BANGKOK: Acknowledging the popularity of Hollywood cinema in India, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has said that dubbed versions might have enjoyed success with the audience in India, but it posed no threat to Indian films.

Hollywood might have overshadowed French and Italian film industries, but cultural differences with Indian audience makes it tough for it to side step Indian films in their own backyard, he said.

“Films like Spiderman, Titanic are successful in India because there are no references to culture, family relationships. But the way Hollywood had virtually destroyed French or Italian cinema, Indian film industry is not threatened,” Bachchan said. The actor who is here as part of the IIFA weekend in Thailand, admitted that Hollywood offers competition to Indian films, but also said that Bollywood could offer “resistance” to it. “Spiderman was released in several Indian languages which also impacted local language releases. There are many Hollywood studios setting up base in India presently,” he said.

“But we can put up a resistance to Hollywood competition and competition is good,” he said during a media interaction. Bachchan also expressed happiness over the change witnessed in western media’s perception of Indian films, which were earlier labelled as too ‘escapist’ and ‘unnatural’. “On our part, we have never stepped away from escapist cinema. It has been our USP. The West now enjoys our films because of these very same elements,” he said. “Together with the Indian expats and diaspora, Indian films are watched by nearly 3.6 billion people. But, now people of other origins are taking a liking to our kind of films,” he said.