Niranjan Iyengar: Shape up or Ship out!

The rumblings have begun. That the film industry is going through a crisis has been discussed within the fraternity for a while now. But an article I read a few weeks ago in a mainstream newspaper was the first in the recent times to bring it in the open. Although patronizing in its tone (a predictable pitfall of new wave journalism), the diagnostic part of the piece was accurate. Several of the causes listed were sky-high star prices, ridiculous entourage costs, price of the cinema hall tickets and lack of good content. Anybody with remote interest in the film business would know that many producers have raised these issues for a while now. But somehow these few sane voices have been buried under the din of the Rs100-crore', Rs200-core' and Rs500-crore' claims being tossed around, giving an impression that all is well if films are making this kind of money. Clearly there was something wrong with the picture. While the stars, their managers and a few filmmakers skipped down the aisle, hand in hand with full pockets, the studios (responsible for star prices in the first place) and distributors kept facing losses.

A veteran filmmaker had once told me, "The problem with many in our industry is that when they are falling down from the 40th floor, they pretend they are flying. Only when they reach closer to the ground do they realize they are crashing!" While he was speaking of delusional film stars, it applies to the current situation of the film industry as well. Thankfully certain quarters within the business have pulled up their socks.

Satellite right prices, which at one point, were being used by most producers as a subsidy for indulgent, high budget ventures have now plummeted after a tacit understanding amongst the TV channels to not pay beyond a certain price. Also the big studios, which bought films on the basis of just a banner and star cast, now want the producers to make the film first and then decide whether they want to acquire distribution rights. This will of course put a lot of pressure on the already pressurized producers but in a way will also curtail ridiculous demands of the film stars since no one will be able to afford them. The effects of these measures are visible with a lot of stars not having signed a single film in the last few months despite having hit films earlier. Everyone's favorite word suddenly is 'recovery'.

Years ago when I was doing a story on a similar crisis in the film industry, Randhir Kapoor brushed my concerns aside with a "Every 5-7 years the industry goes through this crisis. I have witnessed 2 to 3 of them in my times… Everything eventually works out!" One can only hope that he is right and that the industry has some innate survival mechanism, which resolves such crises!