The Kung Fu Panda series does not boast remarkable plot lines. In fact, to many critics, it is a plain story coming straight out of the US film assembly line. Its success sheds a light on how to commercialize cultural elements and increase so-called soft power.

The name 'Amitabh Bachchan' does more for India abroad than other known symbols of India's soft power such as the Taj Mahal, curry or the Kama Sutra, according to Rachel Dwyer, an expert on Indian cinema and culture.

In recent years, filmmakers and business executives from the United States, South Asia, and Europe have shown a growing interest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, not only as a potential market but also as a wellspring of talent and inspiration.

How do you sell a movie called “Captain America” to an overseas market? In South Korea, Russia and the Ukraine, apparently, the answer is you don’t even try... Those involved in the decision are being careful to frame the move as a matter of brand management and consumer awareness and not as a decision tilted by cultural or political winds.

Just after artillery fire at the divided Korean Peninsula border struck a hard blow to international relations, filmmakers from Beijing presented a gift celebrating soft power to North Korean leader and cinephile Kim Jong-Il.

Films and art are not designed to be a substitute for political strategies but can instead be used to challenge stereotypes and emphasise on the human experience even with a critical approach; thus they become a major cultural export in transcending prejudice, xenophobia and differences.

As an economy prospers, its culture perhaps begins to grow in appeal. Over the last 100 years or so – jeans, Coke, McDonald’s, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Hollywood — about everything American had been lapped up as things of global cool. They still are. The 20th was entirely America’s century.

n the BBC series of viewpoints from African journalists, Sola Odunfa considers what Nigeria's movie industry reveals about the country's spirituality.