Indian Film Industry : The Great Survivor

Dhoom3 set new benchmark on box office

I remember well that my family members shared there apprehension with me sometime back in the year 1994 when GEC channels started inroads in our drawing rooms that it will not  take very long for Indian Film industry to close down. The reason was very simple, when you get all kind of entertainment sitting at home on 24 x 7 basis, who is going to visit dilapidated , crumbled movie theatres where air conditioners do not work, seats are half eaten by rodents. But good news is that our Film Industry survived rough patches, Indian Films are rocking,
there is a long list of movies this year like Chennai Express, Krish3, Yeh Jawani Hai Dewani  which have crossed magic number of Rs.100 crore. The latest financial success of Dhoom3 crossing Rs 200 crore mark within a week's time, it has proved that our films are here to stay as a potential means of entertainment in the coming time.

How transformation took place ?

The transformation took place with advent and adoption of latest technology as well as upgrading and improving the quality of theatres to enhance the viewing experience. In the last 20 years multiplexes cropped up in the cosmo, metro cities but also smaller cities like Guwahati, Indore, Moradabad, Bhuj, Latur and Raipur. Average ticket price at Multiplexes is almost five to ten times vis a vis uniplexes, serious players in the trade like PVR, Cinemax, Inox, Fun, Wave, Cinepolis are at forefront, brought better sound systems, screens, sitting arrangements and converted film viewing as fun and pleasure experience. Another big factor responsible to the change is capabilities to release a film simultaneously in as many as 4500 theatres without transporting physical copy or the print. UFO and Real Image are the companies who brought digital distribution  to India thus a huge saving in the cost of physical prints as well as ease from cumbersome logistic. Not only this, the improvement in collection from theatre has also improved, the theatre get encrypted copy of digital print, which can be activated only after making funds, the digital distributed also monitor the print will run only till the payment lasts.

It is really very sad that in a country with Rs 100 crore plus population, we have only 12000 screens out of which only 10 per cent are Multiplexes, so the coverage is very poor, there is a fair scope to improve the reach. Multiplexes are surviving on the premise that the average cost per person for dining out in a mediocre restaurant is Rs 1000 and even if the cost of ticket at Multiplex is higher but still with gourmet food and two & half hour entertainment the cost is same. probably this is the secret of survival of Multiplexes. Not surprising that in last two years the footfall of PVR cinema itself increased to almost 2.7 times from 1.9 crore viewers to 5.4 crore. The next rival player Inox also recorded 2.1 times growth in footballs within a short span of two years 2011 to 2013.

What is next big thing in film viewing, definitely it will be  Megaplexes. It will a place to enjoy  entertainment and food in a very new kind of experience.

More big players better quality

We have seen entry of large foreign production houses like Disney, Paramount, 20th century Fox and Warner Brothers. Their entry brought  in lot of accountability in the film production process from the time the movie is conceptulised till it hits the silver screen. These days, people keep checks on each day expenses instead of provisioning a big amount for production, most of the payments are made through cheques. Not only that, industry is mo re organised in terms of talent management, payment structure as well as professional growth. In last 10 years, I myself have seen greater importance being given to scripting,casting directors, line producers, end results are also better due to emphasis on special effects and cinematography. Clearly, this led to emergence of so many professionally run production houses, which are giving tough competition to family run banners. Also, the approach has shifted from producing pure star driven films to experimenting with contents and providing a platform to newer talent, just opposite to nineties where producers relied on a single hero around whom the entire script was built. Vicky Donor, English Vinglish, Kahani, Life in a Metro are few of such examples, no of such films are growing steadily.These movies with no big star cast, high on concept small budget movies are getting more returns then multistarer  big budget movies.

Smart Marketing is the Industry Buz Word

In the last 10 years cost of film production has gone up dramatically, an average film would cost around Rs 30 crore, and for getting big footfall on the first 3 days of release you need equal amount on marketing and publicity. I have noticed that in certain cases cost of marketing was higher then the cost of production ! Many smart production houses/ companies such as UTV Software Communications, Eros International Media, Reliance Entertainment, Viacom 18, Balaji Telefilms have adopted studio model with a focus on break-even before the actual release. They concentrate on pre-licensing deals which ensures 40 to 70 per cent cost of film making recovered . Rights such as music, television, satellite, home video, Internet, mobile, inflight, overseas and merchandising are innovative platforms which have helped to garner additional revenue. Not surprising, there are number of movies failed on box office, the production house was able to limit their losses to as low as 10 to 15 per cent !
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