with entirely different culture from India; from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Middle East
countries to UK, US, Thailand, Japan and South Korea. If we scratch deeper into
the Indian market in UK and US, it is obvious that Indian diaspora played a vital
role to set Indian movie market there. As I explained before, during 90’s Indian film
companies distribute Indian films in UK and US for the Indians there. But in South
Korea’s case, Indian diaspora hardly influenced in the rising popularity of Indian
films in Korean peninsula. That’s the uniqueness of South Korean market. At first
64
http://blog.naver.com/ykshana?Redirect=Log&logNo=120113580778
64
Korea was unknown land to Indian films. Eventually they came to watch and
known more about Indian films. Now Korean people know what Indian film is,
what its uniqueness is, how Indian films differs from other film industries. In this
chapter I explain the influence of Indian films and Indian culture on Korean society
and through film festivals and other programs like Bollywood dance classes, Hindi
language classes and travelling to India, Korean people expose to Indian culture.
Film Festivals
Over the past two decades number of film festivals has increased and became a
global phenomenon. The emergence of film festivals closely aligned with
regeneration projects focused on national levels in various European countries.
Certainly reputed European film festivals such as Venice, Berlin and Cannes were
65
created on the basis of national developments. It is widely believed that film
festivals have served as the “kind of parliament of national cinema” or an
“Olympics of film” comprised of Host and participant nations. International film
festivals have appeared to bring national film cultures into the world cinema system,
66
attracting foreign guest to cities and revenue to national film industries. Film
festivals are more than a mere site for the screening of films. It is a place of
business or marketing within a specific system of “institutional assumptions,
priorities and constraints”. 67
65
[CITATION Mar06 \l 1033 ]
66
[CITATION Tho06 \l 1033 ]
67
[CITATION Bil94 \l 1033 ]
65
South Korea is the host of some reputed film festivals in Asia especially Busan
International Film Festival (BIFF), Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) etc.
The history of South Korean film festival is very short. Kim Sooyoung, in her paper
“Cine-mania or cinephilia” pays attention to transnational period and attempts to
explain the reason that many film festivals suddenly emerged in Korea from the
mid-1990s. She continues, this was when Korean society was experiencing the
politico-economic restructuring process driven by Globalization. There was also a
rapture and aperture as “different interests and ideologies all came into play at the
68
contested intersection of residual authoritarian and emergent democratic modes.”
Furthermore, young people also began to show a desire for cinema which became a
much discussed topic. Therefore film festivals were widely seen as key site of new
social groups’ cultural practice, as political concerns gave way to cinematic ones.
According to Kim, there are three categories of film festivals in Korea: festivals
driven by the combinations of the participations of the state and local governments,
corporations and intellectuals; corporate sponsored festivals; and festivals organized
by activists group.
Among the South Korean film festivals, Busan film festival is the biggest and
globally acclaimed one. The first annual BIFF was inaugurated on September 13,
1996 in Busan, South Korea’s second largest city. Since its first unanticipated,
overwhelming, qualitative and quantitative success, the BIFF has gone on, in a
relatively short period of time, to become the leading international film festival in
68
[ CITATION Kim \l 1033 ]
66
Asia, even surpassing the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF). BIFF’s
effort to build global networks is observed at different levels. It focused on
foregoing strong regional ties with Asia by joining specialist networks such as the
69
Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC). After its successful
launch, in order to meet the key concept of Asian Hub, the festival had to include
other parts of Asia such as India, Philippines, Malaysia and Iran. To this end, the
BIFF actively participated in and became a significant member of NETPAC which
was initially based in India and Philippines. 70
BIFF has been showing Indian films in every year. In 2000, the opening film of
71
BIFF was an Indian film “The wrestler” directed by Buddadeb Dasgupta. Twelve
Indian films have been selected for the 17th edition of the Busan International Film
72
Festival. BIFF organizes special retrospective for Indian films as well. “Asian
Pantheon,” one of the special retrospective of BIFF where it screened Asian classic
masterpieces from seventeen Asian countries. Under this retrospective, four Indian
masterpiece films namely The Vegabond (1951-directed by Raj Kapoor), The Big
City (1955-directed by Sthyajith Ray), A river Named Titash (1973-directed by
Ritwik Ghatak) and Bombay (1995-directed by Mani Ratnam showed in BIFF.
69
[ CITATION Sti02 \l 1033 ]
70
[ CITATION Soo12 \l 1033 ]
71
BIFF program booklet from 1996 to 2005
72
http://dearcinema.com/article/12-indian-films-selected-for-busan-international-film-
festival/1935#
[ CITATION Mar04 \l 1033 ]
67
Figure 17: Director Mani Ratnam (right), actress Aishwaria Rai Bachan, actor Abhishek
Bachan, and Tamil film actor Vikram (left) on “Raven” promotion in Busan, Haewondae
Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) is the second popular film festival in
Korea. JIFF was established in 2000 for the purpose of advocating the programing
focused on independent movies and digital movies. It contains a project market for
low-budget film drams and documentary films and is establishing its own unique
direction. 73 This year JIFF had a special retrospective called “Beyond Bollywood”.
This Indian program is consisted of 9 feature films directed by important
contemporary directors representing each of states’ beauty. According to JIFF’s
official website (special Bollywood section) “There has been prejudice that
Bollywood represents all of Indian films. Special: Beyond Bollywood is special
program covers literally entire India. The section includes Hindi, which is the origin
of Bollywood, Bangel, the hometown of Indian realism in its eastern, Tamil, a rising
73
http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/jsp/coProduction/festivalView.jsp?seq=5
68
cultural hub in its southern, Malayalam as its western and Tibetan Colony and
Manipur as its north-eastern”.74 I personally attended this section. After the
screening there was an open discussion with the directors as well.
Pucheon International Fantastic Film Festival is another notable film festival in
Korea. 15th PIFFF (2011) opening film was an Indian documentary “Bollywood, the
greatest love story ever told” directed by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, which
unfolded the story of Bollywood. 75
Apart from the above mentioned international film festivals, there were number of
Indian film festival also hosted here in Korea for last three years. “Namaste
Bollywood”, an Indian film festival organized by Lotte Cinema in Konkuk
University Theatre in Jayang-dong, (south eastern Seoul). The program featured
eight films mainly contemporary Bollywood style films. Most of the films in the
festival were made in the 2000s and were popular at the time of their release in their
home country. The screening schedule included the films: “Om Shanti Om” (2007),
“Lage Raho Munna Bhai” (2006), “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi” (2008), “Dhoom 2”
(2006), “Dostana” (2008), “Ghajini” (2008), “Veer Zaara” (2004) and “Dilwale
Dulhania Le Jayenge” (1995). 76
74
http://eng.jiff.or.kr/f00_movie/f10_section.asp?
order_by=&sec_code1=1067&menu_gubun=8
75
http://blog.naver.com/ubqedu?Redirect=Log&logNo=132774331
76
Korea Joong Ang Daily- Jan 22,2010 issue. “Film festival brings Bollywood to Korea”
69
For last two years Embassy of India, Seoul has been holding Indian film festival in
Seoul and Busan. The festival has been organized by the Embassy of India, with the
support of CGV, ‘Incredible India’ (India Tourism) and India’s Directorate of Film
Festivals. In 2012 Indian Film Festival, there were six Indian films namely; I am
Kalam (2010), Wake up sid (2009), Paa (2009), Thare Zameen par (2007), Chak de
India (2007) and Jodha Akbar (2008) respectively.77 And this year’s (2013) Indian
film festival was held in Busan and Seoul on April and May. A selection of six
films was shown at that event – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), Rockstar (2011),
Fashion (2008), Veer Zaara (2004), Jab We Met (2007) and Lage Raho Munnabhai
(2009).78 I personally attended this festival in Busan and interviewed people there
who watched Indian film.
As India officially has 18 languages and 28 states, different styles of films have
been made using various languages and sceneries according to specific cultural
areas. As per my survey around 92% of people don’t know about this fact. Most of
people think that Bollywood is the only film industry in India. Also in India, there is
another type of film called Art Films or Parallel cinema. Usually art films are very
realistic without songs and dances which are the typical features of Indian
commercial films. These above mentioned film festivals helped to educate Korean
people about these types Indian films and also films from different Indian
languages. Usually these films are overshadowed by the fame of Bollywood. Film
77
http://www.isakorea.org/2012/02/indian-film-festival-2012-in-busan.html
78
http://www.indembassy.or.kr/PressReleaseEventsNews.php?news=195
70
festivals actually help to promote these films by screening and having discussion
with directors during festival days.
Effect of Indian Films on Korean Society (Indian foods, Dance,

yoga and tourism)
“Indian cinema has virtually become a parallel culture. Talk of Indian with
a foreigner and debate virtually centres on Indian films.”
Amitabh
Bachan
Cinema has become a powerful vehicle for culture, education, leisure and
propaganda. In a 1963 report for the United Nations Educational Scientific and
Cultural Organization looking at Indian Cinema and Culture, the author (Baldoon
Dhingra) quoted a speech by Prime Minister Nehru who stated, "...the influence in
India of films is greater than newspapers and books combined." Even at this early
stage in cinema, the Indian film-market catered for over 25 million people a week-
79
considered to be just a 'fringe' of the population. If literature has the capability to
mirror life, cinema certainly inherits the ability to mirror society and culture.
Cinema is nothing but an attempt to showcase the reality and existence of a
particular culture and society on the silver screen. 80 There are hundreds of studies
related to effect of cinema on society. Contemporary research has also revealed
more profound aspects to film’s impact on Society.
79
Retrieved from Thought Economics- interview with Tom Sherak, President of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
80
Impact of cinema on Indian society- blog ‘Mharagapuaram Gandharva’
71
Indian films convey India’s rich tradition and culture along with its unique
cinematic style to South Korea. With the increasing popularity of Indian films, there
is a positive likeness in Indian culture in the Korean peninsula. One of the notable
changes is the number of Indian restaurants in Korea. Indian food has been growing
in popularity in Korea not only due to the numerous restaurants in virtually every
hip district but also with the sale of pre-packaged Indian food by local companies..
Ram Dayal, an Indian restaurant owner in Seoul says “Korean people are very fond
of Indian foods. Even though it is little expensive, they come here often. And also
they are interested to go to India as well”. In my interview with Soo Young,
university student, “Indian foods are very unique like Indian movies. I love both”;
she says. According to my survey, 50 percentages of students go to Indian
restaurant often (Indian foods are little expensive for students). These restaurants
play Indian film songs in the TV to create an Indian ambience. Among Koreans,
Tandoori Chicken, Nan, Samosa and different curries are most popular Indian
foods. And people who come to Indian restaurant prefer eating with hand instead of
chopstick and fork to mingle with culture. But unfortunately most of the Indian
restaurants run by either Pakistanis or Nepalese capitalizing on the brand name
‘India’. There are only few Indian restaurants run by Indians.
Responding to the yearning from Korean people to learn more about Indian culture
and arts, the government of India established an Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) on
July 2011 which brings Indian classical dances, music and yoga much closer to the
Korean people. is the Cultural Wing of the Embassy of India in Republic of Korea
72
and functions under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), an
autonomous body of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. 81 In an
interview with The Korean Herald, Indian ambassador Skand R. Tayal said; “There
is a feeling both in Korea and India that our people don’t know enough about each
other’s cultures.” As a result both countries began to celebrate festivals in India and
Korea that proclaim both countries’ cultures and the establishment of cultural
centres to host various events. “Trade and political relations are growing very well,
the popularity of Indian films is also growing, and food is becoming also popular,
but not our dances and our music” the ambassador said. The Indian Cultural Centre
opens its door to Koreans who want to learn about Indian food, dance, music and
yoga.
ICC organizes monthly cultural programme and provide a platform for the local
artistes to exhibit their talents in Indian music & dance. This programme also
enables the local artistes and the teachers of our Centre to work together and
interact sharing their knowledge mutually. The students of the Centre under the
guidance of the teachers also present cultural items in their respective fields which
grow their confidence. ICC organizes monthly cultural programme and provide a
platform for the local artistes to exhibit their talents in Indian music & dance. This
programme also enables the local artistes and the teachers of our Centre to work
together and interact sharing their knowledge mutually. The students of the Centre
under the guidance of the teachers also present cultural items in their respective
81
http://indoculture.org/AboutUs.php
73
fields which grow their confidence. 82 ICC offers classes for Yoga, Kathak Dance
(one of the eight forms of Indian classical dance, Contemporary Indian dance, Hindi
language, Odissi, Tabla (music instrument) and Indian cooking. Many Koreans are
interested in these classes. Kim Jae-hee, 31, is a Korean Kathak dancer who learned
Kathak when she travelled to Calcutta in 2010. Also she takes Kathak classes in
ICC as well. She performed the Kathak during the opening ceremony of the 2013
Indian Film Festival in Seoul, at CGV Yeouido, from May 24 to 28.
Figure 18: Kim Jae-Hee at Indian Cultural Centre, photo taken by Kwon Ji young- Korea
Times
Tourism is another important factor to be discussed here. There is steady increase in
the number of Korean tourists to India. South Korea has become one of the top 15
sources of foreign tourists for India for three years running, with double digit annual
growth rates. During 2011 India received Korean 108,680 tourists as against 95,587
in 2010 representing a 13.7% increase. The trend is expected to strengthen in
82
Retrieved from the ICC website. -
74
coming years, with the steady expansion of India ROK (Republic of Korea)
relations. Koreans are also travelling abroad in significant numbers. 14 million
Koreans tourists are estimated to have gone overseas during 2012 (total population
50 million).83 Also as per my survey result 82 percentage of the respondents want to
visit India and experience Indian culture.
To mark the 40th anniversary year of establishment of diplomatic relations between
India and Republic of Korea (ROK), India Tourism office in Tokyo organized a
Tourism Road show in Seoul on Friday 22 February 2013, with the active support
of the Embassy of India Seoul. The initiative saw an impressive turnout of Korean
travel agents and journalists.84 Also Incredible India (Indian Tourism Campaign)
hosts many contests for Koreans where the prizes are a free tour packages to India.
Incredible India & The Korea Times Contest which was hosted on April 2013 was
one of them.
There are number of festivals organized under the framework of the India-Korea
Cultural Exchange Program and are fully supported by the culture and tourism
ministries of both governments. "Glimpses of India," was one of them where the
Indian Embassy has arranged classical and folk dance performances, embroidery
and textile exhibitions, a contemporary art exhibition, a photo exhibition on
Buddhist sites in India, a food festival, an Indian puppet show and seminars on
Buddhism. The Indian film festival where they showed seven trendsetting movies
83
Retrieved from the Indian tourism- Embassy of India in Seoul website.
84
India Road Tourism Show- http://www.indembassy.or.kr/PressReleaseEventsNews.php?
news=144
75
from each decade beginning from the 1960s was one of the main attractions of the
festival.
As Tom Sherack, the president of Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Science
says “Film is a reflection of society, both present and past. I think the film and it's
innovations sometimes has to catch up to society but sometimes it leads society too.
Movies are a form of communication and that communication, those stories, comes
from societies- not just where society is presently and what it's doing now- but
where society has been. It's been that way for as long as movies have been around!”
85
This statement is well suited in this case. Indian film is a reflection of Indian
culture and its heritage. These movies tell how India was, how India is and how
India will be. Even though it has been 100 years since the first Indian feature film,
Indian films still convey the core Indian values and moralities. That makes Indian
films unique. By exposing to Indian films, Korean viewers get to know about its
great culture and traditions. According to Tony Sherack, “Movies create debate,
they create conversations, and they create an atmosphere”. Indian movies started to
create an Indian atmosphere in Korea.
Seoul hosted International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) award in 2010. According
to South Korea’s leading daily JoongAng Ilbo’s English edition JoongAng Daily;
“It is expected to draw hundreds of India’s leading actors, actresses and
filmmakers”. In addition, the famous Bollywood Movie Star Mr. Shahrukh Khan
85
Thought Economics-interview with Tony Sherack , June 2011
76
Appointed as The Honorary Ambassador of Korea (Culture & Tourism) In India.
The Ceremony was held on October 15, 2009 at the Taj Lands End Hotel, Mumbai,
India. Subsequently, Korea also conferred upon Mr. Shahrukh Khan the title
Honorary Black Belt (5 Dan) of Taekwondo. Korea Tourism Organization is
confident that his association with the Korea, Sparkling Brand will help in further
enhancing awareness and interest in Korea among his fans.
From this chapter it is evident that, South Korea is a fertile market for Indian films
today. By fertile market I mean that Korean people are more familiar with Indian
culture, Indian life style now than four years ago. Tourism, Yoga, Language and
Dance classes played a vital role to create Korean peninsula fertile for Indian films.
77
CHAPTER 6
INDIAN FILMS IN SOUTH KOREA -
“TOMORROW” (Future Market)
Business Perspective and the scope of collaborative

productions
Film has fairly unique combinations of characteristics: prototypical productions,
high sunk coasts in development (R&D), very high unit coast of production, high
(and rising) coast of marketing, a huge rate of failure, a short and competitive shelf
life in the primary market place and no price differentiation. The international film
business stands on a delicate cusp. Changing technology and user demands are
radically challenging the film industries to find other creative alternatives to extend
its market. The current dynamic changes need to be set against economic factors
that are specific to the film industry’s characteristics. On the positive side, key
statistical drivers indicate a strong growth rate and a promising horizon. Increase in
productivity, the advent of new markets and the introduction of new media
platforms have led to a compound annual growth rate in filmed entertainment of
between 7.5 and 9 per cent since 1985. 86
86
Film industry economics-lecture given at the Film business academy, Cass business
school, The city university, January 2009
78
This year a total of 126 business meetings took place between twelve Korean firms,
including CJ Entertainment and KBS Media, and 50 Indian companies, according to
a statement released by the Korea Creative Contents Agency (KOCCA) on March
18. The meetings were held at the latest convention of the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Films, Radio, Audio-visual, Music,
Events, Shows (FICCI FRAMES)87, a leading annual convention on India’s culture
industry which was held from March 12 to 14 in Mumbai, India. Indian culture
industry leaders and experts showed a strong interest in Korean firms and culture
during the three-day convention which took place from March 12 on the theme of
“A tryst with destiny -- Engaging a billion consumers.”88
FICCI FRAMES has been held since 2001 and is known as one of the largest
conventions on the media, entertainment, and information industries in India. Korea
became a partner country for FICCI FRAMES 2013 to celebrate the diplomatic
relations between Korea and India which mark their 40th anniversary this year. Co-
hosted by FICCI, KOCCA and the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism,
this year’s convention focused on finding ways to expand cooperation in cultural,
tourism, entertainment, and business exchanges between the two countries.
87
FICCI is the rallying point for free enterprises in India. It has empowered Indian
businesses, in the changing times, to shore up their competitiveness and enhance their global
reach. With a nationwide membership of over 1500 corporates and over 500 chambers of
commerce and business associations, FICCI espouses the shared vision of Indian businesses
and speaks directly and indirectly for over 2,50,000 business units. It has an expanding
direct membership of enterprises drawn from large, medium, small and tiny segments of
manufacturing, distributive trade and services. FICC maintains the lead as the proactive
business solution provider through research, interactions at the highest political level and
global networking.
88
Indian Culture industry eyes Korea- Korea.net
79
Indian films’ technical brilliance has improved a lot in last decades. Robot (2010,
directed by Shankar) is one of the best technical advanced Indian film with full of
animations and visual effects (VFX). Indian has become a hotbed for computer
graphics and animation. India offers talented technicians, competitive pricing and
finished work of the highest quality. According to the 2011 FICCI-KPMG Indian
Media and Entertainment Industry Report, the Indian animation industry is
predicted to grow from the present $1.8 billion to $2.9 billion (USD) by 2015.
Indian animation and VFX companies work for the Hollywood movies as well.
Their works include X-Men: First Class (Fox), Life of Pi (Fox), Everybody Loves
Whales (Universal), Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip wrecked (Fox) and Snow
White and the Huntsman (Universal).
There was a huge interest among Korean companies to engage with Indian M&E
companies in 3D CGI animation, VFX, Gaming and film co-production. Jun Hyun
Toe who represented KBS Media said in the FCCI press conference “"While many
of the Indian companies wanted to sell animation content to us, we wanted to
present our library catalogues to the Indian broadcasters." "We are very confident of
working with an Indian company in a short period. We have met over dozen
89
companies here at the FRAMES B2B Platform," said a Korean company official.
Top Indian entertainment companies like Yash Raj Studios, Red Chilies
Entertainment DQE Entertainment, Toonz Animation, Graphiti participated in the
89
Press release FCCI films - Friday, March 15, 2013 01:28 PM IST (07:58 AM GMT), India
80
one-on-one meetings with the Korean contingent. Discussion on coproduction
agreement between India and Korea is going on since the FCCI meetings.
According to His Excellency Mr. Joon-Gyu-Lee, the Ambassador of Korea, “We
are in talks with the Indian government and are at the final stage of negotiating a co-
production agreement on audio visual product. I am very happy to be here with the
stalwarts from Korea and delighted that the two countries are interacting and
discussing business opportunities. I’d like to encourage the businessmen from both
the countries to continue and cultivate this engagement.”
Speaking on the current state of exchange of content between India and Korea,
Hangon Kim, Vice President, KOCCA said, “Korea is actively fostering content
and aiming to become a creative content driven economy. The Korean film industry
is a major contributor to the GDP of the country, with an ROI of 13 per cent, it is
the one if the most viable businesses in the country. A solid infrastructure for
content expansion has helped us achieve a stable environment for foreign
investment. India as a content market is rapidly growing, with an average scale of
14.3% the gap between India and Korea content market (which is growing at an
average of 4.2%) is getting smaller” FICCI FRAMES 2013 hosted a panel
discussion on increasing the Media and Entertainment business between India and
Korea, led by Biren Ghose with various distinguished guests including Hangon
Kim, Vice President, KOCCA, Jonathan Hyong-Joon Kim, Executive Advisor, CJ
E&M, Kum-Pyoung Kim, Director, Korean Cultural Centre, India, Charles Lim,
Deputy Director, Korea Tourism Organisation, Harry Yoon, Vice President, Samg
81
Ani, Vijay Shankar, MD, Karnataka Biotechnology and Information Technology
Services (KBITS).
Furthermore Indian film giant EROS International Media Ltd has given 50 Indian
films’ right to ‘Korea Telecom’ (KT Corporation), South Korea’s largest phone
group. The deal spans rights for Internet Protocol television (IPTV), mobile and
internet and it is expected that KT's, Olleh TV platform, will showcase the 50 films
from Eros' library. Those 50 films include blockbusters such as Yamla Pagla
Deewana (2011), Chalo Dilli (2011), Housefull (2010), No Problem (2010), London
Dreams (2009) and De Dana Dan (2009). With rising number of Indian film fans
and having technologically advanced mobile networks (4G LTE), this is a wise
decision to make accessible Indian films to everyone and an ideal opportunity to
exploit Indian contents.
South Korea as a Shooting Location of Indian Films
The Korean film industry is a major contributor to the country's GDP, with a ROI of
13 per cent. It is one of the most viable businesses in Korea with a solid
infrastructure for content expansion that has helped achieve a stable environment
for foreign investment. Korean film industry encourages foreign film industries to
use Korea as a shooting location. Korean Tourism Organization promotes Korea as
a new film destination in order to increase foreign investment in the country. In 14 th
FCCI-FRAMES 2013, Korean officials said that South Korea offers 30 per cent
82
cash rebate to all the Indian films to shot in Korea. The country is providing Indian
film shot in Korea liberal subsidies including a massive 30% rebate on local film
cost incurred while shooting the movie there. With such subsidies and Indian
government’s support both the countries can engage with each other through
various tools including coproduction through remakes, sharing locations,
government subsidies, exchange programmes. South Korean Tourism department
organized an event in Bombay to invite Indian film makers and producers to shoot
their films in Korea.
In fact Indian film audiences are bored with the scenic beauties of Switzerland,
London and other European and American places especially in Yash Chopra’s
movies. Now Indian films need new locations which are untouched. Here comes the
importance of South Korea’s exotic locations and their scenic beauties. Korea’s four
season’s beauty is one of the advantages of Korea as a new film destination for
Indian films. Also shooting in the locations like Jeju Island and other Korean
islands, Busan, Seoul, Gwangwon do, Gyeonggi-do in South Korea will be a new
experience for Indian film fans. Also it will motivate Korean people as well
consume Indian films which has shot in their own country.
Gangster, 2006 hit film directed by Anurag Basu was shot in South Korea. This film
was a box office hit in India. Also Salman Khan’s new film “Kick” (2014)
upcoming Bollywood action thriller film will be shooting in Korea. Kick’s producer
Sajid Nadiadwala has tied up with the Korean Tourism Board (KTB) to help
83
promote the scenic beauty of the country in his upcoming Bollywood ventures.
Nadiadwala’s team visited the country in September and met with the Korean
ministers to discuss the possibility of a tie-up between his company, Nadiadwala
Grandson Entertainment (NGE) and the KTB. “It’s a huge achievement for NGE
and I’m really honoured to be associated with the KTO. We’ve explored some
really good places in Korea like Seoul, Busan and Jeju Island. It’s a very beautiful
country;” he says. Besides, Seoul, Jeju Island and Busan, Kick, the action adventure
directed by Shirish Kunder is likely to feature some scenes in the picturesque
Gangwon Do too. 90
Marketing Mix of Indian Films for South Korea
Film marketing in line with the marketing management process in other industries,
begins at a new product development stage and continues throughout the formation
of the project ideas, through production and into distribution and exhibition. At
key stages in the product life cycle, various actors are involved in numerous
marketing activities, from marketing an idea or a script to a production company to
a final marketing of the film in cinemas, on DVD and through other exhibition
outlets such as VOD (video on demand), cable television and terrestrial television.
Durie defines film marketing as “any activity that assists a film in reaching its target
91
audiences at any time throughout its life”.
90
http://www.bollywood.com/node/30763
91
[ CITATION Ann94 \l 1033 ]
84
What is market mix? Culliton (1948) is credited with the original concept of
marketing mix when he proposed the formulation of a recipe for marketing
activities. Following this, Boredon (1964) developed the term ‘Marketing Mix’
which has reminded a fundamental concept within marketing management since
that time. The film marketing is conceived as a recipe for film makers and
marketers to consider when marketing their films. Finola Kerrigan in his book
“Film Marketing” says that the film marketing mix comprises of the creative team,
92
actors, script/genre, age classification and release strategy. The creative team
incorporates the actors and directors as well as producers, cinematographers and
other creative personnel involved in the film. I try to depict the perfect market mix
for Indian film on Korean market based on my research, survey and interviews.
Here I manly focus on three marketing mixes namely; actors (role of the star),
script/genre and release strategy.
1. Actors-Role of the star
To date there has been a lot of attention paid to the role played by lead actor (star)
cast in the film. Within the marketing literature a star is generally considered as a
variable factored into a econometric analysis of a film performance at the box
office. Also it is recognized that the star (lead actor) can often be a point of
reference for consumers when choosing a particular films. Star plays an important
role in the Hollywood system. Outside the Hollywood system, the Bollywood star
system is the only real equivalent in terms of the impact of stars on the industry.
92
[ CITATION Fin10 \l 1033 ]
[ CITATION Ang10 \l 1033 ]
85
Star plays a far greater role in the success of the mainstream films in Bollywood
than in Hollywood while at the same time acknowledging that inclusion of a star
doesn’t guarantee box office success. Bollywood stars enjoy lavish life style and
widespread acclaim in the same manner as the stars of the Hollywood and can be
seen as a way into the valuable Indian film audiences.
The well-known Indian film stars in South Korea are Amir Khan, Sharukh Khan,
Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachan. Among them Amir Khan is the most popular
star because of the huge success of 3-idiots movie. Also his movie like Thare
Zameen par, Rang de bassanthi, Gajini are also popular among Korean people.
According to my survey 59 per cent of the respondents’ favourite Indian actor is
Amir Khan. 15 per cent people voted for Sharukh Khan and 4 per cent people voted
for Amitabh Bachan. Aishwarya Rai, with her various Hollywood films like Bride
and Prejudice (2004), Pink Panther 2 (2009) and hit Indian films like Jodha Akbar,
Taal, Doom etc. is popular among western and Korean audiences. Sharukh Khan is
popular for My name is Khan movie especially among girls.There is a highest
possibility that, films of these actor can be run well in the Korea because they have
already achieved a name among Korean people with their films. Also Amir Khan’s
fame is extravagant in Korea among university students.
86
2 Script/Genre
Stringer (2005)93 proposes that genre classification itself is a process which
can be observed and that such observation reveals much about the audience
for the film and the social and cultural contexts within which the film is
positioned. Finola Kerrigan explains that genre is considered alongside the script,
the script can be seen as the central to the genre identification. Here script and genre
considered in a marketing perspective. Film consumers look for cultural cues in
order to establish what they may gain from watching a particular film. Genre
continues to be a key determinant for the financial success.
Bhaumik K (2004) traces the evolution of the Bollywood film industry in terms of
genre. He notes that the adventure romance was the most popular genre during
silent period, giving way romantic melodrama and social realism with a strong
emphasis on music once they moved to talkies. The 1970’s saw the establishment of
what has come to be known as the masala films which incorporates the element of
the romance, drama and comedy which contains songs and dance sequences, fights
94
scenes and spectacle. In Korea if we take into consideration the type of genre of
Indian films became successful, it is evident that films with a value or a message in
it became successful. For instance 3-idiots, Like stars on the earth (Thare zameen
par), Stanley’s tiffin box (Stanley ka dabba) depicted the story based educational
93
Putting Korean cinema in its place: genre classifications and the context of reception. –
Stringger, 2005
94
[CITATION Bha \l 1033 ]
87
problems. In the same way films like My name is Khan, Black, Guzarish, etc also
were popular in Korea. These films are not just Masla films, but their story was very
powerful, they had something to tell to Korean audiences. By Indian films, Korean
people expect an Indian element in it. The flop of Robot (Enthiran) states that
Korean people don’t like the mere Indian action films. Recent trend in the Indian
industry is hopeful for the Korean audiences.
3 Release strategy
In most film markets, films are released through what is known as window system.
in this system films are first given a theatrical release (at cinemas), and after
contractually agreed period, they are made available on DVD/Blu-Ray. Following
another contractually agreed period they are available to the pay per view television
channels, then free to view. Within the film marketing literature, a number of
studies have evaluated the release strategy on box office success. In a study by
Elberse (1999), it was shown that scheduling and release patterns do have a direct
impact on the box office performance of a film. in general the greater the number of
screens a film is released on , the more likely the film is achieve the financial
success. But at the same time we have consider the cost of the print and
advertisement which film marketers spend. But wide release may evoke a feeling of
popularity in the minds of the viewers which tempt them to go and watch movie at
the first hand. Wide release is one of the main marketing strategies in India now.
The above mentioned actors’ films with proper advertisements on wide release may
create revenue for the Indian film producers in Korean soil.
88
In Korea Indian films are very popular among university students. So with the
releasing in the theatre, by holding various campaigns and discussion forum in the
universities or film communities will accelerate the success of the Indian films in
Korea. Also girls like Indian films than boys. According to my survey out of 479
respondents, 296 students were females. Therefore Indian film marketers can make
use of them as well for the success of their movies.
Above mentioned window system can be well used in Korean case, because Indian
films are new to country. So there is a great possibility of the market for old popular
Indian films in the Korean peninsula through DVD/Blu-Ray and VOD (video on
demand). With high speed, and strong piracy policy, Korea seems as a good market
for Indian films under window system.
Also there must be a change of stereo typical Indian film formula in Indian films in
order to get a wider market. This is applicable not only in Korea but also other
foreign markets too. All the university students I interviewed expressed their
opinion about the songs in the Indian movie. Even though they love film songs, too
many songs in one movie makes Indian movie too long. In a country like South
Korea where people have a “Palli-Palli” (Quick-Quick) culture, length of the movie
is a determining factor to attract more people. Generally Korean films are one hour
and 45 minutes long. Bollywood films, despite getting trimmer over the years, are
89
still considerably lengthier. Most Indian film fans want shorter Hindi films. Many
theatres also don't accept long movies because it brings down the number of shows.
These above mentioned market mix for Indian film is applicable not only for South
Korea, but also other markets in other countries as well. There is a common critic
about Indian films is that Indian films are made for Indians alone with many songs,
very lengthy stories usually 3 hour extravaganza with an intermission in between.
But rest of the world don’t used to this type film enjoyment. Usually their mocies
are shot in length less than 1.45 minutes. Therefore Indian films need to have a
universality factor to market well in the foreign market including South Korea.
90
Conclusion
In 1971, legend of Indian cinema Satyajit Ray described Hindi films as follows:
The ingredients of the average Hindi film are well known; colour (Eastman
preferred); songs (six or seven?); in voices one knows and trusts; dance –
solo and ensemble – the more frenzied the better; bad girl, good girl, bad
guy, good guy, romance (but no kisses); tears, guffaws, fights, chases,
melodrama; characters who exist in a social vacuum; dwellings which do
not exist outside the studio floor; locations in Kullu, Manali, Ooty, Kashmir,
London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo….who needs to be told? (Ray, in
Willemen 1982: 25)
Popular Indian cinema, especially Bollywood has for decades been labeled in the
ways described by Ray, and while the description (albeit simplistic) has been more
or less accurate, it is important not to neglect the reasons why the cinema has settled
with this reputation. Bollywood is a global popular cinema constantly positioning
itself against the domination of Hollywood. While the American film industry is a
bit ahead financially and in recognition, Indian Cinema has maintained consistent
growth and witnessed a recent transformation that has begun to demand more
attention. In the 20th century, Indian cinema, along with the Hollywood and
Chinese film industries, became a global enterprise. Today where Indian film
celebrates its 100th year, there are sea changes from 20 years ago. At the end of
2010 it was reported that in terms of annual film output, India ranks first, followed
by Hollywood and China. Enhanced technology paved the way for upgrading from
established cinematic norms of delivering product, altering the manner in which
content reached the target audience, as per regional tastes. Indian cinema found
91
markets in over 90 countries where films from India are screened. The Indian
government extended film delegations to foreign countries such as the United States
of America Japan and South Korea while the country's Film Producers Guild sent
similar missions through Europe.
In this paper I explained the existence of Indian films in South Korea in the past,
now in the present and the future derivative as well. Unlike other Indian markets,
Indian film market in Korea evolved in a unique way. Indian film market in US, UK
and other foreign countries started to satisfy the needs of migrated Indians (NRI).
As Kaur R says in his paper Viewing the West through Bollywood’, “Bollywood in
the ‘90s saw a string of big budget melodramas aimed at both the burgeoning Indian
middle class and the diasporic Indian audiences, who the producers quickly
95
recognized held the potential to make the film industry bigger than it already was”
Indian film market in South Korea evolved itself through Korean Indian movie fans
and various film associations like KOIFA as I explained in the chapter 4, not
because of the Indian diaspora; because Indians are few in South Korea when
compared to per cent of Indians in other countries.
There is no doubt that South Korea is a potential future market for Indian films.
Even though the presence of Hollywood films is high in Korea, people accept
Indian films with both hands. As Chung, KOIFA president says ““Hollywood
blockbusters’ high-tech visuals and fantastic sci-fi effects dazzle people across
95
[CITATION RKa02 \l 1033 ]
92
cultures, Bollywood plays on emotions in a very basic way, which also works
across cultures”. This paper will help the Indian marketers to make creative
marketing strategies for the South Korean market by finding how Korean people
receive Indian films, the current status of Indian films and the scope of collaborative
productions between two nations and lastly knowing the perfect market mix for
Indian films in Korean peninsula.
93
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Master’s Thesis

SOUTH KOREA, INDIAN FILMS’

Graduate School, Catholic University of Korea

Jinu Kunjumon Varghese

SOUTH KOREA, INDIAN FILMS’ FUTURE

Graduate School, Catholic University of Korea

Jinu Kunjumon Varghese

THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

Jinu Kunjumon Varghese

Seoul, South Korea

Graduate School, Catholic University of Korea

Department of Digital Media

The Graduate School

I am what I am by the help of many. I am grateful to all those who have

For this thesis I am indebted to my thesis director Professor Haksoon Im and

I am extremely thankful to all my Korean friends who helped to complete

My family, for fostering in me the passion to follow a dream.

All the kind-hearted university students in the South Korea

The Indian film industry, for capturing my imagination

Above all this paper is for the greater glory of God!

Survey results………..………………………….……………..…………..pg 27-35

KOIFA website’s home page …………..………… ……………...pg 59

3 Idiots movie poster…………………………………………………...pg 62

Box office result of 3-idiots …………… ………………………….pg 64

3 Idiots movie and TV program poster……………………....pg 67

“Raven” promotion in Busan, Haewondae…………………pg 74

Kim Jae-Hee Kathak dancer ……………………………………….pg 81

especially among youngsters. It concludes by forming a perfect Market Mix for

widening the market of Indian films in South Korean peninsula.

“In the golden age of Asia

of number of theatrical admission (around 3 billion) in the world. “Every 3 months,

industry, popularly known as Bollywood is the largest contributor to the industries

Tamil (Kollywood), Telungu (Tollywood), Malayalam (Mollywood) which centred

in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kerala respectively.

especially Bollywood films, as were millions of others in communist countries like

China and Soviet Union swayed to "Awara Hoon"(song in Awara). 4 Bollywood

non-Indian origin population in South East Asian countries like Singapore,

billion in all part of the world.7

its skyrocketed economic growth, rapid urbanization, infrastructure development

and technical advancement tempted foreign countries to invest in South Korea.

resulted in setting up new branch offices of Hollywood companies on Korean soil.

industry in the world including Indian films market.

have chosen a multi-perspective approach for my research. In the first approach, I

study audiences responses towards Indian films by conducting a survey,

screenings, also by attending the Indian Film Festival 11 (Busan-2013, 4/26~4/26),

consumption of Indian films helps to promote Indian culture as well by cultivating a

A multi-perspective approach offers readers a holistic understanding of the

AMA definition, consumer market refers to:

the information attached to generic and specific values, attitudes, expectations as

well as the choice-making progresses. It refers to a holistic appreciation, which

used it to be traditionally split by market researchers and brand managers as

qualitative and quantitative research.

(American Marketing Association 2009)

By using this multi-perspective approach readers can get a holistic understanding of

cultural dynamics of market place behaviour. By broadening the focus of analysis

psychology and sociology of groups and communities (like Indian Film

of multi-perspective interpretive marketing research well suited for gaining

contemporary multicultural and continuously changing market environments 12. One

distributors in the South Korean film industry.