PATHAAN emerged the highest grossing Hindi film in original format last week but there was a little debate within the industry as DANGAL had grossed more if you include the Far East and BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN is also ahead that way. But these numbers are all formats and basically when you do this, it just changes the history of Hindi cinema the way everyone knows it.

The overseas markets had this Russian factor for around forty years and the last decade saw the Chinese factor and both are very similar in almost everything. The difference being that Russia had far more Hindi films released though business could be extreme from crazy levels to practically nothing. Both markets generally have Hindi films on an outright basis as makers see it as extra money and give the film and then the distributor be it Russian or Chinese releases the film on his account. The cost gets higher if the film breaks out but so do the profits.

In Russia, the films was dubbed or subtitled and even cut to suit the needs of the market and it was a different case for different areas. If the film was dubbed, the songs were still left in original Hindi language and this was for all films though a song here there would be cut. It has been the same case in China though here reports are that songs are edited/cut especially if they don't take story forward.

The Russian story was a few prints released which meant very limited revenue but a film could break out into hundreds of prints with huge grosses (though not as high as these $50m, $75m, $100m numbers that go around). Its the same with China, there may be less releases but its about a break out. A difference with Russia is that in Russia, most major Hindi films managed a release

China, meanwhile, is still picky and distributors only pick films which they feel have a chance. PATHAAN will not be one them as it shows the INDIAN as a HERO and the Chinese will not take to that. The Russians were kinder that way as SEETA AUR GEETA, JUGNU, BAROOD and DISCO DANCER were huge but many historic blockbuster films like MOTHER INDIA, MUGHAL-E-AZAM, GANGA JUMNA, MERA GAON MERA DESH, MUQADDAR KA SIKANDAR and KRANTI were debacles there. Even the biggest of them all, SHOLAY, had only decent footfalls in Russia.

Simply put, PATHAAN has moved the benchmarks in Overseas to a different level but if you go by the Far East story then it has not as other films have already grossed more with their various formats. Just like HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN and DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE opened up the overseas market in the 90's but if you go by the Russian factor then then many movies had already done higher business decades back.

The films that were released in Russia and then lately Far East are not the same films which were released in India that is why PATHAAN is the biggest Hindi worldwide grosser in its original format. Then taking all formats it can be said that DANGAL is bigger than PATHAAN worldwide, SECRET SUPERSTAR is bigger than SANJU, DISCO DANCER is bigger than KABHI KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM and MAMTA is bigger than MUGHAL-E-AZAM.

The original format of the film is most important and you cant mix up with other versions and then compare. Its like having a bag of Apples on one side and a bag of Apples and Oranges on the other but saying its the same thing. There will be people out there who do but then there are a lot of people who are a bit empty upstairs also.

When BAAHUBALI 2: THE CONCLUSION released and it was put above DANGAL on the site it was asked why it went above DANGAL as Hollywood does not do this but that is because there eventually for the top films, its a level playing field as most will will go to all the major markets. On a lighter note they also know that a edited/subtitled /dubbed LOLITA (1997) is not going to topple their greats be it GONE WITH THE WIND, TITANIC, AVATAR or ET. This is not to say the historic Hindi grossers in Russia and China are LOLITA's (This film is one of the biggest box office disasters in Hollywood if not the biggest).

Now, ENGLISH VINGLISH will release in China and it will do some business as otherwise the local distributor would not have taken it. But if it somehow, it goes on to do $100 million or more, it will NOT become bigger than PATHAAN as in original format you just cant compare the films.