Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap endorsed the idea of capping ticket prices, as he discussed the ongoing drought of success in the Hindi film industry. After the pandemic-induced lean period that lasted a couple of years, the industry appeared to bounce back in 2023 with a string of record-breaking hits. But the situation seems to have worsened this year, with the industry struggling to deliver clean hits. The top-grossing Hindi movie this year is still Fighter, which was largely seen as a disappointment considering its hefty Rs 250 crore budget.
In an appearance on the Humans of Cinema YouTube channel, Anurag was asked to comment about the industry, and he highlighted how differently things are done in Andhra Pradesh/Telangana and Kerala. “We don’t have a discerning audience in the Hindi-speaking market, which affects business. Look at how things are done in Kerala, they have a deeply cine-literate audience; they aren’t just churning out good films, they’re churning out hits after hits. People are named Godard and Fellini in their villages.”
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Anurag continued, “Here, we’re hero-worshippers. We’re an overpopulated country. Compared to China, we have a negligible number of cinemas.” When it was pointed out that even these theatres aren’t doing good business, he said, “Because going to the movies isn’t affordable. Abroad, even if you’re the only person in the theatre, the film will play. Here, if they don’t meet a certain number of viewers, they cancel the show. They make money through food and beverage.”
Pointing out the different practices in the South, he added, “There is a ceiling for ticket prices in Telugu. Regardless of how massive your film is, a luxury seat cannot cost more than Rs 250. You can’t price your tickets higher than that, it doesn’t matter if you’ve made RRR or a small, independent film. We spend unnecessarily, which is being corrected now.” Anurag pointed out the extraneous costs that a film production incurs in Bollywood because of the demands of stars, and the expectations that below-the-line crew members have developed following the arrival of deep-pocketed streaming platforms.
He said that in the South, the money spent on marketing a project isn’t astronomically high in some cases, and minuscule in others. “When you have more money, spend tend to spend more on marketing, and this puts pressure on smaller films. This is why they aren’t able to compete in this ecosystem,” he said. Anurag said that he lost a lot of his personal money on Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat, but he is okay with it because he made the film on his terms.
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