BIG GETS BIGGER Shankar’s
film Sivaji has all the ingredients that go into the making of a
chartbuster — a huge budget, an ageless superstar, stunning locales and
great music. D Govardan brings you live the story of India’s most
expensive movie — made at a budget of Rs 80 crore The Economic Times, 2 June,
2007
Pin-drop
silence enveloped the reasonably full hall at Kamala, a stand-alone
theatre located at Vadapalani in Chennai, showing Tamil flick
Karuppasamy Kuththgakaarar. The screen went blank for a moment and then
filled with a larger than life hero in a smart, snazzy new look.
The
management’ s impromptu action — they had just received the trailer of
Shankar’s new movie Sivaji, starring Rajinikant — was followed by
unbelievable frenzy. The audience went crazy at the glimpse of
Rajinikant on screen and erupted into high decibel whistling and
dancing. The reaction was heart-warming for the producers of India’s
most expensive film till date, made at an estimated Rs 80 crore. Two
weeks to the movie’s release, expectations are soaring far higher than
the summer temperatures in Chennai.
Kamala is one of the five
theatres within the radius of one km that will show Sivaji from June
15. Giant cutouts and festoons will cover these theatres as the D-Day
nears. On that day, Rajini’s fans will drench the cut outs with packets
of milk and light camphor to do aarathi. The story will be repeated in
several centers from Chennai to the US to Japan where the star has a
huge fan following. Tech professionals from the state working in the US
have filled their blogs with plans to do just the same.
The Boss?
What
makes Sivaji special apart from the astronomical sum went into its
making? For one, it teams up Shankar and Rajinikant for the first time
— both have enviable track records at the box office. Add A R Rahman to
the equation and that will explain people queuing up in front of the
audio shops at five in the morning since the audio launch a month ago.
Also, the film is backed by AVM, India’s oldest production house.
Scale
is one of Shankar's hallmarks. Factors like time and budgets simply do
not matter to him. A song in Jeans, which featured Aishwarya Rai, was
shot at the Seven Wonders of the World. Shankar’s focus is on his end
product. So far, he has not failed the industry’s expectations — his
only failure till date is Hindi film Nayak (a remake of his Tamil
blockbuster Muthalvan).
His last film Anniyan, with Vikram in
the lead, took his reputation to new heights. Instances like waiting
for the orchids at Amsterdam to be in full bloom or painting a hill
with portraits of MGR and Sivaji, as well as NTR and ANR (for the
Telugu version), or painting a road to look like a silk sari spread
over several kms helped the imagination of a generation of Tamil film
buffs.
Only Rajini
Fresh from the success of
Anniyan, Shankar approached AVM with Rajinikant in mind for his new
script. As with Shankar, Rajini too was fresh from the success of
Chandramukhi. To AVM’s surprise, the star agreed. Rajini, Shankar and
AVM firmed up the plan in August 2005. And the AVM family is said to
have paid a token advance of Rs 1,000 to Rajini. And till date, though
the film is ready for release, Rajinikant is yet to take an additional
payment from AVM. That is Rajini’s style. He believes in waiting till
the film’s release. This helped AVM to reduce interest payments, as the
film took over one-and-a-half years to actualise.
“In Sivaji, Shankar has scaled new heights with support from
Rajinikant, whose swift movements defy his age. The picturisation of
the songs has been done on a scale never seen before, as is the climax.
It is sure to rock,” say an industry insider who have had an
opportunity to watch the glimpses of the movie, shot in the US, Spain,
Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. The movie is also said to have huge
dollops of special effects — a job done by Ocher Studios, which is run
by Soundarya Rajinikant, the star’s daughter. “It’s an honour for me
and my studio to be a part of such a prestigious project. Working for
my father’s films is always both a challenge and a joy,” said
Soundarya.
Very few people from the film speak on Sivaji
because Shankar had asked them not to reveal the story. In fact, no one
was allowed to use a mobile phone on the sets and visitors were banned.
Shankar likes to keep his films under wraps to build the surprise
element.
Figuring out the moolah
Initially,
estimated to cost close to Rs 60 crore, including a whopping
remuneration of around Rs 20- 25 crore for Rajini, in a mix of fee and
share in profits, Sivaji’s budget crossed all estimates at Rs 80 crore
and one worried man is M Saravanan who is heading the six decade-old
AVM Productions. “I have never been so tense all my life,” he said.
Yet
if the estimates are to be believed, Saravanan should rest assured.
With Sivaji mania sweeping across several markets, AVM is expected to
rake in a mind boggling Rs 100 crore through the sale of film rights.
If that happens, it will be a first for an Indian film and Sivaji would
have created history straightaway. “It will cross Rs 90 crore for sure.
And the expectation is that it will inch past the Rs 100 crore mark,”
says a veteran distributor who has had a long association with AVM.
With
sale of screening rights in theatres all over the world and the
satellite and the home video rights, AVM definitely has an ace up its
sleeve. Satellite rights are said to have been sold to the yet-to-be
launched Tamil channel, Kalaignar TV, reportedly for Rs 4 crore, and
the rights for Chennai city alone have been said to have gone for an
estimated Rs 6.5 crore, again a new record.
According to
industry sources, AVM opened commercial negotiations for theatre rights
in Tamil Nadu initially for upwards of Rs 60 crore, which was scaled up
to Rs 67.5 crore subsequently.
According to industry sources, AVM’s plan was to sell the Tamil Nadu
rights to a single entity and even started negotiations with Adlabs,
UTV and a few other companies. But things did not work out the way AVM
expected. While the film’s release date got postponed twice — from
April 14 to May 31 and then to June 15 — a decision by the Tamil Nadu
Exhibitors Association to insist on a percentage share of revenues
between theatre owners and distributors, rather than the normal minimum
guarantee, created hurdles.
The fact that AVM went on record
that it sold Telugu rights for a mere Rs 8 crore, as opposed to
industry rumours of an higher amount, made it all the more difficult
for it to push the Tamil Nadu rights the way it wanted. Consequently,
AVM had to opt for the traditional way of selling the Tamil Nadu
rights, by splitting it into major territories.
Industry
sources estimate the Sivaji sale to fetch Rs 12 crore from overseas, Rs
15 crore from Telugu, Rs 2.5 crore each from Karnataka and Kerala and
Rs 4 crore from satellite rights. All of which add up to Rs 37 crore.
The big question is will Tamil Nadu give the balance Rs 63 crore to
help AVM touch the magic mark of Rs 100 crore? As far as history goes,
TN has always given 70% of the returns and there is no reason to
believe otherwise.
Printing success
If cost of
production and sale of rights are creating new benchmarks, will the
release be any different? Sivaji will have a very wide release in Tamil
Nadu and other markets. Especially, since the theatres in Tamil Nadu
cannot charge higher entry rates for the first fortnight.
Industry
sources expect AVM to bring out over 600 prints — about 400-450 prints
in Tamil, including close to 100 for overseas, and another 200-250 for
Telugu. Compare this with Sony Picture’s global smash hit Spiderman 3
which released across India with 580 prints, an all-time high in India
for any Hollywood film.
“This is a record only for a Hollywood
film in India. But, Rajinikant and Sivaji are in a different league and
we are not even competing with them,” Uday Singh, managing director,
Sony Pictures, says.
No wonder, Rajinikant, whose original name was Sivaji Rao Gaekwad, happens
to be the The Boss of the Box Office.
