Consider this: The latest Bollywood big-budget film, Blue, was released with 2,000-odd prints worldwide, but Shemaroo Entertainment, which distributed the film overseas earmarked only five prints for the Africa market. “Africa is a small market for us,” admits Hiren Gada, Director, Shemaroo Entertainment Prod him for a break-up and he points out that of the five prints of Blue that were released, only two were for South Africa and three were for Kenya and Tanzania.

And yet, there’s a huge Indian population in South Africa and both nations share a history of struggle going back to the time when indentured labour from India moved to South Africa. Indians now comprise two per cent of South Africa’s population, but not many turn out to watch Hindi movies at the local multiplexes.

The last film that did well in South Africa was Race, which was partly shot there. “For the past few months the theatrical business has declined to a large extent,” says Amrita Pandey, VP, international distribution and syndication, UTV Motion Pictures. So, while Race, released last year in March, earned USD 95,000 at the Africa box-office, films such as Kismat Konnection did USD 45,000 worth of business and Ghajini USD 55,000, but Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey, released this year, earned only USD 25,000 at the local box-office.

“Perhaps, Kaminey was too dark and not a SA kind of film, but theatrical admissions have slipped drastically,” says Pandey. Analysts said Bollywood distributors are concentrating on other emerging markets like countries in Europe or even the untapped Far East even as Africa is struck off the priority list.

The other reason why the South Africa market is not getting enough returns for Bollywood is because of low ticket prices. “Most of the time ticket prices have to range between USD 2 to USD 4,” points out Pandey, adding, “In Australia, we can charge 8 dollars.”

Insiders admit that the market hasn’t grown in the past six years — and dwindling rapidly.

For Bollywood, the Africa market is eighth or ninth in the international pecking order. “The most important markets are the U.S., the U.K., the U.A.E. and also Australia,” says Pandey.

So, as Gada points out, if a big film gets a 25-30 print release in the U.S. or the U.K., it will get only five for the whole of Africa. Then again, some films don’t get a same day date release, though the trend is to do that in the rest of the world.

South Africa apart, the two other markets for Bollywood is East Africa featuring Kenya and West Africa, mainly Nigeria. But political instability in both Kenya and Nigeria are making it difficult for Indian films to get a proper release. “Sometimes films go straight to DVD, like in Egypt,” says Gada.

But even the DVD market is “dead” because of rampant piracy, say insiders. The recession has hit satellite, music and home video rights very hard. In the home video segment, even by reducing costs, the sector hasn’t been able to grow as much. In Africa, new films hit the market through the piracy route sometimes on the same day the film is released. “There’s no way we can fight piracy in the African market,” admits an insider.

“The overseas markets too have been impacted,” says an analyst. Collections have been down for most of the films released overseas this year, mirroring what’s happening at the domestic box-office.