Exclusive with Advait Chandan, director of 'Secret Superstar'

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In recent years, the booming Chinese film market has attracted an increasing number of foreign players, showing a trend for more diversity. Hollywood is no longer the dominant force among them, and Bollywood from the neighboring India is taking a share too.

Last year, Indian film “Dangal”, starring Aamir Khan, earned nearly 1.3 billion yuan (210 million US dollars) at the box office, while “Secret Superstar”, the debut by director Advait Chandan, earned 700 million yuan (111 million US dollars).

The glamorous film industry is never lacking in talent.

While in Beijing attending the eighth Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF), Indian director Avait Chandan sat down with CGTN and talked about his film as well as his impressions of the BJIFF.

A poster for Indian film "Secret Superstar" /VCG Photo

“Secret Superstar”, starring Aamir Khan and Zaira Wasim, tells the story of a teenage girl striving to achieve her dream of becoming a singer, alongside her pursuit of equal rights for women. Many viewers said they left the cinema crying, touched by the role of the mother, whose unconditional love and support encourages her daughter and leads her to the stage.

The movie has scored a 7.9 out of 10 on douban.com.

Chandan said he had the inspiration while working for a TV show produced by Aamir Khan, to whom he used to be a secretary, and was touched by a model telling the story of how her daughter has empowered her.

Indian director Advait Chandan and actresses from "Secret Superstar" promote the film in China. /VCG Photo‍

“India has done a lot of boy meets girl, boy-girl romantic love stories,” said Chandan. “But we haven’t done a mother-daughter film. And that was a relationship I wanted to explore.”

In the “Secret Superstar”, the heroine, Insia, takes to YouTube to demonstrate her talents in singing, which earns her tens of thousands of followers and also instigates a turning point in her life. Chandan says that he holds a positive attitude towards social media and its role in giving young people access to the resources they need to achieve their dreams.

“It gives us opportunity to show our talent. Today if I make a short film, I can just uploaded it online and it will find an audience,” he said. “That’s really what an artist is craving. We just want an audience.”

A poster for Indian film "Secret Superstar" /VCG Photo

“The other thing the Internet does is to allow us to learn a lot,” he cited the example of a nine-year-old Indian boy, who started to learn to play golf on the Internet and finally became a world champion.

“The Internet and social media are very empowering, in terms of the fact that it gives the platform and it gives the opportunity to learn.”

The director was in Beijing for the “Summit on the Beauty of Film” forum, which is part of the ongoing eighth Beijing International Film Festival. While speaking of the potential collaborations within the film industry between China and India, Chandan said he sees a promising future.

“I think our audiences, the Indian audience and the Chinese audience, have very similar tastes. It’s also probably why Indians love Chinese food,” said Chandan. He said he hopes that there will be more Indian films released in China, and vice versa.

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“Whilst here, I have watched a lot of Chinese films. And if they were released in India, the Indian audiences would love them.”

Before concluding the interview, Chandan also recommended several of his favorite Indian movies to the Chinese audience, saying that they either inspired him in his writing and directing, or are his favorite Indian films.

If you are a fan of Bollywood films, you won’t want to miss them.

[Photographer: Qi Jianqiang, Huang Yichang

Video by Zhao Yuxiang, Chen Shi

Josh McNally also contributed to the report.]