Digital release of films has lapped up the film-loving netizens and is continuously
proliferating through increasingly popular apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
But it’s worrying to see the economical dichotomy when it comes to releasing a
film digitally in theatres. The imperialism of digital release cutting deep the
distributor of Indian films, inversely to the reel release of a film they used
to have.
The manual reel release was cumbersomely a harder job but
yielded high returns in comparison. The print cost of a film was Rs 35,000. If
the distributor had to run the film in two halls, they set the show timings
with gaps of at least an hour, say if hall A had one show at 11 am, then hall B
would have a show at 12 pm or 12:30pm. So once one or two reels of a film are
run in one hall, they used to be carried to the other hall to start the show
there and this carrying system was prevalent till 2010. So, if a distributor
brought a print of the film to a city, he would plan for distributing in two
halls, thereby earning Rs 17,500 and Rs 2,800 (loading charge) at Rs 100 per
show from each hall at a time. Once these runs are over, he could take it to
any B-grade city and again he run the film in two halls in the same fashion.
Then he would take it to a C-grade city and also exploit the print at small
village festivals where it was a trend to run a film by erecting a white screen
in a field and earn some money. So, a print bought at Rs 35,000 drew returns in
its multiples! They made business out of its scraps too. There is a wire thread
that runs through the film reels. The distributors used to bag a good Rs 4,000
by selling that wire.
The squat jump to the digital release was adopted by the
distributors and the theatres as huge costs were incurred in transporting the
print of the films and loading them in theatres and many similar problems were
altered by the digital release of a film. In a minute, the film is transferred
to far ends of the country digitally. All that is needed is to set up a machine
leased at Rs 1 lakh per month from the digital company and Rs 5,600 for loading
of a film for a month, for 28 shows, equally divided between theatre owners and
distributors. With the advent of digital release, around 11 companies in
business wormed into the system and took every theatre under their umbrella.
Now, they’ve started closing in on the net as they’ve started modifying a film
viewing to perfection with upgradation into 2k and 4k screenings of a film and
theatres are compelled to shell out more money to the digital companies to
introduce these technologies for being able to put the available enhanced
version of the films. But the theatres remain unaware that all the reused
machines are bought from China, Japan and Latin America and pushed to them at
premium price. The deposit price of digital screening went up from Rs 1 lakh to
Rs 7.5 lakh with addition of every version of the technologies. With that, the
loading charge of a film rose from Rs 100 to Rs 480 plus GST for a basic
screen.
Three major multiplex chains cut the edge to have their own
digital set up and preamble a price for the predominant digital release of a
film in their theatres. Now, a distributor has to pay Rs 14,500 + 18% GST to
each multiplex chain to release a film and Rs 2,500 to each theatre of that
chain for uploading the film for screening plus Rs 80,000 for the feeding
charge of a film. If a multiplex chain has, say 200 theatres, then the
distributor has to pay Rs 41 lakh to release the film in that particular chain.
When it’s a set rate, the distributor is bound to pay Rs 41 lakh plus to each
of the major multiplex chains. For the small multiplex chains without their own
setup, the distributors are paying close to the amount to the digital companies
to release the film. A big film like Salman Khan-starrer ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’, the
distributor paid around Rs 12 crore for its India wide release to the digital
companies.
I have revealed in my previous column how the cost of filmmaking
has gone down as the states give subsidy for shooting in their state after
making the location and security free for the makers if the story’s backdrop is
based on the state. Distributors are deprived of any such discount.
Surprisingly, the cost incurred for a digital release of an
English film by a studio is zero to nil. The Hollywood producers deny to pay a
dime for the release, saying the halls make enough from the pantry and parking
apart from the share of ticket price once a Hollywood film in screened in their
theatres.
Producers also use digital companies to promote promos of their
films in theatres. Theatre goers are target audiences so attaching a trailer of
a film to a new release is hitting the right audience. But single screen
suffers a certain setback as the film they are running carries the trailer of
the film running in a different theatre. So, one theatre is making publicity
for the rival theatre. The theatre doesn’t make a dime for marketing another
theatre or a film. The digital company doesn’t care about whether the theatre
suffers the loss.
This
dogmatic digital diaspora is getting increasingly deplorable by day.
