Ajit Andhare, COO of Viacom18 Motion Pictures, says his studio found its footing by working with top talent to create socially relevant films, resulting in a “marriage of critical and commercial success.” Viacom18’s family comedy Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, (Toilet: A Love Story) starred superstar Akshay Kumar and focused on the improvement of sanitation conditions in rural India as a means of bettering women’s lives. The Indian box office’s offbeat PadMan, a film about female hygiene issues featuring the same Kumar, brought in an estimated $12 million.
The need to go local is because India is one of the few major territories in the world where Hollywood films claim a small minority share of the market — about 13 percent — while local fare dominates the box office.
