Recently released Bollywood mega budgets films like Raavan and Kites are bleeding at the box office and weekend collections are becoming a hugeyardstick of success for a film. The stakes are terrifically high. In all this jostling for box office success, we learn that there’s a murky game being played behind the scenes.
People connected with the trade admit that a few Bollywood producers are out to create a monopoly at the box office where they are paying off and even arm-twisting smaller film-makers into not releasing their films during the week that bigger films release.
“There have been several recent instances of a smaller film snatching away the audience that the big release would have otherwise got. So, when the word gets out on a Friday that a big release is not good enough, the audience goes for whatever else is available at the box office. The smaller film hence starts eating into the audience of a bigger film. The big players want to prevent that from happening,” says a producer who was forced to push back a release date because of a ‘bigger’ producer.
Vinayak Azad, former Censor Board official of the western region, admits, “The release dates have become all-important for a film and there have been many instances where we have got only one week to clear the film simply because it has to be released on a particular Friday. We have come across instances where a producer could not release a long-awaited film on a date in spite of being cleared by us because there was a big release lined up on that date. I think it makes business sense,” says Azad.
Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar also admits to this trend but adds that there are times when the small producer voluntarily opts out of the scene. “It happens because nobody wants competition at the box office. Sometimes the smaller producer looks for a khaali week to get the film across. I also faced the same situation with my movie Jail when people told me not to release my film along with the other two films because mine was a dark film. I still went ahead and clashed and had a worthy winner in Azab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani,” he says.
Film-maker Subhash Ghai furthers, “We face a very hard time looking for a release date. Nobody wants competition at the box office specially when you already have competition. If the film does not score 70% in its opening weekend, it is known as a flop.”
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