Movin with Movies!

As Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan breaks new records in Hindi cinema, it’s interesting to note that a decade ago in 2005, it was his No Entry that had dominated the box-office, though its lifetime collections were far less than the weekend collections of the actor’s latest magnum opus! That alone is an interesting touch point for us to imagine just how much has changed since. As we look at the decade ahead of us, it would be fair to assume that we would have witnessed our first Rs1000 crore domestic net film. So will it be Khans still? By 2025, they would have turned 60, and if they continue to muscle their way up the box-office figures, one is assured of powerful characters, hitting the silver screen in the coming years. 

Going great guns!
A look at their upcoming releases points to the churning — Shah Rukh Khan in Fan, Raees and Dilwale, Salman Khan in Sultan and Aamir Khan in Dangal. In doing so, they will also increase the shelf life of stars — Big B in late 90s and now Anil Kapoor have repackaged themselves very smartly. Interestingly, Akshay Kumar has been pushing that as well giving us films like Baby, Special 26 et al and now we have Ajay Devgn coming out with Drishyam which promises to be another author backed performance. Their choices reflect they are betting more on content than their own cult and pushing the boundaries for the audiences as well. Moreover, the fact that younger breed of stars is following in their footsteps and experimenting on one hand and also breaching the Rs100 cr mark says a lot about the ability of young guns to bring audiences to the theatres. And that is great as we head into the coming decade.

Girls run the world
When it comes to heroines, we have a bevy of stars —some of whom are shouldering films single handledly on their star power and talent. Piku and Tanu Weds Manu Returns this year are prime examples but do we see the shelf life of heroines increasing too? Unlike the times of Sridevi and Madhuri, we haven’t had a single leading lady dominating the public imagination for a stretch. Deepika Padukone, who is under a great spin since last couple of years, is going super strong. She made her  Hindi debut in 2007 opposite SRK in Om Shanti Om and has made very smart choices in terms of roles and movies beginning with Cocktail. Kangana Ranaut, on the other hand, has created a separate league of followers who swear by her  talent and deservedly so. Today, Sonakshi Sinha and Sonam Kapoor are headlining power packed roles in films like Akira and Neerja giving credence to the fact that female-oriented genre will grow, but in next 10 years, where do we see our heroines? A lot of this will depend on the audiences flocking the theatres.

So far, we have continued to be young male skewed audience driven industry. What they like is of prime importance. It is not every day that films like a Barfi! Or a Piku or a Queen come our way. But will the trend change as women get more economically empowered and exert their choices even when it comes to entertainment business. Interestingly, today we have a number of women in powerful positions in the show business as CEOs, Business Heads and much more. We also have greater number of female assistant directors and support staff than at any other time in the industry. Naturally, this trend will start reflecting more aggressively as we go forward — in movies and the business.
So will there be a leading lady commanding Rs30 crore for a film along with a back end deal? Who knows! But for any of this to happen, we will need good writers in abundance who can create characters and screenplays that will fire our imagination. 

Regional rumble
Ten days before the release of Telugu film, Bahubali nobody sitting in Mumbai or Delhi could have predicted the sheer numbers it posted. Its performance in Hindi led territories is especially interesting because it is the biggest evidence that audience today just needs  to sniff great content and they will flock to the theatres.
The rise of regional cinema, while offering a great opportunity to the Studios, is also a big challenge for Hindi cinema. According to the latest KPMG report on Media and Entertainment, “286 Tamil movies and 255 Telugu films released in 2014 compared to 216 Hindi films” with even Marathi and Punjabi cinema registering massive growth as well. With Delhi and Mumbai circuits getting saturated and 55% to 65% of box office revenue coming from there for Hindi cinema, a breakthrough is much needed in the coming years. Incidentally, PWC’s Indian media and entertainment 2005 report had forecast Rs153 Billion INR film industry by 2010, where as in actuality till 2014, we have managed to cross a figure of about Rs126 Billion INR. The growth has been very sluggish.

Challenges we face
While a number of factors are responsible for it including a lack of foresight within the Government (for example, give the film industry a strategy industry status or to plough back the entertainment tax in the industry or to make a uniform entertainment tax system, the industry continues to be a largely low profit margin business. We have tentpole films that are doing humungous business but the failure rate is extremely high across different languages. The growth of Hollywood films is yet another looming challenge. Jurassic World and Fast and Furious 7 breached the Rs100 Cr mark this year. China has tackled it very smartly by capping the number of Hollywood releases in their country. Should the Government look at something like that to protect the local language industry?
Most importantly, we continue to be a very under screened. KPMG report states that while The US has 125 screens per million, in India, the number is just 7. The growth and penetration of multiplex chains and cinemas in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities is of critical importance, as also the growth of satellite towns of metros. Let smaller cities have multiplexes which are just 75-100 seater theatres. But multiplexes will thrive if there is business and business will grow if people have greater spending power and that is linked with economy and job creation! It’s a massive challenge and opportunity and the only way forward if we are to increase the revenue for the industry. Today C&S prices have been corrected as are the sales from music. While Digital avenues of monetization are still growing and various windowing options ( PPV, VOD etc) are still a far cry, the thrust of revenue generation has to fall on theatrical business and for that we need enough exhibition space and great content to boot.

Looking back
As we look at 2005-2015 period, it is going to be by far the most exciting period in recent times. Digitisation, which has made it easy to release a film simultaneously and is being used far more for production and marketing as well will lead the way in coming years as 4G services and more hit India. With more smartphone users accessing content on mobile, it is a matter of time when the same will begin reflecting on the balance sheets. USA is a prime example where just 10-15% audience accesses a film in theatre. While we cannot aspire for the same percentage, we can surely get past the volume of people accessing the content.
It will be interesting to look back in 2015, what we achieved and what we set out to do. Till then, as they say, See You At The Movies!

Lada Guruden Singh handles communications at MSM Motion Pictures.