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Hollywood moguls target south India

George Iype in Madras

The West is in love with South India on the business of English films in the country. The four South Indian states -- Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala -- are generating nearly 60 per cent of the total collections on English films distributed by the leading foreign film companies.

Buoyed by this, international film distributors like Columbia Tristar, a Sony Pictures entertainment company, is appointing a chain of distributors across the region to take world class English thrillers to the Telugus, Tamilians, Kannadigas and Malayalees living in rural areas.

"South India is the most promising market of English films for the main reason that English is widely used here compared to north India. Therefore, we are planning big for South India, especially for the sub-urban, semi-urban and rural towns," said Columbia Tristar Films of India sales manager Vikas Misra to rediff.com.

Columbia, which set up its South India regional office an year back, is these days brimming with activity and planning an aggressive marketing campaign as all its releases in the past 12 months have been lapped up by the audience in these parts.

Recently, Columbia undertook an in-house study on the film-viewing patterns and business growth statistics of English movies in various regions. The study found that the south accounts for nearly 60 per cent of the total collections of the English movies distributed by major foreign companies like Columbia, Fox, Warner Brothers and Paramount.

Three trends emerged from the study. First, the exhibitors in South Indian towns are always willing to play English films unlike those in the north. The two cities that compete with the southern English-movie mania are Delhi and Bombay. Second, moviegoers in the south's smaller towns love watching English films. Third, the Indian market is receptive to English movies due to the inroads made by the cable television operators.

Therefore, says Misra, Columbia is attempting to "localise English films." "We are dubbing many English films into vernacular languages. We are also seriously considering the possibility of entering into production of vernacular films especially in Tamil and Telugu to begin with," the Columbia official disclosed.

In the last one year, Columbia has penetrated into the smaller towns of South India, which it says has responded wonderfully to its 40-50 English releases.

Thus, these days, English films like Godzilla and Anaconda run house full in towns like Palani, Kanchipuram, Yanam, Periyakulam and Anthiyur in Tamil Nadu, Machilipatnam and Anackapally in Andhra Pradesh, Coorg and Udipi in Karnataka and Alwaye, Pala, Thiruvalla and Kanjirapally in Kerala.

According to Misra, the film distribution in the country is "in a disorganised state. There is no set of rules in the film industry. Everything is through deals. Therefore, we are trying to create an order in film distribution by doing the business professionally," he said.

Thus, Columbia has identified a chain of distributors -- who are already the distributors of companies like Hindustan Lever and Titan -- to supply its English releases in smaller towns in the south.

But competition is hotting up as Fox and Warner Brothers --which too have set up offices in South India - -are eyeing this lucrative market. There are more than 2,000 cinema theatres in Tamil Nadu, nearly 3,000 in Andhra Pradesh and more than 1,000 each in Kerala and Karnataka.

Columbia has set up major distribution offices in Madras, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi and Vijayawada. The entertainment company will also soon establish its distribution centres in Calicut, Coimbatore, Madurai and Vizhaghapatnam.

As part of Columbia's global marketing strategy, it has managed to reduce the time lag between the Western markets and the Indian markets on new releases. These days new English films come to India a few weeks after their world-wide release. Earlier India had to wait for nearly six months for the English releases to be screened.

For the crisis-hit South Indian film industry, Columbia's future business plans augur well. Many southern film makers hope that Columbia's plan to produce and distribute regional language films will help them release a bunch of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam movies that remain unreleased for want of distributors and funds.

Columbia has already distributed a few Indian films. Earlier this year, it distributed the Hindi film Pyar Me Kabi Kabi.

However, the fear that lurks in the minds of the film producers in the south is whether global players like Columbia might set the rules of film industry in the region with their aggressive marketing campaigns and plans for vernacular productions.

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