December 31, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): The saying goes, its all about money honey! This phrase, if applied to Bollywood releases in this year, will make producers and directors cry tears of agony! The most hyped expensive films out of the best production houses tanked badly at the cinema halls. Of course, it cost a lot of dear money to the names involved.

Among the blaming culprits for tanking losses are high fees of stars like Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, costly marketing and promotion, and even more expensive multiplex tickets, which commoners cannot afford.

And who are the biggest losers? Reliance Big Pictures and UTV. The two were the producers for Kites and Raavan (Reliance) and Guzaarish (UTV) respectively. The grand Guzaarish was made at a whopping 800 million. In contrast, the budget of other big (meaning: hit) movies like Peepli Live, Band Baaja Baaraat, was barely on a couple of millions. And the smaller the budget, the better has been the budget!

And having learnt their lesson, these production companies have reigned in the ropes and given a deadline figure for the upcoming movies. A steep cut down to 450 million has been announced by UTV movies for any further movies with the house. Add to this the fact that they are more willing to be co-producers, instead of independent ones!

Wish the next year is better for the industry!

--Sampurn Wire