Creative Producers vs Corporate Distributors in Bollywood

Article by Kabir

So I have managed to write another article on time. Luckily my mood was disturbed all week and ‘Bombay Velvet’ had nothing to do with it (okay it had in bits and pieces). I feel everyone in their tweets talk about collections of opening day, weekend and lifetime business – it’s the newest trend.  It’s like the new social acceptability tool that if you don’t understand or know the collections you ain’t the new cool. Reminds me of my school time, when I was in school I used to watch a lot of Hindi movies (English movies were a bouncer for me due to my slow English understanding skills), so whenever there was a discussion about a Bond film or a newly released Hollywood film, I would blindly agree with what the majority are saying, so that I’m not the odd one out. Social acceptability pressure! These numbers are necessary no doubt but to be concerned only about numbers – Get a life people!

I have never been a fan of Anurag Kashyap’s films or his interviews, (Girl in yellow boots made me throw my boots at him), however I do believe that every film needs a certain breathing space before we go all out and bash it. But again you never give a Slumdog maker a budget of a millionaire. I really do believe in that. So what went wrong with Bombay Velvet? How does a corporate like Fox Star Studios survive such a big loss?  Let’s analyse from the start. The procedure or process from a script being made into a film in any production house is known as “Packaging or Development” and there are specific teams that look into this. The stages as below

First stage gone wrong

The script is approached to a production house. Keeping in mind the story, script, director and actors attached, the corporate decides to allocate a budget.   The budget depends mainly on the directors past, the actors involved and the locations. Here in case of Bombay Velvet the biggest flaw wasn’t the script or actors or even the story, but the budget allocated as per the feasibility of the film. The error is in the business making stage and not at the filming stage. How can one allocate a budget of Rs 100 crore to a director whose films haven’t opened to more than Rs 5 crore? How can one allocate a budget of 100 crore to a genre which is not universally acceptable? If everyone is blaming Anurag Kashyap for such a film, the same blame should be shared by the person who sanctions such projects.

It is an error at the first stage of development and such errors will always damage the film.

The makers of the film are well aware of the fact that Bombay Velvet is bound to lose around 70 crores of its investment. So my point here is why should a Corporate suffer loses alone?  Procedure explained below

A creative producer or production house pitches a project to a corporate. For example

In Bombay Velvet the creative producer or production house is “Phantom Productions”. They may make the film for 65 crores (example) and they sell the film to the corporate company (known as distributor) in this case “Fox Star India” for 80 crores, by doing this the creative studio is liberated of any losses.

A  creative producer like a Illuminati Productions (sold Agent Vinod to Eros) or Excel Entertanment  (Sold Don 2 to Reliance or Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara to Eros) or Dharma Productions (Sold Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani to UTV Motion Pictures) recover the money and get rid of the losses well before the film has released. By doing so, they relieve themselves of the future prospect of the film, although it is due to their vision that the corporate has pumped in money into the project.

My point is since it’s the vision of a creative studio, there should be a clause of a minimum business guarantee from a project, failing which even the creative studio should be held responsible for losses.  For example in case of a Bombay Velvet, if there was a clause that Phantom would be responsible to an extent for the business of the film, it would have helped the entire project.

If such a clause is implemented the creative studios will start being more responsible with the budget of a film and pay more attention to its content. Currently production houses like Phantom deliver one blockbuster in 5 years like Queen and easily get a corporates on board for their forthcoming films (in pipeline as well).

If a individual distributors had distributed Bombay Velvet instead of Fox Star Studios, he would probably never have recovered after suffering a 70 crore loss. The big question is, why should a distributor sole take responsibility for disasters?

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30 Comments

  • I think it is most pleasant news arrticle by @indicine team.he is just media created star.some of his movie worked because of its quality and not actually ranbir.He cannot even act well.

    Now guys;ranbir needs some publicity so go and open that katrina kaif two piece in some place and leak pictures to get some publicity.

    First deepika say something about nasty and then katrina comes and say something.After that media started creating harvoc in news about these and ranbir think is at par with khans.

    LET DESCRIBE THESE THREE:

    1)DEEPIKA PADUKONE: she debut with srk and gain publicity.after that here career went dull.then again srk comes and dhe gave 4 blockbuster/hit in 2013.atfer that she had started thinking she has becomes huge star leaving all dilip kumar;srk salman;aamir;rajesh etc.she is very arrogant.see her interview and comes to know this truth.

    2)KATRINA KAIF:she made debut in b grade movie in boom in which her boobs kissed by gulshan grover.no one was taking her in movie 4 two years.then she started making friend with salman khan sisters alvira and arpita who request her brother salman khan to take her in his movie maine pyaar kyu kiya.After that she goes with salman khan so that people can recongzie her.But when she saw she had comes in limelight every where she started taking side from salman khan She had only worked with huge stars like salman;srk;aamir;hrithik;akshay;saif etc.she does some dance here and there in movie and same goes in each movie.see her list of her movie and we can get the truth.And now she is going and open her clothes and wear bikni for cheap publicity.

    3)RANBIR KAPOOR: he is just media star.he cannoy even act well.If we looks him in these years he is not huge star.first deepika say somehing about ranbir and then katrina kaif comes slams her and goes for holidays;wear bikni and leaks photo and gain cheap publicity.These are things ranbir makes to get publicity.

    But nows people knows theirs ideas that why they are avoinding them.

    Wait for Upcoming Garbage disasters —
    1) dil dhadakne do (Ranveer is also media puppet n cheap)

    2) tamasha
    3) jagga jasoos

  • Totally disagree with you this time…
    It’s business… There’s always a risk..
    They purchase movies because they think that the movie will work…
    It’s pure business..
    Profits and loses are parts of business…

  • And now may be phantom films won’t have a direct loss with Bombay velvet now but no distributors will give them so much money for their upcoming movies..
    It’s an indirect loss..

  • the answer is that when the same movie manages to collect crores, the distributors solely gets the money..
    we should focus on the main question..
    why they allocate a budget of Rs 100 crore to a director whose films haven’t opened to more than Rs 5 crore?
    why they allocate a budget of 100 crore to a genre which is not universally acceptable?

  • Prevention is better than cure, now heard of the shekhar kapoor 200 cr dream project paani with sushant singh rajput…….now imagine it’s result!! Don’t you think its important to save those 200 cr and help some poor.

  • Mr writer well. Done you made an article out of some comments of milap zaveri and I can bet you have never seen girl in yellow boot….and as per my understanding production houses are not fool.there must be some minimum collections guarantee by the creative producers…like nnowadays channel taking satellite rights according to their box office collections…but here seriously I want to mention anurag kashayap has shown the world how arrogance can cause to self destination…..this maruti 800 driver mr kashyap thinks he is farmula 1 driver….look at his interviews he give s advise to almost everyone…he is the guy who started making b grade movies and projected them as content based movies…I really hate this guy….he is so annoying..kind of garbage he presents in his movies…just pathetic

  • Budget is high So wht ?
    it’s not Anurags Work To get big opening , It’s Ranbir kpur’s Work To Get big Opening nd Aggr Film mein Irfan khan hota toh budget 20 Cr bhi nhi Hota ! Anurag ki 5 Cr ki opening se Kuch Lena Dena Nhi Qk uska kaam achi film bnane ka haii na ki bdi Opening dilaane ka ! The Actors nd producers R responsible for the opening & its totally ranbir’s fault ! bcos Of His Stardom They Invested huge money & atleast 10 Cr Opening toh Bnti Thii…

  • if a producer can escape from losses by selling films to distributor.why does production houses like yash raj distribute their small productions(less than 50 cr.) by themselves.they should sell their movie to utv or someone else to escape from these small but summatively big losses(like daawat ishq,byomkesh,aurangzeb etc)

  • You can not say what is going on through the minds of these producers or distributors, they betted hat a film will be huge and lost. And what you said about individual distributor, he will never bet that much money even on SRK or Salman! And if he did bet that much, that doesn’t mean that that is the only amount of money he has and his whole family’s bread and butter was used up on the film. Any sensible person will invest only a small fraction of time. Here is how I see it:
    Anurag approaches Fox, here is what they think:
    Anushka being part in many big films, plus point
    Ranbir being an upcoming star with huge grosers, plus point
    a class film like Barfi starring ranbir collecting 100 cr , plus point
    Director who has gotten great critical acclaim, plus point
    script aproached as masala film(When it was announced, it was said to be a film which mass people will enjoy and love and was said to be a masala film),plus point

    All these factors had resulted in this high budget.

  • I agree with Kabir!

    After all, what’s the use of purchasing a film with limited mass-appeal with a Huge amount? It’s the foolish of the corporates.
    I also agree with the clause-implementation!

    Btw, @indicine , can you please explain me how much could be the COP,marketing budget and other costs indivisually if the total of of Bombay Velvet is 110 crores and how much amounts would have involved in them from the respective houses(phontom and Fox star)?

  • Dont know what this guy is trying to convey here coz at the end of the day Phantom havent lost out financially- RK got paid handsomely and wannabe critik nipun got another Lootera-isque movie to solely marvel at so everyones a winner except for the greedy distributors who was expecting another RK YJHD type succes…! They gambled on a wrong turn n lost so never mind as the next venture is just round the corner for them to strike GOLD….

  • When movie failed then u giving lot of reason that why movie could not do well..if u have confidence on u r article then why these article reliese befor movie perform at the box office…tell me @ indicine:|

  • What you’re trying to say is that BV bugdet should have been around 10-20 crores and with small actors.

  • This is pure business. Risk is a part of it. When a film is a blockbuster will the distributor give a part of his profit to the producer? In south when Rajnikanth’s recent films failed distributors demanded compensation. Rajni is a honorable man so he compensated them. But these shameless distributors want profits but never loss (only gain, no pain or risk). YRF is the smartest production house. They produce AND distribute their own films with no middle men. No headaches at all.

  • I think Same go for the film jai ho also , it was sold for 120 cr even there was nothing costly then also it was sold for too much amount and similarly there are many more movies specially the akki films where film is sold for great amount to production company .But in case of amir film he dosent include his salary in budget and simply take the profit of film accordingly and hence sold for less amount .
    And for srk he owns and run his own production company which holds the share of srk films so it is also safe from being sold in high rate .So marketing of film is also important above all ,actors should try to control like amir or srk .

  • Now please stop those peoples who called Ranbir a Super Star, i think Shahid Kapoor better than him and after Hamari Adhuri Kahani’s Success Emran Hashmi will also becomes huge star than Ranbir.

  • I guess Fox Studios team are making repeated mistakes every year. Just look at the movies they have made investment – (from wiki)

    2010

    My Name Is Khan
    Khichdi: The Movie

    2011

    Stanley Ka Dabba
    Dum Maaro Dum
    Force

    2012

    Ekk Deewana Tha
    London, Paris, New York
    Jannat 2
    Bol Bachchan
    Raaz 3D

    2013

    Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola
    Murder 3
    Jolly LLB
    Bullett Raja

    2014

    Hawaa Hawaii
    CityLights
    Humshakals
    Finding Fanny
    Bang Bang

    2015

    Khamoshiyan – 30 January
    Mr. X – 17 April
    Bombay Velvet – 15 May
    Hamari Adhuri Kahaani – 12 June
    Prem Ratan Dhan Payo – 11 November

    Of the lot, i guess except two or three they have only made losses with most of them, while a few like Bang Bang, Fanny etc., have clearly underperformed.

    I dunno whether the marketing is done by their team, bcuz all these films are marketed very poorly. I find them to be just big in style and not connected to what people really like.

    Their biggest test for the year remains in PRDP, and with their history, i am afraid, they might just market it exactly the wrong way and get in to a tricky situation. May be only Salman can save that project.

  • It is just like gambling n . Some time it gets pay of like in case of yeh jawani h diwani n some time it’s not like in bombey velvet that’s why distributer do so.if you are in business you gotta take risks

  • @2:20am

    ‘Indivisually’

    Lol

    After manipulation ourkindergarten dropout has found a new word to ‘implement’ in his crappy manipulative reviews…!

    PS why he needs a breakdown of a films costs/ budget is anybodys guess but all said n done BV is the biggest loss maker for distributors since Bong Bong….!

  • if a film maker who hasnt got a opening of more that 5 crore is given 100 crore budget is completely, so technically Christopher Nolan wouldnt ever had been able to make The Dark Knight Triology after Memento or Following even Martin Scorsese would not have been able to make The Departed, Goodfellas, because of Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. Even Stanley Kubrick would not have been able to make 2001: A Space oddesey or Clockwork Orange Or Dr Stargelove or Barry Lyndon after the killing(Which is amazing) and other films he made in the beginning of his career.

  • @Navin: Pls research before saying anything..Bang Bang was a profit making film for most of d associated parties..it did 300 CR worldwide and was decalred a hit…
    Even in overseas it did 14 mn USD..

    Don’t say anything for d sake of saying

  • First mistake for giving chance to Anurag Kashyap for making big budget film. Second expected so much from flop star Ranbir kapoor. His only film YJHD made blockbuster, others are only averages and semi Hits. Ranbir market is not much good as Khans or Akshays.
    Thirdly, big corporate fox star foolishly invested huge money on the bad director and not much bigger star like ranbir is a big mistake. Now, he will suffer for this mistake.

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