Kolkata — The Rs. 150-crore Bengali film industry which produces around a hundred movies annually, delivers only five or six hits a year, according to an industry report.
"Although Bengali cinema today releases around a 100 odd films every year, which is almost three times higher than comparable figures in 2005, the recent trends in box-office collections have not been that encouraging," said a report on the Bengali film industry by CII and IMRB.
Citing industry estimates, it said not more than 10 percent of films released in a year break even and around a handful of films, typically five or six, generate enough surpluses to be termed as hits.
The total investment in the Bengali film industry, fondly called Tollywood, is estimated to be around Rs. 150-180 crore, of which a very large portion is from Shree Venkatesh Films.
"The buoyancy in the investment, however, is not matched by the absolute and the growth in earnings in recent years. The industry is valued at Rs. 120-150 crore in terms of expected revenue in 2014 and has shown negligible growth over the last year," the report said.
A primary survey of 35 single screen theaters across Kolkata and West Bengal revealed a dismal 30 percent occupancy on weekends and around 20 percent on weekdays.
Almost 70 percent of the box-office collections of Bengali films today are claimed by 22-25 films emanating from three or four large production houses.
"This has left a large number of individual producers and small-time players operating in the space on a short-term basis, unable to recover their promotional expenses let alone production costs," the report said.
Industry experts believe that the current trend in Bengali film production is not a sustainable one. Home to acclaimed directors and actors, there is a need to revive an industry that contributes to eight percent of the total films made in the country but fails to account for its fair share of revenue.
A survey of Bengali film viewers in Kolkata revealed that a majority (54 percent) have not been to movie theaters over the past year to watch a Bengali film despite the proliferation of multiplexes.
In the districts, around two-thirds have visited cinema halls to catch a Bengali film, but the frequency of visits is quite low — amounting to not even three films in a year.
Mobile phones, on the other hand, are fast becoming the preferred medium of entertainment, especially in smaller towns where six out of 10 people watch films on their phones.
The highest grossing Bengali film of 2013 was Dev-starrer adventure film “Chander Pahar” whose box-office collection was over Rs. 15 crore, a figure unheard of by Tollywood standards.
Some of the other releases in recent years which did excellent business at the box office are “Awara” (2012), “Paglu” (2011) and “Mishawr Rawhoshyo” (2013).
To transform the regional industry, CII suggests that the primary focus should be on content and converting single-screen theaters into miniplexes.
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