For a studio, content acquisition is not only a creative process but a market-driven imperative
Content is at the core of our business, and while making any decision to co-produce or invest in content, there are no absolutes. The secret of a good film is made up of so many different factors – story, screenplay, lead actors, director, cinematography and music, to name only a few. Ultimately, it is about the vision that brings all these parts together. All these ingredients need to come together to make a film a success. The audience’s verdict is final, so it is very important to keep in tune with
the changing audience’s preferences and tastes.
Apart from vision and factors driven by the production team, we have to look at a film from a commercial point of view, where the cost, target audience and our distribution capabilities come into play. Our aim is to build on our three decades of pioneering Indian cinema.
The Indian film industry has never stood still, with iconic films such as Mother India, Sholay, Gadar–Ek Prem Katha and 3 Idiots all hitting a chord with what the audience wanted. As we look back at some of these films now, it is important to remember that they were all innovative and we continue to strive for this when looking at the content that we distribute now. Innovation can be the result of technical advances but more importantly it is the way a film is brought together or the themes that run through it.
Some of the recent key developments in the industry are again being driven by the audience. As media exposure and audience sophistication grows, the need for strong screenplays and finding films that have wide appeal are major factors when looking at investing in content. Wide appeal means understanding the audience you are aiming at and then ensuring that the content follows this through. This audience is not looking for entertainment only from cinema but also television. They are also mobile and digital driven. Viewers are also driven by the type of film, whether a major Diwali release or a youth-orientated film like Vicky Donor.
Our team looks at these multiple factors when evaluating content investment, and Eros is especially lucky to have valuable trusted relationships with creative talent that we have built over the last three decades.
Film entertainment is our core business. Our strategy is to build a portfolio of films and distribute them across our well-entrenched worldwide distribution network – through cinemas, television or digital platforms. We are conscious to architect the right mix of films within our slate.
We like to mix the cast we work with, the genre, the scale of films with high-profile, high-budget films as well as high-concept, new talent, lower-budget films. At one level, we work on mass appeal films that get distributed with a wide print and advertising spend, and on the other, we also release small budget, niche films that require targeted marketing and distribution. Developing franchises and remakes is also part of the overall content strategy.