After
an
unprecedented
response
to
Aamir
Khan's
PK,
China
is
welcoming
the
actor-producer's
latest
Bollywood
blockbuster
Dangal
with
open
arms
in
a
record-breaking
number
of
screens
on
Friday,
the
producers
have
said.
The
number
of
screens
showing
the
movie
would
be
larger
than
all
the
screens
put
together
in
India.
"Dangal
will
release
in
China
in
9,000
screens
--
which
is
the
widest
ever
release
for
an
Indian
film
in
any
territory," Amrita
Pandey,
Vice
President,
Studios,
Disney
India
--
the
movie's
co-producer
--
told
IANS.
"We
are
very
excited
to
release
'Dangal'
in
China.
The
film
is
very
special
and
with
a
story
which
has
the
potential
to
travel
the
world
and
transcend
geographies," Pandey
added.
In
China,
which
has
nearly
40,000
screens,
Dangal
will
release
as
"Shuai
Jiao
Baba",
which
means
"Let's
Wrestle,
Dad".
It
is
a
biopic
of
former
Indian
wrestler
Mahavir
Phogat
who
trains
his
daughters
to
become
world-class
wrestlers
--
a
story
which
resonated
well
with
the
Indian
audience,
generating
over
Rs
385
crore
ticket
sales
upon
its
release.
According
to
the
KPMG-Ficci
Indian
Media
and
Entertainment
Industry
Report
2016,
the
screen
count
in
India
currently
stands
at
8,500,
including
single
screens
and
multiplex
ones.
And
this
low
screen
density
is
said
to
be
one
of
the
biggest
deterrents
in
the
growth
of
the
Indian
film
industry,
which
produces
one
of
the
maximum
number
of
movies
in
a
year.
Just
last
month,
Aamir
and
Dangal
director
Nitesh
Tiwari
were
in
China
to
promote
Dangal,
which
officially
opened
this
year's
edition
of
the
Beijing
International
Film
Festival.
"They
received
a
tremendously
positive
response
from
the
audience,
press
and
trade
there,"
Pandey
said.
For
an
audience
heavily
fed
on
action-oriented
films,
"Dangal"
could
be
a
dekko
into
the
world
of
wrestling
in
Indian
hinterlands,
very
powerfully
brought
out
on
the
screen
by
a
cast
led
by
Aamir,
and
including
Sakshi
Tanwar,
apart
from
debutantes
Fatima
Sana
Sheikh,
Sanya
Malhotra,
Zaira
Wasim
and
Suhani
Bhatnagar.
The
film
features
Aamir
in
a
diametrically
different
character
from
his
part
in
PK,
which
saw
him
play
an
alien.
The
Rajkumar
Hirani
directorial
had
minted
over
Rs
100
crore
in
China
with
a
release
across
4,000
plus
screens.
Raj
Kapoor's
Awara
was
perhaps
one
of
the
earliest
introductions
to
Indian
cinema
in
the
country.
In
a
2015
interview
to
IANS
right
after
PK
managed
over
a
sixth
of
its
Rs
600
crore
($94
million)-plus
earnings
from
China
alone,
Aamir
had
discussed
how
people
there
had
historically
loved
Indian
films.
"I
think
the
people
of
China
and
India
seem
to
have
a
connect,
which
is
emotional,
cultural,
and
they
are
quite
similar
people,"
the
actor,
had
told
IANS.