The capacity of a person to empathize with another’s life is immense. There is a certain joy in being played at the hands of our emotions, in going all in while feeling something without necessarily going through the roller coaster of life’s situations. People love stepping into another’s shoes without actually leaving their comfort zone. There is a certain sense of vulnerability and control that one experiences when they spectate and judge another person’s life.
Movie making is one such business that pivots around the idea of allowing people to sit at the periphery yet indulge in an immersive and stimulating experience of a time bound virtual reality.
It basically thrives on simulation. The more real the simulation, the better the result.
Initially it was all about presenting larger than life stories, of intense love, robust brave hearts and the like. Stories that could not fit into the humdrum routine of a normal person. That was an ideal way of entertainment back in the day, but lately the kind of stories that are being made light up many relatable and general topics. Slice of life has become the most favourite genre to be explored.
To fit in magnanimity in a normal story takes in a lot of creativity in all spheres and that in turn costs a lot of money. When it comes to movie making, filmmakers have started pushing to boundaries in their quest to represent the most optimum visual representation of their creative idea. Hollywood was a trailblazer in setting up inflated financial benchmarks when it came to opulent presentations but now Bollywood is also following suit.
Pirates of the Caribbean boasts of being the most expensive movie ever with a jaw dropping budget of nearly 350 million dollars and a lot many projects that are closing in at the heels of this magnum opus in terms of financial investment. Bollywood’s 2.0 was made with a whooping budget of 450 crores ($80 Million) and many more such projects are coming up.
Though the success and popularity of small budget and off beat cinema cannot be questioned, as many movies with intense subjects and powerful performances have shown phenomenal success. However, when we calculate the odds of success prior to a film’s release, big budget movies definitely have an upper hand. Now this probability is purely numerical, but it still favours big spenders.
With the current advancement in technology and a wide array of options available, technically it has become rather easy to give a grand picture to the filmmaker’s dreams. It is basically all about the impact. To strengthen the impact of what is being portrayed, money has become a very instrumental tool.
Viewers come to the cinemas to witness a spectacle and that is what is rightly being served to them in the truest sense of the word. Movie making is a highly speculative yet lucrative industry that actually can generate a tremendous margin of profit in return for investment. This attracts the film makers to pump in more and more money into their respective projects. It definitely is a golden age for movie makers and movie goers.
