MUMBAI: Indian filmmakers need to improve their public relations skills as well as pump in more money in marketing and promoting their films in Hollywood if they want to take home an Academy award, says producer Graham King.
King, who won the Oscar for Best Picture for his film, The Departed, told Hollywood.tv founder Sheeraz Hasan, “In order for India to win the Academy Award, it needs to take the following steps. India has a lack of public relations and needs to spend more money on promoting the beauty and the talent of the Indian cinema to a global audience. In order to educate the academy members about Indian cinema, it is going to take a serious amount of money. Furthermore, the financers who fund Bollywood movies, must spend double or triple the production costs they are currently spending just in marketing efforts and use it to promote the beauty of Indian cinema to a mainstream audience.”
According to King, the promotions budget of The Departed far exceeded the costs of the production of the movie.
As per other Hollywood executives Hasan spoke to, another problem with Indian filmmakers is that they need to distribute their movies in mainstream theatres in the key main markets in the United States, and not only in independent theatres in South Asian pockets in the country.
Once Hollywood understands the huge fan base of the Indian film industry and its commercial potential, the Indian film industry would be definitely taken more seriously in Hollywood, studio executives told Hasan.
