You gotta move it, move it

TheHindi film Industry has for decades been like the great Indian joint family.Everyone working in it knew and worked with one another. If that was not enough,everyone was almost related to one another. Not any longer. As corporates andinvestors troop into the joint family, the industry���s lingo isincreasingly acquiring clipped professional tones. Experts with business schooldegrees are being actively sought for the experience they bring from acrossindustry. Their job profiles match international ones, and the salaries offeredare not meagre either. Head-hunters are sought to woo these���outsiders��� in a bid to scale up, seek global eyeballs, to becomethe Big Fish who swim in the oceans, not ponds. This new band of men and womenalso dreams movies but keeps a strict eye on the bottomline, and they know ifyou have to make it, you have to moveit...

REACHING FOR THE STARS

Blaise Fernandes Sr VP & MD, Warner Bros India Disney

Ashish Saksena COO, BIG Cinemas PVR Pictures / Inox Leisure

Vishal Kapur COO, Fun Cinemas Citigroup/Epicenter

SunirKheterpal COO, BIG Pictures Yes Bank/Rabo

Sanjeev Kohli Director& Senior Consultant, YRF HMV/Polydor (now Universal)

SandeepBhargava CEO, Indian Film Company Sahara One Motion Pictures/UTV

Andrey Purushottam CEO, Mumbai Mantra Starcom

SanjayBhutiani CEO, BR Films Percept P9 / Leo Burnett

Ravi Gupta Advisor,Mukta Arts B4U Network/NFDC

Harish Dayani CEO, Moser BaerSaregama-HMV /HUL

Apurv Nagpal MD, SaregamaSABmiller


ALMAMATER

Mahesh Samat WALT DISNEY INDIA IIM-C

SunirKheterpal BIG PICTURES IIM-A

Sanjeev Kohli YASH RAJ FILMS IIM-C

Apurv Nagpal SAREGAMA IIM-A

Andrey Purushottam MUMBAIMANTRA IIM-A

Harish Dayani MOSER BAER LLB (Delhi Univ)


DIFFERENT STROKES

You unlearn and re-learnfrom your past experiences, says Mahesh Ramanathan, COO, BIG Pictures >>

REWIND << COO BigPictures << Percept Picture Company Philip Morris << Airtel <

Career associations in diverseindustries have enabled one to carry forward cost consciousness, executionprowess, marketing and a competitive streak into the business of making movies.Both consumer goods and telecom are low-margin businesses, so sensitivity tocosts is vital which helps in planning budgets. Importantly, a multi-industryexposure sensitises one to constantly identify and build competencies, whichhelps forward planning.

Budget approvals are never an authority tospend and you don���t spend even if it is so. In fact, the best example isthat in 29 months, our team has produced 24 films from scratch with no legalcases, time over-runs, disputes or bad project management with huge resultantsunk cost write-offs.

Coming from strong process-driven businesses,which are not personality-driven, one strives to make the movie businesssimilar, with a focus on democratic decision making. In the end, a good businessleader should be like glue, not visible but binding everyone and everythingtogether. Though the movie business is not a dash for monthly market shares, itremains highly competitive, where you unlearn and re-learn what the other twosectors taught you.


HEADS UP

<< The film industryis attracting the cr��mede-la-cr��me of the talent pool, eager toshow off their skills, says Rekha J Koshy, director, Accord Group (India)

The script is being re-written. The ���search��� ison, to find professionals who will replace the informal, bootstrap funding anddrawn-out production processes with a more professional, timesensitive businessrigour. Global film studios are demanding a visible talent pool before theycommit to what is increasingly being viewed as the coming together of the twomost powerful cinematic cultures.

Theincreasing corporatisation and globalisation of this industry is alreadyattracting the cr��me-de-la-cr��me of the talent pool eager to showoff their skills. Industry status, corporatisation, multiplex wave, digitalcinema have all contributed to the change. The skill set in demand is acombination of unparalleled leadership, keen marketing insights, commercialacumen and relationship management at the highest levels. Business managers withappreciation of the creative processes are obviously strongly preferred.

As a search firm, over the past 24 months a quarter of ourfirm���s media practice revenues have come in from the theatrical sectoracross international and home-grown studios, the media funds or the multiplexes.The need to identify and employ corporate stars is driven by the need to growthe business exponentially, raise capital and present a management team that canwork together towards this new vision.


CREATIVE EDGE

A creative head is integralto an organisation slate planning says Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO, UTV MotionPictures

REWIND << UTVMotion Pictures CEO << Star TV << P&G

WE feltthe need for a chief creative officer (CCO) because we believe in one creativesensibility driving the creative output of the organisation. A CCO is closely intouch with audiences. He or she strategically plans our creative output throughthe year with reference to different genres, the different scales of production,the different sensibilities as well as plan slates over the next two-threeyears. This enables him to collaborate talent in an effective and plannedmanner, from a tentpole film to a smaller one. The CCO is involved from the timea writer walks into the studio door or a director comes up with an idea, tosteering that project, leading the process through to casting appointment of thecrew, to finally taking the project into production. This is where he also joinsup with the production head to get into line production and together sees thatthe greenlit project is completed within the budget and timeline. Dev D was aproject which best explains how a creatively-led project also made a lot ofcommercial sense.


BUILDINGBRIDGES

An InternationalStudio needs both EQ and IQ, says Vijay Singh, CEO, Fox Star >>

REWIND << The TetleyGroup London << Sony Music Entertainment, India << BrookeBond-Lipton (Unilever India) << Tata Administrative Services

Cross-industry experience brings a lot of learning curveslike a profit-oriented background, discipline of research (FMCG specially ),structural thinking, all of which are critical to an industry, which is lookingto scale up manifold . Understanding commerce and target marketing, concepts ofpositioning are all a huge help. But the general perception of the entertainmentindustry from the outside of being dodgy and unprofessional is wrong. I havefound the most creative minds (and not only in content terms) in thisindustry.

No other industry constantly challenges you to be creativeas well as on the cutting edge of technology. The challenge here is to figureout what the consumer wants to see two years from now but may not be able toarticulate. So it���s a huge pat on Bollywood���s back that it is aheadof the pack. Unlike the FMCG sector, this requires much more Emotional Quotient.We are, as in the new band of professionals, the bridge which will connectBollywood to the other side. We cannot do the content without them and they needus to get structured and professional.


(Withinputs from Leena Mulchandani)