Prerna Singh, CEO of Bhansali Productions: Hindi Cinema Has Few Fearless Filmmakers

Prerna Singh, the CEO of Bhansali Productions is at the helm of not just a production house, but a certain kind of cinema — infrequent, maddeningly passionate, and extravagantly mounted works by the auteur Sanjay Leela Bhansali. These are what trade-people call “event releases”.

In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India, she speaks of her journey and the strategy she is employing to open up the production house to newer voices.

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From working at a Telugu news channel straight out of college to becoming the CEO of Bhansali Productions in 2019, can you walk us through your journey?

You are making me feel really old now! (laughs) After my MBA from Delhi, I was part of the big launch of Eenadu in Andhra Pradesh, the number one conglomerate at that time — that was my entry into the broadcast medium. I worked with ZEE for some time, moved into advertising, and then I moved into films, strategising film marketing at Reliance. My first film was R Balki’s Paa (2009). There were traditional ways of film advertising  — four-to-five hoardings, some newspaper coverage. We broke that mould.

After doing around a dozen movies with Reliance, I moved to Balaji, working very closely with Ekta Kapoor. There I was part of the script greenlighting process. My canvas started growing bigger and bigger. Then, I moved to Eros International — a very corporate stint as CMO. We were releasing 10-12 films in a year — and big releases. It was during my stint at Eros, when we were doing Bajirao Mastani, that I met Sanjay [Leela Bhansali] sir for the first time.

What was that first meeting like?

He showed us the teaser of Bajirao Mastani and we had goosebumps. See, people initially get a little intimidated by him — I was not. I was very free flowing, inspired by a filmmaker who is presenting grandeur with such ease, and with so much humility, asking us for feedback. Later, when there was a position open, I got a call from Bhansali Productions. Everyone was shocked that I was leaving a corporate studio for a production house. But I was clear — I had been manifesting this since the time I met him. People say that he is tough to work with. He is not tough; he is passionate.

Today, we are a country where everyone is watching us, noting what we are working on, and Heeramandi put us on the global map, like a crown jewel from India to the world — that is a great validation as a maker, as a production house, as a CEO and the producer of the show.

There was a time when Bhansali Productions was also producing films that other people were directing — Mary Kom (2014), Shirin Fahad Ki Toh Nikal Padi (2012), Rowdy Rathore (2012). But that stopped after a while. Why is that?

Our strength is our stories. I get stories okay-ed from SLB himself. When he approves, I put together the right team of writers and then find the right director. Apart from Love and War and Heeramandi Season 2, you will hear some announcements soon — in the coming five years, we will have at least seven-eight non-SLB big films, all theatrical. We are also in the process of reviving our old IPs. We are going to go very aggressive now.

Also Read | Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Being Blessed and Cursed

What about the music label?

Music comes very organically to this office. Heeramandi music did very well for us. We have lots of songs which are launching as singles — songs composed by him — but he will also be launching composers and singers. Music, for us, is a long tail business. We are not chasing the numbers game. But whatever we put out on Bhansali Music, we hope for it to last forever.

What do you make of the rise of streaming?

When I had joined, Heeramandi had been with sir for a few years — initially he wanted to make it as a film; top actors wanted to play these roles. Over time, while we were developing it, we realised there are so many characters, so in order to do it full justice, we needed to make a show. When we met Netflix and they were great partners.

With films, you are evaluating on a weekend to weekend basis. As far as streaming success goes, it is a 40 day cycle. But Heeramandi dropped like a Friday blockbuster, and people binged that content over the weekend.

What do you make of the current crisis in Hindi cinema?

I don’t see what is happening now as a crisis. We are taking the audience for granted. We should not do that. See the stories coming out of Malayalam cinema; they are fearless filmmakers. As far as Hindi cinema goes, we have very few such fearless filmmakers. We need to find good stories, driven by ideas and not stars.

People want to come to theaters. If a film does well in cinema, it will do well on an OTT  platform. If it doesn’t do well in cinemas, it won’t do well on OTT. We need to find that what we want to say and say it with all honesty is. We are just following the template — developing remakes, etc.

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Could you tell us about the decision to re-release Padmaavat (2018)? Did it do well?

That is a demand which came from cinemas because there were not many releases happening. Padmaavat, I would say, was more of an anniversary celebration than a re-release. Also, in 2018 due to protests, the film did not release in a couple of states, like Madhya Pradesh. It did very well there this time — the theaters were full.

What can you tell us about Love And War?

We are shooting right now, every day. All I can say is that we are working very hard.