Corporate but not transparent: B'wood rigs superhits

HITS OR FLOPS? Bollywood corporatisation won't be complete till there is a transparent system in place.

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Mumbai: Going by the advertisements of Love Story 2050, one is supposed to believe that it is a hit, Kismet Konnection is a big hit and Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic is a superhit. But the truth is far from this.

The Hindi film industry has moved from black-and-white to color and even Dolby sound, and we are in the digital age. Technology is surely ahead of its time but the system remains as disorganised as it can be. Any filmmaker can stand up and claim that their flop film is not just a hit, but a super hit at that.

Trade analyst, Taran Adarsh says, "Getting figures from theatres is the best way and with corporates coming in, the system has become a bit more transparent."

Though there are trade journals and box-office analysts in the industry, filmmakers and producers are still wary of going by any official figures.

Producer Kumar Mangat says, "One can't trust trade anaysts. They will give out only the information that they want to give out."

Filmmakers embark on every project hoping that their film will be the biggest box-office grosser of all time, but unfortunately, when the film fails meet the audience's expectations it's hard to swallow - especially when there is a reputation to maintain and crores at stake every Friday.

And with no reliable system to monetarily gauge a film's success, disguising a flop as a hit becomes easy.

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Verma says, "It's only cost and recovery, simple. And if the producers know about it, then it's fine. How do box office figures matter to anyone? And how does it matter if anyone claims anything?"

Clearly the corporatisation of Bollywood won't be complete till there is a transparent system by which a film's exact box-office earnings can be ascertained. So the next time you see an advertisement which says 'super hit', think twice because in this case, seeing can't be believing.