Vikram Malhotra, Founder and CEO of Abundantia Entertainment, tells us about the role of research in filmmaking, seamless brand integrations and why the genre of nonsensical films in India will be dead soon
BY SIMRAN SABHERWAL
At a time when the convention was formula driven films, Vikram Malhotra (who had seen the film world up close through his stints at Balaji Telefilms and Viacom18 Motion Pictures) set out to establish Abundantia Entertainment Private Limited, an independent motion pictures studio, with focus on progressive content. Malhotra, who also dons the cap of CEO, started the company in 2013, having earlier tasted critical and commercial success with films such as Love Sex aur Dhokha, Tanu Weds Manu, Kahaani, Gangs of Wasseypur, Queen, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Special 26.
Looking back, Malhotra says the focus, particularly at Viacom18, was on listening to the audience which led to the key insight that “good content is profitable content and the audience is ready for it”. “The success of the genre-breaking films gave me the confidence to work on the business model of Abundantia, define the business purpose of being a progressive content company that works on the sensibilities of the younger audience and content across platforms. We are essentially an ideas incubation company,” says Malhotra.
In January 2015, Abundantia Entertainment released through its partner company, Crouching Tiger, its first film Baby - an espionage-action thriller. Says Malhotra, “We have a clear sense of the direction in which the market and sensibilities are moving, which most people in our business tend to overlook. This is a business where what you create today sees the light of day only 18-24 months later. Abundantia is about aligning creative content and storytelling in a way that will work even two years later.”
BREAKING SOME MYTHS
In an industry where audience insights are virtually unresearched and concept-testing is restricted to employees, friends and family, Abundantia looks at this as a discipline and audience insights are garnered for tracks, sampling and respondent profiling. Malhotra states, “The film industry believes there are only two kinds of movie-goers –multiplex and single screen movie-goers; that is such a big myth.” He explains that a single-screen/multiplex viewer in Mumbai is not representative of a movie-goer elsewhere in the country. A small-town viewer may not be ready to push the boundaries of content as a Mumbai/South Delhi viewer may; and the audiences in different metros can’t be clubbed together either. “We expanded the scope of our research beyond what film the consumer likes/doesn’t like watching and asked why they watch films and what drives them to the theatre and what they expect from the experience and what keeps them away? This is reflected in the content we are creating,” adds Malhotra. As for Baby, starring Akshay Kumar, Malhotra says conventionally it should have worked in Punjab, but the grammar of the story was such that Hyderabad and Bangalore were targeted. The understanding and behaviour of viewers revealed a trend – movieviewing in North India is a family’s day out while in Mumbai and Pune, it’s about friends and peers hanging out. “A film like Queen or Bhaag Milkha Bhaag would work better with a family buying four tickets which includes two kids whereas a film like Baby works when two friends or a couple buy two tickets. This allows you to align content and marketing. Next, we’d like to do classical concept testing – what is the storyline, who is it for, positives and negatives – we are looking at making this akin to a lab science. Our industry hides behind the fact that this is a creative industry and so our challenge is, how do we get some science into it? The audience in our industry has matured faster than our film-makers.”
‘PARTNERS RATHER THAN WORK-ON-HIRE’
At Abundantia, a process that works both commercially and creatively is creating partnerships and looking beyond financial commitment. With multiple films on its slate, Abundantia has signed up with renowned names where directors not only direct a film but also creatively co-produce other content, creating “mini joint-ventures” where each partner gains disproportionately. “It benefits us financially and we are able to deliver a film and content in a commercially viable manner compared to our peers, because in all probability the actor or the director is a partner in the film and has a financial and emotional stake in the film,” says Malhotra.
‘CONNECT’ KEY TO MARKETING
Malhotra says, “Film companies and film-makers equate marketing with visibility; the element that is missing is connect. At Abundantia, we have dropped the conventional marketing techniques and adopted Marketing 2.0.” The company works on building connect as a key driver of ticket sales, including word-of-mouth and peer group recommendation. The first communication for Baby was a 20-seconder called the ‘Baby Sizzle’, which showed the making of the film - featuring the director and actors, and gave the viewer a feel and flavour of the film. While 20-25% of the budget of an A-list film goes to marketing, small budget films can spend as much as 50% for the push needed to promote the movie. “Abundantia has cut down its media spends and looks to target viewers and communicate with them in their comfort zone, the theatre, believing that the point of consumption is the best place to engage them. The role of Radio as a high impact medium has been under-utilized but Radio actually builds relevant local connect; there is also a clear trend towards Digital, social media and mobile as it aids in personal engagement and has more impact than all public dissemination,” says Malhotra.
Meanwhile, Abundantia has chosen to refrain from force-fits in in-film product placement, and is careful about integrating brands into the content. An integration example Malhotra gives is of Baby - Akshay Kumar who plays a secret agent looks at a Breitling watch often. “This subtle integration worked and we approach brands at a concept/script level to ensure seamless integration,” says Malhotra, adding, “You don’t need to force-feed visibility. We are working on a concept where a brand might not be visible in a film but its presence and name are going to be intrinsic to the story.”
FINDING THE CAPITAL
A perception around movies is that it’s difficult to find capital or a financer, but Malhotra says finance is not a problem for the right people with the right business model. Abundantia investors include RW Media (RWM) - a company with significant interest in the Indian media and luxury space and a Singapore-based investment fund. Both have acquired a strategic significant minority stake in Abundantia, while Malhotra holds the majority stake and independently manages the studio. He says, “Our investors are invested in Abundantia that makes them strategic financial investors rather than film financers.” While film financing has seen a change in the last couple of decades, it is only recently that private equity firms have shown interest and 2014 saw the entry of four venture funds focused on films. According to Malhotra, “Abundantia is the first company to have private equity funding in India in the film space and that speaks volumes about the inability of the industry to attract strategic funding.”
PAISA, YEH PAISA
With films being essentially a hit or a miss business, Malhotra believes that profitability and sustainability should go hand-in-hand. He says, “The ability to identify not just a couple of good scripts but the ability to identify 20 good scripts is what will make us sustainable, valuable and viable.”
Abundantia is also looking at ways to increase its appeal to movie-goers and attracting more footfalls into theatres. Explaining this Malhotra says, an unconventional story with an unconventional storyline would have appealed to only about 20% of the audience; but, by engineering the story to include a big star and elements that appeal to families, the appeal of the film increases to 60%. “That’s what gives a boost to gross earnings. When we get into a script, we look at our ability to disproportionally project it. This is where we like to believe we have a competitive advantage in our understanding of the product,” says Malhotra, adding that another good trend that has emerged is segmentation of the audience.
FOCUS ON OTT, REGIONAL SPACE
Looking ahead, Malhotra says, “For the next two years, our aim is to build meaningful, intelligent and high-quality content. We plan to look at the OTT scenario and work with partners to deliver original content to existing and upcoming firms.” Abundantia is also looking at the regional movie space, but not mass entertainment. “We are not cut out for leave-your-brains-at-home nonsensical cinema, and I believe that this genre will be dead within the next four years,” Malhotra says.
FILMS UNDER PRODUCTION
Airlift (co-produced with Nikhil Advani; starring Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur), runningshaadi.com (co-produced with Shoojit Sircar; starring Amit Sadh and Taapsee Pannu), Saat Uchhakkey (co-produced with Neeraj Pandey, and having actors Manoj Bajpai, Kay Kay Menon, Anu Kapoor and Vijay Raaz).
ALSO IN THE PIPELINE
Bazaar (to be directed by Nikhil Advani), official remake of the Marathi superhit film ‘Poshter Boyz’, to be directed by Shreyas Talpade, film adaptation of the best-selling book by Pakistani author Saba Imtiaz, ‘Karachi You’re Killing Me’, ‘Toilet – Ek Prem Katha’ co-produced by Neeraj Pandey and Shital Bhatia-owned Friday Filmworks. Besides, there are other projects with directors like Shoojit Sircar.
Feedback: simran.sabherwal@exchange4media.com
