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This paper aims to examine the strategic issues of risk for independent theatrical film distributors in the Hindi film industry in India.

The study adopted qualitative grounded theory approach to explore contextually relevant strategic issues of risk for independent theatrical film distributors. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with Hindi film distributors helped to gain explorative insights about the risk behaviour of film distributors operating in Mumbai “circuit”.

The findings suggest that risk faced by distributors is a function of product (film content) features, contractual terms, resources such as finance and strength of strategic alliances with the producers. The study develops a business risk model for the film distributors from a series of propositions.

The paper contributes to the literature on motion picture industry by highlighting the importance of distribution risk in the film value chain.

Strategy.

This case can be used on a strategic management course in the second year of an MBA programme, any special elective course on the media and entertainment industry and in executive education programmes to demonstrate the application of strategic management concepts and frameworks.

The Indian film industry was the largest in the world and the seventh largest in terms of revenue. Significant number of movies were made in languages such as Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada, with Hindi commanding the highest number. The film industry in Karnataka made movies in the Kannada language. The industry was plagued by a host of issues with the industry contributing just 2 per cent of the revenues and box office success rate at just around 25 per cent. The state government had set up Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy with the objective of promotion and development of the movie industry in Karnataka. The Chairman of the academy, Shailesh Singh, was extremely concerned about the poor success rate of Kannada movies and was contemplating various options of reviving the ailing Kannada movie industry.

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: application of strategic management frameworks in the context of the movie industry; analysis of industry issues from the long-term and short-term perspectives; study of different entities in the movie industry and the roles they play and their interdependence; applying learning to suggest survival strategies in an extremely competitive market; and insights into the role of government in the media/entertainment industry.

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CSS 11: Strategy.

The chapter explores how gender has been an integral part of the nation building project in post-liberalisation Hindi cinema, popularly, known as Bollywood.

This chapter is based on primary data gathered through interviews with prominent members of the Hindi film industry along with a detailed content analysis of commercially successful post-liberalisation mainstream Hindi films.

It highlights how the representation of gender has been a central axis around which the tension between tradition and modernity has been played out in Hindi Cinema. The construction of Indianness post-liberalisation has questioned gender politics but proposed easy resolutions which fit into the larger nationalist narrative. In doing so, it has used the diaspora as a category to produce a nationalist account which is simultaneously essentialised and transnational in the quest for projecting India’s aspirations on the global platform.

The chapter provides important insights into the role of popular Hindi cinema, often brushed off as frivolous, in contributing to the mainstream discourse on nationalism post-liberalisation.

This paper aims to highlight the nature of strategic learning in Bollywood, India's Hindi Film Industry. Film making is an art that requires continuous learning as a prerequisite to creativity and innovation. Improved competitive performance goes beyond operational organisational learning into strategic learning. This research investigates the extent to which strategic learning, as opposed to operational learning, is taking place within film making organisations operating in the Bollywood setting.

The research was conducted through two descriptive case studies of production houses in Bollywood using semi‐structured observations and interviews with producers and directors in the case study sites. Data are analysed using techniques of interpretive “illuminative evaluation”.

The research suggests that the current frame of film making at Bollywood is stuck in a learning trap, in that organisational learning tends to be adaptive not generative and leads only to technical innovation. There has been no change in the paradigm of film making from one rooted in the past and the present, in terms of India's history, social and political context, to one looking to the future. For this paradigm shift to take place a future vision is proposed in the form of strategic learning and innovation, allowing Bollywood to go beyond the domestic Indian market and make a contribution to world cinema by breaking away from its current formulaic approach to film making. These findings also have implications for other management learning and practice contexts.

Although this research is limited to Bollywood, it has implications which potentially go beyond it in the form of a new frame as described above, and also for the organisational learning literature which has tended to focus on learning in general, rather than differentiating between operational learning and strategic learning; whereas operational learning can improve production processes, strategic learning depends upon creativity and innovation as the basis of improved competitive performance.

The paper concludes that the research site is trapped within its current frame of learning and, in order to break away from it, it must embrace strategic learning to move beyond the traditional loops of organisational learning. The practical implications of the paper lie in furthering the understanding of the nature of strategic learning in a creative industry, which may, in turn, shed new light on strategic learning within similar contexts.

The originality of the research stems from the focus on strategic learning and a new site for its exploration in the form of the Bollywood setting. Furthermore it extends understanding of the organisational factors affecting the status of strategic learning in organisations.

Radio Mirchi is the flagship brand of Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL). ENIL is the largest private FM radio broadcaster in India. ENIL was able to gain a stronghold in the market due to its strengths of innovativeness and creative content, large operating network, reach among listeners, high quality studio and strong advertisement sales capabilities. The case discusses Radio Mirchi's entry into the Kolkata market in 2003 amidst the competition from three other players—Red FM, Aamar and Power. Kolkata occupied a prime place in the company's growth plans. The case discusses the dilemma faced by the company on developing the entry strategy. Its top management has to decide on the market segment(s) it should target, and the design of the product.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the growing phenomenon of brand placements in the Indian movie industry. The study goes further to compare the incidence and the nature of brands placed within movies for the same time period.

A content analysis of 106 successful Bollywood movies between 1997 and 1999 was conducted and the incidence of brand placements within them and the execution style adopted were documented. Analysis of the brand appearances in 110 Hollywood movies was carried out and the volume of placements, kind of brands placed and the movie genre in which they were found was noted.

In‐film placements of entertainment and automobile brands were found to be highly prevalent in Indian movies. Showing the usage of the brand was the most common style of execution. The volume of in‐film placements in Hollywood movies was found to be far higher than that in Indian movies.

This study being exploratory in nature has the inherent limitation of generalizability of the results.

This paper provides implications for marketing managers and movie producers employing this form of communication.

This study is one of the first to systematically record, analyse and compare the occurrence and the execution of brand placements in Indian movies in a non‐US context and compare and contrast the placement practices of these two movie industries.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The Hindi film industry is known affectionately throughout the world as “Bollywood”. All the glitter and glamour of Hollywood can be found in Mumbai (formerly Bombay which provided the “B” in “Bollywood”) along with prolific production surpassing anything Hollywood can hope to attain. While at one time the market for Bollywood films was mainly the South Asian sub‐continent, the last two decades have witnessed an explosive growth in audiences, linked to a rapid increase in sales to overseas markets. There are several factors which may account for this success including economic migration from South Asia to Europe and North America, an increasing interest in Indian culture on the part of Western audiences fueled in part by the success of Anglo‐Indian films such as “Bend it Like Beckham” or “East is East” and the proliferation of satellite television. However, there is what could be perceived as a fly in the ointment of Bollywood's success. The genre of films produced by the major Mumbai studios is very limited, and as such can't hope to rival the more universal appeal of Hollywood films. While the Mumbai film industry demonstrates some aspects of growth and development, these tend to be in the realm of technical expertise. Creativity and experimentation in story line, subject matter or plot development are noticeable by their absence.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

According to Yubin et al. (2023), films serve as a medium for conveying visual representations of various elements such as landscapes, buildings, landmarks and monuments, which provide a contextual backdrop for the narrative. According to Vila et al. (2021), the number of global tourists visiting film locations exceeds 80 million. In addition, according to Yubin et al. (2023), the promotion of tourism is facilitated through the utilisation of films, which serve to create novel representations, counteract negative perceptions and enhance the portrayal of underdeveloped destinations. A significant number of individuals engage in the practise of visiting movie sets with the intention of re-experiencing the emotional impact of the film. The devaluation of film marketing has been observed. This method represents a highly indirect approach to enticing tourists. This chapter examines the comprehension of travellers' motivations and the perception of film-exposed locations in Bollywood films (Salnick, 2023). Film tourism provides a tailored and personalised experience for individuals. The difficulty in measuring this concept arises from factors such as the emotional responsiveness, personality traits, background and interpretive abilities of the viewers in relation to media images. According to Castro et al. (2023), the inclusion of a destination on a screen can serve as a means to enhance the diversity of a site's tourist offerings or mitigate the effects of seasonality by providing opportunities for experiential activities, showcasing notable landmarks or serving as a filming location. Film destinations have the potential to gain popularity and benefit from advertising and the perception of spectators.

Films, besides serving as an important instructive means to deliver sociological content, have also recently made their way into more structured courses on Media Sociology. It becomes particularly pertinent for cultivating global sociological imagination in the classroom. This chapter is a pedagogical reflection discussing the potentials of integrating Bollywood films into a first-year seminar, the content of which at many levels is comparable to basic sociology classes. The reflection is based out of the experience of teaching a freshmen class on Bollywood to a body of students with little past exposure, or knowledge of this movie industry. The chapter will initiate a dialogue on strategies of introducing the content, encouraging engagement and critical thinking, how to build on essential global sociological imagination along with a summary of what works and what does not. For this chapter, I will detail on the three contemporary Bollywood films (Ishaqzaade, Monsoon Wedding, and Dor), which I use to engage in a dialogue on family, class, and gender. Next, I will apply Sutherland and Fetley’s (2013) framework to explore the sociological relevance of these films (thus validating my choice of these works for pedagogical purposes) and also demonstrate possible hegemonic versus oppositional ways of reading these texts, which students are supposed to decipher and apply. Contemporary Bollywood films in many ways mirror aspects of the life course experienced in the United States and can be instrumental in encouraging a diverse undergraduate curriculum.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how movie studios develop an integrated social media strategy to achieve box office success. Departing from prior studies which focus on single social media platforms, this study examines the role of integrated social media promotion strategy using multiple social media platforms on movie success in the Bollywood movie industry.

This study adopts an in-depth and comprehensive case study approach to examine the promotional strategies adopted through YouTube, Facebook and Twitter throughout the life cycle of the movie and its impact on the box office success of the movie.

The study provides three major findings. First, the social media promotional strategy was centred on developing appropriate content to match the unique characteristics of the social media platforms. While Facebook was utilised primarily to connect audiences through organising fun events, Twitter was used to retweet the positive word-of-mouth generated from the audiences. Second, emphasis on promotional strategy through social media platforms in the post-release stage of the movie was found to be equally important as the pre-release stage. Finally, the social media platforms were utilised to develop emotional connection with the audience by promoting the content through which the audience identified themselves with the main protagonist of the movie.

This study is among the very few studies which examines the role of integrative social media strategy on the box office success in the movie industry. This study emphasises the way firms can utilise the synergies across different social media platforms to achieve success in the movie industry.