Indian film industry absorbs market shock

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: made a profit of Rs 13 crore and we might have lost 3%-5% due to the appreciating rupee. But this year, we have been able to liquidate it thanks to weakening of the rupee.”

After releasing films like Ghatotkachh and Mere Baap Pehle Aap and distributing Jannat overseas, Shemaroo is set to release Ugly & Pugli and Ishquia starring Arshad Warshi and Vidya Balan, which is being co-produced by Vishal Bharadwaj.

Producer Abdul Samee Siddiqui of Sunrise Pictures, which produced films like Halla Bol and is currently busy producing Horn Ok Pleassss with Nana Patekar and Rimi Sen, says revenues are “switching from the physical side which is ticket selling in cinema halls to the digital side and that is how we are protecting our revenues.”

Commenting on soaring inflation, Nileish Malhotra, producer/director of Monopoly-The Game of money with Zeenat Aman & Nikita Anand, says that it is affecting margins because production costs have gone up.

“Once the price of diesel and petrol cost goes up, everything else rises. Even the courier cost has gone up by 25%, because they are passing off the fuel surcharge to consumer. Everybody else has hiked prices, so producers tend to lose. Our margins are definitely lower,” adds Malhotra.

A section of the industry is worried more about overpricing of products rather than financial market woes. Says Shubho Shekhar Bhattacharjee, CEO, Planman Motion Pictures: “Many of the offerings in the entertainment industry, particularly in recent times, have been overpriced, maybe owing to the bullish market trends. Companies investing in over-priced offerings are going to get affected in the immediate term.”

According to Bhattacharjee, one of the industries which can survive comfortably during recession, is the entertainment industry. “I do not foresee any such major crisis in the filmed entertainment business,” he says.