When IIM Ahmedabad offered Kandaswamy Bharathan the proposal to helm an elective on Cinema, he was initially apprehensive, though he had always felt that professional HR, finance, organisational behaviour and marketing expertise would help the film industry grow and evolve.
“As an alumnus I know IIM-A, and as a person who has been a part of it for decades I know the film industry. What I didn’t know was the teacher lying dormant in me. I thank the institute for identifying him,” he laughs genially as we begin to converse on “Contemporary Film Industry: A Business Perspective,” considered the first-of-its-kind management course in the whole of Asia. It is over seven years since IIM Ahmedabad introduced it, and it is now a much-sought-after elective at the institute because of its knowledge potential and the job opportunities it throws open for management grads. “A subject that has takers for five years at IIM A shows that the course is here to stay,” he elaborates.
Brand Bollywood
Kandaswamy is just back from a lecture at the ‘Emerging Market Conference,’ at Booth School, University of Chicago. “I was introduced as the first professor from the Entertainment industry invited to speak at Chicago Booth,” he smiles. “For the rest of the world, every film from India is a Bollywood film. And Bollywood is a brand that has been built magnificently without any investment! We just have to leverage the brand, by roping in professionals.”
The course is a one man show all the way, with Kandaswamy being in charge of everything from curriculum development and transaction to course content and examinations! This is quite a challenge, because Kandaswamy had no available syllabus to refer to and make the course academically engaging! “I must be the first person to set a question paper on the business of cinema,” he laughs. “But I love every moment of it. If you ask me, teaching is a sure way of keeping oneself mentally agile forever.”
“The film industry may not have a professional HR Management department but it is a prerequisite in cinema, as in any other business,” he avers. “Films such as ‘Border’ and ‘Chak De India’ provide worthy lessons in management. Our filmmakers have unknowingly been practising proven HR policies.”
As executive producer of KB’s Kavithalayaa Productions, Kandaswamy has interacted with big and small stars and directors for years. He now transfers his practical experience as case studies for the course.
“Filmmaking is the best example of what we call fast track project management, and the course trains students in it. Strategies and best practices are part of the course material. The impact of social media on film business, new concepts and applications, leadership, team work and entrepreneurship are significant aspects of study. Making virtual movies where students do everything from writing a story and casting to business and marketing are a part of it.”
The ISB connect
Two years ago, at one of the conferences abroad Kandaswamy was introduced to the Dean of Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, as the “professor who teaches the business of Bollywood.” Soon ISB wanted Kandaswamy on board. “I wasn’t sure how we could fit it in. The management course at IIM-A is for two years. But at ISB it is just for a year. Anyway, the course material had to be sent to Wharton School of Business, Pennsylvania, for approval and I was sceptical about the result.” It was a moment of indescribable joy for Kandaswamy when Wharton gave the go-ahead, and ISB managed to introduce it at Hyderabad and at its campus in Mohali — the latter has virtual classes with Kandaswamy holding his sessions from Hyderabad.
“It is a job-ready elective. We have Fox Star Studios, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Saregama and Universal Music among others coming in for campus placements, because they know that our students have background knowledge of film business. Lateral placements are also taking place, where students move in from other jobs to UTV, the Mexico-based Cinepolis, etc. And as STAR, Colors and Viacom 18 also visit us for recruitment, this year I am introducing a new course on the Business Perspectives of the Television industry,” he informs.
Star talk
Every year highly successful cinema persons are brought in by Kandaswamy Bharathan as guest speakers to the Business of Bollywood course in IIM-A, to discuss salient aspects of filmmaking. If it was Aamir Khan who addressed and interacted with the 2009 batch, it was R. Madhavan, the enthusiastic actor who came over to IIM-A in 2012.
“The ‘Kolaveri D’ mania made me invite Dhanush and Anirudh to our campus, for students to comprehend the power that social media wields in scripting success stories. This year Shekhar Kapoor will be another much looked-forward to guest,” says Bharathan.
