A superhero, preferably a Khan or a Kapoor, a leading lady with an hourglass figure, a strict father, a teary-eyed mother, a lustful bad guy, couple of comics, some running around a tree, lots of drama, not to forget an item number, and there’s a Bollywood blockbuster ready to gross a few hundred crores. But what about overseas audiences? Shouldn’t Bollywood make its movies keeping a more diverse viewer base in mind? And won’t that ensure it earns those hundreds of crores in greenbacks? This festival season, The Dollar Business does the unusual and walks the Bollywood red carpet. Of course, to figure out its overseas business besides leaving behind some boot marks

Vanita Peter D’souza | @TheDollarBiz

  Of course, no matter how much the lack of content in a lot of what Bollywood dishes out is ridiculed, every film needs a script. While a lot of them come from the Javed Akhtars, Salim Khans and Anurag Kashyaps, a lot of them also come from Hollywood blockbusters. We are not talking about plagiarism – “inspiration” in Bollywood lingo – but legitimate remakes. And interestingly, Bollywood is increasingly looking out beyond Hollywood for such remakes. Speaking to The Dollar Business, Vivek Rangachari, Producer, DAR Motion Pictures, said, “Nowadays, people are looking out for not only Hollywood films, but also Chinese, Korean and other foreign language films.” Rolling However, a good story alone cannot ensure a blockbuster, at least not in Bollywood. It takes good music, top quality cinematography, nice locations, special effects and several other such ingredients to make that Diwali release. In some genres like horror, these technical inputs make all the difference. And hence, Bollywood, often, opts for foreign technicians, who are far more experienced in such stuff. Sometimes, these foreign technicians are hired even for regular movies, just to give that ‘feeling’. One example of such a movie is D-Day, which released in July 2013. To shoot certain sequences of the movie, its producers, DAR Motion Pictures had hired the action director Tom Struthers, who is renowned for movies like Inception, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Explaining the bigger picture in such partnerships, Rangachari said these technicians are here to explore Bollywood and establish a base. “They are not here to do one film and go back. They want to setup a base and do 10 films (say), few years down the line,” he added. Shooting with international film technicians also helps Bollywood connect with international audiences, Rangachari feels. (Read exclusive interview below)  

  Light, Camera

Does this mean Indian technicians are not good enough? Aashish Singh, Vice President (Production), Yash Raj Films, is a bit guarded in his response to the question. “A Hollywood technician is more qualified and experienced than his Indian counterpart. But he is more qualified only because he has seen a different kind and scale of work. One of the main reasons why the industry imports technicians is to give the film a new edge, a new look and a new feel,” Singh told The Dollar Business. But what about equipment? Once again, Bollywood relies on imports. For cameras, it goes for names like Arri Alexa, Red Digital Cinema, and Canon. For lighting, it opts for Kino Flo and Canara Lighting. Similarly, technocranes are largely bought from Supertechno, ultra and master prime lenses are imported from Ari International, optimo zooms are Angenieux and dollies from Chapman-Leonard or Panthers. This, according to Tejas Pratap Karguppikar, Assistant Digital Imaging Technician, Prasad Labs. Karguppikar added that apart from equipment, editing software like Final Cut Pro, Avis and Adobe Premier Pro are also purchased from abroad.

While Bollywood has been shooting in overseas locations since a very long time and foreign governments have been rolling out the red carpet for the industry, a foreign production house, trying to shoot in India, finds it to be a very cumbersome and tiring affair

Action

Although a good script, fine technicians and modern equipment are important elements needed in a movie, the factor that is quite often the biggest crowd puller is, of course, actors. While Bollywood actors have long been acting in India-centric Hollywood films (who can forget Om Puri in City of Joy and Anil Kapoor in Slumdog Millionaire), there have also been instances of “gora” actors in Bollywood movies – Paul Blackthrone in Lagaan, Steven Mackintosh in Rang De Basanti and Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards in Kambakkht Ishq are some instances that readily come to mind. Speaking to The Dollar Business, Avtar Panesar, Vice President (International Operations), Yash Raj Films said, “If an actor fits the bill, why shouldn’t we get them onboard. We just look at them as actors. We have Ali Zafar, who is a big star in Pakistan, in our next film. This should help our business in Pakistan, where he has a massive fan following.” (Read exclusive interview below)  

Make in India? Last, but not the least, a typical Bollywood movie needs great locations since the hero staying in a Dadar chawl and the queen of his hearts living in Carter Road, might suddenly dream of breaking into a dance number. And of course, they can’t dance in Juhu Chowpatty or Borivali National Park, can they? They need the Swiss Alps, the back roads or Prague or, at least, the Greek Island of Milos for the ‘feeling’. So, while on one hand, PM Modi has been asking the whole world to ‘Make in India’, the Indian film industry doesn’t seem to consider a movie complete, without at least a few scenes shot in foreign locations. Speak to production houses and they lay the blame squarely on the difficulty in getting permission to shoot outdoors in India, while at the same time, highlighting how foreign countries are rolling out the red carpet for the shooting of Bollywood movies. Forget permissions, several countries also offer major incentives like cash back, discount on hotel rent and equipment cost and in some cases, even pay for advertisement expenses to Bollywood moviemakers, who opt to shoot in their respective countries. For, they see Bollywood as the best vehicle to attract the increasingly affluent Indian tourist. On the contrary, shooting international movies in India is extremely difficult not just because of the lack of a single clearance window but also of trust. Speaking about such a peculiar situation, Singh of Yash Raj Films said, “In the past, a lot of Hollywood production houses have come here to shoot, but 90% of them have taken back very bad experiences with them.“ Singh draws a parallel of this to how foreign tourists are often fleeced in India. Moreover, importing of equipment should also be made simple as they like to travel with their own equipment, which several of our archaic laws make difficult, he added (read exclusive interview below). Rangachari, though, is hopeful. He expects the new government to put in place a single clearance window to ease the shooting of foreign movies in India. A FICCI-KPMG study, on the Indian Media and Entertainment Industry, estimated the size of the domestic film industry for 2013 at Rs.12,500 crore (over $2 billion) – a growth of 11.5% over 2012. To figure out the share of Bollywood in this, The Dollar Business spoke to one of India’s top Bollywood Trade Analyst Komal Nahta. Nahta claims Bollywood accounts for roughly 20% of India’s movie market. “The Hindi film industry did a business of roughly Rs.3,500 crore in the calendar year 2013, of which about Rs.1,000 crore came from overseas,” he said. In other words, almost 30% of Bollywood’s revenue comes from abroad! And once this figure was revealed, all those mega bucks spent on technicians, cameras and lenses, suddenly started making sense.

Since the typical Bollywood movies, with superstars, song and dance and lots of melodrama, have been doing well even in overseas markets, thanks to large expat Indian communities, the industry hasn’t really had the motivation to attract a larger audience that wants more realistic movies

  Not for all tastes

Bollywood movies are widely watched in markets like US, UK, Middle East, Germany and even Russia, essentially in countries with large Indian and South Asian diaspora. What’s disappointing, though, is that Bollywood has badly failed to make a mark with the non-diaspora audience. Similarly, though love stories do well internationally, movies starring Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan do well irrespective of their genre. For example, last year, while Aamir Khan’s Dhoom 3 grossed nearly $31 million (about Rs.180 crore) overseas, SRK’s Chennai Express collected over $19 million (close to Rs.120 crore) abroad. Other films, which in the past have done good business in overseas markets, are 3 idiots, My Name Is Khan, Kick and Jab Tak Hai Jaan. This, despite the lack of popularity among non-diaspora audience. Explaining the reason why Bollywood has failed to break into the hearts and minds of the non-diaspora audience, Nahta said, “The taste of the non-diaspora audience is very different. It is very difficult for them to understand our movies which are full of songs, dance sequences and drama.” What about stories of how locals in United States and United Kingdom are lapping up Bollywood movies then? “The industry claims are false. Bollywood is yet to break into the non-diaspora arena. Apart from The Lunchbox, I doubt any other Bollywood film did well in the non-diaspora market,” Nahta said, in his usual blunt manner.  

Step motherly

The Hindi film industry, despite being India’s greatest brand ambassador and a net forex earner, does not get any export incentives. One possible reason, for such discrimination, could be the multiple hands through which a movie passes before being able to earn in foreign currencies. For, while a few like Yash Raj Films produce and distribute their own films, in most other cases, the producer(s) and the distributors are different entities. There’s also the case of the cost of imported equipment being amortised over several films and production houses. On this topic, Singh of Yash Raj Films, has an interesting question. “There could be a debate on what basis you can get incentives. Should incentives be given just for releasing the film abroad?” he asked. But then we have many complicated schemes when it comes to merchandise exports. So, settling Bollywood’s issues can’t be impossible. Can it be?

Happy ending

Bollywood, as an industry, despite its appeal to only select audiences, is a net forex earner. Almost everyone The Dollar Business spoke to, claimed the industry earns much more in forex than what it spends. One such voices, Pranab Kapdia, Vice President (Distribution), Eros International, said, “Overall, we are forex earners. When we shoot abroad, we spend and when we release films internationally, we earn. It has a ripple effect on many interlinked industries like exhibition, dining and merchandising etc.” In fact, that Hugh Jackman was invited to share the stage with PM Modi, during one of his recent addresses in New York, shows the power of showbiz. Agreed Bollywood movies have their lacunae. Agreed it needs to make more realistic movies and not the usual song and dance routines. Agreed it needs to appeal to a wider audience. But there’s no doubt it’s India’s biggest brand ambassador, perhaps much bigger than even cricket which has a following only in a handful of cricket-playing nations. And there’s absolutely no doubt that it’s a net forex earner. Shouldn’t then it, at least, get what’s legitimately its? Who knows how much more successful the industry will be if its forex-earning capability is recognised and its overseas success incentivised?  

“Foreign governments are giving us subsidies to shoot movies in their countries” - Vivek Rangachari, Commissioning Producer, DAR Motion Pictures  Vivek Rangachari, Commissioning Producer, DAR Motion Pictures   

“Big star cast films, irrespective of genre, do well abroad” - Pranab Kapadia, President (Distribution), Eros International  Pranab Kapadia, President (Distribution), Eros International

“Non-Indians are yet to open up to Bollywood” - Avtar Panesar, Vice President (International Operations), Yash Raj Films  Avtar Panesar, Vice President (International Operations), Yash Raj Films