133processors have made possible, on everything from the iPhone in your pocket to
the visual effects on the screen at your local Imax.
In 2010, Koduri co-launched Makuta VFX, a visual effects and animation
house in Hyderabad. And in 2015, Makuta created the special effects for Baahu-
bali, a mythological tale about a reluctant warrior who unites his countrymen to
fight against evil. Produced for only $25 million with a local cast and crew, the
film combined the latest in Hollywood special effects (computer-generated pal-
aces, epic battle scenes) with all the hallmarks of Indian films (musical sequenc-
es, romance, mysticism, Indian martial arts) and was virtually indistinguish-
able from a $150 million Hollywood tentpole. The local audience responded by
making it the highest-grossing film in Indian history.
Two thousand miles to the east, Chinese filmmakers were also marrying lo-
cal stories with the latest Hollywood blockbuster visual effects technology. Wolf
Warrior II was a Die Hard–like action film set in Africa, about a disgraced Spe-
cial Forces agent who redeems himself by rescuing a group of Chinese foreign
aid workers who’ve been kidnapped by a Blackwater-like mercenary outfit. If
it had been made in Hollywood, it would have starred Bruce Willis or Liam
Neeson and opened July 4th weekend. The Bruce Willis version probably would
have done well at the Chinese box office. But the 2017 Wolf Warrior II — an
all-Chinese production, directed by its star, Wu Jing, and made for $31 million
— earned more than $831 million at the mainland box office, and became the
highest-grossing Chinese film of all time.
Wolf Warrior II wasn’t an anomaly. On a much smaller scale, even a $5 million
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