Eminent Bollywood filmmakers deliberate on success formula for box-office hits

Mumbai, Mar 27 : Distinguished Bollywood filmmakers and directors had a brainstorming session here on finding the right formula to hit the box-office jackpot.

Eminent Bollywood directors - Ramesh Sippy, Shimit Amin, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sudhir Mishra attended the deliberations on the second day of Frames 2008, an annual convention on media and entertainment organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on Wednesday.

David Martin, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Film Producers' Guild of the UK presented his perspective about cinema and audience.

"We need to dissect the audience a lot more. So blockbuster is the adjective to reach the largest audience or is to reach segments of that audience. I think the issue was previously audience and what does our audience wants is still the case. I think it's actually quite dangerous even to say the Indian audience because things are lot more complex now," said Martin.

Director and scriptwriter Sudhir Mishra elaborated on how marketing plays a vital role in the changing the perceptions of the audience.

"Marketing is very important as it is controlling the perceptions of the people regarding movies of similar themes. But, I think it's just a phase. Earlier, people used to go to watch similar movies due to marketing gimmicks at theatres. To see a kind of environment that is created at the theatres, kind of seating done and not for the cinema actually as marketing dominates a present lot," he said.

The discussion concluded that filmmakers should first themselves believe in their script, convince themselves about the content and then think about convincing their audience.

FICCI Frames 2008, the annual convention of the media and entertainment industry began on Tuesday.

The three-day event will cover the entire gamut of media and entertainment like film, television, radio, digital entertainment, animation, gaming and visual effects.

ANI