Long gone are days when Indian films only have country wide release. Today, a popular Telugu film with a top star releases in minimum of five countries abroad with special focus on USA. The business in these areas predominantly relies on web reviews from around the world. It’s a fact that people from other countries read reviews of regional films more than people in India do. This helps them coming to a conclusion about whether to watch an Indian film in theaters or not.
Web reviews are very important for Indians living in other countries because of the exorbitant ticket prices in cinemas. Ticket for an Indian costs a minimum of $10 and patrons have to drive miles to go watch an Indian film unlike cinemas on every alternate street in India.
For instance, films that have done reasonably well in India have done badly in foreign countries because of average to poor web reviews. Sometimes it has also been otherwise. Secondly, some of the directors get strong openings like Rajamouli, Srinu Vaitla and Sekhar Kammula has a strong foreign following and most of their films in the past have done exceptionally well overseas. One needs to understand that web reviews are the only source of information for foreigners for film because none of the international papers or local media write about Indian films. Therefore, audiences rely on web reviews largely.
With every Tom, Dick and Harry posing to be a critic on his or her blog, web reviews have become very important part of our decision making skills. A film review appears a day after a film’s release in papers or Tv channels, but it’s uploaded within hours since a film’s release online. A popular critic on web may have thousands of followers or even more unlike those who follows reviews on papers. Therefore, the power of web reviews shouldn’t be taken lightly.
