Two Bengali films, one featuring Satyajit Ray?s sleuth Feluda, ruled the multiplexes in Kolkata during the busy December weekend, while Bollywood biggie Tees Maar Khan ran to empty halls; in the first quarter of 2010, Marathi films outdid Hindi films at the box office; the Tamil industry will register record revenues of approximately Rs 800 crore in fiscal 2010-11, primarily because of the success of Rajnikanth’s Enthiran.
As regional content becomes richer, big production houses, from Reliance to Eros and Zee, are betting big on regional cinema. Foreign studios, too, have realised that to do better numbers in India, it’s imperative to penetrate the regional markets. Consequently, all their releases are now dubbed into Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and are likely to be extended to other languages too.
The biggest contributor to regional cinema is from the south, of course, with analysts pegging the aggregate market size of the Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam film industries at Rs 1,703 crore in FY?09 in terms of total revenues. As per an Ernst & Young report on southern cinema, of the aggregate market size, the Telugu segment contributes around Rs 707 crore, the Tamil segment Rs 707 crore, the Malayalam segment 140 crore and the Kannada segment Rs 50 crore. In terms of overall share, the Telugu and Tamil segments account for approximately 45% each, while the Malayalam segment accounts for 8% and Kannada segment 2%. The Indian film industry was pegged at Rs 8,930 crore in 2009, registering a degrowth from 2008?s Rs 10,400 crore.
Could Enthiran?s success prove to be a turning point for the Tamil film industry? Enthiran is largely responsible for the industry registering a turnover of Rs 800 crore in FY2010, from a compounded annual growth of Rs 500 crore for the last three years. The Kalanithi Maran-promoted, Sun Pictures? produced Enthiran, with its approximate Rs 100-crore production budget, made Kollywood’s annual business zoom to Rs 800 crore, says Ramanujam, film critic and editor of Tamil Ezine, tamilnaduentertainment.com . “It is purely because of Enthiran that Kollywood revenues touched a new high. Being an exception for its high cost production and promotion expenditure, the industry cannot dish out movies with a budget like Enthiran’s every year. Therefore, the industry will return to revenue levels of approximately Rs 500 crore,? he adds.
In all, 137 Tamil films were released in 2010 compared to 133 films in 2009. Ramanujam says small budget films did well again in 2010, continuing the trend that began in 2009. In the Bengali film industry, too, ?urban, small-budget films did well?, says Arijit Dutta, MD, Priya Entertainments. ?The past six months have been encouraging for the Bengali film industry, with films like Gautam Ghosh?s Moner Manush and Prosenjit?s Autograph doing well,? he adds. The Bengali film industry is valued at Rs 150 crore and the average budget is from Rs 60 lakh to Rs 2.5 crore, excluding print and publicity costs, say insiders.
For the Telugu film industry, however, the year 2010 was bad, due to political developments, particularly the change of leadership and the ongoing Telangana struggle. The industry is yet to emerge from the slowdown and there is a dearth of both great storylines and big budgets.
Insiders say the Telangana factor impacted business severely and there?s been a 35% drop in collections. Historically, the film industry in Andhra Pradesh is rooted in the political world. In the current scenario, Tollywood heroes Chiranjeevi and Mohan Babu?s stand on united Andhra has hit the films that they promote in the Telangana region. ?The Telangana agitators have started banning films of their families,? says Vijayendar Reddy, president, Film Chamber of Commerce, Hyderabad chapter.
Megastar Chiranjeevi, also the president of Praja Rajyam Party, resigned in protest against the idea of a separate state of Telangana. Though the party supported the demand for a separate state before the elections, it has changed its stand now. This fuelled the ongoing fire and in retaliation, Telangana agitators forcibly stalled screenings of Chiranjeevi?s nephew Allu Arjun?s movie, Arya 2.
There are over 600 theatres in the Telangana region that have collections of Rs 60 lakh per day. On an average, the Telugu industry launches over 10-12 films a year, but 2010 was dull from the beginning due to the slowdown, though Enthiran did very well.
In the Tamil film industry, Ramanujam lists three low-cost movies??all credit attributable to the directors? –that not only wowed the audience, but also made producers very happy. ?Sargunam’s Kalavani, Prabhu Solomon’s Maina and CS Amudhan’s Tamil Padam raked in the moolah with their budget investments,? he points out.
What?s also worked in favour of regional cinema is the fact that multiplexes are now increasing shows of language movies. Marathi cinema, which had gone into decline in the ’90s, has seen a revival since Shwaas became the official entry for the Oscars in 2004; in 2009, Harishchandrachi Factory, about the struggle of Dadasaheb Phalke to make Raja Harishchandra in 1913, also went to the Oscars. The Shiv Sena and MNS brigades may have forced multiplexes to show more Marathi films, but the industry has also backed it up by producing a variety of content. Vihir, Natarang and Zenda have got both critical and commercial success.
?In 2010, regional cinema saw some great success. One or two Punjabi films did very well, besides Marathi, Bengali and Bhojpuri,? says Tushar Dhingra, COO, Reliance BIG Cinemas.
As per E&Y, a large number of people in south India watch movies on theatre screens. That?s true of the Bengali and Bhojpuri audiences as well, but Bengal has a paucity of screens. ?We have shrunk from 800 to 300, and Bengali films are in serious danger if screens aren?t increased,? says Dutta. In the south, domestic theatrical revenues are the most important source of revenue. According to E&Y, despite a small geographic area, theatrical collections from south Indian movies are high. The region houses 5,000 theatre screens, which is almost 50% of the total number of operational theatre screens in India. ?The proportion of people watching films to the overall population is much higher in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh than other parts of the country,? say analysts.
In Tamil Nadu, stars such as Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth didn?t disappoint in 2010, and unsung directors with their low-cost, low-risk projects also made it big. “Vasantha Balan’s Angadi Theru, K Rajesh’s Boss Engira Bhaskaran, Singam Puli’s Goripalayam shared honours with celebrity actor and director-driven movies such as Gautham Vasudeva Menon’s Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya (Simbu and Trisha as leads), Lingu Swami’s Payya (pairing of Surya’s sibling Karthick and Tamanaa),” says Ramanujam.
Kollywood analyst Ravishankar says the success of Maina and Mishkin?s Nandalaala is an eye-opener for others to try different content. In 2011, Kollywood will have films from stars such as Vijay, Vikram and Ajith. Vijay, whose 50th movie Suraa bombed at the box office, will be looking to make amends in Kavaalan, set to hit screens by Pongal. Ajith has two films, Mangaatha and Billa part-2.
Ramanujam rues that lead stars starring in the 15 top films that make up the lion?s share of Kollywood?s revenues are arbitrarily hiking their salaries to astronomical levels. “Out of an Rs 500-crore turnover, producers cough up Rs 300 crore towards stars? pay,? he points out. Bollywood learnt the hard way, post-meltdown, that bottomlines had to be watched and one way was to reduce star fees. The south could take a tip or two.
