Bollywood’s Greek connection

The first Indian films shown in Australia were targeted to Greek audiences. Thanks to cinephile Peter Yiannoudes, Bollywood came to Australia through Greek cinemas.


Bollywood. Just the word brings to mind colourful stories of chaste love, highly choreographed dance sequences and out-of-context musical numbers. Stories of star crossed lovers, breaking down the barriers of the rich and the poor, and of course, family in-fighting all thanks to a nosey mother-in-law make for some cinematic classics.
For many, Bollywood remains a kitsch, almost humorous film industry, but for one Greek migrant, Bollywood became a passion.
Many might know Peter Yiannoudes as the man that brought Greek film to Australia in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, but his Bollywood connection has never been told.
As a young cinephile under his company Cosmopolitan Motion Pictures, Mr Yiannoudes would make the trip back and forth from Greece to Australia in search of great Greek films. It was a fateful encounter with India’s silver-screen sweetheart, Nargis Dutt, that changed his view on what Australian audiences would see.

“Nargis was as popular as Aliki Vougiouklaki,” Mr Yiannoudes tells Neos Kosmos.
“She invited me to go to India to bring some Indian films to Australia.”
In 1959, Mr Yiannoudes travelled to India and bought the rights to a couple of Indian classics directly from Mehboob Studios. His distribution rights spanned not just Australia, but Greece, Cyprus, Fiji, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
The first to ever grace Australian cinema screens was the 1956 Bollywood classic, Devta – The Destiny.
The black-and-white fantasy film centred around a king who loses his sight and uses the forces of the ‘serpent world’ to get his sight back. He orders a young man working in the palace to descend into the world, and in the process, the young man falls in love with the serpent princess.
Australian audiences would have been baffled but amazed.
From day one, Yiannoudes created profitable releases. The minute he’d buy a film, he’d ship it to Greece and get Greek and English subtitles put on. The films never relied on the then small Indian community, and more than 90 per cent of the movies were packed with Greek migrants.
Yiannoudes remembers the first showing of the Indian classic, Mother India, causing quite a stir. Back in March, 1964, the film caused traffic chaos on Bridge Road, Richmond, with the police even being called to monitor the crowd size.
“The film was already booked for the two weeks at least a week earlier,” Mr Yiannoudes says.
“Saturday night, 5,000 people came to get into the theatre, so the police came in.”
Mr Yiannoudes remembers the Sun Herald scratching their heads over the fact that an Indian film, with Greek subtitles in a Greek cinema, amassed such a crowd. The only English thing written was the ‘House Full’ sign at the entrance.
The movie even beat out Greek local favourite, Golfo.
Bollywood was going through a golden period at this time, and fit perfectly with changing views in Greece. After two wars and the Asia Minor catastrophe, Greeks related to the Indian stories of the rich and the poor and the troubles of the working class. Suffering was always partnered with a spectacle in Bollywood films, fascinating many with elaborate costumes, catchy tunes and beautiful, exotic surroundings. As much as the love affair continued with all things Indian, Greek music was heavily influenced at the time by Bollywood.
Stelios Kazantzidis’s song Kardia mou kaimenei drew on the movie Mother India, while his song Auti i nyxta menei was based on the 1954 film Aurat. To ‘Hellenise’ Indian songs, composers would speed up the beat, and simplify sections they could not reproduce with Greek instruments. These influences would be seen in ‘rembetica’ and ‘laika’ songs of the time.
In Australia, Mr Yiannoudes’s cinemas would feature one or two Indian movies a year. He took a lot of pride in taking the movies interstate and overseas, and made sure that, despite the cost, the movies received the recognition they deserved.
“We used to select films that accommodated Greeks,” he reveals.
“The scenarios, or the scripts of the Indian films were very similar to Greek [films].”
Mother India was a favourite of his, and became one of the most popular Indian films shown in Australia.
“They used to love music very much, the dancing. It was hugely popular,” he says.
The appeal was universal. Away from the trappings of Hollywood, Indian films were recognised for being family friendly, and the sheer speed at which new movies would hit screens was legendary. Their length was miraculous at the time, with most Bollywood films spanning three to four hours, a costly exercise. For Mr Yiannoudes, hand picking just a couple of films from a collection of over 400 films made in the year was a tough job.
He would always bring something well regarded in India, that would translate well to foreign audiences, and something the whole family would enjoy. The family aspect was a smart move, putting bums on seats in many of Yiannoudes’ cinemas.
“The old Indian films and the new ones as well, they are family films.
“The Greeks liked that, where there’s a family, with a rich boy and a poor girl, and vice versa, about women and children.
“This is why they were always extremely popular.”
As much as the Greek subtitles made the Greek community flock to these films, the appeal was much greater than its intended audience.
“A lot of Indians, a lot of other nationalities used to come,” Mr Yiannoudes reveals.
“We used to print Greek and English subtitles, so we used to get some Italians, Yugoslavs, some Turkish, and a lot of Egyptians. They were very, very popular in Egypt.”
Most of the films, whether it be personal preference or just a financial decision, were dramas. Only a few comedies were bought and distributed, the opposite to the Greek films coming in. Sadly, they never reached the fandom the Indian dramas would get.
Aan was the first Indian film Mr Yiannoudes saw as a young man. Working in his local cinema in Cyprus, he remembers the movie being so popular that the cinema used to screen the film every second month, and always to a packed cinema.
The 1952 film was the first technicolour Indian film ever released and was one of the most expensive films in India at the time.
For Mr Yiannoudes, the Indian love affair slowly came to an end during the late ’80s. With the introduction of video cassette players, the necessity of going to the movies dissipated, and, along with mainstream films, cinemas saw a slow decline in patronage.
As the Greek king of cinema, owning The Sun Theatre in Yarraville, the Westgarth in Northcote, and more than 40 others around Australia, Mr Yiannoudes eventually stopped buying Greek and Indian films.
The 25-year Indian pilgrimage came to an end.
“The last time I brought an Indian film was 1985,” he says with a sad tone.
“When video cassettes went on the market, even the Greek cinemas disappeared slowly.”
But it might not be the last time Australian audiences will go to see a Yiannoudes Indian classic. He reveals he still holds about five or six Indian films that have never been shown in Australia.
Will he be turning on the projector anytime soon?
“I have one film they called Joker, it’s about four hours and it’s one of the most beautiful films you’ve ever seen. It was a co-production in India and Russia.”
“I’m thinking maybe I will release it, maybe soon.”
At least for Mr Yiannoudes, the curtain hasn’t dropped just yet.