India is awash with quite normal movie-goers who can rant off line after line and scene after scene from these classics that define Indian cinema’s defining moments.
They were supposed
to be the emperors of Bollywood. But with 80% of their movies over the last two years failing to meet audiences’ expectations and being clearly sub-standard, and 70% flopping miserably, are we finally seeing the end of the monopoly called Yash Raj Films? Or is it that with their coming of age, Indian audiences simply feel insulted with the YRF/Karan Johar brand of ‘big-budget, zero-novelty no-brainers? pallavi srivastava of 4Ps B&M investigates...
“Happy toh lots you be today. Lots happy. Because the person jo aaj tak tumhaare mandir ke steps not chadding...that person tumhaare samne standing is... Because mein loosing but you knowing because I standing here that lady... that lady whose pairs rubbing your stone, so much rubbing that stone sala becoming 10%...” If this sounded utterly crass (and a horrible beginning to this article) imagine the consternation of audiences, who were exposed to hours of this balderdash spouted by protagonist Anil Kapoor in Yash Raj Films’ (YRF) latest release, Tashan! Ironically, the essence of this argument seems to have spread to most of the films coming out of the Yash Raj stable, what with a huge majority of movies (8 out of 10 films since December 2005) from YRF either spank low on quality import or (sans Fanaa) killingly high on losses as well.
Let’s be honest. Wasn’t this the same production house that gave us historically sparkling time-stoppers like Kabhi Kabhie, Silsila, Vijay, Mashaal, Lamhe, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge...? India is awash with quite normal movie-goers who can rant off line after line and scene after scene from these classics that define Indian cinema’s defining moments. Look at the recent past. While the Indian tinsel town has been painted green due to mind boggling revenues of around Rs.100 billion for the year 2007 (the figures don’t include overseas revenues), the iconic YRF had to be content with a petty share of less than a billion rupees of this total pie.
Sample this: Yash Raj made five films in 2007, out of which just one was successful (Chak De). The total production cost of YRF (read expenditure) in 2007 was a whopping Rs 1.18 billion (estimated); and the combined ‘grossings’ (read revenues) were Rs 0.9 billion. YRF actually made losses to the tune of Rs 25 million in the past year. All their last ten films had the biggest of stars – Saif, Akshay, Rani, Kareena, Aamir, Kajol, John, Abhishek, Priety, Madhuri, Abhishek, Amitabh; and of course SRK, Hrithik and Ash (who acted in the only two acclaimed as well as successful films in the list). The films had terrific packaging and marketing and had lovely names – Lagaa Chunari Mein Daag, Aaja Nachle, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Tara Rum Pum... So what’s the basic problem?
At a time when the economy is at an all time boom, the entertainment industry is growing at an impressive 17%, when the film industry has a CAGR of 14% and the industry veterans are claiming that this run is the golden era for the showbiz business; one of the oldest and most respected brands of the Indian film industry is into the red. And that too at a time when many international studios like Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures et al themselves are betting big on Bollywood. Is this a harbinger of a clearly misplaced and lackadaisical approach by YRF towards changing audience preferences? 4Ps B&M probes further...
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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