In earlier decades cinema was the only choice of entertainment for people. But these days every common man is engaged in his free entertainment on social media on his mobile. The above middle class people are showing interest in spending time at home on the weekends watching their favorite film on the big screen.
The choice of films ranging from multiple languages across the globe readily served on popular OTTs. So, until and unless they feel the urge to watch a film in theatre they don't even think about the movies in theatres. To get that urge, they need to find something really interesting and out of the box film which is the talk of the nation.
Otherwise, the regular audience for any film are only the Friday morning show patrons who are just a few hundreds in number in any city. So, the shows or the theatres will be shrunk to meet the requirement of only those numbers of audience and rest of all are forced to shut down.
If any producer wishes to make a film with a good budget, 70% of it is being consumed by the hero and the director. So, loss is definite for every producer and if at all he makes some money, that will be just a miracle. Yes, KGF2 and Vikram seldom happen in any film industry.
The producers may believe that distributors buy the film on perception and marketing. But gone are those days. Even the distributors understood that count of foot falls at theatres. They are not falling prey for the marketing gimmicks of any filmmakers.
So, the only way left for the majority of the producers is to make films with limited budgets not crossing Rs 3 Cr- Rs 5 Cr. If any producer starts pampering the heroes by giving them more than Rs 5 Cr per film, then they have to bite the mud for sure. The hero centric film industry cannot survive longer with these kinds of remunerations for sure.
Taking this turmoil as an advantage, what if the OTT platforms also slash down their buying offers drastically to keep the industry in order? Anything may happen at any time. The big heroes have no choice than getting compromised with lesser remunerations in the time down the line.
Tirupal Rao Y.V
