The year 2008 saw one of the biggest deluge of Bengali films, 30 so far, made with budget in the range of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 11 crore.
Some broke even in two months and are now running in suburbs.
What is interesting is the publicity and marketing thrust that production houses invested in this year.
For instance, a few of the movies, like ‘Bhalobasha Bhalobasha’, which is one of the most expensive Bengali movies of this year, has its own website, to cater to overseas markets and to the tech-savvy who are pressed for time. It takes between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 to launch a website.
Although 70 per cent of the movies are yet to break even, what is interesting is Tollywood’s intention to add gloss to Bengali movies with around four movies slated for release by early next year being shot in foreign locales including Singapore, Berlin and Austria. These movies have a budget between Rs 65 lakh and Rs 3 crore, with the scenes shot in foreign locales making up around 20 - 30 per cent of the overall production cost.
Production houses like Nishpal Films, Moxie Entertainment, T Sarkar Productions, and Mumbai Mantra, the film production wing of Mahindra and Mahindra, are investing in youth-centric movies with a part of the shoot in foreign locales to add to the glamour quotient.
The most expensive Bengali movie of the year so far is Ashok Dhanuka production ‘Bhalobasha Bhalobasha’. Realeased in October, the movie saw 70 per cent footfall during the Durga Puja season. “The first week’s collection was overwhelming. We spent Rs 3 crore and we nearly recovered the amount,” said Ashok Dhanuka.
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However, the biggest hit of the year so far is Shree Venkatesh Films-produced ‘Chirodini Tumi Je Aamar’. It had a decent opening, thanks to extensive marketing prior to its release. The movie had a budget of Rs 1.5 crore and the first week saw 55 per cent occupancy at theatres.
“We spent Rs 1.5 crore on making the movie and recovered it within eight weeks of its release. We have earned over Rs 2 crore till now,” said Mahendra Soni of Shree Venkatesh Films. Chirodini released with 40 prints.
Feluda movie ‘Tintorettor Jishu’ emerged as popular a movie as Shahrukh Khan starrer ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ in the first week with both movies commanding near equal occupancy rate across multiplexes at more or less similar ticket pricing. According to industry experts, although ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ is a bigger film with 1,200 prints worldwide and did business of Rs 2 crore in West Bengal in two weeks of its release, ‘Tintorettor Jishu’, with 29 prints in West Bengal and made with a budget of Rs 1-2 crore, was also houseful in its first week and even had viewers for late night shows, rare in Bengali movies.
Although 'Tintorettor Jishu' is yet to break even, T Sarkar Productions, which produced the movie, is planning to invest a few lakhs to release more prints with sub-titles for theatres across india. According to Sumita Bhattacharjee of T Sarkar Productions, ‘Tintorettor Jishu’ has bagged sponsorships from Shalimar coconut oil. While telecom service provider Aircel is the communications partner, Star Ananda and Radio Mirchi are media partners, with Kingfisher as the spirits sponsor, and website partner ilovekolkata.in.
“The website partner will help market the movie in overseas markets. As of now, we are concentrating on the movie and box office collections, after which we will look at overseas releases and DVDs and VCDs,” Sarkar added.
Tollywood’s most expensive English movie this year was Amitabh Bachhan-starrer ‘The Last Lear’, directed by Rituparno Ghosh, and produced by Planman Motion Pictures.
Despite one of the most celebrated star cast, that of Amitabh Bachchan, Arjun Rampal, Preity Zinta, Shefali Shah, Jisshu Sengupta, Divya Dutta, and made with a budget of Rs 11 crore, the movie ran for only three weeks.
“The collections were average. Very few people saw the film as it was in English,” reasoned Mahendra Soni of Shree Venkatesh Films, which distributed Last Lear. The movie saw 63 per cent occupancy both on weekdays and in the weekends at theatres and multiplexes.
Other movies, like ‘Ghar Jamai’, an expensive one (Rs 1.5 crore) by Tollywood standards, ran for five weeks in Kolkata with 40 per cent occupancy. Bangla Talkies production ‘Bor Ashbe Ekhuni’ (Rs 90 lakh) ran for a month in Kolkata and is now running in the suburbs. The occupancy rate was 40-45 per cent for four weeks.