With the success of India’s first big budget web series, the growth of this globalized medium seems to be breaking new barriers every day. With one of the top producer duo in Bollywood Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar proving that the audience and the remuneration is far better in the web medium that anywhere else, top Bollywood actors are now ready to explore web as the new avenue to entertain people. After Saif Ali Khan, it is superstar Salman Khan, with his new Amazon exclusive deal, further proof that web is no longer a start-up anymore. “I am happy that fans of Indian cinema can now discover my movies on a new platform and the plat form will also help new fans discover our cinema,” says Salman.
Cheap global marketing
With the success of ‘Dangal’ in China and ‘Baahubali’ in America, Indian filmmaker are now focusing on returns from the international market as well, but you need to invest from maximum returns. So, a digital content can cater to over a billion people at same time and not only cross language barriers but also help Bollywood penetrated into unexplored territory, in an economical manner. “When it comes to our films, there is a huge investment involved in marketing them at an international diaspora, whereas in a digital platform, you can cut that off. Now, Amazon Prime is in over 200 countries, so you can imagine its reach. When the audience will watch the trailer and find it interesting, they will watch the show, like the way we watch some of the international shows. And that is how we can penetrate to that market,” says producer Ritesh Sidhwani.
Although it is not just our actor, even our directors are now catching the eye of the worldwide audience. “Filmmaking is a universal language and with Indian films creating all the right buzz internationally, having our directors on a web medium increases their global recognition as well. Even someone sitting in Germany would want to know how we make films,” says Ritam Bhatnagar, the founder of a director special web series, Talk Shop.
Compared to TV
The production cost depends on the content, so while a non-fictional show may cost less, fictional show ups the cost. Due to which people have not shifted completely on to the digital content. “The per episode production cost of an ALT show roughly is 2.5X of TV. The cameras used are of a higher standard. On television, when you are making 200 episodes, it’s economy of scale, so you can take your fixed cost and divide it. But when you divide it for 10 episodes, the cost per episode is much higher. So for us our biggest opportunity will be is the TV audiences,” says Nachiket Pantvaidya, CEO, ALTBalaji.
Whereas small budget web-series have been able to recover their cost even before uploading, thanks to our brand advertisers making them a priority. “Due to successful channels like TVF, AIB and Yfilms, brands now want to directly advertise with us. In TV, the channel pays you and then collects from brand advertising. So, brands are now taking web as a priority now. Only pre-production revenue is difficult. But for brands advertising on web is more cheaper compared to TV as on TV they would only get access to two or three episodes. It is a win-win as revenue comes in before we upload, whereas in TV revenue comes on monthly basis,” added Bhatnagar.
GST is hitting hard
With the advent of Goods and services tax, watching a movie in a theatre has now become a luxury. While Bollywood is taking a hit, it is the regional cinema is suffering the brunt of it the most. “High taxation on entertainment is quite an unfair factor for our audience, filmmakers and theatre owners. The regional film business is getting affected because there are local tax and GST, so double taxes right? At the end of the day, filmmaking is a business,” says Priyanka Chopra’s mother and business partner Madhu Chopra.
But in the digital space, the regional cinema is flourishing. “So, a language like Bengali finds traction not only among Bengalis residing outside India but also among the Bangladeshi audience. We did one Tamil show already and that found traction in Singapore, Malaysia, etc. Where there is a ‘settled’ Tamil population. Moreover, regional TV content is created at one-sixth or one-seventh the cost of a Hindi TV show. So we become an ‘upgraded offering’ for them,” added Pantvaidya.
Sceptical beings
While the industry is embracing this new change, there are some who are still on the adverse to it as digital has the capacity to pull people away from the theatre forever. “It is very rare to make a good money on a web content. It is like saying that there are a billion people and if only 3% go to watch a movie, then also you make money. I don’t think there is engagement. I will always be a hater of it because it will take away people from the theatre. You are giving them entertainment at home and they don’t have the incentive to out and watch a movie,” says actor Ranbir Kapoor when probed that his critically acclaimed film ‘Taamasha’ would have done much better on the digital medium.
