Posted:
Dream date for Bollywood's barons: Diwali + Friday
4 Nov 2007, 0147 hrs IST
,Ashwin Ahmad,TNN
Does Diwali matter? For the Hindi film industry, the answer is a resounding yes. The battle between Farah Khan's much-awaited Om Shanti Om and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya shows just how much these filmmakers are banking on the Diwali weekend. By doing so, they continue to follow what's now conventional wisdom in Bollywood: The best time for a film's release is during Diwali.
But why is this so? Can't other festivals rake in as much moolah? No, says film trade expert Komal Nahta. ''Diwali is unique in that it is spread over four days. Raksha Bandhan, Eid, Christmas are one-day holidays and hence you do not get the same numbers. There is no better period in India than Diwali for a film.''
While most filmmakers would agree with Nahta, the idea of slating big-banner films for release during Diwali is a relatively recent one. People in the trade point out that it was not until the mid-1990s that it became an established trend. In 1992, the success of Feroze Khan's Yaalgaar and Ajay Devgan's Jigar got filmmakers to think seriously about Diwali. Then, Shah Rukh Khan's Baazigar in 1993 ensured the trend became common practice. After that, Diwali became a golden period for Bollywood. Superhits like Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge , Raja Hindustani and Dil to Pagal Hai ensured the festival was firmly embedded on the radar screens of every big-banner filmmaker.
The euphoria didn't carry over into the new millennium. A disastrous year for the film industry in 2001 ensured a quiet Diwali for a couple of years. It took Yash Chopra's Veer-Zaara and K Asif's colorised version of Mughal-e-Azam in 2004 to restore confidence.
Since then big-banner releases have once again become the norm during Diwali. Of course, with bigger chances of success have come bigger risks. As Nahta warns, ''The release of many big-banner films during Diwali means they eat into each other's markets, and as a result some lose out.'' This was the case last year when Farhan Akhtar's remake of Don, starring King Khan, beat the Akshay-Salman jodi in Jaan-e-Mann which flopped at the box office.
Surprisingly, Diwali was not such a big deal in the old days. According to film historian Firoze Rangoonwala, yesteryear filmmakers weren't too concerned about the timing of their films. He believes the trend owes its existence to the rising power that filmstars wield today. ''In those days, the producer was king. It was unthinkable for an actor to demand release dates from producers like Yash Chopra. Now that filmstars have become more involved in the business as producers, they have more influence over when a film will be released.''
However, there were times when films were specifically scheduled for festival release. In 1930, Ranjit Studios shot a film called Hoor-e-Roshan within a month, so that it could release for Eid. But this was the exception rather than the norm. Says Rangoonwalla, ''In the heydays of Bachchan and Kaka (Rajesh Khanna), it was difficult to schedule a film release so precisely. Because those stars worked in so many more films, there was less concern over when the films would be released. Today, Shah Rukh Khan works in two-three films a year, so there is more concentration on exactly when the films will release.''
Also, the fact that film shoots would often get delayed made it impossible to set a release date. And the longer time (around three weeks) it took to declare a hit ensured that releasing a film on a festival date was helpful but not necessary.
It's a very different story today. With multiplexes determining the fate of a film over a single weekend, the four days of Diwali are more than adequate to decide whether a film sizzles or fizzles out at the box office. And that's precisely what Om Shanti Om and Saawariya will be battling over next Friday.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Sunday_Specials/S pecial_Report/Dream_date_for_Bollywoods_barons_Diwali__Frida y/articleshow/2515764.cms
4 Nov 2007, 0147 hrs IST
,Ashwin Ahmad,TNNDoes Diwali matter? For the Hindi film industry, the answer is a resounding yes. The battle between Farah Khan's much-awaited Om Shanti Om and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya shows just how much these filmmakers are banking on the Diwali weekend. By doing so, they continue to follow what's now conventional wisdom in Bollywood: The best time for a film's release is during Diwali.
But why is this so? Can't other festivals rake in as much moolah? No, says film trade expert Komal Nahta. ''Diwali is unique in that it is spread over four days. Raksha Bandhan, Eid, Christmas are one-day holidays and hence you do not get the same numbers. There is no better period in India than Diwali for a film.''
While most filmmakers would agree with Nahta, the idea of slating big-banner films for release during Diwali is a relatively recent one. People in the trade point out that it was not until the mid-1990s that it became an established trend. In 1992, the success of Feroze Khan's Yaalgaar and Ajay Devgan's Jigar got filmmakers to think seriously about Diwali. Then, Shah Rukh Khan's Baazigar in 1993 ensured the trend became common practice. After that, Diwali became a golden period for Bollywood. Superhits like Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge , Raja Hindustani and Dil to Pagal Hai ensured the festival was firmly embedded on the radar screens of every big-banner filmmaker.
The euphoria didn't carry over into the new millennium. A disastrous year for the film industry in 2001 ensured a quiet Diwali for a couple of years. It took Yash Chopra's Veer-Zaara and K Asif's colorised version of Mughal-e-Azam in 2004 to restore confidence.
Since then big-banner releases have once again become the norm during Diwali. Of course, with bigger chances of success have come bigger risks. As Nahta warns, ''The release of many big-banner films during Diwali means they eat into each other's markets, and as a result some lose out.'' This was the case last year when Farhan Akhtar's remake of Don, starring King Khan, beat the Akshay-Salman jodi in Jaan-e-Mann which flopped at the box office.
Surprisingly, Diwali was not such a big deal in the old days. According to film historian Firoze Rangoonwala, yesteryear filmmakers weren't too concerned about the timing of their films. He believes the trend owes its existence to the rising power that filmstars wield today. ''In those days, the producer was king. It was unthinkable for an actor to demand release dates from producers like Yash Chopra. Now that filmstars have become more involved in the business as producers, they have more influence over when a film will be released.''
However, there were times when films were specifically scheduled for festival release. In 1930, Ranjit Studios shot a film called Hoor-e-Roshan within a month, so that it could release for Eid. But this was the exception rather than the norm. Says Rangoonwalla, ''In the heydays of Bachchan and Kaka (Rajesh Khanna), it was difficult to schedule a film release so precisely. Because those stars worked in so many more films, there was less concern over when the films would be released. Today, Shah Rukh Khan works in two-three films a year, so there is more concentration on exactly when the films will release.''
Also, the fact that film shoots would often get delayed made it impossible to set a release date. And the longer time (around three weeks) it took to declare a hit ensured that releasing a film on a festival date was helpful but not necessary.
It's a very different story today. With multiplexes determining the fate of a film over a single weekend, the four days of Diwali are more than adequate to decide whether a film sizzles or fizzles out at the box office. And that's precisely what Om Shanti Om and Saawariya will be battling over next Friday.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Sunday_Specials/S pecial_Report/Dream_date_for_Bollywoods_barons_Diwali__Frida y/articleshow/2515764.cms
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