A Comprehensive Study on the Marketing Factors of the Recent Bengali Films Considering Indian Movie Industry

IJFMS Volume 1, Issue 1, May 2014 © Blue Square Publishing House A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON THE MARKETING FACTORS OF THE RECENT BENGALI FILMS CONSIDERING INDIAN MOVIE INDUSTRY Mr. Jyotirmoy Mazumder, Head,Department of BBA (H), Tarakeswar Degree College, West Bengal, India ======================================================= ABSTRACT Bollywood or Tollywood, both use marketing tools for various promotional factors in film business. Hindi movies have gone global with higher gross income, whereas South Indian films have also reached some clusters to grow business. Various genre films have been produced in top six local language films, except Hindi. Distribution has gone digital, along with increase in multiplex, but unfortunate decrease in single screens pan India. Bengali cinema gained some budget & marketing expenditure to boost its business, increasing the gross income, but far behind from even South Indian film success. Hence, various film promotion techniques are used with increase in audience research, where Word of Mouth plays as a major tool across all demographic levels. Keywords: Marketing, Strategy, Film promotion, language film, genre, film industry, single screen, multiplex, research, brand, Word of Mouth. ================================================= 10 IJFMS Volume 1, Issue 1, May 2014 © Blue Square Publishing House Introduction The Journal of the Bengal Motion Pictures Association had coined the word, Tollywood - way back in the thirties- to describe a certain kind of „progressive‟ (read „Westernised‟) cinema produced by Calcutta‟s Tollygunge Studios (Derek Bose 2005). The film industry based in Kolkata, West Bengal, is sometimes referred as "Tollywood", a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge, a neighbourhood of Calcutta where most of the Bengali film studios are located, and Hollywood. Tollywood was the very first Hollywood-inspired name, dating back to a 1932 article in the American Cinematographer by Wilford E. Deming, an American engineer who was involved in the production of the first Indian sound film. He gave the industry the name Tollywood because the Tollygunge district in which it was based rhymed with "Hollywood"(Wikipedia 2012). The prime six big language film markets, as described by National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) in current years, apart from Hindi, are – Telegu, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada and Malayalam. The importance of marketing strategy hence arises as compared to Hindi Film Industry. In recent years, The box office collections for Bengali films has started to reach figures as high as Rs 5-6 crore, which is a significant increase from the past half decade. Films such as „Bhuter Bhobiswat‟, „Baishe Shrabon‟, „Autograph‟, „Mishor Rohosso‟, „Chander Pahar‟, „Shobdo‟, „Muktodhara‟ etc. have walked the tightrope between box office and critical fame with dexterity. A good story or script has become a main key for this success. Nevertheless, the mainstream Bengali films also remain more or less successful. Investment by various major producers, in a range up to 6-8 crores, has been seen with a focus to good glossy picturisation to catch the market. Big houses have entered to invest due to which FICCI has come along to help this industry now. A chain of both multiplexes and single theatre movie halls are now used for the promotion and to run the films. But there arise the question of marketing strategy of the films. Bengali films are not that way been marketed as done in Bollywood pattern or any other South Indian Film industry. Producers are not yet ready to spend some money on the promotional activities of the films in larger manner. Their primary focus in only the South Bengal market, neglecting the North Bengal 11 IJFMS Volume 1, Issue 1, May 2014 © Blue Square Publishing House market as the population are low there and rest of the country where Bengali culture remains and other people may also see the films with subtitle. In adverse, the numbers of single theatre halls have come down, piracy has gone up, more tax has been levied and effect of television is diminishing the importance of movie going. In the 1980s & 90s, the Bengal film industry went through a period of turmoil, with a shift from its traditional artistic and emotional inclinations to an approach more imitating the increasingly more popular Hindi films, along with a decline in the audience and critical appreciation. Over the last few years, Bengali cinema has been on the comeback path and produced commercially successful films with original & remake content. The Bengali film industry is moving into a phase where both a good script and proper promotion are required for a film‟s commercial success. Increasingly, as Bengali films vie with Bollywood films for audience pull, film makers need to have a marketing and promotion strategy to attract film buffs. Further, while critically acclaimed films in Bengali have failed to draw crowds largely because of their poor publicity; smaller yet effectively marketed and distributed films are drawing the audiences‟ attention. EIMPA (Eastern India Motion Pictures Association) plays a significant role about all aspects of film in this part of the country to promote and support film industry. Hence, it is important that Bengali films targeted at the urban audience focus on effective promotional activities in addition to the content. Further, investment in exhibition infrastructure, leading to the co- existence of multiplexes and single screens, along with the right price can offer consumers a compelling theatrical experience. Exploring newer content delivery platforms, focusing on digital rights management, effectively promoting films and continuing to focus on local content development are measures that could propel this industry to a luminous future ahead1. Even, opening of new „Prayag Film City‟ or a govt. sponsored new film studio at Uttarpara, is a new face of this industry. From an average of 40-50 films in 2006, now it's producing more than 100 films a year2. The market for Bengali films can be expanded to a 340-million-strong Bengali audience in Bangladesh, West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. The industry could truly flourish if films from this state have a proper distribution 1 FICCI Frames-a symphony of art-media & entertainment in east india-bengal-2011 2 http://in.news.yahoo.com/directors-ideas-power-bengali-cinemas-resurgence-073245236.html; http://ibef.org/entertainment&media_industry 12 IJFMS Volume 1, Issue 1, May 2014 © Blue Square Publishing House network3. So, by looking at this market, it seems very clear that the topic for research is very much neo and relevant for analysis. Lastly, talking about the biggest blockbuster of Bengali movies, „Chander Pahar‟, is important as it crossed the barrier of Rs. 20 crores‟ gross income as the first Bengali movie ever, and ran over 100 days since last week of December, 2014. Objective The objectives of the interest area may be described as given below: To analyse the changing behaviour during last decade To find out the turnaround factors for further development of production To know how the marketing strategies in recent years have been utilized To identify the impact of television and other media among viewers To judge the impact of various promotional factors in film business In essence, the objectives are all related, yet differ from one another to form the findings in an all square manner. Cinema of India The necessary steps for almost any film can be boiled down to conception, planning, execution, revision, and distribution. In a typical production cycle of a film, these main stages are defined as: Step outline · Film treatment · Script · Screenplay · Film finance · Film Development budgeting · Green-light Breaking down the script · Script breakdown · Storyboard · Production board · Pre-production Production strip · Day Out of Days · Production schedule · One liner schedule · Shooting schedule Cinematography · Principal photography · Videography · Shooting script · Film Production inventory report · Daily call sheet · Production report · Daily production report · Daily progress report · Daily editor log · Sound report · Cost report Post-production Film editing · Re-recording · Sync sound · Soundtrack · Music · Special effect (sound · visual) · Negative cost Distribution Distribution · Film release (wide · limited · delayed) · Road show 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_West_Bengal 13 IJFMS Volume 1, Issue 1, May 2014 © Blue Square Publishing House Historically, all mass marketed feature films were made to be shown in movie theaters. The development of television has allowed films to be broadcast to larger audiences, usually after the film is no longer being shown in theaters. The movie theater pays an average of about 50-55% of its ticket sales to the movie studio, as film rental fees. The actual percentage starts with a number higher than that, and decreases as the duration of a film's showing continues, as an incentive to theaters to keep movies in the theater longer. However, today's barrage of highly marketed movies ensures that most movies are shown in first-run theaters for less than 8 weeks. There are a few movies every year that defy this rule, often limited-release movies that start in only a few theaters and actually grow their theater count through good word-of-mouth and reviews. At the end of 2010, it was reported that, in terms of annual film output, India ranks first, followed by Hollywood and China. Enhanced technology paved the way for upgrading from established cinematic norms of delivering

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