Radhe - Your Most Wanted Bhai is a Huge Disaster
Radhe - Your Most Wanted Bhai had a PVOD (Premium Video On Demand) released in India a couple of weeks back and the monetizing model proved to be a damp squib. This was not unexpected as the the way the film was priced up after it was certain there was no theatrical release pretty much showed that Zee was not actually expecting much.
The film fetched 180 crore for all rights and this price included all rights for two other films (Kaagaz and Antim - The Final Truth). If we add the promotion costs then the acquisition goes to the 185-190 crore range. The SVOD (Streaming Video On Demand) and Satellite rights were at 150 crore for the three films. This meant the rest was left for PVOD, Overseas theatrical, music and miscellaneous which is not much the cover.
The PVOD release saw Radhe cover around 10-12 crore in the first week and this included the audience who subscribed for the film and those who also subscribed for the Zee platform at lower costs. Most of the audience for the film came from premium subscribers who had the platform. With 10-12 crore covered in one week the lifetime would be around 15 crore which is under 20 crore nett if we look at it in box office terms.
The returns from PVOD are a disaster if we look at from the point of recovery for a major film though what is good or bad from a new revenue model like this is an unknown until more films are there to compare though hopefully there will not be many big films which go this way as there is no recovery. If a smaller film goes this way and gets 15 crore it may not be too bad but the question there is can a smaller film actually do it and the the probable answer is no.
Radhe - Your Most Wanted Bhai will get a recovery of 35-40 crore from PVOD, Overseas theatrical and music which will take it to 185-190 crore and there will be a little from Antim to come with music possibly adding most. Kaagaz recovery is negligible from all sources. But again the problem here is the 150 crore from SVOD and satellite which has been shifted to sister companies like Zee5 and Zee TV which is just on paper and not actual recovery. The film may well cover 50 crore from satellite but the 100 crore value for SVOD is just a value and there is no chance of that sort of recovery from Zee5.
SUPERSTARS FLOP COUNT
Three Biggest DISASTERS 2010-2019 Decade
The first mega disaster was released on 10 April 2015. Calling this film a mega disaster is being very kind, there has been nothing like this before or possibly will never come again. Broken Horses was a film made for international audiences by a Hindi filmmaker but no one saw the film and actually its best numbers came in India despite being for International audiences. The film was reported to be made at a cost of $16.5million (102 crore, April 2015 rates) by the western press but that seems typical of an Indian filmmaker, giving an exaggerated budget and its probably around 50-60 crore. The recovery for the film from all revenue sources was 75 lakhs. If a film 30 years ago cost 3 crore and recovered 75 lakhs it was a mega disaster, here its 60 crore and possibly 102 crore if the maker is to be believed. Its hard to give a hit but probably even harder to give a disaster of this proportion. The US / Canada business for whom the film was made for had a lifetime of $31k.
The second mega disaster was released on 18 May 2015. Bombay velvet had a cost of 118 crore and its recovery from all sources was around 29 crore giving it a loss of 89 crore. At the time Ranbir Kapoor was an upcoming star but the total rejection of this film hit him the hardest. It was just unbelievable that a niche film was made at such a high cost. Though with such high cost, the actors and technical team would have benefited in terms of remuneration on the account of the people funding the film.
The third mega disaster was released last month on 12 Aug 2016. Mohenjo Daro cost around 138 crore to produce and release an its recovery from all revenue sources will be around 55 crore giving it a loss of around 83 crore. The film is probably not as big as disaster as the films above but still the losses are huge as the budget too high for film which holds little relevance with today's audience. It also has a knock back affect on an established star like Hrithik Roshan and makes the future projects look much weaker than the were pre Mohenjo Daro.
The order for the disasters would be
1. Broken Horses (This will be tough to beat))
2. Bombay Velvet
3. Mohenjo Daro
