A scene from 3 Idiots. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Partnership between film industries expands

WHAT HAPPENED

The joint agreement between President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi includes more cooperation between the two country's movie industries, Hindustan Times reported.

"The agreement will allow Chinese producers (who work for Hollywood projects) to outsource postproduction to Indian studios. Indian producers will be able to film in places like Shanghai, which have long been on their wish list," the report said.

The Chinese mainland is India's second-largest market after the US, the newspaper added. The highly praised Indian comedy 3 Idiots was screened in China in 2011 and earned 110 million rupees ($1.8 million) at Chinese box offices. However, current rules allow only up to five Indian movies to be officially screened in the Chinese mainland.

WHAT IT MEANS

Zhou Xing, a professor at the School of Art and Communication at Beijing Normal University, lauded the agreement.

"Although China and India have different ideologies, communication within the movie industry will psychologically shorten the distance between people in the two countries," he said.