Production companies in the US have been very successful in using merchandising as an alternative revenue stream to pure ticket sales for a movie. Some movies have a whole universe built around them that has created fan cults. "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" are just some examples that have books, games, comics and animation series complementing the original offerings.
Merchandising however has not been very successful in India. The only successful venture that comes to mind is the "Koi Mil Gaya" and sequel "Krrish" franchise. There is an offshoot kids' series on television featuring the alien "Jadoo" that was there in the first movie. Also another sequel to "Krrish" is planned. "Bunty aur Babli" had limited success with apparel stores launching a clothing line featuring the styles worn by Rani Mukherjee in the film. "Roop ki Rani, Choron ka Raja" however was not very successful with the character figurines as the movie itself failed to deliver on the box-office. Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan also gave a shot at merchandising by being launched as the protagonist of the comic book series "Supremo" which had very few additions. A point to note here is the Jackie Chan, the Homg-Kong actor has a very successful cartoon series "Jackie Chan Adventures" which is quite popular in India too.
Most of the merchandising today in India is centered around mobile and PC related downloads. Perhaps the biggest revenue earner apart from the ticket sales is from the soundtrack, as music is an integral part of the movie even today in India. However with the advent of MP3, specially pirated copies, this revenue stream is being hurt badly. We do not make movies that lend themselves to the merchandising game. One reason for this can be that most movies in India have an undertone of romance or some social message, thus it makes it difficult to identify how to add merchandising. However we can take cues from movies/books like "The Da-Vinci Code", which promoted Louvre to offer tours based on the events in the book.
The 2004 movie "Dhoom" had great potential to play the merchandising game. As the movie centered heavily around motorbikes, biking gear, customized bikes (akin to those used in the movie) and scaled down models of the bikes could have been potential revenue streams. A racing game based on the chases in the film (whether as a mobile or a PC download) would have further augmented the merchandise. While this may sound quite ridiculous, but a "Devdas" co-branded liquor (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) would've been an interesting addition to the movie merchandise, given the significance of the same in the movie :)
I visited Universal Studios last year and was amazed by the various attractions. Warner Brothers, Disney and Discovery Channel all have stores that sell merchandise related to programming offered by them and its great to hear that something similar is finally opening in India too. The state of Maharashtra has been very proactive on that front, read the news here and here. Even Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad has an interesting proposition, they have sets for various global cities in the complex and some of these are offered for honeymoon couples who can't afford to go to the real place! Now that's what I call enterprising...
Merchandising however has not been very successful in India. The only successful venture that comes to mind is the "Koi Mil Gaya" and sequel "Krrish" franchise. There is an offshoot kids' series on television featuring the alien "Jadoo" that was there in the first movie. Also another sequel to "Krrish" is planned. "Bunty aur Babli" had limited success with apparel stores launching a clothing line featuring the styles worn by Rani Mukherjee in the film. "Roop ki Rani, Choron ka Raja" however was not very successful with the character figurines as the movie itself failed to deliver on the box-office. Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan also gave a shot at merchandising by being launched as the protagonist of the comic book series "Supremo" which had very few additions. A point to note here is the Jackie Chan, the Homg-Kong actor has a very successful cartoon series "Jackie Chan Adventures" which is quite popular in India too.
Most of the merchandising today in India is centered around mobile and PC related downloads. Perhaps the biggest revenue earner apart from the ticket sales is from the soundtrack, as music is an integral part of the movie even today in India. However with the advent of MP3, specially pirated copies, this revenue stream is being hurt badly. We do not make movies that lend themselves to the merchandising game. One reason for this can be that most movies in India have an undertone of romance or some social message, thus it makes it difficult to identify how to add merchandising. However we can take cues from movies/books like "The Da-Vinci Code", which promoted Louvre to offer tours based on the events in the book.
The 2004 movie "Dhoom" had great potential to play the merchandising game. As the movie centered heavily around motorbikes, biking gear, customized bikes (akin to those used in the movie) and scaled down models of the bikes could have been potential revenue streams. A racing game based on the chases in the film (whether as a mobile or a PC download) would have further augmented the merchandise. While this may sound quite ridiculous, but a "Devdas" co-branded liquor (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) would've been an interesting addition to the movie merchandise, given the significance of the same in the movie :)
I visited Universal Studios last year and was amazed by the various attractions. Warner Brothers, Disney and Discovery Channel all have stores that sell merchandise related to programming offered by them and its great to hear that something similar is finally opening in India too. The state of Maharashtra has been very proactive on that front, read the news here and here. Even Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad has an interesting proposition, they have sets for various global cities in the complex and some of these are offered for honeymoon couples who can't afford to go to the real place! Now that's what I call enterprising...
2 comments:
Nice post again Wise_Crack! another interesting trend I have noted is companies are now play out the trailers of the movie and try to sell their ad. Some stick like Cheeni Kum for Sugar Free tablets...some don't make too much sense say like hero honda for spiderman.
Good observation... I've discussed the product placement and associated advertising of "Cheeni Kum" in a previous post which extends to Condoms and Insurance along with Sugar Free :)
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