how many times have you discussed or heard others discuss Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgan, Ranveer Singh or Ranbir Kapoor lately? More importantly, how many times have you missed them ever since they shrugged off the glamor billboards and giant, aggressive propaganda machine that surrounds us?
Chances are, you haven’t.
COVID has taken the life of the superstar. Indian cinema’s distinctively skewed economics created the kind of stardom that relied entirely on extravagant marketing and demand and supply controls to highlight tired scripts, poor acting and forgettable direction.
Only the big houses and film cartels could hold on to the massive marketing budget and distribution and screening. The top male stars walked away with more than half the money spent on the production of the entire film, taking their fees to Rs 80 crore and above. Small-budget films, which often relied on better scripts and performances, could not match even a fraction of that marketing spend and reach.
This economics allowed superstars to earn excessively and underperform. That happy time may be over.
COVID-19 and the lockdown have biologically bombarded that economics. Theaters have been closed for months. Baroque propaganda cannot accompany events, tours and mall and media visits due to social distancing. And digital OTT platforms have leveled the playing field.
Out of the holiday lot, only Salman Khan dared to release his ‘Radhe’ on OTT. These platforms do not reveal their figures, but by most accounts, the film did not leave a mark.
There are many reasons why big heroes and big directors don’t dare to put their work on digital platforms.
Firstly, they cannot exclude smaller players from OTT platforms by monopolizing distribution. The consumer does not need to push down the force of multiplexes and single screens. He can exercise his choice as to which content to watch.
Second, the big, physical marketing promotions are off for now. Again, super-productions can’t get the little fish out of the water.
Third, viewers behave in a particular way when they watch a film in a crowd, voluntarily participating in a shallow, collective fantasy ritual. When they are watching the same movie alone or with family or close friends on a TV, laptop or mobile screen, they behave more rationally, choosing deeper, better content over it.
Fourth, contented in their billion-dollar cocoons, most big stars and directors haven’t upped their game. Unlike Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Tom Hanks or Kevin Spacey, who can influence both popular performances and overly angular roles with equal enthusiasm, our mainstream gods are stuck in their own caricatures.
COVID will end one day. Theaters will open. But will the superstar return with the same swag and undeserved audacity?
is unlikely.
Digital OTT platforms are here to stay. With the increasing penetration of smartphones and computers in remote parts of India, filmmakers and content creators with smaller budgets and brighter ideas will snatch a bigger chunk of theater audiences. Animation, special effects and emerging virtual reality and other technologies will reduce time on set and usher in ‘virtual production’.
Instead of an eight-week gap between the big screen and the digital premiere of films, Bollywood will be forced to release on a streaming platform within two or three weeks of its theatrical opening. This will reduce the threats being made by the distributors and exhibitors to a great extent.
Today, those who have long moved to the middle bench as ‘character actors’ – Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Pankaj Tripathi, Prateek Gandhi, Radhika Apte, Jaideep Ahlawat, Rasika Dugal and others – are household names. They are broken into a galaxy of stars because of sheer brilliance.
In the post-COVID, rapidly growing digital world of cinema and entertainment, it is the Khans, Chopras, Johars and Kapoors who need to be caught, measured, to live in the strobe lights of public memory.
Disclaimer:The author is a senior journalist. Views expressed are personal.
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