Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
Sumant Srivathsan wrote: I'm sure there are cheaper places to watch movies. They just don't show the movies you want to watch. Meanwhile, I'd kill to pay near-US prices for a drink here in India. But a half-decent bar will get you a small vodka for 7-10 USD. Goodness, Mumbai is getting freakin' expensive. Bars charge more for booze here in equal parts due to very high operational + licencing + bribes costs and a our life span is only some two years; let's try to make all the money we can quickly philosophy. (It's cheaper to get a licence for a bar in New York than in B'lore, for instance. Kerala's annual licence fee is 2.2 million bucks. I kid you not.) Some info here (quoting me, actually): http://skthewimp.livejournal.com/196316.html and: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/Feb292008/state2008022954772.asp http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1491082.cms -- * Madhu Menon Shiok Far-eastern Cuisine Indiranagar, Bangalore Visit us @ http://www.shiokfood.com Shiok on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bangalore-India/Shiok/7498426855
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
Goodness, Mumbai is getting freakin' expensive. Same dynamic as in Wimp's blog, much higher numbers for rent, licenses, hafta, etc. And if the booze is within access, the food kills you (HRC, Zenzi, TGIF). -- Sumant Srivathsan sumants.blogspot.com
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On 15-Jul-08, at 3:01 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: Given the current depressed market for mutual funds, I wonder if anybody at all is touching those with a bargepole. Great time to pump money in, don't you think? I'm keeping my SIPs going.
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 12:34 AM, Eugen Leitl wrote: Fly business class on an airline that offers flatbeds. I flew economy yesterday to brisbane (ouch my back) but Thai's seatback TV has several Owch. Commiserations. I once took a bus from Munich to Moscow, though. That's some 3 days on the road. (It was a short-distance bus). theres also the long distance buses of tanzania the 'luxurious' ones come with on-board dvd theatres which play a constant stream of nigerian classics from nairaland...the volume is usually turned right up to keep out the road noise. after watching a few nollywood films, one even starts to get them (with names such as 'brain box', 'evil blood sister' the fun never ceases).
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
Kiran Jonnalagadda [15/07/08 14:16 +0530]: On 15-Jul-08, at 3:01 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: Given the current depressed market for mutual funds, I wonder if anybody at all is touching those with a bargepole. Great time to pump money in, don't you think? I'm keeping my SIPs going. Oh, I have sips too but not in sector funds. Reliance regular savings fund is one that I keep sips in, there are a few others too - deutsche bank, birla sunlife ...
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Mon, 2008-07-14 at 20:19 +0530, Kiran Jonnalagadda wrote: --Jace, who went to Inox with friends last night and saw the fine Rs 250 print on the ticket post-movie. Rs 40 used to be grumble-worthy barely half a decade ago. this is called differential pricing. i'm sure there are cheaper places to watch a movie in india... :-) but when you can charge some people in india near-US prices (or much more) for beer, you can charge near-US prices for a movie ticket.
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 9:27 PM, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Mon, 2008-07-14 at 20:19 +0530, Kiran Jonnalagadda wrote: --Jace, who went to Inox with friends last night and saw the fine Rs 250 print on the ticket post-movie. Rs 40 used to be grumble-worthy barely half a decade ago. this is called differential pricing. i'm sure there are cheaper places to watch a movie in india... :-) but when you can charge some people in india near-US prices (or much more) for beer, you can charge near-US prices for a movie ticket. Not really -- there are heavy taxes on theatres -- but multiplexes are exempt for the next 5 years. However, market dynamics allows multiplexes to charge an order of magnitude more than single screen theatres. Net result: it's very difficult to make a single screen theatre profitable -- they're dying like flies. I know in Bangalore, at least, there few if any alternatives to expensive multiplexes. -- b
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
Had it not been for the chaos created by Napster ; Itunes, and DRM etc would not have been born. The music bussiness based on sale of DVD albums at jacked up prices would have collapsed. To be honest, the music business hasn't learned jack. The RIAA and the record labels are still trying to sue the bejesus out of everybody that has downloaded a song. Sure, iTunes, Amazon and others are seeing growth in usage, but not nearly enough to save the music industry's ass. The real challenge is yet to come, as more and more acts with muscle start to go the Radiohead/Nine Inch Nails way and start giving away their music. I'm not much of a DVD buyer, to tell the truth. I only buy collector editions and/or director's cuts of films that I want to watch multiple times. Unlike others, I'm a huge fan of special features (mark that down to my quizzing genes). Moser Baer's stuff doesn't give me what I need, but I was very impressed by what they were doing for the market. -- Sumant Srivathsan sumants.blogspot.com
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
1] I don't agree with the ticket-price thesis; If Jannat can be a hit and people are willing to pay money to see that, I think any decent film can be. The problem is at the supply end, not the demand end; there *is* a quality issue with the films that come out. I think the industry is going through a transitional phase because of the market splintering into different segments, and they'll sort it out duly. Not sure if quality is a problem for Bollywood. A lot of big-name crap makes its money and runs before word gets out that the movies suck. I don't doubt that there is a lack of demand, but it's similar to real estate; there's only so much that people think a film is worth, and that's all they're willing to pay. Budgets play a role in choice too. 2] Many films not classified as hits in India in the traditional sense still make a profit for their makers: low-budget films often recover money through the multiplex crowds; the Yashraj types make money from overseas audiences. Trade figures factor overseas earnings into the revenue reports, while 'hits' and 'flops' being classified locally. A large number of near-misses can still turn over good money for the producers. 3] I don't see how piracy can be a reason for new releases not being hits. At most, piracy is one reason why DVD revenues aren't lucrative enough. Online piracy is even less of a problem, imo: internet penetration in India, despite the hype around it, simply isn't high enough for it to matter. This holds true for Hollywood, where DVD releases are delayed until a couple of months after the film has left theatres. In India, DVDs are released in a weird overlap with theatre runtime. The pirates put the films out on VCD and online within a day or two of release, and both theatre revenues and DVD sales are compromised. The piracy I am talking about is not torrent downloads alone, but also the VCD you can buy at street corners, which does not accrue revenue to anybody in the production value chain. Again, if Jannat can be a hit, film-makers should just stop passing the buck and learn the basics of good storytelling (not that Jannat is an example of it!). I'm sure they will, if they needed to. If Jannat can be a hit, it means that the filmmakers don't need a good story to make a successful film. -- Sumant Srivathsan sumants.blogspot.com
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
This holds true for Hollywood, where DVD releases are delayed until a couple of months after the film has left theatres. In India, DVDs are released in a weird overlap with theatre runtime. The pirates put the films out on VCD and online within a day or two of release, and both theatre revenues and DVD sales are compromised. I don't buy the contention that pirate VCD copies affect a film's box office; watching a film in the hall and at home fulfill different needs. If Jannat can be a hit, it means that the filmmakers don't need a good story to make a successful film. Well, Jannat might not have been to my taste, but it was at least original, and had the kind of budget that allowed it to make money. But leave that aside: if you look at the hits of the last few years, from Dil Chahta Hai and Lagaan in 2001 to Jab We Met recently, the importance of a good story and compelling storytelling is obvious. And the kind of money invested in scripts has gone up massively in the last couple of years, and not just by big banners or for big names, which indicates that film-makers and production houses have seen the light. Hopefully there's enough writing talent out there to make the change in focus pay off. (And to go back to Jannat, the cheesy Bob Woolmer lookalike alone was paisa wasool for me, but I'm perverse that way!) -- Amit Varma http://www.indiauncut.com
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 11:54 AM, Amit Varma [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I don't buy the contention that pirate VCD copies affect a film's box office; watching a film in the hall and at home fulfill different needs. If a reduction in the number of reasonably priced stand alone theatres can be attributed to the rise of expensive multiplexes then I do believe that a pirated VCD could reasonably substitute for a family outing to the former... -- Please read our new blog at: http://blog.prathambooks.org
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
If a reduction in the number of reasonably priced stand alone theatres can be attributed to the rise of expensive multiplexes then I do believe that a pirated VCD could reasonably substitute for a family outing to the former... Those two don't seem connected to me. The movie-watching experience at a big screen, whether at a multiplex or a stand-alone, is entirely different from watching a VCD at home. How many people on this list think they are substitutable, and would cancel a plan to go see a film at the theatre because they found a VCD of the film that they can watch in their living room? To use a loose analogy, restaurants don't go out of business because people can cook at home. It's just a different category of experience. -- Amit Varma http://www.indiauncut.com
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 11:10 AM, Amit Varma wrote: If a reduction in the number of reasonably priced stand alone theatres can be attributed to the rise of expensive multiplexes then I do believe that a pirated VCD could reasonably substitute for a family outing to the former... Those two don't seem connected to me. The movie-watching experience at a big screen, whether at a multiplex or a stand-alone, is entirely different from watching a VCD at home. I think there is a large segment of people who don't particularly watch cinema for the big-screen experience... (same kind of people who don't make out the difference in quality between VCD and a DVD) ... if you have grown up in a generation of 24 hour television... i think its much more difficult to appreciate the cinema experience..
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 1:40 PM, Amit Varma [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Those two don't seem connected to me. The movie-watching experience at a big screen, whether at a multiplex or a stand-alone, is entirely different from watching a VCD at home. How many people on this list think they are substitutable, and would cancel a plan to go see a film at the theatre because they found a VCD of the film that they can watch in their living room? To use a loose analogy, restaurants don't go out of business because people can cook at home. It's just a different category of experience. But the gap in experiences is closing steadily. Large-screen TVs, home theatre systems, etc. are becoming more and more affordable. -- Aadisht Khanna Address for mailing lists: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Personal address: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 9:27 AM, Gautam John wrote: If a reduction in the number of reasonably priced stand alone theatres can be attributed to the rise of expensive multiplexes then I do believe that a pirated VCD could reasonably substitute for a family outing to the former... I think the pirated dvd has affected cinema in more ways than one... for instance, i have seen a revival of cinema theatres in many small towns (i speak only for east africa...). most of them rely on a dvd player connected to a projector (which arent so expensive nowadays...) .. all you need then is a big clean wall or a bedsheet... they show english premier league on football nights... hollywood / bollywood blockbusters on other nights... soft-core (jag mundhra /ashok amritraj productions appear to be a particular favourite) for late night shows.. a couple of months and you have recouped your setup costs and made a nice profit too...
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 01:40:43PM +0530, Amit Varma wrote: Those two don't seem connected to me. The movie-watching experience at a big screen, whether at a multiplex or a stand-alone, is entirely different from watching a VCD at home. How many people on this list think they are Of course it is different -- you don't have to watch ads for 45-60 minutes, suffer travel and rubbing shoulders with rude strangers, have your refreshment at arm length and pay the equivalent of a restaurant visit. Complete win/win, which is why we never go to cinemas anymore (I've got angry enough about the experience the last time, and complained to the operator about the endless advertisements, including several implying I am a criminal -- he claimed the price would be even higher than it already is -- I said, fair enough, then he just lost us as customers for good). For some reason I never buy movies, rent and rerip to remove advertisements, extras, and sundry other junk before watching. FullHD video projectors are getting cheaper all the time. Decent projections screen unfortunately not, but they're more or less affordable. Sound surround systems are cheap enough to be almost free. substitutable, and would cancel a plan to go see a film at the theatre because they found a VCD of the film that they can watch in their living VCD? What's that? room? To use a loose analogy, restaurants don't go out of business because people can cook at home. It's just a different category of experience. You can assume that restaurants would go out of business if world-class chefs were affordable kitchen appliances. We can't digitize the food experience; not yet. -- Eugen* Leitl a href=http://leitl.org;leitl/a http://leitl.org __ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
VCD? What's that? Preferred format for movie pirates in India. Ye olde Video CD, which typically contains anything from one to four movies on a single disc, in various levels of DivX compression. -- Sumant Srivathsan sumants.blogspot.com
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 9:10 AM, Amit Varma [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Those two don't seem connected to me. The movie-watching experience at a big screen, whether at a multiplex or a stand-alone, is entirely different from watching a VCD at home. How many people on this list think they are substitutable, and would cancel a plan to go see a film at the theatre because they found a VCD of the film that they can watch in their living room? convenience @home : watch movie in bed... dunno how many 'plexes offer a 180 degrees service.
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
convenience @home : watch movie in bed... dunno how many 'plexes offer a 180 degrees service. Sure, I'm not arguing pros and cons here. I'm just saying they're *different * experiences, and not interchangable. We go to halls a) for the big-screen experience, b) as a social thing, c) to experience the sheer delight of people talking on phones while the film is on, infants wailing and the people sitting behind you kicking the back of your chair. None of these delights can be experienced at home. Speaking purely for myself, I see many more films at home than at theatres, but when I do go out, a) I'm happy to compromise with a timepass film because not too many good films get released here anyway and b) I see the theatre-going experience as a combination of things: my multiplex of choice has a superb Landmark bookstore next to it, and many eating options (TGIF, food court, nearby specialty restaurants). If I'm in the mood to go out and watch a movie, the entire Criterion collection wouldn't entice me to stay back home. And vice versa, obviously. -- Amit Varma http://www.indiauncut.com
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On 14-Jul-08, at 1:40 PM, Amit Varma wrote: Those two don't seem connected to me. The movie-watching experience at a big screen, whether at a multiplex or a stand-alone, is entirely different from watching a VCD at home. How many people on this list think they are substitutable, and would cancel a plan to go see a film at the theatre because they found a VCD of the film that they can watch in their living room? To use a loose analogy, restaurants don't go out of business because people can cook at home. It's just a different category of experience. I would, given a sufficiently high quality print (DVD-rip). In fact, I do. --Jace, who went to Inox with friends last night and saw the fine Rs 250 print on the ticket post-movie. Rs 40 used to be grumble-worthy barely half a decade ago.
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Monday 14 Jul 2008 10:03:35 am Gautam John wrote: http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html It's been a rough year for Bollywood. The Indian movie industry reportedly posted a loss for the first six months of 2008. And out of 116 films released during that period, there were only two hits and another two average grossers, according to the Economic Times of India. I read, or heard today that Bollywood funding is increasingly becoming white and legal - with 60% of productions now being funded with white money. Even banks are getting involved - unbelievably. Hence the accounting. The usual source for funds has traditionally been the gangs - such as Dawood Ibrahim or Abu Salem and other assorted extortionists and/or terrorists. These people probably did not report losses, and in any case made them up in the usual way. shiv
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 08:19:58PM +0530, Kiran Jonnalagadda wrote: I would, given a sufficiently high quality print (DVD-rip). In fact, I do. It is perfectly possible to rip and transcode content from a HD medium. Increasingly, HD content is available on P2P networks (arguably, the medium delivery is doomed mid-term). Decent FullHD video projectors are down to 3 kEUR, or so. Once they're in 1 kEUR range...
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
va [14/07/08 13:32 +0100]: convenience @home : watch movie in bed... dunno how many 'plexes offer a 180 degrees service. Fly business class on an airline that offers flatbeds. I flew economy yesterday to brisbane (ouch my back) but Thai's seatback TV has several movies, including some classics .. I watched Blues Brothers, Around the World in 80 days and (again) Jungle Book on the flight over. srs -- Suresh Ramasubramanian | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | gpg EDEDEFB9 email sturmbahnfuehrer | lower middle class unix sysadmin
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
ss [14/07/08 20:29 +0530]: I read, or heard today that Bollywood funding is increasingly becoming white and legal - with 60% of productions now being funded with white money. Even banks are getting involved - unbelievably. Hence the accounting. There's even sector based mutual funds targeted at the entertainment industry. Go figure .. Given the current depressed market for mutual funds, I wonder if anybody at all is touching those with a bargepole.
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 02:29:55PM -0700, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: Fly business class on an airline that offers flatbeds. I flew economy yesterday to brisbane (ouch my back) but Thai's seatback TV has several Owch. Commiserations. I once took a bus from Munich to Moscow, though. That's some 3 days on the road. (It was a short-distance bus). movies, including some classics .. I watched Blues Brothers, Around the World in 80 days and (again) Jungle Book on the flight over. -- Eugen* Leitl a href=http://leitl.org;leitl/a http://leitl.org __ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
[silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html It's been a rough year for Bollywood. The Indian movie industry reportedly posted a loss for the first six months of 2008. And out of 116 films released during that period, there were only two hits and another two average grossers, according to the Economic Times of India. The big problem -- or so say analysts -- is that ticket prices in India are no longer affordable for most moviegoers. It is unimaginable that the loss ratio can be so high due to bad films, an analyst, Amod Mehra, told the Economic Times. People are not interested in shelling out money for films. We have to believe the ample supply of pirated Bollywood films -- both online and on the street -- isn't helping much, especially if the cost of admission is out of most people's budgets. (The web is chock full of web sites that brazenly make Bollywood films available to download for free.) Could the U.S. box office experience a similar fate? It's hard to imagine now, when blockbusters like Hancock gross more than $100 million in less than a week. Still, some analysts speculate that the decline has already begun -- and it will only be a matter of time before the business models of movie studios and TV networks collapse under the weight of digital distribution. Right now, the [U.S.] box office is slightly ahead of 2007. But that's before inflation. When you do a numbers comparison, we may be up 1 percent over last year, says Jeffrey Hartke, senior market analyst at Hollywood Stock Exchange, a fantasy movie stock market. But when you factor in inflation [or the increase in ticket prices], we're a little bit behind, in terms of attendees. And who can we blame for the sluggishness? The movie studios are grappling with a slew of problems, including a weak economy; a mediocre slate of films; and the delayed deployment of digital projectors. Still, piracy probably plays a small part, says Drew Crum, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus. It's certainly a concern of ours -- especially when you have staggered releases, and there's an opportunity for piracy. That can take away from market share [from the exhibitors.] Crum is also optimistic that the big blockbusters slated for release in the third- and fourth-quarters -- including Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, could bolster box office grosses. (We predict it will be five minutes before the new Harry Potter is available to download online.) -- Please read our new blog at: http://blog.prathambooks.org
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
Ticket prices aren't going to come down anytime soon. There was an effort in Chennai to put a cap on ticket prices, which was shot down because multiplex owners claimed that they would lose money if the cap was enforced. Given the costs of real estate, taxes, print acquisition and maintenance, I wouldn't be surprised if the business was quite low on margins for exhibitors. Also, now that many cinema houses are branching into production, there is a tendency to marginalize other films in favour of your own. This could then result in other films just not showing long enough or often enough to make money. Toss in the affordability factor (Rs. 1000-1200 per film for a family of 4), and add in extra expenses for gas and parking, and the reluctance just grows by the minute. Sure, there's a lot of money in urban India, but the numbers just don't add up fast enough. Most of the masses avoid the multiplexes and watch movies in the standalone theatres, which are rapidly vanishing from the landscape. Plus, there's the coughpiracycough. -- Sumant Srivathsan sumants.blogspot.com
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 11:17 AM, Sumant Srivathsan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Plus, there's the coughpiracycough. Something that MoserBaer was actually fighting rather well with their low cost, high quality movie DVDs but IIRC, that's been nixed because the producers wanted either a larger percentage of the sale price or a larger number altogether. Of course, 100% of 0 is still 0 so the pirates continue to win... Shekhar Kapur seems to see the light... But let me get back to my own field. Media and Entertainment. We are more and more moving int a digital and an instantaneous world. Where the commercial life of a product may be huge but for shorter and shorter periods of time. For example a Video on youtube when it works ut its revenue models. A popular video in the future may get a billion downloads in a couple of days and make a billion dollars. In that scenario, how long would the video maker ask for protection of intellectual property ? One week maybe ? And then allow the video to be downloaded free, so that he/she gets a huge following for the next video. I know this is an extreme example, but then it is good to look at extreme examples to understand the nature of the problem. Corporations scream about Piracy. The big music corporations went ballistic and got Napster shut down. Only to realize that Napster showed them the way to revive their flagging music sales through single song downloads. Napster was the origins of the Ipod and Itunes. Hey ... Indian films face the greatest Piracy problems, but the box office keeps going up. The pirated films are even played on regulr Cable channels beamed straight into your TV set. Lets get this straight. The Pirates work on ground level and know how to get the product to the consumer at the price they want it, where they want it, and how they want it. Hollywood better get off it's high horse and learn, just as the music bussiness learnt from Napster. Had it not been for the chaos created by Napster ; Itunes, and DRM etc would not have been born. The music bussiness based on sale of DVD albums at jacked up prices would have collapsed. http://www.shekharkapur.com/blog/archives/2006/11/intellectual_pr.htm http://www.shekharkapur.com/blog/archives/2007/04/piracy_china_an.htm -- Please read our new blog at: http://blog.prathambooks.org
Re: [silk] http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/bollywood-stung.html
1] I don't agree with the ticket-price thesis; If Jannat can be a hit and people are willing to pay money to see that, I think any decent film can be. The problem is at the supply end, not the demand end; there *is* a quality issue with the films that come out. I think the industry is going through a transitional phase because of the market splintering into different segments, and they'll sort it out duly. 2] Many films not classified as hits in India in the traditional sense still make a profit for their makers: low-budget films often recover money through the multiplex crowds; the Yashraj types make money from overseas audiences. 3] I don't see how piracy can be a reason for new releases not being hits. At most, piracy is one reason why DVD revenues aren't lucrative enough. Online piracy is even less of a problem, imo: internet penetration in India, despite the hype around it, simply isn't high enough for it to matter. Again, if Jannat can be a hit, film-makers should just stop passing the buck and learn the basics of good storytelling (not that Jannat is an example of it!). -- Amit Varma http://www.indiauncut.com
