Mumbai: The popularity of streaming platforms, which peaked during the Covid-19 pandemic, and their impact on the film business has been growing concern among filmmakers, producers and distributors these days. On Friday, actor producer Aamir Khan argued that the current business model of Bollywood films “is meaningless regardless of the quality of the film being made.”
“This is a very false business model,” Khan said. The session “Studios of the Future: Publishing India on World Studio Map” was held at the ongoing World Audiovisual and Entertainment Summit (Waves) in Mumbai. Khan called attention to the shrinking window between the film’s theatrical release and their otto debut. He said he was killing their box office because viewers had to wait a short amount of time to watch the film at home. This is a discussion that Khan has been doing in several forums recently.
“The reason the film doesn’t work is an interesting argument. It’s because we’re telling people not to come to the theatre. I have nothing to OTT, but the windows are too small and killing your own business.
Ajay Bijli, managing director of PVR INOX Ltd, who was part of the panel discussion. “We need to handle the film journey better. We need to first monetize in the theatres, then release them on pay-per-view, then move on to a subscription-based OTT platform,” he said. “Today, the movie will be free soon in eight weeks.”
However, he added that Otts has cutting-edge content, which gives the film a global exposure that is the advantage.
As viewer habits change, global box office revenues are currently down from the predecessor of $40 billion to $32 billion, Bijli said. In India, the average theater occupancy rate is pre-existing at 32%, and is now down to 16%, he added. “Consistency of content is also important. You can’t have a feast and hunger situation,” he noted that some films are smash hits and the rest of the Tanking is at the box office.
Hollywood producer Charles Roven is known for his “The Dark Knight” trilogy and “Oppenheimer,” and was also part of the panel that included producers Ritesh Sidwani and Dinesh Vidjan. He observed that Indian films are made only for the domestic market. “Your business is very within India. You should see the world,” says Roven, urging Indian producers to risk becoming global. “Everything I do starts with the intention of showing it to the world,” he said.
Vijang highlighted the need for capital injection and global distribution in the Hindi film industry. “To go global, you need distribution. If the content is king, distribution is God,” he said.
Roban pointed out that people predicted theatre death when television came, and were streaming on DVD as well as now. “You can’t replicate the cinema business, that is, when people are making movies they want to see as a group,” he said.
Khan also highlighted the need for more theatres in India. China boasts 90,000 theatre screens, while the US has 40,000 and 10,000 India, he said. “Only 2% of the population monitors the biggest hits in theaters. You need all kinds of theaters. How do you realize your possibilities if you don’t have a point of sale?” he said.
When film critic Mayank Shekhar, moderator of the session, asked how the government could help, Khan said in a 35-year film that he never saw the government step into the industry. “The government didn’t want to make the film business strong. This was the first time the government has shown interest, and the dialogue began. It could lead to policy and impact the future of the film business.”
