Bridging awards and Box Office

                                                   By Rajasekar S

“Movies”,filmmakers across the globe  have their own choice of film making, some may prefer to make their film  to be critically acclaimed, some may prefer to stick to the commercial format , at the end of the day film making is a costly business and all a producer need is that their film should perform well at the box-office. But in India it is very rare for a critically acclaimed film to perform a decent business in Box Office.

Every time when a Hollywood movie which is doing extraordinary business and also sweeping many academy awards, we too think why this is not happening in India?.Well, there are so many reasons.In Hollywood though a critically acclaimed film didn’t had a good theatrical run, once the film got recognition through awards,people over there having a tendency to  buy original DVDs and the production house can witness a profit.But people in India , we are having tendency to download the Blue Ray Rip in torrents rather than Buying Original DVDs

It is very difficult to change people’s tendency. But a production house can change their release strategy. Yep ,there is a common practice that is followed in Hollywood and many other film industries across the globe. Before releasing their films they are very much keen in taking their films to various film festivals and once their film got awards they will be start promoting their film with those “Award winning tag” . This strategy surely pulls the crowd to the maximum extend.

The Best example is when the National awards were announced, many are searching for those films in internet and one best example is “Aaranya Kaandam”,many people want a clear print of this film and if you are familiar with torrents you can easily see the number of request in the page. Even many made a request to SPB Charan  to re-release the film in his micro-blogging site.

The TRP of Vaagai sooda va and Azhagar Samyin Kuthirai is decent when comparing to the so called commercial hits, because the TV Channels are rightly advertising the films with the “National Award winning” tag.

In case of  ”Aarnya Kaandam” SPB Charan rightly advertised and promoted the film with the “Asian Film Festival Award” tag but many doesn't even know about that award, but people in India are quite familiar with National awards.So If the producers are quite confident with their film , they could wait  for the announcement of national award and after that they can release their film, But one should done with the censor board certification , because the basic criteria for National award is that it must be certified by CBFC.

For Example “Aadukalam” which won six National award for the year 2010, released only in 2011. Though the film released by January 14th 2011 and was a hit in Box office.If it released after May 19,2011 the box office performance would have been much better. Further if the production house sells the satellite rights after the announcement of National awards they can quote more amount. This Idea suit for many Kamal films like Aalavanthan,Anbe Sivam,since  the craze for these  films are really good and the TRP is extraordinary.

Films like Vazhakku En 18/9, did a decent performance in Box office only because of the positive word of mouth from well known Directors and critics. But in case of Vazhakku En we can’t expect them to release after national award since it will be announced only by next year. But once the director and producer decides to make a critically acclaimed movie, If there is a perfect planning they can target the censor at the end of a year (say December)and wait for a six month for the announcement of national awards and after that then they can release the film, so that the performance of the film in Box-Office will be better.

(The original article was publishes in Kollybuzz.com)