In 2008, when UTV launched its World Movies channel, there was a buzz around cinema from across the world. NDTV announced the arrival of NDTV Lumiere and another player, Palador Pictures, with a library of 600 plus films, also talked about its own channel. Two years on, every world movies player admits that it has been a process of learning and there?s been quite a reorganisation of the business?Lumiere, for instance, is now a Time Warner company?and all agree that it will take awhile before Indians become world cinema buffs in the true sense of the term and know their Bergmans from their Goddards.
?The business exists, but it is a cottage industry,? says Gautam Shiknis of Palador Pictures. ?A niche, boutique approach is required, unless it is part of a much larger portfolio,? he adds. Palador found it difficult to sustain a 30-member organisation and has since downscaled to keep the venture alive. ?I have got 100 prints lying around of the best of best films, but have nowhere to show them,? he rues, but is hopeful with the response he has got from doing retrospectives at film festivals, institutional sales and DVD launches. Below-the-line activities, releasing world cinema across platforms are some of the things that is helping to create an ecosystem receptive to such films. Says Dhruvank Vaidya, senior director, new ventures, Turner General Entertainment Networks India: ?We launched world cinema across multiple platforms. The response has been excellent from some and from others it has not lived up to initial expectations, but has given us a lot of insight into how the audience prefers to consume this kind of films.?
Most agree that television is where the growth lies, and Vaidya says TV viewership is growing for this kind of film. Sameer Ganapathy, business head, UTV World Movies, says the channel today competes with mainline English movie channels and is regularly in the top three. On the exhibition space, it hasn?t met with too much success. For instance, a show of the Oscar-winning German film, The Lives of Others, had only two people in the theatre.
But Rahul Singh, senior VP, PVR Cinemas, which has showcased a lot of world cinema at its Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore properties, says there is an interest in serious cinema and that the base is expanding. Lumiere, which has released over 30 films in theatres across the country, says the response to these has not been as good as expected. ?A better way to show these films in theatres would be to create specialised, theme-based festivals like ?Experience Cannes?, which we did with PVR across Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore,? says Vaidya.
The players are doing their best and more to spread the word. ?Over the years, we have created a lot of unique experience around watching these films, be it in the form of Affiliate Film Clubs, corporate evenings for premium clients, or showing our films at alternate venues like restaurants, bars, etc. We have done these across eight cities and have generated a lot of traction for them,? says Vaidya.
UTV World Movies says it engages its audiences in activities that bring in multicultural experiences ranging from art to theatre and cuisine. In Kolkata, the channel is celebrating two great movies, Charlie Chaplin?s The Great Dictator and Francois Truffaut?s 400 Blows, with customised Italian cuisine at Casa Toscana. ?There is definitely a gestation period for a world cinema TV channel,? says Vaidya. ?The need of the hour is to create a fruitful ecosystem where various commercial and cultural organisations come together to create a scalable and commercially viable platform to promote high quality films from around the world. Several cultural organisations can use the TV channel as an excellent platform to promote the film culture of their respective countries by showcasing their films on a regular basis. This immediately spreads their good work to a much wider audience base across the country. The channel also gives a much more targeted audience base to premium advertisers.? Lumiere has also released over 60 titles on home video and along with other players, has been able to create a separate category on retail shelves for world cinema. But at least one home video player, Excel Home Entertainment, has had to close the venture due to non-profitability. Says M N Kapasi, MD, Excel Home Entertainment: ?The world cinema venture is not commercially viable as yet. It has to be a high-price, low-volume model, but again piracy is much higher and value adds are rare.?
So, aren?t people receptive to watching good quality cinema from around the world? ?They are,? says Kapasi, ?It is just that they want it for free.? But Ganapathy harps on the fact that ?any business that has increasing demand is bound to be commercially successful,? but admits that to enhance the viability, one must concentrate on additional areas of revenue and spread awareness. UTV World Movies, Ganapathy points out, has a template ready and is working on home video releases with Shemaroo.
?We can?t start a world cinema channel just now but am working with partners who are likely to launch a channel by end of this year,? says Shiknis. One of the big positives, according to Vaidya, is the fact that world cinema has already gone beyond the metros. ?There is a loyal and sizeable following in all the southern states, Maharashtra, Bengal and certain regions in states like Assam. There are very active film societies and cultural organisations in most of these regions that have further aided the establishment and expansion of our category,? he adds. Lumiere is working with a lot of independent entrepreneurs who want to start local film clubs by helping them with the know-how, branding support and, most importantly, the content.
What India lacks, rues Kiran Rao, director of niche film Dhobi Ghat, are places where culture can be fostered. ?There are no 50-seater theatres to screen world cinema and a 250-seater finds it unviable,? she says. Good cinema like art and music needs patrons. ?Unfortunately, we don?t have many,? says Sikhnis, but agrees with Vaidya that if it?s given time, world cinema will grow. ?In future, the TV channel, home video and Internet streaming will be the most viable models for world cinema, primarily because they are the most efficient and scalable mediums for this genre,? says Vaidya