Institutions

Keeping media institutions aside, that will be explained further within this text, lets come to the entire film industry first, since only if you know the industry, you know the institutions it comprises of. For my media product that I will be making, I choose BOLLYWOOD as my industry. Bollywood is the name given to the film industry of Mumbai and is a huge industry, well known just like Hollywood itself.  BOLLYWOOD STYLE: Indians love films. Around fourteen million people in India go to watch a film on a daily basis, that is a 1.4% of the entire population on a billion people and they all tend to pay an equivalent of an average Indian’s daily wage rate. That means more than double the number of feature films produced in the United States. Bollywood films tend to be at least three to four hours long, and have ‘intermission’. They usually follow a similar pattern, that is, ‘masala’ or in other words the spiced entertainment. Their film would be the stereo typical film with a dozen of songs covering hundreds of dancers, choreographers, top stars, where the guy meets the girl, no as such physical contact, a lot of action and always a happy ending. However, those were stereo types. They make a number of artsy films too along with others, but they’re name is joined to the scenario given above. India is a country of several spoken languages, so other parts of the industry remain unknown to an extent, however the Mumbai Bollywood leads the industry in film production, having Hindi films are their main elements. Bollywood films are becoming increasingly popular and have now become an international obsession.

Different industries follow different styles that can be recognized through their completely different use of codes and conventions. The codes and conventions of Hollywood would completely differ from those of Bollywood. Question is, what are these codes and conventions? To make it short and understandable, you can call them stereo types, that differ from genre to genre within a particular industry. For example, the conventions of an English horror film would be different casting a different impact on the audience as compared to the conventions of an Indian horror film. BOLLYWOOD-CODES AND CONVENTIONS :  A horror genre film- as codes and conventions have it, an Indian horror film would usually have a lot of candles used in the mise-en-sene, a very exaggerated use of diegetic  sounds, like, the sounds of footsteps, or the heroin breathing, a clock ticking and other things we don’t normally notice in other films, is done, in order to create the required ‘mood’ for the film and this film would usually be a combination of a sub genre, with horror and romance. –  Coming to a romantic film, this would have different codes and conventions. An Indian romantic film, being the most popular genre, must have, firstly well known, good looking stars. The story would have the guy n girl meeting, wouldn’t have much of a use of intimacy, although a background music each time they see each other is a must, followed by a song every twenty minutes later, with a beautiful scenery with the guy and the girl singing and dancing, having the girl wrapped up in a very eastern kind of outfit. Intermission and climax is a must. Usually a third party involved interfering in their love, however, leads to a happy ending later. This genre usually collides with action as a sub genre and so it’s a romance-action movie.- Now followed by this comes comedy. This one’s fairly easy to understand. It would it’s expected comedians doing the role, usually fast pace having the particular Hindi-slang kind of use of language and is usually a combination with romance and action.- Action, one of the most versatile genre, that collides with all genre’s if needed, has its own codes and conventions. Weapons are a must, followed by heavy music, harsh street language, money cases and all sorts of attractive women play their own part in creating the entire feel. Clothing plays its own role, if there’s a street gangster, his way of dressing will be different from that of an underground rich posh ganster who you’d probably see in the most expensive suit.- Now coming to the Indian art films. They are different and less in number since the target audience of India for such films isn’t all that great. Their purpose is to convey a message, not to be a blog buster. It usually makes the Indian accent more prominent, in order to give the realistic feel, very artsy shots and camera angles, ordinary looking actors, slow, emotional and usually cultural music. Also usually has a narration or a voice over and would never be a glamorous film. It tends to collide well with romance, action and adventure but not so well with horror or comedy.

Keeping industry aside, now we come towards institutions. These are the sole financers and distributers of all films produced within an industry. They buy films of the types of genres they accept and like to finance. No movie can release without an institution. India has a number of institutions too. A few of these are, Eros Entertainment, UTV, Sony pictures, Dharma productions, Yash Raj films, Red Chilly etc.

Starting with Eros Entertainment, this is well known to be one of India’s biggest leading media and entertainment institution and has been under business since almost three decades. It has a core trade in production, acquisition and distribution of filmed text under several distribution ways like theatres, television and other technical media applications. It has a vast level of distribution considering genres of films. It distributes all kinds of film, including art, drama, comedy, adventure, horror, action and romance. This is one of the reasons why it is so big. It also works as a jewelry business otherwise, and this is rare since institutions, especially in Hollywood, don’t have this concept of having other side businesses as well. The company has started from being a distributor and now is known to be an aggregator. It has offices nearly all around the world. A few names of movies it has distributed are Desi Boys, Rock star, Ra. One, Zindagi Na Mile Gi Dobara etc.

Next we can take a look at UTV, which is another huge institute. It also has a vast distribution of films and has the honor of being one of the oldest institutions of Bollywood. It also gives importance to a number of films with completely different genres whether, art or drama or romance or whatever. It is a privilege to directors and producers to have such institutions buying and distributing their films. It caters to major art films, like Rang De Basabti, that has been one of Bollywood’s big success. So, films of mixed genres are likely to be distributed and financed by such institutions.

Coming to Dharma Productions, again, a very huge institution formed by Shri  Yash Johar in 1976. It has always been able to achieve its goals by producing high quality cinema that is accepted and appreciated all around the world. It has produced movies like ‘Dostana’ , ‘Dunya’, ‘Muqqdar ka Fiasla’ etc. But these are still towards the side, it has produced india’s biggest blog busters that have broken box-office records without a fail. It had produced the famous ‘ Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ which did not just break records but also gathered a number of national and international awards. And this kept going on till movies like ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum’ and ‘My Name Is Khan’ were produced and once again broke records to a great amount. This production house is famous for distributing and financing drama and romance related movies and has the reputation of being a very honest and clean institution and had been able to prove it over the years.

To me, as I am making an art film, I would go for an institute like Eros Pictures or UTV since they distribute films that belong from the same genre that my film does. And in order to attract such an institution, it is important for a producer and director to keep in mind all the codes and conventions of the film industry, and how the particular institution like it, and once this is done, the film manages to attract its target audience and if the institution knows that this film would sell since it has the capability to attract its audience, it will make money, and this motivates the institution to buy and distribute the film as it can see success and profit within its self as well as manages to keep its status and recognition noticible.