Filmmaker’s of Stree and Badhaai Ho talk about smaller films doing well at FICCI Frames 2019

by Shrutee K/DNS

A session to celebrate the success of smaller films or rather content oriented films was held on day 2 of the 20^th edition of FICCI FRAMES in Mumbai. The panel moderated by Vijay Singh, CEO, Fox Star Studios had panelists like Ms. Priti Shahani, Producer, Junglee Pictures, Amit Sharma, Director, Badhaai Ho, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K, Writer, Producer, Stree, Vivek Krishnani, MD, Sony Pictures India, Ajit Andhare, COO, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Amar Kaushik, Director, Stree.

The panel discussed the response and the journey of making successful films that were not made on very large budgets. “We always believed in high concept as we started making films with our own money. We had to do many things on our own to save cost so the idea, the concept had to be great. One thing was always clear that we have to do something different to stand out.” Said Raj Nidimoru.

“All the films that I worked on earlier are smaller content driven films. I worked with Onir, Rajkumar Gupta and Raj, D.K, earlier the films were referred to as art films, now we have started calling them concept driven. These kind of films were always there in the industry.” Said Amar kaushik “When I was making Stree, I was clear that we have to make something that has never been shown before. Hence it looked like a fresh film.” Added Amar Kaushik. 

“We are a 5 year old company and there is no lineage so we knew that we needed to get into the business to make a mark. As a result our choice was very clear that we have to focus on our stories, we have to make fabulous relationships with our writers and directors because only they could tell us the story that we wanted to make. Stories actually do not have a size, how much money to put in to tell the story determines the budget of the film and not the size of the story. We looked for stories that had a hook and entertainment value. After all we are in business of entertainment.”  Said Priti Shahani “Nothing dictates the box office or the change like the audiences does. So we have been forced and I think it has been fabulous. We shifted as our audiences shifted” Added Priti Shahani.

The content has been there for many years. The content oriented films used to get strong word of mouth; the films didn’t garner big numbers on their opening days. That has changed. Now the Fridays have become big. Films like Badhaai Ho, Stree or Badla have locked in around 5 to 7 Crores on the opening day so there is certainly a shift and that is something that never happened earlier.” Said Ajit Andhare. “These small films are very big on idea so when you see the trailer, it is promising a content that has never been done before, it is very high concept, quite diverse. That immediately creates a desire that I want to watch this film on Friday. That is not your responding to content audience.” Added Ajit Andhare

“I come from advertising background so idea is the biggest thing for us.” Said Amit Sharma

“For us because it was our own money, we were always conservative about the budgets. For us these films are small films with big concept. With Stree we knew we had a winner in hands. Lot of people especially in smaller towns could identify with it. But the role reversal I think people loved it. Everything that women go through in society, we have shown men going through that. That I think gave us a much larger response.” Said Krishna D.K. 

Vivek Krishnani said, “we thought we wont get the dates of the stars so what should we do? We went on to look out and luckily we got film ‘102 Not Out’. The film had nothing conventional. There was no actress, no songs. The film set among just three actors. What actually drove us is the story. The stories are the currency of human contact. The story touched the chord. When the film did well, that really opened our eyes that there are people who you need to bring out of their homes to watch films. They have money, they want to watch films but you need to give them that kind of content.”

Has the audience changed then? Asked moderator Vijay Singh, to which Amar Kaushik responded, more than the audiences, producers have changed.

“The bigger films have actually poor ROI (return on investment) because most if the money goes to actors and the other factors of production. Smaller budget films are better ROI. I would also want to add that not only smaller films but a film like Total Dhamaal is working too. There are people who are watching and getting entertained by these films. These films are not called content oriented but are great fun and entertaining. We tend to reduce these things in search of simpler hypotheses. This is the time when two diverse films like Gully Boy and Total Dhamaal both work with same set of people coming and watching films in theatres. So in my opinion audience has not changed, what has changed is that we are telling diverse stories now.” Concluded Ajit Andhare.