?There is an old adage, ?This is called show business not show show.? Business is as important as the show element,? said Sanjeev Lamba, CEO of Reliance Entertainment, kicking off a debate on how studios – Indian as well as foreign – conducted business in today?s dynamic landscape.
The story began in 1999, when a few of Hollywood studios including Warner Brothers, Walt Disney and 20th Century Fox set shop in India for regional language production. They realised quickly that the Indian audience was a hard nut to crack. They quickly moved into the TV business where their business model is now crystal clear. As Lamba said, ?The TV industry is 10 to 15 times the size of the film industry in India and Hollywood is dominating that medium right now. Cartoon Network is Warner Bros, Disney owns the Disney channels, Pogo is again Warner and Nickelodeon is Viacom. The audience watches K serials on Star Plus and Colors and IPL is on Set Max (Sony). Television has been here in an organised fashion for 17 years and Hollywood studios dominate this space. But look at their programming. That?s very Indian.?
According to him, the big studios figured that their business model would not work within the Indian film industry. ?With films, they made them in Hollywood and distributed them all over the world.?
Even though the market here is difficult to understand, the lure for the Indian market among studio heads is understandable.
?Foreign studios are here not to take talent away from Bollywood. They are coming here to participate in a reasonably sized market. The country and the middle-class is growing so the Hollywood studios are very keen to be a part of the race right now,? Lamba said and added, ?Entertainment is growing at 12 to 15 per cent. Everybody?s got their eyes on that size. If I was a Hollywood studio, I would think that why am I not present in this country??
When Disney joined forces with UTV, one of the biggest studios in the country, it was the clearest indication of how Hollywood wants to do business in India. Indian studios are now looking at their distribution chain and leveraging the reach of foreign studios to reach wider markets as was evident with movies like My Name Is Khan that released successfully in the Middle-East and 3 Idiots that released in China.
?Reliance just happens to be an Indian-owned company with global ambitions. The intent is not anything different ? it is to go where the big markets are,? Lamba said. Lamba, who has previously worked with Hollywood studios like Disney and Miramax, said that Indian studios do not have many interests apart from production outside India. He urged the audience to look at Hollywood studios. ?While Disney is a $38 billion-odd company, their studio business comprises only 15 per cent of their total revenue. 85 per cent of their business happens elsewhere. The big entertainment companies like Warner, Viacom, Disney, Sony – they are not film companies anymore. They do publishing, TV, music et al,? he said.
Siddharth Roy Kapur of UTV added that Indian studios need to create ways and means to reach the over 30 million strong diaspora that resides outside the country. It was also the basis on which Indian movies could go global, the panelists said.
?Two years ago, Reliance bought into a sales company in Los Angeles called IM Global, which is one of the top three movie sales company in the world. Their basic business is to sell Hollywood films on behalf of independent producers across the world. Now we are getting them Bollywood films to sell. We?re leveraging their Hollywood expertise and that is what happened with 3 Idiots and Don 2. It can?t happen by you just sitting out here dreaming.? Lamba saw the importance of Hollywood studios in India. He argued that while foreign studios were devising new strategies of breaking new grounds in the film business, Indian studios have learnt a lesson or two as well. He said, ?As for Indian studios, their work is getting pretty streamlined. Professionalism is on the rise and people?s profiles are being clearly demarcated.?
With the two industries accepting best practices and leaning to each other for mutual growth, filmgoers can expect to be entertained to a greater degree in the near future.
