Local Movie Stars Go Glocal – Baywatch and Dangal Top Global Grossers of the Weekend

If trends are anything to be relying on, this year’s is crystal clear by the box office collections of movies globally – Go Glocal, Global Yet Local. As Twitter fiend and industry tracker, Chennai based Raman Bala has pointed out, two films with Indian movie stars have made it bigly big in the global market this weekend – one is Mr. Perfectionist Aamir Khan’s sports biopic Dangal, and the other is the nineties’ tv series relaunched on the silver screen (with oiled and muscled hotties Dwayne Johnson and Zac Afron) Baywatch, which stars local export to Hollywood – Piggie Chops aka Priyanka Chopra. Both the movies feature prominent women protagonists, though one would argue in very different capacities.

The plot and premise of the two movies is as different as it could be. Dangal features a no-nonsense coach hell bent on putting his daughters, a source of shame as opposed to pride in the rustic provinces of Haryana, at the top of the world in wrestling, commonly known as dangal in India. Although released in December, the movie continues to shine at the box office, with Aamir  Khan’s week-long tour of China providing fresh impetus to ticket sales, making it an unlikely hit with the Chinese audience. Aamir Khan has pointed out that the universal message of equal opportunities and feminism resonated regardless of language barriers.

On the other hand, the silver screen version of popular show Baywatch has failed to shine as much as expected at the box office. Opening to scathing reviews (Rotten Tomatoes gives it a measly 14% approval rating), it failed to shine both in North America and Priyanka Child’s home country, India. The ship seems to be sinking despite extensive publicity in India, unusual for an R-rated Hollywood movie in India. However, Chopra, one of the most recognised faces of the Bollywood industry, has come in for a lot of praise for her portrayal of the super-villain Victoria Leeds. She has been quoted as saying that unlike the TV show, that catered to the male gaze, the movie caters equally to the male and female gaze, and even her character goes toe to toe with those of Dwayne Johnson and Zac  Efron.

With Wonder Woman, the first DC movie on a female superhero doing extraordinarily well, one would have expected Baywatch to rake in some of the moolah that was spent in its making. However, the movie seems to be doomed while Dangal continues to do well in global markets .