KJo on film-wars, 100 crores and censorship

Mumbai: Filmmaker Karan Johar, co-chairman of the FICCI Frames 2013, says the focus on the Rs.100 crore benchmark, is limiting the growth and content of Bollywood films at a time when the aim must be to mint Rs 1,000 crore from one film.

"Rs 100 crore is restricting the limits of our self. We must add one more zero the Rs.100 crore films and take it to the next level. Rs 100 crore is limiting the growth and content (of films). The possibilities are endless, and we must focus on Rs 1000 crore mark instead," Karan said here.

"In next five years, we will be in a position… it might sound aspirational, but there is a possibility that we may have achieved all that," added the filmmaker.

He spoke Monday at a press conference of FICCI Frames 2013 — an entertainment and business summit of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) starting Wednesday in Mumbai.

The theme of the conclave this year is – "A Tryst Destiny: Engaging a Billion Consumers".

It will serve as a platform for dialogues between thought leaders, studio heads and academics, who will talk on a range of topics like digitisation, censorship, marketing, exhibition, distribution, the future of content consumption in an era progressively getting defined by the digital media, innovation and planning required in various policy issues within TV, cinema, animation and gaming.

Talking about the state of theatres in the country, Uday Shankar, who heads FICCI Media and Entertainment Committee, said: "The number of theatres in our country is very few and the films releasing is more. We need to have more theatres for screening."

Adding to this, Karan said: "Hollywood is a much bigger market. It has six to seven films releasing on a Friday. Here, if more than one film releases, it is considered as a war. There is so much made out of two films released in a single day."

The FICCI Frames this year will especially tackle issues related to censorship.

One of FICCI's Policy Representation on the media and entertainment industry mentions that "the Cinematograph Act needs to be urgently amended, so that there are no impediments to its screening once the censor board passes a film".

"There is a special emphasis on the Cinematograph Act this year, especially with regard to what happened to 'Vishwaroopam' (which was banned in Tamil Nadu after being passed by the Central Board of Film Certification)."

"This needs an immediate attention. We believe that the censorship should be the final authority on a film's release. Censorship on satellite has already been tackled," said Karan.

FICCI Frames 2013 will be held March 12-14 at Hotel Renaissance in Mumbai.