Content could be king. But, for a movie, the king’s sceptre is with the distributors.
However, corporate theatre chains in South India are bent on shattering distributors’ virtual powers in deciding a movie’s fate.
Large theatre chains are becoming de facto distributors themselves. Apart from producing movies to fill their screens, they also buy third-party projects to fill the missing link in the movie making cycle.
P Saminathan, managing director, Pyramid Saimira Theatres Ltd, says, ?Distributors buy films based purely on star value. Good films with no major star cast do not get a fair price, he adds.?
He cites the example of ?Mozhi?, one of 2007’s biggest hits. The film starring Jyothika in the lead role and excluding Prakash Raj, the rest of the star cast was almost unknown. Distributors did not come forward to buy the movie.
Pyramid bought the rights for ?Mozhi? and made it a huge success, says Saminathan.
Pyramid has leased about 200 screens in Tamil Nadu alone. The price of a movie is based on bidding. The hero’s popularity, media hype and distributors’ discretion decides the price of a film. The rest is left with the audience to decide.
A Venkatramani, director, GV Films Ltd, says, “Earlier it used to be either 90% loss or 110% profit. The entry of corporates is hoped to change the situation and help the producers.”
However, distributors seem unfazed by corporates, at least for now. Corporates can pump money but not organise the industry, they say.
Kalaipuli G Sekaran, president, Chennai-Kanchipuram-Thiruvallur (districts) Distributors Association, says, ?This is just a blame game. Content decides a movie’s fate; distributors are only vehicles, he adds.?
“No distributor will want to risk his money. When people do not come to watch movies, what can distributors do? We have neither paid heed to this issue nor discussed it in our forums. We’ll only have to only wait and watch,” he says.
