The sci-fi drama Project Hail Mary is running worldwide successfully, but there is a small asterisk next to worldwide there. The film, which features Ryan Gosling in the lead, has minted $140 million globally in its opening weekend and is yet to be released in India. That postponement happened as it would have clashed with Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar The Revenge.
Ahead of the film’s India release, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller spoke with Hindustan Times about the growing popularity of Indian films globally and how RRR benefited Indian cinema.
Project Hail Mary vs Toxic
During our conversation, we pointed out that a couple of decades ago, the Indian film would have moved its release date to accommodate a big Hollywood studio film. Now, it’s the other way around. Phil Lord says with a laugh, “How dare you have your own successful film industry?”
Dhurandhar 2, directed by Aditya Dhar, has had the biggest opening in Indian cinema history, earning ₹750 crore worldwide, and even beating several Hollywood films at the US box office. Many other films, including Yash’s Toxic, delayed their releases to avoid a clash with this heavily anticipated sequel.
‘Very big audience for Indian films in US’
But the director sees this as a growing soft power of Indian cinema. “I don’t need to tell you that often, when you look at the top 10 films in the United States, there would be a Bollywood film. Those movies play in American theatres. Most Americans go ‘what’s that’, but there is a big audience for it,” he says.
His directorial partner Christopher Miller adds, “And it’s growing every year. Indian films in America have begun to gain broad cultural relevance, starting with RRR.” Chris feels that RRR did what many Indian films before that had not been able to – take Indian cinema beyond its core viewership in the US, beyond just the South Asian diaspora. “That really spread out beyond just those seeking it out,” he says.
The 2022 film by SS Rajamouli earned $15 million in the US but became a phenomenon in the country after its release on Netflix. It eventually won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
Project Hail Mary, meanwhile, is set to release in India on March 26 now, seven full days after Dhurandhar 2. Based on the 2021 novel by Andy Weir, it stars Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, and Lionel Boyce. The film follows Ryland Grace, a man who awakens on an interstellar spacecraft with no memory of how he got there.
