Karan Johar on budgets of failing films

Karan Johar has been seen in the public eye promoting his latest film ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ in every shape and form, and also due to recent political views against Pakistani artistes.�� He has been known with his direct opinions and views in the Bollywood industry at most times.

Speaking to Mid-Day, Johar aired his thoughts on films and budgets, and films that fail.�� He commented on the ongoing production freeze amongst various houses in Bollywood, “There is one rule of the business of filmmaking I live by, which I learnt from Yash Chopra: Films don’t fail, budgets do.” In an hour-and-half long session at the Jagran Film Festival (JFF) on Saturday, Johar spoke extensively on the rather rhetorical topic, ‘Is Bollywood shutting down?’

He went on to admit, “I wouldn’t say there is a Herculean crisis currently because that will set the alarm bells ringing. But, yes, there’s definitely a situation that needs to be addressed”.�� By this comment, Johar was referring to UTV-Disney and Ekta Kapoor not producing any new films.�� He went on to explain, “Let me illustrate my point with one simple example. My father made Agneepath in 1990, and it was a flop. I produced the remake of Agneepath in 2012, which was a hit. Yet, going by ticket sales, more people went to watch the old Agneepath in theatres than the new one. Footfalls in theatres have fallen by 30-40 per cent, the reasons for which are plenty ��� power of national television, digital, Internet…”

Johar fundamentally blames the budget, “Budget, cost efficiency, and monitoring your levels of delusion (about pricing of films) are essential. After sufficient analysis, course-correction, and re-strategising, they (the studios) will certainly be back in the game”, and the relationship between the studios and producers, “We can’t see the studio as a funding bank. At Dharma (Johar’s production company), I make sure that no studio loses money with us. We worked with Ronnie (Screwvala) and UTV on Kurbaan (2009), which didn’t do too well. Immediately after that, we made I Hate Luv Storys (2010) that we gave to them at cost levels, so they (UTV) could make up for the loss. It’s the same with Fox (that Dharma is currently partnering with), and Eros, with whom we have partnered on three films internationally.”

Keep it with BizAsia to hear more from Johar and announcements of forthcoming films.