Ben Stiller in Museum Ke Andar Phas Gaya Sikandar

Want to go for Night At The Museum? No way. Want to catch Museum Ke Andar Phas Gaya Sikandar? Of course. That seems to be the dominant drift among the English movie-going audience, prompting Hollywood studios to go the dubbed-only way.

The Ben Stiller comedy will be the first official Hollywood film not to release in English in India, this Friday. Night At The Museum topped the US box-office over the Christmas weekend.

“By releasing movies in English, we have been restricting ourselves in many Indian cities like Calcutta, where the Hindi movie-watching audiences dominate the market,” George John, marketing manager of Twentieth Century Fox, which is releasing the film across the country, tells Metro from Mumbai. “So, this is the only way we can expand the Hollywood market here in this country.”

What this means is that city plexes, which have till now only released English movies in English, are being forced to release Museum Ke Andar... Says Subhasish Ganguly, general manager of INOX (City Centre): “Just by releasing an English film in Hindi, you can’t equate the movie with the likes of Baabul or Vivah. We are being compelled to play the Hindi print because we don’t want to miss out.”

The success of Museum Ke Andar... will decide whether this no-English move is a one-off thing or a sign of things to come. “We definitely cannot take any film and apply this strategy,” adds John. “It has to be a very visual film with lots of special effects and we will just change the language acting as impediment.”

Distributor and exhibitor Arijit Dutta sees sense in the move. “From Jurassic Park to King Kong and Spider-Man, audiences have lapped up the Hindi versions. This was waiting to happen.”