Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

There is a lot of buzz going around that the Indian movie making process especially the Hindi film making process has started adopting corporatization in a big way. The talk rests on the premise that the financing for making of the films has started getting institutional finance, big business houses have stepped into the business of filmmaking and they are also distributing the films. Then corporatization is also being talked about for the fact that now the big companies are doing bookings in bulk for their employees to view a film, which is a part of the corporate responsibility. This happened in a big way with Rajnikant's latest movie SHIVAJI-THE BOSS where all the corporate majors of the software sector booked bulk tickets, and it was termed as a corporate interest in the film dynamics.

Corporatization has also become buzz word in association with the fact that corporate are participating in the processes of film making by either sponsoring the songs or the vehicles being used in the movies as it happened in the case of TA RA RUM PUM, where Castrol and Chevrolet Aveo and Good Year chipped in a big manner. The signing of a number of films with the top stars is also being brandied as one more step towards corporatization. But does this mean that a streak of corporate approach has been injected in the process of film making in the country.

When the surface is scratched then beneath the veneer the reality is different. The first fundamental premise of corporatization is the finalized script of the film. Rarely does it happen that when the film has gone to the floor the actors are having a complete script of the film with themselves. Shootings go on, and then at the editing table the story is given the conclusion. When one has the complete script then shooting schedules is organized in a better manner, there is a minimum wastage of the raw stock and the film can be completed in the ordained time frame, thereby saving in a big manner on the input costs.

Another fundamental principle of corporatization is the process of accounting that is adopted in the filmmaking. The payment system has to be through the cheques and the expenses incurred in totality should be audited after the completion of the films. May be the new companies which have stepped into the process of film making like Shringar Films, Adlabs, etc., have adopted it, but they still form the miniscule minority, and in majority of the cases the financial transactions that are done are either in cash, or in kind in form of various usable commodities.

In the process of corporatization another key edifice is the system of deferred payment while here signing amount is the norm. Even the corporate majors, who are stepping into this arena gradually, have not been able to introduce the system of deferred payment on a gradual basis. A form of deferred payments though has come into play in a big way, it being obtaining the territory rights. Once the system of deferred payments is introduced the headache of getting the signing amount back from the stars who may have been signed in the initial euphoria but refuse to return it, either after being dropped at the time of film going on the floor, or being dropped from the project could become a thing of the past.

A beginning is being made, though and the real corporatization would come only when scripts are given at the time of signing, payments are through cheques and in the form of deferred payments and auditing and publication of accounts film wise starts getting done on a regular basis.