India and China will barter films and explore the distribution and co-production of animation films for children for their respective state-run television channels, an official said Tuesday.
K.S Sarma, who heads the agency which controls India's public broadcaster Doordarshan, said film-sharing made "infinite sense" as Indian audiences loved Chinese martial arts films and the Chinese enjoyed Bollywood's melodramatic song-and-dance film extravaganzas.
"Swapping and sharing films is natural. We hope to screen a lot of Chinese telefilms and martial arts blockbusters on Doordarshan," said Sarma.
Senior Chinese radio, film and television minister Xu Guangchun, who held detailed discussions with Sarma, said that dubbed or subtitled Indian films would enjoy a run on China's largest China Central Television (CCTV) station, according to the Times of India newspaper.
The pact will come as a shot in the arm for Indian film-makers trying to break into the massive Chinese television viewing market of more than one billion people.
The remake of the popular love story "Devdas" (Pining Lover) and the heroic tale of India's warrior king, Asoka, have been instrumental in paving the way for Bombay or Bollywood films into China.