Indians make the largest number of films only after Hollywood. And we also make the largest amount of money from films apart from Hollywood. Films are the favourite entertainment of average Indians and so is the case with Telugu audiences.Festivals, weekends or any special holiday, one chunk of the day is allotted to watching the blockbuster of the season. Of course, some love to watch them time and again, but again, with television, that section of audience has surely come down. But again, technology per se has surely changed the dynamics of movie-watching on the Indian sub-continent. There was a time, during good old times, as some seasoned reviewers would put it, when films were distributed in aluminium cans, flat boxes that were carried from theatre to theatre.
Films would be screened four times a day and a hit or a blockbuster film would run for 100 days. So, there would be a golden jubilee, silver jubilee and diamond jubilee function for every hit and it would be an event where the stars came down. As for the 2-tier and 3-tier centres, by the time the film reached them, the prints would turn grainy, they would already get the reviews from their friends or family in cities and the film would have already completed its total run in main centres. So this was the second-rung of business.
Now, the times are totally different. Take for example, the latest release Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Salman starrer made by Rajshri Films, who charmed an entire generation of Indian girls with Prem, their hero. This time, Prem did not get the best of review, but he did once again manage to make maximum money, in shortest period of time. Where a film would run in maximum of 50 centres in the past, now, a blockbuster is screened in over 5600 screens all over the world, as was the case with PRDP. The pre-release hype, business tie-ups, promotional tie-ups ensure that the makers make the most money prior to the film’s release.
And once the film releases, it makes money on the very first day thanks to all the hype and hoopla the marketing division already creates. So, strategically, Diwali, Eid weekends are chosen for big films and all money is made during that long holiday period. Let’s take the case of Salman’s film and make a simple calculation. If 200 viewers watched the film on the screen paying Rs 100 per ticket on an average, then the film would make Rs 45 crores in a day, adding up all 5600 screens. And the film did make Rs 40 crores on day 1. However, the bottomline is that the film has to manage 5000 screens and also have a star like Salman in the lead, who has a wide following across the world. Now, let’s consider the case of Baabhubali or even Srimanthudu, two landmark hits in the history of Telugu cinema.
Baahubali is, what one can safely call a marketing success, wherein, all the pre-release publicity helped the film to make Rs 650 crores in all. However, its run time in theatres was barely for 50 days. Similarly, Srimanthudu that took home Rs 100 crores also barely managed to breach the 50 day mark. So while the business is increasing by the day and the numbers are getting bigger, thanks to the Indian diaspora spread across the world and growing indulgence in entertainment, films are making big money. Of course, the catchword here is an appealing story and top stars to sell it. If that falls into place along with the marketing strategy, then it is a given that the film will make huge monies.
Of course, piracy happened in the past, and it happens now. But the digital screening of films via satellite and servers, beaming them across main centres alongside B,C centers has become easy and encrypted copies have made it ‘nearly’ impossible to download films for piracy. This too has helped boost collections as many people love to watch the films during the opening weekends, instead of watching them after all the reviews are out. Given the role of technology in Indian film industry today, let’s make another quick calculation, now, if 5000 screens can promise Rs 40 crores in a day, imagine if the same film is splashed across 50 million plus screens? Of course, on your very own HD television screens… And that would throw open the hitherto unexplored market of pay-per-view telecast on television. Remember, Kamal Haasan had wanted to release his film online? That is just a baby step for days ahead. Indeed apart from stars and innovative story, films will be all about good marketing and good technology in the days to come.
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