Indian cinema = Hindi cinema?

An academy of Indian films and filmmakers with a charter to help them achieve wider coverage across the globe - sounds like a desirable proposition, doesn't it? Well, that is exactly what the IIFA - the International Indian Film Academy sounds like it should focus on. And to as though support this guess the academy has put up its definition of Indian cinema, which actually throws up a very basic question on its face - are Indian cinema and Hindi cinema, one and the same?

Suprising charter this...

While at the outset, a charter to project Indian cinema on screens across the world sounds good and of huge value to movies of all Indian languages, what the IIFA has been actually doing brings big surprise. In one of its advertisements this is what IIFA boasts itself of having achieved...

Wherever IIFA has left its mark, it has promoted the business of Indian Cinema and provided it an impetus. The sale of tickets of Hindi cinema grew by thirty five percent in the UK in the six months after IIFA. In South Africa, Hindi films moved from matinee shows on weekends to mainline theatres and now there are competing distribution chains vying for the rights to exhibit Hindi films across Africa.

The difference needs to be clear!

The IIFA talks about movies from India in the same tune as it talks about Hindi films made in India as though knowing no difference between the two. Well, the real difference, apparently, is not known to the academy. All it has done since inception in 2000 is advertise Hindi film industry across the globe with the label of Indian film industry, thus sending very very false signals about the Indian film industry across the world. This has also led to a noticeably biased growth taking place in the Hindi film industry and a noticeable decline in the worldwide presence of movies of other Indian languages, including movies from the Kannada film industry.

Made in India, not Hindi!

With all these biased stands towads the Hindi film industry, and calling it the Indian film industry, they even boast of having a very qualified advisory panel consisting of not a single character from non-Hindi film industry. What a pity, this board is advising on labeling Hindi films as sole candidates for the Made in India label.

If the stand of IIFA was so clear to project, showcase and promote only Hindi film industry, it would have been apt to call it International Hindi Film Academy (IHFA). Developments under IIFA have certainly benefited the Hindi cinema, but have done little to support their claims of improving the Indian film industry. Instead what is expected of such an academy is a system to enable uniform upbringing and showcasing of film industries of all Indian languages in an unbiased manner. Such academies should eventually pave the way for making Indian entertainment truly representative of the whole of India, which is a union of linguistic states.

Lets "click" in the Kannada market!

Generally when we talk about Kannada, more often than not we talk about literature, film, music, drama, folk forms & similar ones. But we come across very little discussion on how these can be seen as products & services that people utilize or experience. It is rarely seen from a business perspective, as a potential market. It is very important for businessmen (Kannadiga & non-Kannadiga) to understand the market potential of these Kannada-centric products & services. Let us open up a discussion on this.

Products & Services

We can perhaps start by preparing a list of products & services possible around Kannada. The list below is not an exhaustive one and we encourage readers to let their imagination add to this list.

The information below is organized under two headings: Content & Delivery Channels. Content is language specific & the Delivery channels are the infrastructure to deliver this content.

Sl. No	Content	Delivery Channels
	Literature	Book, Print Media, Internet
	News	Print Media, Radio, Television, Internet
	Films	Theatres & Multiplexes, Tapes & CDs, Television, Internet
	Music	Radio, Television, Tapes & CD, Internet
	Plays & Dramas	Auditoriums, Television
	Study Material	Books, Radio, Television, Tapen & CDs, Internet
	Software	Tapes & CDs, Internet
	Advertising	Radio, TV, Print Media, Public Spaces, Internet

We can drill down further a couple of levels under each of the line-items under Content heading and can define those as specific offerings in the market. For example, if you consider music as a category: classical music, light music (sugama sangeetha), film music, folk music, devotional music are a few sub-categories which can have specific offerings in the target market.
Newer opportunities that are emerging are:

• Kannada specific voice based call center services,
• Training centers to train people (wanting to do business with Kannada speaking people) on Kannada.

Market Size
There are two angles to look at the market size - namely the head-count of the existent market, and its size in terms of monetary revenue it can bring to the involved organization or body. On the former scale, head-count or population, the market is around 60 million + (with approximately 50 million inside Karnataka and 10 million outside Karnataka). On the latter scale, revenue, with a very conservative estimate, 60 million people spending an average of Rs 100 per month in this market bundles up to Rs 7200 crores per year.

Current Realization of Market potential

Low (may be 15-20 % market has been realized). There is tremendous opportunity in this market as the current players are small businesses run by individuals or families which lack professional management capability & there has been little effort in market exploration, tapping and development.

Although in the last couple of years, large corporations have entered the Television, Radio & Print Media, enterprises planning to enter these markets need to hire extremely talented people who are well-versed in Kannada and understand the pulse of the market. When this happens, the real value of the Kannada market will start getting tapped, and fetch attractive returns.

What next?

The write-up above with a preliminary analysis of the Kannada-centric products & services was to initiate a discussion & present a different perspective. Karnatique readers who may be interested in working with Banavasi Balaga in researching these markets & working with the industry representatives in initiating market development activities in these industries, please respond to banavasibalaga AT gmail DOT com.