Children’s films? No papa!

doweshowbellyad=0; grabbing kid’s attention: The films that have the right mix are runaway hitsThe 15th International Children's Film Festival –– The Golden Elephant –– got off to a grand start in the city.
A collection of 119 films from 36 countries will be screened during the week-long bonanza that began on Children's Day. A closer look at the list of films to be screened, however, unearths some uncomfortable facts.With just two Telugu films having made it through to the competition, one thing is certain, 'Children's films' as a genre is not a big draw in the state.
The reason seems to lie in the fact that at the end of the day a film is rated by the moolah it rakes in for the makers.
"Children's films have rarely managed to make any money at the BO for whatever reasons. That has been the biggest deterrent as people are always sceptical to invest money in a project that will not be profitable," says Prabhu a film analyst. "The few who make such films, do it for the sake of winning awards or to satisfy a personal inclination, and rarely aim for commercial success," he adds.
Supporting the argument is Akkineni Kutumba Rao, a well-known children's filmmaker. His film Amulyam is the only Telugu film that has been selected for the competition. However, he argues that the hypothesis that such films are never profitable is not entirely justified.
The reason for children’s films not selling well could be, he says, that distributors are willing to shell out huge sums for commercial movies with big star casts but are unwilling to screen a children's movie inspite of the relatively low cost and low risk involved.
"It is a mammoth task to get distributors to air a film, which is why many such films never reach the target audience. To pass a verdict that such movies never make any money, without letting the audience decide is unfair," says Kutumba Rao. He is, however, quick to add that the government needs to take some pro-active steps like making it mandatory for theatres to have at least one show in a week dedicated to children's movies to cultivate a sensibility among the audience.
Trade analyst Taran Aadarsh begs to differ stating that things are changing and feels there is a big market out there waiting to be tapped. "In the recent past films like Krrish, Koi Milgaya, Harry Potter and Hanuman have been big commercial hits. It's been proved beyond doubt that there is a big market for such films provided you package it suitably," says Taran.
Stating that most budgets of children's films are shoestring affairs,Kutumba Rao says, "The low budgets means you have to stick to simple narratives and cannot indulge in special affects and other such technological additions."
Perhaps that is why not many children seem to be very keen on watching such movies. A V Vatsal a student of class nine feels, children's movies are very boring and seem more like lessons. "Most children's movies end up being uninteresting. I would much rather prefer to see an NTR film with songs, fights... et al., rather than watch such a film," says Vatsal.
Deepthi Chawla who has co-directed Little Boy (a Hindi short film) agrees, stating there is a tendency for children's movies to get very message heavy. "Children these days have a lot more exposure to the outside world than we did as kids. They do not like to be preached at and filmmakers have to be conscious about it. To reach children you must speak the language they understand and deal with the issues that concern them," says Deepthi.
However, Gangaraju Gunnam, the maker of the super successful Little Soldiers feels the whole exercise of classifying a film as a 'children's film' does not help because the logic behind the blanket generalisation is not strong and by giving it a name you shoo away other perspective viewers.
"Except for movies which come with an A certificate, a child can enjoy all movies and neither the government nor the filmmakers have a right to impose upon children what they can and cannot watch."