WAVES 2025: Dinesh Vijan calls for international collaboration for Indian films: “Imagine if there was Spider-Man in the climax of Stree 2”; reveals China’s obsession with Aamir Khan’s Dangal and his hilarious misunderstanding: “They kept shouting ‘Dongle’, ‘Dongle'”

By Fenil Seta -

May 2, 2025 - 3:35 PM IST

Day 2 of WAVES Summit 2025 began on a rocking note as Aamir Khan attended a session along with Dinesh Vijan of Maddock Films, Namit Malhotra of Prime Focus, Ajay Bijli of PVR Inox, Ritesh Sidhwani of Excel Entertainment and Hollywood producer Charles Roven of Oppenheimer (2023) fame. Dinesh Vijan, currently the most successful producer of Bollywood, raised some interesting points about distribution and also opened up on the China box office.

WAVES 2025: Dinesh Vijan calls for international collaboration for Indian films: “Imagine if there was Spider-Man in the climax of Stree 2”; reveals China’s obsession with Aamir Khan’s Dangal and his hilarious misunderstanding: “They kept shouting ‘Dongle’, ‘Dongle'”

Dinesh Vijan said, “Americans have spent time and effort to build an international market. We need to focus beyond the Indian diaspora and doing that requires money. Everyone says that content is king but a very wise man told me that distribution is God! I don't think our films reach there and we need to work on it.”

He also noted, “I don't think the city audience comes to the theatres on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All of us wait to know for sure if it's good as it's expensive and requires time.”

Dinesh Vijan further said, “Once your films explode in your market, you get capital to expand. We are attempting to make Mahavatar which is the largest film we have ever made. There is technology available to make a world-class film. Because our films have worked in the past, we are willing to take that risk. Again, we'll have to work on the distribution strategy.”

He continued, “What can help us go international is collaboration. Imagine if there was Spider-Man in the climax of Stree 2 for 5 minutes! The film would have exploded!”

Aamir Khan and Dinesh Vijan have a major similarity. Their films, Dangal (2016) and Hindi Medium (2017), performed beyond expectations in China, shocking the trade and industry. On this, Aamir Khan said, “For me, the decision to make a film is rarely connected to its distribution. The material should excite me. I don’t think that ‘Yeh China mein chalegi’. With great difficulty, I understand what’s working in China. So, what’s working in China, I really don’t have an idea (laughs).”

Dinesh Vijan raised laughs as he said, “I went to China to figure out why Hindi Medium did so well. I was also shocked. Also, the film was subtitled. It wasn’t dubbed. Yet, it collected 4 times the collections of India in China. When I went there, everyone kept telling me about ‘Dongle’, ‘Dongle’! I thought they wanted a dongle (a device installed to access the internet)! Then, I realized they mentioned Dangal as Dongle!”

He also said he realized why Hindi Medium touched the hearts of the Chinese audience. He said, “China has a population issue. They have a problem getting their kid in school. Hindi Medium addressed an issue that if your Hindi is not good, then banda bekaar ho jaata hai. The Chinese face the same problem.”

Also Read: WAVES 2025: Aamir Khan calls 8-week theatrical-OTT window “FAULTY”: “Whether your film is good or bad, this business model DOESN’T make sense”; Ajay Bijli reveals, “Global BO dropped from $42 billion pre-Covid to $32 billion; 40 lakh seats in cinemas in India; 2024 occupancy was just 16%”