Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; March 26, 2014)

Over the last few years the economics of Bollywood, in some ways, has gone wrong. Many a times films don’t fail, budgets do. Our ‘A’ list male actors earn more from a film than the producers of the film, which is unique to us. If a producer is lucky and lands up making a blockbuster, a producer could be struggling to make just 5-10 crores whereas the big male star could have made upto 50 crores as the big male stars today don’t just charge their fees, but also want revenue share. Over and above, stars sometimes retain their satellite rights and could ask a share in the overflow at the box office. The power equation has somewhere gone wrong in Bollywood, which is leading it to become more and more risky and unprofitable for the producer. If you see Hollywood, while a film like Iron Man 3 may have landed up doing a business of over 6,000 crores, the male star there doesn’t charge 1,500 crores. While they too charge a large fee, the fee is only a fraction of what the producers make, that is vice versa in Bollywood. It’s the producer that arranges the money, puts the project together, manages all the egos and then has the herculean task of marketing it in a highly competitive scenario. And all this too only if the film has made money. God help the producer if the film doesn’t do well at the box office. While the star still stands to make his large fee, the producer actually loses his money and needs to be content with the positioning that he thinks he has gained by working with a big star.

 We were the first to highlight in our paper that women-oriented films can actually make money and how they are a relatively low risk proposition for a producer. We have seen that coming true with both Queen and Ragini MMS 2, which have both been made on relatively modest budgets and are both hits. Of course the catch is, you can’t do without a decent script, director and actress. While Queen is selling on the quality of story telling and the performances, Ragini MMS 2 is selling on sex and horror as a genre. Bottom line is, they will land up making more money for their respective producers than films with bigger stars, which have either made losses or have just scraped through with a marginal profit. Thus comparatively, it is more sensible to make a Queen than to make a Boss or a Himmatwala or a Besharam.

 More importantly, producers need to come to terms with the fact that the Indian audience is evolving each day. While his appetite for good cinema, stories that entertain and touch you is increasing, the ability to suffer a pseudo intellectual cinema or brain dead film is rapidly diminishing and that is clearly reflected in the box office numbers. Our audiences are mature and have an eclectic taste for all kinds of good cinema, be it a The Lunchbox or a Bhaag Milkha Bhaag or a Queen or even a Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-leela, but they are not willing to suffer films like Boss and Himmatwala beyond a point. From sex to horror to romance to action, anything sells but the story needs to connect.

 Is there a way forward for the industry? We believe yes.


1) MAKE WOMEN-ORIENTED STORIES: As that could make more money for the producer. While the male actors need to be paid less, the actresses can do with a little higher pay cheque.

2) FORMULA FILMS DON’T NECESSARILY WORK: The industry needs to recognise and come to terms with the fact that formula films have stopped working in the last one year and that every film cannot be a Rowdy Rathore. To become a blockbuster, you must be able to make films, at least like a Dhoom 3 or a Chennai Express or a Krrish 3 that entertain you. You can’t just produce a poor film and hope for it to sell on the basis of just an ‘A’ list hero.

3) SOME FILMS DON’T FAIL, BUDGETS DO: Produce films based on potential return on investment as against cost plus basis and then trying to recover that money. Producers need to start thinking of making films basis the potential of the script to make money at the box office and then working backwards on the costs, as against first spending the money and then trying to make it profitable even though it lacks saleabilty at the box office due to the high cost. One of the key reasons that may make a film unprofitable is overpayment to the ‘A’ list hero which makes the amount required to make a film break even unreal.

4) BACK NEW TALENT: Invest in new talent, be it directors, story tellers or actors otherwise an ‘A’ list hero will continue making money whereas the producer will be left twiddling his fingers, wondering if they will break even or be lucky to scrape through with just a couple of crores.

 We as a country are mad about our films and our film stars. Producers need to make good films catering to different tastes at a price that is real so that our films can be profitable. Only when they are profitable and the power equation between the producer and actor changes can we have a healthy industry.