MEENAKSHI RAO spoke to SHREYANS HIRAWAT, Director of NH Studioz which has acquired the All India distribution rights of Salman Khan starrer Tubelight, about how distribution has become a mind-boggling big business with intense competition
What is the strategy adopted for making Tubelight a successIJ
We have given Tubelight the biggest simultaneous release in 4400 theatres. It is a film that stars Salman Khan so it has the widest possible canvas of distribution. We have distributed it all over India, except CI (places like Indore in central India.)
What is the buzz around TubelightIJ
It's fantastic. We just held a private screening of the film for our friends and well wishers. The reaction was effusively positive.
How is distributing Tubelight different from distributing a film like PinkIJ
Everyone in every strata, every age group and every regional area sees and loves a Salman Khan movie. So we book screens universally pan-India. But for films like Pink, the audience is niche so we carefully select the number of screens, region-wise.
Has the business of distribution changed over the years.... from your father's time to now yoursIJ
From the start of theatre and cinema, distribution has been the main arm of film-making and its contribution in generating the revenues has been the biggest. Over the years, many more platforms have emerged for distributors. Earlier, it was a simple job with just 100 screens or so to take care of. Today, we talk of 5000-6000 screens so the reach and the work has increased more than 10 folds.
Earlier, we would supply film reels physically from theatre to theatre, city to city which was tedious. Today, technology has enabled us to control all the screens nationwide with the press of a button. Also, with the PVRs and INoxs capturing so many markets even in Tier II and Tier III cities, the penetration has gone deep into areas that were not earlier on the radar. like, only yesterday, a multiplex has opened in Port Blair! We are releasing Tubelight there too.
Is it easy to get distribution rightsIJ
No longer so simple. The competition is intense and it is pretty tough to get the distribution rights with so many deep-pocketed players entering the field. We are fortunate that Salman entrusted us the job for his latest film.
Can you throw light on the business of re-releasing filmsIJ What kind of business does that get youIJ Some examplesIJ
My father pioneered redistribution of films way back in the 80s. We have a huge collection of negatives for more than 1300 films down the ages, Sholay being one of them. In fact, if was fun to re-release Sholay in 3D. Over the years, the market and technology have evolved from just pedestal to digital. There are separate copyrights for re-releases for different platforms. So, it makes sense to buy the negative rights and then beam the films on platforms like Star, Amazon, Netflix and other digital props.
What about theatrical re-releasesIJ
Sadly, that has faded and if I am right, the last theatrical re-release we did was way back in the 1990s.
How do you maintain all these negativesIJ
It’s a huge project and we have a big space earmarked for them. They are kept in cold storage as the negatives need a 0-5 degree temperature to be saved from any kind of humidity. Then, we roll them every three months. We have hired experts to give them chemical washes. We also try and digitise some. Really, it is a collector's thing.
How many platforms are you distributing entertainment content onIJ
We distribute content which is purely Indian movies on all emerging platforms. If we talk about the best selling films on the online platform, they are Hindi films, they get you the most money.
Though the Indian audience will still prefer to see a Tubelight in a cinema hall, there is a lot of content that we distribute online.
Ticket prices of movies are drilling a hole in the pocket....
You will be surprised to know but going to the cinemas still works out cheaper than good quality, legal digital platforms. That’s because online movie viewing comes on a monthly subscription basis in most portals like Amazon and Netflix which costs you more.
But now with GST, the tickets will be more expensive...
Not at all, GST will not affect the pricing of the ticket much.
What's in the pipelineIJ
We are now working on our next big project, Harry met Sejal, the song teaser for which released this Wednesday. Very good vibes around the film and we are sure to do good business on it, especially with SRK looking so young and effervescent.
Can you throw light on new ventures like dialogue promotionIJ
Most promotional activities are carried out by production houses themselves. But yes, we have launched a separate vertical for this field. Our unit has made trailers, the most recent one being for Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar. We also did dialogue promotions for Jolly llB.
So are you promoting films you distributeIJ
Not necessarily. It is a completely different wing of work.