Interview with Raju Hirani

IIMB Management Review (2010) 22, 165e172 available at www.sciencedirect.com IIMB INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/iimb BANGALORE INTERVIEW Creating a successful cultural product: Interview with Raju Hirani J. Ramachandran a,*, Sourav Mukherji b,1 a Corporate Strategy & Policy Area, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bannerghatta Road, 560 076 Bangalore, India b Organization Behaviour and Human Resource Management Area, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India Abstract In seeking to track the elusive causes of the success of cultural goods, where creativity is the key to competitive advantage and managers have to balance the creative, market and organisational dimensions, J. Ramachandran and Sourav Mukherjee spoke to Raju Hirani, the director of three blockbuster Hindi movies, to understand the personal journey of this maker of ‘entertainment products’, and how he juggles the challenges of following his creative urges, co-ordinating a film production team consisting of people with varied skills and differing aesthetic values, and the business aspects of budgeting and estimating returns in an uncertain market. Context of interview unprecedented success rate of 100%. An overarching concern of the discipline of Management is to distinguish Raju Hirani is the director of three blockbuster Hindi successes from failures and then investigate the causes moviesdMunnabhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munnabhai and 3 behind such successes and failures. If one is able to explain Idiots. In an industry where average success rates, be it in why organisation A is more profitable than organisation B, India or worldwide, are rarely more than 10%, Hirani has an why product X has greater market share than product Y or what kind of incentives make an employee come up with more innovative ideas than another, practising managers can make informed choices. However, cultural industries * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 80 26993080; fax: þ91 80 and cultural goods such as movies have always posed 26584050. a challenge in this regard because analysts and academi- E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Ramachandran), cians have struggled to identify the reasons why one movie [email protected] (S. Mukherji). became a success, while another very similar one failed in 1 Tel.: +91 80 26993145; fax: +91 80 26584050. the market. Out of exasperation, one Hollywood observer 0970-3896 Peer-review under responsibility of Indian Institute of commented ‘Nobody knows anything’ (Goldman, 1984), Management Bangalore. meaning that while producers and managers constantly doi:10.1016/j.iimb.2010.09.002 attribute causes to past successes, they have no ability to predict the success of a movie at an early stage. Given his stellar record, Raju Hirani provides us with a very inter- esting opportunity to understand what has made him such a successful director in an industry that is characterised by 166 J. Ramachandran, S. Mukherji more misses than hits. If ‘somebody knows something’ deeply embedded in his work. This is often perceived as one about how to succeed in this industry, chances are it will be of the fundamental differences between the pursuit of Raju Hirani and it was with the intention of unravelling scientific and creative activities e while a scientific prac- some of the mystery that has baffled the practitioner and titioner is taught to keep him/herself detached from the the academician so far that we set out to interview him.2 scientific process and output, the creative practitioner gets Why is it so difficult to understand the reasons for success embodied in the creative process and product. or failure in this business? Films or movies are cultural goods However, movie making is not an individual exercise and defined as ‘non-material goods directed at public consumers as the director of the movie, Raju Hirani needs to get the best for whom they generally serve an aesthetic or expressive, from his entire team. Film production teams have been rather than clearly utilitarian function’ (Hirsch, 1972). described as a ‘motley crew’ where artists and technicians of Cultural goods derive value from the subjective experiences, varied skills and specialisation, different aesthetic values perceptions and emotions of consumers, all of which are and potentially conflicting priorities work together during idiosyncratic and do not have predictable patterns such as the project, largely without any long term attachment to an utility curves. In this domain, benchmarks and standards are organisation (Caves, 2000). We therefore explore in this derived from abstract ideals rather than product attributes. interview how Raju Hirani brings about coordination and To add to the complexity, consumers not only judge cultural collaboration among the various members of his crew, what goods from their own experience but are also influenced by his relationship is with the producer and how he manages to what others perceive about these goods. Movies are thus get the best out of his actors, many of whom are superstars classified as ‘credence goods’, as opposed to search goods, with a fame and reputation that precede Mr Hirani’s repu- where quality can be assessed before purchase, or experi- tation as a leading director of the Hindi film industry. Raju ence goods where quality can be learnt after use. For Hirani’s way of handling his team can provide important credence goods, quality can only be partially assessed during lessons in leadership and it reinforces the image of a leader, experience because the perception of quality is significantly especially in a creative industry, as a facilitator and cheer- influenced by what other people think about it (Kretschmer, leader whose main task is to inspire team members to Kimis, & Choi, 1999). unleash their creative potential. Benjamin Zander power- How do managers involved with the creation, produc- fully captures this image when he says, ‘The conductor of tion, marketing and distribution of cultural goods deal with a symphony (the leader) is the only team member who does their attendant ambiguity and idiosyncrasy? This is impor- not play an instrument, he is the only team member who does tant to understand because similar idiosyncratic and non- not make any music’, implying that the conductor’s task is to utilitarian value creation might be found in an increasing make others create music (Zander, 2006). number of other industries where creativity is key to Finally, our discussion takes us to understanding the sustaining competitive advantage. Successful managers in business aspects of movie making, how risks get passed on creative industries perform a fine balancing act by from one stakeholder to another depending on the specific constantly reconciling polar opposites across creative, situation. Estimates indicate that an average Hindi movie is market and organisational dimensions. Thus, they balance made at a cost of Rs. 20e25 crores (Rs. 200e250 million) and the artistic value of entertainment products against their most of the 500 odd Hindi movies that are produced in a year entertainment value, seek novelty in their products within fail to recover their costs.3 In this scenario, we wanted to find a familiar context, address existing demand, yet use out how movies are budgeted and how the returns are esti- imagination to extend and transform the market, derive the mated, given the uncertainty that is there with the product advantage of vertical integration but maintain flexibility and the market. We also asked Raju Hirani about the impact through creative specialisation and while they build of the various changes that have been happening in the systems (structures, processes and culture) to create, industry, especially with the entry of Indian corporate and support and market cultural products, they enable fruition multinational enterprises. Not so long ago, the Hindi movie of individual creativity (Lampel, Lant, & Shamsie, 2000). In industry was alleged to be dependent on the underworld for our interview with Raju Hirani, we try to understand how he financing. Raju Hirani tells us about the reality today and the performs this balancing act and whether that holds the largely positive and the small negative impact that corpo- secret of his ability to consistently deliver movies that are ratisation has had on the industry. creative, original and entertaining. In our interview we start off by getting to know Raju Interview with Raju Hirani Hirani’s personal journey e life’s trials and tribulations that got him to the world of filmmaking. We want to know how The early years a creative mind develops, how Raju Hirani came to be the person that he is today. This is because any creative output is inseparable from the creator and most successful people JR/SM: Mr. Hirani, you have this enviable record of in the domain of creativity are‘self actualised’; for them, delivering two successive hits as a director. And going by 3 Idiots the pursuit of creative activities is fulfilling by itself. This the buzz, you third movie, is also a super-hit. implies that as the creator of his movies, Raju Hirani’s philosophy, perspective towards life, likes and dislikes are 3 The authors’ estimates are based on various data sources available from Variety International Film Guide, Asianfilms.org, 2 The interview was undertaken as part of our research on creative Reuters, PWC, FICCI and BusinessWorld accessed through the industries. The project has been funded by British Council India. Internet. Creating a successful cultural product 167 How did it all start? Your family did not come from the RH: Those three yearsdthey still seem like yester- film industry, so how did you end up making films? daydcompletely transformed my life. I had grown up in the RH: Like every youth of this country I wanted to be an protected environment of Nagpur, whereas in this place I engineer, not because I loved engineering but because that had complete freedom. There was the library, there were seemed to be the natural thing to do.

Load more