What is the best method to judge this film's popularity ?

Gandhi (1982) directed by Richard Attenborough

There is no doubt that this motion picture about Gandhi will always remain a monumental achievement for two Englishmen namely its director Sir Richard Attenborough who despite utter lack of assistance and cooperation from successive Indian governments,doggedly pursued an obsessive idea of making a film about one of the most famous Indians ever known to mankind and unknown actor Ben Kingsley who plays his part with such great perfection that people who personally knew Mohandas Gandhi claimed that they have seen a reincarnation of Gandhi in him.These facts are the only positive aspects of this film as its importance has never been properly assessed in India,a land where Gandhi was born.Each Indian viewer is familiar with the fact that this film is shown every year on 2nd October on India's national television network as a holy ritual to make people aware of this great man's importance.This proves that this film's popularity means different things to different viewers.For a non Indian it is a great visual document about Gandhi whereas for Indian people,it remains by and large a work which they are forced to watch out of compulsion for their country.It is also interesting to note that since some years Gandhi has become a fashion statement for Indian people.This is the reason why at least three films have been made in recent past by Hindi filmmakers about him.This was not happening around 1982 when this film was released globally.Would some serious viewer take a note of this anomaly ?