Cluttered global distribution network: Bahubali producers may lose more than Rs 1000 crore

Making 100-year-old Indian Film Industry proud, Bahubali series has collected Rs 2500 crore from box office, even before the release of second part in China. If Bahubali second part receives rousing reception from China like Dangal had, the revenue would have crossed Rs 3500 crore. However, it is a fact that the producers of magnum opus movie directed by SS Rajamouli might lose more than Rs 1000 crore due to cluttered distribution network of Indian movies across the globe.

Often the foreign distributors get more than 90 per cent of the profit especially for money spinning movies. The producers get only fewer margins for overseas rights. Sometimes the distributor will fetch good revenue, may be ten times double of overseas rights amount from a small country like UAE alone. This kind of exploitation has been going on for decades and Indian Film Industry started to lose its grounds gradually. Worsening the situation more than half of cinemas were closed down and the operating condition and projection quality of most of the remaining single screens are so pathetic to attract film lovers. The 40 per cent world market share held by India in terms of theatre admission and number of movies being produced was reduced to 33 per cent in the last decade.

But the initiation of USD 10 Billion (Rs. 67000 crore) Project Indywood by a consortium of 2000 Indian Corporates and Billionaires may change the destiny of Indian Film Industry by 2020 to make  the entire Industry integrated, structured and modernized for making it the best place in India for investment by ensuring more revenue than today.

More than 10,000 4K multiplex screens having minimum 5000 loyal customers for each along with thousands of village screens and 100,000 4K ATMOS home cinemas are also getting ready as part of the Project Indywood. The salient feature of the consortium is that each member can make multiplexes and movies independently for their own branding choice and the consortium will take care of management. Besides a network of 7000 releasing çentres outside India with 10 million regular viewers connected through social media is also getting ready to make Indian movie distribution system better than Hollywood.

Irrespective of being the largest movie ever produced in India, Bahubali was released only in four languages due to the unavailability of wide dubbing facility in India. Releasing of movie in major international markets like China often gets delayed due to dubbing issues. The integrated dubbing and restoration centre to dub in more than 100 languages under high security shall be operational before 2020 as part of Project Indywood. The revenue figures through satellite rights shall be drastically changed once the movie gets dubbed into so many different languages. Global wide release network system to ensure maximum screenings for a movie at time is in the pipeline.

Indywood is trying to act as the single point selection and distribution hub for many countries like China where number of foreign movie distribution is limited to few every year. In fact it was Indywood which highlighted immense potential of Bahubali to Chinese Movie Selection director during a discussion on Indo-China co-production project possibilities. China Giant Screen has already signed a deal with Indywood to make 300 Giant Screens in India.

The revolution in Indian Film Industry is already started reflecting on the revenue figures. The revenue of Indian blockbusters has been increased by three to five times in two years. Bahubali was an eye-opener for stakeholders in Indian Film Industry to select international subject and produce movies catering to international audience.

It is a fact that Bahubali would have collected more than USD 1.5 billion (Rs 10,000 crore) if it was planned for 2020 global wide release. Hope Indian Cameroon Rajamouli will come back with another “Avatar”epic by 2020 to break all records to recover the “Rs 1000 crore loss” of Bahubali producers with the support of Project Indywood.