It?s not been a happy seven months for Bollywood with high-profile films flopping, the IPL keeping people away from the multiplexes topped by a global financial slowdown resulting in a severe liquidity crunch. With Dharma Productions? Dostana getting a fantastic opening and at least three big-ticket releases like Shah Rukh Khan?s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (Yash Raj Films), Aamir Khan?s Ghajini and Akshay Kumar?s Jumbo (an animated filmfrom Percept Picture Company) set for a festive season launch in December, the industry was looking to end the lull, when terror struck Mumbai.
The immediate impact on the entertainment industry was telling. People stayed away from the multiplexes, so much so that some shows of the two films that released on November 27, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye and Sorry Bhai, had to be cancelled. The music release of Warner Brothers Pictures? Chandi Chowk to China was put off in Mumbai, the Jethro Tull concert cancelled and at least two small budget films, Kaash? Mere Hote and Khalballi ? Fun Unlimited, pushed back their release.
?Everybody is feeling low and depressed,? admits trade analyst Amod Mehra, ?but it?s human nature to forget. People will move on with life, pick up the pieces and return to the cinemas in good time.? In fact, despite the dismal opening, UTV Motion Pictures? Oye Lucky Lucky Oye picked up momentum after a measured start. ?Friday was very slow, very depressing but Oye did Rs 4.61 crore worth of business on the weekend,? says Siddharth Roy Kapur, Chief Executive Officer UTV Motion Pictures. ?Oye is holding strong. People are slowly coming back to the theatres to get a temporary diversion from the depressing events,? he adds. UTV has two big releases coming up in January and February, Anurag Kashyap?s Dev D and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra?s Delhi 6.
?The occupancy rates are still low but picking up,? admits Joydeep Ghosh Roy, CM, PVR Cinemas, western region. ?With four to five films releasing on Friday, people will have a lot more choice,? he adds. At Inox, especially the Nariman Point property, there was a direct impact of the terror attacks. ?We were shut for two days and opened on Sunday,? says Harshavardhan Gangurde, Vice President, marketing, Inox. He is hopeful that Rab Ne and Ghajini will draw back people to the multiplexes after a lull. As Mehra puts it: ?Let?s face it, there haven?t been too many films out there people want to go watch. Both Rab Ne and Ghajini should break that.?
Says Navin Shah, Chief Executive Officer, Percept Picture Company: ?Bollywood was already going through a tough time, now the terror attacks have added to its woes. The box-office collections that had picked up with Dostana and Fashion have again dipped to phenomenal lows.? Like everyone else in the industry, Shah?s hoping SRK, Akshay and Aamir can deliver Bollywood from a bad year.
Strikes, re-runs, dropping TRPs shake TV
Despite the explosive growth in channels, the television industry too has been having a difficult year of sorts. First, a disagreement over the remuneration of workers culminated into a strike called by the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE). This crisis not only brought the shooting of TV content to a halt but also resulted in a 21-day lull for all general entertainment channels (GECs). Much to the dismay of advertisers, broadcasters were forced to air re-runs that resulted in a sharp drop in television ratings. The gross rating point (GRPs) of GECs dipped 35%-55% during the first three days of the strike.
Says a media planner, ?The strikes resulted in a shift of eyeballs from GECs to movie channels and sports channels. Some GECs like NDTV Imagine and 9X experienced a lot of sampling during the strikes and their ratings were not as low.? Danish Khan, head of marketing, Sony Entertainment Television, feels that the strikes were the worst crisis to have hit broadcasters. ?All GECs lost out on a lot of business during the three weeks and the most important lesson for broadcasters would be to create more episode banks to deal with such a situation in future.? TV channels started airing fresh episodes of shows from December 1 and as per aMap, a television rating agency, the TRPs picked up once fresh content was aired. While Star Plus launched its new show Aap Ki Kacheri, hosted by Kiran Bedi, Colors launched Uttran ? a fiction series. As per aMap, both these shows acquired TRPs of 2.35 and 2.07 respectively.
Keertan Adyanthaya, executive Vice President and Seneral Manager, Star Plus, says, ?It is quite early to comment on the rise in TRPs after the strike was called off as we do not have the TRPs yet. This week?s TRPs will only be available next Wednesday.? The TV industry was already in crisis, and the terror attacks in Mumbai only worsened the situation. Says Khan of Sony: ?It was an unfortunate occasion for the city.? While TRPs for GECs during this phase was already running low, news channels grabbed maximum eyeballs for airing live coverage of the terror attacks. Not surprisingly, the ratings of English news channels and Hindi news channels soared to 0.2% and 1.0% respectively on November 26.
