More Than Just Celluloid: Bollywood's Growing Avenues of Consumption

There has been much hype regarding increasing foreign investments, proliferation of local studios and corporatization within the Indian film industry. "The new money flowing into the business may be marking a change of culture behind the scenes", business analysts say. Disney's rise in share ownership of UTV Software Communications to 30%, the first Bollywood co- production with Hollywood major Sony Pictures and the escalating number of initial public offerings of Indian production houses on London's AIM is flooding international media. The credit for the 25% growth in revenue of the Indian film industry is given to increased capital and competition due to the sudden surge of local and foreign players in the field. I however, feel that the primary reason for the evolution of content and business models within the industry, should be attributed to the change in the ways in which audiences are able to consume film today, a factor that is largely ignored.

Corporatization has clearly grown the market, changing the structure of Bollywood production houses. The rise in the number of studios has altered the business model of family run companies with no production contracts, schedules, or bound scripts. The burgeoning number of key players in the industry, extravagant marketing campaigns and unconventional narratives that go beyond song and dance ridden family dramas have contributed to the qualitative transitions of the Bollywood film. However, the crucial and often undocumented reason for such a transition is the establishment of legitimized distribution outlets within the increasingly vertically integrated studios. In the past, production houses created films for distributors. Within the incestuous industry, films were bought on the basis of relationships shared among creative players rather than content. Producers would not display their films to potential distributors in the fear of not being able to sell them, and the latter banked on the star power and universal appeal of the formulaic Hindi film to sustain itself in theaters. Production houses have now helped set up professional distribution systems and often disseminate their own products, thereby allowing for the creation of visual texts for audiences rather than distributors. This has resulted in the generation of more experimental, low budget and independent films without a major star cast, enabling producers to market and distribute their films according to their unique positioning and target audiences. Bheja Fry (2007) for example, made with a $150,000 budget and no A-list actors, made an astonishing $2 million at the box office. Its success was predominantly due to the fact that it followed a pattern of platform distribution, releasing only seventy prints initially and increasing the number of prints as positive word of mouth caused a growth in demand. Moreover, areas and theaters were selectively chosen to distribute the film, even within the more generic target group of the elite, multiplex- viewing audiences, thereby effectively targeting their desired viewers and rapidly recovering costs.

The proliferation of multiplexes is another effect of corporatization which is largely underplayed as a factor influencing the content of Bollywood films. "Before multiplexes came into existence, the film industry was producing just three hundred films a year while now it is churning out over a thousand films", asserts Deepak Tanuja, Vice-President of Fun Cinemas. With the new five year entertainment tax waiver for upcoming multiplexes, the explosion of multi- screen cinemas has altered the face of exhibition and over the years has influenced the content of Indian motion pictures. "The multiplex concept has made it easier for small budgeted movies to make their presence felt among the audience" say critics. Without the pressure of breaking even in a 1,500 person theater, cinema halls with smaller capacities have enabled the exhibition and sustenance of independent films, as well as the growth of genres in an industry that has relied on three hour "masala" films, a concoction of many genres packaged as a predominantly melodramatic musical to appeal to the lowest common denominator. This is seen in the recent surge of horror, thriller, sci- fi and fantasy films such as Bhoot (2003), Koi... Mil Gaya (2003) and Krrish (2006) as illustrated in the image above.

With the growth of digital cinema over the last two years, distributors are able to drastically cut down on the hugely expensive cost of print. This enables viewership among audiences in B and C class towns that would otherwise be unable to access these films due to difficulty in transportation to remote areas or a high cost of print that would not be easily recovered in these regions. With a sudden surge of approximately two thousand digital theaters across the nation, cheap exhibition of small budget, experimental films that depart from the norms of mainstream Bollywood cinema, while targeting a larger audience and easily recovering costs, has been made possible. Given the lower costs, higher shelf life and broader audience base with the rise in digital cinema, Kanwaar of Apollo Group sums up its main advantages as generating "a lower break-even point", thereby increasing revenue and encouraging experimentation and narrow casting.

New avenues of audience consumption such as the growth of in- home consumption of films has also been integral in paving a path for a new wave of Bollywood films. With a huge drop in DVD costs to $3 per DVD, as well the recent practice of releasing DVDs forty five days rather than six months after theatrical release, a huge increase in DVD sales has swept the market, aiding in the potential production of direct to home and direct to television films in the near future. With increased urbanization and nuclearization of homes across the country, there are more television sets per family and with lowered interest rates over the last six years, people who were unable to afford televisions now have home theater systems purchased on installments. Moreover, although internet- based viewing is still nascent, there has been a gradual inception of a new set of small budget films created for online viewing such as Fear (2007), which was the first Indian film to have an online release without a theatrical release, as indicated by the image above. While internet releases predominantly target the Indian Diaspora since broadband connectivity within India is still restricted, corporate heads are forecasting that "the next generation of film distribution will see online and IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) contributing much larger ratios to overall film revenue".

With this burgeoning multiple revenue system, the growing methods of audience consumption as well as the infrastructure to tap into these varying streams is rapidly changing the business model of the insular Indian film industry. This, in turn, is allowing for a newfound opportunity to cater to niche audiences, which is consequently impacting cinematic content. More people are able to watch movies today than ever before due to various technological advances and audience tastes are being shaped by these changes. Not only do these various methods of consumption promote the production of independent and experimental cinema, but the accessibility with which audiences are able to consume movies is also changing their preferences in terms of the lengthy durations of Bollywood films, as more and more films are watched at home rather than viewed as theatrical experiences. The easy availability of films is also causing a demand in a greater variety of genres and narratives. The only issue that needs to be seriously considered in this rapidly growing and evolving market is that these multiple streams of viewing encourage piracy, a grave problem that must be combated against in an industry where piracy already causes a $400 million loss in revenue.