Recently a key person of an entertainment company met with a veteran Hindi film producer. The producer said to him: "Abhi Mazaa Nahi Aataa Hain Filmein Produce Karne Main" (I don't enjoy producing films anymore).
This remark encapsulates the situation of producers in the Hindi film industry. There are mounting challenges in being a producer today. Though this is a concern, a bigger concern is the fading relevance and importance of old and traditional film producers in the industry. Today, industry observers bemoan the gradual fading of passionate and daredevil old Hindi film producers. One of the repercussions of this is the present state of consolidation in the Hindi film industry.
There is a long and arduous journey which has led to this phase in the industry.
This journey is largely about the mindset with which films are being produced today. There is a considerable shift in this mindset. For a long time, producing a Hindi film remained a personal adventure which was fuelled by intense passion and risk-taking which many a time defied logic and common sense. In fact, there is a rule-of-thumb wisdom about Hindi films which many veterans know very well. In a way, it has been the essence of the business of filmmaking in the Hindi film industry for many years. The rule of thumb is: 15 percent of films produced make huge money, 15 percent of films produced recover money and the remaining 70 percent of films produced flop and never recover money. This shows that the enterprise of producing a Hindi film has been largely fraught with tremendous uncertainty and it can be hardly considered as a remunerative business in the conventional sense of the expression. In this context, old Hindi film producers possessed a daredevil spirit, unusual doggedness, infectious passion and creative conviction which germinated into a faith exemplified well in a successful tightrope walker. They were not only clear about their creative visions but also the viability of their enterprises.
It is no wonder that the Hindi film industry is replete with stories which contain elements of triumph, passion, resilience and a faith which is devotional in nature.
Legendary director Raj Kapoor pawned his house and studio to achieve his vision in the film Mera Naam Joker (1970). But the film, though critically acclaimed, failed at the box office. Kapoor was in huge debt. There were murmurs of disapproval and scepticism among film distributors about Kapoor’s capabilities as a film director. This failure did not deter the spirit of Raj Kapoor who bounced back with a teenage love story film Bobby (1973) which turned out to be a massive success at the box office. There is another equally fascinating story of the pioneer and inimitable film director V Shantaram who told his son to blend his ashes with the earth of his studio whose name echoed the deep convictions and devotional sentiments he had for cinema: Rajkamal Kalamandir.
These two stories show what distinguished successful old film directors and producers from the present ones. They were not only uncompromising in their vision but for them cinema was the be-all and end-all of their lives.
In the past ten or more years, these old film producers could not keep up with changing times in the Hindi film industry. One of the changes in the Hindi film industry which emerged as a competition to these old producers is a parallel force in the form of studios, corporate culture, actors and directors. Actors and directors turned producers. In this parallel force, studios emerged as a force to reckon with. They had access to relatively higher reservoirs of funding than old and traditional film producers. Out of sheer vanity, lack of alertness and overestimation of one's capabilities in securing funds, old film producers became complacent and could not promptly arrange new sources of funds. They believed that they would not have to scout for new sources of funds given their long experience in producing films.
This situation can be understood with an example. Suppose a veteran Hindi film producer makes a film on a budget of Rs14 crore. This film earns Rs30 crore at the box office. As time and costs associated with producing films—fees of actors and their entourage and other costs—increased, budgets of films also increased. So, the same size of a film required funding of Rs30 crore. But the same old producer could not manage newer and better sources of funding to fund the Rs30 crore-film. This made these old producers irrelevant in the Hindi film industry. It is estimated that the number of independent old film producers has been reduced to less than five from 15 to 20 before the Corona-virus induced pandemic.
Simultaneously, a parallel force emerged as an alternative to these old film producers. This force included studios, actors, directors and other investors. This force gained more strength in funding Hindi films and gave rise to a culture in the industry whose sole objective has been on recovering money invested in films much before their release in theatres. As a result, films became 'projects' and a standardised approach was followed in recovering money invested in these projects through sale of rights--streaming (digital), music, overseas, and satellite (television) in the pre-production stage of a film. So, box office revenues of films became profits for the parallel force. The success ratio of this approach has been debatable and it has been far from encouraging for it to emerge as an accepted norm in the industry.
There were two aspects on which old and traditional film producers scored an edge over the parallel force. One is they had an acute understanding of creativity and creative vision. And the other is decision-making. In the culture created by old and traditional film producers, decisions were taken by a single person. This is a reason why there is a unity and clarity of creative vision in films produced by old film producers. Unlike this, in the culture created by the parallel force, there are too many decision-makers who hamper the creative vision of film.
In a culture created by the parallel force of producers, great deal attention did not go to investing in films. A large part of investments went into unnecessary costs. High fees of actors and their entourage inflated a film’s costs. Besides this, this parallel force of producers alienated a vast majority of the audience by inserting elements of ideology which did not blend or amalgamate well within these films. Consequently, these films became highly unimaginative and unemotional. This parallel force of producers paid a huge cost for not being hands-on in managing and channelising investments in films. Their films failed to recover money. Some of these entities suffered huge losses on their investments in big-budget films. They also could not make films which could help them recover the losses they incurred on big-budget films. Their fixed expenses related to salaries of their staff, office and importantly, maintaining their own lifestyle, also increased. As a result, these entities found it difficult to sustain independently. These facts are the geneses of the recent phase of consolidation in the Hindi film industry.
A problematic aspect which has plagued the Hindi film industry is the mindset of ‘greed’. Earlier, old and traditional producers made good money after recovering money through theatres and sale of various rights. At present, this is not the case. It seems the parallel force of producers is in a constant quest of creating and achieving jackpots at the box office.
In a sharp contrast to this, producers in the southern film industry function more like old Hindi film producers. They are hands-on and closely monitor investments in their films. They are willing to invest wholeheartedly in a film and not in fulfilling ego-pampering wishes of a film’s actors and their entourage. In this way, they achieve a creative vision and not just the ordeal task of completing a film which is not in sync with a director’s vision. This is a key reason why a big-budget southern film has a total crew (cast, entourage and other crew members) up to 400 compared to more than 750 in a big-budget Hindi film. This efficient management of costs is a fundamental reason why southern film-makers are repeatedly able to make big-budget films, unlike their Hindi film counterparts. In fact, such is the confidence of the makers in the southern film industry that they focus on selling digital rights of a film only after releasing the film theatrically and not in the pre-production stage of the film.
Today, the demand for content is huge. It is vitally important to cater to this demand by embarking on a film like a personal mission rather than a ‘business project’. This approach has paid off in recent years. The success of Hindi film 12th Fail and umpteen southern films on a pan-India level indicates the effectiveness of this approach. Therefore, unless there emerges an alert bunch of creators who fully understand creativity and who seamlessly amalgamate the demands of the market forces within a film without compromising its creative vision, the Hindi film industry will continue to face the aforementioned challenges.
This remark encapsulates the situation of producers in the Hindi film industry. There are mounting challenges in being a producer today. Though this is a concern, a bigger concern is the fading relevance and importance of old and traditional film producers in the industry. Today, industry observers bemoan the gradual fading of passionate and daredevil old Hindi film producers. One of the repercussions of this is the present state of consolidation in the Hindi film industry.
There is a long and arduous journey which has led to this phase in the industry.
This journey is largely about the mindset with which films are being produced today. There is a considerable shift in this mindset. For a long time, producing a Hindi film remained a personal adventure which was fuelled by intense passion and risk-taking which many a time defied logic and common sense. In fact, there is a rule-of-thumb wisdom about Hindi films which many veterans know very well. In a way, it has been the essence of the business of filmmaking in the Hindi film industry for many years. The rule of thumb is: 15 percent of films produced make huge money, 15 percent of films produced recover money and the remaining 70 percent of films produced flop and never recover money. This shows that the enterprise of producing a Hindi film has been largely fraught with tremendous uncertainty and it can be hardly considered as a remunerative business in the conventional sense of the expression. In this context, old Hindi film producers possessed a daredevil spirit, unusual doggedness, infectious passion and creative conviction which germinated into a faith exemplified well in a successful tightrope walker. They were not only clear about their creative visions but also the viability of their enterprises.
It is no wonder that the Hindi film industry is replete with stories which contain elements of triumph, passion, resilience and a faith which is devotional in nature.
Legendary director Raj Kapoor pawned his house and studio to achieve his vision in the film Mera Naam Joker (1970). But the film, though critically acclaimed, failed at the box office. Kapoor was in huge debt. There were murmurs of disapproval and scepticism among film distributors about Kapoor’s capabilities as a film director. This failure did not deter the spirit of Raj Kapoor who bounced back with a teenage love story film Bobby (1973) which turned out to be a massive success at the box office. There is another equally fascinating story of the pioneer and inimitable film director V Shantaram who told his son to blend his ashes with the earth of his studio whose name echoed the deep convictions and devotional sentiments he had for cinema: Rajkamal Kalamandir.
These two stories show what distinguished successful old film directors and producers from the present ones. They were not only uncompromising in their vision but for them cinema was the be-all and end-all of their lives.
In the past ten or more years, these old film producers could not keep up with changing times in the Hindi film industry. One of the changes in the Hindi film industry which emerged as a competition to these old producers is a parallel force in the form of studios, corporate culture, actors and directors. Actors and directors turned producers. In this parallel force, studios emerged as a force to reckon with. They had access to relatively higher reservoirs of funding than old and traditional film producers. Out of sheer vanity, lack of alertness and overestimation of one's capabilities in securing funds, old film producers became complacent and could not promptly arrange new sources of funds. They believed that they would not have to scout for new sources of funds given their long experience in producing films.
This situation can be understood with an example. Suppose a veteran Hindi film producer makes a film on a budget of Rs14 crore. This film earns Rs30 crore at the box office. As time and costs associated with producing films—fees of actors and their entourage and other costs—increased, budgets of films also increased. So, the same size of a film required funding of Rs30 crore. But the same old producer could not manage newer and better sources of funding to fund the Rs30 crore-film. This made these old producers irrelevant in the Hindi film industry. It is estimated that the number of independent old film producers has been reduced to less than five from 15 to 20 before the Corona-virus induced pandemic.
Simultaneously, a parallel force emerged as an alternative to these old film producers. This force included studios, actors, directors and other investors. This force gained more strength in funding Hindi films and gave rise to a culture in the industry whose sole objective has been on recovering money invested in films much before their release in theatres. As a result, films became 'projects' and a standardised approach was followed in recovering money invested in these projects through sale of rights--streaming (digital), music, overseas, and satellite (television) in the pre-production stage of a film. So, box office revenues of films became profits for the parallel force. The success ratio of this approach has been debatable and it has been far from encouraging for it to emerge as an accepted norm in the industry.
There were two aspects on which old and traditional film producers scored an edge over the parallel force. One is they had an acute understanding of creativity and creative vision. And the other is decision-making. In the culture created by old and traditional film producers, decisions were taken by a single person. This is a reason why there is a unity and clarity of creative vision in films produced by old film producers. Unlike this, in the culture created by the parallel force, there are too many decision-makers who hamper the creative vision of film.
In a culture created by the parallel force of producers, great deal attention did not go to investing in films. A large part of investments went into unnecessary costs. High fees of actors and their entourage inflated a film’s costs. Besides this, this parallel force of producers alienated a vast majority of the audience by inserting elements of ideology which did not blend or amalgamate well within these films. Consequently, these films became highly unimaginative and unemotional. This parallel force of producers paid a huge cost for not being hands-on in managing and channelising investments in films. Their films failed to recover money. Some of these entities suffered huge losses on their investments in big-budget films. They also could not make films which could help them recover the losses they incurred on big-budget films. Their fixed expenses related to salaries of their staff, office and importantly, maintaining their own lifestyle, also increased. As a result, these entities found it difficult to sustain independently. These facts are the geneses of the recent phase of consolidation in the Hindi film industry.
A problematic aspect which has plagued the Hindi film industry is the mindset of ‘greed’. Earlier, old and traditional producers made good money after recovering money through theatres and sale of various rights. At present, this is not the case. It seems the parallel force of producers is in a constant quest of creating and achieving jackpots at the box office.
In a sharp contrast to this, producers in the southern film industry function more like old Hindi film producers. They are hands-on and closely monitor investments in their films. They are willing to invest wholeheartedly in a film and not in fulfilling ego-pampering wishes of a film’s actors and their entourage. In this way, they achieve a creative vision and not just the ordeal task of completing a film which is not in sync with a director’s vision. This is a key reason why a big-budget southern film has a total crew (cast, entourage and other crew members) up to 400 compared to more than 750 in a big-budget Hindi film. This efficient management of costs is a fundamental reason why southern film-makers are repeatedly able to make big-budget films, unlike their Hindi film counterparts. In fact, such is the confidence of the makers in the southern film industry that they focus on selling digital rights of a film only after releasing the film theatrically and not in the pre-production stage of the film.
Today, the demand for content is huge. It is vitally important to cater to this demand by embarking on a film like a personal mission rather than a ‘business project’. This approach has paid off in recent years. The success of Hindi film 12th Fail and umpteen southern films on a pan-India level indicates the effectiveness of this approach. Therefore, unless there emerges an alert bunch of creators who fully understand creativity and who seamlessly amalgamate the demands of the market forces within a film without compromising its creative vision, the Hindi film industry will continue to face the aforementioned challenges.
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