 |
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
The Sivaji - Billa Model |
|
| By Behindwoods
News Bureau. |
|
|
December 24, 2007 |
|
|
Can we define success? Success differs
for each one of us because each one
of us has a different goal in life and
success is the attainment of that goal,
small or big. The dictionary calls success
as the accomplishment of something planned
or attempted. Every filmmaker has but
one plan when he makes a movie. |
|
|
To
make a movie as successful as possible and
success in the film industry, as in any other
industry, is fuelled by money. Money is by
and large a measure of the profits that can
be reaped from a venture and this determines
a film’s success or failure.
Times have changed vastly over the past few
years and the pre-requisites for a movie to
be a resounding success have undergone a metamorphosis.
Quality is no longer the only determinant
of a film’s business though it still
remains the single largest factor. There are
other factors that can influence the dynamics
of a films business at the box office. This
is more a reflection of the lifestyle change
that the world has undergone over a period.
Everything now is instant and even success
has to be instant, playing the waiting game
is passé and it is all out ruthless
economics and market analysis that takes over
once the creative process of film making is
wrapped up. This is not to say that market
analysis and economics were not part of film
trade earlier but currently there is lot more
professionalism and studied methods in which
these are applied to the business to make
a film a lucrative proposition. If we credit
the growth of the Tamil film industry with
great artistes and creators like Rajini, Kamal,
Mani Ratnam and Shankar a small part of the
credit should also go to men who have silently
worked behind the screens playing the number
games to perfection to ensure that no good
effort falls flat. Welcome to the world of
professional business analysis, which till
recently was part of only huge corporate firms
or so we thought.
The fact is that such complex calculations
are still specialized domains of the corporate
sector but the one thing that has changed
is that the corporate sector has decided to
enter films in a big way and even within a
span of a few years the cutting edge calculations
of the specialists have made a huge difference.
Adlabs, Eros, UTV, etc., are a few fine examples
with traditional production houses following
suit. In short, they know what to sell, where
to sell, how to sell and when to sell. The
result is that the money keeps flowing. Take
this for instance, Goal, the recent John Abraham-starrer,
was declared a profitable venture by safe
margin even before its release and how true
it has turned out to be, the cost was covered
and a neat if not huge profit was made. Saawariya,
a film that, going by the widespread feeling,
was not liked by even a fraction of the audience
has earned in the proximity of Rs. 25 crores.
Even though this is far below its investment,
for a movie that was drubbed from every quarter
possible, these numbers are truly surprising.
How was this done? |
|
|
It is simple economics, or just common
sense. The demand for a product is dictated
by a few factors. One they say is marginal
utility, the other is the buyers’
spending capacity and of course there
is the factor of availability. Let’s
say that the marginal utility of watching
a film in a theater is three hours of
relaxed entertainment with family or
friends (the quality of the entertainment
is a bonus), |
|
the spending capacity of the buyer, especially
the urban buyer, is never under question in
these days of urban economic boom and the
last factor is availability. If these three
factors come together, one can ensure that
the product is sold and sold well. The corporates
know how to bring these things together. During
the festive season, watching a big movie in
theaters with family is more a necessity or
an annual ritual faithfully followed by many
rather than just a marginal utility. When
a product is a necessity, the willingness
to pay a higher price is always there and
that combined with festival bonus salaries
for adults and that extra pocket money for
the teens results in higher spending power
coupled with availability that matches or
even topples demand, you have saturation sales.
You end up selling the maximum amount of the
product within the shortest interval of time,
reducing the time needed to recover investment,
regardless of negative reviews and its impacts.
This is the simple technique that the professionals
have put in place to cut the risk of movie
business. Year 2007 has been a classic example
of savvy marketing either saving or boosting
the status of a film at the box office. Take
for instance, Sivaji (there is no escaping
Sivaji). The Superstar fever was capitalized
on in style. For nearly a month (if you were
in Chennai at that time you could have seen
for yourself) there was no other movie but
Sivaji showing all over Chennai, at least
90 per cent of all shows in a day in Chennai
city were of Sivaji. It was estimated that
15,000 people saw the movie simultaneously
throughout the city that makes it nearly 60,000
a day. Which means that no one who came hoping
for tickets returned disappointed, everyone
got their chance even before any of the reviews
could make themselves heard, all positive
though, and the movie was well on its way
to blockbuster status. That explains why Abirami
Ramanathan, who purchased the Chennai city
distribution rights of the film, was able
to manage a smile in spite of having put a
mammoth Rs. 6 crores, ending up making nearly
double that amount. Billa too is an excellent
example of not letting availability come in
between demand and sales of tickets. The Tamil
movie scene was entirely taken up by Billa
in its opening weekend making the most of
the initial hype. |
|
|
Maybe we can understand the importance
of the new age marketing tactics better
if we look at some of the more mediocre
movies that managed to scrape through
just because of this factor. Saawariya
and Vijay’s Azhagiya Tamil Magan
are outstanding examples of films making
their ground purely because of well-planned
marketing strategy. That is the contemporary
business of movies. |
|
|
| Life
has changed, it is fast, the shelf life of
any product is low, memory spans less, slow
and steady no longer wins the race, with increasing
number of movies being made with big stars
and bigger budgets, the window available for
each movie to make good its investment is
small. Every producer has to go for the kill
during this short span of time. Flood the
market, don’t miss a single screen is
the new age mantra. These are the days when
even centers that were till recently considered
second change centers are being offered first
day releases. More prints + more theaters
= more viewers ? more money. Everybody is
happy! Gone are the days when filmmakers used
to wait for the 50th day to declare their
film a hit, now you can hear the word ‘HIT’
after the first weekend, sometimes even before
the release. Who cares for Silver and Golden
jubilees? The money comes in 10 days and that’s
what matters. Today is the world of instant
everything, instant noodles, instant coffee,
instant money and instant cricket (20-20).
Why would movies have to be any different?
In the midst of all this, movies tend to become
instantly forgotten as well. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
