I've been trying to write at one more blog so as to follow Media and Culture happenings more closely. Here's one of my posts there on the recent multiplexes vs producers standoff in Hindi commercial cinema industry: * * * * * * * * Producer-Distributor vs Multiplex standoff in India All ye Hindi movie buffs out there, it is time to rejoice as the over two months long standoff between movie producers/distributors vs the 7 exhibitor chains(multiplex chains) has ended. For those unaware of full proceedings, the issue goes like this: India has roughly 11,000 screens out of which around 800 screens are multiplex screens. However, the revenue share is highly skewed in favour of multiplexes which generate around 50% of overall theatrical revenues. As Vanita Kohli’s article in Business Standard puts it: According to Prakash Chafalkar of The Multiplex Association of India, of the 11,394 screens in the country, 800-odd are part of multiplex chains. They sell tickets at anywhere between Rs 120-150 against the all-India average of Rs 30-50. Overall, theatre revenues accounted for 76 per cent (or Rs 9,700 crore) of the Rs 12,600 crore that Indian films made in 2008. According to Kapur, multiplexes bring in 55-60 per cent of a film’s theatre revenues, while the remainder comes from the 10,500-odd single screens. Hence, the producers-distributors want a bigger share of revenue-share pie from the multiplexes now. Now, it’s a known fact the Mumbai territory brings in the highest amount of revenues for industry. But in Maharasthra, due to Government waiver, multiplex chains save all of the 45% entertainment tax — which goes into their pockets only. From the rest of 55% money, the revenues used to be split in the ratio of 48% for first week, 40% for second week and less than 35% for third week.[These ratios are valid all across India, not just for Maharashtra]. The reason for the standoff was that producers-distributors now wanted 50-50 revenue share for all the weeks. In an analysis done on 18th April, IndianTelevision tried to gauge the financial impact of a long running standoff on both the parties. It estimated a loss of Rs. 850-900 million for the industry in case the strike lasted for over a month. Well.. the losses should turn out to be biggger now. In a further analysis on 30th May, they tried to analyse both parties’ stands, jotting down pros and cons of their currents stands and ramifications of any potential reconciliation efforts. From the movie industry front, folks were more or less united with Aamir Khan even going upto the extent of asking his fans to avoid his own movie “Raakh”, which was being released in single screen theatres. But now, finally, the issue has been settled. “The final agreement with multiplex owners will give producers a 50% share of box office takings in the first week, 42.5% in the second and 37.5% in the third, with the final week yielding 30%. The settlement also allows for a 2.5% swing either way in the event the films make above Rs17.5 crore or less than Rs10 crore. In case of the latter, the films are released with at least 500 prints. ”(source: Mint) Some people have been left over voicing over three other equally important concerns of the industry. First of these issues is Accounts settlement. Ideally, the producer should get his share of money within a week or two of the ticket sales, but multiplex chains usually take 2-3 months sometimes taking upto 7-8 months for settlements. So, even though as the Indian Media and Entertainment industry tries to scale up to global standards, the business practices still confirm to Unorganized sector behaviour. The other issue is control over release strategy of movies. Since each print usually costs Rs. 60,000 to the distributor, Distributors usually want to release movies only in select locations so as to maximize their revenues. So, for e.g. release a movie in Cinemax Versova and Fame Lokhandawala but not in Mulund. But this would hurt the theatrical collections of buyer multiplex chain for its Mulund location.. Hence, the standard practice is to have buffet approach — either the producer/distributor has to agree to provide copies to all the screen of Exhibitor chain, or face zero presence in that chain. But then, in heat of the moment and mounting losses, probably no one bothered to discuss nitty gritties. [For more on these issues, you can listen to the podcasts attached to these articles on Mint (1 and 2).] The final issue concerns with the quoted amount of theatrical revenues itself. The real issue is not what the share distribution of the pie is, the real issue is what exactly the pie *is*. Many producers and distributors quote inflated collection figures in trade papers which are very different than what is actually being indicated by the multiplex collection feeds. This is not to speak of internal squabbles between the producers and distributors themselves once its time to split the presumed overflows. [via IBOS] As far as my personal opinion is concerned, I personally don’t have a stand on this issue, except for the fact that single-screen theatres(which in turn, means small towns and villages also) have been totally ignored out of this discussion, as if they don’t matter -- a space which has resulted in rise of Bhojpuri and Regional Cinema. Also, the amount of disorganization in industry is appalling and leads to loss of scale in terms of revenue potential and production qualities. After all, everybody in industry is here to entertain people and make money.. and if despite all these no-settlements or settlements, the industry continues to make pathetic movies and deliever flops after flops, the audiences will hardly care for them.
In what must be a first of its kind of incident in Indian legal history, a blog has been cited by High Court as part of its analysis of the case. Since its launch in October 2007, TVS "Flame" model has been in controversy with Bajaj Auto claiming that the technology used in Bike infringes upon the Bajaj's patented DTSi technology.
"Counsel for Bajaj argued today that the high court had relied on a blog by an IIT student to decide the controversial issue..."
To which the guy Sai Deepak himself has replied on the blog:
"As for the genuine,valid and well-intentioned queries raised by some of our readers regarding the wisdom of the Madras HC in relying on a blog post, one understands where they are coming from because this was the first question that crossed my mind. However, i would think that the blog post performed a more corollarial/paraphernalial role rather than being the central piece; i say this because the Court, after having perused the materials and arguments submitted by both the parties, must have felt the need for literature which breaks down the issues involved in a lucid unbiased manner without watering down the intricacies. In short, the Court was probably looking for something which clearly summarises the techno-legalities of the case and that,in my opinion, is precisely how the Court percieved the blog post. This is reflected in its observation that "the article does not conflict with the facts of the case". So only after going through the material submitted did the Court refer to the post to put things in perspective in an uncluttered fashion.To that extent, i think the reference is justified."
"As for the other factor- credentials of the author/forum- my honest answer would be that instead of taking a blanket stand that "blogs are reliable" or "blogs arent reliable", every piece of document must be weighed and judged on its own merits with a pinch of salt.If the twin fundamentals evidentiary principles of relevance and admissibility are satisfied and the content of the document serves the purpose for which it is adduced, which is to assist the Court in taking an informed stand, one doesnt see why such document must not be referred to."
But the question I've in my mind is: How on earth did the judge got the reference of this blog? And do Indian judges read blogs for that matter? So, now what happens to the general perception of Indian legal system being a crawling elephant? And what happens to livelihood of Firangi-authors, and India-born-but-writing-for-firangis-only-authors who like to enlighten us to the-other-side-of-India at every other podium, that it'll take 300 years to solve the present cases only in Indian courts, and that India is a loser? I think they'll take this as an exception and go back to their India's growth bashing.
Since I haven't posted here for a long long time in the last year, may be I'll talk about myself in this post. And even though I'm so much of a self-centric guy, I hardly can think of something interesting to say about myself. And yet, once in a while when I meet old friends, realization remains strong that spark of wit remains unfazed.
Huff.. It's been long time since I've posted here.
This is a fictional newspaper kind of article I've written for one of my friends humour groups. Post your comments on it. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Indian Government goes full throttle after Dawood: Gets his facebook and orkut profile delisted Himanshu Gupta Dec 07, 08 In a swift turn of events, Indian Government has sprung into action after the recent Mumbai attacks, and has started with strict actions against one of the alleged perpetrators of attacks -- Dawood Abrahim -- by getting his orkut and facebook profile delisted. As per a top intelligence expert, the action is supposed to highly demoralize Dawood Abrahim and his gang. Due to this action, the gang's members would not be able to get birthday reminders of Dawood's "happy budday!!" -- leading to utter frustration, confusion and infightings in the gang. Most importantly, Dawood would have to rewrite his whole "About me" section in which he had written - "Come on! Come on! Aaaaah". When asked about how they identified Dawood's profile, the Information and Broadcasting minister present at conference pointed out that a plain search for 'Dawood from Karachi' would give out Dawood's profile; and so far along, this is how they've been trying to get him extradited from Pakistan for all these years. Meanwhile, Ravan Kaane, the leading politician who considered Mumbai Attacks as an opportunity to gain the CM position in Maharashtra has lashed out against this action saying that you can't even trust Mahendra Dhoni now, leading to speculations that Mr. Ravan Kaane was trying to become captain of Maharashtra cricket team. In a related event, Human Rights groups have vehemently criticized the Indian Government's recent action of profile deletion of Dawood by taking a rally in front of TV stations of India TV across the country. One poster cried - "It's murder of an identity without verifying whose profile it was. Indian Government can't deny an innocent person his right to Happy budday scraps". For the benefit of our readers, we are carrying an sms poll in our pages today. You can vote whether it's fair to delete a person's facebook or orkut profile when he might be a suspected terrorist, or should we wait like all these years and allow the terrorists to roam unfettered on our motherland.
This editorial piece in The Telegraph made me wonder whether even leading newspapers in India have succumbed to the tendency of leaving logic to the heavens:
The editorial says:
I don't understand how canonization of Sister Alphonsa is a moment of pride for all Indians. The editorial would have been fine to me if it just treated Sister Alphonsa as one more example of dedicated Christian missionary worker who helped poor Indians, and hence espoused secularism and social work. But why should an act of 'supposed miracle' underline the significance of canonization for Indian society, when all rational logic would point out that no such miracles ever happen - at most they are cases of faith healing, or just a probabilistic chance. Is the Telegraph not paying its editors well? or, have the last remaining intellectuals decided to leave bengal after Mamta dee's recent grand victory over all reason and logic?"The recent attacks on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka and the rise of Hindu and Muslim fundamentalism are examples of movements that run counter to India’s rich history and praxis of cultural diversity. It is somewhat apt that together with the news of violence against Christians has come the news that the Roman Catholic Church in India will have its first woman saint when Sister Alphonsa is canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 12. This is a special honour for India, more so because it goes to a woman. Not too many people, outside a select circle, know of Sister Alphonsa, who died at the age of 36 after a life of terrible physical suffering. This only goes to show that she carried out her piety away from the limelight and she sought her solace from her God rather than from public acclaim. The sense of sacrifice and selflessness that she brought to her life are the hallmarks of holiness of all the religions associated with Indian culture." [..]
"In 2007, her canonization was authorized after a one-year-old boy, born with a physical disability, began to walk a day after he was taken to Sister Alphonsa’s grave. This was taken as a miracle, the performance of which is essential for a person’s canonization. These are the necessary details that underline the significance of the canonization for Indian society. It demonstrates that the work of Christian missionaries, contrary to what some Hindu fundamentalists are propagating, were integral to Indian society, and posed no threat whatsoever."
Based on my observation of booming education industry in India, I propose the following business model framework for any entrepreneur interested in this industry:
Open any kind of school - Kindergarten, Nursery, High school, Engineering, Medical or MBA. Price its fees very high compared to local existing Government and private schools. Since there already exists a pent-up demand for education in India not being fulfilled by existing market, students will definitely join, or middle class parents clamouring for big-life dreams will forcefully send their children to fulfill their own dreams which they couldn't achieve themselves. Teachers are one of the worst paid jobs in India and hardly get any respect from society, hence they'll join the school for money -- leaving Government and low-paying private schools in shambles. It's alright even if your institute does not have proper licenses or approval of AICTE, some under-the-table-cash would do, or the cries of middle class parents to the court would get you a temporary injunction. Remember power's law always, which is -- "Power is the Law".
Now, since the fees is very high, three sets of students will join. One will comprise of sons and daughters of rich Indians who've made their money from black-economy in India by evading taxes and corruption. These kids will hardly care about education and will live a happy-go-f**king life within a closed cluster of each other, while the rest of poor lot looks on at fair-skinned chicas and lusts on hopefully. After finishing their education, these kids get into best jobs on the basis of their excellent communication skills and their high-class networks or contacts. Or, their parents help them open some business that helps them make loads and loads of money based on strong growth of Indian Economy for past 10 years.
The other set will comprise children of middle class Indians. Middle class Indians who've toiled hard all their life and still haven't been able to save enough to let their children get spoiled. They'll take loans to fund their kids' studies and will put enough pressure on them, so that they cram all the subjects properly and get good grades in class. In case of higher education, such as MBA, the kid will take an educational loan himself, will slog hard for two years as he has to land on a good job after 2 years. If male, he risks losing prestige in society and circle of friends, if he lands on a low-paying job. If female, she risks being married to a traditional-caste based match as soon as she graduates; hence she gives her education her best shot so that she's able to escape the confines of her parents and her social relations as long as she can.
The third lot, i.e. the poor continue to live their wretched lives with no access to clean water, hygiene, electricity and sometimes roads. They have the clout of numbers, and hence the kids of richest of their tribe get entry to all the elite institutions through Reservations and continue to rule their tribes.
The manager running Educational Business school need not worry about any of above complexities, as the Indian Economy is anyways on a high, and therefore based on past records of students getting good grades/placments, students keep joining as they have no other better choice.
In the end, it becomes a safe business model... just like a Real Estate boom based business model in all Indian cities. And so, the system drags on.. with more mediocre education being provided, and brilliant students made brilliant by their self-efforts and hard work. Money flows on, Life goes on.
As this BusinessWeek article points out, as consumers spend more and more time with their mobiles rather than spending it online, Google faced a threat to its core business model i.e. showing advertisements to consumers while surfing for information. Since the display space in case of a mobile phone is much constricted compared to a desktop, it allowed google to show fewer ads and thus make less money.
Google responded to it by launching its own mobile operating platform known as Android. Today, let's say if you're a developer for symbian(OS used in Nokia handsets), you're locked into making applications for particualr handsets makers only. For e.g. the application made by you won't run on Sony Ericsson handsets.
An analogical example would be - let's say if you're a developer who makes games for Sony playstation. Now, your games wouldn't run on Microsoft XBOX consoles or Nintendo consoles since the platform compatibility isn't there. Also, whenever Sony changes its console version from PlayStation2 to PlayStation3, your software (the game) runs the risk of market extinction as consumers will shift to newer age gaming consoles. But if all gaming consoles software becomes open source and common across all players in the market, then even if Sony shifts from PlayStation2 to PlayStation3, your game will still run on XBOX or Nintendo giving you more flexibility with regards to time and investment. This should result in better games for consumers and more revenue for game developers.
Hence, Android opens up the playing field for mobile app developers. In fact, one of the major reasons behind launching "Chrome" might be just that - the existing browsers weren't too friendly with mobile OS platforms. Even though iPhone tried to redefine mobile internet surfing experience, I think Google couldn't trust Apple enough(Which technical major or record label does). Hence, Google's strategy would be to use the added display space of Chrome installed on an Android OS handset, which in turn would be used to garner more search revenue advertising.
Still remaining Microsoft supporters, anyone?
Who amongst middle and upper middle class Indians hasn't been disturbed by credit card sellers, loan sellers and what not on his/her phone. Most of these tele-marketing agents call at the most inconvenient timings and usually end up receiving angry or harsh words from prospective buyers rather than making a sale.
Any guesses, why this happens? Yes, I understand one reason being the aggressive marketing practices of Indian banks which forces agents to do so. But one of the major reasons behind this failure to sale is that most of these tele-marketing agents working in call centres are young graduates fresh out of school or college, have never used a credit card themselves in their life, have never worked in high level organizations where they can appreciate the value of two minutes of an executive's time, which is all they want during their call.
And this is a big marketing failure on part of all the companies using tele-marketing in India. These companies train their personnel about their products using classroom teaching programs, but forget that you can't inculcate passion about a product or brand in just a classroom. Can a person who has used Nokia 1100 all his life will be able to sell a blackberry or iPhone to an executive, when the main differentiating factor is no longer the price of the phone but the brand name or its service value.
A similar instance was told to me by my teacher Dwari in my retail class lecture at MICA. Most retail salespeople in India selling luxury brands like Gucci, Louie Vuitton have never used these brands themselves, and thus can never appreciate why would somebody be willing to pay millions just for a bag or watch.
This is a challenge all "new to Indian market" and growing business categories will face in India. Anybody with comments on how companies can crack this code, or knowledge on companies which have been able to achieve this in newer markets?
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kartik soral said:
[this is good]Hey Bhaiyaji... nice to see your blog after a long time. you might be suprised that i still follow your... read more
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Ankit Jain said:
[this is good]Good One ! read more
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bobr512_41 said:
Hi, thank you for the article that you wrote article... A lot of time I was trying to find some... read more
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Prakhar Gupta said:
[this is good]Hahaha...gud one!..Our government is really this ineffective...all this time...I bet all the terrorist must hav moved out of Pakistan by... read more
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Can't believe soral.. you really follow my blog :)I thought i was the only one writing and reading it. Reddy... read more
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