We’ve got a tremendous response to A Krishna’s opinion piece cum report on Why Is Bollywood Going Bust. The article which was published at around 5 pm last evening has gone viral on social media and has been widely shared, commented upon and reacted to. What’s heartening is that it’s not only the regular everyday audience of The Quint who have read and shared it, but also filmmakers and actors who’ve been part of the Hindi film industry for decades.
The all round favourable reaction to A Krishna’s piece has been because everybody associated with the industry saw that the report mirrored some undeniable bitter truths about the film industry.
Everybody knew it, but someone really needed to put it out there in black and white, backed with some information, facts and figures.
A former studio executive who has worked with both a family run production house and headed the marketing division of a corporate studio reacted by saying:
.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fmt=webp&width=720)
Well, Krishna’s article was more focused on the functioning of the studio system in Bollywood, perhaps the manner in which producers are getting away with a premium and profit on totally mediocre films within this system, requires another piece altogether.
While chatting with a scriptwriter, who recently had two critically acclaimed films to her credit, about the article, I asked her if she felt anything was missed out and here’s what she had to say:
.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fmt=webp&width=720)
Another former creative head of a studio reacted with this:
.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fmt=webp&width=720)
It’s not as if there are NO success stories to tell or that studio heads have NEVER made good choices which have paid off at the box-office. But we’ve heard those stories time and again. A Krishna’s article was an attempt to put out there what has remained till now facts, figures and narratives that have been spoken of only in hushed whispers.
Fact is that the ‘Corporate Studio Model’ as it has been functioning in Bollywood has failed. And the biggest reason for this is that stars and filmmakers end up charging almost 50% of the revenues of a film and the balance 50% is simply not enough to give a risk-adjusted return to the studio.
Until the stars, filmmakers and big producers learn to bring down their percentage to 15% of a film’s revenue, studios will continue to close down. There will be no one left to fund films and that will force their profits down to 15%. Until that happens, this industry is gripped by a death wish.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)