Indian Film Biz Needs To Focus On Story Not Scale Say IFFI Panelists

In Goa, a panel of Indian film producers and directors discussed how to get local audiences back into cinemas in the wake of the massive rise in OTT in India.

“The platforms existed before the pandemic and people flirted with them, but when the pandemic happened they took OTT home and started consuming content across different languages and genres,” Vivek Krishnani (CEO of IN10 Media Network, former head at Sony India), said the following: “When cinemas opened again, people were shy to return, but the choice of content that drives them to cinemas can’t be same.”

Ramesh Sippy is a director-producer whose credits include some of the most iconic Indian movies such as SholayAccording to a source, this issue was present even before the advent of streaming. “There was a time when you only had to announce a film and people would rush to the cinema without knowing exactly what they were going to see. Now audiences are more discerning.”

But while Krishnani said content in cinemas now needs to be a certain standard and scale, he also said story-telling is just as important – and pointed out that some smaller films are still succeeding at the box office, even though audiences know they can see them on streaming platforms.

A Tamil film has been released over the last few weeks. Love TodayThe film, which was produced at a cost of $700,000. (Rs55m), has earned around $7m (Rs580m). It is about a father telling a young couple that they want to be married, to swap phones every day. If they don’t want to, they are free to go ahead.

Krishnani explained that although it was an easy concept, the story offered insight into modern realities and human emotions, which resonated well with the audience. Similarly, Drishyam 2This is currently an uncommon Bollywood hit post-pandemic. It is all about your family and is something everyone can relate too.

“For sure, new habits have formed, so for a certain scale of film you might wait and watch it on OTT. But as a producer, I don’t agree with that trend or preconceived notion. It’s just that the audience is less forgiving now, so to engage with them, you need to be way more skilful, you need to up your game.”

Bollywood actor Sharman Joshi3 Idiots, Mission Mangal() Agreed and said that India’s film industry should focus on writing and developing. “We need content that is going to compete with the OTT platforms, and specifically with the international OTT content, because some of the content we’re seeing made by Indian producers, directors and writers has been quite average.”

He continued: “The real threat is from international shows where they’ve spent so much time on the scripts. As an actor, I feel we should should up our game in terms of the time given to the writers, monetary compensation given to the writers. They should get a percentage and profits for the lifetime of a film, because every writer only has a few great stories in them and that has to be valued and respected.”

The panelists also said that India could focus on creating recognisable IP – superhero movies and other franchises that come with in-built fanbases. Karuna Badwai, producer at Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chilies Entertainment, said this is starting to happen in India but cost of VFX is an issue: “It does give the whole creative process a lot of freedom to create, but it comes at a substantial price, and if you don’t pursue it at a certain quality, the backlash is also going to be humongous.”

She talked about Red Chillies’ 2018 release ZeroVFX was heavily used by, to transform Shah Rukh Khan in to a shorter man. “When it played worldwide, the VFX industry thought our budget was miniscule, but for us it was huge. Marvel films can afford that quality of VFX because the entire world is a market for them, unlike films here.”

The panelists also talked about the current perception that films from South India are thriving at the box office while Hindi-language cinema still hasn’t brought audiences back to cinemas. Krishnani pointed out that not all South Indian movies are doing well.

“What we’re hearing about is the outliers like K.G.F., RRR, Ponniyan Selvan and Kantara. But one very important factor is that the South Indian audience is extremely passionate about cinema viewing.”

He explained that nearly half of India’s 9,000 cinemas are in the South, which is a far higher proportion that the relative population size, and that ticket pricing is capped in some states: “That also facilitates frequency of movie viewing. So when people are going to cinemas in large numbers, you’re obviously seeing that people are going because it’s affordable.”

However, he said that South Indian filmmaking is successful because they are attentive to both story and script. “Story-telling from the South is rooted in a certain kind of culture, certain amount of Indian-ness, and the writers there have a depth of literature and their own culture. That’s something that enables them to come up with stories that engage the minds and imaginations of the masses.”

Recent Kannada-language hits were used by him Kantara This is a great example. This film, which is based on Karnataka’s cultural folklore has received a lot of attention across all cultural groups. Film was made for approximately $2m (Rs160m), and it has been viewed by around $4bn (Rs$49m) around the world.

“We need to enable writers, to create an opportunity for people to come in and write, especially guys from smaller towns who have this connect beyond a certain geographical limitation like Bombay,” Krishnani. “You need to get stories from small towns, which resonate, because it’s all based on human insight. We all connect to films and stories that are based on human insight.”

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