Producer Shiladitya Bora Breaks Down Indie Films’ Economics, Box Office and Revenues

Every conversation about indie films begins with money. Is there enough to help mount a good film? Then some more to give it a dignified theatrical release and marketing push? If there is, then the big question: Will it make money theatrically?

Filmmaker-producer Shiladitya Bora, who has made a career out of backing prestige titles over the last decade, including Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan (Associate Producer) and his recent production Bayaan, says the discourse is often misleading with some using it as an excuse to make subpar titles and many not releasing theatrical avenues, which can reap profits for indie films.

“Something that annoys me as a filmmaker is when I see others use a lack of resources as a reason for lack of craft. There is no excuse to make a poor film. Abundant budget cannot gloss over bad craft, just the same way lack of it cannot hide it. The golden rule is, make a good film, smartly,” says Bora.

Then and Now

Now the founder of Platoon One Films, under which he has been producing, distributing and marketing films, Bora started his journey around 2010 as the head of PVR Director’s Rare, the exhibition chain’s indie release banner through which he released over 85 indie films.

Five years later, he joined Drishyam Films as the founding CEO and released pathbreaking titles such as Masaan, Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin-starrer Waiting, National Award-winning Newton and then Manoj Bajpayee-led Rukh, all contributing towards the shaping of India’s indie film identity.

But that was all between 2015 and 2017, a pivotal time in the Hindi film landscape when a sports biopic was the highest grossing film of all time (Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal; unlike today when actioners are dominating the charts) and the industry was still understanding the effect of S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali franchise.

Today, the awkward money conversation around indie films has grown louder, with many filmmakers wondering at the feasibility of them at a time when the market is shrinking, OTT deals aren’t as lucrative, and the exhibition sector isn’t always favourable. 

Industry insiders say Masaan, the glorious drama which won two awards at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and launched Vicky Kaushal into the spotlight, was made on a budget of around ₹3.5 crores. 

Bora says anything under ₹3 crores is a good budget for a “premium” indie film like Masaan that had co-producers like Phantom Films, Macassar Productions and Sikhya Entertainment. 

“But there are a lot of indie titles, which are made even on a budget of ₹40- ₹50 lakhs. It depends on the scale of your film. If you are making Tumbbad, the acclaimed 2018 period folk horror, or Bayaan (starring Huma Qureshi), it will cost you money,” Bora says.

Know Your Audience

“I have not lost money on any of the films we have produced so far,” reveals Bora about his production house, which has backed titles such as his directorial Bhagwan Bharose starring Vinay Pathak, Naxal-set Marathi thriller Ghaath and Bayaan, which recently had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Before a project begins, the producer makes a feasibility report which assesses the risk. The formula is to figure out the “primary audience”, which will buy tickets irrespective of reviews. Bora says he tells filmmakers to make this list, and whoever has followed this advice, has “made money”. 

This list could comprise 15,000 loyalists, who don’t need mass marketing to remind them to watch the film. If a list has 10,000 people, the filmmaker’s target should be to get at least 8,000 of them to watch the film. 

The secondary audience, Bora says, are the ones who will watch the trailer and then decide. This lot, the producer says, also goes by word of mouth or associations. If they see the words ‘From the director of Masaan,’ they feel compelled to watch the film. 

“If your trailer reaches an audience of 1 crore people, and you manage to convert even five percent of that into footfalls, your film will be a success. If even 1 lakh buy tickets, you will have [a] net box office of at least ₹3 crores. We need to give people a personal reason for them to watch a film,” Bora says. 

The Overseas Advantage

If a film breaks out massively at a film festival, including the Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and Venice Film Festival, it leads to a lot of sales of theatrical rights across the world. A prestigious, award-winning film can generate ₹3 crores to ₹4 crores in revenue just from selling distribution rights of various territories across the world. 

Apart from this, there is a big diaspora market. Bora says there are nearly 60 to 70 cinemas overseas where Indian content dominates, such as Jamaica Multiplex in Queens (New York) Regal in New Jersey or Cineworld in the United Kingdom. 

“Here, you have to pay if you want to run your trailer in cinemas but that’s not the case there. In the USA, if you give your trailer's DCP [a Digital Cinema Package used for projecting movie trailers in theatres] on time, they will run it for free, put posters, that leads to instant visibility. Here, we have four-to-five-screen multiplexes, but some cinemas there have up to 25 screens! Which means more shows can be programmed. Indie filmmakers look at overseas as offshoots, but the diaspora crowd is like your primary audience. You don’t need to put hoarding in Times Square, you just have to reach out to various Indian groups and let them know about your film, one on one,” Bora says.

The producer explains that the average ticket price overseas is around $15. After deducting theatrical share and taxes, if one gets even $5, it amounts to over ₹400 per ticket.

Apart from countries like USA, UK, Australia, Europe and New Zealand, there are also avenues to earn theatrically from ROW, which Bora says stands for ‘Rest of the World.’ There is a strong Indian diaspora in Mauritius or even Sri Lanka.

“There is a guy who regularly buys film from us in Chile, South America,” Bora says, “So even if we have 10 buyers from these territories who buy your distribution rights for $3,000, you will have $30,000, which means ₹25 lakhs only from theatrical revenue!”