Goodbye 2008!

While many may believe that the year 2008 has not been good for films and will happily wish it farewell, the fact is that it has not been too different from the many other years gone by in the past. It may have started off badly, but at least it has ended with two blockbusters, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Ghajini.

The business of films has been much the same as every year; 2008 can’t be termed bad with regard to the fate of films at the box-office. However, 2008 has not been a good year for the world economy and that has cast a huge shadow on the country and the film industry. As with most other industries, the economic recession has forced some production houses to lay off staff, and unemployment rates – especially in the corporate houses, has been exceptionally high. Many might argue that these corporates were overstaffed and were paying unreal salaries, and the recession has only exposed their past follies. But that would be a narrow-minded view. If not for the recession, they could have happily continued in the same fashion for years. It’s only because their funding sources have dried up that they are facing this problem.

The way film business is conducted has undergone a sea change in the last year. Inde­pendent distributors were prospering when corporates came in, out-priced them and ran them out of business. But since corporates did not have experienced staff, they hired these very distributors at fancy prices. Now, with recession at the door, corporates are facing a money crunch and it is quite possible that they may be bought out by other companies. The word is out that Hollywood studios may be in the running to acquire some of these listed Indian production houses and film companies. If that happens, the ownership of these companies may change but the operational staff may remain the same. So, the distributors who were bought out by corporates will end up working for Hollywood studios which buy out the local corporates! It would form a funny sequence of events but that is exactly how things work in the financial world. The more things change, the more they remain the same. But caught in this financial whirl­pool are the staffers who have been laid off. They are the victims of the recession and there are tough days ahead of them. For them, 2008 has surely been a bad year.

Hopefully, year 2009 will be better.

Issue dated Dec 28 2008 – Jan 3, 2009

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