Refreshing old memories

It is a trip down the memory lane. All the die-hard fans of Indian cinema and bollywood who are keen on history and trivia's on their favourite bollywood stars can now know it all through a pack of 4 DVD collector’s edition with over 750 minutes of Bollywood Nostalgia , trivia, 550 song clips and 101  full songs.
The collector’s edition is titled 101 Silver Screen Stars has been released by Shemaroo Entertainment as its tribute to 100 years of Indian cinema. This collector's edition bridges the past, present and future of Indian cinema. The entire series a fantastic audio visual treat that takes one through the life journeys of 101 popular hindi film heroes and heroines. The entire collection is well researched and not mere compilation. It also has some very famous anecdotes. The pack also includes a glamorous film diary consisting of interesting film art works years of cinema on each page. Priced at just Rs 699, it’s a must have for all film lovers.
Previously, the company's release of DD shows Its release of Zabaan Sambhal Ke (which means ‘mind your language’), the superhit comedy show of 1993, and Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, was followed by all 100 episodes of Nukkad’s in a 13-DVD Pack priced at an affordable Rs 1,299.
In the 1980s, public broadcaster Doordarshan was our only entertainment, apart from going to the theatre to watch a film. Honestly, I loved to watch DD. It was when national programmes were introduced in 1982. It was the same year when colour TV kicked off in India, with the live telecast of the Independence Day speech by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on August 15. Then came the Asian Games, held in Delhi. The 1980s were the era of Doordarshan and shows such as Hum Log (1984), Buniyaad (1986-87), sitcoms such as Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (1984) and Nukkad (1986-87).The best thing about these shows was that they were simple stories told well. We all had our own favourites, for which we waited week after week.Shows such as these, or Rajni or Zaban Sambhal Ke, had a cult following that cut across the boundaries of age and time. Even today’s generation loves them.
Nukkad, directed by Kundan Shah and Saeed Mirza, was one of the most popular TV shows of the late 1980s.It aired every Monday during prime time – nine pm. Nukkad means street corner. As the name suggests, the show deals with the struggles of common people who live in the area, and who are trying to make a living in an increasingly harsh social and economic climate. The characters – Khopdi, Teacher-ji, Pheku, Guru, and others – meet at the local nukkad every evening and share their life stories. With a touch of humour, the serial portrays the realities of the common man’s life.
No satellite channels seem to have bought these shows of yesteryear, and I am glad that DVDs of them are now easily available across the country. So grab your copies now!

Future of Journalism is "Digital"....Integrated Newsrooms need of the Hour

“Today, everything is a media company. A Supermarket, an organization, a NGO etc. all are media companies. They all do media. But, they don't need journalists to tell their stories. They are all telling their stories directly to people”, says Alan Rusbridger, chief editor of The Guardian, one of the oldest British Newspapers. However, Rusbridger said that this does not mean journalists have got redundant. It means that journalists have to adapt to the new ways of open journalism. Anybody who is on twitter or Facebook today is a journalist. "The future of print journalism lies in accepting the importance of Digital Age,” added Rusbridger.
Rusbridger was at the Mumbai Press Club yesterday on an invitation from the club to talk on “The Future of Journalism in a Digital Age.” He talked of how one can get stories from twitter. He proved this point very well through a short video of one of his colleague Jon Henley, a feature writer at the Guardian. Calling him a middle aged reporter who is not technologically savvy, Rusbridger said that Henley was told to have a twitter account before he goes to Greece to cover the crisis. Henley says he got a little worried but, nevertheless too up the challenge and started a twitter account before he left for Athens. All did was twitted asking people to direct him to stories of hope a midst the crisis and to his utter amazement within three days he had 400 followers and before he landed in Athens he had several stories to tell. The Greeks had shared so many stories of 'Hope' which had not merited space in most mainline Newspapers and TV channels. That’s the power of social media. Most publications world over including India are laying focus on online editions of their newspapers and magazines. That's how important digital has become in today's time. Having an online presence is one thing and completely getting out of print publication and having only an online presence is another thing. 'Newsweek', the 80 year old magazine in the US printed its last edition on December 31, 2012 and since the beginning of this year the magazine only has an online presence. Similarly, the Hollywood trade magazine 'Daily Variety' published its last print edition on Tuesday and directing their readers to the newly revamped website. The magazine said for news of what happened two minutes ago keep going to Variety.com. That's how fast the news is delivered  online. No wonder that The India Today Group is also understood to be launching an online Bollywood or Entertainment magazine one hears. Watch out for that one....
All these above happenings also brings me to the point of how world over traditional newsrooms are changing to be an integrated newsroom. It’s to harness the digital power and the power of social media. It’s happening in India too where many traditional print organizations are becoming an integrated newsroom.
In April 2012, BBC HQ in London’s iconic Bush House was being shifted to a swank 8 floor HQ on Regent Street in Central London. The new office block has a very large Integrated newsroom where all journalists across, TV, Radio and Online sit together thereby sharing resources. Over 600 hundred journalists sit in this one building. Similarly, Sky News also has an integrated newsroom. .
The re-organisation of the BBC’s news department sees an end to separate editorial operations for the BBC’s Radio news, News Interactive and TV news Departments as they are merged into two new divisions. Indeed, the integrated newsroom has achieved substantial savings for BBC that helped compensate for declining license fee income.
In India, the India Today Group is moving towards an integrated newsroom. In fact they already have moved into a new building at Noida Filmcity and in Mumbai too to a new office where journalists from across magazines and TV sit in one newsroom. Journalists at India Today have been encouraged to write blogs, twit on important news and events. Senior print journalists from within the Group are called on TV for their expert comments.

So has integrated newsroom become need of the hour or is it is just a cost cutting mechanism?

A senior official at BBC said to me it’s both. While cost is reduced drastically with synergies being drawn from various sections and one journalist doing more than just reporting for TV but also doubles up as a radio correspondent and writes of online....and vice versa. Many across the BBC are being taught new skills so that they can work seamlessly across the various platforms for delivering news.
Also, increasingly important is the ability to combine material from traditional sources with content residing on different media such as mobile phones and tablets, as well as from Internet feeds and inputs from social media.
New technologies has also changed the whole process of news gathering, with increasing incorporation of content from non-professional sources, including smart phone and iPhones, flip cameras and camcorders wielded both by staff reporters and members of the public. In extreme cases, these are the only available sources of news, either from remote events or when there is a major crackdown on news reporting by the state, as has happened at various times during the “Arab Spring.”
Today most media houses encourage their reporters to have a twitter and Facebook account.
Social Media to an extent across the world is being considered as not just a ‘nice to have’ tool for news reporting but, an important tool for survival. The very existence of social media is changing the news reporting landscape and making it harder for governments and regulators all over the world to keep control over dissemination of information.
This fact itself has to be reflected in the configuration of modern integrated newsrooms, which must be as agnostic to technology and as free from barriers as possible, while ensuring there are mechanisms to enforce rights or regulatory controls where necessary.

MTV Hardware by Kamasutra: Beyond Music and TV

Wondering what 'MTV Hardware' is.. no no its not a new show on MTV that is sponsored by Kamasutra but it is a new condom brand that has been launched by MTV India, the youth channel. The broadcaster in tie up with JK Ansell, the makers of Kamasutra has launched this brand of condoms.
There will be two variants of MTV Hardware namely-Screw in Colours and Big Head. MTV has a range of merchandise from eyeware, to smartphones, to apparels and adventure bikes.
Just to go back in time and tell you a little more about MTV...MTV, today, isn't just about music and isn't just a channel any more—it's a youth brand. The brand's mantra today is, "It's my MTV", an indicator of how the company is attempting to reach out to consumers via interactive platforms like the mobile and the web. While most TV broadcasters treat viewers as "consumers", MTV wants to treat them as "users". That's because the channel feels that the "viewer" is dying, while the "user" is the newage breed that is not just consuming TV, but is also mobile and online. Result? "Music Television", the two words that ran below its logo, were dropped in October 2009, thereby completing the makeover that it began almost in 2007.
MTV has been continuously evolving its offerings for its audiences to make the brand relevant beyond music and TV. It’s understood that by 2015 the broadcaster  expects to see (the emergence of) "MTV Everywhere" — across all screens and product categories that youth engage in, as well as platforms." Launch of the condom brand is a step in that direction thereby adding on to its 15 plus product categories.  MTV is understood to be roughly contributing around 25% of Viacom18's top line. I remember once being told by one of the top officials at Viacom18 that MTV is born of music, inspired by Music but not limited by Music. And I quite agree with that considering that today everybody wants a piece of MTV. Clients I am told do not view MTV as a broadcasting channel where they want to just run a 10 sec or a 30 sec commercial but view MTV as a partner to derive some value out of it.
"I want my MTV" still rings true — but today, MTV’s top brass would want millions of youth to "want" not just the music videos, but the loads of other goodies on offer, too. Even Condoms!!!

Coming of Age.....

The regional film super stars are entering the game of co-production with big Bollywood film studios to corporatize the regional industry

After being in the background for years, regional cinema has emerged out of the shadows of Bollywood. Given the huge potential of regional cinema especially in the southern languages, Marathi, Bengali and Punjabi, Bollywood studios have been keen on producing regional films. Some studios like Disney-UTV, Eros International Media Dar Motion Pictures have tested the waters with producing a few regional films. Viacom 18 will be co-producing one in Marathi with Akashay Kumar and Ashvini Yardi’s production house Grazing Goat Pictures. It’s not the studios alone, the big stars of regional cinema are following suit to co-produce regional films along with Studios rather than tread the path alone. Kamal Haasan, the South supers star who is 20 films old as a producer under his production house Raaj Kamal Films is said to be in talks with a few Bollywood studios to co-produce Tamil films.

Jimmy Shergill, a Bollywood star and a super star in Punjabi Cinema has already taken the leap by signing a co-production deal for 4 films with Eros International Media.He is not alone in this mission. Benagli Superstar Prasenjit Chatterjee, son of the yesteryear Bollywood superstar Bishwajeet’s company- Ideas Creations & Productions has entered into a co production deal with Sahara Screen, part of Sahara Media to produce 10 Bengali and bi lingual films (Bengali-Hindi) in three years.

In an earlier interview to me, Shergill had said that Jimmy Shergill Productions’ association with a studio like Eros will bring about a systematic corporate approach to making Punjabi films. Punjabi cinema is growing with every film. “This tie-up will help us take Punjabi cinema forward. It will help in better marketing and promoting the films and present it on a global platform,” he added. Chatterjee’s idea of co-producing with a studio is to grow within the film business and to corporatize the Bengali film industry.
From a studios perspective to co-produce regional films is that this segment has the potential. It’s a potential market which cannot be ignored. Multiplexes emerging in small towns are also fuelling the growth of regional cinema.
Secondly, any good studio would want to have a diversified strategy rather than just stick to the Bollywood formula. Thirdly, other advantage of regional cinema is that the studio is able to rotate the money fast as the cycle of production is 6-9 months for a regional cinema as against the cycle of production of Hindi films which is 12-15 months.
That’s not all. Even at the box office regional films are also joining the Rs one billion (rs 100 crore) club following suit behind Bollywood. For instance last year a Tamil action film ‘Thuppaki’ was not only a blockbuster in the southern markets, but it collected Rs 100 crore ( one Billion INR) within 11 days of its release . Bengali film ‘Challenge 2’ also earned over Rs124 crore (INR1.24 billion) at the box office. These are unheard of nos. for a regional film but it’s true. It’s happening now. The latest FICCI-KPMG reports says that the increasing preference amongst patrons for local taste in content has seen regional cinema growing over the years.
According to the 2012 Ernst &Young’s paper on the filmed entertainment segment in India, the market size of India’s filmed entertainment industry was estimated at Rs 9700 crore in 2010, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.2 per cent from 2010 to 2014 to reach Rs 12,500 crore by 2013.
Although a break-up of the regional cinema industry is not given, it is understood from industry players that Hindi mainstream cinema contributes 45 per cent of the revenues and the remaining 55 per cent is accounted for by regional cinema. Two thirds of this, is accounted for by the South Indian cinema industry and the balance is accounted for rest of the other languages such as Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali and Bhojpuri largely.

Public Broadcaster for Kids': need of the hour

Over the last decade so, television broadcasting industry in India has seen a dramatic change. The growth of multichannel television scenario and the emergence of strong pay television operators have fundamentally altered the competitive dynamics in this market.  And – with the arrival of the digital era – we are poised for more dramatic changes.
Public service broadcasters (PSBs) were conceived in a world of one or two channels. Most PSBs are former monopolies, and were originally designed to provide the entire supply of programming for the market.
Sadly, Children in India are so starved for good entertainment on TV that most in the age bracket of (4-9 years) kids are hooked on to Hindi general Entertainment Channels that show family soaps. We do have private kids’ channel such as the Cartoon Network, Pogo, Nickelodeon, Disney group of channels and few regional private kids’ channels as well. But, like UK or, Australia why cannot we boast of a Public Broadcaster for Kids’ or in other words why cannot DD have its own Kids’ channel. What’s stopping them from having their own channel?
Well these are good questions to raise but you will seldom find an answer. India has so much of culture and mythology and historical yet, DD borrows kids programming from Disney. I remember as a kid in the 80s DD used to have some animated short stories in Hindi like Simi-The fish, Ek Titli Anek Titliyan, Tree of Life to name a few for kids. But, today’s kids are growing up on Pokemon, Doremon, Sinchan and the likes. Children, are exposed to all sorts of crass content that is having a negative impact on them. A DD kids channel would go a long way in plugging that need gap.
Doordarshan, with its huge reach through terrestrial, cable and satellite TV will go a long way in reaching kids who don't have access to quality content. The content can be both educative and entertaining like it is across the world. One of the best examples of a kids’ channels BBC’s CBeebies.
Sesame Street kind of an initiative to give children from under-privileged background a platform to learn skills should be replicated in India. Sesame Street is a long-running American children's television series. In India it has been adapted and called ‘Gali Gali Sim Sim’ and it airs on DD.We should have more of such programmes on DD for children. Time will only tell when these suggestions will be taken seriously.

FICCI FRAMES 2013: A dull affair

For the fourteenth consecutive year the Federation of Indian Chambers and Commerce and Industry (FICCI) hosted FRAMES 2013, a convention on the business of media and entertainment in Mumbai. It was the same venue, same people, same entertainment industry report release by KPMG, the only difference being that this time around the crowd was much less and in the last two years the presence of film and media students attending the convention has become prominent.
For the last couple of years for all those (including me) who have been religiously attending this convention the feeling was the same this year. For me it honestly this convention is like a home coming. I don’t if I don’t attend it for year I think I will start getting palpitations or some kind of a withdrawal symptoms I think ..i am not sure. As usual there were complaints all fronts from food, to bad tea and coffee to bad sessions blah blah… Certain section of Media was also unhappy with the organizers because they did not get the backpack that was given out to journalists. No idea why they did not get that backpack but as I understand one journalist actually wrote a petition against the guys who were handling the media desk and you will be surprised that he had lots of journalists (probably all those who did not get the backpack even signing the petition). This journalist apparently also called the sponsors of the bag to complaint to them that some of the media guys have been discriminated and not given the backpack. But Sadly, all his efforts I believe went futile and nothing came out of it.
Over all the conversations were no different that this convention was not going anywhere. It is not moving head and can we do something about it please. Surprisingly, compared to last year the global and Pan-Asian presence was also seemed minimal this year. This year there was the Korean delegation
The theme of the conference this year was ‘Engaging a Billion Consumers’ and to begin with the FICCI-KPMG report on the entertainment industry titled- ‘The Power of a billion: Realising the Indian Dream’  is always optimistic of its growth rates and there is no doubt that the M&E industry is on a growth trajectory. The report forecasts that the industry is expected to grow as a CAGR of 15.2 per cent to reach Rs 1,66,100 crore (INR 1661 billion) by 2017 and the largest contributor to this growth will be the television segment followed closely by the film segment.
The future of the Indian entertainment industry is extremely bright. These numbers overkill by the FICCI reports every year and which is considered the bible by all and mores so the media (Journalists) has not changed in anyway in the last couple of years. It’s as bulky as always.
The FICCI Frames convention happens to be a good networking ground and definitely there are no take away from most of the sessions. As usual the Bollywood sessions were most attended by people and some serious sessions like Public Broadcasting for Kids’ and The Power of Data had skeletal presence.
The amazing aspect was that the Public Broadcasting for Kids’ session was interesting with the eminent panelists like filmmaker Amol Gupte, Monica Tata of Turner International, Ram Mohan-The Father of Animation discuss the urgent need for a kids’ Public broadcasting channel in India but unfortunately their viewpoints went unheard both by the media as well as by the government officials. There was no official from Prasar Bharti present on the panel or in the crowd for this session. There were precisely 37 people in the Lotus room for this session.
The third and final day of the convention was no different. To entice the crowd to stay back till the end there is one celebrity who is also always invited for a short interview. This time around it was Karan Johar in conversation with Kajol. The valedictory session was delivered by Ronnie Screwvala, a media industry stalwart and the man at the helm of the activity as the MD of Disney UTV. In his address he made some valid points such as the M&E industry growing at 12 per cent is not enough as it is considered among the sunrise industries but yet its growth is lower than most of the Sunrise Industries. He also believed that the industry as a whole needed need to fill in the gap between the phenomenal talent to grow content and match it with the commerce. Screwvala was happy that finally after waiting for almost 20 years digitization has been finally implemented and that’s fantastic news for the TV and Broadcasting industry. Although he still believes that it will take 2-3 years for revenue monetisation. He acknowledged that the gaming and radio have become viable businesses and the regional market has grown phenomenally. However, he had a few concerns such as lack of unanimity with the M&E sector and lack of innovation and cinema needs to make consumers come out of the house. Finally, he concluded by adding that a combination of data, bandwidth, and content is going to be more valuable than oil in the next decade.
Uday K Varma, the Secretary of I&B Ministry said that there are plans to give out 839 radio licenses. He suggested that ministry would be more than willing to come out with guidelines if so necessary for setting up a body to do ratings. With regards to the tax issue, he said he was willing to work with the film industry to develop a case for the industry when GST comes into play. Later in his address, he added that, “I hope to make India the digital hub of the world, not just in terms of teleports, but digital production. We the government and the industry need to align our efforts and thinking. “
The crowd at Frames 2013 seemed absolutely scarce and the enthusiasm was low key.
With the M&E sector on a growth trajectory path wonder when this convention will really start making sense to all stake holders and media attending this event.

Ram Kapoor and the Harlem Shake

We are all aware of the Gangam style. The M&E fraternity also got a feel of it three days ago at the Frames convention in Mumbai where a Korean delegation was present. Similar to the Gangam style, the next new internet rage has been the "Harlem Shake'. For those not aware like me what's Harlem Shake here is the wikipedia explanation for the same: The Harlem Shake is an internet meme in the form of a video in which a group of people performs a comedy sketch accompanied by a short excerpt from the song 'Harlem Shake'. As a meme, the video was replicated by many people, using the same concept, and this rapidly led to it becoming viral in early February 2013, With thousands of "Harlem Shake" videos being made and uploaded to YouTube every day at the height of its popularity.
And yet again YRF has attempted to create a Harlem Shake version with the cast and crew of the yet to be released film 'Mere dad ki Maruti. This nutty video was shot during a special screening of the film. It's the first time that something like this is being experimented with a Bollywood film. Ashish Patil of YRF says, "while we are doing the regular marketing and promotion of the film. We have done some innovative stuff like Stomping for the title track and now the Harlem Shake. This is targeted at the younger and a different kind of audience." I was told that the idea of Harlem Shake first  struck Anushka Sharma...yes the actress the day before at midnight.
Offlate Bollywood has been seeing some interesting innovations in marketing. Many of the recent films that have been declared as blockbusters have one common thing in them, which is 'innovative marketing', so much so that it has become the call of the day. For example during Gangs Of Wasseypur, the producer hired graffiti artistes from well known colleges like J.J. School of arts to do designs on outdoor walls in Mumbai. And their 'works' was seen  when one passed on the road from Mahim To Matunga. Similar grafitti designs were painted in various other cities to promote the film. For Kahani, lead actress Vidya Balan was roaming around in the streets with a baby bump promoting the film.
In today’s time, a movie might be great but sans an aggressive marketing campaign, it would be very difficult to have it make an impact at the box office. The aggressive marketing followed in Bollywood today could well be credited to the Studios such as Disney UTV Motion Pictures, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Yash Raj Films, Eros International to name a few that have put a method to the madness of branding and marketing movies. Secondly, the corporatisation of the film studios is helping.

If such methods of innovative marketing will add to the collections at the BO window is something that only time will tell.

Japan calling .......

It interesting to note that there is a increasing demand for Bollywood films in Japan. The Japanese are not novice to Indian films. One of the biggest super star of India-Rajnikant is an all time hit in Japan. All his films release simultaneously in Jaoan and I have been told that the Japanese women swoon over the super star. But, the latest entrant into the Japanese market is Bollywood. For a while now the Japanese buyers have been scouting for good Hindi films with universal themes to release in Japan. Yash Raj Films was the first studio to crack it with two of its latest films Kabir Khan's Ek Tha Tiger and Shah Rukh Khan starrer Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Soon to follow behind YRF is Eros International which will release its 6 year old film Farah Khan's romantic thriller Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om will release across 15 screens in Japan on April 16. Subtitled in Japanese, the film has been renamed as 'Koi Suru Rinne' . Koi Suru means to Fall in love and Rinne means reincarnation. 

Bollywood has been looking for newer markets to showcase its films. It has now moved beyond the Asian diaspora in the overseas market and realised that its films are finding space among the foreigners. 

In October this year Japan is also hosting the India film festival Japan which will aim to provide a common platform for cinemas of India and Japan, contributing to the understanding and appreciation of film cultures of both the nations.The idea of the festival is  also to introduce Indian cinema to the Japanese audience and other communities living in Japan. 

In its 100th year one can truly say that Indian cinema and Bollywood especially has come a long way.   

check out my story I had done on this topic in Business Today: 

http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/mami-mumbai-film-festival-global-buyers-eye-indian-film-titles/1/19494.html

mere dad ki Maruti .....gets Stomped !!!!

Hey guys, here is something interesting for you. Have you heard of Stomping!! Aah what’s stomping even I asked when I was asked this question.. then I was asked do you know of Beat Boxing-created using mouth, lips and tounge and I happily nodded yes ofcourse I know of beat Boxing. Have watched a lot of beat Boxing on youtube.  Well then Stomping is no different. It is also a funky new genre of music created using everyday instruments and body parts for percussion. And guess what for the first time ever a Bollywood studio has experimented with this music genre for their upcoming film. 

YRF's new film 'Mere Dad ki Maruti' is using this genre for his title track thereby taking film music to a whole new stomping level. Dj Nucleya ( formerly with one of India's most popular bands bandish Projekt and who has also opened for one of the World's most popular and biggest DJ like David Getta) has innovatively used car parts of Maruti-from doors, bonnets, ignition sounds to hubcups, power-windows and more to create a groove. He has then mixed this with 'Beatboxing.

The music video, directed by Babblefish features some of India’s best B-boxing alongside the leads of the film, Saqib Saleem & Rhea Chakraborty. Choreographed by Tony Kundu, whose credits include Madonna, Saturday Night Live, Cirque du Soleil and the famous AR Rahman Jai Ho World Tour. Red Bull is a partner for the music video and given the track wings.

It interesting how Bollywood is incresingly getting innovative in marketing and promoting its films. Music is definitely one medium to promote films. Given there are so many films releasing every week it has become imperative for filmmakers to think innovatively to be ahead in the race.

Check this video which has just gone live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqJa6bSZn5k

Ek Tha Tiger travels to Japan

In my earlier blog titled ‘Bollywood Spotlight’ I had chalked out couple of interesting trends. One among them was how global buyers are hungry for Indian films. Gone are the days when Indian films were appealing only to the Indian Diaspora overseas, today audiences in non- traditional markets such as China, Korea, Japan, Germany are longing to see Indian films mainly the Bollywood flicks. 
After films like 3 idiots, Stankey ka Dabba, Ra One to name a few- ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif and directed by Kabir Khan premiered in Tokyo on March 7, 2013.  Yash Raj Films (YRF) has entered into a tie-up with Japan’s oldest Production and distribution companies Nikkatsu Corporation to release YRF films in Japan.  Ek Tha Tiger (ETT) will be followed by Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Both the films will release in Japan across 30 screens  on April 20 along with Japanese sub titles. ETT has been renamed in Japan as ‘Tiger-The Legendary Spy’
Nikkatsu has produced and distributed over 5000 titles in various genres including Shohei Imamura films. It has also distributed a wide range of foreign film, including ‘Eastern Promises’, ‘CHE’, ‘Burn After Reading’ , ‘The Ghost Writer’ and ‘Wrestler’. The company was keen to explore Indian films to be distributed in Japan.
I remember, Japanese buyers have been showing keen interest in the Indian film market for a while. Infact, South superstar Rajnikant is one of the most popular stars in Japan. ‘Muthu’ was the film that made him a star in Japan. Today, all his films simultaneously release in Japan. In 2011 when MAMI film festival organizers had launched the Mumbai film Mart (MFM) a place for buyers and sellers to come together, Nikkatsu Corp was also there. It was one of the participants at the Mumbai Film Mart (MFM).  
The overseas market for Indian films is growing and is likely to increase by about 20 per cent in the next five years according to global and Indian buyers and sales agents.  
According to the 2012 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report on the Indian entertainment sector. The Indian film industry clocked overseas box office revenues to the tune of Rs 770 crore in 2010 and this is estimated to go up to Rs 1250 crore by 2015 which is a compounded annual growth rate of 10.2 per cent per annum. Film industry veterans say ten years ago, the overseas market for Indian films was just about 3-5 percent of its entire theatrical business. 
Apart from Japan, South Korea and other markets in South East Asia, Euorpe and Latin America has also shown interest in Indian films. Germany has been an ardent fan of Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) and has released couple of his films as well as other Hindi films. 
Latin America is the other market that Indian filmmakers are understood to be exploring. Rakesh Roshan’s ‘Kites’ was a big success in Latin America.

Some Factoids on 100 year’s of Cinema

1896: First screening of film at The Watson’s Hotel in downtown Mumbai by the Lumier   brothers, who brought cinema from Paris to India.

·         1913: India’s first full length feature film Raja Harishchandra was made by Dadasaheb Phalke

·         1930: Saw the advent of sound in cinema. Alam Ara, produced by Adershir Irani of Imperial studios was India’s first ‘talkie’ released in 1931.

·         1931: Noor Jehan was the first Indian English film

·         1940s: saw the establishment of Studios. Few studios such as Wadia Movitone, Bombay Talkies, Prabhat Studios to name a few introduced organized film making - stars and technicians collected regular pay packets, film budgets were controlled. It was a lucrative trade for the Guajaratis

·         World War II and India’s independence in 1947 saw the emergence of social films

·         Post Independence, young talents like Guru Dutt(Aar Par, CID, Pyaasa, Kagaz ke Phool) Dev Anand(- Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Jewel Thief), and Raj Kapoor(- Mera naam Joker, Bobby), understood western cinema and the changing sensibilities of a free country. They successfully blend this with the Indian culture and society and created classics. Partition introduced new communities to the trade-Punjabis and Sindhis from Lahore and who managed to sideline the Gujratis 

·         1950s belonged to the musicals. RK Studio’s Awara in 1951 was the first film to break the international barriers and was dubbed in Turkish, Persian, Arabic and Russian

·         Mehboob Khan’s Mother India was nominated for the Academy award for the Best Foreign language Film in 1957

·         1959: Guru Dutt’s Kagaz ke Phool was the first cinemascope film of Bollywood

·         1960s was the age of colour films and it was established that it was here to stay. It was also during this time that the film industry was fast gaining the dubious distinction of being a money laundering opportunity, with a growing booty of black market profits. Independent producers from the North lured stars away from studios offering them more than their market value. The studio system collapsed and stars became bigger than the film.

·         The crass kitsch of the 80s gave way to glitzy glamour in the 90s. Before the new millennium, Bollywood began cleaning its act. Once again the business of streamlines.

·         2000: Bollywood is given an industry status

·      2006: coporatisation of the industry took place and studio system come back into existence.

·      2007: Hollywood Studios such as Sony Pictures, Fox Star Studios, Walt Disney, started co-producing bollywood films.

·      This era also saw technical advances in areas such as Visual effects (VFX), animation etc. Films like Rajnikant’s Robot, Roadside Romeo, Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One are examples showcasing India’s capability. Ra.One had 3500 VFX shots in comparison james Cameroon’s Avatar scored around 2700 shots.

·      2010-11: Global buyers start buying bollywood films for Taiwan, Korea, Germany, France, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Poland, Malaysia, China and Belgium where there is no Asian dominance

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M&E sector to touch Rs 91,700 crore in 2013: FICCI-KPMG study

 FICCI and KPMG have yet again joined hands together and released the highlights of the media and entertainment sector. The first report of FICCI FRAMES was released way back in 2000 by the erstwhile consulting firm Arthur Andersen. The report which was the first ever for the Media and Entertainment sector then was extremely optimistic and had pegged the industry size at INR 150 billion and claimed that this number would swell to INR 600 billion by 2005.   

Now we are in 2013..lets check what’s the reality? Lets us take a look at some highlights from the report

To begin with, the latest report says that the Indian M&E industry grew from INR 728 billion (rs 72,800 crore) to INR 820 billion (Rs 82,000 crore) in 2012, registering an overall growth of 12.6 percent. The sector is estimated to achieve a growth of 11.8 per cent in this current year to touch INR 917 billion (Rs 91,700 crore) all on the back of complete digitization, continued growth in regional media, upcoming elections, continued strength in the film sector and fast increasing new media businesses.

Further, the sector is projected to grow at a healthy CAGR of 15.2 percent to reach INR 1661 billion by 2017, says the FICCI – KPMG Media & Entertainment 2013.

When one glances through the highlights of the report nothing has changed much. TV still is a dominant medium, revenue models are still advertising dependent but soon that could change with complete digitization coming into play.

Infact, some channels are already seeing a significant amount of revenues coming from subscriptions. This is only going to get better. With the metros saturating, regional markets hold great potential and are key centres of growth, live events are also seeing a rise and proving to be fruitful for advertisers as these events are attracting widespread audiences across the country.

The film sector is doing well and in 2012 saw a growth of 21 per cent over 2011 to record revnues to the tune of Rs 11240 crore. Digital advertising which until few years ago was considered not so great medium has also seen a good growth in 2012. The medium has seen growth in revenues from Rs 1540 crore to Rs 2170 crore, a 41 per cent rise over 2011.

The 14^th edition of the FICCI-KPMG Media and Entertainment Report  will be released at Frames, a global convention of the media and entertainment industry starting from March 12^th to 14^th in Mumbai.

Bollywood Spotlight

Bollywood is completing 100 years and it is no longer a hidden entertainment industry.  Rather, it now has its presence almost in every corner of the world. It competes with its counterpart Hollywood in all aspects. However, Bollywood on the whole has undergone tremendous changes over the years such as actors turning producers but with the intention doing business, Bollywood divas turning entrepreneurs to maintain future stability, small screen (TV) taking over the big screen, celebrities digital play, Bollywood case studies at management schools, small films by independent filmmakers going mainstream…….

Here is a look at some of the interesting trends of the recent times that has changed the face of Bollywood from a business perspective. I have covered a couple of these trends and therefore will provide links to those stories

      Actors turned producers:

This is not a new phenomenon. Yesteryear actors like Guru Dutt, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Kishore Kumar to name a few made films because they were passionate about the craft. None of them really put a thought behind building a business out of their craft. But, today’s actors such as Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, John Abraham and many more are banking on their craft and capabilities to build their business. They have turned producers but, this time around the difference is that these new wave actors turned producers are savvy business men and playing the game safely.
So what is it that today’s actors turned producers are doing right? For one they are co-producing their films with other large studio banners like Eros, Disney UTV, Viacom18 Motion Pictures among others. Secondly, these new actor-producers are doing away with their huge actor fees and instead taking a percentage of profit in the films as per a pre-agreed arrangement.

For More read here on this trend

http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/bollywood-actors-turn-savvy-producers/1/189548.html

     Small Screen (TV) takes over the big Screen 

Today, TV has always been a a powerful medium for the bollywood stars. Amitabh Bachchan got a new lease of life thanks to Kaun banega Crorepati on Star Plus. And, that set the trend as other top stars followed suit finding their respective niche on TV either as a host or a Judge of a show. TV has also lent itself as a fantastic platform for promoting films. Given that the reach of TV is much higher today it is a good medium to promote films. It’s become a norm today for stars to promote their films on TV. One such recent interesting and innovative experiment is being done by Balaji Telefilms which is coming up with a new mega series called Ek Thi Naayika for the promotion of Vishal Bharadwaj and Balaji Motion Pictures new film 'Ek Thi Daayan'. The series will feature television industry’s top most actresses, coming together for the first time, in a thrilling and spooky series based on the ‘dayaan’ characters in the forthcoming film. The 16-episode series will also feature characters from ‘Ek Thi Dayaan’ , including an appearance by Emraan Hashmi. One must understand here that these are just promotional and marketing innovations before the film releases. It is a way to create that mind space for the film. But, whether this will lead to the film success is anybody’s guess.

Talking about small screen being dominant with the theatrical revenues shrinking drastically, Cable & Satellite rights have reached a new height. Broadcasters are bidding aggressively for films. Rights to almost all big budget and small films are now being prior sold even before it hits the theatres. Broadcasters are also bidding aggressively to build their own film library. Last year Star spent approximately Rs 250 crore to acquire Colors channel’s film library when they were launching Movies OK. More recently, Star India has struck Rs 400 crore deal with Ajay Devgn for all his upcoming Bollywood releases till 2017.  Devgn is the second star after Salman Khan to associate in such a deal with Star India. The deal that is for 5 years is said to include 10 films, a statement from Devgn’s office said. Complete digitisation of the broadcasting industry is expected to further increase the penetration of film channels in Hindi heartland. But, the question is while bollywood producers and actors seem to be happy and raking in the moolah from small screen, are broadcasters recovering the cost and making profits by buying films at such huge costs? I will revisit this question after a few days.

    Bollywood turns Graphical

Following the Hollywood trend, Bollywood filmmakers have joined the bandwagon of launching graphic novels prior to the release of their films. It started with Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming film Ra.One launched its graphic novel G.One-The Journey Begins. Then iRock Media, a film production house started by Manmohan Shetty launched Zombie Talkies: Blood Fest In Bollywood, in keeping with their Zombie theme of their film Rock The Shaadi starring Abhay Deol. Farhan Akthar, the director of Don-2 released Don-2 comic and Abhishek Sharma, the director of Tere Bin Laden, has written the graphic novel Munkee Man. Also Westland Publishers is understood to be talking to director Anurag Kashyap for a couple of graphic novels. Filmmakers are of the pinion that it’s a good way to familiarize the audience with the film before its release. According to some publishers the format is trying to fill the gap between television and fine print to lure new and younger segments of readers.

     Global buyers hungry for Bollywood films

Gone are the days when Indian films were appealing only to the Indian Diaspora overseas, today audiences in non- traditional markets such as China, Korea, Japan, Germany are longing to see Indian films mainly the Bollywood flicks. The interest has been further fuelled by the success of films like Aamir Khan starrer 3 Idiots, Shah Rukh Khan starrer Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, My Name is Khan in markets such as Taiwan, Korea, Germany, France, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Poland, Malaysia, Taiwan, China and Belgium. The overseas market for Indian films is growing and is likely to increase by about 20 per cent in the next five years according to global and Indian buyers and sales agents. According to a  PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report on the Indian entertainment sector. The Indian film industry clocked overseas box office revenues to the tune of Rs 770 crore in 2010 and this is estimated to go up to Rs 1250 crore by 2015 which is a compounded annual growth rate of 10.2 per cent per annum. Film industry veterans say ten years ago, the overseas market for Indian films was just about 3-5 percent of its entire theatrical business.

     Celebrities digital play

Bollywood stars are getting very active digitally with facebook, twitter and blog account. They are also open to equity linked participation with a new age business. For example, Salman Khan was roped in as a brand ambassador of Yatra.com in return for a 15 percent equity stake. Karishma Kapoor is associated with babyoye.com which deals with Baby stuff. However, Amitabh Bachchan, is one of the most digitally savvy actors at the age of 70. He is a true digital evangelist. There is no other actor in the world his age who is so active on the digital medium. he has evolved with times and set the trend for many young actors to follow suit.

http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/bigb-birthday-amitabh-bachchan-a-digital-evangelist-at-70/1/188943.html

Brands are increasingly looking at social media influencers to decide who their ambassadors should be. So, it is understood that Priyanka Chopra gets presented with Rs 28 lakh car for tweeting about Toyota twenty times. 

Similarly, tumbhi.com, an online platform for artists to showcase their talent, has roped in Bollywood heavyweights such as director & writer Anurag Kashyap and poet and lyricist Irshad Kamil in their panel along with others, to help them curate works of the millions of Indians who upload their work on this website, and guide them. Celebreties across India are already building their own voice blog follower base. They are using their blog to share voice updates to reach out to their fans who receive SMS updates of the posts. Fans can then dial-in at their convenience to listen to their voice blog. Companies like UTV interactive are cashing in on this space as it is understood that it’s a $30-40 million industry which will grow to $100 million in the next 3-4 years. It seems that vloice blogs have a monthly active user base of anywhere between 2-3 million.

The Story So far……

It's a typical Bollywood extravaganza.-- A young beautiful girl meets boy… they fall in love. Typically after few dream songs and car chases they get married….it's a happy ending.

This scenario in a way epitomizes the Indian media and entertainment sector which is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country and the reasons are not far to seek. The changing consumption patterns, rising aspiration levels, increase in the number of middle-income households and the propensity to spend on leisure and entertainment are the key growth drivers. Over the last five years, the industry has witnessed significant evolution. There has been an increase in the number of television channels, entry of private sector companies, increasing foreign direct investment (FDI), entry of non-media companies, move towards complete digitization, organized Bollywood dealings, increased pool of creative skills and a growing domestic market.

India has become the leading destination for global investors in the emerging economies, thereby helping the industry to deliver. Amongst these, some of the key trends that have shaped the media and entertainment industry and brought it to its current state are evolution of business models, de-coupling of content from platforms, easier access to capital and globalization of the industry. Despite the global economic slowdown, Indian media and entertainment companies are still poised for success. Entertainment is a part of people’s lifestyle and a route to escapism, as even witnessed during the 1930’s Depression. And like all Bollywood movies, we preempt a happy ending to this story too!

As I go along, I will track many changes, trends that occur in this sector as and when it happens and analyse them.