Showbiz is a risky business always, and it is so because the stakes involved are high. Well, making movies is an expensive process and while we talk about crores and hundreds of crores here, the bigger the banner, the more it has to gain or lose. Usually, we see the big banners or production houses doing great business and making big-budget films, the pandemic has seemed to have broken the backbone of the film industry too.
Recently, we came across news about Fox star studio exiting the film business, and now, it has been reported that Dharam Productions is also in talks about a merger. Well, off-late movie producers have suffered several losses especially due to theatres shutting down and movies releasing on the OTT space. And while this major profit share has been compromised due to Covid-19, here are some big banners who have suffered losses in the past…
Dharma Productions selling 30% stakes to Adani group?
Karan Johar’s production house has been in news today after reports about its merger surfaced online. While some good news from Dharma in 2020 was about it joining hands with Cornerstone Talent Management Agency, and signing a 5 film deal with Lyca production, this news about its association with Adani group has also come in. Adani group wishes to have a 30% stake in Dharma, as per a report, discussions between KJo and the core team has begun, negotiations have also been advanced. Now we will have to wait and watch to see if this becomes a game-changer for Dharma or it backfires.
Fox Star’s exit from film business puts Akshay Kumar’s three-film deal at stake
Fox Star Studios sudden exit from showbiz put a big question mark on the fate of the third film that was to be done as per a three-film deal with Akshay Kumar’s Cape Of Good Films. After the success of Jolly LLB 2, in 2018, Fox Star Studios signed a three-film deal with Akshay Kumar’s production house, while two films under the partnership were successfully made a released - Mission Mangal (2019) and Laxmii (2020), there is no clarity about the third one now. And it seems the third film would not happen since Fox Star Studios has been taken over by Disney, who is not interested in film production in India. So we will only have to wait and watch what happens with this deal.
Eros international Media also declared losses in its 4th quarter in 2019
Sadly another big banner, Eros International has also had to take a beating in its business. With some of its projects flopping big time, the company reportedly lost 81% of media shares in 2019. In fact, the Mumbai-based company had been struggling with delays in payments and had to also resort to cost-cutting. But slowly, they have been bringing their business back on track and have also ventured into the OTT space, but they still struggle to reach the heights they originally were at.
Salman Khan Films
Though the banner is doing good now and has some films in the pipeline to be produced, there was a rough patch for this company too. After Salman Khan’s Tubelight badly tanked at the box office, the company faced losses upto 55%. Moreover, they even had to reimburse losses faced by distributors making the production house struggle for business for a brief period.
Red Chillies Entertainment
In 2016-17, Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment laid off more than 100 people and did some major cost cutting too. The reason behind it was said to be was SRK’s films flopping back to back, especially Zero and Jab Harry Met Sejal. However, they bounced back and have been sailing through with their business ever since.
Written by Nawaz Kochra