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| Bollywood film earnings take a hit at box office |
| Pradipta Mukherjee / Kolkata Mar 24, 2010, 00:50 IST |
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The Bollywood box office, which earns Rs 200-250 crore a month, is likely to see a drop of 20-30 per cent between March and April this year, as the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament dominates current entertainment.
Although a number of small-budget movies have released between March 12 and now, most of these only managed an opening of 20-45 per cent at the multiplexes. Ravi Gupta, CEO, Mukta Arts, told Business Standard: “We took a chance this year and released Right Ya Wrong on March 12 when IPL started. The movie was made with a budget of Rs 15 crore and it managed an opening of 20 per cent in the first week. We have not recovered the costs yet, but the movie is still in release, so let’s see. The industry deliberately avoids releasing big-ticket movies because we do not want to take any risks. Also, as IPL is being shown in multiplexes this year, the number of screens and shows a producer can get per movie in a multiplex is also limited, which means business will be under pressure.
While the strike by Bollywood producers led to no new release during IPL-2 (last year), a majority of the dozen or so films hitting the screen during IPL-1 (in 2008, the first season) failed to even recover the costs.
Hiren Gada, director, Shemaroo Entertainment, said there would be a 30-40 per cent drop in revenues for the Bollywood box office during the IPL months this year. “There will be certainly an adverse affect on the revenues for Bollywood movies, as IPL has a huge fan following. IPL has become an alternative source of entertainment and so the audience gets divided. This impacts film revenues. Moreover, matches are held during prime time — 6 to 9 pm or 9 to 12 am. So, a producer has to lose on audience,” Gada added. “Most big-budget films have not been scheduled during this season of sports. However, there are 22-25 small and mid-budget films releasing,” he said.
| OUTPLAYED |
| Movie |
Release date |
Budget |
Number of
prints released |
Occupancy
in first week |
| Right Ya Wrong |
12-Mar |
Rs 15 crore |
650 prints |
20 per cent |
| Love, Sex aur Dhoka |
19-Mar |
Rs 3 crore |
130 prints |
30 per cent |
| Shaapit |
19-Mar |
Rs 5 crore |
150 prints |
25 per cent |
| Lahore |
19-Mar |
Rs 20 crore |
450 prints |
45 per cent |
| Source: Industry estimates |
Pritish Nandy, promoter of Pritish Nandy Communications, said, “We expect a sharp drop in revenues during the eight-week IPL season. We are not releasing any movies during this period. Any big-budget movie producer would like to wait till the IPL season is over, while small-budget movies would have a dedicated audience of their own, so they may break even. Around 30 movies are set for release immediately after IPL, which makes it more competitive and puts pressure on theatre screen time.”
Experts say since this is a sports-heavy year, most big-budget Hindi films have been pushed to the latter part of the year, leaving clear ground for smaller ones. After IPL-3, cricket lovers could tune in to the T20-World Cup, followed by the football World Cup in South Africa.
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