Bollywood’s increasing production cost: Matter reaches IMPPA; Producers Guild steps in along with big talent agencies

Over the last few days, Indian filmmakers including Farah Khan, Kunal Kohli and actor-turned-producer Kriti Sanon, have expressed their views about the rising problem of extravagant cost, which go into a film’s production. With several films failing to attract footfall in theatres and not been able to make any profits, the discussion has only gained more steam and the focus has shifted to the unnecessary costs that come with making a film. In fact, matters have now reached film body organisations, who held a preliminary meeting on May 30 to address the concern.

We have leant from the sources close to the development that the meeting was held between four film bodies — Indian Motions Picture Producers’ Association (IMPPA), Producers Guild of India, Active Telugu Film Producers Guild and Tamil Film Active Producers Association. Besides these four film bodies, five talent agencies — Collective, Matrix, Exceed, YRF and DCA — who manage a long list of celebrities and their aides, were also called in for discussion.

Also Read: Farah Khan calls entourage costs of stars ‘waste of resources’: 'Ek actress 9 jan saath mein leke aate hain'

“From a revenue point of view, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu are the biggest film industries in India, and this issue is common to all. Senior representatives of all the mentioned associations and talent agencies were a part of the meeting,” the source informs, adding, “We all know that this is not a great time for content production industry generally. There are issues everywhere in the entire eco-system. So, we want to come to an amicable solution.”

The focus of the first meeting was to look deeply into the cost that comes with actors who come on-board a project. An insider tells us that the issues were acknowledged by both the parties, and they agreed that the cost needs to be looked at.

“The matter of concern is not the fee that actors charge, which is mostly negotiable, but the association cost that comes along with having stars that include their staff costs and other kharchas. Again the issue is not the quantum of these costs but the fact that they’re often unpredictable. You make a budget, but you get hit by other costs,” points the source.

The members of the meeting plan to regroup in another couple of weeks to take the discussion to the next stage, giving the agencies enough time to discuss the matter with their respective clients and talents on board.

Another source from the industry says, “Things are basically at a very initial stage at this moment. The film bodies involved are trying to get the entire industry on board. It’s more of avenues or different department because everyone is responsible for this cost going up. It’s not just technicians, or producers and not even actors alone. They need to cut costs in totality.”

Asked if introducing a fixed cap on these expenditure can help a film’s production cost, and the source states, “Right now, all options are on the table. Just having a blanket cap would be difficult. The requirement of different scale of films is different. Instead of having a cap on the films, it will be more based on principles.”

Reacting to the development, Telugu film producer Abhishek Agarwal says, "Cost cutting has to be done. Cutting the cost is the only way to go about it. One year back when we (Telugu film industry) went on strike, this was the reason. We wanted things like one pay cheque and that staff payment has to be done by the artists only."

Filmmaker Kunal Kolhi also highlighted that only actors should not be at the receiving end when it comes to talking about large entourage.

He says, "Cost reduction is always important. Lets not only blame the actors, lets also blame star directors, star DOPs. You go on a set with everyone, who is a big name and there will be just 30 to 40 people part of their entourage and they are not actually part of the filmmaking process."

He adds, "You have a whole support system there so the unit size goes up and that increases the per day cost. I think getting that in control is essential and all costs that do not show up on screen do need to be brought in check. The sooner you do that, the more efficient your film's recovery is going to be."