Hollywood – the western movie producer number one is differently structured than its Indian competitor. In fact, it actually has a clear structure in terms of time schedules, contracts, budget, technical equipment, booking of studios and outside locations, movie promotion, distribution, and so on. This of course it a great advantage for Hollywood: it keeps the control over the people involved in the production with contracts, and also over the target audience because promotion, distribution, and release are planned in detail so that the producers know exactly when to do what in order to grab the people’s attention.
Let us just say that this is slightly different for the Indian movie production. According to Jason Overdorf’s article “Hooray for Bollywood” there was almost no identifiable structure: “Deals were cut off between film families. Marketing was left to theatre owners. And writers scripted scenes on the day of shooting” (Overdorf, 2007). In short: Bollywood productions have most of the time been spontaneous, unorganized, and chaotic!
In consequence, the Bollywood film makers had and probably still have less power over the people involved – “There were no production schedules or contracts; stars walked in and out of projects at whim” (Overdorf, 2007) – and also less power over the audience. Of course, cinema is a great deal in India, and the viewership statistics show that visiting the cinema not only once is quite popular in India (Businessweek, 2002). However, if the advertising or any promotion fails because of the theatre owner’s mistake and no system to control the promotion: how can the producers be sure that their production will arrive everywhere and sell as many tickets as possible?!
So, these are the different situations of the world’s two biggest movie industries. However, these conditions might well be over soon for Bollywood. Ronnie Screwvala is owner of the company UTV Software Communications, a “multimedia conglomerate, […] listed on the Bombay market exchange with a market capitalization of $435 million, [which] has interests in film, TV, animation and videogame production and distribution—it's the closest thing to the diversified Warner Bros. that India has ever seen” (Overdorf, 2007). On the 19th of April 2011, CNN put him on rank 25 of Asia’s most important business people, writing that “Ronnie Screwvala is the man who modernized his country's beloved film industry, a.k.a. Bollywood. He's become a go-to guy for American media companies seeking a foothold in India” (CNN, 2011). This is an enormous honor in my eyes! When you hear his name it most likely does not ring a bell, but then seeing that he is among the 25 most important, influencing, powerful business people that change Asia completely (CNN, 2011) you might well be surprised. With this official recognition and all the business deals Screwvala has already signed, he might from now on even have more opportunities for broadening his power. But let us look at how he managed to get on CNN’s list from 2011.
According to Jason Overdorf only in 2007, Screwvala could “become Bollywood’s Jack Warner – who transformed parochial American cinema into its modern global form”. Screwvala is an intelligent businessman who understood that the chaotic way of producing Bollywood movies would not be as successful in the long run – especially when considering expanding one’s business to other countries and continents and in competition with well-structured Hollywood. Imagine Hollywood cooperating with Bollywood movie producers who think contracts are not necessary…
Screwvala took action and “begun professionalizing the business, bringing in outside investors and accounting standards as well as aggressively marketing films with novel plots. His production company has cut the old three-and-a-half-hour marathons to between 90 and 120 minutes and has hired Hollywood scriptwriters to make its features more watchable” (Overdorf, 2007). Therefore, Screwvala’s intervention came in the right moment: India’s great potential market, apparently not suffering from the financial crisis (“Unlike many countries in these lean economic times, India’s national cinema is booming, with each year seeing double-digit percentage growth in ticket sales” - Grant, 2009), and the starting cooperation with Hollywood companies, Screwvala being one of the first people to close the big deals with “Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures” (Overdorf, 2007).
As a lover of structure, clear plans and organization, in my opinion this is the first internal step necessary to at some point live up to the Hollywood standards and to be internationally competitive! I am convinced that Screwvala’s work (which he started in 1996 already (Overdorf, 2007)) will have a great impact on Bollywood by improving it technically, financially, administratively, and introduce a better structured system with clear arrangements. Re-creating the Bollywood Empire efficiently, as Screwvala does, and oriented at the Western model, which is well-functioning since the early 20th century, could be the “internal” key to success, to build a new, stronger, richer basis for both national and international productions. From that point on when Bollywood is established in that manner, the next steps can be planned such as expanding their markets even further than they have already done and cooperating with other movie industries.
To conclude, the work of people like Screwvala is enormously important for Bollywood’s future development. And Screwvala’s success speaks for itself: among his partners are “Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures, and with Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment”, “Disney bought a 15 percent stake in Screwvala's UTV for $14 million in 2006” and he coproduced Mira Nair's New York-based production of "The Namesake" […] “The film grossed about $14 million at the box office—nearly 95 percent from the United States, more cash than any other Indian production has earned abroad to date” (Overdorf, 2007). Moreover, “Bloomberg started a business news channel with Screwvala [and furthermore], Analysts expect the company to boost revenue 45% to $225 million -- a growth rate that makes UTV, in movie parlance, a blockbuster” (CNN, 2011).
If this continues, Bollywood definitely will have the chance to increase impact, power and its industry worldwide!
List of References:
Arora, R. (2011, April 2011). 25 most powerful businesspeople in Asia. Money.CNN.com. Retrieved April 25, 2011 from http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/news/international/1104/gallery.asia_most_powerful.fortune/26.html.
Grant, A. (2009). Megastars - Bollywood Style - A Star System Even More Powerful Than Hollywood's. Worldfilm.About.com. Retrieved April 25, 2011 from http://worldfilm.about.com/od/bollywood/a/bollywoodmegastars.htm.
Overdorf, J. (2007, November 30). “Hooray for Bollywood. Newsweek.com. Retrieved April 25, 2011 from http://www.newsweek.com/2007/11/30/hooray-for-bollywood.html
from "25 most powerful businesspeople in Asia" at Money.CNN.com
