Divide and rule ? that seems to have been the policy adopted by Yash Chopra to ensure that his film Fanaa is released in all multiplexes in India. The Aamir-Kajol starrer almost did not make it to the major cineplex chains of India after negotiations between Chopra and the Multiplex Association of India broke down earlier this week. But not one to give up, Chopra started negotiating with individual multiplex owners and the association’s unity started showing signs of cracking.
Though the fracas was widely reported in the press, what is not known is that Aamir Khan eventually stepped in to save the day for Yash Chopra. But more on that later.
First, a quick look at the story so far. The leading multiplexes of India, united under the banner of the Multiplex Association of India, got into a spat with Chopra over the issue of the share of revenue from his mega star cast film Fanaa. The cineplexes were willing to give 50 per cent of the net revenue in the first week to Chopra, 45 per cent in the second week, 40 per cent in the third and 30 per cent in the fourth and subsequent weeks. But the Chopras were not willing to settle for anything less than 50 per cent in the first two weeks, 45 per cent in the third and 40 per cent in the fourth week onwards.
In the Mumbai multiplexes, they were keen not to let their share drop below 45 per cent in any week. Several rounds of meetings were held between the two sides with the May 23 meeting being led by Yash Chopra’s reticent son Aditya Chopra. At the meeting, Aditya is reported to have told the multiplex representatives that in Hollywood Steven Spielberg demands, and also gets, 90 per cent of the ticket prices.
Adi, as he is popularly known, also made it clear that the ratios the Chopras were demanding were for their in-house production ventures and not for other films distributed under their banner. The Chopra scion’s reasoning is that a lot of effort goes into the making of their films and they need to be suitably compensated for that. Except for Neal ’N’ Nikki , all the recent films from Yash Raj have been successful at the box office, and, some like Bunty Aur Babli hugely so. In fact, of the total annual revenues of the multiplexes, around 25 per cent comes from films produced by Yash and Aditya Chopra.
But multiplexes generate a substantial portion of the profits for Yash Raj Films, thanks to the high admission fee that they charge.
The last meeting on May 24 was held between Yash Chopra and Adlabs head honcho Manmohan Shetty (acting on behalf of the multiplex owners) in the former’s office. But no consensus was reached. It is then that the multiplex owners got nervous. They feared losing out on a potential hit film. Taking advantage of the sentiment, the Chopras restarted negotiations at an individual level.
The first to break the unity was the PVR chain. Reportedly, it was Aamir Khan who succeeded in influencing PVR. The charismatic actor is said to have spoken to PVR owner Ajay Bijli. Though Bijli is out of the country (in Europe), he bowed to Khan’s wishes because the actor and PVR are reportedly jointly producing a couple of films soon.
Once PVR succumbed, Cinemax followed. It took minutes for the other multiplex chain owners to fall in line, ensuring that the Chopras had their way. Although details of the terms of release were not available, it is evident that the multiplexes must’ve yielded ground.
Referring to his latest film Ankahee , Vikram Bhatt had said that the movie, based on a chapter from his personal life, was his most honest film. Bhatt should, however, return to being a little dishonest, simply because honesty doesn’t seem to be the best policy on the box office. Vikram’s ‘honest’ attempt failed to work at the turnstiles. Produced by Pritish Nandy Communications, Ankahee was widely publicised as having been inspired by the extra-marital affair of the filmmaker Vikram Bhatt with former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen. But the story of the love affair between an erstwhile beauty queen and the married film maker did not excite the audience. Though Nandy did not spend more than Rs 2 crore to make the film plus about Rs 75 lakh on its publicity, Ankahee will not be able to recover even that amount.
Last week’s other release, Aparichit, could not repeat the success of its original version Anniyan either. Though the Tamil film’s dubbed versions worked in Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, the Hindi version barely managed an average performance. Since the Hindi dubbing and song recordings didn’t cost too much, the producer didn’t lose money. But for a film that did earth-shattering business in the four southern states, Aparichit’s performance in the north was dismal.
Komal Nahta is editor, Film Information
