There
have
been
constant
murmurs
about
the
business
of
Sarkar
Raj
and
whether
it
is
a
hit
or
not.
Reacting
to
constant
push
and
pull,
this
is
what
Ram
Gopal
Varma
has
to
say
about
the
business
and
economics
of
film
making
in
his
recent
blog.
Over
to
Ramu:
"We
keep
hearing
that
90%
of
films
are
flops
and
nobody
even
attempts
to
understand
what
it
really
means.
How
can
any
industry
run
if
it
is
losing
money
90%
of
the
time?
In
reality
this
is
how
it
happens.
Let's
say
a
producer
spends
10
Crores
in
making
a
movie
which
goes
in
payments
to
various
artistes,
technicians,
suppliers
etc.
Then
let's
say
somebody
buys
it
for
12
Crores.
The
buyer
further
retails
it
to
various
others
lets
say
for
a
sum
total
of
13
Crores
and
the
film
finally
collects
15
crore.
Now
this
would
be
a
case
of
the
film
making
money
for
everyone
involved.
Let's
say
now
the
producer
spent
16
Crore
but
it
was
bought
only
for
12
crore
because
the
sale
price
never
depends
on
the
cost
price.
It
depends
on
the
producers'
compulsion
to
sell
to
safeguard
himself
and
the
buyer's
perception
and
vision
of
its
street
value
with
the
consumer.
In
the
above
case
for
the
producer
it
is
a
flop
but
for
the
buyer
it
is
a
hit.
This
is
as
per
the
financial
part
of
it.
Coming
to
the
creative
part
DARR
is
a
super
hit
for
Shahrukh
and
a
super
flop
for
Sunny
Deol
as
far
as
their
star
branding
is
concerned.
Often
you
will
hear
about
a
film's
opening
in
terms
of
percentage.
Let's
say
a
film
opens
in
10
theatres
having
a
capacity
of
200
seats
each.
On
the
first
screening
if
all
shows
are
full
it
will
register
as
100%
opening
meaning
2000
people
saw
it.
But
if
the
distributor
opens
it
in
20
theatres
and
it
registers
50%
opening
then
it
is
considered
below
the
mark.
But
the
bottom
line
is
that
still
2000
people
saw.
Fair
enough
that
the
additional
theatres
will
incur
extra
theatre
rentals
and
print
costs
but
that
decision
will
always
be
with
the
distributor
of
the
concerned
circuit
on
his
perception
and
vision
of
how
many
people
will
watch
it
and
has
nothing
to
do
with
the
filmmaker
but
eventually
it
is
the
filmmaker's
branding
which
will
suffer
on
account
of
ignorance
and
of
a
decision
made
by
someone
else.
To
sum
it
up
strictly
from
a
filmmaker's
perspective
I
would
define
a
hit
and
flop
in
terms
of
what
the
film
cost
to
the
producer
and
how
much
he
could
recover
on
the
first
immediate
sale.
Any
further
trading
of
it
is
strictly
subject
to
various
individuals
decisions
of
how
and
how
not
to
market
it
which
cannot
be
controlled
by
the
filmmaker."
Story first published: Monday, June 23, 2008, 17:01 [IST]