Bollywood slashes glitz amid the gloom

Bollywood slashes glitz amid the gloom
(NSI News Source Info) New Delhi - November 13, 2008: BOLLYWOOD'S trademark glitz and glamour has been overshadowed by fear as the global economic downturn hits the Indian film industry.
Project cancellations, mass lay-offs and delayed releases are haunting the world's biggest cinema factory, which normally produces 200 films a year.
Until recently some Indian mega-stars were being paid more than $18 million a film. But big-budget projects with expensive names have been the hardest hit. Stars such as Shahrukh Khan, Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar are facing massive pay cuts.
"I have heard of pay cuts of 50 per cent and more," said the president of the Film Federation of India, Vijay Khemka.
Komal Nahata, publisher of the trade journal Film Information, said Mumbai's big production companies were renegotiating salaries, sacking staff and delaying schedules.
"The mood is one of fear and people are worried about where this slump will leave them."
Big corporations have made substantial investments in the film industry in the past few years but as the Indian sharemarket lost about half its value, funding evaporated.
Industry analysts are predicting a 20 per cent drop in the number of films produced this year, though it could be more.
"Not a single project with a star cast has started production or been announced in the past three months," said an Indian film trade analyst, Amod Mehra.
"The prices for actors and technicians will have to come down a lot further or else this industry will go to the dogs."
T-Series, one of India's biggest production companies, has instructed the high-profile director Pooja Bhatt to slash the budget of Kajra Re, a film now in production.
It is also renegotiating the $15 million pay cheque for the star, Salman Khan, to appear in a movie, yet to be named. The production firm UTV, which reportedly agreed to pay the action star Akshay Kumar about $18 million for a movie, is pushing to renegotiate the contract.
Nahata says the global financial crisis was the catalyst for an inevitable industry shake-out. "This correction was long overdue," he said.
"The corporates have come flush with funds but not brains - it takes more than money to make a good film."
Vijay Khemka, of the Film Federation of India, knows of budgets that have been slashed to 20 per cent of their original value.