Harsh P

Finally the 1st phase of cable TV digitisation is almost over.This shift from analog to digital will surely have a very interesting impact on the industry.In fact,already some interesting numbers have been thrown up like the drop in the number of channels having 100+ GRPs Firstly,it will impact everybody from broadcasters to advertisers to media planners and most importantly the viewers.The market will no longer be at the mercy of few big players which will in turn benefit the viewers who are open to see different content but didnt' have much access to it earlier.Viewers's exposure to so many choices will eventually lead to improvement in content to retain their audience.Broadcasters have always been defending their regressive content by saying that is what the audience wants without realizing that they may be bearing it due to lack of options.But audience exposure to so many channels may lead to a change in their viewing habits thereby leading the broadcasters to change the...

In last few weeks there has been lot of debate on Kamal Hasan's decision to premier his movie Vishwaroopam on DTH before its theatrical release.This has been a first of sorts and has not happened abroad too.No wonder this kind of initiative has come from Kamal Hasan who has been always a visionary and someone ahead of his time.This decision was bound to get a thumbs down from Distributors and Exhibitors and rightly so. But for producers and audiences its a win win situatuion.For producers its definately a robust source of revenue in several ways: Firstly,it would get them a larger auedience as in say in 1000 bucks a family of 4-5 or even more can watch a movie instead of seperately paying for the tickets and the snacks would also be cheaper:-).So people who may not have otherwise gone to multiplex to watch a movie would watch it Secondly,there are many small towns where there are no good theatres,although some affluent and upper middle class families have purchasing power fo...

Film industry is a fickle world where few bad Fridays can swing somebody's fortunes.I know its sounds very cliched but there is no other way we can describe its unpredictable nature and how luck many a time plays more significant role than talent.We see so many examples of talented people going nowhere but lesser talents making it big. Apart from this there are also instances where talented people have some done very shoddy work and it nowhere matches their previous body of work or reputation.This happens in every profession but since here the stakes are higher and since a products' shelf life is very short,it is more visible I will like to discuss 5 directors who have been very successful and have had illustrious careers but from last few years they have failed to strike gold at the box office and have not managed to come even close to their earlier works: 1. David Dhawan -One of the most successful directors of 90s who I feel can still can give directors like Rohit She...

For most of us it must have been ages since we switched on DD apart form some cricket matches in between.With the coming of satellite channels and its further diversfication into a number of niche channels coupled with declining content on DD, DD has almost ceased to exist for us.But how much we slam DD the most iconic serials of Indian Television have been telecast on DD itself be it Buniyad,Hum Log,Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi,Flop Show,Bharat Ek Khoj et all.(Although I faintly remember these serials:P) When the satellite channels came in early nineties,we got to see some different stuff and some ahead of the time serials too like Tara,Banegi Apni,Baat Hasratein and Aahat.The content of these shows was on par with the DD and audience had best of the both worlds.They could watch both conventional and different stuff at the same time As a kid grown up in 90s I would like list 5 of the serials which I think if are re-telecast would give present day serials a run for their money 1.Byomke...

From last two weeks there have been lots of noise regarding Ajay Devgan's notice to Yash Raj,its implications et al .But has he done a right thing by doing so,if you ask me Yes he has.Its really unfair on part of any movie production house to use their muscle power to manipulate the competitors.It happens in every industry and film industry is no different.. If had happened 15 years ago it would not have this ramifications where movies had time to grow.In fact there have been many cases when movie released on same day have worked like Gadar and Lagan and also Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Bade Miya Chhote Miya,(the latter two released on Diwali itself). But today when the business of movies are dependent on weekends and at the most,a week a movie definately loses out if it does not get sufficient number of screens even if the movie is better than the other one.Even a good word of mouth wont' help since even if people want to see the movie what would they do if its not playing in...

Last week a news article said that students of IIM A will be cracking the code of a films' success based on some statistical tools at least during the first three days.With due respect to IIM A which is our country's best B School and one of the best in world,this study on face of it doesnt' make sense.Although it would be wrong to comment on something without knowing about  the tools and how will be they implementing it but the fact is no statistical tool can predict the success of an art form specially films on which viewers' views are so myriad.If the study limits itself to the opening weekend predictions it does make some sense as promotions do play a large role in initial footfalls,but beyond that it does not seem to be possible We see on a regular basis that we often have different opinions on the same movie when we came out of the theatre,some like it some dont. Also people have different expectations from the same movie,some are more keen on the drama part,so...

This has been a topic of debate right from the time the corporates entered into film production that whether it is good for the industry or will lead to more chaos.As it happens with every change there are both pros and cons Lets talk about positives first- it has definitely made the industry more organized and reduced the risks.Film making is a crazy business and corporates have brought method to madness.When did we last hear a producer selling his house or getting bankrupt? The pumping of money by corporates has finally reduced burden in many ways. In earlier days,even stalwarts like Guru Dutt,Raj Kapoor and Sunil Dutt suffered huge losses when their ambitious projects failed miserably and they lost huge money.In early days it was common for producers to put their own property and money at stake to produce movies.Hindi film industry although had started on a good note in 1940s following the studio system and studios like Bombay Talkies(kickstarted the careers of  icons like ...