Distributors of Hollywood films are lining up English blockbusters dubbed in Indian languages to run over the next few months at Indian cinemas to give Bollywood producers a run for their box office collections.  Bollywood’s flamboyant feathers were ruffled after Sony Pictures’ Spiderman 3, which was released on May 4 in local dialects Hindi, Bhojpuri, Tamil and Telegu, raked in over six million dollars in the first week, a record opening for a Hollywood film in India.

What’s more, more Hollywood films, including Ocean’s 13, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Die Hard, Shrek 2, Harry Potter 5 and Rush Hour 3, dubbed in Indian languages, will be in cinema theatres soon. While Spiderman somersaults from theatre to theatre, Bollywood production houses and filmmakers, though wary about calling it a rising trend, admit that Spidy - or rather, the writing - is on the wall.

‘Hollywood has been releasing dubbed movies in India for the last 10 years. But with Spiderman 3, the trend has reached an inflexion point,’ says Rajat Barjatia, producer-owner of Rajshri Productions, one of the largest entertainment conglomerates that has to its credit successful blockbusters.  Spiderman 3 did three things right. First, it released a record number of prints - 588 compared with an average of 500 for Hindi films.

There were also 261 prints in Hindi, 162 in English, 78 in Tamil, 81 in Telugu and 6 in Bhojpuri (a language spoken in eastern state Bihar) - a record number of prints for any foreign movie.

Spiderman 2 was released in 2004 with 303 prints with about 100 prints in local languages and was the third best grosser in India.

Then, a majority of the prints were dubbed in regional languages, with 45 per cent of the prints in Hindi. Lastly, it roped in Indian partners with distributing reach - like Percept Pictures.

‘Dubbed versions supported by localised consumer-centric campaigns take playability of Hollywood films beyond metros, thereby adding to ticket sales,’ Uday Singh, managing director, Sony Pictures India, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Sony Pictures’ next blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean 3, will be released on June 1, in English and four local dialects, with 400 prints, of which only 80 will be in English. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was released with only 198 prints, all of them in English, a year ago.

Following in Sony’s footsteps is Warner Brothers, which has a host of movies to be released soon, including Die Hard and Fantastic Four in June and Harry Potter 5 in July.

Over 70 per cent of Harry Potter’s 300-plus prints will be released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu (spoken in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh) languages.

Then there is Paramount Films, which is releasing 200 prints of the action movie Transformers. 70 per cent will be dubbed in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

‘The movers and shakers of Hollywood have come to know Indian audiences well. They dub only those films that are high on special effects or have dramatic content - like the Jurassic Park series, Godzilla, Matrix, Anaconda, and James Bond films. They are dubbing, skipping and jumping their way into Bollywood territory,’ says Barjatia. And cash counter figures support Hollywood’s increasing presence in India. According to a report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, in 2005 fewer than 55 films were released in India, earning a total of 45 million dollars. In 2006, with over 77 films, this figure jumped to 61 million dollars.  Last year the top five Hollywood features put together released 1,000 prints, while this year the total prints are expected to cross 2,100. ‘The brand and mind share of Hollywood films will increase at the expense of Bollywood,’ says Preet Bedi, CEO of Percept Pictures.

Barjatia noted, ‘A phenomenon like Spiderman is once in a year phenomenon. The trend is not big enough to affect Bollywood productions.’  A collage of inter-connected reasons are responsible for both Bollywood and Hollywood sharing silver screen time.  ‘India has grown phenomenally in the last couple of years thanks to the clued-in younger generation, global tastes, multiplex boom and some policy relaxation like permission to dub the film into local languages,’ says filmmaker Santosh Sivan.

Further, Hollywood studios are getting money upfront by selling films to local distributors, something for which they would have taken over six months if they had distributed the films themselves, says Taran Adarsh, a film analyst.

Adding to the Hollywood-Bollywood narrative are local television channels like Star and Sony Set Max, who buy rights of Hollywood movies and televise dubbed versions.  ‘Releasing dubbed versions also curbs piracy and coincides with the release of the main version,’ says Bollywood actress Peizaad Zorbain. According to Motion Picture Association (MPA), Hollywood lost more than 1.2 billion dollars in 2006 in the Asia-Pacific region due to piracy. India represents 73 percent of the Asia-Pacific theatre admissions.

‘What has also helped Hollywood penetrate the Indian market is the almost 100 per cent increase in the marketing and publicity budgets for all Hollywood films by the major studios,’ says Ajjay Bijli, chairman and managing director, PVR Ltd., film distributors and owner of India’s largest chain of multiplexes.

Providing the twist in the tale are Hollywood powerhouses who are joining hands with Bollywood to corner greater share of Indian moviegoers.

Hyperion Pictures India, a subsidiary of the independent Hyperion Studio Inc, is looking at three projects in India, reported The Hindu. At the same time, Universal Music plans to bring out three Hindi films and Sony Pictures India is producing the film Saawariya along with acclaimed Bollywood director Ashutosh Gowarikar. Recently Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) admitted that Hollywood was keen to join hands with Bollywood to ‘bring the mystical magic of film to people everywhere through new digital technologies.’

With filmmaking being a 300 billion dollar business globally, Bollywood’s current share of 3.5 billion dollars may be in double jeopardy.