Corporatization In Bollywood

With the rich heritage of more than a hundred years, the Indian Film Industry, with the Hindi Film Industry (bollywood) at its focal point is continuously evolving to adapt the changing demand of its audience. With its industry accord in place since 2000, abetted by an open economy facilitating business, there could not have been a period as strategic as this for the involvement of corporate entities in bollywood. In these hundred years, the film ecosystem has followed a deep learning curve to mutate in to its current form (exhibit) of a gigantic industry. With ever- increasing revenue, charming out close to a thousand movies every year. The most critical revolution in Bollywood has been its ‘corporatization’, the involvement of corporate institutions in the different stages of film production.

One of the most important advantages associated with the introduction of corporate institutional investment in Hindi movies, a concept which ABCL wanted to implement extensively before undergoing bankruptcy  was the sheer sense of order which they brought to the erstwhile  high-entropy bollywood industry as the movie making process is now covered by extensive and uniform legal documentation.  In fact the compensation structure of an actor has become very flexible as several stars have even decided to forego any fee and agrees to profit sharing of the movie’s revenues; a trend started by Aamir Khan. Thus a better pay structure ensures that actor need not word in several movies simultaneously unlike in the past, whereby they may concentrate on a quality rather than quantity. This investment also have some bad sides, the inflow of ‘Black Money’ into movies as e.g.- Bharat Shah’s “chori chori  chupke chupke”(2000) where underworld don and Mumbai blast accused Chota Shakeel, was supposedly the person responsible for pumping money. The ever-increasing influence of piracy in Hindi movies also poses a potential threat to the efficacy of corporatization.

Some national investment institutions are Reliance Entertainment, Viacom 18 motion pictures, Balaji Telefilms etc. Hindi movies attract considerable attention from not only the international audience but also major global production houses like Warner bros and Fox entertainment. Thus corporatization though not devoid of it fair share of flaws is definitely the way going forward and will surely evolve with the onset of time to yield even more munificent returns for bollywood.

                                                                                                                                Rakesh Kumar Paul
                                                                                                                           (PG MEDIA 2015-2017)