Tellywood gains at the expense of Bollywood, says KPMG study

Mohini Bhatnagar
11 March 2003

While the revenue generation of the film industry fell from Rs 4,500 crore in 2001 to Rs 3,900 crore in 2002, the total revenue generated from subscriptions from television business shot up to Rs 6,000 crore from Rs 4,005 crore in 2001 — a growth of 50 per cent. Of this, broadcasters realised Rs 840 crore — more than double the previous year's figure of Rs 410 crore.

The above facts have been laid out in management consultants KPMG's stocktaking report on the status of the Indian entertainment industry. The firm has used the term 'degrowth' for the film industry but said the television industry has more than made up for the losses of the film industry.

In the film industry the biggest losers were distributors and exhibitors, while producers managed to get away by pre-selling and passing the losses down the value chain.

Also the music industry, which is closely linked to the fortunes of the film industry, saw its revenue dip by 23 per cent or Rs 300 crore to around Rs 1,040 crore in 2002, including the value of the pirated products.

KPMG puts the size of the entertainment industry in India at Rs 16,600 crore, which shows a growth of 7 per cent against that in 2001. The consultancy said the failure of a huge number of films was due to a failure on the pre-marketing side, especially in the scripts.

In addition to this the study says there is an over capacity of exhibition screens in the country, with 12,900 screens showing an average capacity utilisation of just 35 per cent in 2002. But it says the low theatre occupancy was mainly on account of poor products and 2002 saw 30 per cent of the films accounting for 90 per cent of the revenue.