As small films deliver high returns, Bollywood has found a new kahaani for success

MUMBAI: The Bollywood business script now has three storylines. First, a significant number of smaller films, with budgets under Rs 30 crore, have done good business. Second, a number of big-budget, big-star movies have tanked. And, third, this new Bollywood business model is attracting many new players, pulling down the industry’s overall return on investment (RoI).In the second story of our special series on ‘Business of Bollywood’, ET takes a deep dive into small and big budget films and ponders the eternal question — what is the secret recipe of success in the mad, mad world of movies.“The economics of film-making are definitely more encouraging today than they were just five years ago,” said Amrita Pandey, CEO of Junglee Pictures, owned by the Times Group, which also owns ET. “In the last 18 months there have been more than 10 high-concept movies that have been breakout hits,” she said.The idea of script-led, high-concept films is catching up. Junglee Pictures produced ‘Talvar’, and then ‘Badhaai Ho’ and ‘Raazi’, among others, which were smallbudget movies that did very well in terms of returns.“It is content that does the talking, as films like ‘Badhaai Ho’, ‘Raazi’, ‘Stree’, ‘Andhadhun’, etc, have reaped in threefold profits as compared to their budget … and many anticipated big-budget films, high on star power, have failed to create the desired impact,” said Apoorva Mehta, CEO of Dharma Productions.Viacom18 Studios produced the likes of ‘Tanu Weds Manu’, ‘Kahaani’, ‘Mary Kom’, and the more recent ‘Andhadhun’. Ajit Andhare, COO of Viacom18 Studios, said the focus is on making films on a tight script where the main asset is the story. “That reduces reliance on star power and improves overall returns,” he said.Take last year. The performance contrast between smaller films such as ‘Badhaai Ho’, ‘Stree’, ‘Raazi’ and ‘Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety’, and superstar-led films like Aamir Khan’s ‘Thugs of Hindostan’, Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Zero’ and Salman Khan’s ‘Race 3’ was sharp.“2018 was a big lesson. And that trend has continued. If you see, this year there’s been ‘Uri’, ‘Tashkent Files’, ‘Article 15’ and so on,” said Shariq Patel, CEO of Zee Studios.Flaw in ‘Big-Budget’ ModelSo, has the time come for smaller films to replace big-budget movies in the equation? The answer is “no”, said Ronnie Screwvala, the producer of Uri.“For three small-budget films that worked, there were at least 50 others that just came and went. So if a movie that does not start with a big Friday but grows to be a hit… this means only three things — great story/script, the trailer has to hit home, and great word-of-mouth. These are the only ingredients for success,” Screwvala said.70851213 A typical big film as recently as a decade ago, according to Vikram Malhotra, founder of Abundantia Entertainment, was built on the combination of a big star, a big director and fancy locations — all leading to a big budget.The biggest problem of big-budget films was that even when they were crowd-pullers, they were lowrisk, low-reward films. “The key issue for the last many years was that the top six stars either added 50% to the cost of the movie or took home 80% of the overall share. Neither of that made any business sense,” Screwvala said.Also, broadcaster-star deals, a trend started by Star India — broadcaster inks multimovie deals with stars on the basis of unseen content for prices that are impossible to justify — further made the RoI equation unviable.SMALL FILMS’ ECONOMICSSmaller films used to be made earlier too, and some of them did well commercially, such as Khosla Ka Ghosla! and Bheja Fry.The tipping point was probably 2012’s Kahaani, reportedly made on a budget of just Rs 8 crore, with box office collections close to Rs 70 crore.One big reason for the success of smaller films is also the advent of digital video streaming services, which opened up non-theatrical revenue streams and created new ‘stars’ like Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao, Vicky Kaushal, Kartik Aaryan, Kriti Sanon, Kiara Advani and Taapsee Pannu. These new ‘stars’ also command a premium on OTT (over-the-top media services) given the box office success of their films.However, for every successful small-budget film, there are at least five which either don’t get a release date or go unnoticed. There are regulatory issues too.“There is undoubtedly greater profitability today for movies that balance high content with realistic budgets. But to augment profitability, I think it’s equally important for the regulatory environment to become cinema-friendly and extend benefits on taxation, ease of shooting and rebates,” said Tanuj Garg, managing partner of Ellipsis Entertainment, and the producer ofTumhari Sulu and Why Cheat India.“Small-budget movies are riskier,” Screwvala said. “In most cases, the cost to market and release the film could be 50-75% of the cost of making the movie. You need to be supremely confident of your content as it will never take a big opening but will grow, and that needs patience and guts.”Malhotra feels that small films’ success is leading to “too many” joining the new game and that many don’t have the knowhow. That’s why the overall RoI at industry level isn’t showing significant improvement.“The business of moviemaking hasn’t become less risky, there are break-out hits and then there are colossal underperforming movies. Very few movies are average performers at the box office,” Junglee’s Pandey said.Screwvala cautions that one should not greenlight a small film until the financier is convinced the movie can break out and be big. Otherwise, he said, a “small movie with a small vision will remain small”.

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