South Korea and Bollywood: Can English Vinglish make a mark?

After a succesful run in Hong Kong and Germany last year,Gauri Shinde-directed film English Vinglish is setting its foot in South Korea.

Bollywood distributor Eros International announced that _English Vinglish_was released in over 100 screens on 6 February. The movie is one of the biggest Bollywood releases in South Korea to date.

Given that _English Vinglish_has already performed well in the global market, hopes are high for it in South Korea too.In Taiwan, the film was released in 6 screens in December 2013 and amassed over US$ 300,000, making it the second highest grossing Bollywood film in Taiwan.

[caption id=“attachment_75738” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A shot from the movie English Vinglish.[/caption]

The release of the film in the Asian market is also because South Korean audiences have been seen to be fond of Bollywood dramas.

_English Vinglish_ia about an Indian housewife who endures small slights from her husband and daughter everyday because of her inability to speak and understand English and decides learn the language during a trip to visit her sister in Manhattan.

A Times of India report notes that two of the biggest Bollywood hits in South Korea were Three Idiots that grossed over 3 million dollars and My Name Is Khan which collected 2.6 million dollars.However, Bollywood actions films like Don 2 and Robot were massive failures.

Hee Ju, managing director, Atnine film, which distributes Hindi movies told ToI earlier in December that the majority Bollywood audience consists ofwomenin the 20-40 age bracket.

But there’s a catch. South Korean audiences are typically not too fond of long films or ones that have too many songs featuring in it. English Vinglish is a 155 minutes long and has six songs. Its producers will be hoping it won’t be too much of a deterrent.