Think Big Think Universal

Ever since the Indian film sector received Industry status last year, much has been said about the tremendous potential of the Indian film industry to go global. Globalization in this context essentially refers to the creation of two-way traffic between the Indian film industry and Hollywood. This would result in creation of a foreign presence in India and the export of Indian talent and films to the international markets. However, all the euphoria and optimism needs to be tempered with some amount of practicality as well. Apart from glitz and glamour, filmmaking requires a lot of creativity, dedication and diligence. Unlike Hollywood, discipline and professionalism is lacking in the Indian film industry. To add to the lack of discipline is the fact that the Indian film industry, and in particular, "Bollywood," is virtually devoid of corporate and legal practices. It is highly unlikely that the Indian film industry, which has followed the same unorganized practices over the past 40 years, is going to see an over-night metamorphosis into a Hollywood-like structure.³¹²

Apart from the lack of discipline, Indian films cater to a parochial and limited audience. As compared to Hollywood, its marketability, until recently, was confined to India. However, with the ever- growing Indian population in other parts of the world, the overseas demand for Indian films is increasing at a rapid pace and the Indian film industry has become an important part of the international scene. In fact, export revenues have caught up considerably with domestic revenues and are virtually at equal levels.³¹³ While there is a remarkable increase in the presence of Indian films overseas, the process of globalization has only just begun.

During the last few years, Hollywood has witnessed Asian filmmakers and actors like John Woo and Jackie Chan wowing Western audiences. Similarly, with Bollywood now walking the walk and talking the talk of making Indian films with international appeal, it may just be the right time to see Indian talent extending beyond the Indian community and spreading out to the cross-over audience as well.

Library System

Today, the value of any production/distribution company lies in its intellectual property and its film library. Usually, a producer makes a film and sells the various rights associated with the film to various distributors, such as music companies, satellite channels and theatrical distributors. These distributors exploit their respective rights in the film for a period of usually five to seven years after which the rights revert back to the film producer. Therefore, as a producer makes more and more films and upon reversion of the film rights back to him, his library value keeps increasing. Thereafter, the producer can exploit the various film rights in a number of ways over an extended period of time. A Hollywood studio's main assets lie in their library value. Most revenues of a film are realized within 18 months of release through multiple windows (i.e. theatrical India and international, India television, musical score rights, international pay TV and Indian cable/video and worldwide DVD rights), after which the rest is library value.

In addition to the exploitation of new releases, once the owner has re-acquired rights, they continue to be exploited via the library. Ownership of a significantly large library is an essential part of a film production and distribution company. The cash f low from the library supports the production and co-production of new films and, in doing so, smoothes the earnings of major studios. In turn, these new films will be added to the library after theatrical release and drive up the value of the library overall.

Stringent Enforcement Mechanism

Even though piracy is decreasing by the day, it is still the worst enemy of the Indian film industry. Production and distribution houses continue to suffer huge losses due to piracy. In earlier days, piracy only used to occur domestically. However, with the international market opening up in the last few years, the industry is also witnessing rampant piracy of films overseas (in the form of DVDs VCDs etc). This has been causing huge and unfair revenue losses for producers/distributors. This availability of pirated copies of Bollywood films in India and overseas is costing the industry a whopping US$ 80 million a year.³¹⁴

The Indian Copyright Act, 1957 adequately protects the copyright owners from piracy and infringement of copyrights. In fact, the Indian law is a very well drafted law. However, due to the poorly managed legal system, enforcement is not consistent or effective. The never-ending litigation backlog also poses a large hurdle in deciding a case. Indian enforcement system is infamous for cases taking a few years to reach final conclusions.

In order to resolve this menace, stringent enforcement mechanisms need to be applied. The government needs to play a more pro-active role. Similarly, the police and the judiciary need to be educated about the seriousness of this crime. The consumer too, must be made to realize the moral and social stigma attached to encouraging the watching/listening of pirated films/music.³¹⁵ Further, the organizations/associations involved in this industry need to create awareness about this evil and provide an environment where people are more aware of the seriousness of this issue.