By Simran Sabherwal
Childhood fairytales have a tendency to linger on in our minds and evoke a sense of nostalgia whenever we think about them. This was evident when Disney India brought down the classic musical ‘Beauty and the Beast’ for the first time on the Indian stage in all its Broadway glory. For Disney India, it was also a chance to let its consumers interact directly with the brand and get the immersive experience that the parent Walt Disney gives people at its theme parks, cruises and resorts internationally. Commenting on this and why Disney India got into the live entertainment space, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Managing Director, Disney India says, “We wanted to give our audiences the chance to actually feel and experience the Disney brand live. In addition, we wanted to re-invigorate the live entertainment industry in India. We are doing it at the scale of Broadway and giving audiences the chance to experience something they have not done before. We are uniquely positioned to be able to do that.” The production, in English, saw 12 shows being held in Mumbai in October and people in the national capital can see 10 shows of this classic in December.
The challenge
A big challenge in bringing down Broadway and West End to Mumbai and Delhi was the lack of infrastructure, in terms of venues, as the traditional theatre venues were not appropriate to stage such a production. Kapur says that while this was a challenge, the production presented an opportunity and gave the company a chance to put together ‘Beauty and the Beast’ on a spectacular scale. For starters, this meant accommodating an audience of 2,500 people as against 800 to 1,000 present in a traditional theatre venue and creating a 270-degree stage, which gave audiences a truly immersive and four-to-five dimensional experience while watching the show.
Disney India also roped in Citibank as a sponsor. Looking at the initial response, Disney India is looking forward to a long-term relationship with Citibank. Also on board as partners were professional make-up firm Kryolan and Christie, which also provided LED-illuminated projection solutions. Kapur says, “There are other brands who would like to come on board and partner with us for the journey. We’re quite open to that and are having discussions.” Besides sponsorship and ticketing, Disney is also looking at merchandising as “an ancillary revenue stream” and on the consumer front, it is looking at live entertainment to help reach its target group – ie., Sec A.
On the other hand, media reports pegged the production cost for this venture at Rs 22 crore, and this begs the question whether productions of this scale are viable in the Indian context? Says Kapur, “It is a fairly large investment, but what heartened us is that our shows were completely sold out in Mumbai. The latent demand for something like this is tremendous. I daresay if we opened up a few more shows they would have gone full as well. I imagine that in the overall scheme of things, it is going to be a fairly profitable investment for us.”
Looking ahead at Disney India’s plans in the live entertainment space, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ will be back on stage in Delhi and Mumbai in the summer of 2016 and Disney India is also working on bringing more international productions to India. Also on board are plans to develop local content, which could either emanate from its movie stable or be completely original IPs. Talking about the possible challenges in future, Kapur says he only looks at challenges as a big opportunity. He says, “The big opportunity is bringing people into the fold… those who have got the propensity & inclination to spend and enjoy an experience like this, but don’t have the opportunities to do so. Nobody has offered it to them in India, so that is a massive opportunity.” Disney India would like to take its production beyond Mumbai and Delhi to other cities, but the lack of infrastructure inhibits this move and remains the core concern area. On a final note, Kapur says, “We are very excited about this initiative and we really want it to succeed. Both to be able to take the Disney brand forward as well as because we believe that it’s important for us to create new forms of entertainment in India. We are very happy to be able to pioneer something.”
