Bollywood’s missing its chance
If this was my first or second outing at writing a blog, I would’ve researched the hell out of the subject before daring to speak. But since I’m not, and since this blog is all about enabling me to write my mind on a daily basis, I intend to talk straight from my heart.
As you might’ve read, I’m having some sort of “comeback” into the world of Indian cinema. Not necessarily watching, but listening to the songs I’ve come to like for the past few years. And following yesterday’s post, one can argue Bollywood could really reap some profits if they put their minds to it.
Let me explain. There’s a name for us who have some sort of tie to India but don’t actually live there; we’re called “NRIs” or Non-Resident Indians. If you think it means “those people who call themselves Indians but actually aren’t”, you’re absolutely right: that’s exactly how it sounds to me. But back to the point: Bollywood. As it is widely known, Bollywood is the most famous Indian film industry (there’s more than one film industry in India), and it produces a ton of films a year. If the estimate of 30 million NRIs around the world is true, there’s some money to be made.
You see, for those who watch Indian films, it’s certainly similar to being a Hollywood fan: you taste every morsel of the next blockbuster you’re waiting for, spend your money on it, and if it grabs your heart, you buy it and keep it at home to watch again. Indian films though, have a characteristic you can’t find in western cinema: a lot more movies are made, and hence there are a lot of blockbusters to wait for in the same amount of time. How is this relevant? Very simple: there’s a high chance a big portion of those 30 million NRIs simply love Bollywood films, and they might to do so almost in a compulsive manner if you allow them to, because the movies keep on coming week after week. And how does Bollywood cash in on all of this? It doesn’t. As a matter of fact, Bollywood has a big problem with piracy, so big, that out of every $100 made out of a film, $50 are lost to piracy.
In fact, I’m surprised they can even make profits. Every time I visit Hong Kong I end up visiting the famous Chungking Mansions, where it isn’t uncommon to see Indian families pass by and pick up stacks of 10-20 films at an outrageous price, including films that haven’t even been released yet!
So how come Bollywood is still on own its feet? It’s because all Indians love their cinema, and because NRIs who want to watch those films in a cinema pay a hefty price to do so. But then again, there’s a whole lot of people who don’t pay the amount of money they should to watch the content they’re so proud for, and that’s where I think Bollywood could hit it with today’s content distribution method: the Internet.
If Bollywood made it easy for NRIs to one-click purchase films from a set-top box under their HDTV, I believe they would be a huge amount of money flowing in. And the basic principle’s the following: people don’t mind paying money, but you have to make it easy for them. It’s the same principle that led Steve Jobs to put the music industry upside down and triumph among those who didn’t believe in iTunes, and I think it’s not outrageous to think it’d work with movies, too. Plus, if you turn that set-top box into something that’s consolidated, like Roku or Apple TV, there’s almost no barrier of entry. People won’t need to wait for the next day to watch an old Bollywood film they just remembered about even if it’s at a dirty cheap price; they can just click a couple of times and start watching instantly.
But there’s one last topic left for discussion. What about the real Indians, the ones who actually live in India? Well, I wouldn’t discard them, but I wouldn’t count on them either. Only the rich people will be able to afford such a lifestyle both in price and cultural mindset, and you can clearly see that my target here are the NRIs because they’re the ones living among us, starved out of the films they love so much, being forced to buy them on the streets or to pay tickets at twice the price to see them in the big screen. They’re just the same as those who love Manga films (films, not trash) and have to go through great lengths to get the content they’re willing to pay for, which brings us back to yesterday: the customer demands something you can easily give him and you aren’t, only this time we’re not talking about just the language but about the art form itself. It clearly doesn’t make any sense, and it’s just an example of yet another market that needs to be broken by someone without fear of doing things right, instead of keeping the trend with what’s been done before.
Disclaimer: the shot above belongs to Eros Entertainment and was taken from the film Partner.
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- dinesharjani posted this