I am a master in India

Chapter 417 Indian Idols
"Boss, how did you do that?" Ashish was greatly surprised.

"If you take care of New Delhi, you've got everything sorted out."

"New Delhi?"

Do you know who the current Minister of Transport is?

"Uh, I haven't been paying much attention lately, but it seems to be from Uttar Pradesh?"

“Yes, his surname is Sue.” Ron nodded.

"Oh!" Ashish understood.

"This is just the first step. First, get Suer mobile phones into public channels, then it's Golden Wing Bird Communication Equipment Company's turn."

The contract phones issued by the Ministry of Telecommunications are mostly provided to officials or public sector employees, similar to the unit procurement by the University of Tokyo.

Once the first batch is approved, there will be no shortage of sales, as government channels are very reliable.

Not only can it make money, it can also rapidly increase the brand awareness of Suer mobile phones among the upper class.

When Adiya, the second uncle, included the Sur phone in the system, he was quite assertive. As the first mobile phone made in India, shouldn't the government support it first?

Brilliant! Now it's truly unpatriotic not to buy it.

Ron is definitely going to reap the benefits of this Barat win.

The Sull mobile phone was indeed India's first domestically produced mobile phone; the other television manufacturers hadn't even figured it out yet.

The reputation of being a shining example of domestic products has always been a key marketing weapon for Suer Electric Appliances.

Tsk, I still need to maintain good relations with Dongdu.

Although he spent a lot of money on shopping in the past, Ron's family business was supported by these things.

Without Suer Electric's cash cow, how could it have achieved such a simultaneous boom in mining, energy, real estate, and ports?

India Mobile will likely still need support from Suer Electric to fund its future base station investments.

Speaking of India Mobile, Ron remembered something else.

"How many pagers have we sold so far?"

"There are already more than three million copies."

"So many?" Ron was somewhat surprised.

"It's very popular now, and it's the gift that young people want most."

“That’s right, these people are also customers of India Mobile.” Ron nodded in satisfaction.

"We are already developing the next generation of pagers, and this time we are preparing to add two-way communication capabilities."

The popularity of code messages prompted Suer Electric to keep up with the times.

Where there is demand, there will be products.

"Two-way paging means that pagers can send messages to each other?"

"Yes, this technology existed several years ago. It's just that it was too expensive, so it didn't become widespread."

"Can we handle this part of the technology ourselves?"

"No problem. Boss, don't forget that the pager was developed entirely by ourselves, and we have internal technical expertise."

"How much does it cost?"

"The most expensive part is still the chip; the total cost of the device is three thousand rupees."

“That’s almost three times the number of one-way pagers,” Ron exclaimed in astonishment.

"There's nothing we can do; this is the international standard," Ashish said, sounding rather helpless.

"Both models will be retained, but the two-way pager will only exist as a high-end product."

If the cost is 3,000, then it needs to be sold for more than 5,000 to make a considerable profit.

This price isn't much cheaper than Suer phones, making it difficult to popularize.

Unless the chip problem can be solved, the price will remain high.

How about we try contacting Hua Zi again? Pager chips are much simpler than mobile phone chips, so let them take care of that while they're at it.

I've prepared a hundred million US dollars myself, so I should do my part for the sake of my sponsor.

After explaining the matter to Ashish, Ron reviewed Suer Electric's quarterly financial report.

With the increase in new products launched in the past two years, the overall sales volume has been on the rise.

Air conditioners, refrigerators, VCD players, radios, stereos... all these things combined have brought Suer Electric's monthly profit back to the level of 100 billion rupees.

If it weren't for the impact of the financial crisis, it might have set a new record.

These numbers look nicer; the more money, the better.

Ron estimated that it would take another three to four billion US dollars to cover all the funding needed for the major commercial districts developed by Suer Real Estate.

The power plants and signal base stations need to be expanded, and another port will be purchased in Gujarat; all of this will cost money.

Most of Suer Electric's profits for the next year will be invested in this project, and relying solely on bank loans will not be enough.

Ron had already planned ahead: he would invest money before the millennium and then simply collect the money after the millennium.

Suer Electric Appliances, being a cash cow, cannot be taken lightly, so he listened carefully to Ashish's report.

VCD is about to launch a new generation of products, which will include a karaoke function and significant upgrades to the microphone and speakers.

Speaking of VCDs, Ron immediately thinks of Bollywood. He wonders how SunMedia's investment in Chopra's films is going now.

Yes, Chopra is definitely having a bit of a headache right now.

He was initially very confident in his meticulously crafted script, but then he suddenly realized that some people couldn't understand it.

That was Bahadur, the Nepalese cook he had hired. During a tea break one day, Chopra told him about his masterpiece, but Bahadur was completely bewildered.

It was only then that Chopra realized his script might be too artistic, which was not a good sign.

Although Chopra is a director, he does not have a high opinion of art films.

In India, talking to ordinary people about art films is like speaking Greek or Latin to them—a cultural disconnect that has existed since the colonial era.

Art films are made for Western audiences, and only people from that region would produce such films.

Chopra was a director, not a screenwriter, and he despised the audience he called "idiots" for making up tired, outdated plots.

He often faces the challenge that our audience is film illiterate, which is like talking to Bahadur (the cook) about Shakespeare.

His concern was that in order to make Shakespeare accessible to most people, he would have to simplify the plot time and time again. By the time he finally met an audience capable of appreciating Shakespeare, he had already lost the ability to present Shakespeare effectively.

So in order for Indian audiences to understand the film, he had to constantly force himself to lower his IQ.

Even the movie posters couldn't be in English, because the audience wouldn't understand them at all. Nobody would care about this movie, and he might actually go bankrupt.

Chopra has also made art films and received an Oscar nomination.

He sometimes wondered what his life would have been like if his art films had been successful from the start, or if he had stayed in the United States after being nominated for an Oscar.

He might lament whether he made the wrong choice at a crossroads in his life, or whether he failed to live the wonderful life he could have had.

Ultimately, he was conflicted; he wanted to contribute to the world film industry, make films that would reach an international audience, and continuously grow.

But reality has him trapped in Mumbai, so where can he go? He could spend his days hiding in his study, surrounded by solid wood furniture and a jacuzzi, his life stagnating.

So, in order to make it more relatable, he had to have the script revised repeatedly, and it wasn't until the end of last year that it was finally completed.

At the beginning of the year, I was busy hiring actors, and everything else was gradually settled, except for Amit Bachchan, who has not yet given me a reply.

At this point, Chopra remembered Ron again, hoping to bring in this great figure and win over the final big shot.

With nothing else to do, Ron brought Urmira over for a visit.

Amit Bachchan's villa is also located in Bandera, which has become a gathering place for Bollywood celebrities.

Ron is shaking hands with this star who is a household name in India, someone he saw in movies when he was a child.

More precisely, it was Bachchan's image on screen that accompanied Ron and his generation as they grew up.

Searching through his distant memories, Ron realized that he used to be a huge fan of this celebrity when he was in school.

I remember when Baqiang was injured while filming a stunt scene, the whole country prayed for his recovery, and tens of thousands of people lined up outside Chongshan Hospital to donate blood for him.

Back then, Ron almost made a pact with his friends to hitch a ride on a train to Mumbai to donate blood for Bachchan.

Later, it was his second uncle, Adiya, who dragged him back from the Varanasi train station.

Tsk, he actually did something so stupid back then.

Now, Amit Bachchan greeted him with both hands, very politely.

It must be said that he is taller in person than he appears on screen, wearing a loose white silk Patan suit.

He would suddenly break into a smile when shaking hands with people; Ron had never seen anyone show so many teeth in an instant.

It wasn't a smile of pleasure or politeness; it was more like the flip of a switch, making Ron's white teeth seem to gleam.

A moment later, the switch was turned off again, and Ba Qiang's expression returned to calm, even showing a slight sense of disorientation.

Outside his villa, people stake out 24 hours a day, hoping to catch a glimpse of him and seek "enlightenment".

This is a religious custom; "Dashin" means to gaze upon. Indians believe that seeing the face of a saint or deity helps in spiritual practice.

Ron had enjoyed this kind of treatment many times back in Uttar Pradesh. Everyone would come over and call out his name, hoping Ron would see them.

Inside the villa, Ba Qiang sat upright in his study, the khaki leather sofa and ebony furniture adding a touch of luxury to the room.

On one wall of the study hangs a huge portrait of a group of children vying to surround a projector.

On Baqiang's desk were a stack of videotapes and two books: one was his father's poetry collection, and the other was Paul Lesser's "The Way of Marriage".

They started talking about the movie "Kexinmir's Mission," and Bachchan said he was filming in Mauritius when he received the call from Chopra.

"This is going to be a fucking amazing movie, you just wait and see!" I blurted out, I was so excited!

"So you also think it's a fantastic movie?" Capra asked.

“Of course,” Baqiang nodded, “but I heard you changed the script again?”

“I felt it wasn’t perfect enough, so I made some minor adjustments,” Chopra explained.

Unlike typical Mumbai film directors, Chopra usually follows the finalized script strictly during filming, but a written script alone is not enough to sign big-name actors for the crew.

Chopra needed to personally explain the content of the script, which was why he visited Bachchan—he wanted to tell him what the story of "The Mission of Kersinmier" was all about.

During Chopra's explanation, Bachchan nodded frequently, while Ron occasionally chimed in, leisurely sipping his tea.

However, Baqiang was more concerned about something else than the movie.

"Mr. Su, does the International School in Mumbai still have any openings?"

"Huh?" Ron was a little confused.

(End of this chapter)