Regional heroes national screens

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: You may have satiated your appetite for contemporary regional films by watching them in theatres, a few months after its release. Or you may have been forced to simply rent a DVD, as most regional movies do not get to see the face of a multiplex in your city. The simple reason being, these films cater to a very restricted market with a limited audience base. However, with the changing trends in the Indian film industry, nation-wide theatrical release for regional films now ensures a better reach for these films.

Devang Sampat, senior Vice President, marketing and programming, Cinemax India Ltd, feels that releasing a regional film on the same day nation-wide as in its home state helps as cities like Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai have a metropolitan mix of multilingual crowds. This translates to an increase in footfalls for regional films in the metros. “As far as collections are concerned, south Indian films have the highest contribution towards box office collections compared to Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi and Bangla films. South has a very strong market in terms of production budget, content and star cast,” informs Sampat.

Big budget films

With corporate funding, both production and marketing budgets for these films are also on the rise. The budget for Tamil and Telugu films are the highest in terms of regional films. For instance, the Kamal Hasan starrer Dasavataram that was made on an estimated budget of Rs 60 crore, spent a whopping Rs 15-20 crore on marketing. Experts concur that Dasavataram’s budget may seem substantially less when compared to a Hindi film that are made on budgets ranging between Rs 40 crore and Rs 100 crore but for a regional film, that spend is huge. Regional television channels help promoting these films too. A strategic tie up with a regional channel can help in focused marketing for the film.

According to a media planner, “Instead of buying bulk ad spots either on a general entertainment channel or a music channel, regional films can be promoted by advertising on the language specific regional television channel.”