Do Indians care about the original version in movies?
Hello everyone,
I (M32) recently decided to explore Indian cinema in greater depth after discovering Rajamouli’s work one after another (I’m not very original, I know).
I’m French, and here, it’s very difficult to find Indian cinema in good viewings conditions (video quality & language) —especially in theaters and through legal channels. I’ve discovered a few big “pan-Indian” hits, and every time it’s an adventure to track them down, especially in their original versions. I regularly come across films in “Hindi” or other Indian languages that have no connection to the film industry where the movie was shot, but it’s a real hassle to find them in their original versions—even for huge blockbusters like Baahubali (in Telugu) or K.G.F. (in Kannada)—and I’m actually (very) good at finding pirated copies. If it’s hard for me, then for a large part of my country, it’s mission impossible.
In France, movie lovers have a strong culture of watching films in their original language, so it shocks me that they’re so hard to access internationally (on Netflix and the most popular torrent sites, for example, major Indian blockbusters are generally available only in Hindi). To give you an example, RRR has only recently become available on Netflix here (3–4 years after everyone else), and the movie is only available in Hindi—it even starts playing in Turkish by default. WTF? Most of my friends who watched the movie after I pushed them to do so didn’t even realize they’d watched it in the wrong language—even though they’re pretty big movie buffs, they’re just uninformed, and no one’s giving them the tools they need.
I’m just wondering—innocently, and without meaning to judge or offend the Indian community—whether the original language of Indian films is traditionally something that the general public and/or Indian movie lovers take into account? I understand that many films are dubbed because Indian stars don’t all speak the same language in the films they star in—does that play a role in all of this?
Thanks !