By Anant Mathur (May 23, 2010)
For a long long time I have been saying that critics are paid for writing reviews in Bollywood. This became even more evident after the Producer’s Strike in 2009. Ever since the strike, critics have been giving 3 to 4 stars (out of 5) to every big film that’s released. After seeing these films I find that most of them don’t even deserve 1 star.
A prime example is the recent release Housefull. Many critics gave it 4 stars or more and praised it madly, but there were a select few who reviewed it honestly and gave it what it deserved (1 star). Now, I'm all for every film having it's target audience and maybe some viewers not liking a film as much as the others. But critics take an academic approach to films and try to come to understand why a film works, how it works, what it means, and what effects it has on people - without being biased. Thus, I find it hard to digest that the difference would be so drastic that some critics give the film 4 stars while others are giving the same film 1 star.
Below are links for Housefull reviews by two of the country’s top critics. One is witty, honest and hilarious. The other is just hilarious and obviously paid for by the producer or distributor. I leave it to you to decide which one you believe, but after seeing the film I could only believe the one which gave it 1 star.
Khalid Mohamed's Review of Housefull
Taran Adarsh's Review of Housefull
The latest bollywood release "KITES" is getting mixed reviews. I haven’t seen the film, but after seeing the trailer, I have no interest in seeing it on the big screen. The film seems to be very high on gloss and low on story, then again, most love stories are. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the positive Kites reviews are the ones that may have been paid for. Below are some links for reviews of Kites, you decide:
Below are links for Housefull reviews by two of the country’s top critics. One is witty, honest and hilarious. The other is just hilarious and obviously paid for by the producer or distributor. I leave it to you to decide which one you believe, but after seeing the film I could only believe the one which gave it 1 star.
Khalid Mohamed's Review of Housefull
Taran Adarsh's Review of Housefull
The latest bollywood release "KITES" is getting mixed reviews. I haven’t seen the film, but after seeing the trailer, I have no interest in seeing it on the big screen. The film seems to be very high on gloss and low on story, then again, most love stories are. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the positive Kites reviews are the ones that may have been paid for. Below are some links for reviews of Kites, you decide:
Komal Nahta's Review of Kites
Taran Adarsh's Review of Kites
Subhash K. Jha's Review of Kites
Nikhat Kazmi's TOI Review
Mayank Shankar's HT Review
Raja Sen's Review for Rediff
J. Catsoulis NY Times Review
Kevin Thomas' L.A. Times Review
Peter Debruge's Review for Variety
Sarita Tanwars Review for Mid-Day
S. Gupta's Indian Express Review
Anpama Chopra's NDTV Review
Rajeev Masand's CNN-IBN Review
Martin D'Souza's Review of Kites
Apurva's Review for Chakpak
Sampuran's Ent. Daily Review
The way success is measured in bollywood is all wrong. If a film costs 2 crores to produce, collects 3 crores and is taken down after the second week, it’s considered a hit - only because it made more money than its cost. Whereas, if a film costs 50 crores and collects 45 crores, it’s considered a flop even though it was in release for more than 5 weeks and drew 15 times more business than the small budget film. Amazing!
In order to tell if a film is truly successful we must look at how it performs in the weeks following its initial release and not its budget. For example if a film makes 20 crores in the first week of release but falls 80 percent in the second week (earning 4 crores) and another 90 percent in the third week (earning 40 Lakhs for a total of 24.4 crores), it should be considered a terrible film no matter what the budget is. The reason being, in the first week the film made an exuberant amount of money because of strong promotions, star power, etc. But once the audience realized it was no good, the collections dropped dramatically and it was off the screens in 3 weeks. It doesn’t matter if the paid critics gave it 4 stars, the target audience has spoken. If the film is any good it would’ve lasted for more than 3 weeks.
Let’s take another example, 3 Idiots collected 54 crores in it’s first week, 50 crores in the second week (a drop of only 8% in collections). This suggests that the film is pretty decent and audiences have liked it and seen it on more than one occasion. In the third week the collections were steady at 28 crores (a drop of 44%). Fourth weeks collections were 14 crores (a drop of another 50%). In the fifth week the film was still going strong (collecting 9 crores – a drop of 36% from the previous week). This example shows the progression of a hit film over the course of the first five weeks in release. As you can see the collections never fell below 50% from week to week and even in week five, 3 idiots made more money than most movies do in their first week. Unlike flop films which are considered hits because of their first week’s collections, a true hit has considerably smaller drops in collection from week to week and stay on the big screen for more than 5 weeks. 3 Idiot was the highest grossing film for 4 straight weeks and stayed in the top 5 (in collections) for 12 weeks.
Kites will likely be declared a hit after the first week of release. On average Hindi films have a 500 screen release. Kites is being released on 2,500 screens worldwide, more than twice that of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (1200 screens). It is commonly believed that distributors of KANK knew the film would flop and thus designed a wide release that would ensure the film makes its money back in the first week. Like KANK, distributors of Kites expect to make their money back in the first week as well and probably will. But I think it’s the weeks following the initial release that will tell the real tale of whether the film is loved by audiences or not.
With 10 thousand shows daily, a hyped up film like Kites is bound to make its money back in the first week, just the names associated with the film will pull in audiences in week one. The producers and distributors of Kites along with the media may declare it a hit after the first week, but whether the audience truly loves it won’t be known till at least 3 weeks after its release when the numbers can really be compared.
Collections of KANK fell more than 65 percent in the second week and the trend continued for the next three week. The first week’s collections of KANK were just about 15 crores. For weeks four and five collectively it was a less than 1 crore. Week five’s collections were a dismal 23 lakhs after which the film was yanked (total collections: 24 crores). My Name is Khan had the same fate; it too had a wide release of over 1500 screens, did bumper business in the first week (due to the names attached) then dropped tremendously in the following weeks. Now compare this to a film that’s loved by the audiences like 3 idiots and you’ll understand what I mean.
"A Wednesday" lasted for more than 7 weeks and even though it didn't make as much money as Kites will probably make in the first day, it's a good film because the audience went to see it week after week. It wasn't released on 2,500 screens and didn't have the promotional budget or star power of Kites but it lasted longer than most "wide release" films do.
Another advantage Kites has is its distributor Reliance owns 525 screens worldwide and close to 200 screens in the United States. So, even if Kites is taken off other screens after the first week, reliance can keep it going on their screens for weeks, the audience will wonder why it's still running and may go to see it for curiosity's sake.
I would like to end this post with the same issue that started it, the reviews of critics. In my opinion, buying reviews is the wrong way of promoting any film. Not only are producers cheating the audience, but they fail to realize the audience will smarten up and stop coming to see their movies; YashRaj Film has been experiencing the audience’s wrath for several years now.
I believe that over the last few years critical reviews have hurt the success of films. If the critics didn’t review films on the day they were released they would have a better chance of success than they currently do. Instead of getting into bed with the critics, Producers should be able to get a court order preventing critics from reviewing films until after the first week of release. This way the audience can decide if the film is good without the critics influencing their judgment. And films will likely not be taken off screens after 2 days or in some cases 2 shows.
The audience should be the final authority in the success or failure of a film, but when their judgment is manipulated by a critic’s review, it’s unfair to the success of the film. In the end, critics usually send the wrong message and it’s the film that pays the price.
In order to tell if a film is truly successful we must look at how it performs in the weeks following its initial release and not its budget. For example if a film makes 20 crores in the first week of release but falls 80 percent in the second week (earning 4 crores) and another 90 percent in the third week (earning 40 Lakhs for a total of 24.4 crores), it should be considered a terrible film no matter what the budget is. The reason being, in the first week the film made an exuberant amount of money because of strong promotions, star power, etc. But once the audience realized it was no good, the collections dropped dramatically and it was off the screens in 3 weeks. It doesn’t matter if the paid critics gave it 4 stars, the target audience has spoken. If the film is any good it would’ve lasted for more than 3 weeks.
Kites will likely be declared a hit after the first week of release. On average Hindi films have a 500 screen release. Kites is being released on 2,500 screens worldwide, more than twice that of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (1200 screens). It is commonly believed that distributors of KANK knew the film would flop and thus designed a wide release that would ensure the film makes its money back in the first week. Like KANK, distributors of Kites expect to make their money back in the first week as well and probably will. But I think it’s the weeks following the initial release that will tell the real tale of whether the film is loved by audiences or not.
With 10 thousand shows daily, a hyped up film like Kites is bound to make its money back in the first week, just the names associated with the film will pull in audiences in week one. The producers and distributors of Kites along with the media may declare it a hit after the first week, but whether the audience truly loves it won’t be known till at least 3 weeks after its release when the numbers can really be compared.
Collections of KANK fell more than 65 percent in the second week and the trend continued for the next three week. The first week’s collections of KANK were just about 15 crores. For weeks four and five collectively it was a less than 1 crore. Week five’s collections were a dismal 23 lakhs after which the film was yanked (total collections: 24 crores). My Name is Khan had the same fate; it too had a wide release of over 1500 screens, did bumper business in the first week (due to the names attached) then dropped tremendously in the following weeks. Now compare this to a film that’s loved by the audiences like 3 idiots and you’ll understand what I mean.
Another advantage Kites has is its distributor Reliance owns 525 screens worldwide and close to 200 screens in the United States. So, even if Kites is taken off other screens after the first week, reliance can keep it going on their screens for weeks, the audience will wonder why it's still running and may go to see it for curiosity's sake.
I would like to end this post with the same issue that started it, the reviews of critics. In my opinion, buying reviews is the wrong way of promoting any film. Not only are producers cheating the audience, but they fail to realize the audience will smarten up and stop coming to see their movies; YashRaj Film has been experiencing the audience’s wrath for several years now.
I believe that over the last few years critical reviews have hurt the success of films. If the critics didn’t review films on the day they were released they would have a better chance of success than they currently do. Instead of getting into bed with the critics, Producers should be able to get a court order preventing critics from reviewing films until after the first week of release. This way the audience can decide if the film is good without the critics influencing their judgment. And films will likely not be taken off screens after 2 days or in some cases 2 shows.
The audience should be the final authority in the success or failure of a film, but when their judgment is manipulated by a critic’s review, it’s unfair to the success of the film. In the end, critics usually send the wrong message and it’s the film that pays the price.
© Anant Mathur. All Rights Reserved.
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