TRADE TALK- ‘3 Idiots’ Brings Cheer, Other Idiots Don’t!

What a brilliant end to an otherwise bad year! The Hindi film industry couldn’t have asked for a better or bigger blockbuster than 3 Idiots to end year 2009. So huge is the business of the Rajkumar Hirani film that this film alone has changed the complexion of the year gone by.

Instead of the industry posting a net total loss of around Rs. 455 crore in the films released during the year, the figure has been brought down by around Rs. 75 crore, thanks to 3 Idiots alone.

In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the combined profits of the other successful films released in 2009 were the same as the profit in one 3 Idiots alone!

As against the gain of Rs. 150 crore (Rs. 75 crore in 3 Idiots and another Rs. 75 crore in films like 2012 – Pralay Ki Shuruaat (dubbed), Love Aaj Kal and a few others), the film industry lost around Rs. 530 crore in the remaining releases of the year, resulting in a net loss of Rs. 380 crore. Of the combined loss of Rs. 530 crore in the approximately 220 loss-making films that hit the screens in 2009, at least Rs. 450 crore was posted by some 30 big-budget and/or star cast and/or big banner-backed projects.

Among the handful of successful films of 2009 was at least one blockbuster from Holly­wood – 2012 – Pralay Ki Shuruaat (dubbed from the English film 2012). For the price at which its distribution rights were sold to distributors, it yielded revenues which doubled their investments and, in some cases, gave even more profits. Slumdog Crorepati, the dubbed Hindi version of the Hollywood film, Slumdog Millionaire, released in the first month of 2009, also made money but the profits in 2012… were far greater. Another Hollywood movie, Avatar (dubbed from the English film of the same name), came in the last month of the year but its business was also not as en­couraging as that of the dub­bed version of 2012.

In a way, the year belonged to Marathi films. The only genuine silver jubilee of the year was a Marathi film, Mi Shiva­jiraje Bhosle Boltoy!. Also, India’s official entry for the best foreign language Oscar was another Marathi film, Harish­chandrachi Factory.

If more than 90% of the Hindi films released in 2009 lost money, there were two major reasons for this. One: content was substandard. Secondly, cost of production of films was too high. In other words, both were counter-productive to revenue generation. Since content was below even the average level in many cases, the run of the movies in cinema halls was dramatically redu­ced. It wasn’t rare for films to be discontinued from cinemas in the middle of the first week itself.

That is to say, there were dime a dozen examples of films losing their breath at the box-office in a matter of five, four, three or just two days! Never in the past has the run of so many films been aborted midweek in the first seven days as in 2009.

As far as the costing issue is concerned, the films released during 2009 were mostly those that were started in the pre-recession days. Before the economic slowdown set in and affected the film industry as it did most other industries, stars and technicians had been demanding obscenely high fees. Of course, not all stars have slashed or reduced their prices after recession, but things aren’t as bad today as they used to be in 2008. As the prices of stars and technicians like directors and cameramen were un­reasonably high then, the cost of production of the films released in 2009 was unrealistically high. To recover that kind of cost, the films needed to actually run for longer periods and more weeks in the cinemas. That means, there was that much extra burden on the films to perform at the turnstiles. With poor content on the one hand in most cases and heavy costs on the other, the films couldn’t but fail.

In that respect, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan are far more intelligent than, say, Akshay Kumar. Unlike Kumar, the two Khans seem to believe in the live-and-let-live policy. They, too, charge hefty fees but while they take a reasonable amount upfront and the balance as a percentage share in profits, Kumar takes a huge chunk upfront. That is to say, a good part of the remuneration of the two Khans comes if and only if the film makes a table profit and it comes from that profit. On the other hand, Akshay usually takes a heavy payment as his fee irrespective of whether his starrer recovers the cost on its sale to the distributors. Reportedly, Akshay is also going the Khans’ way now.

At the rate at which films have flopped in the year gone by and considering the magnitude of losses in films like Blue (around Rs. 35-40 crore), Victory (total loss), Kam­bakkht Ishq (roughly Rs. 20 crore), Short Kut (nearly Rs. 20 crore), Luck (about Rs. 10 crore), Luck By Chance (around Rs. 20 crore), What’s Your Raashee? (approximately Rs. 25 crore), Do Knot Dis­turb (about Rs. 20 crore), Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna (about Rs. 35 crore), Acid Factory (nearly Rs. 15 crore), London Dreams (about Rs. 25 crore), Aladin (more than Rs. 15 crore), Kurbaan (nearly Rs. 25 crore) and De Dana Dan (almost Rs. 15 crore), it is imperative for producers to bring down their costs. That, of course, would be possible if the stars and technicians did their bit by demanding less. If they don’t, they’ll be the real idiots of the industry. And idiots who don’t bring cheer in the industry like 3 Idiots!

- Komal Nahta

Issue dated January 3 – 9, 2010

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• TRADE TALK – Three Flops Cost Industry Rs. 80 Crore
• Trade Talk – Film Promotion: Thinking Small (Screen) Is Costing Producers Big!
• TRADE TALK – What Is Driving Corporates To Back Trashy Films?
• TRADE TALK – Corporates May Have Slipped, But You Can’t Doubt Their Integrity