Surging prices of air tickets, hotels driving up film budgets

Speaking to HT from Pune where he is prepping for his next film, Sudhir Mishra said, “I tweeted because I felt things were getting out of hand."

Director Sudhir Mishra’s tweet on Tuesday morning how surge pricing in airline and hotel prices was driving up film budgets and producers to despair has resonated deeply in Mumbai’s film circles. “Hotel and airplane tickets are driving up film and series budgets up. So most of the money is being spent on things that don’t show up on screen. Nuts!” he posted on X.

A film shooting in Udaipur, Rajasthan. A typical film unit can vary from 200 to 500 people (HT ARCHIVES)

A typical film unit can vary from 200 to 500 people. But Mumbai producers say that they are having to pay through their nose not just on account of surge pricing but also because of the surging egos of the stars. An A-grade actor recently asked the producer of his latest film which is on the floors to ensure he was billeted in a particular suite in a five-star hotel in Rajasthan from where he could see peacocks in the morning. “These peacocks inspire me,” the star told him. The suite in question costs ₹1 lakh per night.

Male stars like Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Ranbir Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, and a long list of superstars insist that they will only fly on private chartered jets to domestic and international shoots. A private charter can cost anywhere between ₹25 lakh to 90 lakh a day depending on the destination. Female stars, from Disha Patani to Nayanthara to Kiara Advani, ask producers to pay for their chefs, dieticians, and personal trainers on shoots insisting this entourage is necessary for them to look good on celluloid.

Speaking to HT from Pune where he is prepping for his next film, Sudhir Mishra said, “I tweeted because I felt things were getting out of hand. There are so many hidden costs that it is now becoming prohibitive to make movies.”

Business-class travel, fancy boarding and lodging, are issues because the size of a film unit size has gone up significantly in the last two decades. “These days many films or OTT series are being shot in real locations in little-seen parts of India. And the unit size of a modestly-budgeted film comprises about 180 people. Why do we need 180 people on a small film?” To shoot in remote locations with actors who are now stars has become cumbersome, he said. “I set up a shot in a small room with a star with great difficulty. There is no place to even turn my head because when I look behind me there are 30 people standing there. Star entourages have become way too big.”

He goes on to cite the example of a pan-India film like Leo featuring Tamil superstar Vijay for which the unit was stationed in Pahalgam in Kashmir for four months leading to huge spends. “Sudhir is justified when he says this. Star entourages have indeed become unreasonably large. I personally have been present on many outdoor shoots in recent time and have noticed that there is unnecessary crowding,” says senior exhibitor-distributor Raj Bansal from Jaipur.

A Mumbai-based production controller says, speaking on condition of anonymity, “Earlier there would be just three people accompanying an actor, the make-up person, a hairdresser and a spot-boy. Now, in addition to these three, there would be a personal dress-person, a dietician, a fitness trainer, a secretary, a digital-media assistant in additional to a personal companion. At least three people in this entourage, in addition to the star of course, fly business-class and must be provided accommodation at the same 5-star hotel as the star. The cost of travel, boarding, lodging, and food has begun to add several crores to our budgets.”

Only the absolute A-list production houses like Yash Raj Films, Dharma or Nadiadwala Productions can afford spiralling costs but for most producers, battling high inflation, these additional costs and skyrocketing budgets are driving them to drastically change their films. Producer Rakesh Juneja who often works with director Vikram Bhatt on OTT Series, says, 90% of the film producers in Mumbai, work with severe cash crunch. “Vikram (Bhatt) and I have had to devise multiple ways to cut budgets. Instead of travelling to foreign locations or exotic Indian locations, we use AI, the unreal engine to recreate Scotland and Rajasthan in an 80 ft. by 80 ft. floor in Malwani. This eliminates travelling and all the other ancillary costs.”

He points out that several states in India offer subsidies to filmmakers because they want them to get out of studios and shoot in real-time locations. “But there is a flip side to this,” says Juneja. “The subsidies offered by most states is paltry in comparison to the movie budgets. Also, the bureaucracy and procedures make it impossible for the producer to count on this sop when he needs it most. Sometimes the subsidy from your previous film comes when you are in half-way through your next film. Under the circumstances, AI offers the best solution. At least, that is the way, we look at it,’’ says the producer of the B-grade sleeper hit 1920: Horrors of the Heart.

Producer Tanuj Garg, partner, Ellipsis Entertainment, says the numbers need to be streamlined for projects to be viable. “The issue is of large crew sizes as compared to the West where there is greater efficiency and multi-tasking. We have become used to a lazy templatized way of working and need to streamline numbers to add to this, untenable demands from some cast and crew, bordering on infructuous indulgence. The indiscipline has resulted in escalating film making costs over the years. Budgets have risen by 10% or 20%. But one cannot put down an exact number here. A lot depends on one’s individual efficiency, pro-activeness and sharpness in controlling costs. And, of course the demand of the script.”