We are called the dream merchants who make the impossible, possible. This year though, we needed to find some of this magic dust ourselves because nothing went according to the script. The pandemic made us realise that sometimes we must deal with twists that we have no control over. Cinema after all is not just about make-believe but livelihoods and 2020 was hard on businesses around the world. The cinema industry earns billions globally and supports not just production houses but production assistants, make-up and costume professionals, set designers, spot boys, technicians, all the hardworking folks who are dismissed as extras and so many more people behind the scenes who never get enough credit. When we talk of big financial losses this year, let us not just talk numbers but also discuss how these losses impacted the lives of real people.
Regardless of what anyone likes to believe, the industry has never had it easy. For the longest time, we were not even recognised as an industry. We have dealt with rampant piracy, the upsurge in alternative forms of entertainment and even before the pandemic, we were being told that OTT platforms are going to make us obsolete. Now that din has grown louder because for what seems like forever, cinema halls have not seen the footfalls or the content streams that they need to survive.
We can’t be flippant about these losses because again when we are talking revenue, we are talking about jobs and people who depend on them to make a living. Suddenly the danger from OTT platforms seems clear and present. We are being asked: Should producers give their films to OTT platforms when cinema owners are struggling to find new content? Will producers continue to prefer OTT platforms for their films even when the pandemic is over?
In an unprecedented time like this, these are the wrong questions to ask. It is more important to find common ground than to get adversarial because we are an industry trying to survive what is in fact not a homegrown crisis but a global pandemic. That is the big picture we are dealing with and as I said before, survival rather than conflict is the way forward. We need to work with and not against each other. The OTT platforms enabled the industry to still take their finished productions to the audience when the theatres could not open. Without content that the industry generates, OTT platforms too would not have the diversity of entertainment that they are known for. During this crisis, we have both benefitted each other and even post the pandemic, hope we continue to. Let us find a middle ground where exhibitors and OTT platforms can meet and work out their issues because in India, there is enough space for both to co-exist and thrive.
That said, no matter what happens, the joy and magic of big screen entertainment will never be obsolete. The industry is already adapting to remote-work and on set protocols which are time and revenue consuming but necessary for now. We are reconfiguring movie production, distribution and consumption. But we have to persist because we owe it to our audiences. Pandemics will come and go. Cinema is forever.
The writer is a producer of films like Great Grand Masti, Sarkar 3 & Total Dhamaal
