Bollywood's no tango with cash

MUMBAI: Call it the B2B-Born to Bomb-syndrome. In the first three months of 2005, the film industry has reportedly lost up to Rs 100 crore. On an average, each flop film is said to have set its producers back by about Rs 3 crore. Of the 41 films released this year, 37 have been box-office bummers. Of the handful that have made it, only Page 3 can be called a whopper hit. The big B2Bs include Subhash Ghai's Kisna, PNC's Shabd and Sanjay F Gupta's Karam. The recently released Tango Charlie starring heavyweights Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Bobby Deol and Suneil Shetty has, according to trade analyst Indu Mirani, barely garnered a 50 per cent collection in Mumbai and 42 per cent in Delhi in the first week. Clearly no tango with cash here. As far as number crunching goes, if Mukesh Bhatt's Murder was the black stallion of 2004, Madhur Bhandarkar's Page 3 is slated to become the 'Murder' of 2005. Made at a modest Rs 2.5 crore, Page 3 will reportedly earn the producer and presenters a cool Rs 12 crore. Director Madhur Bhandarkar is being wooed with offers close to Rs 1.5 crore... ...as director fees for his next venture. Sanjay Leela Bhansali's acclaimed Black is slated to be a sleeper hit, while Dharmesh Darshan's Bewafaa is a break-even film. It's party time for the Bhatts again as Zeher makes money for them in Mumbai. As for the others, it's a descent into the box office black hole. What are the solutions to overcome the cash drought? Bhandarkar says that the problem is that today's films all look and sound like Xeroxed copies of each other. "Audiences want something different," he says. "Now, one promo looks just like the next." "Being technically savvy isn't enough anymore," emphasises producer-director Subhash Ghai. "Film-making is the art of storytelling through technique but the current lot of directors seems to be more influenced by the ad world and its snappy techniques rather than focusing on content. Also, there seems to be more attention paid to marketing. Instead, they should respect writing and the art of story telling."