What do Puneeth and Suriya have in common?

If a star's remuneration is one third of a film's budget, does it not make sense that the actor himself produces the film (thus saving a third of the cost) and makes more profit? It seems perfectly logical and any actor announcing that he is turning producer is seen in this light. The numbers though reveal something different be (more of that later).Whether it is profitable or logical or an offer that cannot be refused, more and more Kannada stars are turning producers.
It is not the question of which star is turning producer in Sandalwood, but which actor is not! And it is not just the top stars who are game for it. Many of the top stars are already producers. The Rajkumar family banner has nearly a hundred films to their credit with Rajkumar, Shivarajkumar and Puneeth acting in them. Veeraswamy was a popular producer and his son V Ravichandran started his career as both a producer and actor. Rajkumar, Sudeep and Darshan have their own production companies.
In the last few years, the younger generation of actors like Ganesh, Duniya Vijay and Sharan have also turned producers. So it is not surprising at all that in the latest list (2015) of producers we see actors like Krishna Ajai Rao (Krishna-Leela) and Neenasam Satish (Rocket). The big-shot joining the list is Upendra, who is finally turning producer (with Uppi-2) after 25 years in the industry.
NO NEW TREND
Veteran film critic BN Subramanya says at least in Kannada, actors pro ducing movies should not surprise anyone. He says, “Subbaiah Naidu, the leading man of Kannada's first talkie film Sati Sulochana, was a producer through his Sri Sahitya Samrajya Nataka Mandali. In the 40s and 50s, we had examples of many more like Gubbi Veeranna, Nagendra Rao and Honappa Bhagavatar. In later years, we had Kalyan Kumar and others. In the 60s, four actors GV Iyer, Narasimha Raju, Balakrishna and Rajkumar joined d hands to produce Ranadheera Kanteerava. Not just the leading men, actors like Dwarakish and MP Shankar became famous producers on the strength of making films. If you look at the leading ladies, there is a richer history of production. MV Rajamma was the first South Indian film heroine to produce a film in 1942. Later Pandari Bai, Leelavathi, Jayanthi, Bharati and Aarathi produced films. So when Pooja Gandhi or Ajai Rao or Neenasam Satish produce films, it does not surprise anyone.“
FANCY TITLE OR MONEY?
Many stars find that producing a film is very different from what they had imagined. Prolific film producer and distributor Jayanna explains, “In the film industry, success has an upper limit and it's 10 per cent. So 90 per cent of all films being made lose money. In Tamil, Suriya had a great run till he started producing own films. The only film production company of actors which has made a consistent profit over the years is Rajkumar family's Vajreshwari Combines. It takes a lot of experience.“Jayanna explains that those who produce films should also know how to distribute it. So it is not again a surprise that those who have joined the distribution business include actor Darshan's production house and Yogaraj Bhat who has been producing films consistently.
An insider reveals why knowledge of distribution is more important than the ability to produce a film. “An actor's recent film was made with a budget of Rs 4 crore. It collected Rs 6.5 crore. But Rs 1 crore was the distribution cost. The film's share in a theatre where it ran for 100 days was only Rs 10 lakh. An experienced producer or distributor would not have let the film run for more than 50 days there, but would have made five times the money from that theatre. By running the film for seven more weeks just for the sake of 100 days, money was lost,“ he says.
MONEY NEED NOT CHANGE HANDS
Producers reveal that the remuneration of a big star makes up 25 to 30 per cent of the overall budget of a film. “The barest minimum cost of producing a film with one of the four top four stars in Sandalwood is Rs 15 crore. It easily goes up to Rs 20 crore. Out of this, the remuneration of the stars is between Rs 4.5 crore and Rs 5.5 crore. The films with other stars, barring these four, will cost anywhere between Rs 5.5 crore to Rs 7.5 crore. The real expenditure on the film comes down by 30 per cent if the lead actor is himself producing it,“ explains a producer. But it does not always pan out that way. “Yogish (Loose Maada) was doing well as an actor. But production losses (his father being producer) put him on the backfoot,“ says a producer, seeking anonymity.
Actors are also learning the production and distribution trade. A few years ago, Jaggesh changed the rules for his film Bodyguard, which he produced. The film was screened in single-screen theatres by paying rent for the first week. In the second week, Jaggesh gave the film only to theatres that were willing to share the collections rather than screen it on rental basis.
Such gambles pay off once in a while, but in the long run unless you are producing films regularly, it is hard to keep up with changing rules and circumstances. That is where the regular producers have an advantage.