Bollywood’s Aamir Khan Could Be China’s Next Big Movie Star

He may not be up there yet with Hollywood actors Tom Cruise or Vin Diesel, and he’s no threat at the moment to the status of China’s Huang Bo or Fan Bingbing. But as far as non-Hollywood foreign stars in China go, he’s right at the top of the heap

The record-setting PRC release of his Bollywood satirical comedy PK has now cemented Aamir Khan’s standing as the highest grossing foreign star of non-English language films in China. As of this past weekend his current release there, PK, owns the record for the most successful Indian film in Chinese history, and if it can continue to perform well for another week or so it could even become the mainland’s highest grossing non-English language foreign film ever.

Lest that seem like only a modest achievement, consider this: for his next film Khan is paired with no less a Chinese luminary than mega-star Jackie Chan in a China-India co-production film that’s scheduled to release in 2016.

With their action-comedy vehicle Kung Fu Yoga, Khan and Chan aim to set a high bar for movies being made under the India-China film treaty. Each country stands to benefit by opening up more revenue opportunities in the other’s territory, and there’s no better way for them to do that than by putting their top film emissaries up to the task.

Khan’s trajectory as a box office magnet in China began in 2011 with the release of his hugely successful buddy comedy 3 Idiots. While it grossed only a modest $2 million in theaters, the film found great popularity on TV and online and made Khan a household name. His next film to be released there, Dhoom 3, earned 56 percent more than 3 Idiots, and now PK looks set to more than triple the revenue that Dhoom 3 took in.

With its strong story-telling tradition and its extensive filmmaking talent pool and infrastructure, India could be the foreign partner that China has been seeking to create films for the global marketplace. And with his growing status as a star in China, Aamir Khan is well positioned to lead the charge.

This article originally appeared in Forbes.