IPL, slowdown delay 25 film releases

If the economic slowdown wasn’t enough, the Indian Premier League, which begins April 18 in South Africa, has impacted the release of at least 25 small and medium budget films.

As much as Rs 150-180 crore is riding on these films which were supposed to hit the screens in April and May. With viewers set to watch IPL matches on television and possibly on the big screen as well, these films are unlikely to find enough audience. Hence, producers have opted to release the films later.

“Film houses are reluctant to put in the extra Rs 4-6 crore that is essential to market and promote small budget films. Releasing them without enough marketing in multiplexes and closer to the IPL season will only mean poor returns due to lower theatre occupancy,” said a Mumbai-based film trade analyst. Filmmaker Pritish Nandy added: “We will release our films only after this fracas (IPL) is over...we would prefer to release the films in theatres.”

But filmmaker Sunil Doshi, who produced the hugely successful small budget film, Bheja Fry, said that IPL is just a pretext being used by several big film companies for not spending enough on marketing low-budget films. “I see this problem carrying on long after IPL is over simply because of the curbs on marketing spends across film houses,” Doshi told Business Standard.

Added Shailendra Singh, the joint managing director of Percept, which released its Rs 35-crore suspense thriller 8x10 Tasveer on Friday: “Indeed, the market conditions are cloudy. Raising funds for film projects is becoming a challenge for sure.”

As a result of the prevailing uncertainty, several producers are now mulling releasing their films directly on DVDs to save marketing costs and monetise their investments.

“Under the excuse of IPL and the economic slowdown, we have been told to wait for another two or three months before a decision on marketing of our films is taken by the big production houses. In this scenario, releasing it on DVDs will become a reality four months from now to recover our investments,” said a senior executive of a Mumbai-based production house which is producing 4 films for a leading Bollywood banner.

Added Doshi, who is producing five films in association with Walk Water Films, a Manmohan Shetty company: “The satellite rights for films have fallen drastically in the past eight months; so, nobody can hope to make money there. Even the direct-to-home platforms are not fetching us any substantial returns. Releasing them directly on DVDs, coupled with television and DTH platforms, makes sense today.” There are over 50 million DVD players in the market at present.