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Tag: ROI

  • Indian marketers most optimistic about brands performance in 2013: Ipsos Survey

    MUMBAI: Indian marketers are most optimistic about the expected outlook of their brands in 2013, with 85 per cent confident that their band will perform better than 2012, according to Ipsos Asia Pacific Marketers Outlook 2013 Survey.

    More than four out of ten (43 per cent) Indian marketers said their company has performed better than expected in 2012, in terms of sales across India; over three in ten (33 per cent) say it was same as previous year and about 24 percent believe it was worse than excepted.

    Ipsos in India head of marketing communications Biswarup Banerjee said, “Understanding target audience and working on a shared strategy were top performing capabilities in 2012 but are less prioritized in 2013; while measuring campaign effectiveness and creative marketing solutions are the top priorities this year for Indian Marketers. This suggests that marketers are setting higher standards and becoming more result-driven in 2013.”

    Improving overall marketing effectiveness/ enhance ROI measurements (68 per cent), building greater brand loyalty (61 per cent), develop more integrated marketing strategy (60 per cent), and to further develop the potential of digital media platforms (57 per cent) such as social networking sites, blogs, mobile, etc. are the key challenges of Indian marketers in 2013.

    They expect better quality insights and creative thinking from their agency partners. Indian marketers think that social media; CRM and PR will take up a higher role in marketing communication plan.

    Marketers are highly optimistic about their brand outlook in 2013, but are more conservative towards their respective industry outlook. Retail industry marketers are less optimistic about the outlook of their brands.

    “With sectors from automotive to finance, healthcare to consumer products all demonstrating positive outlooks for 2013; we expect to see smarter spending and strategic deployment of always-limited-resources so that marketers can focus on communicating with their most profitable customers. Learning how to tailor content, channel, frequency and message to emotionally engage with key segments will be the difference between budgets well spent and money wasted,” added Banerjee.

    In the Asia Pacific half of marketers plan to increase their overall marketing budget including media spend and brand investment, reinforcing the positive sentiment in 2013. Seventy percent of Indian marketers and 59 percent Chinese marketers’ have plans to increase overall budget for marketing investments in 2013.

    For 2013, one-third of the marketers will be working on a budget between $1 million – $5 million. Consumer product companies are likely to have a much larger budget.

    Ipsos Asia Pacific Marketers Outlook 2013 study had three fundamental objectives – to gauge business performance for 2012; to understand the outlook for 2013 in terms of business performance and marketing investment; and to evaluate current trends in marketing actions and strategies.

    Ipsos interviewed 372 senior marketing professionals online in December 2012 – January 2013, out of which 30 percent respondents were from Mainland China and 19 per cent were from India. More than half the respondents in India come from consumer products, finance and healthcare industry.

    Digital marketing channels are not surprisingly given a higher role in 2013, especially social media which is considered more important than online ads, and mobile marketing. Social media still has large untapped potential to reach huge mobile consumers base, especially considering the increasingly high mobile/ smartphone penetration in India.

    “Marketers not only need to reinforce their presence in the social media space, but more importantly, to think about what they are going to use digital media for (e.g. customer engagement, brand building) and how to develop their unique positioning in this fast growing channel,” added Banerjee.

    While social media / viral (21 per cent) are cited as the most effective medium in the next three years, TV (21 per cent) is still regarded as an important medium in the future considering the large number of uneducated population in India who patronise TV. So television in India still continues to resist the rise of digital channels in a large way.

    Company websites (83 per cent), dedicated brand web page (80 per cent) and social networking sites (68 per cent) will be the most important digital media channels to be used by marketers’, therefore establishing unique positioning will become more important in order to differentiate from competitors.

  • Magazine ads more RoI efficient than TV: IPC

    MUMBAI: For magazine publishers, this is a research finding that would bring them cheer as they face dwindling subscriber and advertising numbers. According to UK-based IPC Media, magazine ads are more efficient than television in delivering return on investments (ROI).

    The research, named AdValue and carried out in collaboration with Nielsen, shows that every pound invested in magazine advertising fetches an average RoI of ?1.40.

    Advertising in magazines led to an average increase of eight per cent spend per consumer household spend.

    Nielsen used its Homescan panel alongside AdDynamix data to analyse the advertising campaigns of six FMCG brands – Lenor, Comfort, Flash Febreze, Hellmann’s, Colgate and Dove – and isolate the effect of the magazine advertising on household spend. Advertising spend data was then used to calculate the ROI.

    The AdValue research study aimed to understand the impact of magazine advertising on driving sales. This was carried out by analysing sales and media data using two different techniques – a panel-based and an econometrics based approach.

    Nielsen UK media analytics director Simon Nudds said, “AdValue demonstrates the ability of magazine advertising to increase sales and deliver measurable results.”

    IPC Insight also partnered with Mindshare on an econometric modelling project. This demonstrated that magazines deliver a higher ROI than TV and could be used to improve the efficiency of a campaign without increasing the total budget.

    IPC Insight director Amanda Wigginton said, “We’re delighted to be able to provide the industry with new, independently verified data on how magazines are driving sales. AdValue provides compelling evidence that magazines are effective in delivering ROI and directly impact the bottom line. Econometric modelling has also been able to show that magazines are often being under-utilised too!”

  • Rajgopal moves to RK Swamy Media as GM and national head – buying

    Rajgopal moves to RK Swamy Media as GM and national head – buying

    MUMBAI: RK Swamy Media Group has brought on board Gautam Rajagopal as general manager and national head – buying. He will be responsible for managing national level buying for all clients particularly the mediums of television, cinema and radio.

    Rajgopal comes to RK Swamy Media from Havas‘s MPG where he was VP investments (West). He has also worked at agencies like Starcom, Carat, Madison and Contract durng his career in the field. At RK Swamy, he will be based in Mumbai and also be part of the senior management team at RK Swamy Media Group.

    RK Swamy Media Group president Sandeep Sharma said, “Gautam has over 17 years of national level buying experience in the Broadcast medium. He has a strong sense of market realities and has sound relationships with the media partners. He will help drive better return on investment (ROI) for our clients and contribute to growing the business.”

  • ‘For strong ROI in India’s TV biz, price controls must go’ : Fox International Channels president & CEO Hernan Lopez

    ‘For strong ROI in India’s TV biz, price controls must go’ : Fox International Channels president & CEO Hernan Lopez

    Price controls are limiting the revenue growth for broadcasters in India as they earn net income of $700 million from subscription after paying out carriage fees of $400 million. Investments in programming are muted and, as a result, India is not able to export television formats and finished content while software, music and animation is travelling overseas.

     

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Ashwin Pinto, Fox International channels president, CEO Hernan Lopex says price controls have to go if the industry is to see strong ROI. He also talks about the company‘s growth plans worldwide.

     

    Excerpts:

    Q. Do you see India‘s television broadcasting industry growing at the right pace?
    Broadcasters in India earn net income of $700 million from subscription after paying out carriage fees of $400 million. This is holding back investments in programming. India, as a result, is not able to export television formats and finished content while software, music and animation is travelling overseas. If the industry is to see strong ROI which would encourage greater investments in programming, then price controls must go.

    Q. What you are suggesting is that pay-revenues should scale up. What is the ideal revenue mix between subscription and advertising revenues?
    It should be in equal ratio, which is what it is in the US. But in India it is heavily skewed towards advertising. Broadcasters generate $2.6 billion a year in advertising. Subscription income is dismally low in comparison.

     

    Relative to the size of the Indian economy as measured by GDP, this is only 0.04 per cent, and this ratio keeps declining. By contrast, in Colombia, a country with 1/25th of the population, broadcasters get over $200 million in subscriber fees. That is equivalent to 0.07 per cent of the GDP in Colombia, and that ratio keeps rising – partially due to the efforts that Colombia is doing to fight content theft and subscriber under-declaration.

    Q. So India should learn from Colombia and allow its content industry to flourish?
    Price controls lead to creative shackles. At Fox we buy formats and content from different markets, but India is not there. This is surely not due to lack of talent, ambition and vision.

     

    In Colombia a TV episode costs $150,000 compared to India where an episode costs around $20,000. The turnaround there was the emphasis on creating a dual revenue stream. New channels were launched for underserved audiences. Consumers also wanted content in Spanish and Portugese.

     

    That is because Colombia has a strong system of TV production, has great writers, animators, actors and the country also fights strongly against piracy. In India under declaration, along with controls, means that the broadcasters are getting squeezed.

     

    Q. But ARPUs (average revenue per subscriber) are low in India. How do you make consumers pay more for quality content?
    When consumers see that spending more money results in better content, then they will be happy to pay more. In some markets, initially consumers thought that cable and satellite services were not worth paying for. But as more options were added, they realised that they were getting value. I am looking forward to a time when my children, when searching for content, find choices that come out of India. I am keen on buying Indian formats that can be shown elsewhere.
    ‘We have seen double-digit growth year-on-year. We run a profitable business in India that is based on strong fundamentals with dual revenue streams of affiliate and advertising‘

    Q. So you are not happy with FIC‘s growth in India?
    We have seen double-digit growth year-on-year. We run a profitable business that is based on strong fundamentals with dual revenue streams of affiliate and advertising, which are both showing a steady upward trend. Currently, we have six of our channels in the Documentary and Lifestyle space in India.

    Q. As a market how is India different from the rest of Asia in terms of challenges and opportunities?
    We run our channels in over 100 countries around the globe. While there are big similarities across markets, each has some of its own peculiarities and challenges. I think that the challenge of scarce bandwidth for channels coupled with price control and carriage fees put a limit on the revenue potential. However, India is a land of huge opportunity and with mandatory digitisation in the Metros slated to kick off in 2012, we believe that a very bright future is ahead.

    Q. With digitisation set to take off in India, do you see the carriage fee structure being rationalised based on the experience in other markets or will disputes happen with big operators like what happened in the US with Comcast?
    We believe that digitisation will help all the stakeholders in the business to realise the true value – Last Mile Operators, MSOs and broadcasters.

     

    There will be teething issues like in any new technology, but market forces will aid the stakeholders in arriving at an understanding.

    Q. News Corp restructured the Fox Networks Group last year. What was the aim and how did this impact Fox International Channels?
    The goal was to foster stronger cooperation between various units. As a result, Fox International Channels has strengthened its ties with the US networks in entertainment, factual and sports.

    Q. Aren‘t you looking at doubling operating profit and reaching $1 billion by 2015? 
    The gameplan is very simple: to continue to deliver to platforms, advertisers and viewers a portfolio of must-have brands.

     

    This is what we call “brands with fans” – and get a fair share of wallet for it. In order to do that, we are investing more in content (both global and local), marketing and our teams.

    Q. How much revenue does Fox International Channels contribute to News Corp’s TV business and what growth has been experienced year on year?
    In FY‘11, we made a little over $1.5 billion in revenues and we‘re growing at double-digit rates.

    Q. How do you split up the global market into regions and which are your three biggest markets globally?
    We run Latin America and US Hispanic; Italy and Germany; the rest of Europe and Africa; and the Asia/Pacific/Middle East. We don‘t disclose the ranking at the country level.

    Q. Globally what is the split between subscription and ad sales and which area do you see growing faster?
    About two-third of our revenues come from subscription, with the balance coming from advertising, syndication, and other fees. We strive to make all revenue sources grow at the same rate.

    Q. Pay TV you have said is turning from a “nice to have” to “must have” service. How is this changing the dynamics of your business?
    Whereas in the past we programmed primarily shows produced in the US, we are now broadening the scope of our lineup. The aim is to include more local shows, as well as different genres.

    Q. What challenges is the current economic slowdown posing?
    In a handful of cycles we‘ve seen ad revenues decline, but overall our profits continue to increase.

    Q. Has Fox International Channels done recent research to find out what consumers globally want and how they view your brands?
    We are indeed finalising a brand audit in 10 countries as we speak.

    Q. Digitisation globally is allowing FIC to have more specialised offerings in genres like Crime. How has their offtake been?
    Very positive! Fox Crime, for instance, is the number one channel in Italy, surpassing even Fox.

    Q. Are there any genres that are currently underserved globally? If so, how do you plan to service them?
    Our portfolio globally includes entertainment, sports, factual and lifestyle – we‘re quite content with it.

    Q. What role does sports play in your portfolio as it is a challenge to control costs given the intense competition for rights?
    Sports is the ultimate must-have content. But because of it, there is intense competition for rights.

     

    We simply must be disciplined in our approach, but we have the benefit of a wide portfolio of channels – includingentertainment channels – that can both contribute to and benefit from having sports in the portfolio.

    Q. Globally, how has FIC expanded?
    These are exciting times! We now have 1.1 billion cumulative subscribers, and have a presence in 57 offices. I have been to 40 of them.

     

    We have added Fox Sports to our portfolio in Latin America, and continue to increase ratings at the National Geographic Channels. And yet there is still so much more to be done.

    Q. How difficult is China due to government regulation?
    We have a small but profitable business in China.

    Q. New media is growing globally. Are you launching channels for the mobile and Internet?
    We are launching mobile extensions of our TV brands, like the Fox Movies Premium Player in Asia.

    Q. How is Fox International Channels leveraging high definition?
    My goal is to launch nearly every TV channel from now on simultaneously on HD and SD.
  • TV ads ROI in UK up amid recession

    TV ads ROI in UK up amid recession

    MUMBAI: Amid gloomy economic forecasts, a new study has revealed how advertising performed during the economic downturn in recent years. It shows that TV advertising in the UK created the most profit (an average return of ?1.70 for every ?1 invested), and that its return on investment (ROI) has increased by 22 per cent in the last five years.


    Payback 3, an independent study commissioned from Ebiquity by Thinkbox, is an econometric analysis of 3,000 ad campaigns across nine advertising sectors between 2006 and 2011. It compares, on a like-for-like basis, the sales and profit impact during the last five years of five forms of advertising: TV, radio, press, online static display and outdoor.
     
    Other key findings include:


    – TV advertising is 2.5 times more effective at creating sales uplift per equivalent exposure than the next best performing medium (press);


    – TV advertising has a ‘halo effect’ across a brand’s portfolio. 38 per cent of TV’s sales effect is felt by products not directly advertised;


    – TV’s ‘halo effect’ also makes other forms of advertising work harder;


    – TV is responsible for 71% of attributable sales in Ebiquity’s database, but only accounts for 55% of spend.


    Effective profit: Ebiquity found that TV advertising’s ROI is on average 22 per cent higher than five years ago, despite the recession. This is because TV’s effectiveness (sales uplift per exposure) has remained undiminished while the cost of advertising on TV has been falling in both absolute and relative (inflation-adjusted) terms.


    TV also delivers the most extra profit Ebiquity found: an average return of ?1.70 for every ?1 invested (ROI of 1:1.7). This compares to ?1.48 for radio, ?1.40 for press, ?1.06 for online static display, and ?0.45 for outdoor advertising.


    Effective sales: Ebiquity found that TV consistently outperforms other media in generating sales and is on average 2.5 times more effective per equivalent exposure than the next best performing medium. Press advertising delivers 37 per cent of the sales uplift TV creates, radio 19 per cent, online static display 15 per cent and outdoor nine per cent.


    Ebiquity also found that, based on advertising investment in its database, TV advertising is responsible for 71 per cent of the attributable sales but accounts for only 55 per cent of the spend.


    ‘Halo effect’: TV advertising creates a ‘halo’ effect across a brand or range of goods. 38 per cent of TV advertising’s effect is achieved on products not directly advertised (e.g. if a beauty brand advertises a shampoo product on TV, the campaign is likely to boost sales of its other products, such as body spray or moisturiser).


    Ebiquity found that TV advertising consistently makes other elements of campaigns work harder. It found that TV’s effects are felt by all accompanying media, but are most starkly seen in combination with radio advertising, where radio’s effectiveness is increased by up to 100 per cent and with branded search, which a typical TV campaign increases by up to 35 per cent.


    Ebiquity effectiveness practice leader Andrew Challier said, “TV is weathering a perfect storm of economic downturn and increased competition from emerging media. Its unrivalled effect on sales and profit and its profound influence on other media make TV advertising both the most effective form of advertising and a powerful ally to other media and marketing mechanics, both on and offline.”


    Thinkbox research and planning director Neil Mortensen said, “Advertisers instinctively know that TV advertising works but we must make sure we continue to prove it. Ebiquity’s study does exactly that. Our task now is to share this important information with businesses and show them that no other form of advertising creates more profit than TV.”

  • ‘80% of activity where brands are engaging themselves with films is in associative marketing’ : CEO Navin Shah

    ‘80% of activity where brands are engaging themselves with films is in associative marketing’ : CEO Navin Shah

    This year the Indian film industry has entered the spotlight with release after release that has caused a stir in the media. Amidst all this, there have also been several others contributing to the noise and much like ‘parasites’ seem to be clinging on to the fame! In short, brands are increasingly riding the tide of Bollywood, transforming this activity into a more organised format by investing ‘big monies’ towards it. This trend seems to be gaining ground in the Indian sub-continent with a whole host of advertisers jumping in the ‘brand-wagon’ of blockbusters including Krrish, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Don and the latest addition Dhoom 2.

    Highlighting the potential of this relatively new yet burgeoning industry, P9 Integrated CEO Navin Shah took some time out to speak with Indiantelevision.com’s Renelle Snelleksz.

    Excerpts:

    What are the various options available to advertisers when associating with a film?
    A product placement is only one aspect of what a brand can do with a film. In fact, product placement only forms 10 per cent of all the activity. Actually a lot happens outside the film, in what is popularly called associative marketing or co-promotion, where the film rides on the brand to get promoted and in turn the brand rides on the euphoria of the film.

    Firstly, there is no lag in the time period, like for Salaam-e-Ishq, which is releasing on 24 January, the planning can be done now. Secondly, even if there is a high integration of the creative of the brand footage and the film, it is only outside and is short lived. It is irrespective of the fate of the film, because you are doing an outside association you are assured of your ROI as it is media linked. The association can be amplified via other mediums like television, print, cinema hoardings.

    Therefore, 80 to 90 per cent of activity in which brands are engaging themselves with films is in associative marketing.

    Is it not a big risk that brands are taking with in film associations, especially if the movie doesn’t do well?
    If you look at it from purely a visibility perspective, while it is a risk, when you have product placement x amount of viewership is guaranteed. However, today there are a couple of more avenues where the brand is going to be seen, most importantly is satellite television because sooner or later the movie will be released on TV, not just once but at multiple times so in that case visibility is assured. In addition, in the Indian context, the home video segment is really growing so even the shelf life of the film is largely increased with the sale of DVDs. To that extent, the risk gets slightly amortized but in-film per se is a ‘high risk high return model’ because if it works then the returns can go as high as Rs 20 to 30 crores. Therefore, the marketer is always aware of the fact that he is pumping in on something that can give him a disproportionate return.

    Brand associations are then a viable option and filmmakers stand to gain as it not only provides additional revenue but also helps to market his film?
    In fact this is what most of the advertisers think. But if you look at it from a filmmaker’s perspective he makes a mutli-million rupee film, the brand monies are inconsequential in terms of its overall PNI. In this scheme of things. the brand actually rides on a Rs 15-40 crore project. It’s not only the producer that benefits from this activity. If done right it’s a win-win situation. In fact, for a client it’s a huge opportunity because in India films are such a big passion that if something works, the magic can help reap benefits for years to come.

    A classic example is ICICI and Baghban, that’s a four year old story while the shelf life of that can grow to be about 20 years as satellite TV keeps replaying it over and over again. Thus, it is a disproportionately skewed equation for the brand and if brands realise this they can use it to their advantage.

    How much are brands willing to spend on the medium?
    Worldwide there are brands, including automobile companies, glass manufactures, mobile phone companies that spend almost 20-30 per cent of their marketing budget on product placement, like for instance new versions of the Audi have been launched via films. In India, there are at least 40 brands that spend more than Rs 100 crores in a year.

    This year’s blockbuster Krrish is often sighted as a popular case study, but what happens when there are more than 10 brands incorporated in a film, in that case how does it prove to be a ‘clutter breaking’ approach?
    It’s not about whether there are four brands or 500 brands in a film. If the brand is shown in the right context, then I think there is place for even 100 brands where every brand will stand out in three hours. If you take the example of a Bond film, there are about 20 brands placements and each one gets its own glory so there is no question of ‘clutter’, it’s the context and the way you portray the brand.

    Among several brands in film, will a particular brand have to pay a greater premium for more visibility?
    It’s more about the idea and not about the show time measured in seconds that a brand came in. An example is a product placement I had done for Kodak in Hum Tum where it was as small as 10 seconds in which Saif remembers Rani getting married to Abhishek and the thought freezes as a photograph on which he scribbles “Maybe a perfect Kodak moment?” That in my mind is more than a brand trying to tout his product for 10 minutes in a film. So it’s not about one trying to outdo the other, everybody can be equally good as long as the idea behind the placement is imaginative.
    ‘The biggest role to my mind is that of expectation management‘

    Who implements the placement in this set up? How does it work?
    It is the director’s prerogative, he is the final decision maker. One can however give inputs and suggestions.

    For an organization like P9 Integrated, what is their hand in the whole process?
    Firstly, we are match makers and secondly the biggest role to my mind is that of ‘expectation management’. The client may often think that by putting a certain amount of money he owns the film, while the filmmaker is any which way making a film on his terms, so P9 would ideally bring the two parties to a common platform and manage their expectations to start with, help the brand in ideating and help the producer in execution as expectation managers.

    Do several media agencies come to the table with different brands to be integrated in a film, or does one agency handle all the placements for a film?
    There have been instances where we have taken up the exclusive rights for the film and so we become a ‘toll gate’ so anybody in the market ranging from a media agency to a client will have to come to us. A case in point is the recently acquired exclusive rights for Salaam-e-Ishq for any co-promotional activity.

    Internationally, what is the scope of the market? What is being done in that space?
    Globally the industry is a three decade old business making it a mature market, today it is growing at a pace of 6-8 per cent, which would be almost 5 per cent of the overall advertising pie used on this medium. Growth will continue until it reaches a critical mass which it has not yet achieved.

    We have done several co-promotional marketing tie-ups in India for Hollywood movies including the work on Superman and Mother Dairy cheese, we had also done MI3 and Gabanna and likewise we are in talks with many films, one of the big films which is slated for December is Happy Feet on which we will be doing something interesting.

    What can we expect in the coming months?
    We have just finished working on an association for Kinetic for Apna Sapna Money Money. We also did Mentos and Jaaneman.

    There are three key films in the pipeline with a huge amount of stuff being done – for Guru, some mind blowing activity on our home production Traffic Signal which Madhur Bhandarkar is directing and of course Salaam-e-Ishq. In addition, we are also working in the regional market with Telegu films.

    What do you identify as being the way head for the industry in India?
    The future for this industry is that brands for a particular target audience and particular style and stature will require experts like us to be their entertainment AOR experts, not only for implementation but to play a complete advisory and consultancy role and give them a blue print of the strategy for the whole year of how entertainment will play a role in their brand.

    Secondly, there is some amount of measurement emerging in terms of effectiveness and impact. Companies like Media e2e are attempting to put in those measures into place.

    Measurement should become an integral part of the any project exercise so we should actually have a directional tool of getting a report card at the end of every activity to determine what worked and what didn’t work.

    Thirdly, we need to bring a lot more discipline into the whole business of branded entertainment. The biggest drawback is the lack of trained talent in this business. Additionally, there is a need to train even the professionals and the practitioners of marketing to talk of a common currency in terms of best practices, category knowledge, trends, ROI, economics and legal aspects of branded entertainment as it is an option that probably allows one to marry their passion with their career.

  • Frames debates the merits of the studio versus the independent filmmaker

    MUMBAI: The relationship between studios and independent filmmakers was a subject discussed at an afternoon session of Frames, the convention for the business of entertainment. The speakers were Sahara One CEO Shantonu Aditya, filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt,Govind Nihalani and Bobby Bedi and Adlabs Films chairman Manmohan Shetty.

    Nihalani pointed out that studios and independent filmmakers have their strengths and both parties should look to work with each other. “Artistically released commercially successful films can be made.
    Corporates should realize that creativity is equity. The independents should realize that money is as important as creativity. Studios should know that sometimes small risks pay off big time. That is because audiences like to be surprised.

    “A studio basically operates on calculated budgets and big stars to secure an ROI. Scripts are chosen if a star is attached. This ensures a long run. An independent filmmaker, on the other hand, feels that an idea and a directors treatment of that idea is what creates value. Lavish sets, big stars add value. However, they do not create value. There is a way to bridge the two and both should realize that they need each other.”

    This point was echoed by Shetty who noted that in the West independent filmmakers go the studio route to release their films. In India, there are studios like Yash Raj Films. However, important directors like Karan Johar still call the shots and studios chase them for the rights to distribute their films. “Reliance buying Adlabs means that more films will be made. Fortunately we have not suffered any losses till now.”

    Bhatt spoke on the benefits and challenges of being an independent filmmaker. “Movies that do not have personal supervision of an idea are doomed to fail. One does not only make movies. You need passion and religious fervour. There is talk of delivery systems but you need to invest in ideas. Otherwise these systems will be parched of good content. It is important for a filmmaker to keep himself lean and thin. A studio executive unfortunately only understands a Shah Rukh Khan. He does not understand the value of an idea. I would argue that studios are victims of hype. An independent filmmaker, though, has to pay off any debts incurred. He cannot hide behind abstractions.”

    Bedi said that indepdents are better incubators of ideas. “In the West studios do not incubate ideas as it is too expensive. An independent filmmaker approaches a studio with an idea. The studio then works that idea to a maturity level where one is able to confidently approach exhibitors.”

    Aditya says that Sahara One has had success as it concentrates on its strengths of marketing and distribution. “We have made 14 films as projects. There have been start dates and finish dates. We have also spent quite a bit on marketing. We have worked in different genres. We picked up Page Three when nobody wanted to touch that film. At the same time, it is difficult to know which idea will work. We get 70 ideas a week. Of course, each presenter of the idea is confident in it. Once an idea is given the go ahead, we do not interfere with the creative process other than keeping a check on how the work is progressing. The writer is given freedom.”