The business of Bollywood

ETC, India's first Bollywood channel, is set to unveil its ETC Bollywood Business Awards 2010 tonight at 8.30.

The awards will judge Bollywood on the basis of business the industry has generated this year, with more than 100 film releases. This is the first time in India when marketers, distributors, production houses and exhibitors are looked upon as being equally responsible for the success of a film, in addition to actors, actresses and directors.

"Presently, in India, all those who represent the industry like actors, musicians, directors, etc, have only been judged on creative parameters. No one had thought of evaluating them on how much business they had generated. Having identified this opportunity in the evaluation system, we decided to explore it. Thus was born the concept of these awards.

Such an evaluation will bring forward the workings of Bollywood as an industry. Behind the shine of glamour and creativity lies a lot of hard work, technical wizardry, marketing and strategic initiatives. Movie making is an art, getting audiences to pay to watch it and make it a hit is commerce. It is our belief that the viewers should appreciate both these facets of Bollywood," said Anurag Bedi, Business Head, ETC.

An emotional Ajay Devgn, winner of The Most Profitable Actor (Male) Award, said, "I normally never go to pick up an award, but I went to accept this because it is the first Business Award in Bollywood. Figures talk, you cannot manipulate that, you cannot play games with it either." AddedArbaaz Khan, winner of the Most Successful Producer and Top Grossing Film awards, "This is a welcome initiative which is based on facts and figures."

In appreciation to Hollywood's growing India connect the awards will also recognise the most successful Hollywood film of the year, with Inception, The Social Network and The Chronicles of Narnia being the front runners.