Corporate moviemakers have undoubtedly revived Indian cinema. Of course, money made all the difference ? robust marketing, global premiers, foreign locations, digital post-production and visual effects. Although multiplexes have able to lure movie lovers back to theatres from television sets, there is said to be an apparent mismatch between the expenditure and returns of a movie.
Plummeting production costs and soaring artists? wages have created this mismatch, says G V Films Ltd director A Venkatramani. The number of films released every year has gone up and so have the costs, he adds. Piracy is another problem that affects returns, he says.
Digital post-production is becoming a standard and more and more films are going for visual effects. The salary for visual effects artists and animators have tripled in the past one year due to huge demand and talent crunch, says EFX-Prasad Corporation?s director Kavita Prasad.
This is another reason why corporate movie producers are venturing into other lines of the movie business. Theatre chains started producing movies to ensure unrestricted flow of content; they distributed their own movies; bought third-party films, and also sought international rights.
This integration has helped de-risk, says Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd managing director P Saminathan. ?UTV and Pyramid, who have managed to include forward and backward integration into moviemaking cycle, will be able to sustain their businesses. The others might find it difficult,? he adds.
The theatre business is a low-margin trade and hence corporates are looking for other opportunities within the filmmaking business, he says. Pyramid recently forayed into food and beverage business, which is said to offer profit margins up to 40%. Pyramid hopes to convert its F&B foray into a $1-billion business by 2010, asserts Saminathan.
