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Why do so many films flop every year? Why is the success ratio as low as 20- 25 per cent, sometimes lower still? For instance, the percentage of successful films in the year 2002 was a meagre 10 per cent. In 2001, it was slightly better, with 11 per cent of the total number of Hindi films crossing the break-even mark. Is it that filmmakers have suddenly forgotten the art and the craft? Not really. The answer to the first two questions lies not in the third one.
To understand why the industry is passing through its worst ever phase (notwithstanding the fact that we have had about 5 or 6 successes in the recent past), one has to comprehend how the largest film industry in the world functions. A producer puts together a proposal and borrows finance from the financier. He signs a director who will captain the ship, a writer who will etch out the characters and write the cinematic drama, artistes who will play the characters of the story, other technicians who will assist in making the film etc.
Besides the money from the financier, which carries interest, the producer also gets interest-free finance from his distributors if his film gets sold for one or more territories while still in the making. Bigger the project and more saleable the names involved in its making and the stars associated with it, brighter are the chances that the film is pre-sold.
In the alternative, a film finds buyers after it is completed with borrowed money. Like distributors fund producers, they, in turn, are funded by exhibitors. Since there’s competition among exhibitors to book films for their cinemas, they have to, in a way, bid for its rights. Other things being equal, the highest bidder gets the film. Of course, in reality, other things are never equal. There are always some things typical to every cinema. For instance, a cinema may be ideal for a family film, another may be best suited to screen an action flick. One may be air-conditioned, the other air-cooled and the third may boast of just ceiling- and wall-fans.
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