In times of multi-crore films “grossing” in box office, what can be the “success” of a film? Is it the revenue and popularity which the film generates or its merit as a medium, with a good section of audience viewership across the spectrum followed by honoures in festivals, the success. In short, what makes a good successful film in the digital age, when the viewing habits of people have undergone huge transformation from theaters to homes and online.
The good old art versus commerce in films have been put to rest now. In India the “new wave” of films in the 1970s saw the government institutions siding with the art, while industry was left to fend for itself. Now both art and commercial films have been left to fend for themselves and the government withdrawn from the scene. In times of Rs 100 crores and 1000 crores “grosser” in the “film industry”, the debate on what is a “good successful film” assumes a different dimension altogether. That leads to a question, is films a money “grossing” industry, if so what happens to those who do not get into this club of multi-crores, but invested in crores?
Before examining the issue in detail one needs to find out why the Central government deemed it fit to intervene in the film industry from the 1920s and 1970s and also why they exited from the films recently too. The Central film certification was introduced in India in the 1930s during the British Raj itself, as the Social Hygiene Commission of India received numerous complaints of the film sector negatively affecting social norms. The reason for establishment of Film Finance Corporation (FFC), which was later modified as National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) was a deliberate effort to effect a change in both finance and content of the films in India. The Chairman of FFC, Mr B K Karanjia, in its initial years identified the “ evils” of the then film industry in his autobiography “Count My Blessings”;”First was the prevalence of black money deals, which was like cancer eating into the industry’s vitality from within. The second evil was the black marketing in cinema tickets, spreading through the country like a prairie fire. And the third was the shameful practice of wholesale plagiarism of Hollywood films”.
Over the years with digital booking etc, one can say the black marketing of tickets has stopped, but the other two “evils” still plagues the film industry, as events unfold. The Central film certification continues and there is no end to its lifting as no one trusts the filmmakers with accepted social norms in a feudal –social milieu, which is India. Adding to it are the political propaganda films which have emerged to popularize agenda based socio-political issues, like Kerala Story and Kashmir Files. Today with the multi-crore films being the order of the day, the government has limited its various interventions through NFDC, a corporation, not a Ministry. The Ministry though controls the film certification.
Given the regulatory situations, and the dwindling of theatre audiences over the years, opening up of OTT and other avenues for seeing films, there is a need for re-defining “ good –and successful “ and even popular films. In history, they say a film of Raj Kapoor, “Sangam” was a box office failure in India, but hugely successful in Middle East upto Egypt. In recent times, an Amir Khan film “Dangal,reportedly collected more money from China than in India. In Kerala, in the 1970s, a film like Kodiyettam of Adoor Gopalakrishnan , with no stars made history by almost “grossing “ 8 times its production cost, with popular support and Television rights. Recently, Manjummal Boys shocked everyone in Kerala by getting into the 100 crore club, thanks to its Kerala-Tamil Nadu audience appeal. Not to mention Bahubalees and KRFs of the world. Empuran made with strong Malayalam star presence is now vying for the multi crore club just like KRF.
A new phenomenon of this trend is to reach a pan India audience overcoming the language limitations and its market boundaries. The Malayalam film Empuran has gone all out with a promotion across India to widen its audience appeal, almost like the Babhubali series from Telugu films. One cannot gloss over the international reach which the Hindi films have already managed, through distribution networks to cater to NRI audiences across the globe. This writer was part of such a release show of a Hindi film, way back in 2006 at Durban, South Africa, where over a million people of Indian origin reside. They have already got into other film markets in Asia, through their song and dance and unique stories like Dangal, on women wrestlers. For Hindi films, counting international markets has become a norm now. A relatively low budget film like All that we imagine as Light, too got into this universal and pan Indian market through its honours at Cannes film festival too.
The market opening and digital platforms have also led to universalisation of the film visuals as well as its narratives and to the renewed debate as to what is a good film. Is it the one which collects more money with a pan India and universal appeal with an Indian stamp on it. Or are the ones like All that imagine as light”, which is a small budgeted film, but high on film language and aesthetics, a really successful and good film. The debate is almost like that of the good old commercial film versus art film of the 70s and 80s.
We must not forget that with the entry of the Pune Film Institute trained technicians, led to a drastic change in technical and narrative structure of Indian films across languages giving them a modern contemporary outlook . This modern outlook has enabled the transformation of Indian films to a global audience be it in Hindi or regional languages. The Indian film industry celebrates Rajamouli, the Telugu Filmmaker as master of VFX-special effects with RRR and Babubali. Many in the Hindi film industry, including Hindi filmmaker Anurag Kashyap look at Malayalam films for their innovative story ideas and narratives. Telugu and Tamil and Malayalam filmmakers are making Hindi films. With the OTT market opening up, they look for a pan Indian audience as dubbing of any original language is encouraged by OTT platforms into all major languages, giving the viewer a chance to view any of the films or series in their mother tongue. These give films like Empuran in Malayalam a pan India appeal and market, just as the film Goat Life, in Malayalam.
But, the question remains as to what is a good film in this new market/digital media scenario. Is it a multi-crore production attracting audiences for its grand sets, stunning visuals and computer game-like narratives or a low budget-touching human document? Can a film like All that we imagine as light, be described successful, not just in artistic media merit and box office as its global release and OTT presence ensures a multi fold return on its low budget production. These films have a lasting shelf life and like a gold mine,as they attract decades of interest, both from connoisseurs as well as various digital streaming channels across continents. For instance, General Pictures, who made most of Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s films like Elipathyam to Vidheyan confirmed that over a period of time those films have got them back the investments. “Recently an American network asked for two of Adoor films”, Pratap Nair of General Pictures said. Just before the Covid years, Aravindan’s two films were restored by the Film Heritage Foundation buying rights from General pictures. This is a fact confirmed by the filmmakers like late Mrinal Sen that they are global filmmakers from India who make low budget films, whose return is ensured over a period of time.
This is in contrast to big budget films, which are like a lottery or a stock market for both the producer and director. Depending on the luck and climate of release, the film can give them a quick return. A film like Empuran slated for Ramadan festival release, unfortunately had to compete with this year’s annual cricket –IPL season to gain its prime attention at the theatres. But with a pan India and global release they might make it up, going by box office reports so far.
At the end of the day it is for the filmmakers to decide whether they want to invest in “Gold or Lottery”. But there remains no doubt that Gold has a lasting value unlike instant return from Lottery. Hence one can conclude that the real value of a film is in its Gold standard or merit of the medium, not necessarily in the lottery result of earnings through the box office.
