8th April, 2011.
Don’t we all wish Sheila had a kahani, as good as the song? But all we do is, just depend on wishful thinking, usually. As we make strong moves into this decade, its time to let go of our huge dependency on big stars and history of filmmakers to make good films. It’s time to focus and invest in writers and their stories. While, I am not an authority on script development, one does not need to be an expert to figure out, that this ACT is of utmost importance.
There is a term called “Development Hell” in Hollywood. But development hell leads to Box Office heaven or at least closer to it. While most power centres like stars, directors, writers, funding studios & producers understand the importance, they misjudge the process. Like the old saying goes “good food takes time to cook”, good scripts take time. Most film studios make the classic mistake of rushing this process. Though their intentions are good, there is a certain creative process in which one needs to constantly junk first & second level ideas, push innovation in story telling and arrive at something fantastic. While there is no “ideal time”, there definitely are no shortcuts.
Trial & error during development is something that one must embrace wholeheartedly. It’s normal to expand concepts & then realize it may not work as a long story. Junk it. One cannot get emotionally or financially attached to stories that don’t work. Its also normal and usual to completely rework stories and go back to the drawing board. Its only when one has a complete screenplay, can one judge whether it works or not. And most often, reworked scripts work beautifully. This needs to be factored into the development budget.
Lastly, one needs to invest monies along with time in writers, so that one can go through the above process. In our country writers need to be nurtured, while making it lucrative as a full time career. Writers need to write for a living and talented writers need to be able to create wealth along the way. Till that does not happen, writers will be forced to churn out mediocre scripts like a factory. Time is money and holds good in this industry.
I am also guilty of rushing the process a lot of times, since time & opportunity wait for no one. But intent is not enough. Action towards this process is most important. It’s up to Mr. Moneybags to increase their appetite for development risk and invest in the back bone of content. The onus of development traditionally in India has always been on the back of directors and writers. That is not a scalable model. Just as in Hollywood, development needs to be the responsibility of producers and funding studios.
Great examples for us are films by Shekhar Kapur, Rajkumar Hirani, Sriram Raghavan, Anurag Kashyap, where one can see the effort & time spent on scripts. Scripts are like Rome, can’t be built in a day.
Investing in Sheila’s kahani will go a long way, till then the show will go on & keep the songs coming!
Written by
Sidhartha M Jain
sid@irockindia.com
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Indian Film Industry & Recession – A Classic Opportunity
28th January, 2009
Every time recession sets in, it infuses a heavy dose of uncertainty, nervousness & self-doubt in everything that we do. It is also a time when one is forced to be more creative, innovative and productive – the basic principles of business, which we start ignoring in times of plenty.
If we look at the current scenario in India, there are two key observations.
The first one is that the audiences have not stopped seeing films. The business of “Ghajini” and “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi” prove that if they want to see something very badly, they are going right ahead. One could argue that the films had the biggest stars and a lot of marketing hype, but whatever the reason, tickets were sold in these times.
The second important observation is that fewer films are being developed & produced. Most companies are trying to finish and release films that were green-lit last year. Hardly any films are currently being green-lit, unless they are backed by the biggest stars. Also, the scripts of projects that hope to get green-lit this year are being scrutinized further with reasonable budgets.
This will translate into fewer films releasing in late 2009 and 2010. Since the audiences haven’t gone anywhere, I am expecting late 2009-2010 to be virgin Fridays, where filmmakers could commercially exploit the hungry audiences.
Assuming that the capital markets will improve by 2010, the sudden inflow of money will start chasing ready scripts/projects.
That means, now is the time when script & project development activity should be at its peak. The current lean & recessionary time is offering the best opportunity to invest money (whatever is available) and sweat in creating smart, fun & innovative projects.
Hence a classic business opportunity awaits us.
What do you think?
Sid
Every time recession sets in, it infuses a heavy dose of uncertainty, nervousness & self-doubt in everything that we do. It is also a time when one is forced to be more creative, innovative and productive – the basic principles of business, which we start ignoring in times of plenty.
If we look at the current scenario in India, there are two key observations.
The first one is that the audiences have not stopped seeing films. The business of “Ghajini” and “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi” prove that if they want to see something very badly, they are going right ahead. One could argue that the films had the biggest stars and a lot of marketing hype, but whatever the reason, tickets were sold in these times.
The second important observation is that fewer films are being developed & produced. Most companies are trying to finish and release films that were green-lit last year. Hardly any films are currently being green-lit, unless they are backed by the biggest stars. Also, the scripts of projects that hope to get green-lit this year are being scrutinized further with reasonable budgets.
This will translate into fewer films releasing in late 2009 and 2010. Since the audiences haven’t gone anywhere, I am expecting late 2009-2010 to be virgin Fridays, where filmmakers could commercially exploit the hungry audiences.
Assuming that the capital markets will improve by 2010, the sudden inflow of money will start chasing ready scripts/projects.
That means, now is the time when script & project development activity should be at its peak. The current lean & recessionary time is offering the best opportunity to invest money (whatever is available) and sweat in creating smart, fun & innovative projects.
Hence a classic business opportunity awaits us.
What do you think?
Sid
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Welcome!!
Hi everybody...I am going to post stuff I like and enjoy. Hope you guys like it too.
Have fun and take care.
Have fun and take care.
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