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Unlike the rest of the world, recession may not have affected India as much, but the Hindi film industry is certainly feeling the pinch. And those who have been hit the hardest are the producers and actors.
Producers are not getting enough finances, their movies are not selling like hot cakes anymore amongst the distributors. Actors, too have been forced to cut down their prices.Both Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar whose films like GHAJINI (90 crores) and SINGH IS KINNG (60 crores) were sold for record sums (as indicated in the brackets), are finding the going tough.
If trade sources are to be believed, Rajkumar Hirani’s Aamir-Kareena starrer, 3 IDIOTS (one of the hottest releases of the year!), has still not been sold, despite being scheduled for a Christmas 2009 release. Reason; the film is not getting the required price of well over 100 crore being demanded by the producer.
The case is similar for Shree Ashtavinayak’s BLUE, which stars the likes of Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar and Lara Dutta. This project too has remained unsold due to the price factor of over a 100 crore.
Even Vipul Shah’s LONDON DREAMS, which stars Ajay Devgan, Salman Khan and Asin is not finding any takers due to its astronomical price tag. A representative of a top international production and distribution company tells us (on condition of anonymity), ”They all have to come down by about 25-30 percent for the worldwide rights, as things are not as bright as they were about a year back.”
Well, there was a time when projects starring the top heroes were announced and all the territories used to close almost immediately as distributors would go for a hectic bidding to buy the films. But, alas things are not so rosy anymore and the film industry has to slog really hard to get back on its feet.
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ACHILLES 20 June 2009
12:49:42 pm
All these 100 cr movies are in trouble … Idiots, London Dreams and Blue have no domestic buyers, while Kites have no international buyers.
The distribution deals of Blue and London Dreams will depend on how KI and Wanted fares at the BO, Idiots is still shooting and Kites in post production. A likely scenario is
Blue in Diwali
London Dreams in Eid
Kites and 3 Idiots in Christmas
Will be interesting to see which of these 100 cr distribution-deal movies can actually cross the 100 cr mark in India like Ghajini did last year.
ACHILLES 20 June 2009
12:54:12 pm
By Eid i mean the Nov one.
The Sept Eid is already booked with YRF’s Hadippa and Santoshi’s Azab Ghazab Kahani.
Brian Charles 20 June 2009
02:33:10 pm
The distribution price should be based on the Production cost.
The producer can make a lot of profit(as much as 50% as we saw last year).
Now here comes the question of the budget of three above movies,
my guesses
3 idiots : 30-35 cr(all shot in india)
London Dreams : 35-40 cr(Extensively shot in Paris,london etc)
Kites : 50 cr.(Many international techs and usa shoot)
Now seeing the above numbers there should be no reason for the producers to take control of the situation and sell the movie reasonably, instead of 100+ cr numbers, which make no sense.
Clearly here if the producers agree to make only 20% profit the movies can easily be sold for 45-55 cr range, except Kites which should even now fetch around 65-70 cr for being profitable for the producers.
Brian Charles 20 June 2009
02:39:52 pm
Before Kites no bollywood movie ever had a budget of 50 cr.
All these 100 cr numbers are baseless,the costliest movies till date are:
Kank budget = 45 cr
Jodha Akbar = 40-43 cr
Love story 2050 = 35 cr
Drona = 35-40 cr
Ghajini = 35 cr
and so on.
These article should be more responsible in not mixing the budget and the expected price the producers wants to sell the movie for.
ACHILLES 20 June 2009
04:17:48 pm
3 Idiots and Kites has budgets of 50 cr … KI has a budget of 70 cr … Blue and London Dreams budgets are reportedly 100 crores.
The days of 40 cr budgets are gone … even movies like Love Aaj Kal are made of 40 crores … the biggies are shooting in London (London Dreams), USA (Kites, KI) and difficult locales like Ladakh (3 Idiots). Most movies are using hi-tech to shoot underwater (Blue) or cast hollywood stars (KI) … the producers have mounted these movies on a massive scale … will be surprised if any of these productions have working budgets less than 50-60 crores and probably higher in many cases.
But with the ongoing recession, loss of business with the strike and 4 high profile flops already this year – CCTC, Billu, Delhi 6 and Tasveer, distributers are wary.
With the last blockbuster crossing 100 cr net in india (sold at 90 cr), it is not usual for producers of the biggies trying to cash in with their biggies. Kites got sold for 120 crores. 3 Idiots will mostly end up with a similar price.
But who is going to pay 100 cr for a Salman starrer? That guy has some 2-3 hits in last 10 years … and are hardly the biggest ones. London Dreams was supposed to release on Independence day. But it still remains unsold.
An Akshay movie wud have fetched a 100 cr last year, but with one flop after another even his distributors are wary. Will it be able to bring the audience back to theaters? Will it be a big nough grosser or a mere success? These questions needs answers before someone will be adventurous enough to buy an expensive movie like Blue.
ACHILLES 20 June 2009
04:22:02 pm
But if one has to believe Ghajini was made with the same budget as Love STory and Drona … then all the biggies this can have budgets of 20 cr or 10 cr!
ACHILLES 20 June 2009
04:24:46 pm
It will be a miracle for Blue to clinch a deal before the verdict is clear on KI … same goes for London dreams and Wanted.
ACHILLES 20 June 2009
04:34:23 pm
Makers like Mehra and Kjo had admitted in their interviews that even Dostana and Delhi-6 had 50 cr budgets. If they can invest so much with someone like abhishek on board (who has no history of delivering solo hits) then one cant complain akki’s producers going overboard with some of these movies.
But bollywood has reached a stage where price correction will be forced due to lack of funds. Except for 3 Idiots, any other movie will find it difficult to get such astronomical deals around 100 crores.
Brian Charles 20 June 2009
04:50:25 pm
Ach there is an interview on youtube with ashutosh and his wife talking about how her wife had to control him as the budget was 37 cr and at last he went overboard with 3 cr , so total 40 cr.
I maybe wrong but still dont want to believe these numbers.
London dreams 100 cr, come on, even bill gates with all the money in the world would like to do better with his money than put 100 cr on salman/ajay.
These are mostly prices the producers are looking for after SIK/Ghajini sold for astronomical prices.
Brian Charles 20 June 2009
04:55:47 pm
Having said that, yes i will agree on ROM and KJO talking about 50 cr on Dostana,but i think that is exxagerated, i believe its abound 35-40 cr.(shooting was overseas).
Wasnt Love story 2050 being said to have a budget of 49 cr but when it flopped they came out with the reality that its 35 cr.
Brian Charles 20 June 2009
04:59:38 pm
But as you said, every thing hangs in balance until the result of KI,LAK and Wanted comes out.
If somehow 2 of these movies are superhits, then i am sure the pendulum will swing by 10-15 cr on the side of the producers as the studios will be eager to get more into the game if they see the market responding.
ACHILLES 20 June 2009
05:06:24 pm
Charles – I had long argued with some usual suspects that JA was first concieved with a budget of 35 crores with UTV long back in 2006 beginning. Later they had to increase the budget with including a massive festival song (azeem o shaan) and it ended up being a 40 cr movie.
The entire gossip of JA being a 50 cr moie was fantasised by some hrithik detractors here who needed some issue or other to underplay hrithik after his massive 2006.
But this hardly means that todays production values are 40 cr at max. Ghajini was made within 35 cr, the major factor here was aamir’s compensation. But do you really believe movies like Love Story and Drona had similar budgets???!!! Who paid for the SFX and stuffs like that? these dont come easy.
KAnk budget may not have been more than 45 cr (that movie was made 3 years back!) … but KJO today needed 50 cr to make a Dostana with John and abhishek! A movie like D6 is 50 cr budget, the primary reason for it being a flop despite a decent gross of 30 cr in india. Production values dont remain same over 3-4 years much like market expansion and inflation of ticket prices. More the money made by the producers in the boom of last few years, more the money went in ramping up the genres. Now with money falling short, everyone is in trouble.
The surplus of money had made it possible it invest huge amounts on novice directors (KI, Blue) and the only silver line is they have a star. But what if the movie releases at a time when the star is not saleable?
ACHILLES 20 June 2009
05:13:22 pm
Btw, I dont see any reason not to believe the budgets of D6 or Dostana when it is coming from the makers in the first place! Nor do I have any faith on the sudden change of budgets after a movie becomes disaster to cover up the extent of losses like in Drona or LS2050.
The makers of D6, JA, Dostana didnt decrease the quoted budget after the box office verdicts came out, they were consistent with their claims. And from their numbers alone it gives enough indication of what amount of money lies invested in these biggies. The budgets may not be exact 100 crores, but its naive to believe al these are 40 cr movies like a Love aaj Kal!
ACHILLES 20 June 2009
05:28:13 pm
There was a time when at least the box office discussions were good in NG, but at the recent state of this forum its pretty useless.
Som 20 June 2009
08:04:19 pm
At times the makers do throw random prices to hype their films.The problem with films that get sold for astronomical prices is that few people in the chain(mostly the sub distributors) tend to incur losses in case the film doesn’t deliver on expectations.For example a distributor pays amount A cr for a film B starring actor C and the film is a success does D cr.Another film E of actor Y is due for release in 5 months time.It is natural for the distributor to assume the film E would even do better.So he goes ahead and pays even a higher amount,say A+10cr. But things don’t go as he/she expects, the film doesn’t deliver on expectations and ends up doing even less than film B. In this case the distributor is either making losses or there a dent in his/her share of profit.
Gorilla 20 June 2009
09:30:52 pm
I am surprised why Kites is not mentioned here. Or will it never release?
Clashing with 3 idiots – noone in the right frame of mind will do it. Kites is too meek a film.
Gorilla 21 June 2009
11:12:18 pm
Hmmm…so Blue is releasing on 16th Oct. It’s more or less confirmed now.
Kites, 3 idiots and London Dreams remain hanging. Not so good news for these big budgets, though I have high hopes for 3I followed by London Dreams. Both have very able directors.
Som 22 June 2009
11:58:33 am
I find it bit puzzling when I hear news about 3 Idiots not able to find a buyer. I can understand about a London Dreams(Ajay Devgan and Salman Khan at the box office have been on a downslide) or for that matter Blue(Akshay’s recent poor run at box office and an unknown director) but how can a film starring Aamir Khan after Ghajini with Raj Kumar Hirani who has two Munna Bhai films to his credit under the banner of Vidhu Vinod Chopra not excite or interest the buyers, unless the makers are asking some highly unreasonable/unrealistic price?!! At least after Ghajini, no one can underestimate Aamir’s box office pull.