Industry grapevine suggests that Reliance Entertainment is downing shutters after several employees resigned in view of an uncertain future...
We are certainly recalibrating. We don't have a distribution head, but the rest of the team is intact. Whenever a company is in the process of restructuring, the employees are faced with some difficult choices. Premature obits are being written all the time but we're only going on a hiatus. The time out will be spent in introspection, identifying what's plaguing the company and putting a new strategy in place. We are moving away from the established business model and trying to figure out a more profitable strategy. In the past, we refused to be part of projects in which we don't have an intellectual property share. This resulted in us doing lesser films.

How would you explain the Hawaizaada debacle?
The film went over-budget. In retrospect, it seems like a bad decision but you can't keep second guessing decisions you've taken earlier. This is a risky business. You aren't guaranteed even a single ticket. Everybody made a big deal about Besharam too but it was one of the best deals I've struck in my five-year tenure with Reliance.

The studio doesn't have any movies lined up this year...
The Hollywood arm is doing well. Steven Spielberg is starting his Cold War thriller, The BFG, with Tom Hanks. We also have films with A-list stars like Michael Fassbender, Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman coming up. As far as Bollywood goes, we've stopped acquiring films. We've a willing promoter who wants us to rethink the current structure as far as the Indian production arm is concerned.

But other studios are following the same business model and appear prolific and profitable...
They may be compelled to continue doing this. But how do you know if Fox Star, Eros, Balaji or Viacom are doing well? In the Indian model, a studio invests a huge sum in a movie after the creative participants have already made their money. After paying a premium, the studio then takes the responsibility of marketing and distributing. From past experience we've learnt that after all this, it doesn't have a chance of making more than 10 or 15 per cent of the investment in a marketplace that anyway offers 13 per cent on a bank investment. The numbers just aren't good enough for us which is why the slowdown.

Wouldn't it be easier if the studio was involved in the creative right from scratch so the budget could be rationalised?
That could be one of the answers. As the fiscal year comes to an end, this conversation has already begun and we will have more clarity in the coming months. A creative team should be in place soon. Yes, that would mean a new structure and potentially new recruits.

Reliance Entertainment had a bumper year in 2011 with hits like Bodyguard, Singham, Double Dhamaal and Don 2. What changed in three years?
The cost of production went up dramatically but the revenue stream didn't change proportionately. We are a private company and we don't have the compulsions of a publicly listed studio. So we'd rather spend that time restructuring than have four duds in a year. What does it matter if we don't have a release for six months or even a year? We are not going defunct, we are just waiting till the end of 2015 to know what's a more profitable model for the company.

Will you renew the MAMI sponsorship?
No. MAMI started off as a nice, small festival. We sponsored it for five years and told them 11 months in advance that we were pulling out. We're pleased filmmakers came forward to save it. It's great, the way MAMI was rescued by the city.