For a passionate lover of cinema like me, the anticipation of the next month always is keeping in mind the movies awaiting release- be it in Hindi, English or any other regional language. So why is it that introspecting on April’09 I’m feeling extremely sad? Ah! For the starters from April 4th onwards there’s going to be no Hindi movie releasing due to the strike called by the producers association as they have been unable to resolve their differences with the multiplex owners over revenue sharing.
For those who are unaware of the situation, let me quickly get into the details. All of us would be aware of how the producers & multiplexes have got into spats due to revenue sharing from time to time & Yash Raj Films have been in the forefront in this context. In fact we all know that Tashan did not release on time in the chain multiplexes due to this issue. Now the situation has worsened & hence the strike has been called for. The producers this time want clear 50: 50 equality in revenue sharing between the distributors & the multiplexes. Well if you are asking why do the producers bother about the distributors- the answer is simple- a lot of producers like UTV & Yash Raj are distributor’s themselves. And apart from that if the distributor is happy, naturally the producer is happy too. After all some producer- distributor relationships tend to be extremely strong over ages.
Apparently in countries like UK & UAE, the distributors and multiplexes have a clear 50:50 ratio of revenue sharing while it is 60: 40 in case of USA & Canada (first week).
But in India there has been no clear cut ratio of revenue sharing. It is all done on a case to case basis. So if it’s a movie which has a big star like Aamir/SRK/Akshay etc then the producers/distributors dictate terms &if the star cast is not very formidable then the multiplexes tend to take an upper hand. The multiplex owners on their side came forward & said they are willing to go in for revenue sharing based on a film’s performance. According to this formula if a movie succeeds like a RNBDJ or a Ghajini both parties gain & if a movie doesn’t succeed like CC2C, then both parties lose. But this proposal has been rejected by the producers & hence the strike is on.
Now how does it impact a passionate film viewer like me who’s also a victim of the Friday Phenomena (check out- http://passionforcinema.com/the-friday-phenomena/)? Well to begin with the only notable Bollywood release scheduled in April (April 3rd) is the Akshay Kumar- Nagesh Kukunoor movie – 8 *10 Tasveer. Even the release of this movie appears shaky since there is still some post production work going on. The next set of releases after April 3rd is only scheduled for May 1st (depending upon the strike getting sorted out). So which means for nearly a month I’m starved of new Hindi movies, something that I’m already beginning to dread.
So what’s the situation as far as regional cinema is concerned? Well as far as Tamil & Telugu cinema is concerned, the situation is again bleak. K.V.Anand, the ace cinematographer is back with his 2nd directorial venture (after Kana Kandein ) called Ayan ( starring Surya & Tamanna ) and this will see a simultaneous release on April 3rd. Director Vishnu Vardhan who redefined style in Tamil cinema with Billa also may see his next release- Sarwam ( Starring Arya & Trisha ) in April, but this is not yet confirmed. There are no other big releases lined up in Tamil & Telugu in April primarily due to the elections coming up.
Malayalam cinema is faring slightly better since there are important festivals like Easter & Vishu lined up in April. Hence in April one may get to see a few releases like To Hariharnagar (the sequel of In Hariharnagar), IG (Suresh Gopi), Mose & Cat (Dileep starrer directed by the veteran Fazil). But again the dates are all tentative as of now. Considering this situation what does a true filmy like me do? Well watch the odd Hollywood release that may turn out to be good, hope some more regional movies apart from those already mentioned release and just look forward to the strike in Bollywood getting over soon. Of course with elections lined up in April even if the strike is over soon it will be tough to see new releases in April.
So it becomes clear that people like me may end up saving some money as we do not have a lot of movies to watch in April, but that will come again at a cost- the cost of losing our joy of watching a lot of movies.
Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/next-month-at-the-movies-money-saved-joy-lost/
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