Of Film Bazaars And Flop Shows

Freeze Frame

Film bazaars don't work. And India under markets Bollywood films

A film bazaar was organized in New Delhi during the recent International Film Festival. This has been a ritual for some years now.

In an effort to enlarge its scope the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) has roped in the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

In spite of their best intent, neither the ministry nor the two industry bodies have managed to create any difference to this rather ineffectual exercise.

This is because most people within and outside the film industry are not in sync with global marketing norms or the role a film festival or a film market plays in the overall scheme of things. No wonder, then, that we do insignificant business at such events.

In today's media savvy world a good but unsuccessful attempt often generates more negative publicity than good, defeating the very purpose of the endeavor.

The I&B ministry's efforts in organising film markets is one such example. Yet more than bureaucrats, it is our film industry which must take the rap on this account.

A programme on NDTV 24x7 during the festival focused on the much talked about 'crossover' films. In the process it threw up a number of interesting insights (or the lack of it) on the subject.

Among the panelists, writer Javed Akhtar (who along with Mahesh Bhatt seems to be fast acquiring the status of NDTV's resident culture guru) and producer Bobby Bedi at least made cogent, if conflicting, points.

The others, including festival director Neelam Kapoor, critic Saibal Chatterjee and actor Rahul Bose, rambled away in abstraction about quality cinema and audiences.

One was not wiser about whether there is a crossover film or whether festivals and markets help or even whether film is an art or commerce or for that matter how our films can reach out to larger audiences abroad.

The programme reflected the perplexity of today's film fraternity, which is unsure about where it stands in a global context.

Let's get the basics first. India makes the largest number of films in the world. Millions across continents watch them avidly.

Raj Kapoor is an icon in the erstwhile Soviet republics. Satyajit Ray is still the most respected Indian film maker. The Indian (and South Asian) diaspora loves Indian movies and stars.

Hindi blockbusters are nowadays often made for non-resident Indian audiences. Ismail Merchant, Shekhar Kapur, Mira Nair, Manoj Night Shyamlan, Tarsem, Ashok Amritraj are some Indians who are a part of the international film lexicon.

More Indian films are going to festivals abroad. The foreign media increasingly features snippets about Bollywood.

That's not all. A section of film makers still hankers for state money to make films. The selection of films for the Indian panorama section or the national awards continue to create a controversy year after year.

The government (led by avid cinegoers A.B. Vajpaye and L.K. Advani) continues to play an interlocutory role in showbiz. There are 100 new multiplexes.

There's rampant piracy and high entertainment tax. Institutional finance is available today. Film making in India is a $ 3 billion industry....

All this is true. But perhaps one needs to look at it from a different perspective.

In terms of sheer numbers, our films are screened in over 100 countries. But what do we earn from them? A measly $ 100 million (another $100 million comes from TV and video rights). This accounts for less than 0.25 per cent of the world market!

The problem is that ever since Himanshu Rai exported "Light of Asia" in 1925 to Britain, petty traders whose constituency and vision is restricted to the diaspora have marketed our films.

Today's higher earnings can be attributed to the fact that NRIs are better off than their ancestors and willing to pay a bigger buck for their song and dance nostalgia fix.

Our films continue to be distributed by the same breed of petty traders whose vision has now been extended to include a few cineplexes in the US and the UK.

In real terms, the overseas business of films like "Awara" and "Mother India" in the fifties or "Sangam" and "Guide" in the sixties was more than that of most of our recent NRI hits. The reason, quite simply, is that we continue to under market our films.

Let's look at our artistic triumphs. There are about a dozen major film festivals every year and in the last 50 years Indian films would have won less than 20 awards. Again, there are a few films each year which can, if promoted (marketed?) well, win international acclaim.

For years the Directorate of Film Festivals and/or the National Film Development Corporation with 'babuvision' and 'sarkari' budgets tried to sell Indian films unsuccessfully on festival and commercial circuits.

In the past couple of years with the involvement of FICCI and CII, India has become more visible at international events.

Yet unless we aggressively pursue opportunities abroad we are losing out on a potentially large revenue stream.

Producers and distributors (and stars) have to realise that the large domestic market is getting fragmented and unless we seek newer audiences abroad we will reach a cul-de-sac.

What about the purpose of film bazaars? Besides Cannes, most other markets are actually events where film producers and distributors come to sell their products. Very seldom do you get serious buyers coming to festivals to buy products.

If we want to sell our films, we should be there in every major film market instead of organising slip-shod film bazaars hoping some fictional Chinese or Uzbek buyer will come looking for our films.

The Indian film market will work provided there are Indian buyers for foreign products and not the other way around.

Similarly, even the more artistically inclined film makers must stop hoping that Indian Panorama will provide a window to the world. You don't need government help to enter a film festival.

Our own Murli Nair and Manish Jha and countless others before them have won accolades without state help.

You need to have the initiative and conviction and you can make your film light up screens in remotest corners. Ask the Iranians and the Chinese.

We also need to change our mindset. If we are talking in terms of dollar revenue, we should be able to spend in dollars too.

It is really disappointing that most of the times when our films are shown at festivals abroad or exhibited, we hardly find a decent brochure, leave alone having a professional public relations agency.

When films like "Lagaan" and "Devdas" used a professional approach, they gained so much.

By the way all this talk about crossover films leaves me cold. If you are able to find a large enough audience, you are a winner.

If you do it outside your home market you are a champ. It is immaterial whether you make your millions in the US of A, in Burkinafaso or Japan or you win laurels in Berlin, Venice or Cannes.

The colour of money and the sound of applause everywhere arouse the same emotion. Bollywood knows this as well as Hollywood. Why split frames?

Amit Khanna is chairman of Reliance Entertainment. The views expressed here are his own