Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸
This page has a Chinese sub-title in recognition of the fact that Dangal’s earnings in China are even more than they were in India.
摔跤吧！爸爸 在中国赢得了比印度更多的钱。 这就是为什么这个页面有中文标题。 读者可以用普通话发送更多的细节到我们的Facebook页面Indpaedia.com 。
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
How much of Dangal is fiction?
New Indian Express, Five instances where Aamir Khan's Dangal deviated from the true story, 28th December 2016 lists the same five deviations from the truth.
While the core of director Nitesh Tiwari’s movie, Dangal, story holds true to the real life events of Mahavir Singh Phogat, director Nitesh Tiwari allowed himself a few cinematic liberties. Here are a few facts shown in Dangal that differ from what happened in the real life of the Phogats.
Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar playing the young Geeta Phogat and Babita Phogat
1. Was Mahavir Singh Phogat really disappointed at getting daughters?
In the movie, Mahavir Singh Phogat desperately wants a boy child so that he can win a gold medal for the country. He and his wife try four times to give birth to a boy, but instead give birth to four girls. However, in reality, it was the girls’ mother who was quite disappointed as she was the one who wished for a boy.
Geeta Phogat’s wrestler dad Mahavir Singh glorified in Aamir Khan’s Dangal, Dec 23, 2016, Hindustan Times/ PTI add more details:
When Geeta Phogat, the first Indian woman to win a gold in wrestling at the Commonwealth Games was born in 1988, her mother was quite disappointed as she was wishing for a boy, claims a new book on the Phogats.
The book “Akhada: The Authorized Biography of Mahavir Singh Phogat” tells that surprisingly Geeta’s mother Daya Kaur and not her father Mahavir was disappointed when she learnt that her first child was a girl.
Coached by her father, Geeta wrote her name in the record books as she became India’s woman gold medallist at the Commonwealth games prevailing over Aussie grappler Emily Bensted on October 7, 2010. That she was from Haryana, a state infamous for female foeticide, made her feat even more remarkable.
“As Mahavir stood amid the cheering crowd that day, his gaze locked in on his daughter with pride, the cold winter morning of 1988 flashed before his eyes. That was the day when he had held her in his arms and emphatically proclaimed one day she will make her family proud,” says the book.
“It was not so much a declaration made by a father overwhelmed at the birth of his firstborn as the solemn promise of a man torn apart by his family’s contempt towards his newborn because she was a girl,” says the book written by Hindustan Times journalist Saurabh Duggal.
“One can perhaps imagine the state of Mahavir’s mind as the father of a daughter in the late 80s, when girls were considered a liability. But, ironically, it was not Mahavir but his wife, Daya Kaur, who was hoping that their first child would be a boy,” writes Duggal.
“When the baby was born, the chill of the winter morning stung a little more fiercely as Daya realised that their firstborn was a girl. Her disappointment showed clearly on her face,” the book says.
“I have introduced the girls to wrestling with the aim of winning an Olympic gold for the country and until that happens, my mission will not be accomplished,” says Mahavir Singh Phogat.
The onscreen Geeta Phogat
2. Was there really a villainous coach as portrayed in the film?
Like Bollywood movies on sports, Dangal creates a villain in the coach Pramod Kadam at the National Sports Academy (played by Girish Kulkarni), who demands that Geeta disavow her previous training. In reality, this character is fictional and there is no such villainous coach in the life of Geeta Phogat or any of her sisters.
3. Did Geeta not Win a Single Tournament Before the Commonwealth Games?
In the movie, Geeta Phogat doesn’t win a single tournament before the Commonwealth Games in 2010. She also receives a lot of flak from the coach in the movie for not excelling on the international stage.
However, in reality, Geeta had earlier won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship in 2009, where she competed in the 55kg freestyle wrestling category. Interestingly, Geeta’s 2010 CWG gold was followed by another gold medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship in Melbourne in 2011!
4. Was Geeta’s real Commonwealth Games Gold Medal Match the Cliffhanger that is shown in the film?
In the movie, Geeta Phogat struggles to win the gold medal match in the Commonwealth Games in 2010. She scores a five-pointer in the nail-biting final round of the match and clinches the gold medal with a scoreline of 5-1, 4-6, 6-5.
However, in reality, Geeta Phogat completely dominated her opponent and won the match in just two rounds, unlike the one shown in the movie that went on to three rounds. Her score was 1-0, 7-0. Also, Geeta Phogat has long hair in the real match, while her reel counterpart in the movie has a really short hairstyle.
5. Was Mahavir Singh Phogat locked up during Geeta’s Commonwealth Games final match?
Not at all. Watch the video.
In the movie, Mahavir Singh Phogat is taken to a room and locked up by a person sent by the Indian wrestling team coach just before the gold medal match. As a result, he misses the entire final.
In reality, Mahavir Singh Phogat was in the stands during Geeta’s match and saw his daughter win the Commonwealth Games gold medal.
“As Mahavir stood amid the cheering crowd that day, his gaze locked in on his daughter with pride, the cold winter morning of 1988 flashed before his eyes. That was the day when he had held her in his arms and emphatically proclaimed one day she will make her family proud,” Saurabh Duggal describes in his book, ‘Akhada‘.
The onscreen Geeta Phogat
6. The actual conflict between Geeta’s coach and father Mahavir
Dangal portrays wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat’s tough training methods which pushed daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita and niece Vinesh to sporting stardom in wrestling.
Dangal’s climax is around Mahavir being locked out as Geeta wins the gold at the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games, showing the chief national coach in a negative role. (Read: Sushil to make WWE debut?)
However, unlike the reel character in Dangal, the real chief national coach, PR Sondhi, was the one who invited Mahavir to the pre-CWG camp in Patiala and only banished him because the overzealous father was providing training on the side, which would have led to injuries for his two girls, says Akhada, the book on the Mahavir Singh Phogat saga by Hindustan Times journalist, Saurabh Duggal.
Mahavir Phogat explains in the book: “I was not convinced with the intensity of the training the girls were undergoing at the camp. Hence, I decided to conduct extra training before their morning session at the camp.
“I knew the girls were not happy with double training, but one has to burn the body in the furnace to achieve something.”
Mahavir’s role in shaping the wrestling careers of his daughters and niece, unheard of in rural Haryana, was respected by Sondhi.
“During the camp, he expressed a keen interest in learning some techniques and our training protocol. We had no problem with that and wanted to support his mission of empowering women to achieve Olympic glory,” he says in the book.
Sondhi encouraged parents to visit the camp, but Mahavir, who temporarily shifted from Balali in Haryana, 250 km away from Patiala, with family to help his daughters and ensure home-cooked food, added training sessions of his own.
Mahavir Phogat initially made Geeta Phogat and Babita, tired after day long training, work out in the evening. It left the girls exhausted at the camp and led to a confrontation between Sondhi and Mahavir.
“Mahavir is an old-school thinker. For him, the more intense the workout, the more strength you gain, and the level of strength ultimately decided how you did on the mat. But modern wrestling has evolved into a blend of technique and strength,” the book quotes Sondhi as saying.
“Finally, to stop him from imposing his school of thought on his daughters, we decided to ban him for entering the hall during the session and even made it a point to lock the hall afterwards.”
“While we salute Mahavir for what he has done for the sport and for the society, we could not let him run things his way for the good of the girls. That’s why he was banned from entering the camp. Fortunately, he didn’t resist our move and later even understood my point,” says Sondhi.
Mahavir switched tack and started putting his daughters through rigorous physical exercises before dawn. Geeta and Babita themselves looked for an escape route from the ‘torture’, switching off their mobiles to prevent their father from summoning them out of the camp hostel.
“One-and-a-half hours of physical exercise with our father amounts to a lot,” explains Geeta Phogat in the book.
“He would always get to the training grounds before us, so we would begin our sessions as soon as we go there… We would feel drained at times, but we still gave our 100 per cent at the camp so that our coaches would not give us low scores. But, somehow, the coaches found out about our pre-training schedule and they began to discourage us from going.”
Fatima Sana Shaikh as Geeta Phogat
Mahavir Phogat acknowledges Sondhi’s contribution.
“Sondhi is a good coach and I had interacted with him number of times during the national camp for the 2010 CWG. I have a good relation with him.”
But Mahavir is still unhappy he was kept out of the Patiala camp. “That issue was different,” he says.
Razing their hair: the Phogat sisters lose theirs
Saurabh Duggal is the authoritative biographer of the Phogat family
For ‘Dangal’ fame Phogat sisters --- Geeta, Babita, Ritu, Sangeeta, Vinesh and Priyanaka --- sporting long hair was the biggest luxury.
The close-knit family only wished they had the luxury to sport long hair.
Like any other teenage girl, the Phogat sisters too fancied long hair, but Geeta’s father, Mahavir Singh Phogat, was a hard taskmaster.
Ever since he introduced the girls to the gruelling sport of wrestling, rules were meant to be followed stringently --- no deviation, no digression.
And his six trainees had no option but to follow them. The rules were not just for Mahavir’s daughters Geeta, Babita, Ritu and Sangeeta, but also for Vinesh and Priyanka, his deceased brother, Rajpal’s, daughters.
“Be it the wrestling arena or elsewhere, indiscipline was never tolerated,” says Vinesh, whose determined run in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games was stopped by a freak knee injury. Since entering her teens, Vinesh wanted to have long hair and it was only last year that she was ‘authorised’ to cherish her childhood dream, reveals ‘Akhada’, the authorised biography of Mahavir Singh Phogat, penned by this HT correspondent.
“In 2015, we were at a camp for five months away from Tauji’s (Mahavir) prying eyes. There I realised my dream. But, once when it was time to return home, I knew what was going to happen,” says the book.
“(However), to my surprise, as we resumed training, he didn’t say a word. Two or three sessions passed and still he didn’t say anything. But at the back of my mind, I knew this silence was calm before the storm.
“On the third day, during the evening session, he finally asked me and I froze. But, to my surprise, he did not say a word. He just asked. I could finally keep my long hair,”’ Vinesh says in the book, ‘Akhada’.
Except for Geeta, who being the senior-most and an acclaimed name in the sport, was the only one who got the permission to sport hair. The luxury was never accorded to the sisters.
As Vinesh recollected, “Tauji’s (Mahavir) instructions were carved in stone when it came to wrestling, and I knew I had to say goodbye to my long hair. I went in for a haircut the very same day, though very reluctantly.
“I could no longer whip my gorgeous hair back and forth. It had taken me months to grow it, something I had wanted to do since I was a teenager, and it took the hairdresser only a few minutes to trim it.”
A unique sacrifice, but one which earned the girls global recognition.
Budget
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 was an A+ Hindi-Urdu film made on a budget of ₹90 crore/ ₹900 million (about $14 million/ 96 million Chinese Yuan Renminbi), which was a decent but not very high budget by the then Indian standards. Costs were kept low because there were no expensive sets and all the stars of the film (except the male lead, Aamir Khan) were either unknown actors or very modestly- paid television actors.
Before the release of Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 in 2016 Aamir Khan’s position in the Hindi-Urdu film industry was as the star of what till then was India’s biggest hit film ever, PK (2014) and India’s fifth biggest hit ever Dhoom 3 (2013) (which was no.5 because Indpaedia includes the Hindi-Urdu version of Bahubali: The Beginning (2015) among Hindi-Urdu films). As a result KoiMoi.com had ranked him as the no.3 star in Filmistan (Hindi-Urdu films).
The only reason he was not ranked at no.1 was that he did not act in as many films as the superstars ranked above him. In the almost four years preceding Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 he had acted in only two other films. Therefore, even after the historic success of Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 within India he had climbed up only one notch, to no.2, on KoiMoi.com’s rankings.
Because Aamir Khan and his wife, Kiran Rao, were two of the three producers of Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸, they could keep the cost of this A+ film relatively low. The respected Box Office India puts the budget of Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 at ₹132 crore ($20 million/ 141 million Chinese Yuan Renminbi), perhaps factoring in Aamir Khan’s presence in the film.
Box office response
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 was a historic success at the Indian box office. It earned India’s highest domestic net (i.e. after taxes) collections till then: ₹387.38 crore (414 million Chinese Yuan Renminbi) according to KoiMoi.com and ₹374 crore net according to KoiMoi.com}. Its domestic gross (i.e. before taxes) was ₹542.34 crore, which, too, was the highest in the history of Indian cinema till then.
And yet Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 was only the second most successful Indian film ever, ranking below PK, which, too, starred Aamir Khan. It was so because PK had earned more outside India. A substantial part of those overseas earnings of PK had come from China.
Then in April 2017 came a typhoon called Bahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), which erased almost all the records that Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 had established. Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 was pushed further down the ladder of India’s all- time hits.
But a week later news started trickling in that Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 was doing well in China. Then that it had overtaken PK's overseas record. And then the incredible news that Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 had done better in China than within India—which, in itself, was historic.
Suddenly the Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 storm was inching close to the Bahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017) typhoon (which might become a tsunami after its own release in China).
People- to- people affection between the peoples of China and India had never been stronger since the pre-1962 ‘Hindi-Cheeni bhai bhai (brotherhood)’ era…
Dream run in China
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 was released in China in May 2017, more than four months after its world premiere. Its Chinese version was called "Shuai Jiao, Baba”, which means “Let’s Wrestle, Father”. The producers claimed it would release on a record-breaking 9,000 screens in China, but as per trade experts, it was released on 7,000 screens out of the country’s nearly 40,000 screens. According to reports, one of the big cinema chains did not show interest in the movie. (KoiMoi.com)
(KoiMoi.com, citing data reported by variety.com and collected by Ent group — a research centre of the Chinese entertainment industry) wrote after Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸's second weekend/ 10days in China, 'The [second] weekend score was nearly triple its opening frame, when it scored $11.3 million. The cumulative in China is now on a par with film’s score, of $58.1 million, in India.
‘Exhibitors in China increased the screen count for “Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸” to some 55,000 screenings per day on Saturday and Sunday.’
This was a historic moment for Indian cinema: never before has the collection from an overseas territory equalled, leave alone exceeding, the domestic collection. And this has come from China, a country that has no Indian or South Asian Diaspora.
Day 1
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 $2.08 million KoiMoi.com/ $2.1 million (Box Office India)
Previous record: PK: Just under $1 million
Day 2
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 $ 4.17 million (Saturday) (KoiMoi.com)/$4.3 million (Box Office India)
Day 3
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 $4.8 million apprx (Box Office India)/ $5.05 million (Rs32.48 crore) (KoiMoi.com)
First weekend
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 $11.30 million (Rs72.68 crore) (KoiMoi.com)
Day 4
1st Monday
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 $ 2.80 million (17.90 crore)
4 days’ total
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 $14.07 million (90.58 crore). KoiMoi.com
Day 5
5 days’ total
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: ‘over Rs 120 crore’ (KoiMoi.com)
6 days’ total
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: Rs 149 crore (KoiMoi.com)
Day 7
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: $ 6.09 million (₹38.75 crore)
7 days’ total
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: ₹187.42 crore.
Day 8
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: ₹14 crore
8 days’ total
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: 216 million yuan (₹201 crore plus) (KoiMoi.com)
10 days’ total
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: ₹383 crore (KoiMoi.com)/ $59.7 million/ ₹388 crore (KoiMoi.com)
Second weekend
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 $32.60 million (₹209 crore) (KoiMoi.com)
Day 11
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: - $4.94 m. (Box Office India)
Day 12
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: $4.31m. (Box Office India)
12 days’ total
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: $69.7m. (INR 446 crore) (Box Office India)
Day 13
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: $4.13 m. (KoiMoi.com)
13 days’ total
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: $74.46 million (₹476.96 crore) (KoiMoi.com)
Day 14
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: $3.73 Million (₹24.20 crore) (KoiMoi.com)
14 days’ total
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: ₹507.34 crore (KoiMoi.com)
Day 15/ Third Friday
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: $6 million approx. (₹35.90 crore) (KoiMoi.com)
15 days’ total
Dangal/摔跤吧！爸爸: $84.50 million (₹545 crore) (KoiMoi.com)
Day 16/ Third Saturday
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 $16 million (₹104 crore) (KoiMoi.com) Please read that figure again. No Indian film (in a single language) has earned even half that kind of money on its opening day or any other day at home, and here Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 earned ₹104 crore on its sixteenth day abroad! Even in multiple languages only Bahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017) has equalled or exceeded this figure and that at home, not abroad (though who knows what it might do in China).
16 days’ total
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 $100.70 million (₹649 crore) (KoiMoi.com)
Previous record: PK Rs 100 crore (KoiMoi.com)
Day 17/ Third Sunday
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 $11.65 million (₹73 crore) (box-office/ KoiMoi.com)
17 days’ total
Dangal/ 摔跤吧！爸爸 $ 112.55 million (₹726.32 crores) (box-office/ KoiMoi.com)
Why Dangal appealed to (most) Chinese audiences…
The Aamir Khan-starring movie Dangal is poised to become the highest-grossing non-Hollywood film in China ever. This despite being a Hindi language film set largely in rural India with an all-Indian cast, simply dubbed or subtitled in Mandarin. Who would have thought that a Bollywood blockbuster about female wrestlers could do even better in China than it did back home?
What makes this an even more intriguing feat is that until recently, China wasn’t considered part of the “traditional” foreign market for Indian films--which includes regions such as the United States, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates, all of which are home to a significant Indian diaspora.
So why is the film so compelling to Chinese audiences?
For many of the same reasons it was a huge hit in India, it would seem. Several of the film’s most important themes struck a strong emotional cord with Indian audiences. The status of women in society, particularly rural society, and a bias toward male children for example, are issues China also battles with. The importance of filial piety, the ambition of those that live in villages, cut off from opportunity and so all the more desperate to triumph, and the patriotism associated with sport, similarly appear to have resonated with Indian and Chinese audiences alike, pointing to the fact that the two countries have several shared social concerns and aspirations.
Dangal’s success also validates beyond doubt what many industry analysts have been hinting at for a while now--that the massive Chinese market holds a lot of potential for Indian films--and Aamir Khan for one, seems to have been listening.
Aamir Khan capitalizes on social media
In fact, even back in 2011, his mega-hit film, 3 Idiots, was released in China to massive fanfare after breaking multiple box-office records in India. It too dealt with an important social issue--the severity of academic pressure faced by students in engineering schools--a matter that young audiences in both countries immediately related to.
With Dangal, Khan has magnified his appeal. He embarked on an extensive publicity tour across China before the release, and has even made his mark on Chinese social media. He’s among the only Bollywood stars active on Weibo, having created his first-ever post in April to promote Dangal. Now, after its tremendous success, he has over 450,000 followers, more than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who with under 200,000 followers, used to be the most-followed Indian on Chinese social media.
You can follow Leeza Mangaldas on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook and find more of my work at leezamangaldas.com
… but not to Chinese feminists
K J M Varma| 'Dangal' put on the mat by China's feminists | Press Trust of India
Sheikh as the triumphant Geeta Phogat
Beijing, May 17 (PTI) Aamir Khan's Dangal, running to packed houses here, has sparked a furious debate in China, with some viewers saying it broke gender stereotypes and others holding it reeked of prejudice and made them vomit
The film, on a man's dream of turning his daughters into wrestlers, has raked in about USD 72 million since it was released two weeks ago
But while it has been widely acclaimed, it has also been panned by a large section of people, especially by feminists
On the popular Chinese culture site, Douban.com, where the movie received an aggregate rating of 9.2 out of 10 based on user reviews, hundreds of people also submitted low ratings and bad reviews, local media reports said
One review read, "The father's values make me vomit, he forces his daughters to live a certain type of life with his dream, with money and becoming a champion. You think the movie is about breaking gender stereotypes, but actually it's knee- deep in prejudice."
Another said, "The movie reeks of patriarchy and male chauvinism. The daughters didn't have any freedom to choose and were raised ferociously by their father to be world champions."
While Dangal was being advertised in China, it was touted as a feminist film because the lead female character in the movie struggled against patriarchal beliefs and ended up winning a gold medal for India, an article in the state run Global Times said on Wednesday
But some aspects of the film sparked a fierce online debate on whether the film could be seen as a feminist story
Those who said it was not a pro-woman film, pointed out that the father did not give his daughters a choice but forced them to take up wrestling. He made them cut their hair short and denied them their favourite food when they were training.
But there was an equally vocal section which said the film broke gender stereotypes
"I think you might understand the father as an expression of patriarchy, but that's not the point of the story," said Sophia Zhu, a Beijing resident. "He taught his children to be brave, to persist no matter what others say. I think that shows he taught them to have an independent spirit," the daily quoted her as saying
This debate has also caught the attention of well-known film reviewers and critics. Dushe Dianying, a film criticism app especially popular among the young, sent out a strongly- worded article on the film
"I'm not saying that women should not fight for their rights, I'm saying feminist slogans that overlook cultural and social contexts and reality can be a type of hijacking. When words are tied to 'isms' their meanings change. When social phenomena are tied to 'isms' they get out of control," the article said
Ultimately, the debate over the film had turned into a discussion on Chinese feminism and whether it had taken a wrong turn, it said.
But many Chinese think it is about female empowerment
Dangal: India's wrestling blockbuster delights China | 18 May 2017 | BBC
The true story of two female wrestlers overturning gender stereotypes has become the highest-grossing Indian film ever in China. It's got people asking when China will make a film like this?
It is a story of female empowerment
[It stars] hugely popular Aamir Khan.
"I think the father really cared about his daughters' future. He would have raised independent daughters no matter what," said one social media user on Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo.
"Just left the cinema. All I want to say is, after the movie's finished, the whole room applauded. Quite an experience," said another user.
Although some took away an anti-feminist message from the film.
"I think this is a rather male chauvinistic film. Basically, the dad forced his dream on his two daughters. He didn't teach them to wrestle so that they could avoid being child brides. He taught them to wrestle so he could realise his dream. The girls never had a chance to choose," said one Weibo user.
China loves Aamir Khan
Since its release on 5 May [2017] in China, the film has already made more than 487m yuan ($70.7m; £54.5m [₹ 459.6 crore in 12-13 days]) at the box office, according to state news agency Xinhua and continues to do strong business.
It now looks poised to unseat Japan's Your Name as the highest grossing non-Hollywood film ever in China, which commentators say points to China's growing fascination with Bollywood.
In China, the film was released as Shuai Jiao Baba, which translates as Let's Wrestle, Dad. Since then the hashtag #LetsWrestleDad has been trending on Weibo.
Aamir Khan's previous films have also been hugely popular in China. His 2009 release, 3 Idiots, was a hit in the country and industry watchers called it the film that broke "China's Great Bollywood Wall".
Khan is sometimes credited with reviving China's love for Bollywood, which began with Raj Kapoor's films in the 1950s.
"It made me cry and laugh. I'm a big fan of Aamir Khan. He never lets me down," said one netizen on Weibo.
It's just so good, you won't go to the toilet
Chinese critics say Dangal has helped break China's "prejudice" against Bollywood films, including their excessive length and elaborate but "puzzling" dance scenes.
Prominent Chinese director Feng Xiaogang who watched the movie described his experience watching it with friends.
"I went to the movies along with some 20 friends last night. When the movie finished and they started showing the credits, seven to eight of them rushed to the toilet - turned out they had been holding off going to the bathroom. We went for tea afterwards and all of us said: good movie!"
Finally, a decent sports movie
And many social media users and critics are inevitably comparing Dangal to Chinese films, saying it was better than a lot of domestic cinema.
Yin Hong, a professor from the Tsinghua University and a film critic, told the Beijing Evening News that Dangal puts Chinese movies "to shame".
"Dangal was based on a true story, but its artistic level - from the script-writing to the actors' and actresses' performance, and from the pace to the musical score - is amazing."
He said it had "taught Chinese cinema a lesson".
"We have so many champions in China but we have failed to make a decent sports movie. This is a case worthy of reflection," he said.
"It could totally have been a Chinese story. but how come we don't have a movie like this?" asked one Weibo user.
Film critic Nan Jiang told the BBC she thinks it's because the Chinese film market is dominated by commercial interests.
"Some film makers are only concerned with money. They barely care about feminism or female empowerment," she said.
Reporting by BBC Monitoring and Beijing Bureau.
Crew
Director: Nitesh Tiwari
Producers
Siddharth Roy Kapur
Kiran Rao ...
Music
Pritam Chakraborty
Cinematography
Satyajit Pande
Writers
Piyush Gupta
Shreyas Jain
Nikhil Mehrotra
Nitesh Tiwari
Cast
Aamir Khan as Mahavir Singh Phogat
Sakshi Tanwar as Daya Kaur
Fatima Sana Shaikh as Geeta Phogat
Sanya Malhotra as Babita Phogat
Aparshakti Khurana Omkar
Zaira Wasim as the young Geeta Phogat
Suhani Bhatnagar as the young Babita Phogat
Girish Kulkarni as the villainous (and fictitious) Coach Pramod Kadam
Olamilekan Akanbi Jason as the Nigerian Coach
Technical specifications
Running time: 2h 41min
US release : 21 December 2016
Indian release : 23 December 2016
See also
Box office records of Hindi-Urdu films
Phogat, family of wrestlers (this page has some points in common with the page that you are on)
