Small is the new big

With a 28 million subscriber base and a 15.5 per cent growth,the biggest challenge to the film industry is from television.

Good tidings are in store if a KPMG-FICCI report to be unveiled at FICCI FRAMES 2011 is anything to go by. The film industry has recorded a 11 per cent growth in 2010 and is expected to grow at 14 per cent per year over the next five years. While one would agree that reports usually have an underlying optimism that can sometimes be misleading,the findings of this one merit attention.

Films are estimated to grow from Rs 83 billion to Rs 132 billion by 2015,subject to better content,increase in multiplexes and investment in research. The caveat is an interesting detail. Better content has been a much debated topic for decades without conclusive answers. As findings from Screen surveys over the last three years have suggested,mindless comedies top the list of preferred choice of genre across metros and Tier 2 cities. Romantic films and family dramas follow closely. Then again there are more questions than answersis urban better or desi? Foreign locations or aamchi Mumbai,Dilli,Kolkata or Lucknow,Kanpur and such like? How do we find the answers?

Which perhaps points in the direction of the second point in the studyinvestment in research. For a high investment industry,the entertainment sector for too long has relied heavily on word-of-mouth and perceptions. For most part,the approach to growing business has been conventional. It is perhaps why the film industry has woken up so late in the day to the potential of middle-of-the-road cinema widely perceived as low earning fare. The popularity of films such as Arth,Angoor,Ardha Satya,Katha,Golmaal,,Masoom as different from the parallel or art cinema has long supported the notion that there was a market for films made with capable middling stars,entertaining/riveting stories and a modest budget. It has taken way too long for the industry to come around to that view and efforts in that direction have proved inadequate.

Multiplexes were meant to address that supporting smaller films without stars that did not get themselves a huge opening. However,they have failed to do so due to the high ticket prices. They have,instead,been more supportive of the cinema driven by stars which was generating robust business in any case. And in order to ensure footfalls in the given scenario,the publicity and marketing budgets spiralled; adding to the total cost of the film thus making movie-watching a formidably expensive experience. Unexpectedly,it was television that came to the rescue. Sale of satellite rights for telecast on television has eased the burden for producers and for the end consumer as well. Low and middle income groups prefer to watch a film or their favourite soaps on television as opposed to going to theatres. The decline and disappearance of single screen theatres has only accelerated this trend.

Television,as reflected in the growing DTH subscriber base totalling 28 million,is where the quantum growth lies. It is the rising star. Those with an ear to the ground had better tweak their business plan to counter the threat from the small screen. Small,indeed is big!