Viacom18, the big champion of small films
Viacom18 hasn't had a high-profile Bollywood release in the first six months of 2016 but after five years in the business and a 2015 that helped it earn about `245 crore from its Hindi slate alone, that doesn't perturb the company
New Delhi: Viacom18 Motion Pictures hasn’t had a high-profile Bollywood release in the first six months of 2016. But after five years in the business and a 2015 that helped it earn about ₹ 245 crore from its Hindi slate alone, that doesn’t perturb the company.
“This is a project-based business and sometimes, these projects tend to spread out; at times, there may be a lull," said Sudhanshu Vats, group chief executive officer, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd.
Trade analyst Komal Nahta agreed there are so many factors, sometimes unforeseen, that may delay a film. “Ideally, every studio should have a couple of big-budget releases every year. But once in two or three years, such things happen," he said.
Plus, Viacom has never really been “as aggressive" as some other studios in the business, Nahta added.
To be sure, that doesn’t take away from the line-up of the studio that celebrated five years in the business this month. Starting with Budhia Singh-Born to Run, a biopic on the famed athlete on 5 August, there is John Abraham and Sonakshi Sinha’s Force 2 on 18 November, besides Vishal Bhardwaj’s period drama Rangoon starring Shahid Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut and Saif Ali Khan and Lucknow Central, a co-production with Nikhil Advani slated for next year. A socially relevant film with director Neeraj Pandey is to be announced soon, Vats said.
Plus, there is the Hollywood line-up—the studio will be bringing to India both the Hollywood projects that Bollywood actors Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone will be seen in—Baywatch and XxX: The Return of Xander Cage besides Paramount Pictures’ Transformers 5 and Mission Impossible 6.
“It’s been a great journey," Vats said about the five-year leg that started with the intent to create a holistic media organization with the movie studio, in a manner completing the media company that was already dabbling in television and digital spaces.
“The one sentence that sort of encapsulates our journey up till now and hopefully going forward too is ‘the science behind the art of filmmaking,’" said Vats. “Whether it’s the green-fielding of our content, at the script stage or later, the value we look for ourselves when we make a business case, marketing and distribution, or number and allocation of screens, there is much work that we’re doing."
To be sure, apart from this scientific method of working that Vats believes has added strategic value both to their own selves and to the industry as a whole, Viacom’s biggest achievement lies in the spate of small, content-driven films they have backed over the years-and more often than not, successfully so. From the Gangs of Wasseypur series (2012) and Kahaani (2012) to Queen (2014) and Mary Kom (2014) it’s all about what Vats calls ‘making the story the hero.’ And along the way, helping female actors like Vidya Balan, Priyanka Chopra and most notably, Kangana Ranaut, become more bankable.
“What stands out about Viacom is definitely the kind of importance they give to content rather than big names," trade analyst Nahta said. “Today, Queen is a massively successful film but for the time that it was green-lit, it was radically different. With big stars, come big budgets as do big risks. Viacom, on the other hand, plays it safe and balances it out."
That said, there is no real reason for them to specifically stay away from big-budget cinema in the long run. “They will go for those too surely," Nahta said. “They are huge revenue generators and no corporate will keep away from them."
For the studio, though, it’s less about these strict demarcations and more about balancing the value chain, an integral part of their ‘science behind the art of filmmaking.’
“I don’t like classifying films as small, medium or big. There is a saying in this film world that films don’t fail, budgets do. If the value being given to a big star or a star-led film makes sense for us, we will do it and we have done it," Vats said citing the example of projects like Son of Sardar (2012), Gabbar Is Back (2015) and Drishyam (2015).
While Nahta adds that no movie studio is currently hugely profitable, one like Viacom is likely to be fairly profitable.
“We started quite well," Vats admitted talking of projects like Tanu Weds Manu (2011) and Kahaani (2012). The former had earned ₹ 36 crore at the box office while the latter had netted Rs. 51 crore according to movie website Bollywood Hungama.
“But in our ability to ramp up, we started too many projects, we weren’t balancing the value chain so we were winning small and losing big," he said.
The studio’s ratio of commercial success as defined by box office performance was good-considering the industry has an average of getting one in 20 or one in 10 right. But their profitability wasn’t great.
“Now we’ve improved that, we’ve inched towards 57-60%. So we’re getting six out of ten right. We’re balancing the portfolio better," Vats said.
The Viacom18 CEO looks ahead even as industry-level challenges loom large. Screen density continues to be an issue as does the need for data analytics.
“We need more granular data on say, ticketing from a third party agency. The thing is while we’re under-screened, our capacity utilization is only 37%. We have to find ways by which we dial up capacity utilization by using more dynamic pricing and promotion, and that can happen only with data analytics," he said. “You can apply a similar example for screen count and show timings for films, or for marketing. A little more ideation, a little more quantitative and qualitative research into stories, or into ideas per se."
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