Fox Star wants to shed its outsider tag

Eight years after it stepped into the Indian film business, the Hollywood studio is putting its lessons to the test

"You need to have that one big blockbuster every year," says Vijay Singh, head of Fox Star Studios India, and for that a studio must work with different kinds of films. His studio has had to sail through some choppy waters in 2015 and with a new release (Neerja) just hitting the screens, Singh knows what he is talking about.

"We took a phased approach to being a fully functional creative studio. We made some mistakes and learnt the ropes of the industry this way," says Singh. In 2015 the studio burnt its fingers with a few films. While the second highest grosser of the year - Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (PRDP) came from its stable, it also produced two of the major disappointments of the year - Shaandaar and Bombay Velvet, with the latter burning a large hole in its finances. Lesson learnt, the studio says it is a must to have a portfolio of films every year. It helps hedge bets and recover money eventually. Experts say that PRDP helped Fox Star recoup its losses on Shaandaar and even some from Bombay Velvet. One out of three is not bad.

"A combination of tent-pole films (like PRDP) and concept based films (CityLights, the upcoming Neerja) is what a studio's slate needs to look like," says Singh. But that is not all. Fox Star's years in Bollywood have shown that apart from variety, it also helps to keep a tight control on projects and budgets. A lesson the studio has learnt from some of the projects that it supported in the past and which have gone way overboard in terms of time and money.

"I feel we have started taking more ownership of our projects. We want to have control right from the green-lighting stage in order to maintain the budget in accordance with the script," says Singh. Neerja is the studio's first 2016 release; it has around 28 releases this year, including some of the biggest franchises in Hollywood, a genre that seems to be growing in popularity with Indian audiences. When Fox came to India in 2008, it teamed up with Star India to help navigate its way through an industry which was then ruled by big Indian houses like Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions and Eros.

Learning on the job
It took Fox Star a while to adjust to the glamour and glitz of showbiz, India style. And early on, it realised that depending entirely on Bollywood was akin to financial hara kiri. Fox Star spread its wings in the Tamil film industry, where Bollywood studios usually find it difficult to find a place. While the growth has been slow, Fox has been persistent starting with one release in 2011, going up to four releases in 2015.

Bollywood was going to be an arduous journey. Singh says, "While the staff has always been Indian, there was always this tag of being a foreign studio in Bollywood. We knew we had to prove that we are here for the long haul and more importantly, we are here as content creators and not just to acquire films."

Having Star India as a partner has helped. For one, the television network was present in India since the 1990s and its domain expertise coupled with the association with media vehicles that it got to the JV were crucial to Fox Star's initial growth. It did not take Fox Star too long to realise that success in Bollywood was a function of distribution (even more than star power, perhaps).

Distribution is a key aspect of film production and is a good way to know the ecosystem says Singh, and the team spent some time putting the distribution machinery in place. Two years into the business, Fox Star tested its distribution might and in 2010, it co-produced and distributed Karan Johar's My Name Is Khan. The film was a hit not only in India, but overseas as well.

"From there on, the path was clear - we had to move to local productions which we did with movies like Force, Dum Maaro Dum etc. These were all co-productions in the medium budget category. It gave a lot of perspective in the business," says Singh.

Relationships, content and timing
The studio has forged alliances with Indian production houses such as Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt's Vishesh Films and Dharma Productions. In 2013, Fox Star released its first solo production, Jolly LLB, which found critical and commercial success.

"In 2014, we decided to scale things up with Bang Bang! The script was adapted from Knight and Day, but we added the Bollywood quotient to it. And it was a success," reveals Singh.

Content is the key to the audience's heart today and Singh says with films like Neerja, they are paying close attention to detail.
MAJOR RELEASES IN 2016
AYE DIL HAI MUSHKIL
Producer: Dharma Productions
Director: Karan Johar
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Anushka Sharma
Release date: Diwali 2016

KAPOOR AND SONS
Producer: Dharma Productions
Director: Shakun Batra
Cast: Siddharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt and Fawad Khan
Release date: March 18, 2016

M S DHONI - THE UNTOLD STORY
Producer: Inspired Entertainment
Director: Neeraj Pandey  
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Kiara Advani
Release date: September 2, 2016

NEERJA
Producer: Bling! Unplugged & Fox Star
Director: Ram Madhvani   
Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Shabana Azmi  
Release date: February  19, 2016

AKIRA
Producer: Fox Star Studios
Director:  A.R. Murugadoss   
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha   
Release date: 2016

TRAFFIC
Producer: Rajesh Dhar ( Endemol Shine India)
Director: Rajesh Pillai   
Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Jimmy Shergill, Divya Dutta   
Release date: 2016

Note: Fox Studios is the presenter for the above films. 28 releases expected in 2016