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CINEMA:
FILM MARKETING
Happy
Endings
Hit or
no hit it's profit all the way-thanks to satellite TV, music rights and
the sizeable Indian diaspora
By V.
Shankar Aiyar and Anupama Chopra
- Subhash
Ghai has not released any film this year. His Yaadein, starring
Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor and Jackie Shroff, will release in May
2001. Yet in December 2000 his newly listed Mukta Arts is expected to
announce a net profit of Rs 20 crore.
- Karan
Johar began shooting his new movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (KKKG)
with Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik, Kajol and Kareena last
week. The film will release around Diwali next year. The buzz is that
it's already a top grosser with Johar having reportedly collected Rs
35 crore just for the music, satellite and overseas rights.
- J.P. Dutta's
Refugee is estimated to have cost around Rs 9 crore to make and
was deemed a loser by industry pundits. But Dutta is still smiling,
having allegedly sold satellite rights (in a package with Border)
for Rs 10 crore.
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"Indian
Cinema is going through a paradigm shift. Capital is no longer the
issue."
Subhash Ghai,
film director |
Welcome to
happy endings. Bollywood's producers have never had it so good. Thanks
to the Indian diaspora, the burgeoning of television channels and the
spread of audio business, a producer can today put up a project-as massive
as Johar's KKKG or just a medium-budget one like Rahul,
directed by Prakash Jha and produced by Ghai-without having to put any
money on the table.
Ghai puts
it in perspective: "Capital is no longer an issue. The revenue model
of movie-making has changed. Indian cinema is going through a paradigm
shift." Adds Amit Khanna, ceo, Reliance Entertainment: "We are
talking megabucks. Cinema in its conventional sense is on its last legs
now."
The emerging
paradigm shift is that the domestic market — or rather theatre ticket
sales-now accounts for less than 35 per cent of total revenue. In other
words, a filmmaker could well declare a profit on a venture even before
the film releases or, if it's a Johar, even before the first reel is canned.
In fact,
just the first step-sale of audio rights — is good enough to call
for action. Yash Chopra grossed Rs 7.5 crore by selling the music rights
for Mohabbatein to HMV just as Ghai's already made Rs 10 crore
from the scores of Yaadein. Sanjay Leela Bhansali too has apparently
sold the music of forthcoming Devdas to Universal for Rs 9.5 crore. "Five
years back we were buying audio rights at around Rs 1 crore for a mega
project," explains Harish Dayani, executive director, HMV. "Today
the number has jumped tenfold." Courtesy, a Rs 400 crore market for
film music.
The second
step is the sale of satellite TV rights. In just eight years, the number
of television channels has risen from a mere four to 68. There are half-a-dozen
serious contenders for any and every movie coming out. These include Star
Television, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee Television, the Hinduja-controlled
CVO, the L.N. Mittal-funded B4U and now Kerry Packers' Nine-Gold.
Last year
Sony paid over Rs 3.5 crore for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Rs 1 crore
for the six-year-old Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. And last month, Ghai
sold eight of his movies for limited telecast over two years and pocketed
Rs 14 crore.
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INDIA TODAY Deputy Editor Swapan Dasgupta voices the despair of a community that Jyoti Basu forcibly converted into a diaspora in his 23 years of zero-contribution rule. 
