UTV Motion Pictures seems to have hit upon a magic movie-making formula. After an unprecedented year, with a string of commercial and critical successes - that includes films like Jodhaa Akbar, Fashion, A Wednesday!, Welcome to Sajjanpur, Dev. D, Aamir and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! - it has proven yet again to be the savviest operator in the business.
And now, with Ram Gopal Varma’s Agyaat that hits the theatres tomorrow, the production house has already recovered its production cost. Here’s how…
UTV identified the horror movie genre as being relatively untapped in India. So, it took this forward by collaborating with a director like Varma - who’s known to induce thrills and chills with past hits like Bhoot, Kaun? and Phoonk - and produced the film for a cost-efficient budget of only Rs 5 crores.
The film’s also dubbed in Tamil and Telugu for a wider reach. And it’s being released at 700 screens in the domestic market and 150 in the Telugu market.
In choosing Nitin, an upcoming star from Telegu cinema, as his lead actor, RGV has made a wise choice because there is a huge audience down South for horror films. Nitin’s inclusion has helped UTV pre-sell the Tamil and Telugu rights for a handsome sum and recover the production cost already.
So whatever will be earned by the Hindi version, will be profit. In these times of inflated production budgets and sky-high talent fees, it’s heartening to see how innovation and out-of-the-box thinking can really pay off. (TOI)
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