Agent Vinod is not just a Saif Ali Khan film. It is, along with a dozen-odd big films lined up for release in the coming months, a test case for the summer film. These include Tezz, Ferrari Ki Sawaari, 3 (Tamil), Rowdy Rathore, Adhinayakadu (Telugu) and Jannat 2, among others. On an average, each of them have between Rs 20-30 crore riding on them. If these work, they will bring the summer back on the release calendar after almost four years. They will also demonstrate that the Rs 14,000-crore Indian film industry is free of the Indian Premier League (IPL) bogey.
The IPL, along with the lack of screens and content, has been responsible for poor summer takings for some time now. But the line up this year suggests that the industry couldn’t care less. Besides Agent Vinod, March will also see the release of Dhanush’s 3. The film has already been making waves for the Kolaveri Di song. Eros’s Housefull 2 releases on April 5, immediately after the IPL begins on April 4. The first Housefull was one of the biggest hits of 2011. Vinod Chopra Films’ cricket-themed, Ferrari Ki Sawaari comes bang in the middle of the summer holidays on
April 27. Says CEO Sameer Rao, “It is a family film and summer holidays are important for families. After the summer holiday, the audience becomes a weekend audience.”(ADVANCE BOOKING)
Rao has put his finger on the nub of the whole thing. Thanks to Dabangg, the family film is back and so, therefore, is summer.
The ice-lolly days
Traditionally, summer holidays which begin in March/April and end mid-June, have been a huge draw at the movies. “Summer is a good movie-going period, especially for younger audience,” says Sanjeev Lamba, CEO, Reliance Entertainment. This changed over the last decade with the spread of multiplexes. “Now, accessibility has increased. Movies are watched throughout the year,” says Vikram Malhotra, COO, Viacom18 Motion Pictures.
Also, as film companies, especially the Hindi ones, became multiplex-oriented, the large, family-oriented film died. A Bheja Fry or Omkara may be great films. But Hum Aapke Hain Kaun or Baghban had the ability to keep families coming. This coincided with the availability of options ranging from television, radio, internet to a mall, coffee shops and outstation holidays. Then came the IPL. Says Sunil Punjabi, CEO, Cinemax India, a theatre chain: “Before the IPL broke our backs, the first quarter of the financial year (the summer months of April, May, June) was our biggest quarter.” Now the second and third quarters work better.
The result: “In the last four to five years, business has been down in the summer,” says Sreedhar Pillai, a Chennai-based film expert.
It, however, created a new opportunity. Akshaye Rathi, director, Rathi Group, which owns 23 screens said that between the opening of the IPL and its final rounds, a new window emerged. So, an LSD or a Ragini MMS, found success in that slot. Since no big films are released during the IPL, small, experimental films had an ‘unrestricted window’, as Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO, UTV Motion Pictures, puts it.
Growing up
Meanwhile, on the back of private equity money digital cinema started taking off in 2006. Today, a bulk of the 5,500 odd digital screens in India are in tier-2 and tier-3 towns. These account for a little over 60 per cent of all screens in India. And they are housed in the biggest markets for the family film. By 2010, this started showing up in the numbers. Endhiran, Dabangg, Golmaal 3, and 3 Idiots were the biggest hits that year. The family film, which could dominate summer was back. And IPL or no IPL it would deliver. “It is not just about the IPL or other options, it is about the maturity of the market,” thinks Punjabi. Even with the English Premier League (EPL), which runs over 22 weeks, big movies continue to release in the UK.
Not everyone agrees that the films up for release are big enough to challenge the IPL or revive the summer window. Sumant Bhargava, managing director, Stargaze Entertainment, which owns 22 screens, largely across small-town India, says, “You have to compare it to what Hollywood does every summer. They save the Potter, Spiderman or Pirate franchises for the summer. I don’t see any such film which will pull families and children to the theatres. Ferrari Ki Sawaari is a Sharman Joshi film, not a summer blockbuster.” Many studio heads agree.
Whether or not Ferrari Ki Sawari is a hit, the ‘post-Dabangg effect’, as Rathi puts it, has begun. Wait for the temperature to rise before we find the perfect summer hit.
