BAD YEAR FOR INDUSTRY
sid...@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu
come to terms with
changing audience tastes. The accent in future could be on quality.
Nobody knows anything," legendary Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman once
remarked of the movie business. Indeed,
after 100 years of movie making, pundits are yet to create a sure-fire
box-office formula. Bollywood confirms this. Even as the
industry celebrates the return of the audience, lured by the Rs 100 crore
family-value bonanzas Hum Aapke Hain Koun! and
Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, the box-office bubble has burst. Six months of
consecutive croppers have left behind bewildered
producers, near-empty halls, tattered reputations and a severe cash crunch.
Since November 1995, there have been 50 releases, of which only three have
recovered their investment -- Ram Jaane, Bandit
Queen and the recently released Agnisakshi. Bandit Queen, Bollywood's only hit
this year, did business of approximately Rs 1.5
crore in the Bombay territory alone before it was banned six weeks after its
release. But the traditional Bollywood product has
suffered. The films' sky-high sale prices have made matters worse. Trimurti,
boasting Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor and Shah
Rukh Khan, sold at an awesome Rs 2 crore per territory. It disappeared by day
three, incurring losses of over Rs 6 crore. Other
expensive bombs included Akele Hum Akele Tum, Himmat, Dushmani and Rajkumar.
Losses are estimated at Rs 30 crore while
profits have been between Rs 3 crore and Rs 4 crore for the period between
November 1, 1995, and March 31, 1996. Normally,
Bollywood losses would stand at Rs 20 crore to Rs 25 crore while profits would
be Rs 15 crore plus. Even for an industry
hardened by an unchanging hit-flop ratio of 20:80, the recent failures have
been spectacular. Says leading distributor Tolu Bajaj:
"This is the worst phase I've seen in 20 years."
The immediate effect has been a cash crunch. "Buying and selling are at a
standstill," says Vikas Mohan, editor of the trade
journal Complete Cinema. Production has fallen and insiders hope that the
boom-time prices -- A-grade projects come with a Rs 1
crore plus per territory price tag -- will also stabilise. "People had taken
success for granted," says Film Information Editor
Komal Nahta, "but now the mood has changed." Obviously to one of self-analysis.
January to March is traditionally a lean period for movies -- pundits believe
Ramzan and exams affect collections -- and this year
the Cricket World Cup added to their woes. But Bandit Queen's success proved
that you can't keep a good film down. "The
industry can find endless excuses," says Kunal Kohli, host of the film-review
show Chalo Cinema, "but the fact is that the films
that flopped deserved to." Adds Bandit Queen distributor Shyam Shroff: "You
can't blame the audience if you have nothing to
offer. I blame the director. These films were made without conviction." The
worst offenders were the grossly expensive and
soulless multi-starrers: Trimurti (a budget of Rs 5 crore) and Rajkumar ( a
budget of Rs 7 crore). Says Trimurti director Mukul
Anand: "We were taken aback by the outright rejection. Obviously, the audience
is fed up of the safe formula."
Other filmmakers echo similar sentiments. N. Chandra, whose hackneyed Beqabu
was among the many disasters, believes
audience taste has been changed by films such as HAHK, DDLJ and Rangeela.
"These films don't have the traditional
hero-heroine-villain set-up. Another kind of cinema is emerging." As Bollywood
struggles to redefine the formula, the script is
emerging as the No.1 hero. Says actor Anil Kapoor, who starred in both Trimurti
and Rajkumar: "As a star, I take the discredit to
some extent, but the films flopped because the scripts were bad." Naturally,
successful wordsmiths are now much in demand.
Says Rangeela writer Sanjay Chhel: "Disrespect for the script has vanished.
After Rajkumar, makers have understood that
erecting 15 sets doesn't work. Today, producers call me because stars are
recommending my name." Some directors have turned
to new writers. Subhash Ghai, who produced Trimurti, is hoping to salvage his
showman reputation with Pardes, written by
television writers Neeraj Pathak and Imtiaz Patel, while Anand has turned to
advertising whiz kids Piyush and Prasun Pandey for
Night Club, a film about Bombay's night life. "Trimurti has slapped me into
wakefulness," says Anand. "Earlier I was looking
for an easy way out. Now I'm looking at a very innovative film."
For some of the brand names, it may be too little, too late. The hottest
directors in town, Sooraj Barjatya and Aditya Chopra, are
under 35 and many believe that a change of guard is taking place. Says Shroff:
"In movies, as in cricket, timing is everything.
The older set's timing is off. The young guys are giving results." And they are
not flukes either. Says Nahta: "Theirs is a
sustained success. There is so much freshness and conviction in their films.
The oldies have lost their touch." Few, however,
will go without a fight. In fact, the silver lining on the box-office drought
may be renewed vigour and better quality output. As
Ramesh Taurani of Tips Music, a leading film producer, says: "In the coming
years, the 20:80 ratio will change for the better."
Succour may also come with the small film -- Plus' Rs 60 lakh Papa Kehte Hain,
scheduled for release in May, is making waves
with its music. Bollywood is also banking on the David Dhawan-Govinda non-stop
fun-fest Saajan Chale Susral and RK's Prem
Granth. "There is a huge market," says Shroff. "The audience is just waiting to
be grabbed. You should have the guts,
confidence and sincerity to do it." Given that nobody knows anything, that is
perhaps the best formula for success.
The Big Losers
Film Star Cast Estimated loss
(All-India basis)
Ram Shastra Jackie Shroff/Manisha Koirala Rs 2 crore
Angrakshak Sunny Deol/Pooja Bhatt Rs 2 crore
Akele Hum Akele Tum Aamir Khan/Manisha Koirala Rs 1.5 crore
Gambler Govinda/Shilpa Shetty Rs 2 crore
Trimurti Jackie Shroff/Anil Kapoor/ Rs 6.25 crore
Shah Rukh Khan
Himmat Sunny Deol/Tabu/ Rs 2 crore
Shilpa Shetty
Beqabu Sanjay Kapoor/Mamta Kulkarni Rs 2 crore
Dushmani Jackie Shroff/Sunny Deol/ Rs 2.5 crore
Manisha Koirala
English Babu, Desi Mem Shah Rukh Khan/Sonali Bhendre Rs 1 crore
Vijeyta Sanjay Dutt/Raveena Tandon Rs 1.75 crore
Bandish Jackie Shroff/Juhi Chawla Rs 75 lakh
Rajkumar Anil Kapoor/Madhuri Dixit Rs 2 crore
Source: Film Information. Covers the period November 1995 to March 1996.
Amin Ahmed Khan
seeing how these movies flopped,
one good thing is that hopefully they will make better movies,
and stay away from the 'masala' type.
--
Amin A. Khan
Peace Be Upon You
And All Of Mankind
Niraj Agarwalla
Amin Ahmed Khan (gt5...@acmex.gatech.edu) wrote:
: seeing how these movies flopped,
: one good thing is that hopefully they will make better movies,
: and stay away from the 'masala' type.
Fat chance. It seems the Indian industry never learns from it's mistakes.
As long as the "masala" flicks a small profit, they will continue to make
them. Remember these films are primarily geared for the masses, many of
them poor and uneducated.
--
Niraj Agarwalla -=- naga...@cs.uml.edu -=- http://www.eskimo.com/~niraj
Ikram Ahmed Khan
Niraj Agarwalla (naga...@cs.uml.edu) wrote:
: Amin Ahmed Khan (gt5...@acmex.gatech.edu) wrote:
: : seeing how these movies flopped,
: : one good thing is that hopefully they will make better movies,
: : and stay away from the 'masala' type.
: Fat chance. It seems the Indian industry never learns from it's mistakes.
: As long as the "masala" flicks a small profit, they will continue to make
: them. Remember these films are primarily geared for the masses, many of
: them poor and uneducated.
This is truly silly, mHso (my Humble stated opinion). This constant picking
on masala movies. Pray tell what is wrong with making a nice *connected*
movie which has a bit of dance, a dash of song, a whisk of comedy, a brush
of tragedy, and a dab of social message for the masses thrown in. Instead of
shooting the bad news, you should shoot the messenger (to turn a neat phrase
in a thorougly weird way). Blame it on the people who make "bad masala"
movies. For after all, wasn't everybody's current favorite DDLJ a masala
movie. Sure! I can prove it! It had song, dance, romance, the tear-jerking
dialogues and melodrama, fights and the whole works! So please think again
whether you mean masala movies *period* or badly made masala movies. {
there is a difference! } Of course, there are people who I have met who just
like the "art" or parallel cinema and look disdainfully at "commercial"
Hindi cinema. If that was what you were implying, then above outburst is not
aimed at you at all. Then you really mean masala movies.
Later,
Ikram.
: --
mo
With video and foeign movie rights it is doubtful if any Indian movie
actually loses money.
Niraj Agarwalla
mo <10033...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> With video and foeign movie rights it is doubtful if any Indian movie
> actually loses money.
Trust me on this one. No Indian movie makes any money of video, especially
here in the United States. Video piracy is so pervasive here (in Boston,
anyway), that not one store-- not one-- carries original movies. Foreign
movies right, OTOH, depends on where. If it is a good movie it will do
well in heavily-populated Indian communities like Chicago, New York/New
Jersey, etc. For example, HAHK ran for over one year at the same
theatre in London. If it's bad, it will bomb.