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Mirroring The Industry: Corruption takes over the studio culture in Hindi Film Industry?
The individual producers are furious over this as is making an attempt to somehow curb the culture as the newly invented bribe mechanism is spoiling the dynamics of film business. Details
The Hindi Film Industry is back in the business with 6 back-to-back successful films over the last 3 months – Zara Hatke Zara Bachke, Satyaprem Ki Katha, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, Gadar 2, OMG 2 and Jawan. There is a bright smile on the face of all the actors and producer as film business is roaring like never before. However, the bright sunshine of the industry in the form of box office returns, is shadowed by dark clouds.
Bribing and Kickback of money as become a common norm to greenlight a film
There are murmurs in the industry about massive corruption racket that’s rolling out in most of the studios across the quarters. An insider informs us that some of the Indian Studios are bogged down by corrupt practices. “You look at the line up of some studios and it’s a give away of monies been invested in wrong projects for wrong reasons. The hierarchy is simple – you need to pay off people across the departments to greenlit your project. It happens from the grassroot level – you pay X amount to creative head, then move on to pay Y amount to the content head and finally Z amount to the decision maker,” revealed an insider on condition of anonymity, adding further that kickback as become a part of the system.
The amount by the producers to get a studio partner on board is eventually added on in the film’s budget. “That’s the reason why certain films cost huge monies but that’s not visible in the frames. A lot of monies are put in to get a project sanctioned. Some of the studio heads are busy on filling their own pockets, at the cost of company’s reputation. Amount ranging from 1 crore to 2 crore are spent to just sanction the film and get a studio on board,” another insider revealed anonymously.
Studios aside, management agencies too indulging in practices to disrupt the eco-system
The independent and individual producers are furious over this as is making an attempt to somehow curb the culture as the newly invented bribe mechanism is spoiling the dynamics of film business. “The corruption is deep-rooted across the industry at the moment in multiple areas. While studios come at the top of the chain, it also runs in other facets – from management agencies seeking bribes to get meetings set up with actors, to actor staffs looting the producers with obnoxious billing amounts, to producers overcooking budgets on the books for subsidies too. It’s all an illusion and the time for course correction is round the corner,” informed the insider.
Corruption racket is deep rooted even in the line production front. “The hierarchy is set up in a way that overcooking also happens on the floors. Line producers are working in tandem with vendors (at times even studio heads and directors) to quote false figures for locations, background dancers and many other aspects of shoot, which in turn is leading to increase in the film budget,” another angry producer shares without revealing his name, adding further that eventually all the costs are borne by producers. “A producer also has to take into account the hiked-up fees of actors, wherein most of the management agencies quote astronomic amount to get actors on board the film, which in turn also increases their commission. This happens officially and hence can’t be bracketed as corruption; however, it is a part of a larger issue in the industry where market values are increased without any proven track record on the ability of actors to bring in the revenues,” the filmmaker added.
Some of the bosses and founders have started to identify the rampant corruption and are taking steps for course correction. Let’s hope, sanity is back in the industry much like how the audience has returned to support and root for the film-stars on big screen.
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