Love's labour gains Rs 50 crore

INTERVIEW: Yash Chopra on Veer Zaara's success and his future plans

Yash Chopra

Yash Chopra needs no introduction. In the last 40 years, the 62 year old filmmaker has produced some of India's best known Hindi films such as Waqt, Daag, Kabhie Kabhie, Silsila, Chandni, Lamhe, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Dil To Pagal Hai, among others.

Veer Zaara, the latest production from Chopra's 30-year-old company, Yash Raj Films, has been a box office hit too, having collected over Rs 50 crore in the domestic and international market within a week of its release. The film was made at the cost of Rs 30 crore.

Chopra, who is on the advisory board of the ministry of information & broadcasting, spoke to Business Standard on the benefits of the corporatisation of film production houses and the future plans of the Rs 80 crore company. Excerpts from the interview:

What made Veer Zaara click in the international market? Was it the first film that Yash Raj Films distributed itself in the overseas market?

No we have been in overseas distribution for more than five years. We have our own offices in the US and the UK and with Veer Zaara we have also opened our own offices in the UAE. It's difficult to say what made the film click in the overseas market.

I think emotions of Veer Zaara worked in its favour "" emotions that are universal and transcend all boundaries and lines of control. It's a good subject with very good performances and, I think, some extraordinary music.

What are the benefits of getting into film distribution?

It helps a great deal simply because the money from the market comes back faster and one can reinvest it in the ongoing productions. Veer Zaara recovered its cost within one week of its release. We have been distributing films for other production houses too "" this year we distributed Kal Ho Na Ho and Koi Mil Gaya overseas. We've also distributed Maqbool and Meenakshi.

The company launched its own music label with Veer Zaara. How did it help in augmenting revenues?

We had earlier released the music for Hum Tum and Dhoom under the Yash Raj Music banner in the international market. Veer Zaara marked the label's launch in India.

Music, like distribution ,was another area we felt could be handled in-house. Today music companies are hardly able to generate enough revenue because of the onslaught of music on the FM radio, Internet and ring town downloads of songs and other piracy related issues.

When companies are not able to give us good returns, we see no point in selling music to them. Also, these days there are several alternate revenue sources linked to music rights "" ring tones, Internet downloads etc. When you sell your music, you sell your rights to all of this.

What are the plans to develop the music label as an independent profit centre? How much revenue will it contribute?

Its too early to predict that. Veer Zaara sold one million cassettes and CDs within one week of its launch. That kind of sale wouldn't have been dreamt of if the rights were given to any other company. We eventually plan to make this and all other divisions of the company independent. We will look at releasing good music of other production companies or films.

What are Yash Raj Film's short term and long-term plans?

The current target is to make around three or four films a year. Currently Shaad Ali's Bunti Aur Babli, starring Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukherji and Amitabh Bachchan is under production. We will also distribute Vinod Pandey's English film Sin and Ketan Mehta's The Rising.

Besides, we launched our own DVD label, Yash Raj Home Theatre, in India last week. The company is also investing (Rs 75 crore) in a new state-of-the-art post production studio "" Yash Raj Studio, next to the Fun Republic in Andheri (West) in Mumbai. The idea is to be independent and have everything related to films to be in house.

One of the biggest costs that a production company incurs is on "post production". Also, usually you go to different people/vendors for different things. Our studio will be the one-stop shop for all post production requirements.

Has the overseas market for Indian films changed? What has contributed to this change?

Even the Indian market is going through so much change. The different kind of films that are being made and the risks that people are ready to take... all this was not seen earlier.

This is also to do with the hardware available to Indian audiences. The overseas audience always liked our kind of films because of the "mitti ki khushboo" "" it's the kind of Indian culture they would like to show their younger generations.