http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Is_This_As_Good_As_It_Gets/Who_is_screening_the_movie_market/articleshow/2663534.cms
Who is screening the movie market? 31 Dec, 2007, 0426 hrs IST,Shekhar Kapur, Print<http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2663534,prtpage-1.cms> Save <javascript:showdivlayer(2663534,'topdiv');> EMail <javascript:openWindowmail('/mail/2663534.cms');> Write to Editor <javascript:callwriter();> [image: /photo.cms?msid=2663539] Shekhar Kapur film maker Will Bollywood be able to create an International blockbuster ? In 10 years it will become a rhetorical question. Neither Bollywood nor Hollywood can survive in its present iconistic/monopolistic form. There is a force that is gradually undermining both systems. The New Media. It is the democratisation of sharing of Entertainment. It takes away the iconism of the ability to communicate with large masses of people. YouTube is only the beginning. People are going to be spending more and more time exploring this form of communication and so less time in the movie theatres. A popular short film that costs less than $1000 is today getting 10 million hits. Short downloads on the mobile phones will be the active way to reach mass audiences. The way to reach the hearts and mind of people are changing and becoming more democratic As Technology finds newer ways to interconnect people. So a kid in Dharavi has as much a chance of reaching out to 100' s of millions of people world wide, as does the combined power of the biggest stars and the biggest studios. However, let's look at the short term. I am sure that if talent and capital here put their minds to it, Indian filmmakers have the ability to create international blockbusters. The word 'Bollywood' is an internationally powerful brand name. But there are really no products to back the brand. The gap in international box office figures tells the story. Even the biggest hits from Bollywood max out at between $20 to $30mn worldwide, while even some Chinese films are grossing 10 times that. Is there a market for the Bollywood kind of product? I teamed up with Andrew Lloyd Webber and AR Rahman to create the hit West End show Bombay Dreams four years ago and proved that the market did exist. What's wrong? Nothing really. I believe there is very little ambition to go out and capture the international market. After all, $20 to $30 mn seemed impossible a few years ago. And there is enough excitement within Bollywood itself to keep everyone happy. But that is a dangerous situation. For Hollywood is penetrating the Indian market at a much faster rate than Bollywood is entering the international market. The major studios investing heavily in local productions are also banking on the success of their major title's like Spiderman dubbed in various Indian languages. And do not be fooled by the media hype of the failure of Sony Pictures first venture Sanwariya. The financial loss (if any) in that film is a mere blip in the deep pockets that the studio's have allocated to local productions all over the world. -- regards, Vithur A.R.RAHMAN - THE ABODE OF DIVINE MUSIC
