June 22, 1998

Panic steps in among filmmakers as several big-budget movies crash. Estimated losses: Rs 65 crore.

By Anupama Chopra

Crash ... thud ... sssliiiide. It's the sound of Bollywood films flopping at the box office. Six months into the year, there is little to celebrate. Every Friday brings new losses. And the spate of big-budget disasters has left in its wake a bewildered industry -- financially strapped distributors, panic-stricken producers and fast-fading stars.

Of the 58 films released so far, only one, Pyar kiya to darna kya (PKTDK), has hit the box office bull's-eye. Director Sohail Khan's mediocre Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) rip-off, starring his brothers Salman and Arbaaz, rode to the top on the hit number O o jaane jaana. The revamped kiddie special Chhota Chetan and Mira Nair's sexual romp Kama Sutra are the other earners. The rest are all losers. "This is the worst year in the 67-year history of Hindi talkie cinema," says Trade Guide editor Taran Adarsh, "with 95 per cent of the films failing so far." According to a recent study by the magazine, 1998 beats even the disastrous 1988, when of the 140 films released only 23 had covered their costs and the rest were disasters. Film Information editor Komal Nahta estimates that Bollywood has already lost about Rs 65 crore this year.

Flops are not news to Bollywood -- the annual hit:flop ratio has remained an unchanged 20:80. But this year, panic has set in because blue-chip marquee names have crashed, many not even managing to attract the crucial initial audience. Yugpurush, starring the hit Agnisakshi team of Jackie Shroff, Nana Patekar and Manisha Koirala, was an unmitigated disaster from the first show. Kabhi Na Kabhi, with hit director Priyadarshan at the helm and starring Anil Kapoor, Jackie and Pooja Bhatt, fared worse than a B-grade film, registering 30-40 per cent collections in the first week. Quila, hyped as the come-back film of veteran Dilip Kumar, ran for one week in smaller towns like Bhuj. Sunny Deol's action sagas Zor and Salaakhen sank without a trace -- Salaakhen managed an opening but nose-dived in the second week, collecting less than 50 per cent of the first week. Even reigning god Shah Rukh Khan couldn't save the day. Duplicate, his first release after last year's megahit Dil To Pagal Hai (DTPH), dropped drastically after the first week and is expected to lose money.

Top stars, foreign locales, mega-buck marketing -- nothing mattered. Jeans, hyped as India's most expensive film and shot on almost every conceivable continent, played to empty houses. And as the audience deserted Hindi movies like rats on the Titanic -- in fact that's where most were headed: Titanic is expected to do a business of Rs 30 crore-plus, making it the biggest hit of the year -- the once-escalating market, still buoyant on hits like DDLJ and Raja Hindustani, crashed.

As the losses pile up, finances have dried. Exhibitors, the front-line losers, are unable to pay advances to distributors, who in turn cannot honour commitments made to producers. The last few months have seen distributors backing out of films just prior to release and even the big producers are suffering. Mukesh Bhatt was forced to release Dushman himself in two major territories when distributors refused to take delivery of the film. "I had a Rs 2 crore deficit at release," he says. "Luckily, I could absorb it and the film is doing well in cities so I will make money. But how many other producers can take this?"

When the film market dips, the audio market follows. The biggest seller so far has been PKTDK, moving between 20 lakh-25 lakh cassettes. HMV's Harish Dayani says, "Today, a Shah Rukh starrer like Duplicate is selling only 10 lakh to 15 lakh cassettes. It's frightening." This is a far cry from the 80 lakh-plus sale of DTPH cassettes. As audio companies grapple with paltry returns, buying has come to a near halt. Tips and Venus have almost completely stopped acquiring new film tracks and HMV is buying only selective banners. Even T-Series, which went on a buying spree last year, has halted acquisitions in the past three months. The Rs 2 crore-plus audio prices, once thrown about casually, are now the stuff of fantasy. Says Plus Audio's Amit Khanna: "Any soundtrack requires a minimum of Rs 20 lakh investment for manufacturing and promotion. So even when producers are giving them for free, we are saying no."

Why? The films, cinema pundits admit, were overwhelmingly bad. Says Nestor d'Souza, manager of Mumbai's Metro cinema: "Ticket prices today are so high that the audience is forced to be discerning. It costs Rs 400-Rs 500 for a family. Why should they waste their money on bad movies?" Distributor Ramesh Sippy agrees: "These films took success for granted. They had well-promoted songs, foreign locales and an almost identical look. The audience saw it at home as Chhayageet, switched the television off and went back to sleep."

The immediate fallout of all this is tumbling prices. Even star cast films are having a hard time finding buyers. Where once distributors shunned films priced at below Rs 1 crore per territory as B-grade, today they are loathe to pay more. The dearth of buyers has caused panic in the production sector. In anticipation of getting between Rs 1.75 crore and Rs 2 crore, producers over-budgeted their films and are now discovering that recovery is poor. Says Sippy: "The film industry has got itself into knots which won't be easy to untie."

Much of the blame for the financial mess rests with the stars. Eager for their share of the pie, stars hiked up their prices and producers, hopeful of recovering from the distributors, obliged. So the leading heroes are charging upwards of Rs 1.5 crore and the leading heroines between Rs 80 lakh and Rs 1.25 crore. But the box office did not sustain these prices. Says film broker N.S. Bhalla: "We are just killing ourselves. Shah Rukh Khan asks K.C. Bokadia for Rs 2 crore and he pays him. There is no saleability and no recovery. And no producers' association will have the guts to correct this situation." But grapevine has it that as offers dry up, the heroines at least have lowered their rates. Says the secretary of a leading star: "Heroine prices had gone haywire because when it comes to selling a film, the heroine makes a marginal difference. So even stars like Karisma Kapoor and Manisha have reduced their prices -- some by as much as 50 per cent."

Clearly, Bollywood will have to rework its arithmetic. Bloated budgets and over-paid stars are a recipe for disaster. Cinema experts hope that the current crisis will push out the proposal makers, leaving the field clear for genuine filmmakers. They also wait for that elusive hit. Says Indore distributor J.P. Chowksey: "The film industry has a love-hate relationship with the audience. Right now it's hate, but a few good films will change the picture." After all, as he says, this is the only business where one bird singing makes it spring.

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