Thalapathy Vijay's Mersal, which is credited to be one of the biggest hits at Kollywood box office, is set to add a feather to its cap. The Atlee Kumar's creation is set to become the first Tamil movie to be released in China.
China's HGC Entertainment has acquired the rights of Mersal and planning to release in the Mandarin language by the end of this year or early 2019. "We found this to be a particularly touching story," Variety quotes Li Ying, HGC president, as saying.
It is reported that Chinese comedy-drama Dying to Survive was made on the similar lines where the movie takes on the country's medical system. It was based on a real-life story where the victim smuggles the cheap cancer medicine from India.
The content had struck the chord with the viewers as the movie grossed $400 million at the box office. Whereas Mersal had taken on Indian medical system and how the corrupt system had become unaffordable for middle-class citizens and economically-poor people while throwing light on how the big hospitals are fleecing money from the innocent people.
In the recent years, the Indian movies are having a good presence in the China market. Aamir Khan's Dangal (Rs 1,200 crore), Secret Superstar (over Rs 800 crore), Irrfan Khan's Hindi Medium (Rs 223 crore), Tiger Zinda Hai (Rs 175 crore) and Baahubali 2 (Rs 128 crore) are the movies, which have minted big money.
It has to be seen how far Mersal will go in terms of winning the hearts of the Chinese audience.
The Atlee Kumar-directorial is now at the fifth place in the list of all-time highest-grossing movies of South India by grossing over Rs 251 crore. The movie has Kajal Aggarwal, Samantha and Nithya Menen playing the female leads.
