Big stars will have to help to keep film industry afloat: Mani Ratnam

PTI, May 29, 2020, 11:52 AM IST

Chennai: Filmmaker Mani Ratnam on Thursday, May 28 said that with the immediate theatrical business of films disrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic, filmmaking will undergo changes in terms of reduced budgets that will definitely need the support of the big stars.

Ratnam said that though he is positive that the industry will be able to sail through with “enough changes”, what is possibly required is a bit of help.

“The fact that the immediate theatre release is going to get difficult, the market is going to get eroded, means that I have to make sure the cost of my film is brought down. That it is manageable to make the filmmaking viable. Which means, people involved in it, especially big stars and technicians will have to understand and help in reducing the price, reducing the cost and work towards making sure the film industry remains afloat,” he said.

The director was speaking at the SICCI webinar series on the topic “The future of movies and entertainment.”

The Ok Kanmani director said that the industry will possibly also require a “little bit of help from the government.”

“It’s an industry which isn’t just simple entertainment, we do so much more. We give dreams to people, make them smile, it takes a lot of time of people who invest in this… The film industry also requires support from the government. Hoping we will be back on our feet soon,” he added.

At the webinar, Reliance Entertainment CEO Shibasish Sarkar was also present and he said that the cost-cutting of their existing films, including Akshay Kumar-starrer Sooryavanshi and Ranveer Singh-led 83, is impossible as they were on the verge of release when the nationwide lockdown was announced in March.

“But if you’re going to put a new film on floors, you’ve to understand that there are three streams of revenues which will get affected—domestic theatrical, overseas theatrical and the broadcasting rights. Because of the overall economic recession in the last two months, broadcasters have lost almost 85 percent of their ad revenue,” he said.

“If they won’t earn, they won’t pay the same amount of money for the satellite. That’s a reality we have to embrace. Digital revenues are going to get stronger… Actors, technicians, producers have to sit together and structure a new project,” he added.