Money Talk: Bollywood works on Relationships, not everything is monetised

I hate to begin the piece with yet another quote, but no one has said it better about big money in movies than classic detective writer Raymond Chandler: “Hollywood’s idea of ‘production value’ is spending a million dollars dressing up a story that any good writer would throw away. Its vision of rewarding movie is a vehicle for some glamour-puss with two expressions and eighteen changes of costume, or for some male idol of the muddled millions with a permanent hangover, six worn out acting tricks, the build of a lifeguard, and the mentality of a chicken-strangler.”

Just substitute Bollywood for Hollywood and consider the script written for this season’s blockbusters. In the next four months, the nation is going to be deluged by big movies. From the Rs 30 crore Veer-Zaara to the Rs 35 crore Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo to the Rs 35 crore Kisna.

But really unlike in the west where budgets are fairly accurate estimates (for instance, there is no reason to doubt Gurinder Chadha’s claim that she’s spent USD 18 million on Bride and Prejudice) in Mumbai, everything is a big movie. And the costs are difficult to estimate. For instance, it is well known that Yash Chopra does not pay his stars - but if he gifts them a Mercedes, as he did to Lata Mangeshkar after the release of the music of Veer-Zaara - Does that count? Or take Subash Ghai. He’s taken two new heroines in Kisna, so one would imagine he would spend less. But no, he says each newcomer costs about Rs 70 lakh to train.

Also a lot of budget estimates are notional. For instance, 1857: The Rising, is said to cost up to Rs 30 crore. Yet whenever the project is touted abroad at film festivals it is described as a USD 20 million project.

Partly, it is because Bollywood is still old-fashioned place where not every relationship is monetized. Some people work together purely because they work well - Yash Chopra, for instance, says he delayed the start of Veer Zaara because his star Shah Rukh Khan was feeling very ‘edgy’ about his back. And he shifted the release to Diwali in November. The result: movie was shot in sync sound so that Chopra would not have to assemble his cast again for dubbing. So now you know, in Bollywood tradition always dictates.