No paid media, no outdoor hoardings, no staff expenses for stars

The overall dull scenario at the box-office has finally taken its toll on Bollywood. Last week, the top brass of B-town got together in its first-ever united stance and took a serious call on the manner in which they want to promote films in 2015. Some serious decisions were taken in this regard.

The meeting was held at Karan Johar's office in Bandra and leading producers like Mukesh Bhatt, Sajid Nadiadwala, Ekta Kapoor, Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar, Phantom Films, Ashish Patil (Yashraj Films), Siddharth Roy Kapoor (UTV Disney), Vijay Singh (Fox Star), Ajit Andhare (Viacom 18), Sunil Lulla (Eros) and a few others were present. Bhushan Kumar of T-Series has also expressed his solidarity, even though he was not present.

The agenda of the meeting was to be united over the money being spent on a film's marketing and promotion. A producer reveals, "When a film is up for release, we end up spending more than what is required. Every few months, some new avenue opens up that only adds up to the expense. But does indulging in so many different activities to promote your film really translate into business? No, it doesn't."

The Print and Advertising budget for a big film is between 6-10 crores, which is a big spend, and in the absence of return in terms of audiences/collections, the Producers' Guild decided to take some tough decisions (see box). Incidentally, the three recent films that have fared better than the others at the box-office (Badlapur, Dum Laga Ke Haisha and NH 10) had very limited budgets on publicity and marketing. "But that didn't stop the audience from coming in," says a producer.

The idea behind the meeting was to draw some rules regarding expenses, which every producer then would have to abide by. "In the South, they have a set limit on the kind of money you can spend on publicity and marketing. And every producer follows that. Be it a film starring Rajnikanth or a new actor, you cannot exceed that limit. This ruling has helped the entire industry," reveals our source.

Besides this, the stars weren't spared either. For a long time, producers have been bearing the burden of costs that have no relevance to the film - for example, the cost of a star's personal physical trainer and a star's manager. Wherever the star is shooting in the world, his/her trainer and manager being there is almost a requisite. This is an added cost to every producer. At the meeting, it was unanimously decided that stars would now have to pay for these costs themselves.

In the next meeting, scheduled to take place in two months, a limit would be set on advertising on television as well. Also, a limit on the rates of other staff of film stars (make-up man, hair dresser and spot boys) would be put in place.

In the meeting that lasted over three hours, certain firm decisions were taken in unison and a few of them are as follows:

The promotion of a film would not exceed beyond 6 weeks.

No producer would be allowed to take paid media (close to 20-60 lakhs per film)

No more promotional jackets in newspapers (the two-pager flaps)

No outdoor hoardings

No bus backs (ads behind BEST buses)

Costs of trainers and managers would be borne by the stars themselves

Bollywood upbeat
"We have to understand that only a certain amount of promotion is required for every film," says another filmmaker. "By spending on double of that, we are not guaranteeing extra revenue. It is just money going down the drain. And over a period of time, these expenses have started bleeding the film industry. This kind of unity is very important, especially for smaller filmmakers."
Bollywood is rather upbeat with the decision that the senior producers have taken. And to spread the message that they mean business this time, there is also a punishment and a fine in place for anyone who doesn't adhere to the rules – he/she would be charged Rs 50 lakhs. The new ruling comes into effect from April 1.

Mumbai Vs Delhi
There was a very interesting observation made at the meeting by a producer. He gave the film business in New Delhi as an example. Over the years, the business in Mumbai city and Delhi is almost the same (maybe Mumbai leads by a very small margin in some cases). But the point to be noted is that this is despite the fact that Delhi has no outdoor promotions, no hoardings, no posters, no paid media and no newspaper jackets. So is Bollywood being foolish by indulging in these expenses in Mumbai?