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This is not to say that an actor with a set image can never appear in a role which does not go with the image. Of course, he can! But then, the film must be so wonderful that the audience would not mind their idol playing a role that’s absolutely different from his image in their minds. Aamir Khan had done that in Sarfarosh, and succeeded too. Hrithik may also have earned the love of his fans had ‘Guzaarish’ been a fine film.
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The other reason why the public knew beforehand that Guzaarish would not appeal to them was the lukewarm response to the film’s music. Bhansali’s films have always been known to have hit musical scores. Whether it was his maiden directorial venture, Khamoshi The Musical, or his latter films like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas and Saawariya, his songs invariably enchanted the listeners. Given this background, the absence of popular music in ‘Guzaarish’ was evident as soon as the music of the film was out in the market. That, in a way, sealed the initial fate of the film. For, there was no way the people were going to throng the cinemas when the film would open. The importance of music in prodding the paying public to go to the cinemas on the first day and, perhaps, in the first show cannot be overemphasised. The film would now have to depend on positive word of mouth to make its mark, it was clear. And with the initial weekend’s business today being so significant, that would not bode well for the film. Yet, there was one chance – if the film was extraordinary, its collections would pick up from the second show itself even if its start would be slow. But that if was a big if!
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All the aforementioned drawbacks (faulty casting, dull music) may have been overlooked had the film been made on a tight budget because recovery for a film made on a controlled budget is not an impossibility even if its opening is not upto the mark. But even that was not the case. Given the class-appealing subject of the film, ‘Guzaarish’ ought to have been made for not more than Rs. 25 crore. But the investment in the film is three times that amount. And where exactly did the money go, other than in the film’s making? Obviously, the director and the two lead stars of the film – Hrithik and Aishwarya Rai – took away a sizeable portion of that money home as their fees.
This brings us to the next point. The case of ‘Guzaarish’ underlines the fact that the corporate production houses seem to have no idea about budgeting. Obviously, the one who green-lighted ‘Guzaarish’ did not have the faintest idea that the budget at which it had been given the green signal was obscene. Unofficial comments from UTV might point out that the project was started at a time when the industry was experiencing a boom, before recession set in, and, therefore, the budget of the film was what it was. So what? The recession is long over, which means, the film has come out in normal times. So, why are the revenues in a post-recessionary 2010 not matching with the costs of the pre-recessionary era? In other words, the argument about pre-recession doesn’t hold water. Of course, UTV is not the first producer to have gone so horribly wrong. Most of the corporates, flush with funds but not sufficiently equipped with creative talent, have at some time or the other gone similarly wrong in green-lighting films at double or triple the budgets they deserved. Eros’ Drona and Aladin and Reliance Big’s Karzzzz are some films which instantly come to mind in this regard. As far as ‘Guzaarish’ is concerned, the main cast and crew ought to have taken a tenth of the remunerations they actually took. Sanjay Bhansali ought to have volunteered to make a big concession if he wanted to make a film with such restricted appeal as ‘Guzaarish’. His forgoing a major chunk of his fee would have served as a good example for Hrithik and Aishwarya to follow, especially because both were keen to work with Bhansali. But if the filmmaker himself charged a bomb as his fee, how could he expect his stars to agree to have their pay packets cut?
It is in the case of films like ‘Guzaarish’ that stars and top technicians should volunteer to take only token fees upfront and keep a share in the profit. For, such films, which cannot be expected to do well everywhere due to their sectional appeal, need to be made with limited budgets if they are to be successful at the turnstiles. Aamir Khan does it all the time – he charges a nominal fee and keeps a share in the profits. If the film does earn a profit, Aamir’s remuneration automatically goes up, otherwise not. And if Aamir can do it even for films with intrinsic mass appeal, like 3 Idiots, why can’t the other top stars do it, at least in the case of films which lack universal appeal? Stars and technicians, who make such films, often justify their efforts in these films with limited market appeal by saying that that is how cinema would evolve. But they need to be told that merely making such cinema is not enough. For such cinema to evolve, it is also necessary that it does well at the box-office. For, only if films in this category click will more producers feel inclined to make different or new cinema. And only if that happens will the participation of top stars and technicians be worthwhile.
An argument often put forth by stars, especially, is that they charge only what the market offers them, that they don’t put a gun to the heads of producers or, in other words, don’t force producers to pay them what they demand as their fees. While the argument is not baseless, there is something known as responsibility on the part of stars also. Stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan don’t need to coax producers to pay them what they can easily command. In fact, producers would be falling over one another to sign the two Khans at whatever price they quote. If, in spite of this, Aamir and Shah Rukh don’t charge fees which can jeopardise the success of their films, what are the other stars talking about not putting a gun to their producers’ heads? The stars’ considerateness towards the producers’ needs has to come from within; it can’t be tutored. The greed for money is what drives everyone to work harder. But if the stars and technicians took a more compassionate view of the filmmaking process, they’d automatically feel like being more realistic, at least when it comes to demanding fees in the case of films devoid of universal appeal.
Actually, there aren’t too many producers or directors who are willing to admit to even themselves that their films lack universal appeal. So touchy are filmmakers about what they are making that even a hint by an outsider that the film may hold attraction for only a section of the audience would not go down well with them. That’s not the case in Hollywood where producers, directors and stars are quite open about the fact that their film may be targetting only a niche audience. But here, in Bollywood, any talk about lack of universality of appeal in a film is akin to telling the filmmaker that he doesn’t know his job. Indian filmmakers seem to be obsessed about pleasing all and sundry, whatever may be the subject they are tackling in their films. It is for this reason that no thought goes into budgeting films based on who the target viewers would be. This is truer if the film is being made with top-of-the-line stars and directors. To think that top actors and technicians would lack mass appeal would be blasphemy, it seems. Given this scenario, where is the chance to plan budgets according to the target audience when, the world seems to be the target audience for any and every film?
More often than not, it is the budgets in the film industry that fail, not the films. ‘Guzaarish’ is one more example of this. For, it seems to have gone down well with the gentry audience. Unfortunately, the size of the gentry audience in India is not large enough to justify the investment made in the film. The merits of the film come much later. What matters before that is that ab initio, the investments in films in many cases seem so prohibitive that those films seem to be dangerous propositions even before the public verdict on them is out. Some correction – sorry, a lot of correction – in budgeting is the need of the hour. Otherwise, we will have many more Guzaarishes to cry over. And then, as Hrithik Roshan’s character in the film, unable to bear the pain of his disease, pleads for court permission to end his own life, our producers may also want to kill themselves, unable to bear the losses they may have suffered due to horrendously wrong budgeting.
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