On the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, Chinese President Xi Jingping told Narendra Modi that he ‘loved’ Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal, which was recently released in China. Xi Jinping also said that he wants to see more such movies released in China in the future.
Dangal has now pushed the 2016 Hong Kong-China action film Operation Mekong out of the number 20 spot to enter the list of China’s top 20 highest-grossing movies in history.
Dangal has set several new Chinese records, including:
- Highest-grossing non-Chinese/non-English language film in Chinese history, with $174.8 million to date and still counting
- China’s leggiest film ever, with a current cume of 83x its first-day gross of $2.1 million
- Most consecutive days with $1 million or more in box office, at 35 so far
- Highest single-territory gross for an Indian film outside of India
China had in January 2017 increased the quota of Indian films to be screened in theatres from two to four after joint productions, "Kung Fu Yoga" and "Buddies in India" fared well notching up good box office collection during the Chinese New Year.