TV Channels will not buy films before BO verdict-A good news for the audience

Just read this news item in some of the leading newspapers today. Now this is good news for the audience as it will improve the quality of movies. In the earlier days there used to be only two sources of revenues for the movies-the box office collections and the music rights. Filmmakers very well knew that the product has to be very good otherwise they will lose money.

But post 2000 other sources of revenues also came into being like Satellite rights, DVD rights, music downloads and through radio and music channels, radio although was always there but its resurgence was in 2000s only. There have been movies which didn’t’ do very good in terms of theatrical collections but did well on other counts, the case of movies like Johny Gaddar, Sehar, Manorama Six Feet Under and Ek Chaalis ki Last Local.

Some movie don’t work initially upon their release due to various factors like less promotions new starcast, unconventional themes but find a following later due to word of mouth. At times a movie may  not be worth spending 250-300 bucks in a theatre or taking the pains to go to theatre but we would not mind spending half of that amount on the DVD or watching it on television on a lazy afternoon

I myself had done a project on film financing during my summer internship wherein I got to interacted with some of the biggest film production houses and all of them said that films don’t’ flop anymore even though their theatrical revenues are low but they make up for DVD, Home video, Satellite rights and downloads.

Box office collections contribute to only 40-45 % of revenues these days. There is an audience for movies everywhere from a TV to internet to Home Video. I wish this trend existed earlier where we would not have  lost stalwarts like Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor who after making turkeys like Kaagaz Ke Phool and Mera Naam Joker respectively got devastated

But its worth noting that a film nowadays doesn’t' flop any where only for ''Producers'' and not ''distributors and exhibitors’’. All these new sources of revenue have made the producers safe but not other parties. So the producers have converted the process of filmmaking which initially was a blend of art and commerce to a pure commerce once.

There is no harm in making bucks it will eventually benefit the industry itself which doesn't' get support from the government also most of the times but what is worrying is that it has affected the quality of movies and it has affected more in case of a movie starring a big star since most of them get sold at an astronomical sum before the release itself.

The makers very well know that even if the movie isnt good enough they can still make money out of it by tapping the audience elsewhere on TV or internet

The recent losses by some of the channels who paid astronomical sums for rights some of the movies hoping they will earn high advertising revenues through them has finally forced them to review their strategy and have prompted them to not buy the rights before the release will definitely create a panic among producers for a while and lets hope this change has a bigger impact in improving the quality of the cinema