The Hindu Business Line : Making the cut

Do you remember a time when, in the name of home entertainment, there used to be only VHS cassettes? Those rectangular boxes, with spooled tapes inside, and a poster of the film outside, which you would pick up from your neighbourhood library, and rush back home, to pop into your video cassette recorder?

Those were the days when satellite TV was still on the distant horizon, and the delights of DVDs a far, far galaxy away. Between grainy, dull Doordarshan, and the exciting sights held within a VHS, figuring the winner was a no-brainer.

It would be a hard call today. A hundred plus TV channels, video on demand, swank multiplexes, online gaming, the gigabyte pleasures of Googling — for an Indian consumer, there’s now a multi-course feast out there. There are even, believe it, honest-to-goodness DVDs of international classics, and cutting edge current cinema. Last month, the latest entrant in the world cinema segment, Shemaroo, released its first clutch of titles, including the fabulous multi-award winner All About My Mother by Spanish hot-rodder Pedro Almodovar.

Tracing the journey

The name on the DVD cover was intriguing. Could it be the same label which had for so long and so intimately been associated with the first tentative strides India made into the home entertainment segment, which consisted mainly of Bollywood potboilers? As I discovered soon enough, it was the very same, and that Shemaroo’s journey, from then to now, mirrors the growth and spread of cinema, and its ancillaries.

Hiren Gada’s childhood memories consist of all these things, as well as a much more personal connect. The frequent trips to the Shemaroo video lending library at Warden Road in what used to be Bombay, and the pleasurable evenings which followed, has brought him to where he is now, director of Shemaroo Entertainment, a company which has lived its passion for cinema.

In an extended phone conversation last week, Gada recounted the milestones as well as the present status of Shemaroo. The interesting name, whose reputation spread rapidly, far beyond the tiny confines of one of the richest boroughs of the country, came from a happy confluence of two partners — Gada’s maternal uncle Maroo, and his partner, Shetia. The library, which had started life focusing on books and journals, was positioned at the right time in the right place when the video boom started. Around 1985-86, the Government made crucial amendments to the Copyright Act, which allowed the Shemaroo partners to get the producers together, and buy the original copyright of the films in order to be able to release it to the public.

Source of alternative income

It was a momentous move. It created the first legitimate source of alternative income for producers, who would often find their films forced out of theatres sooner than they expected. It was a time when films exiting a theatre meant certain ruin, because it was the first and only window of exposure. The same films, being available at Shemaroo meant that everyone benefited; the audience that missed the film at the theatre, and the producers, who got a part of what the video library earned on its lendings, found, in Gada’s words, “a powerful secondary source of revenue”.

An original VHS used to cost about Rs 2,500. To buy was out of the question for most people (those were the days when cinema tickets cost Rs 25, for a balcony seat). To borrow, ah, now that was a great idea. It was a business model just waiting to be turned into a successful venture, says Gada, and that’s what Shemaroo did. And it reaped major rewards. It became one of the largest owners of original content of Hindi cinema, and its library became the first source for innumerable fans, which also included future filmmakers!

The mid-1980s was also a time when cinema halls had fallen into disrepair and disuse, because the genteel middle-classes, horrified by the huge surge of sex and violence in the new crop of films, stayed far away. The only recourse was the VHS, and through the rest of the decade, video libraries mushroomed all over the country, trying to emulate the Shemaroo model.

Differentiating factor

The difference between those others, who were only in it for short-term gains, and Shemaroo, which has outlasted the death of the VHS, and swung right into the DVD age, is the long-term vision of the company. Says Gada, smilingly, “I know how this will sound, but as a media and entertainment entity, it is our duty to grow the audience. To get in international benchmarks in good cinema, and make sure people have access to the best around the globe.”

The in-between years, when satellite TV was exploding, the company was in a joint venture with Sony, which got them acquiring and syndicating filmed content. With their extensive library of Yash Chopra, B.R. Chopra and other Bollywood biggies, SET Max became the go-to channel for movies. And in 1996-97, they were the first Indian company to introduce VCDs in the market. But soon it was apparent that backward and forward integration was key to get the concern to the next level: not just owning content, but creating it.

Shemaroo got into film production with Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye, a film which didn’t do that well. It tasted success with Vishal Bharadwaj’s Omkara, and critical acclaim a couple of years ago with Manorama Six Feet Under. Overseas distribution began, as well as forays into all kinds of other media platforms — digital, broadband and cable.

(Animation is also a big part of their portfolio — Bal Ganesh, according to Gada, was a big hit). More productions are in the pipeline: thriller badshaahs Abbas Mustan have been signed on, and a co-production with Bharadwaj, Ishquia, is on the floors.

The more, the better

But weren’t there enough players already (UTV, NDTV Lumiere, Palador) in the world cinema segment, and is the market big enough to support so many? Gada admits that when they were taking their first steps into it, they had no idea that there would be so many others doing the same thing. But he also believes that there is space in this “really small niche” for all those who are working on growing it. “I’m not looking at anyone as competition. The more of us there are on retail shelves, the better. In fact, I’m waiting for the day when mainline retail stores will dedicate a section to world cinema — that will be a collective victory.”

Yes, censorship is a bugbear (a very important, if tiny, piece of All About My Mother has been hacked by the censors), but that still doesn’t mean that people should buy pirated DVDs and CDs. Like others in his position, Gada is passionate on the subject, because the pirates really hit where it hurts the most. One of his biggest hopes, right at this moment when Shemaroo is feeling its way into this small, but important part of filmed home video entertainment, is that the censors in India will create a special rating, if needed, for world-class content. That would go a long way towards being able to get out the whole, uncut version. And conquer audiences.

Just as they did with their original, uncut VHS cassettes, all those years ago.

More Stories on : Cinema | Showbiz | People

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Ouch! a ‘stitch’

le@rning

Rights, camera, action

Soldiers in business suits