Bollywood wasn?t serious about insurance until the winds of corporatisation blew in eight years ago. When film-making got industry status in 1998, and production houses lined up for bank finance, banks had insisted on corporatisation and risk insurance. And film insurance created a buzz after Subhash Ghai insured his Taal for Rs 12 crore the same year. But insurance never gathered much momentum in an industry notorious for its opaque operations, underhand deals and underworld connections. Even now, only a minuscule sum is insured in the Rs 20,000-crore industry.

But that is likely to change post-26/11. Producers and filmmakers have woken up to the challenge terrorism poses to their operations?a prime concern being the safety of celebrities and the vulnerabilities of prime locales. As more production houses seek to cover their risk, this year would see a couple of changes in the insurance space. One, the premium for underwriting film insurance cover would go up?now it is 2-2.25% of a film?s budget. Second, more players will join the industry.

Now, only two non-life insurers are aggressively into the film insurance business: the Chennai-based state-run United India Insurance and the Pune-based private sector insurer, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. But ICICI Lombard and Reliance General Insurance are poised to enter film insurance. Soma Sekharan, CEO, Reliance General Insurance, says the company is in the process of filing an application before the regulator, IRDA, for launching film insurance products. ?Film insurance is picking up now?, says.

Most big film production houses claim that every film being released from their stables are fully covered by insurance. We are thinking of players like Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd (RBEL), Eros, Percept Picture Company, Shemaroo and Mukta Arts. Big Pictures, a part of RBEL, has a whole lot of films on its slate for 2009 release and interestingly all of them are insured, including Luck by chance, 13B and Sikander. Says Mahesh Ramanathan, COO, Big Pictures: ?The premia for underwriting a film project may go up. Still, we are ready to insure all our films as usual.?

TV channels too are now more serious about risk cover. Some are insuring not only their studios but also their frontline staff like reporters and lensmen.

Even a mall developer like DLF claims to having insured all its properties, including a few screens at Gurgaon. The Mumbai attacks and the serial blasts at several cities have brought home a realisation that terror strikes can sent shooting schedules go haywire, even if one is not a direct victim.

In fact, Bajaj Allianz received settlement claim from a production house for the aborted shooting schedule at Taj Palace Hotel. Says TA Ramalingam, head, underwriting, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance: ?Post-26/11, our company has got one claim for settlement worth Rs 5-6 lakh from a film production house whose shooting was scheduled to be held at Taj Hotel.?

Harsh Varddhan, general manager, United India Insurance, says that even though the film industry has got the industry status, it is yet to become fully transparent, which is a must for insurance.

There are filmmakers like Karan Johar who have always ensured that their projects are well insured. Some new releases with insurance cover from PPC slated for this year include 8 by 10 featuring Akshay Kumar, Raftaar featuring Imran Hashmi and Bom bom bole directed by Priyadarshan, according to Shailendra Singh, managing director, PPC.

Entertainment company Shemaroo too has been providing insurance cover for its films like Manorama six feet under, Mere Baap Pahle Aap. A forthcoming film from Shemaroo with insurance cover is Ishqia which stars Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan. Post-26/11, the company is ready to pay more in case the insurers came out with more structured products. Says Hiren Gada, Shemaroo Entertainment: ?In the film production business we have to look at enhanced insurance cover, going beyond the existing norms of production cost.?

?Judicious and intelligent filmmakers have become conscious about the importance of insurance. Terror attacks will only reaffirm their belief and will educate those who were avoiding it for lack of awareness or shortage of funds,? says Krishika Lulla, director, creatives, Eros International.

Apart from its recent film with insurance cover Yuvraaj, Right ya wrong, Paying guest and Hello Darling are some of the under production films from Mukta Arts that are insured. Rahul Puri, vice-president, finance, Mukta Arts, says film insurance will definitely pick up as it has a direct link to what happened in Mumbai. However, Puri says that ?we are still young in film insurance and we need to see the introduction of a few more structured products.?

Taking a cue from its peers in Hollywood, the Indian film industry has introduced the concept of ?completion bond?? a form of insurance offered by a completion bond company guaranteeing that the film will be completed on time and within budget. While directing Cash, Anubhav Sinha tied up with a completion bond company which bought the insurance cover for the film. But Sinha complains that the insurance industry does not understand the uncertainty quotient which is inherently part of show business.

The television industry too is insuring its programmes. The entire media team that had anchored base in Mumbai to cover the terror attack live had been provided insurance cover by their owners. Still, Anuradha Prasad, CMD, BAG Films, which owns channels like News 24 and E 24, feels that more than insurance, the important issue is how much you can protect yourself on such occasions.

Anuj Saxena, who played the lead role in Sony TV series Kumkum and runs a film production house, Maverick, wants some changes in film insurance products. ?With the meltdown, there?s bound to be an impact on the creative industry which is so unpredictable. The TV programmers are the worst victim of this situation as they are often seen as an unpredictable business which can go off the screen all of a sudden in case their TRPs begin sliding,? he says.

As it turns out, technicians and workers have no insurance benefits, but some producers have insurance facilities which benefit them. ?In the present scenario, a strong insurance investment is the need of the hour,? says Mrunalini A Dayal, who has directed films like Raakh-from the fire within.

According to S Barry John, guru of actors like SRK, Shiny Ahuja, Kunal Kapoor and Manoj Bajpai, ?Insurance for the film industry is as important as it is for agriculture or the manufacturing industry. So what if we have to pay a premium, this helps us to protect losses.? But John agrees that underwriters of insurance companies need to be flexible to encourage filmmakers to go for insurance covers.