On May 4, US President Donald Trump announced a 100 per cent tariff on movies produced outside the country, believing that the move would boost the number of films made in America. The result was chaos and confusion within Hollywood as well as film industries around the world, as Trump did not provide details on how the tariffs would be implemented. Even as the President softened his stance on May 5 and stated that a decision would be made only after he met with members of Hollywood, the news has sparked concern in the Indian film industry. After all, the US is a key overseas market that contributes significantly to the box-office revenue of major Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil films.

As mid-day reached out to producers and trade experts, they unanimously noted the ambiguity of the current situation as it is unclear whether the tariff would apply to payments made to acquire distribution rights of foreign films for their US release. There is also a lack of clarity whether tariffs would apply to movies on streamers as well.

Trade expert Ramesh Bala pointed out, “Many American films are shot in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere to lower production costs. If the tariff applies to any part of the film made outside US borders, then many Hollywood films would technically qualify as foreign.”

Bala agreed that the move, if implemented, would be detrimental for Indian films. “The US market is crucial for Indian theatrical releases, especially because of the sizeable South Asian diaspora,” he stated, pointing to blockbusters like RRR (2022) and Jawan (2023) that earned significantly from their US market.

“High price points due to tariffs will dissuade distributors, reduce the number of films reaching theatres, and ultimately limit consumer choice. Small or medium-budget movies will likely skip theatrical release in the US entirely, missing out on a potentially lucrative market. The governments of affected countries, including India, will need to step in and engage in dialogue with the US administration to either seek exemptions or negotiate a more balanced trade approach,” he stated.

Trade analyst Akshaye Rathi said it was too early to respond to Trump’s announcement “with assumptions”. He, however, said that this could serve as a trigger to fortify our own ecosystem. Citing the example of Russia, he said, “After the Ukraine conflict, Hollywood studios stopped releasing films in Russia, cutting off nearly 95 per cent of their box-office content overnight. The Russian government actively invested in its local film industry boosting both volume and quality. Within two-three years, they’ve managed to nearly return to pre-war box office numbers. The Indian film industry is still operating at a fraction of its potential.”

Housefull 5 will be one of the first big Bollywood releases in the wake of the announcement. With Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan and Riteish Deshmukh leading it, the laugh riot is targeted as much at the Indian audience as at the diaspora. Diljit Dosanjh’s Sardaar Ji 3, slated for June 27 release, too is aimed at the diaspora.

Bala assumed the films would go unscathed, reasoning, “The proposal is under consideration and is part of a broader USTR [United States Trade Representative] investigation. There is no final rollout date. This gives a buffer, but later films will have to review [their distribution plans].”

An executive from Jio Studios, who did not wish to be named, dialled down the fear with facts. “The US market contributes only around four per cent to the total box-office earnings of an average Indian film. So, the overall damage is limited. If the tariff doesn’t apply to OTT platforms, it might even benefit producers, as they can sell their films directly to streaming services.”

Supriya Yarlagadda, executive director, Annapurna Studios, which backed the Telugu film franchise, Goodachari, admitted that the policy will hurt not only Hindi films, but also their South counterpart. “US is a large distribution territory for various Indian language films. While the latest news is of concern, we will have to wait for the policy details to emerge before panicking,” she said.

A question on the mind of many is: Can China or Japan replace the US? Bala said a hard no. “China’s annual foreign film quota [around 10 titles under revenue-sharing rules] makes it an unreliable replacement for the US. Other regions like Australia and Southeast Asia are much smaller. The US remains the only overseas market with scale, infrastructure, and a sizeable diaspora audience.”

As people in much of the world flocked to see Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster film “Barbie” this summer, viewers in Russia were left out. At least officially. Along with other studios, Warner Brothers, the producer of Barbie, stopped releasing movies in Russia shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But that has not stopped Russian viewers from watching Western films. Last year, Russian theaters were openly screening illegal copies of “The Batman” and “Turning Red.”

“Barbie” has been no different, with movie theaters employing a workaround to give audiences access to the Western films they want to watch. Russian cinemas in cities large and small are offering viewers tickets for short films or documentaries, but these come with screenings of the full effervescent, bubblegum-pink “Barbie” film that technically plays during the previews slot. At least 14 theaters in Moscow were openly offering such screenings on their websites on Wed nesday, with tickets about 400 to 500 rubles, or $4 to$5.

The screenings are just one example of how Russians have been forced to improvise after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In the wake of the war, the West imposed a host of sanctions on Russia and companies fled the market. The Kremlin has also discouraged these screenings as Moscow seeks to paint an all-encompassing picture of an existential battle with the West.

Movies produced in the US made up around 70% of the Russian film market before the war, according to state media. Their exit has caused a crisis among Russian movie theaters, whose revenues dropped by 44% from 2021 to 2022, according to Russia’s Association of Theater Owners.

The association wrote on its website that it has made repeated pleas to government agencies to issue theaters distribution certificates that allow them to screen films like “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” from “unfriendly countries” without the consent of the copyright owners. But the ministry of culture turned down the request, saying that the two films “do not meet the goals and objectives set by the head of state to pre serve and strengthen traditional Russian spiritual and moral values,” and that the Russian box office is “saturated” with domestic films anyway.

This year, the ministry of culture announced that it would provide financial support only to films focused on one or more of 17 approved themes, including “traditional values”; “heroism” of Russian soldiers in the war with Ukraine; and “the degradation of Europe.”

Some domestic films have successfully attracted large audiences.

S S Rajamouli’s RRR (2022) had a long Oscar campaign in the US, which eventually came to an end when one of its songs, Naatu Naatu, won the Oscar in the Original Song category. Now, in an interview with Humans Of Bombay, actor Ram Charan’s wife, entrepreneur Upasana Kamineni Konidela, shares how important it was for her to be there for Charan, which included their trips to the US for the Oscar as well as the shooting of RRR.

She says, “I was there on the set of Naatu Naatu with him (Charan) in Ukraine where they were filming the entire routine. I just had to be there for him because he was physically shaking, and he needed as much support as he could get! During the dancing and things like that. LA (during the Oscars) was like a great vacation for me, and to be with him at that time was really nice [too]. Everyone around me was so warm, I didn’t even expect it. This was unknown territory for us, but everyone was so warm, it was really nice.”

Konidela acknowledges that Charan has been there for her through her tough times at work: “He (Charan) has been with me through some of my really, really tough times at work, and of course he is there with me during all my successes as well.”

Konidela and Charan have been married for over 10 years and are expecting their first child together this year. They announced their big news in December 2022, just as the Oscar buzz began for RRR. 

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Hollywood’s biggest studios have stopped releasing movies in Russia, and Netflix has ceased service there. But recently, some of the companies’ films have started appearing in Russian movie theatres — illegally. The screenings are reminiscent of the Soviet era, when the only way to see most Western films was to get access to a pirated version. Whereas those movies made their way to Russians in the form of smuggled VHS tapes, today, cinemas in the country have a simpler, faster method: the internet. Numerous websites offer bootleg copies of movies that take minutes to download.

Some theatres in Russia are now openly screening pirated movies; others are being more careful, allowing private individuals to rent out spaces to show films, free or for a fee. One group, for example, rented out several screening rooms at a theatre in Yekaterinburg, then used social media to invite people to buy tickets to watch “The Batman.”

In Makhachkala, capital of the Dagestan region, a movie theatre is screening “Don't Look Up”; and in Chita, a city near the border with Mongolia, people can watch “Turning Red,” the animated film from Disney and Pixar.

These surreptitious screenings are the latest attempt by theatres in Russia to survive after US studios like Disney, Warner Bros and Paramount left the country in protest. Before the war in Ukraine, movies produced in the US made up about 70% of the Russian film market, according to state media.

But despite the attempts to draw viewers, Russians are barely going to the movies. Theatres saw ticket sales fall by about half in March, compared with the same period last year, according to the country’s Association of Theatre Owners.

Artem Komolyatov, 31, a video game producer in Moscow, noticed the shift when he and his wife went on a Friday date to the movies a few weeks ago. They chose “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a film from American studio A24, which stopped releasing films in Russia in mid-April. “But, there were only three other people there besides us,” he said. “We went at 8pm (local time) on a weekend. Usually the theatre is full.”

Given the dearth of viewers and of content, the Association of Theatre Owners predicted that at least half the theaters in Russia would go out of business in the next two months.

Even if that prognosis is true, history has shown that films will reach audiences with or without legal channels. Decades ago, Soviet citizens gathered in empty office spaces, living rooms and cultural centers to view pirated copies of Western classics like “Rocky,” “The Terminator,” and “9 ½ Weeks” that had made their way behind the Iron Curtain.

The year was 1983. Film director Babbar Subhash’s ‘Disco Dancer’ had just been invited for the Moscow film festival by a Mumbai-based agency Sovex Fort. “I was hesitant because it was a modern film with modern music and mostly dark films such as ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ have been successful in Russia but Smita Patil convinced me otherwise,” Subhash recalls.

By the time the movie screening ended, over 3,000 people in the auditorium were clapping and dancing along to the title track. “It was one of the best days of my life,” he says. ‘Disco Dancer’ went on to sell 120 million tickets in the Soviet Union, and even WhatsApp’s Ukrainian cofounder Jan Koum recalls watching the film as many as 20 times as a kid in Kyiv.

With Hollywood movies banned in the USSR during the Cold War, the Soviet government began promoting Indian movies from the 1950s onwards. The first big hit was Raj Kapoor’s ‘Awara’ selling 64 million tickets followed by ‘Shree 420’. Then came movies such as ‘Dhool Ka Phool’, ‘Love In Simla’, ‘Bobby’, ‘Barood’, ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’, ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikandar’.

Dr Sudha Rajagopalan, senior lecturer in East European Studies at the University of Amsterdam, estimates that 210 Indian films were screened in Soviet theatres between 1954 and 1991, around 190 of which were mainstream Hindi films from Bombay. “Indian popular films often surpassed both domestic and other foreign cinema in viewer turnout,” she writes in her book.

Elena Doroshenko, a Moscow-based journalist and linguist who has watched the old hits as well as the relatively newer ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’ and ‘Paheli’, says they struck an emotional chord with Russians. “The films spoke the same emotional language — even though we were different, we understood the emotions and passions,” she says.

The success of Hindi films in the USSR also led to joint productions such as ‘Alibaba Aur 40 Chor’ and ‘Sohni Mahiwal’. However, this changed after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. “There was a flood of various films from the West and we wanted to imitate that lifestyle,” Doroshenko says. “Indian films were still on TV — it’s not that they were forgotten but they stopped being a sensation.”

Dancer Svetlana Tulasi, who was born to an Indian dad and Russian mom and raised in Moscow, recalls watching Bollywood movies on cassette tapes, then cable TV, then DVDs and eventually on the internet. She shot to fame a few years ago with her viral Bollywood-Kathak fusion dances at Russia's Got Talent and Ukraine's Got Talent.

On YouTube, there are Russian fan channels devoted to Mithun Chakraborty, and dance performances set to the song ‘Jimmy Jimmy’. There are even a couple of restaurants by that name in Vladivostok and the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

The Georgian ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ was inaugurated in 2019 by none other than Raj Kapoor’s son Rajeev Kapoor. “When we visited Georgia for the first time, we were surprised to see that taxi drivers were playing ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ and ‘Mera Joota hai Japani’,” says owner Shubham Joshi whose customer base includes both locals as well as Indian students.

Actor Urvashi Rautela, who was shooting for her upcoming Tamil film in Ukraine’s Kiev and Odesa, flew back to India two days before Russia declared war on Ukraine on February 21. “While we were shooting, there was a lot of tension between both the countries. But we took one day at a time. When I landed in Ukraine, my brother was really scared for me,” she tells us, adding, “My father also flew to Ukraine for work. Though scared, I had a sense of security thinking that he was also there.”

The simmering political tension between both the nations brought about a halt in the shoot and forced the crew to return home. The actor, 28, says, “We were supposed to meet the Prime Minister of Ukraine (Denys Shmyhal). But we had to cancel the plan because of the ongoing crisis. I was supposed to do a musical collaboration with Ukrainian musician Monatik, too.”

While her family heaved a sigh of relief upon her return to India, she says she can’t help but be concerned about the fatalities caused and the fear with which people are living in Ukraine: “I’m praying hard for the situation there. It’s really terrifying. I’ve friends and family there and I constantly keep checking on them.”

The value of peace holds a deeper meaning for the actor, as she grew up in a family where two of her uncles are part of the Indian army. “Mothers don’t give life to their kids so that they can die in a war. War isn’t the answer and there’s nothing uglier than that. When I think of the families that are suffering, I can’t stop thinking about the futility of war,” Rautela ends.

In the week since Russian President Vladimir Putin began the military invasion of Ukraine, its effects have been strongly felt around the globe. India has since ramped up its evacuation efforts to get countless students back home. Even as the government aims to bring back over 6,300 Indians from Ukraine by March 8 under Operation Ganga, Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has now joined forces to aid the initiative.

Over the past few days, several stranded students — from Kyiv to Lviv — reached out to the actor on social media, seeking help. Sood Foundation reacted promptly to the distress messages and initiated contact with the Indian embassies in Romania and Poland. The members of the foundation teamed up with Ukraine’s neighbouring countries with a two-fold objective — first, to determine alternative routes for students to cross the Ukrainian border and reach safe territories.

For this, the team is heavily relying on the embassies’ knowledge of the local region and is constantly tracking the situation at the chosen exit points. Secondly, the foundation is also arranging transport for students in certain areas.

A source says, “They have teamed up with local Indian bodies in Poland and are sending taxis to take Indian students to the airport.” Yesterday, Sood wrote on Twitter that his foundation had helped 300-plus students cross the border, so far.

mid-day got in touch with Laxman Agarwal, a Lviv National Medical University student, who landed in Delhi on Wednesday afternoon by one of the flights under Operation Ganga. He said that while some of his friends were stuck at the Shehnyi border, he was guided by Sood’s team to take an alternative route, thus making it safely to Poland. “They suggested a safe route to cross the border. They were constantly in touch with us, and were aware of the ground reality. His team gave us hope when we had lost it.”

In 2020, amid the pandemic-induced lockdown, Sood helped numerous migrant workers reach their hometowns.

Actor Aishwarya Sushmita believes “war is not the solution” with regard to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and hopes that both the countries can “sit and talk it out”. She shot in Ukraine last year for her debut web project Special Ops 1.5, and feels quite affected by the current events.

“It is sad to see what is happening there. I hope the leaders communicate and end this conflict. The world’s economy, neighbouring countries — the crisis is affecting everyone around the world. Fuel prices will rise due to this and it will lead to other issues,” she says.

The actor vividly remembers the warmth of the people of Ukraine and the great experience of shooting there. “We shot in Ukraine for almost a fortnight in July 2021, and we stayed in its capital, Kyiv,” she recalls.

In the break between shoots, she explored the city and came away impressed. She adds, “We visited many churches, and the architecture was marvellous. The food was fabulous, too. The only problem was the language, as many people there couldn’t speak English. And we had to rely on apps that helped us translate. I must say, the people there were quite warm and welcoming. In fact, Kyiv was not very expensive, so I shopped a lot and even told my parents to plan a trip there soon.”

Aishwarya Sushmita shooting for Special Ops 1.5 in Ukraine

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many production houses have halted their planned releases in the country. Hollywood studios Disney, Warner Bros, and Sony Pictures Entertainment said they would pause theatrical releases of upcoming films in Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine and the unfolding humanitarian crisis.

“Given the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the tragic humanitarian crisis, we are pausing the release of theatrical films in Russia, including the upcoming Turning Red from Pixar,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement, adding, “We will make future business decisions based on the evolving situation. In the meantime, given the scale of the emerging refugee crisis, we are working with our NGO partners to provide urgent aid to refugees.”

Within hours, Warner said it would pause this week’s release of The Batman in Russia. “In light of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, Warner Media is pausing the release of its feature film The Batman in Russia. We will continue to monitor the situation as it evolves. We hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to this tragedy,” a spokesperson for the studio said in a statement.

After this, Sony followed suit. “Given the ongoing military action in Ukraine and the resulting uncertainty and humanitarian crisis unfolding in that region, we will be pausing our planned theatrical releases in Russia, including the upcoming release of Morbius,” the studio said in a statement referencing the SpiderMan spinoff slated for early April.

Over the weekend, the Ukrainian Film Academy created an online petition that called for an international boycott of Russian cinema and the Russian film industry following the invasion.

Russia is a significant market for Hollywood, accounting for $601 million in box office in 2021, or about 2.8% of worldwide ticket sales, which totaled $21. 4 billion last year, according to reports.

Several concerts planned in Russia and Ukraine have also been cancelled due to security reasons. Louis Tomlinson announced on February 28 that he is cancelling his upcoming tour shows in Moscow and Kyiv. He said, “Due to the recent events in Ukraine, I have to announce that my tour shows in Moscow and Kyiv are cancelled until further notice,” he wrote on Twitter.

American rock band Green Day also decided to cancel its concert in Moscow and said, “With heavy hearts, in light of current events we feel it is necessary to cancel our upcoming show in Moscow.”

Other musicians and groups that have cancelled their concerts in Russia include Yungblud, AJR – all showed support for Ukraine while announcing the cancellations.

As per reports, performances by several Russian ballet companies and musicians have been cancelled across US and UK,as part of the global boycott of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

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As per the Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros has pulled The Batman from its Russian release calendar in the aftermath of Russia’s continuous invasion of Ukraine. A spokesperson confirmed the news in a statement.

The Robert Pattinson-starrer was to release on March 3 in Russia in accordance with the film’s global roll-out. The decision has been taken despite Russia being a lucrative market for Hollywood, with Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home earning more than $44.5 million to date since opening in December.

Since the attack in the last week of February, Hollywood releases like Joe Wright’s Cyrano and Paramount’s The Godfather 50th Anniversary released in Russia. The decision to continue to send films to Russia sparked conversation over the weekend. 

Disney became the first big Hollywood studio to hit the pause button on releasing its movies in Russia as it cancelled the March 10 release of the comedy, Turning Red. The statement regarding The Batman quickly followed. 

Sony followed by announcing that it won’t release Morbius in Russia next month. The Jared Leto-starrer was due on March 24 in the country. The Motion Picture Association has also reportedly backed “the international community in upholding the rule of law and condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” as per a statement.

In recent years, a number of Indian films and series including RRR, 99 Songs, Dev, Winner and Special Ops 1.5 were filmed in various locations in Ukraine. Location managers and production assistants say that in the last few years Ukraine was becoming a popular film shooting destination for Indian projects because it offers picturesque locations at lower costs, and shooting there used to be 20-30% cheaper than other Eastern European countries.

Natarajan Ramji, a location manager, who arranges shoots abroad for Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films, says, “For Indian filmmakers, Ukraine was the most suitable location in Europe from a financial perspective and also in terms of filmmaking, with good local crew and actors.”

Natarajan Ramji says, “The locations there can be matched with the settings of other places, like Paris, London, the US and even some Indian locales. The people, too, were friendly. While January to April is peak winter there, we had a few shoots planned there from May.”

He was also part of the shoot of an untitled Tamil film starring Saravanan Arul and Urvashi Rautela, which was shot in Ukraine in December. He was in Kiev in the first week of February this year as well to organise permissions for the shoot of an upcoming film. “Obviously, it is not going to be considered as a probable location for some time now,” Ramji adds.

Satish Sharma, director of Indo-Soviet Films that coordinates for shoots in Ukraine, says, “Almost a decade back I coordinated the shoot of a series Raja Vaska in Ukraine, India and Russia. Since then we have been doing a lot of projects in Ukraine. In fact, my next project Marshall, directed by Ganesh Acharya, was to be filmed in Ukraine in May. We had planned the shoot in summer and winter, but now it doesn’t seem possible. My last project in Ukraine was Neeraj Pandey’s Special Ops. We were also planning to shoot Shivaay in Ukraine, but at that time also there was news of some disturbances so we changed the location to Bulgaria. A number of songs from south films have been shot in Kiev, Lviv and the Carpathian mountains”

Satish adds that Ukraine was becoming a popular location among Indian filmmakers when Coronavirus hit. “My partner in Ukraine was planning to organise an event in India in January to promote Ukraine’s film shooting locations, but due to Omicron he couldn’t come. My friends from Ukraine have been showing me the situation on video calls and sending videos of the place where they are hiding. It doesn’t look like we will be able to film in the country anytime soon,” he says.

— With inputs from Niharika Lal and M Suganth