Yash Raj Films: From Print to Digital Platform Neha Agarwal1 and Pooja Agarwal2 1,2Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, Pune “In our business today, the most valuable currency the audience has is their TIME. And they are very sure about how they want to trade it. Also, it’s no longer enough just to create buzz about the product, it’s now more important to compete for their attention by providing compelling reasons to experience our product.” 1 —Yash Raj Film’s Statement on its Website As the rainy season finally hits the skies of Mumbai, popularly known as The City of Dreams, it is the place in India where a lot of people come every day wishing to convert their dreams into reality. Yash Chopra, one of the leading film producers of pdf, India was carefully watching the rain drops on the window pane of his office. He has this been instrumental in shaping the symbolism of mainstreamof Hindi cinema across the globe. His company had a great name in the Bollywood filmcopyright-holder industry, from making content high-budget blockbusters to youth-oriented films,system, fromthe working with the biggest of actors of the industry to launching young talentany in films, Yash Raj films had by far applied a lot of marketing strategies to drawsave its retrieval customer’s attention. or But today the scenario was different, He wasany actually thinking about the crises that his film making company “Yash Raj printFilms” on PERMISSION was facing at that point of time in early full, 2007. That year, expensive filmscopy, likein JhoomBarabarJhoom with Amitabh Bachchan, to or Abhishek Bachchan, Preity Zinta andWRITTEN Lara Dutta, Aaja Nachle with Madhuri Dixit and Laaga Chunari Mein Daag partwith Rani Mukherjee had bombed in the market. The in company that had madeILLEGAL a 150% return from three films in 2004 was now able to is collect only 10% returnIt from EXPRESSthe above films2. This was all happening because of the social media and digitalizationthe trend, that was emerging in India. Due to the advancement in technology, people were attracted towards the different media and drastic technological withoutchanges were also taking place in the film industry in terms of digital cinema, 3D screens, Direct to Home services, mobile phones and animation. Sitting on the CEO seat of YRF studios Yash Chopra was pondering on the different ideas that can be taken to regain the lost market and suddenly something came to his mind and he dialled a number. He called his son Aditya Chopra to arrange a meeting with all the department heads of YRF to discuss a strategy that can pace with the current digitalization trend. [167] International Conference on Digital Innovation: Meeting the Business Challenges GENESIS OF YRF YRF, Yash Raj films was founded by late Yash Chopra, a veteran of the Indian film industry. Yash Chopra popularly known as “King of Romance” for his ligature of hit romantic films spanning over a five-decade career, he redefined drama and romance onscreen. He has been instrumental in the symbolism of mainstream Hindi cinema across the globe. YRF was established in year 1970 by star maker and studio mogul Yash Chopra and it’s the only privately held and fully desegregated studio in India producing and have produced till now 50 plus films. Out of these 13 films have been fabricated by himself. A film by the veteran fasten its strong screenplay but gilded them always with gorgeous locations, snow-capped mountains, lakes and rivers, beautiful women draped in magnificent chiffon amidst fields of flowers-womenpdf, who invariably went this on to become icons after appearing in his films. of “A Yash Chopra film did not just engage the eyes and thecopyright-holder heart-it seduced the ears content 1 system,the as well.” of any YRF has its own state-of-art fully integrated studio that houses shooting stages, save retrieval sound studios and is headquartered at oneor of Mumbai’s prime properties where the any heart of the entertainment business beats. To many SOUTH ASIANS, a Yash print on PERMISSION Chopra film was their passport to a worldfull, outside the one they inhabit. He was one of the first directors to take his copy,camerain overseas to countries such as Switzerland, to or Holland, Germany, and the United WRITTENKingdom. This often led to a direct increase in part visitors to those countries, andin government were not shy in taking note. ILLEGAL is YRF, a 47 years strongIt productionEXPRESS house and vertically integrated studio in every sense, sways almost everythe part of the value chain from production, music and home entertainment, marketing, domestic and international distribution, digital, design, merchandising, licensingwithout talent management, brand partnership, music studios and film studios- all in-house facilities, which make it one of the most coveted entertainment conglomerates in the country. If his achievements as director were flabbergast, his work as a producer was no less. He had never been shy of adventuring into bold and controversial themes-which were not just simple ‘messages films’. Starting from movie like DARR (1993) to movies like CHAK DE INDIA (2007). Instead he pulled off the more difficult task of weaving in socially relevant messages within the parameters of commercial cinema, which had in its box movies like SALAM NAMASTE (2005) and LAGA CHUNRI MEIN DAAG (2007). [168] Yash Raj Films: From Print to Digital Platform Even after decades, Yash Chopra’s creative bequest remains unmitigated and now new YRF film continues to remain the most anticipated event in the film calendar of Indian cinema. And it’s all because of his elder son, Aditya Chopra’s vision and trend setting excellence over the years that has elevated YRF to the position it holds today. At the age of 18, his own film career kicked off. He started working as an assistant to his father in CHANDNI (1989), LAMHE (1991) and DARR (1993) followed quickly by DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE (DDLJ) at the mere age of 23 as his directorial debut, which was there in the cinema for more than 1000 weeks after it was originally released on 20 October1995. DDLJ was truly an Aditya Chopra’s creation in every sense. He was responsible for the story, screenplay and dialogue in addition to direction. The movie won every conceivable award, including 10 FILMFARE AWARDS (highest for a film until that year) and the coveted NATIONAL AWARD for the BEST FILM for providing popular pdf, and Wholesome Entertainment. His superpower, as a director and exploring genre this shifting trends, as a producer led to many more successof stories like VEER-ZARA (2004) in the film industry. copyright-holder content system,the THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION IN FILM PRODUCTIONof any Cinema has an immense popularity amongsave retrieval the people of India. The Indian film or industry is the largest in the world as it anyproduces approximately 1600 movies in various languages annually and overprint 3.2 on billion PERMISSION (INR203.4209 billion) movie tickets are sold every year in India3. This industryfull, has made a long journey from silent copy,in movies to vocal and colouredto films;or and then a time came when the age of WRITTEN digitalization emerged. part in ILLEGAL The birth of digital photography,is the swift transformation in data storage which came along and the developmentIt EXPRESS of internet paved way for the digital filmmaking era. We are spectator tothe this transition. It is true that the impact of digital technology has its positive and negative aspects but the transformation cannot be ignored. New-age aspiringwithout film makers are desired to be geared up to the latest developments and should be aware of how the art of film making has gone through various stages in the past 100-150 years. Most of the experts are of the opinion that the current digital era is one of the major transformations the world of cinema has gone through till date. Over the last decade, the industry has been largely driven by increasing digitisation and higher internet usage. Internet has almost become a conventional media source of entertainment for most of the people. The Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry is an advent sector for the economy and is making high growth strides. Proving its pliability to the world, the Indian M&E industry is on the cusp of a strong [169] International Conference on Digital Innovation: Meeting the Business Challenges phase of growth, backed by rising consumer demand and improving advertising revenues. The Indian advertising industry is projected to be the second fastest growing advertising market in Asia after China. At present, advertising revenue accounts for around 0.38 per cent of India’s gross domestic product. With the impact of technology, slowly the film making industry is becoming the world’s most lucrative industry. Impact of digital technology on cinema is all encompassing. It is shot edited and distributed without a single film. The impact of technology is that it changes both the art of film-making and the business of film making (exhibit1). Digitisation has enabled the release of films on the same day. This has killed piracy of films to a great extent. The craze of lots of fans to watch the first show has also been exploited by the dawn of digitalisation. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND INVESTMENTS IN THE MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY pdf, this The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in the ofInformation and Broadcasting (I&B) sector (including Print Media) in the period April copyright-holder2000–June 2017 stood at content US$ 6.58 billion, as per data released by Departmentsystem,the of Industrial Policy and 4 of Promotion (DIPP).