If you are one of those rare ‘Roadside Romeo’ fans, you can now go to bed with the cast, for a small price.
Roadside Romeo, Laila and Charlie Anna
Before you jump to any conclusion, let me clarify that I’m talking about movie merchandise here. The highly anticipated, first ever feature-length 3D animated Indian film may not have set the cash registers ringing or earned too many fans, but a tie-up between YashRaj Films and HomeShop18 will allow you to own a range of specially designed ‘Roadside Romeo’ products including a special bed sheet with dazzling images from the movie, branded Water bottles, tiffin boxes, CD cases, pencil boxes, mugs and notebooks.
HomeShop18 promises free home delivery in 1700+ cities and all the products come with added benefit of cash on delivery. They are already promoting the merchandise throughout the day on their TV channel and all though this is their first tie up for an animated film, they have already had other Bollywood tie-ups for two movies prior to this, namely Drona and Love Story 2050.
Merchandising seems the only salvation for Indian animated films as they stand today for multiple reasons. So far, none of the animated films made in India have been able to really set the box office on fire, not even Hanuman with all his might and power. The makers of Hanuman 1 recovered their costs almost solely through the sale of merchandise and not from the sale of tickets or DVDs. One must keep in mind that Hanuman was still a lovable and familiar character that appealed to children. One cannot say the same about Romeo and Laila though.
While Indians flock to the theatres to watch a Disney, Pixar or a Dreamworks film, our own film-makers have failed to win over audiences. Worse still, audiences in India (and very often, the film-makers themselves!!) are still confused about animation itself – is it meant for kids or adults?
Besides, the quality of animation in our films – and there is no other way to say this – sucks! We have some brilliant animated advertising commercials being animated here. But when it comes to a full-length or even a short animated film, we fail miserably, time and again, on both levels – story-telling as well as the animation itself.
Another big stumbling block is the budget itself. While a live-action “star” can earn in Crores for just one film, budgets for animated films are far less than that! More on that in another blog.
Many more animated films are in the pipeline. Many of them announced in haste. It would help the film-makers to keep in mind that Bad Film = Low Earnings. Unless and until the quality of Indian Feature animation and story-telling improves, the only revenue option for Indian animation film-makers is going to be merchandising, which is just a by-product of the actual film. You make a great film, merchandise will sell anyway. One cannot compromise on the film quality and then expect the merchandise to recover your investment!