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Bollywood heroes, gaming zeros

Unlike their slicker, more profit-making counterparts in the West, games based on Bollywood flicks rarely click

Name any major Hollywood movie franchise, chances are that there will be a PC, Xbox or mobile gaming application revolving around it. Although the trend is fast catching on in India?SRK?s Chennai Express and Farhan Akhtar?s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag were the latest to cash in on the platform?games based on Bollywood movies have rarely caught the fancy of enthusiasts, leave alone finding a slot in the top of the charts.

This is in stark contrast to the West where the marriage of movies and video games has spawned a booming parallel?some reports peg the world gaming industry at $70.4 billion (R42,000 crore approximately) in 2013 with an audience of 1.2 billion. Franchises like GI Joe, Star Trek and Batman are household names even today, long after they made their way out of cineplexes and with over a couple of million downloads and counting.

In India, unfortunately, many of us don?t even remember, or would want to remember, that there was a game around Ra.One, Agneepath, Dhoom, Singham, Love Story 2050, or Don for that matter. No wonder then that the country?s gaming industry, worth about $250 million, doesn?t even account for 1% of the annual global market.

Amit Ranjan Paul, an avid gamer and a production assistant who tries out almost every title that releases after films, says games in India lack action. ?The game on Ra.One, for instance, was so slow that it falls way behind any standards. The ideas, too, are often a cheap imitation of western classics. For us, Mortal Combat or Batman remains a staple for now,? he says. Many of the enthusiasts even laugh at the way Indian games are made.

So what is ailing the Indian gaming industry? Is it the quality of games, the budget?which is often very low?or the lack of focus?

Surprisingly, people involved with the development of games for movies are aware of the shortcomings. They believe that the Indian gaming industry is at a very nascent stage and it still needs a lot of investment to compete at a global level. Manish Kumar, AGM, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, says poor quality, low budgets and the lack of focus are some of the reasons behind the dismal show of such games. Hungama Digital has been involved in a number of projects, including a gaming application on the upcoming superhero movie, Krrish 3, which is slated to hit the theatres in November.

?The investment which goes in the marketing of Hollywood games is up to five times the entire budget of their Indian counterparts. Moreover, Hollywood games like GI Joe or Batman have a legacy running for decades. We are just starting and so is our smartphone market or data penetration. The audience in the West are ready to pay for games. Dark Knight titles, for instance, are priced around R390 each and still enjoy a couple of million downloads. The paid version of Don 2 game doesn?t even have 10,000 downloads even when it?s priced at R100,? says Kumar.

Although Kumar admits that there is no popular movie franchise in India, Krrish 3 might turn the tables for the industry in India.

According to Vishal Singh, editor of gaming website GameGuru.in, the problem in India is budget, and producers tend to clutch their pockets when it comes to sparing money for developing video games. ?Moneymakers still fail to look at game development as a profitable platform. In Hollywood, too, games that are tied with movies have very small budgets and hence suffer. However, games like Batman Arkham series are made with independent budgets by Warner Bros and do not relate to the movies. Hence, they?re good,? says Singh, who feels that as more and more people start believing in Indian developers and start investing in the creation of gaming titles, we could also see great games coming out of the country.

Based on numbers alone, it?s easy to dismiss India as irrelevant to games. However, the last couple of years have been different with the emergence of specialist retailers like Games the Shop and Game 4 U. E-commerce has also emerged, with the introduction of specialist online stores like Flipkart and Nextworld, and it has helped distributors reach gamers in more than 200 towns and cities across the country.

VG Samant, a reputed animator and director of the animation film Hanuman, says the Indian gaming industry will succeed only if the developers start focusing on their own animation work and stop copying the West. ?We are soon coming up with some new classical or traditional animations, which will surely help India?s gaming fraternity. We have a lot of resources here in the country and we should invest in them,? says Samant.

Experts also believe that the country?s gaming industry is growing rapidly and a bright future is awaiting, provided developers start giving more importance to quality and customisation. ?Developers need to stop exploiting just the IP name and start delivering quality and customisation on games. In games, brand integration can help solve budgetary issues. Smart ?freemium? models have to be built,? adds Kumar of Hungama Digital.

Data download is also a big issue in the country; so, Kumar says, one needs to look at the size of the game. He asks developers to first give the lighter versions of games to users so that they can download the full version only if they like it. He also stresses the need for ?side loading? facility via tie-ups with mobile stores and retailers, as well as associations/partnerships with handset manufacturers for a wider reach of Indian film-based games.

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First published on: 01-09-2013 at 20:48 IST
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