The release will be a true test for both the movie icon Salman Khan, and for the Indian movie industry in general. Indian movies released in China have achieved spectacular financial results with moviegoers, but only when they’ve featured megastar Aamir Khan in the lead role. “Uncle” Aamir’s success and stardom in the Middle Kingdom has been building for nearly a decade, since the theatrical release and subsequent online triumph of his 2009 comedy 3 Idiots .
In the years since, each of Aamir’s successive films has vastly out-grossed the previous one, culminating with his family wrestling drama Dangal, which earned nearly $200 million in the PRC last year, the all-time single-territory box office record for a film exported from Indian (the all-time box office record for Indian films in India is held by Baahubali: The Conclusion , which grossed $218 million in 2017. Aamir will face a test of his own this weekend when his latest film Secret Superstar opens wide in China, with him playing only a small-ish supporting role. If it’s a hit it will be a testament to the Indian star’s hold over Chinese fans.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan won’t enjoy such an advantage, as Salman Khan is little known in the Middle Kingdom. It should help that the picture is widely considered one of his very best. If
Bajrangi Bhaijaan can earn, say, $25 million or more in China, it could open the doors for more films from India to enter the Chinese market. That would likely require some goodwill from Aamir Khan's huge fanbase, for Salman Khan to ride on his very wide coattails.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan will roll out with the unwieldy title of 小萝莉的猴神大叔, which roughly translates as “Little Lolita Monkey God Uncle.” The Chinese title is a partial literal translation—“Bajrangi” translates rougly as “monkey god” and a partial attempt to reference the two lead characters, Salman’s “uncle” and the “Lolita,” a displaced six-year-old mute Pakistani girl, played beautifully by child actress Harshaali Malhotra.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan originally released in India in June, 2015. It tells the story of a humble, religiously motivated man played by Salman Khan who helps a mute, 6-year-old Pakistani girl (Malhotra) to find her way home after she is accidentally separated from them. The Chinese version of the picture will have a running time of 140 minutes, 16 minutes less than the Indian release.