Pay cut, budgeting and scrimping - the film industry feels the pinch
Just when actors, directors and production houses were accustomed to gloating about the 100-odd crore their films have made, the downturn in the economy has the world gob-smacked. While the financial sector may be the most apparently hit, Bollywood isn’t far behind.
London Dreams, the famed Rs 120 crore project by TV18, is already said to be reconsidering its budget. Producers of movies due for release are also tweaking their promotion campaigns to fit the projects in their budget.
Though the effect of the recession will become more visible only by the yearend, most production houses are already feeling the heat and taking adequate measures. With EMI due for release within a week, Ramesh Sippy, CEO, Balaji Motion Pictures, called a meeting of producers early this week to discuss the issue. “We have decided to cut on media spending by nearly 40 per cent for our current release but our future projects will also require better planning,” he says.
Pritish Nandy Communications, which has nine films in the pipeline, plans to streamline the production and control costs. “We will reconsider our cast to accommodate actors that fit our budget and stick to the schedules as much as we can,” says Pritish Nandy.
The buzz also has it that actors too may have to take a pay cut. Shabbir Boxwala of Popcorn Motion Pictures (EMI) says the astronomical amounts that were being paid initially by corporates for multi-movie deals are a thing of the past and adds that though it is too early to give a figure, a correction of up to 20 per cent can take place. Sippy, however, is of the opinion that a correction in the market was anyway due and “it may just have brought forward what was bound to happen maybe by mid-2009″.
Vikas Kapoor, director, Future Picture Company that produces Heroes, also plans to approach his cast for the forthcoming films Formula 44 and Lanka and request a pay cut. “We’ve already cut down on the publicity of Heroes. A full-page ad in a leading publication costs anywhere between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 14 lakh and we no longer enjoy that kind of influx by financiers. We have no choice but to request the actors to reconsider their fee,” complains Kapoor.
Some feel the big fish in the industry, like Yash Raj Films, may not be affected as they have a reliable financial backup and reputation they can bank on in such times of turbulence. But given the number of unsuccessful projects (at the box office) that have emerged from YRF, the situation is debatable.
What may make matters worse for the industry is pitiable economic condition in the UK and the US. The NRI audience also forms a considerable percentage of their audience. Therefore, the revenue generated on that front too is going to take a hit, suspect the trade pundits. YRF was unavailable for comment.
With at least six films due for release around Diwali, this is definitely not good news. But Boxwala feels that to cut down on marketing-spend can prove suicidal “as marketing a film well these days is more important than making the film”. He also has an interesting counterview of the economic situation: “It is a known fact that the film industry does well in times of economic crisis since people prefer to escape the worries through the celluloid world.”