The days of big-budget films are back. Between October and January, at least five films will be released with budgets of Rs 75 crore to Rs 90 crore. These include Blue, London Dreams, 3 Idiots, Kites and My Name is Khan. All told, nearly Rs 500 crore is at stake on big-budget films. And one in six films scheduled for release in the next five months is a big film made with a budget of over Rs 50 crore.
Moreover, most of these films have been shot at exotic foreign locales and had foreign cast and crew working for them, which trade experts said is a recent phenomenon. Films like the Akshay Kumar-Sanjay Dutt starrer Blue, Hrithik Roshan’s Kites and Shahrukh Khan’s My Name Is Khan have been shot extensively at Bahamas, Mexico, the US and Brazil.
However, film trade experts said they were skeptical whether these films will be able to recover the cost this festive season.
| BIG BUDGET FILMS | |||
| Bollywood Film | Budget (in Rs cr) | Actors | Release Month |
| Wanted | 40 | Salman Khan | 9-Sep |
| Aladin | 45 | Amitabh Bachchan | 9-Oct |
| Blue | 90 | Akshay Kumar Sanjay Dutt | 9-Oct |
| Kurbaan | 45 | Saif Ali Khan | 9-Nov |
| Three idiots | 75-80 | Aamir Khan | 9-Dec |
| Kites | 75-85 | Hrithik Roshan | 9-Dec |
| My Name Is Khan | 85-90 | Shahrukh Khan, Kajol | 10-Jan |
“Yes, stakes are extremely high for both producers and distributors as it is the first festive season in several years when over half-a-dozen very big films are scheduled for release. The challenge for us is to minimize our risks when we buy the rights for these mega-budget films,” says Hiren Gada, director of Shemaroo Films, the company that has the rights to distribute Blue in the overseas markets.
Experts said the risk for both producers and distributors is going to be high like never before because of another reason — the softening in rates for satellite and television rights, music rights, DTH rights and far too many choices available to the consumers within a short-span.
"These mega-budget films are far too costly so whatever may be the box office return, it may fall short of recovering the investments put in by the producers, distributors and other stakeholders," said an analyst with a leading brokerage firm.
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According to film analyst Taran Adarsh, the main reason for these high-cost Bollywood projects is the cost of the star actors. “Anywhere between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of the total project cost of these big budget films goes towards paying the star actors. But several of these films have been bought by the distributors at a premium. Therefore, the distributors are taking a large portion of the risk compared to the producers,” said Adarsh.
The recent performance of big-budget films hasn’t been too inspiring either. Film experts said only Katrina Kaif-starrer New York can be termed a “super hit” film out of the three dozen films that have released since June. It not only recovered its cost but generated twice the return on investments, experts said. “Films like Love Aaj Kal or Kaminey may have made money at the box office, but it remains to be seen whether they made money for everyone in the value-chain,” said an executive of a leading film distribution company.