After writing on learnings from the game of cricket for 6 consecutive posts, I now turn my attention to another very popular topic in India..the films…
It has been ages since I watched a Hindi film which can be truly rated as a genuinely good movie..(Not taking into account what critics & analysts say about various films..)..I have noticed a few reasons for the stagnant, if not degrading quality of films of late and their resulting relative failure at box office

1. No real intention to push a little extra

For quite some time I have felt that films have had the potential but left a lot wanting in the end due to inability and/or unwillingness of the crew to push a little more.. Why drive a car in 3rd gear on an expressway when it can be driven in 4th 0r 5th gear ?..Films have been decent in general off late but still….

2. Carbon copying from other films

It has happened quite often that we like a particular film for its uniqueness and later realise that it is a carbon copy of a generally lesser popular film from the west..This is worse than seeing an average but original film..Film makers forget that Indians do watch  a lot of films from the west and it is not too difficult to find the ancestor of your film in today’s modern era..The worst happens when the film is simply Cut-copy-pasted from another and no effort is made to modify it  to suit the Indian audiences. What surprises me is the habit of copying for any good story/ idea without respecting our own grey cells.By copying one will always follow & never be an innovator

3. Using cliche ideas

I had mentioned in my 19th post that there are only 2 Cs that can make headlines in India; Corruption & Cricket..But these 2 topics have been overused in our films. Just as news about these topics seems repetitive, new films dealing with these topics dont have anything novel to offer and suffer

4. Unintelligent marketing

Nowadays Reality shows have the privilege of a presence of some celebrity  for alteast 50% of time..In such appearances, the star studded cast promote  their films as if it is the duty of people to watch them.. Unfortunately only things missing in these films are a story and a definite, clear purpose for making the film in the very first place..Result—> The last year and the first quarter of this year  have been very ordinary years for film industry with analysts losing count of number of box office duds…The learning is ‘All you can do is bring your product in the awareness set of consumers..If it is good it will automatically move to their choice set..People will not get fooled by your effort to push your bad product in their choice set, for a long time…(Apologies for using language of a Marketing MBA guy..)

I find a lot of similarities between Indian campaign at Olympics & our film’s efforts to make it big at the Oscars.. We rejoice even if 1 film or a person gets nominated in a category and the event of bagging an award makes its way to the headlines…..But there is potential to win more consistently at the bigger level.. The only requirement is the belief in oneself and our own unique creativity, and the willingness to go the extra mile..Our film makers should not be content with making a film that  grosses the highest revenues in India but aim at a film that becomes one of the most successful films of the year in the entire world..