While many indigenous film industries, especially in developing countries, have met with a sharp decline due to the domination of Hollywood cinema, Bollywood has been one of the select few that Hollywood has been unable to make an adequate dent into,
with an astonishingly low market penetration of 5%. Domestically, the industry is continuing to boom as indicated by the
20% annual growth projection and Indian films have seen a rise in overseas viewership with a whopping
40% of revenue coming from international ticket, video and DVD sales. This is of course a direct result of the new avenues of revenue that have opened up through the development of multiplexes, DVD sales and internet releases, and further catapulted by the consequential innovation of the formulaic content of the films themselves. However, the influence of Hollywood on this tremendously developing industry that is steadily gaining international stature cannot be ignored. The predominant factor in the staggering gro
wth of the Hindi film industry, both domestically and internationally, is the change in the business models of Bollywood corporate houses due to the increasing influence of western film industries, most notably Hollywood.
With the gradual shift from family- run production companies by filmmakers financing and distributing their own products to companies akin to Hollywood Studios, the industry took a sudden turn from one where pre- production consisted of a single meeting and a script was constantly changed at the whim of the director minutes before a shoot. Emerging production companies like
Yash Raj Films are now beginning to pre- plan a sleight of films with large and small budgets to offset losses, market and distribute their own films and even acquire finished products for distribution and exploitation. Indian corporates are realizing the importance of specialization and are beginning to outsource the actual production of their films while choosing to focus on marketing instead. The increasing expenditures on marketing is another implementation based on the Hollywood model, with
UTV's Rang De Basanti setting the standard by spending
40% of the cost of production on print and advertising, instead of the usual 5%.
International distribution outlets are also being developed by the bigger players as they are attempting to target more than just the Indian Diaspora overseas.
Jodhaa- Akbar for example was released with about three hundred prints internationally, the largest number of global prints for a Bollywood film till date, and garnered the highest ever overseas revenue for a Hindi film in the United States and even found itself in the UK top ten charts on its opening weekend. Hindi films are increasingly available on demand and on pay- per- view for further exploitation. Furthermore,
UTV Motion Pictures has even created labels like
UTV Spotboy to focus on the development of independent and smaller budget films, much like a
Fox Searchlight or
Focus Features. Hollywood's concern for good screenplays is also beginning to rub off on Bollywood, as production houses are beginning to invest larger amounts in the development of scripts, and even have eminent Hollywood screenwriting gurus such as
Syd Field doctor Hindi scripts as seen with
Rakesh Omprakash Mehra's upcoming
Dilli 6. The impact of Hollywood's Studio model on the Indian film industry is incredible, and Bollywood's revenue breakdown is also beginning to resemble that of Hollywood's, with skyrocketing profits from DVD sales and new media along with growing income from international consumption, although limited in comparison to Hollywood.
In the race of corporatization, expansion and "Hollywoodization" however, Bollywood seems to be altering current business models on the basis of western studio models with some discernment. The Hindi film industry is in many ways facing what Hollywood underwent in the 60s with the
demise of the musical. Nevertheless, this transformation that took Hollywood a decade will take India only a few years since it has the hindsight of western models, which will give Bollywood the leeway to reject aspects of these models that are inefficient or harmful to the industry. For instance, the Indian Government's refusal to provide grants and concessions for the industry is inspired by the ruin of the British film industry that was unable to sustain itself commercially after the Government reduced financial backing. Moreover, the permitting of foreign direct investments in the industry only in
2002 allowed for the maintenance of Hindi films as the primary form of cinematic consumption domestically, as opposed to
Australia, where huge investments by studios have only limited local production. Bollywood has also guarded against the procedure of
talent taking profits off the gross income of the film before the studios are able to recover expenses, thereby ensuring the evolution of system based on profit maximization in the interest of the industry as a whole.
While Hindi films will never have the reach and box office numbers of Hollywood cinema, over the next few years Bollywood will be at par with Hollywood in terms of efficiency and organization. The Indian film industry is already making a mark in the international arena with major Hollywood films such as
Ghost World and
Moulin Rouge applying the "Bollywood masala" formula, as illustrated by the extravagant dance sequence in graphic above. With the emergence of cross- over films such as
Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding,
Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Bekham, and
Miramax's Bride and Prejudice, Bollywood's recognition across the globe is apparent. Moreover, the growing number of Hollywood co- productions with Hindi filmmakers such as
Columbia- Tristar's backing of
Sanjay Lila Bhansali's Saawariya along with enormous investments by multinationals such as
Disney and
Viacom into Bollywood production companies, it is clear that Hollywood is attempting to penetrate this enormous market in anyway it possibly can. Bollywood too is finally globalizing, led by UTV's co- financing of Fox Searchlight's
The Namesake and it's upcoming co- production with
20th Century Fox's M. Night Shyamalan tentpole,
The Happening as seen in the illustration on the left. In fact, UTV's box office valuation for the upcoming year is expected to shoot up with this Hollywood deal, making it one of the largest production houses in Asia in terms of box office revenue. Research reports preempt an annual growth of 35- 40% for the company, allowing it to quite possibly equal Hollywood's
Lions Gate Films in terms of
gross income over the next few years. There is no reason why Bollywood production companies will not emerge into international production houses and play bigger roles in shaping domestic as well as global cinema over the next decade.
information of the films, nor does it follow the success or failure of the movies after their release. Similarly imdb.com, although structurally and visually mediocre, serves the singular purpose of providing an almost inexhaustible database for existing and upcoming films, artists and producers from around the globe. Box Office Mojo is another source that documents an infinite number of films, providing extensive breakdowns of all aspects of box office performances, while tracking budgets, release patterns and foreign grosses. Nevertheless, the website provides a purely numerical analysis of the films and lacks mediums of communication such as streaming videos. Roger Ebert's website is also far too text intensive and devoid of sufficient illustrations. However, its structure and organization is flawless and it is replete with excellent reviews and highly informative articles discussing the historical significance of films and their influence on present cinematic aesthetics and practices. Premiere too, features well-written reviews, detailed interviews and displays exemplary organization and functionality. The news section however, like many of the Bollywood websites included in my linkroll, is too glamor oriented.
