Editorial

Silsila Flops ka

Do the producers really care?
2000. It was expected to be a year of magical revival in Indian filmdom’s fortunes. Cinema’s glory years revisited, in short, a year of hits. As most new year forecasts go, this one’s turned out miles off the mark, belying the optimism. Five months into the year, moviedom’s cup of woes still brimmeth over with unsettling regularity. And for those in the trade, it’s been a year of unprecedented drought.

Of course, the year’s not over yet. In fact, we still have more than half of it left to live through. And surprises can happen. That’s the slender reason for hope the incorrigible optimists in the trade are subsisting on, the silver lining. But do the facts really warrant such optimism? The way things are going, and short of divine intervention, no.

Mumbai’s dream factories whose assembly lines roll out at least a couple ‘a’ hundred films a year, have hit their lowest nadir ever in history. As many as 128 completed films are languishing in the cans for want of buyers. With distributors continuing to burn their fingers, acquiring some of these big budget monstrosities has become nothing short of a huge gamble. What with films continuing to fall like nine pins, it takes a great leap of faith to buy new ones now, and, not to forget, deep reserves of cash. And more and more of our seasoned, battle-weary distributors and exhibitors are discovering there are a lot many investment options worth gambling on, besides films. Most of these trade outfits have been in the business for generations, and it’s loyalty to the family heirloom alone that’s kept them plodding on, regardless.

Unless something’s done to reduce the element of gamble involved in acquiring films, and fast, it follows that most trade outfits will be forced to close shop. After all, how much longer can the trade survive on hope, or loyalty to the family business alone? And it will be a sad day for showbiz when that happens, we can be sure of that.

CALLING FICCI’S BLUFF
JUDGING from the looks of it, few in the production sector really seem to care for the travails of the distributors and theatre owners. Let’s face it, the producers, well, at least the biggies among them, have had no cause for alarm, just yet. Their films do get sold for upwards of Rs 2 crore per territory, irrespective of whether they do well at the box-office or not. It’s the tradesfolk who’re suffering, not them. So why bother, they figure.

Why, indeed? After all, hasn’t the recent Arthur Anderson report on showbiz prepared on FICCI’s behalf, painted a rosy future for the movie industry? What’s more, didn’t a UNESCO study on cinema suggest there is a need for at least 20,000 screens in India, as against the current 12,900? These are feel-good reports, no doubt, ones that prompt the filmfolk to lick their chops in glee, and pump in more money into films. Blindly.

Especially since a federation as eminent as FICCI has chosen to lend credence to these reports.

With reports like these in circulation, the filmfolk can hardly be blamed for carrying false notions of the power of the movies. It doesn’t matter what kind of movies you make, or how you price them, they seem to suggest, as long as you keep dishing them out. There’s a hungry audience out there, just dying to lap it all up, they assume.

Why, pray, are as many as 128 certified films rotting in the cans, then, may one ask? Or come to think of it, why are a sizeable majority of theatres finding it tough to make ends meet, if there’s a need for 8000 more in the country? The average theatre spends close to Rs 6 lakh on the electricity and maintenance bills and staff salary and the like, apart from 60 to 125% on ET and several lakhs more for a month’s worth of films. And survival, if you’re a theatre owner can be fairly grim.
That’s the problem with all showbiz surveys that take the box-office for granted. Take the audience, and its tastes for granted, and it will be the beginning of the end. That’s why all but one solitary release, Kaho Na.. Pyar Hai have come croppers at the b-o in the year so far. KNPH has been the only resounding hit worth the name. Every other release has had to struggle.

The audience no longer respects reputations. Or multistarrers would guarantee success at the b-o. Nor for that matter, does it respect formula, or there’d be safety in cliches. No, it may not quite be ready, yet, for novel, thought-provoking fare that eschews entertainment value. Budgets, star presence, and yes, even the budgets are secondary by comparison. Violence no longer sells. Nor does sex and crudity, or action or special effect. We’ve tried all of that, in the absence of a worthy script, and failed, haven’t we?

This then’s the bottomline: everything, absolutely everything is a mere gimmick in the absence of a script that not only engages and provokes thought but also entertains. How many more flops will it take to learn this truth? Will we still have distributors left in the trade by the time we do? And what’s more important, will we still find an audience?

Questions, questions.

Shaju George Alex