Sony blacks out prime-time premiere of The Dirty Picture

The much-awaited television premiere today of The Dirty Picture was stalled, after the Information and Broadcast Ministry asked the channel to revise the telecast timing of the Vidya Balan-starrer to a slot after 11 pm, said sources.

The Milan Luthria-directed movie was scheduled to air on Sony Television at noon and at 8 pm today. The move came as an 11th-hour surprise, given that the channel had yesterday secured clearance from the Bombay High Court after having undergone 56 cuts before securing the Censor Board’s U/A certification to make it suitable for prime-time telecast on national television.

There was no response to calls that Business Standard made to officials from both Multi-Screen Media (MSM), which runs Sony TV, and producer Balaji Telefilms.

Sony ran a ticker saying: “For unavoidable reasons, we regret to inform that the film The Dirty Picture will not be telecast today. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.”

Tanuj Garg, CEO (motion pictures) of Balaji Telefilms, tweeted, “It’s unfortunate that even after valid censor certificate being in place, the telecast was held (back). The cuts made to TDP (The Dirty Picture) were done in a manner that would not offend the larger populace, but completely retain the film’s creative integrity. Despite the cuts, forces in Delhi decided to hold the telecast!”

The film, which collected Rs 79 crore at the box office, is reportedly based on the life of late southern siren Silk Smitha, played by Balan.

Produced by Ekta Kapoor at a Rs 32 crore (including promotional activities), the 142-minute film won three national awards including one for the Best Actress.

MSM spent an estimated Rs 8 crore to buy exclusive satellite television telecast rights for five years. Riding on its record box-office success, Sony had heavy on-air promotions and marketing campaigns across print and billboards to grab more eyeballs.

According to industry officials, Sony may lose out all revenues as they might have to refund advertisers. “The loss will not just be to Sony in terms of advertisement revenue, but also to Balaji Telefilms,” an official said. “Both the parties could be re-negotiating the rights. This, in future, could also affect sate little of forthcoming movies like Jism 2 and Ragini MMS 2.”

According to media planners, the channel had sold airtime rates around Rs 1.3 lakh-1.5 lakh for 10 seconds, while sponsors who take long-term packages with the broadcaster typically shelled out Rs 80,000-90,000 for 10 seconds each.

Given the hype around the film, media buyers said the The Dirty Picture could have notched up a rating of 4-7 compared to an average rating of 2-2.5 of a successful movie on television. “For the broadcaster, such a movie is a huge property,” said a media planner. “A lot of people would have watched the film in theatres. But, given the success of the movie, they would still tune in for the television premier.”