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| Content is king |
| Priyanka Joshi / New Delhi Feb 22, 2009, 00:00 IST |
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At FICCI Frames 2009, Bollywood sounds troubled.
I am one of the many people responsible for pushing up prices of our film stars and technicians,” admitted Karan Johar, stunning a roomful of people at the recently concluded FICCI Frames 2009. Secretly, I applauded Johar but found myself muttering to another reporter, “About time he owned up, right?” He went on to comment on how Bollywood films will look at procuring higher revenues from overseas territories, as well as from the home video segment. “The cable and satellite (C&S) revenues will continue to be an important income stream,” Johar said.
 Shekhar Kapur, the maker of films like Masoom, Mr India, Bandit Queen and Elizabeth, on his part said: “This could be the year of the fall of Bollywood’s gatekeepers,” he said, hinting at Johar. “They will be the facilitators,” he added.
At FICCI Frames 2009, we were attending one of the more interesting sessions and enjoying every bit of Bollywood’s candid confessions. “Bollywood,” scoffed Kapur, “cannot keep churning out movies aimed at just the 10 per cent of the elite cinema-going segment and ignore the masses.” Lashing out further, he said, “It’s not business as usual. Production, acquisition and actor salary costs have illogically shot through the roof with no commensurate returns for distributors sitting at the end of the value chain,” he said, on a panel that included the likes of Johar and Yash Chopra.
Rajesh Jain, head of media and entertainment at KPMG Advisory, shared his perspective on the entertainment industry too. “This year and 2010 will be a flat year for the industry,” he said.
Simply put, Bollywood has started feeling the heat of the recession, a fact that’s only too well known. Ronnie Screwvala, chairman and CEO, UTV group, predicted an almost flat growth rate for the industry. In his view, “about 40 per cent of movies, which are ready with studios, might not be released in 2009.” Screwvala added, “It takes a lot of money to market and release a movie and most financiers do not have that kind of money any longer.”
Clearly, the boys with big bucks are suddenly getting real about how much they want to spend on producing films. In an interview to Sunday Business Standard, after his speech at FICCI Frames, Johar said, “My production house will make films at relaxed budgets.” While a typical film by Johar’s Dharma Productions ranges between Rs 50-70 crore, a small budget movie like Wake up Sid — due for release in mid-2009 — has been made within Rs 30 crore. “The economic meltdown, however, is an exciting phase and apart from bringing the necessary correction in the industry, it will bring fresher scripts to the silver screen,” he added.
Screwvala, however, disagreed when Johar aired some of his views at the FICCI Frames session. “There’s nothing exciting about 2009,” he said. Studios and production houses, in his view, needed to improve operational effectiveness and adhere to time and cost commitments. “A production house has to deploy tighter controls,” said Screwvala.
Building on Screwvala’s thought, Sunir Kheterpal, COO, Big Pictures added that making investments in digital technology and agreements with digital screen exhibitors and multiplex owners will be critical for success factors of Bollywood films. Kapur too hoped that an increase in the number of digital theatres would ensure wider release of a film.
A hard-hitting point was raised by director and producer Mahesh Bhatt on the dismal box-office performance of several films in 2008. “Only six Hindi films were a hit out of the 127 releases, incurring staggering losses worth over $100 million,” said Bhatt. He admitted to being a “moneymaking machine” in the industry without succumbing to superstars, expensive salaries and fancy locales.
“If I copy my content from some foreign film, but do a good job at it, why should I be held guilty? I am making a profit for myself and the industry,” Bhatt argued. His remark could’ve well been targeted at Yash Raj Films that saw so many of its films tank at the box office last year. Ironically, the panel also included Goldie Behl, infamous for his film Drona — 2008’s biggest debacle. Behl admitted that “visual enhancements and presence of big stars could never be a substitute for content.”
Bollywood’s grand-daddy Yash Chopra looked concerned when he stressed the need to curtail budgets and the fact that many studios were indeed facing a liquidity crunch even at the start of 2009. “Even if people spend on entertainment in times of recession, they’ll never give thumbs up to trash.”
The last point was, in fact, the one on which all the Bollywood biggies on the podium agreed. Chopra, in fact, backed Bhatt and said, “We need strong content and fresh ideas that would appeal to masses.” Johar too shared this view: “There is a movement taking place right now and content-driven, independent, small budget movies will be the next big thing in the industry.”
Now, could this just be the year of content over the so-called kings of Bollwood?
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