Category: Ficci Frames

MUMBAI: The arrival of 3G into the Indian telecom sector has come at the right time. That is because five years back handsets did not have the capability to exploit 3G capabilities. Also, while 3G arrival will help multimedia, it will also add to the bandwidth capacity for voice. It will be important for 3G service providers to not get caught up with technology per se; their focus should rest on providing added value which was not there earlier. These were some points made at a Ficci-Frames session on ‘3G And Its Business Models‘.   Reliance Communications president Mahesh Prasad said that 3G was coming in at the opportune time. “You have to see demand. A lot also has to be done with 2.5 G. What content is appropriate for a network and a device also has to be seen by 3G operators.” Orange director International TV partnerships Paula Souloumiac said that the content division was set up by the company to buy content and create partnerships with content owners. “We create value for our network by delivering content. We stream live TV channels. These are not channels specially created for the mobile. With the advent of tablets and smartphones, over a million people watch mobile TV in France. We see ourselves as being a content addager.” She added that the consumer doesn‘t care if it is 3G or 4G or XYZ. “He wants to know about the services available, the kind of offers being made and pricing. Don’t get hung up on technology.” IBM Global Business Services VP. Partner Dr. Sumit Chowdhury said that his company works with media companies and aims to create technology to bring things together from the telecom and media side. He expects 4G to launch in a year. “This will give richer content involvement. You will see convergence between devices. User preferences are chasing fast. Children already do DVR and YouTube.” According to him, what is needed is experimentation on the mobile to see how content interaction happens. Then one can build larger platforms. “Content mobility will grow. Content creators should work with content aggregators sio that they can charge a premium on content mobility.” The issue of revenue sharing came up in the session. Prasad said that while an operator keeps 25-50 per cent of revenues, they do not charge for the cost of the pipe. In Japan while content creators keep 90 per cent of revenue, they also bear the distribution cost of content which is not the case in India. Souloumiac said that Orange works with content providers on a broader spectrum. “We work on different business models including a flat fee and fee per user. Children’s content works. People want an experience on the mobile similar to what is on the television. They want the ease of use and personalisation that they get online as well as mobility that the mobile naturally offers. A 3G operator needs tro keep these factors in mind.”    She also said that live content works well; content on demand is also catching up. “The use of catch up TV is spreading. The documentary genre may not do well on the mobile as far as TV viewing is concerned. We package services in different ways. We are doing a mobile TV trial in Tunisia. We are looking at sub Saharan Africa. There, though, you have to keep it in a price point that consumers are comfortable with.” Telkom Caribe chairman and CEO Mike Singh said that India has to get the current controversy over 2G out of the way and start moving ahead with 3G as soon as possible. “Telefonica will spend billions of dollars in Brazil alone by 2014 due to the soccer World Cup. People will be able to watch matches on the mobile. People don’t want to be digitally constrained, which has been a problem in Latin America. This is also an issue in India.” He noted that in markets like Guyana and Trnidad, there is huge demand for Bollywood content. “We have had three million downloads of Bollywood content across the Caribbean. Latin America has a content market worth $1 billion. However, India only has a two per cent share. This could easily grow if there was more dialogue.” Mobile Entertainment Forum founder Ralph Simon said that technology has grown and gave the example of Micromax which has brought smart phones to rural India. He sees health and wellness films benefitting from 3G. Another genre that will benefit will be education. Tablets will bring opportunities for filmmakers. At the session, it was noted that the price of tablets would fall to $200 in the near future. The advent of content consumption on the mobile would happen but filmmakers would be challenged in a crowded app market. There are 500,000 apps on the iphone, for instance. The challenge for filmmakers is to develop an app for a film or TV show that is an extension of that content. The ad supported app model makes it difficult for marketers to use narrowcasting to reach targeted consumers. Information available has to be mined in terms of data patterns, Chowdhury said.

 

MUMBAI: The Indian television industry is helping three million people with jobs and is fetching a revenue of $15 billion every year. However, rather than discussing the success story, the industry is brainstorming over survival and profitability.

The sad story is that very few companies make money and many are finding it difficult to survive. These were the opening remarks of Star India CEO Uday Shankar, who was delivering a keynote at the opening day of the 12th edition of Ficci-Frames.

Shankar noted that for the industry to survive, the stakeholders have to invest to power growth; bring innovation in content; and ensure good delivery system.

Shankar said that in TV there is no innovation taking place in content. He said that Kaun Banega Crorepati, which Star Plus acquired in 2000, is still being aired on other channels. “Audiences are watching it not as a choice but due to the lack of it.”

Shankar also pointed out that there is a “dearth of talent” in this industry, which is affecting the quality and killing the social equity. “The problem is critical and the industry needs to fix time and energy in training and nurturing talent,” Shankar said. “Media has to come together to create centre of excellence.”

He also came down heavily on the piracy in broadcasting. Demanding a change in the mindset, he said that it is probably the only industry where the content is being pirated and still the broadcasters are paying to the MSOs for carriage.

Digitisation will help in the broadcasting industry turning profitable, Shankar added.

MUMBAI: The 12th edition of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) concluded with the presentation of the Ficci-Frames Excellence awards.

The awards honoured excellence across four major entertainment verticals cinema, television, music and radio.

Starting with the film awards, Dabangg bagged two awards – one for best film of the year and the other for the best music of the year.

Shah Rukh Khan was adjudged the best actor for his role in My Name is Khan while Karan Johar took home the best director award for the same film. As anticipated, Vidya Balan took home the best actress award for Ishqiya.

The highlight of the awards ceremony was Ficci conferring the Excellence International honour to Hugh Jackman, the Australian actor best known as Wolverine in the X-Men series.

In the best debutant category (female), Sonakshi Sinha bagged the award for her performance in Dabangg, while Ranveer Singh collected the best debutant (male) award for his role in Band Baaja Baaraat. Maneesh Sharma won the best director debut trophy for the same film.

Aishwariya Rai Bachchan was honoured with the ‘Decade of Global Achievement’ award for her completing a decade in Hindi cinema.

In the Television category, Star Plus was given the most successful television channel of the year award while Sony’s popular reality show Indian Idol-5 was declared the most successful non-fiction show.

In the acting category, Sushant Singh Rajput from Pavitra Rishta bagged the best actor (male) award, while Rashmi Desai of Uttaran took home the best actor (female) award.

Radio Mirchi was declared the ‘Most Successful Radio Channel’ of the year.

Speaking on the occasion, Ficci Entertainment Committee chairman Yash Chopra said: “The entertainment industry in India is booming along with business excellence and we are happy to recognise such levels of talent in the respective fields. We take pride in honouring best performers for their contributions in their area of work.”

The event was a joint venture between Wizcraft International Entertainment and Ficci to honour talent for their contribution in the entertainment industry.

MUMBAI: Bollywood style melodramas can look best in 3D, said Hollywood VFX Supervisor Michael Fink, while speaking at Ficci-Frames 2011.

“While testing movies to be converted into 3D, I always ask for a scene that has dialogues in it. An action scene with fast moving images can’t offer us the detailing and depth of a dialogue scene.”

3D is an interesting business and many film-makers in Hollywood want to make movies in this format.

“The key challenge is that 3D is very subjective. Viewers can disagree on which content looks better on 3D,” Fink noted.

The session was moderated by Tata Elxsi COO Nagarajan S and other panelists were Intel Corporation DevRel visual computing director Steve Santamaria, Quantel sales director Martin Mulligan and Side Effects Software Canadian operations chief technology officer and VP Paul Salvini.

The session discussed about the value of 3D content in movies, television, games and entertainment.

Salvini gave his credits to Avatar for serving as a catalyst in boosting the demand for 3D across the world (at $2.7 billion it was the highest grossing Hollywood film ever). “A significant advantage of 3D content is that in most cases the pirated version can never be at par with the original print,” he remarked.

Mulligan highlighted the growing interests in 3D among the sports providers. “In soccer, 24 cameras were used to capture the shots. But when 3D cameras are used, only six are needed to make the experience real fantastic,” he said.

Fink mentioned that the distance between the left eye and the right eye cameras determine the depth of 3D. “A film-maker might want to pull the audience into a scene or might throw a rocket at them so that they duck,” he said.
 

MUMBAI: The year 2010 stands out as the year when many newcomers came into films. It also saw filmmakers departing from the traditional ways of filmmaking and venturing into new kind of content-driven films.

Among them were directors Kiran Rao (Dhobi Ghat), Vikramaditya Motwane (Udaan), Abhishek Sharma (Tere Bin Laden), Maneesh Sharma (Band Baaja Baraat) and Habib Faisal (Do Dooni Chaar); producers Pooja and Aarti Shetty (Tere Bin Laden); and actors Ranvir Singh and Sonakshi Sinha among others.

The session at Ficci-Frames on ‘Successful Film Content for the Future: Rise of the Debutants‘ was unique in the sense that the panelists Rao, Motwane, Abhishek Sharma, Maneesh Sharma, Faisal, Ranvir Singh and Sonakshi Sinha talked about the films that they debuted with.

Rao started by saying how she launched the shooting of her ambitious film, Dhobi Ghat, in a shoe-string budget. “It was always my dream to make a film on my own, even though I had Aamir besides me. I floated my own company Cinema 7, a subsidiary of Aamir Khan Productions (AKP). But all along the making, I saw that the budget didn’t go overboard and that everything was under my control. Once the film was made, it was taken over by AKP for distribution.”

Said Motwane, “ When I finished writing Udaan, the film industry was just coming out of the economic slump. Then no producer or production house wanted to back my film. Later, the time did come when producers were not averse picking up newer subjects. This gave me a good opportunity to put across the idea of my film to the UTV bosses who promptly decided to back me. Fortunately, the film was well-acclaimed and struck a chord with the viewers and eventually went on to become a success.”

Averred Maneesh Sharma, “ Initially, for the first two weeks, there was hardly anybody coming in to see Band Baaja Baraat. We were very nervous for in the next two weeks 7 Khoon Maaf was going to be released. But later, by the reviews and the word-of-mouth publicity, the film slowly gathered steam and eventually turned out to be a hit. All said and done, it was YRF’s backing that did the difference.”

Faisal’s Do Dooni Chaar (DDC) was distributed by Disney India. “ These days most filmmakers are practical in their approach. Hence by our method of approach, it wasn’t difficult for us to appease the distribution house into distributing the film. So the film to be distributed by Bang Bang Motion Pictures went into the hands of Disney. The popularity of DDC later grew and the film did well at the box office. There were two things that contributed to the film’s success -the kind of approach and the corporate handling,” detailed Faisal.

Being a medium-budget film, Abhishek Sharma’s Tere Bin Laden was well received and did a very good business across the country. Said Sharma, “Once I came to Mumbai, I joined Adlabs to gain knowledge about the business of cinema. Later through Manmohan Shetty, I came to know his daughters Pooja and Aarti Shetty. After hearing the plot, they decided to back me under their own distribution house, Walkwater Films. What they liked was initially the concept and then the screenplay. Finally, when the film clicked, our joy knew no bounds. I have vowed to work for the banner so long as they make films and ask me to helm them.”

Daughter of veteran actor Shatrughan Sinha, Sonakshi, captured the hearts of cinemagoers. Naturally, she was the first choice of both Arbaaz and Salman Khan for Dabaang. “I was previously into fashion. For the last several years, Salman used to pester me to join films. After a lot of thought, I decided upon doing a film and was lapped up by the Khan brothers for Dabaang,”she said.

Does being an actor’s daughter put extra pressure on her? “Yes, every single day, you have to prove a point. These things don’t happen when you don’t have family roots deep into films,” Sonakshi observed.

Maneeesh Sharma, who directed Ranveer Singh in Band Baaja Baraat, invited the young star by disclosing as to how he was taken on board the film. “ Ranveer had to go through three screen tests. In the first he was awesome; the second saw him in a very poor shape; and in the last he performed dismally. I then went to him and said that from your first test, I could make out that you are a fantastic actor. Get in shape and perform. And the rest is history.“
 

MUMBAI: The global economic slowdown shook tremors in the Indian media and entertainment sector as deal activities dropped in value in 2010, making many companies cash strapped and freezing large-scale expansions.

Although the number of deals stitched in 2010 remained the same, in value 2009 scored higher at $722 million. In 2010, 27 deals yielded a value of $693 million, according to KPMG.

Market valuations of media and entertainment companies have fallen significantly, impacting deals. The sector has, in fact, seen a slide in the last couple of years, as in 2008 38 deals were hatched for a total value of $1.5 billion.

Some of the major deals in the year included Malaysia‘s Astro All Asia Networks acquiring stakes in NDTV Lifestyle, GETIT Infoservices, Turmeric Vision and Sun Direct TV. It contributed $175 million of the total deal value in 2010.

Other marquee transactions included Blackstone PE‘s investment in Jagran Media ($49 millionn), Jagran‘s subsequent acquisition of Midday Multimedia ($40 million) and Rajeev Chandrashekhar-backed Jupiter Media & Entertainment Ventures‘ investments in Express Publications for $53 million.

In 2010, the sector witnessed 10 private equity deals valued at $170 million, as against 12 deals valued at $335 million in 2009. Restrictions on FDI and a lack of quality assets apart, most media companies have traditionally taken to public markets for funding, limiting the role of PEs.

“Our discussions with PEs and industry players indicate that most are bullish on the segment in general and find almost all the sub-segments of interest in varying degrees”, KPMG said.

TV broadcasting

The global economic slowdown in 2009 resulted in a significant reduction in corporate spending across media platforms, thus adversely impacting the advertising industry. This directly impacted the major revenue source for broadcasters and resulted in companies rationalising their existing portfolios by exiting segments that were non-core.

NDTV exited the GEC space by selling its 92 per cent stake in NDTV Imagine to Turner International for $117 million.

In 2010, there has again been very limited consolidation in this sector with Astro All Asia Networks accounting for a majority of transactions such as NDTV Lifestyle and Turmeric Vision and Zee’s acquisition of the 9X channel.

The TV broadcasting industry in India is currently characterised by high fragmentation, low entry barriers and high carriage fees, with the top 2-3 channels getting a disproportionate share of advertisement dollars.

Accordingly, the sector witnessed limited PE investments in 2010.

Regional channels are expected to be the next growth sector given the disproportionate share of viewership and advertisement spend. Further, with sectors like telecom, consumer goods and automotive showing robust growth in Tier I and II cities and rural areas, advertisement for regional channels is expected to increase significantly. Many regional channels did not witness the impact of the economic slowdown in their advertisement revenues as local advertisers did not defer a significant portion of their ad spends.

This, coupled with the fact that regional players will seek to diversify into different genres to create a bouquet of channels by pursuing organic and inorganic growth strategies, makes regional channels attractive to PEs, the report said.

Consolidation within the industry is expected with larger TV broadcast networks such as Zee, Turner, Viacom and Sony expected to acquire or partner with regional networks.

Distribution Biz

Apollo Management, a US-based private equity firm, acquired 11 per cent stake in Dish TV for $100 million. In another significant development, Reliance Communication’s DTH arm acquired Digicable to become one of the largest global players to offer a full suite of triple pay services.

Both Cable and DTH are likely to raise capital in the short term, which will help accelerate the process of digitisation of the distribution landscape in India.

However, the DTH segment is currently characterised by overcapitalisation with the different players trying to capture more subscribers by installing their equipment at low ARPU’s. Therefore, this sector is expected to attract PE investment only after the DTH market stabilises in ARPU terms.

In the near term, the cable segment, which is a more evolved opportunity, will relatively see more investment activity.

The report also suggest that in 2011, deal activity will continue to be driven by acquisition of LCOs by MSOs to secure last mile connectivity. There is also likely to be fund raising by MSOs and DTH operators to fund customer acquisitions and their infrastructure roll out.

Print

In the near term, regional print companies will raise capital either through public markets or private equity to expand their businesses and compete against larger print companies.

Historically, consolidation within this sector has been limited, given that the industry is characterised by high entry barriers and promoter mindset against dilution of their stake. Accordingly, it has been difficult for regional players, other than the No.1 and No.2 to grow. However, consolidation within this sector appears to be imminent as large players will seek to improve margins and expand into newer markets through acquisitions, KPMG said.
 
FDI caps in sector continue to be an impediment for investment from international players and rationalisation of these restrictions is likely to boost investment flow into this sector.

Internet companies/Online media

PE houses are unanimously upbeat on the outlook of ‘online media’ which is expected to benefit from an increase in share of consumers’ media time. On the back of India’s recent investments in building a strong broadband infrastructure, rising consumer preference for online shopping and largely moderate valuations (relative to the dot. com era), web portals are fast attracting the attention of both advertisers and investors alike.

While e-commerce web sites are not strictly comparable with traditional media platforms, they still vie for a share of advertising dollars and hence compete with media companies with respect to investor interest as valuations are still driven largely by ad revenues.

Most leading PE houses have significant investments in this segment internationally; they track the segment actively and are keen to replicate their international successes in India.

However, with the exception of a few dot.com players most other players do not have the scale to attract big ticket investments as yet. Given that investments are expected to be largely early stage /mezzanine in the immediate future, PEs may need to evaluate these sectors wearing a VC hat– which is different from evaluating investments in traditional media.

Radio

Radio is still an early stage segment characterised by multiple players with little differentiation in product offerings, FDI restrictions and regulatory bottlenecks in setting up multiple frequencies and operating news channels.

Regulatory changes such as permission to own multiple frequencies in a city and relaxation of FDI limits could facilitate consolidation amongst domestic players and also attract global private equity to help spur growth in this segment.

The recent ruling by the Copyright Board reducing the royalty burden on radio companies is expected to improve profitability and spur PE interest in the segment, KPMG said.
 

MUMBAI: The Wolverine of X-Men, Huge Jackman, and the he-man of ‘Main Hoon Na’ Shah Rukh Khan – known for flexing their muscles – today shook a leg at the closing session of the 12th edition of the annual media and entertainment conclave FICCI Frames.

Jackman, who had came to India with his wife Deborra-Lee Furness, was earlier presented with a “Ganesha” memento by actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Later, Jackman and SRK discussed cinema in India and Hollywood and the gap between the two biggest film industries, in an animated discussion moderated by filmmaker Karan Johar.

While talking about the studio system in film industry, Jackman said his experience has shown that the studio system is supportive.

“I have mostly worked with Fox. Some creative people find the studio system intrusive and get very negative. But a studio which is putting in millions of dollars has the right to have a say. Studios are run by smart people. They make 18 to 20 films a year,” Jackman said.

Jackman adds that studio heads often advise him on what roles he should be taking and how he should approach a character. When asked about how Bollywood is perceived in Australia, he said: “Bollywood is cool.”

In fact a scene in the film Australia where Jackman and Nicole Kidman share their first kiss in the film was inspired by Bollywood, he added. “Over the past 10 years there have been 150 co-productions between India and Australia. So there is a lot of activity going on there.”

Khan agreed with Jackman that the studios in India do not interfere with the creative process. They focus on things like marketing while focuses on things like the storytelling.

With studios like Fox and Disney coming to India, Jackman feels the relationship between India and the US will grow. Both are film loving countries. There is awareness of Bollywood in the United States, although most Americans have never seen a Bollywood movie.

Khan felt that foreign studios setting up base in India will take Indian films to the next level. At the same time, he said it was up to Indian producers like Yash Raj to take advantage of the opportunity.

Khan was unsure whether he could actually make a film in Hollywood and whether he was talented enough to do so. “My dream is to make a Hindi film that is seen globally. I always give the example of Life Is Beautiful. This was a film that was made in Italian, won Oscars and was seen globally. Jackman noted that the global market for Hollywood films has tripled in the past decade.

He said Australia only made $50 million in the US but made $200 million overseas. Thus, one is seeing a change in the taste of films being made. This will contribute towards bringing the Indian and American film industries closer. A decade ago the international box office accounted for a third of the revenue of a Hollywood movie. Things have changed since then, Jackman added.
 

MUMBAI: Having squandered the capital that it raised over the last few years, the Indian film industry is facing tough times as it prepares to swing into growth after two years of slump.

Suffocated with high costs, limited stars and poor content, the time has arrived for the industry to live in tight budgets, introduce processes and be transparent if it wants to lure back investors.

“The truth is that we blew it up,” said Kaleidoscope Entertainment managing director Bobby Bedi, who has used organised funding for his films. “As bank financing opened up, we became very greedy and some even doubled their budget projections so that they could do the movie with debt. We out-priced ourselves and fell sick in the process.” 

The film industry has seen negative growth for two straight years and fell 6.7 per cent to Rs 83 billion in 2010, according to the latest KPMG report released at Ficci-Frames.

Bedi urged the industry to follow transparency in reporting profitability of film ventures, adopt processes and invest money in a responsible manner.

“For any of the business models to work, a public-oriented system which will tell us the reality of our profitability numbers has to be set up. Unless processes are built, none of the traditional or innovative ways of funding will work. The investor is the supplier of our oxygen. We need to respect that,” said Bedi.

Goldman Sachs India vice president for media and entertainment Nirvaer Sidhu said investors were looking at mitigation of risks for alignment of interests with project promoters, simpler business models and desired intermediaries to manage the interests of producers and studios.

For the period 2004-06, $6 billion were raised for films at the global level. The market has dried up since 2008 and different forms of film funds have evolved.

“The Indian market is very different and there are very few players of scale. Investors look for production houses that release more than one film a year,” said Sidhu.

Avendus Capital managing director and chief executive Ranu Vohra stressed on the need for creating an ecosystem similar to that of Silicon Valley.

“There are opportunities for new funding models, like investment from family offices and slate financing. The first generation family businesses that have excess of $100 million can look at films as an alternative asset class. We need to create a Silicon Valley kind of environment here as the entertainment industry is a high-risk, high-return business,” said Vohra.

A lucrative and untapped financing option is securitisation of intellectual property rights (IPR).

“Intangible assets like movie libraries and even music libraries can become a means to raise capital. Securitisation of IPR is a well established option in the West and it is only a matter of time before Indian companies realise the value of a movie or a music library,” said Yes Bank EVP, media and entertainment, Karan Ahluwalia.
 

MUMBAI: For consumers, the definition of television is changing. Television is coming out of the TV screen and entering into mobile, computer and other screens.

These were the thoughts presented by Intel Corporation futurist and director future casting and experience research Brian David Johnson.

Johnson was speaking at Ficci-Frames here before being in the panel on “TV delivery infrastructure for the future: Are we ready for it?”
  
Johnson said that the future of TV is all about experience. It has to be informative, ubiquitous, personal and social. He shared the data which said that by 2015, there will be over 500 billion hours of content, which can be received by 12-15 billion devices.

“TV will still remain in the people’s life. We all love TV,” Johnson quipped.

The other panellists were: Ericsson TV Solutions European and APac business development team VP Noel Matthews; Juch-Tech CEO Walt Juchniewicz; and Indusind Media and Communications (IMCL) director Ashok Mansukhani. Star CJ India CEO Paritosh Joshi moderated the session.
Taking the cue from Johnson, Matthews said that the future lies in multi-device and multi-consumption. “There will be many devices that people will use for media consumption. It is the service providers’ job to set up the infrastructure,” Matthews said. 
 
Are we ready for the digital future? Mansukhani said the cable industry is ready to invest for the future, provided there is clarity on regulation and guidelines. “We are ready to invest in the digital system but we need more clarity on the regulation front and the policy on revenue sharing,” he said.

Juchniewicz added that he has seen tremendous growth in India and cited the example of mobile. He said that his experience in India has been “so far impressive” but cautioned that “litigation issues” should be solved. He noted that in the emerging markets like India, the mobile device can become central where people don’t have access to TV.
Taking the mobile growth story of India further, Joshi added that there are more than 750 million mobile subscribers in India and it may lead to mobile TV becoming the primary delivery system. But he pointed out that on TV people may watch long format content, but on mobile the shorter version works.

Johnson said that the formats will co-exist. Both Johnson and Matthews were in accordance that same people have different consumption patterns while using different devices. Short format content will fit on mobile devices while television viewers will enjoy long format content.
 

MUMBAI: Is there any formula that could go on to prove that a film being made would become a hit with the audiences?

Speakers at a session at the ongoing Ficci-Frames here symbolically put up their hands in despair.

“Sadly, there is no such formula. All that one needs is a good plot that would relate to the audience,” said noted filmmaker Shyam Benegal. He along with scriptwriter Anjum Rajabali, filmmaker Ramesh Sippy, storywriter Shibani Bathija and Australian filmmaker Ian Booth were debating the subject of ‘The Business of Filmmaking’.

“Unlike the early days, today a lot of investment goes into a film project: so one has to be abundantly clear of the film he wants to make, scrutinizing each and every detail, from story to script to other parts of the filmmaking process. He should work in such a way that his money does not go down the proverbial drain and he is able to recover his investment in the project,” Benegal added. Besides, there are umpteen other ways in today’s world to recover the money – cable rights, satellite rights, home video etc.

Talking of why Indian films do not work in the West, Bathija said, “Most of our filmmakers still follow our traditional ways of filmmaking of incorporating the nine emotions – Music, love, tragedy comedy, society, children, the slap, God, S-X, and goodness – in their films whereas filmmakers in the West have moved to films on genres like tragedy, comedy, family drama, musical and thriller. We understand and applaud films from the West, and it is for them to also understand our films.”

Cautioned Rajabali, “Filmmakers should always bear in mind that if they feel a project is not viable, there is no point making a film.” For example, he said if one were to invest enormous funds in a film starring Boman Irani, then the film would not give the kind of returns that a Salman Khan film or a Shah Rukh Khan would give. “He should never do the film,” Rajabali added.

It is amazing to note that the country which produces 800 films a year is yet to find the answer to why 85 per cent of the films flop every year, Rajabali said, adding “there are people in states like UP, MP, Bihar, Bengal and Orissa whose one day salary equals the price of a cinema ticket but they still line up to see a film that may turn out to be bad.”

“Films do not flop, it is the budget of the film that falters,” felt Sippy, adding that once a filmmaker finishes his film, his project is taken over by distributors and exhibitors who want him to effect several changes to make the film look more groovy from their perspective. “For the changes, the filmmaker spends quite a lot and eventually when the film flops, it is he who suffers by way of the loss,” Sippy added.

Talking of collaborations and joint ventures, Sippy said, “While initially planning out Chandni Chowk to China, it sounded nice that there would be a story of an Indian based in China. When I took the storyline to the Warners, they lapped up the idea. But the film failed and the Hollywood studio burnt its fingers.”

But such films would get made by the dozen in the future, Sippy hoped, adding, “story-telling is bound to change and then we would see good days returning to Indian cinema.”