On a dusty movie lot known as Film City here, a soft-spoken director counsels two actors on a love scene for the latest movie from Yash Raj Films. In typical Bollywood style, the closest the on-screen lovers get to intimacy is a longing gaze and a brush of the hand, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Enter Walt Disney Co., lured by Yash Raj’s tradition of family-friendly entertainment. Disney has struggled to make big money in India with its classic American fare. Now it has persuaded Yash Raj to make Disney-branded animated films, with the voices of Bollywood stars.

The joint effort, to be announced tomorrow, is part of the U.S. entertainment icon’s strategy to remake itself in high-growth foreign markets such as India. In many cases, that means discarding Disney’s historic obsession with going it alone — and instead joining with local experts to produce culturally customized fare. In China, for instance, Disney is teaming up with the state-run China Film Group to release “The Secret of the Magic Gourd,” a movie about a talking vegetable that grants wishes. In India, it also is tapping local filmmakers to make a Hindi feature film of its TV hit “High School Musical,” which may be set against a backdrop of cricket rather than the original’s basketball.

When Robert Iger became Disney’s chief executive in 2005, he said publicly he wanted half of Disney’s profit to come from overseas within five years. Only a quarter of the company’s revenue last year came from overseas, however, and Mr. Iger says he “still likes” his goal but it could be “difficult” to reach. Instead, he says, the company is “planting seeds today for growth tomorrow.”

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