First day, first show
SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY
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This Friday SaharaOne comes to town with a fresh idea on Indian tube - movies releasing on the channel every Friday before hitting theatres. Take a look at what's on screen and what's behind it.
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IF THE IDEA CLICKS, I am CONFIDENT, THE PROBLEMS OF PIRACY WILL HAVE A PERMANENT SOLUTION
AN EXPERIMENT: SaharaOne COO Purnendu Bose. PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA
The idea of `first day, first show' has its own charm, isn't it? From keeping a tab on a film's release for weeks together, to queuing up at a movie hall for tickets on a Friday, and to set aside no less than three hours from one's regular schedule... it is all sure a big hassle for many a busy bee but a habit nevertheless for many more. After all, we are a movie crazy country and Bollywood sports the coveted crown of the highest movie producer in the world. So, we have quite a platoon of Indians hitting the halls to watch Friday releases to keep the flag flying high.
But lets bring a new-fangled angle to it here. What about Friday releases on our TV sets and then at cinema halls? Popcorns, movie and as many number of people as you want as company right in your drawing room, is what one means here. Well, are your eyeballs already rolling, the forehead creasing and that mouth making an `O'?
But before you say `yes,' here comes SaharaOne with the `first-day, first-show' of the film Hum Jo Keh Na Paaye (starring Gauri Karnik, Abhijit Sanyal and Anupam Kher) at 8.30 p.m. this Friday ahead of its theatre release. And the channel guarantees that it is no one-time show. It has already lined up Raj Bharat's Tum Ho Na, starring Ria Sen, Nethra Raghuraman and Jackie Shroff for the coming Friday and Pehchaan with Raveena Tandon and Vinod Khanna in the cast for June 24.
Show time: Stills from the films "Tum Ho Na", "Pehchaan" and "Hum Jo Keh Na Paaye" releasing on SaharaOne from this Friday.
Its July line-up has Tanuja Chandra's Filmstar (Mahima Chaudhary and Priyanshu), Prateeksha (Jimmy Shergil and Diya Mirza) and Makarand Deshpande's Hannan (Manoj Bajpai and Sonali Kulkarni ).
`Bold move'
Says Purnendu Bose, the Chief Operating Officer of SaharaOne, "The concept has been tried before but it is a rather bold move on Indian television. But I am trying to look at it this way - since TV has more viewership than people going to cinema halls on a single day, it sure is a huge platform for film producers." It is time, he stresses, we tried out this route too of releasing Bollywood films.
A great idea certainly for the Sahara group which is now into film production in a major way. Having just co-produced Ramgopal Varma's film D, it is surely getting fresh ideas for its film promotions. "Though we have put Filmstar in our July listing, we have not decided it as a policy for Sahara-produced films as of now. But if the idea clicks, then why not?" states Bose.
Having set in train the concept with Smita Thackeray's Hum Jo Keh Na Paaye this week, a cursory look at it though drives home the point that the channel has so far not been able to corner any big banner movie yet. And all the films that Bose has named so far have long been locked in the box.
"This is just the beginning. We are trying to bring in some big banners too. It all depends on how many eyeballs it attracts, the advertisements will then follow. There has to be some incentive for the producers to show a film first on television. We have created a revenue model to pay the producer for showing the film first on TV," says Bose. If the idea clicks, he is confident, the problems of piracy will have a permanent solution. And here again, a big banner movie has much to worry about piracy than those which anyway would not have been a big grosser.
"That is exactly my point. Big movies surely have a ready advantage here," he adds.
Disappointed
A tad unhappy about Filmstar's TV release first, its director Tanuja Chandra says, "The concept in isolation is indeed novel and I would like to make a movie which will be first shown on TV. But as a producer-director, I make a film keeping big screen in mind. The screen makes a lot of difference. And if it then gets shown on TV, it robs off its fizz. Filmstar is made keeping cinema halls in mind and this way, the whole purpose gets defeated."
Now that Filmstar is slotted for July release on TV after resting on the shelves for almost a year, Tanuja hopes the film gets watched "due to word of mouth."
"It might be that someone who has missed it on TV might want to go to a cinema hall to catch up. Or, one might like the movie and want to see it on big screen. I am keeping my fingers crossed," smiles the ace director of Dushman fame.
More than big banners reaping any benefit from it, the idea surely is brilliant for low-budget filmmakers. "Indeed it is a good idea for some nice off-beat movies. We seem to have lost this genre of late," comments Tanuja.
This reels you back to the good old days of television when both Doordarshan and Zee Telefilms aired some real good pieces. Mahesh Bhatt's Janam and Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayi, Govind Nihalini's Tamas etc are some names etched in our memory. Bhatt's Phir Teri... indeed fits the latest idea of SaharaOne as it was first shown on TV, then released on theatres.
"We should recognise that films made for TV are different from films made for the big screen. Films for TV can be slow-paced and lyrical unlike the racy stuff we need to roll out to finish in just three hours at a theatre. TV viewers are not in a hurry to rush home. Bhatt's Janam was good because he knew he was making it for television. I didn't know that I was making Filmstar for TV," says Tanuja.
A similar concept has now been tried by Star One with its programme Studio One where a slot is offered to low-budget producers to flaunt their creativity. Names like Prahlad Kakkar, Saurabh Shukla and Tigmanshu Dhulia have already tried their hand here. Ask any one of them and they would prefer to re-edit them for theatre release too. After all, we are in the age of multiplexes!
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