Rich Resources Could Add up to Poor Results: Costly Lessons from Tollywood Movie Disappointment, "Brahmotsavam"

In recent months, two movies of Telugu movie superstars raised huge expectations but failed to live up to them. While Sardar Gabbar Singh, starring Pawan Kalyan in the lead role, and also scripted and pseudo-directed by him released about a month ago disappointed viewers, the even more recent release, Brahmotsavam, starring Mahesh Babu in the lead role, threatens to be an even greater disaster. In fact, Brahmotsavam was a greater shocker because it seemed to have all the right ingredients: the handsome and elegant Mahesh Babu as the central anchor, three glamorous heroines Kajal, Samantha and Praneeta, an ensemble star cast of over 30 veteran stars, soulful and peppy music by Mickey J Meyer, gorgeous sets by Thota Tharani, breath-taking cinematography by Rathnavelu, an editor known for slickness, K Venkateswara Rao, famed choreographers Raju-Sundaram, a production house that splurges, and above all, a director who has track record of successful family entertainers in the past, Srikanth Addala.

Brahmotsavam was also notable for an intense level of promotions starring all the major stars and the music director and director in the 3 week run-up to the release, with clips and talks which underwrote the feel-good value of the movie, driving up viewer expectations sky high. After a great pre-release extravaganza, the movie released in over 900 screens globally. It is remarkable that from the very first show, there was a negative view about the movie across regions and across viewers, most of it centred on a meaningless and meandering second half, and all the songs wasted in the first half in rapid succession. Although the movie team has tried out a rear guard action by chopping off 18 minutes of draggy scenes in the second half and one song, there has been no improvement of the sentiment. The author has held in some of the previous blog posts that movie making is a highly enterprising creative endeavour and offers valuable management lessons, both from successes and failures. Brahmotsavam too offers important lessons, both for movie making and enterprise management.  

Calibrating investments

The general expectation is that if an enterprise is able to commit huge resources, either as investment or expenditure, it will be able to build world class infrastructure and business. While there is some proportionality between resources and outcomes the curve of proportionality tapers off after a stage. In fact, expenditures beyond what may be called ‘functionality’ level tend to be sunk costs with declining levels of returns. The phenomenon may be comparable to what a specific piece of sponge can absorb. Brahmotsavam has a super-gorgeous mounting of a movie but the movie as a visual treat made possible by a lavish budget (by Indian standards) of Rs 750 million but had little meaning without consistent emotional tether (which would have required no investments of such scale).

In business too, luxurious offices and gold plated factories have a visual impact but beyond a functionally utilitarian scale, they add more costs and overheads than value.  Internal value generation at increasing levels, which is hard to come by, is required to cater to increased investments.  Alternatively, investments have to be tailored to the value that can be created.

Synergizing expertise

Expertise is the key to success. The foundation of Brahmotsavam was to have the best expert in each field contribute to his or her department being top class. Indeed, the assumption played out well individually, there being nothing to fault any department in terms of cinematic excellence. However, together it made incoherent sense. Potentially, experts took specialized views rather than a comprehensive view of the movie, and the movie director was more preoccupied in providing each stalwart with a sub-canvas commensurate with his expertise, rather than building a more holistic total canvas with appropriate embellishments from all.

In business organizations too, having too many experts could lead to functional specialization but business sub-optimization. The CEO would more often than not be preoccupied with satisfying the individual domain needs of expert CXOs rather than do what is holistically good for the enterprise.

Roles to drive numbers

Closely allied with having more technician-experts on board, Brahmotsavam had even more stars for the screen. In a movie of 150 minutes having more than 30 plus veterans would only mean not more than 5 minutes of screen time for each star. With the hero Mahesh being required to be in every scene throughout the movie to carry it on his able shoulders, each veteran’s average screen time has been even lower. Rather than tight story telling what emerges in such a scenario is a visual spectacle of all stars vying for screen space. In low cost economies the tendency to over-deploy people is endemic; seen in movies as much as in businesses.

Having too many people lumped into a value chain is less productive than their being spread out across the value chain, in a role based manner. When a technical or operational bottleneck occurs it is the qualitative ingenuity of a few rather than quantitative redundancy of a mass that works.

Book rather than chapters

Brahmotsavam is much like a classic case of a book with an inspiring title and having a few chapters that are brilliant and several which are weak. The movie certainly has its beautiful frames and touching moments which reflect the theme in the first half but there are also several frames which run away from the theme as the hero takes off on a rather meaningless pan-Indian journey to connect with some spread out relatives. A book must be interesting to read cover to cover; so must be a movie from start to finish. Continuing emotional connect with the reader or viewer underwrites success in both the cases.

Enterprise is a series of projects but is an unending book or movie. Participants in an enterprise, employees or investors, look to a continuing story that is engaging. The moment a project wanes, and gives the feel of a ‘done chapter’, and in fact has more such disappointments in sequence or in store, enterprise starts becoming an emotionally and economically losing proposition.   

Directorial deficit

All said and done, the director remains the central anchor for a movie. Only he or she holds in his mind a mental picture of how he or she would convert the emotional theme to visual frames. He alone knows why he has engaged the stars and technicians he has engaged and the results expected of them. In Brahmotsavam, the director has failed in his primary role, probably with the misplaced belief that conversion of the concept of his earlier successful family movie set in rural background into an urban setting would provide a similar success. He is also responsible for all the deficiencies listed above, again due to excess of confidence and infallibility. Sometimes, directors are hamstrung by weighty producers and stars which also impacts their delivery on screen.  

The CEO of an enterprise wields a similar powerful role. The growth script or turnaround script can only be in his hands. Those CEOs who do not exercise this right and obligation or are not allowed to exercise such a role by the promoters and boards could lead to sub-optimal, if not disastrous, results for their companies.  

Expectations management

The modern society grows on expectations. Expectations management which is relatively new is different from advertisement management which has been age old. While the latter largely explains what a product or service stands for, and only subtly raises expectations, expectations management through a series of leaks, chats, promos presents an alluring image of great things to come. That said, there must be some link between the delivered reality and promised utopia. The issue with Brahmotsavam is that expectations were driven to crazy heights by focusing only on the good parts of the movie. Those who were exposed to such feel-good promos expected that the entire would pan out like the promos and were highly disappointed when things did not turn out as promised.

Companies are well within their rights to promote their products. In fact, it speaks of the collective confidence of the corporate sector that they are able to openly present futuristic features without concerns of copying by competition. That said, expectations have to be set in realistic zones to be able to deliver on them.

Customer supremacy

Even after the high profile debacle, the stars and the makers of Brahmotsavam must be wondering what hit them and why things went wrong. The reason lies in the possibility that all of them took the viewer for granted, and assumed that flashes of brilliance would suffice to impress the viewers. The fact, however, is that the user has his own way of feeling the experience which develops as one sees the movie. While many reasons for viewer dissatisfaction can be adduced as above there may indeed be no one reason why the viewers reject a movie. It can only be related to rather qualitative phenomenon of user experience.

Enterprises are not immune to failing to gauge user experience. Apple has tasted many successes by providing a great user experience on its iPod, iPhone and iPad products but has failed to provide the same user experience with its Apple watch. The customer continues to be supreme in judging a new product regardless of the past successes of a firm.  

Open to feedback

One can have open-to-sky ambitions with a relentless focus and unremitting faith in the goals and processes.  In fact, such passion is needed to fuel growth ambitions. However, as with many things the dividing lines between healthy ownership of a concept and unhealthy possessiveness, and between positive commitment and blind obsession are indeed thin. When a movie is taken with a few overarching themes (eternal family sentiment, charismatic Mahesh Babu, best-in-class departments, successful director etc.,) everyone believes that the success is assured. The makers must, however, be open and sensitive to feedback, which alone can course-correct disasters in the making.

Enterprises tend to be far less interactive and open-house oriented as movie houses are. Yet, if movie houses themselves suffer from myopic or obscured approach towards open feedback, the asphyxiating situation in tightly run enterprises can only be imagined. The need to facilitate and receive continuous feedback in an open manner and respond to that meaningfully is quite evident.

Result not a sum of parts

We are all aware of the constant exhortation that organizations must aim at synergy, whereby the sum is more than a mere addition of numbers. As this blog post illustrates parts are extremely critical but even the best parts cannot automatically make for even a viable product, let alone the best product. Just as in a mechanical watch all components must be fine-tuned for perfect assembly and perfect operation, every product and a project whether it is moviemaking or product manufacture must have parts that are fine-tuned in a success formula that is, in the overall, cohesive, balanced and integrated. Without coherent, balanced and unified thought as well as execution, the result of an endeavour may not even be a sum of parts!

Hopefully, the lessons of Brahmotsavam will be learnt. There was once a movie, Dil Se, made in 1998 by an ace director (Mani Ratnam ) with a star hero (Shahrukh Khan) and some of the finest technicians ( A R Rahman and Gulzar, for example) which raised huge expectations as a visual and musical masterpiece but turned out to be a huge box-office disappointment. Both the director and actor (and, of course other technicians) picked up the pieces and went on to make great movies, individually and collectively, post-failure. All stakeholders of Brahmotsavam, likewise, would hopefully bring out their collective best in their future movie endeavours.

That said, why should anyone, movie makers or enterprise leaders, fail at all when success can be assured with some sensibility and sensitivity as well as some reflection and introspection?

Posted by Dr CB Rao on May 27, 2016

The Great Indian Masala Art: Corporate Concepts for High Budget Movies

Movies are some of the riskiest projects in business. India is the world’s largest producer of movies. In 2015, India produced over 2000 movies in over 20 languages. Of these, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada and Bengali language films accounted for lion’s share (over 1600 movies), with Telugu leading at over 350 films. While production costs have gone up exponentially, and markets have expanded dramatically, the number of real blockbusters as a proportion of the total number of films has shrunk dramatically. Despite the star power that bestows movies with some magic, there has never been a consistent formula for success. That a film should shine in all departments (story, screen play, direction, star cast, music, cinematography, choreography, visuals, dialogues, etc.,) is easier said than achieved.

The author has discussed in an earlier blog how certain sequels and franchises act as a sort of winning formula in Hollywood, and could actually point to dramatic lessons for firms. Reference may be made to “Hollywood’s Sequel Saga: Ten Dramatic Lessons for Firms”, Strategy Musings, May 31, 2015 (http://cbrao2008.blogspot.in/2015/05/hollywoods-sequel-saga-ten-dramatic.html). India is not very much used to sequels although the 2015 national award winner and Telugu blockbuster Baahubali as well as Tamil blockbuster Robo promise to have worthy sequels. It is unclear whether a sequel by itself assures success or the basic elements as listed above need to be top notch for a film to be successful. Two Telugu movies, with high star power and costly budgets, that released recently, one a sequel to the highly successful film of the same name and another a mass masala formula flick, teach us that high budget Telugu movies could start taking a leaf or two from firms.

Success trap

Wise corporate leaders believe that past successes are no assurance of future successes. In fact, some believe that if the same people perform in the same manner all the time, results would be the same as the ones achieved previously, and work to improve the people and the processes continuously. However, some successful industrialists keep doing the same things trapped in the intoxication of previous successes, only to see competitors moving past them with newer success formulae. A movie may not have the same competitive pressures as a product because of non-applicability of substitutability risk; each movie is a distinctive product that has to meet certain benchmarks of audience satisfaction; one movie is not substitutable by others.

Repetition of success formulae, therefore, does not provide any freshness to a new movie. Repetition curbs creativity, making the films routine. Belief in the past successes make the film makers believe that if they throw in successful actors, music directors etc., a new film would also be successful. Wise film makers aver, much like wise industrialists, that each movie should be treated as the first project ever and, therefore, shaped with utmost creativity, freshness, commitment and diligence. Not falling a prey to success trap is a lesson filmmakers could learn from the class of industrialists who lead to sustainable success.

Emotional plan

Businesses need a business plan. Movie projects are no exception. Business plans are built on product plans. Products appeal to customers not merely because of their functionality but also because of their emotional appeal. It could be the premium feel as in the case of Mercedes Benz cars, racy power as in the case of a Ferrari, drive quality as in the case of Toyota, sound richness as in the case of Bose speakers, elegance as in the case of iPhone, and so on. Advertisements for products seek to further enhance the emotional appeal. Wise businesses develop products not only with product functionality but also emotional appeal in mind. Emotional planning for movies is a natural possibility but complex accomplishment.

Movies, more than products, must have clear emotional theme. Many movies just carry out the process of generating emotions, not really concentrating on the emotional appeal. Moreover, Indian movie makers tend to throw in all the emotional triggers as multiple ‘tracks’ in movies. Just as in the case of a firm, both specialization and diversification need depth and relevance for the firm succeed, individual tracks of a movie must have both the depth and context. Whereas in the case of a firm, specialization and diversification do not normally coexist, except as a conglomerate operation, in movies multiple tracks can not only coexist but also be synergistic. This unique feature of Indian movies require careful conceptualization and deployment rather than a “throw it in” approach.

Performance appraisal

Successful firms are performance oriented. While firms do pay attention to team building as well as career development, firms utilize the process of performance appraisal to monitor the realization of goals. Unlike films which rely on public applause (or rejection) to rate the leaders, firms have clear internal benchmarks to assess performance. This “performance culture” is feasible in industry due the possibility to move employees in and out of organizations. Likewise, managements are obligated to ensure an acceptable ecosystem, failing which the employees themselves may leave. Therefore, there tends to be a mutual accountability.

Movie teams differ from company teams in one important respect. Teams stay together until a movie is completed; not only that technicians tend to be “house technicians”, working on a series of movies from the same production house. While this certainly has great merits, it also imposes certain constraints. Music, for example, is one domain where pre-commitment works to disadvantage. Movies which are otherwise good fail to make the grade due to failure of music track. If only movie making system allows engagement of new music directors when the canned songs are not up to the mark, there would be great opportunity to strengthen the most important facet of Indian films. The same need for performance appraisal would be relevant to other departments.

Board governance

Firms benefit from the mechanisms of corporate governance that are available.  Each firm is expected to have a board of directors comprising industry experts who could act as independent directors and ensure that the firm’s affairs are run as per an agreed business plan and the mandated value system. While all is still not perfect with the board system, boards which are manned by experts have served to mentor the fulltime leaders and ensure that firms follow generally accepted principles and codes.

Movie makers can benefit immensely by keeping in place boards comprising eminent film makers to periodically review the production of the movie as per intended specifications and aspirations, and advise the working team. The boards could also bring in an objectivity and independence that could help the filmmakers refocus. The boards could also perform alpha testing of movies (concluding internally that the film is made as planned). While there could be a concern of information leakage, as the board practice takes root there would be a cadre of seasoned and responsible “retired” filmmakers who could add immense value to filmmaking, and reduce the vast financial risk that most filmmakers face.   

Beta testing

Beta testing is an extremely important concept in product development and commercialization in firms. Beta testing is extensively used in software development where after internal testing (alpha testing) the software is released for developers and select customers to understand the performance of the software and receive feedback for corrections and improvements. It has recently been extended to telecom services too by Reliance Jio with a limited rollout of its 4G services to employees and select associates. Even those industries which do not have the practice of beta testing (for example, aero and auto) conduct extensive testing of their products in simulators and field tracks to evaluate the quality of the product, and to identify further improvement needs.

One has to only watch failed movies to wonder why the weaknesses of the movie that are so obvious to the audience were not obvious to the makers. One reason could be that the makers are so involved with the making that they are unable to be discriminating and objective. Also, movie makers tend to be surrounded by fan clubs and self-serving well-wishers who revel in heaping praise than provide objective feedback. If only there were to be a system of beta testing of a film, prior to its censoring and release, by a large enough panel of select independent critics and general viewers, many of the weaknesses and loopholes can be discovered in advance and remediated. The risk of failure of movies and the enormous losses that producers may sustain would be obviated with ‘beta viewing’ of movies. 

Masala art

Masala is a typically Indian word, signifying a mix of several delectable and healthy spices. Indian cooking has become world famous because of the masala characteristic. The world is, in fact, now reverentially discovering the health benefits of the Indian spices as well as the balanced Indian food. Indian movies are also referred to as masala movies, signifying that they tend to cater to all kinds of viewers (so called, mass and class in Indian cinema lexicon) and incorporate all ingredients (nine emotions, as per Indian literature). Indian cooking becomes tasty not merely because of the ingredients but because of the recipe involving the right ingredients and proportions. The same applies to Indian movies; the recipe is as important as the ingredients.

Indian movies are a very important part of the economy. They also are a vital facet of Indian social tapestry. Indian movies cannot afford to have the kind of financial losses that the great majority suffers. While a few blockbusters are helpful, Indian movie making can scale greater heights with more films becoming financially successful. Indian movie critics believe that masala films and art films are mutually exclusive. However, art films also have their own ingredients and they require their own recipes. The five points of guidance, adapted from firm level corporate practices, would be valuable for Indian movie makers in making films that satisfy the highly heterogeneous nature of the Indian movie audience. Masala art, delivered corporate style, could be the next game changer for Indian cinema.

Posted by Dr CB Rao on May 01, 2016

Bajrangi Bhaijan as a True Blockbuster: A Touching Cross-border Journey of Emotions

In the movie world, there is no pre-defined success formula; familiarity succeeds sometimes while novelty succeeds some other times, heroism succeeds many times but fails quite a few times too. Technical wizardry dazzles the box office occasionally but falls flat most other times if not supplemented by other cinematic elements. In India, apart from all these success factors, emotions, especially family emotions, play a major role in shaping a movie’s  success. The film director, as a manager of resources, from actors to departments and from finance to time, needs to have a success recipe probably customized to each genre that rules the heart as much as the mind. The challenge is particularly daunting given the heterogeneity of cultures, languages and nativities in India. Two recent Indian movie blockbusters, Baahubali and Bajrangi Bhaijan, have demonstrated that the Indian movie audience, despite its huge diversity, appreciates movies of completely different polarities.

Baahubali, the recently released Telugu blockbuster set in a background of mythical fiction, has some interesting lessons in this respect. Primarily, the movie which is a gripping story of warring royal brothers reinforces an easy to postulate but difficult to execute premise that across-the-board excellence from characters to departments, high on technology and visuals as well as valorous emotions assures success. On the other hand, Bajrangi Bhaijan which is a tender, heart-warming story of an innocent Bajrangi Bhakt risking his life to return a mute girl child to her unknown home in Pakistan has proved to be an equally sensational hit. This movie reinforces the commonly subscribed postulate that an emotionally gripping movie that has excellent characterization is an eternal winning formula for Indians despite the changes in family values.

My earlier blog post on Baahubali in Strategy Musings, July 19, 2015 addresses its success formula (http://cbrao2008.blogspot.in/2015/07/the-epic-sweep-of-rajamoulis-baahubali.html) while this blog post looks at the success drivers of Bajrangi Bhaijan. But as a management blog, this post first takes some liberties of analysis. 

Dissimilarly similar

At first glance, Baahubali and Bajrangi seem as different as chalk and cheese. On the contrary, they are also dissimilarly similar, appealing to both mind and heart. The subtle but important difference is that Baahubali appeals to the mind first and touches the heart next while Bajrangi touches the heart first and appeals to the mind next. Both the movies are based on ‘lost and found’ theme; Baahubali develops it in a virtual mythical context while Bajrangi works on it in a real life geo-political context. Both the movies are based on heroism, with Baahubali focusing on raw physical heroism while Bajrangi focuses on sensitive emotional heroism. Baahubali makes extraordinary hero of a normal movie hero while Bajrangi portrays an extremely macho movie hero with extraordinary heroism of a charming simpleton. Both the movies seek to elevate commonly desired values to genuine humanistic purity; Bahubali messages that good prevails over evil while Bajrangi messages that love dissolves hatred.  

Baahubali makes the unfamiliar (Mahishmati kingdom) familiar in one’s imagination while Bajrangi makes the familiar (Indo-Pak border separation) disappear in one’s desire. In both cases, the directors prefer brevity to detail (fast paced tight screen plays) and rely on expansiveness to enhance visualization (vast climaxes). Both are products of meticulous preplanning and consummate choice of locations that are appropriate for the respective storylines. Baahubali bridges royalty and commons while Bajrangi bridges Hindu and Muslim religions. Baahubali makes us wonder if the hero or his mother is the real hero while Bajrangi makes us wonder if Bajrangi or the lost child is the real hero. Both movies impress because of a few important characters with powerful characterization and apt casting. And, finally the stories of both the movies, belonging to completely distinct genres, have been penned by the same creative writer K V Vijayendra Prasad!

Such stretched comparisons apart, the truth is that Bajrangi excels in doing something that only Indian movies can do – touch the heart and impress the mind, simply, sensitively and superbly!

Director’s blockbuster 

Bajrangi, as a blockbuster, is an out and out director’s movie. A director’s movie is one in which one feels the roles and never sees the actors, roles come to life from the first frame itself, and viewers themselves start living the roles. The emotions that one sees on the screen, from tears to raptures, are involuntarily experienced by the viewers. Typically, the viewers race with the movie to anticipate the outcomes that they desire. A consummate director brings out hitherto unseen talent from his actors. He makes the viewers feel that they have been in the locations shown in the movie at some point of time in their lives even if they have never been. To be able to do all of this, the director first makes all of his actors and technicians experience the impact of the movie as they come on board.  Kabir Khan as the director of Bajrangi has been able to provide this unique experience to his actors and technicians and, as a result, to the viewers in full measure leading to its blockbuster status. That he has been able to treat boldly issues of Indo-Pak relations and religious tolerance with a deft combination of humour and humanism speaks highly of his capabilities.

Although Bajrangi is racing to cross the earnings of all other previous blockbusters of Hindi screen (more revenues in lesser number of days than PK or Dhoom 3), a true blockbuster is characterized by different benchmarks. It draws viewers of all ages and of all backgrounds as well as different ideologies to theatres; it has viewers trooping in before the title card is played, has the viewers glued to their seats except for intermission and has them leaving the theatre only after the scroll of the last title cards ends. And more importantly, the viewers resolve that they must spread the message of the movie to their near and dear and long to return to the movie sooner than later. For a country such as India with diverse languages and multiple cultural subsets a blockbuster movie is also one that appeals universally without either retake or dubbing options. And finally, a blockbuster movie stands on its own despite other blockbusters released. Bajrangi fulfils all these criteria effortlessly (as does Baahubali too).

Defining moments

Bajrangi ranks extremely high on emotional quotient. Normally, blockbusters have impressive scenes but true blockbusters have defining moments. In Bajrangi, as the trains couple and decouple and chug off even as the child from Pakistan gets stranded trying to save a lamb on the ground is the first such defining moment. As the child helplessly tries to follow the moving train, the viewers get instantly connected with the child with their hearts shaken – and their journey for rehabilitation and re-joining of the child begins as much as it does for the child in the movie. Every time the child tries to connect with Bajrangi, the viewers merge with the screen trying to connect instead. When Bajrangi tries to disconnect (albeit reluctantly) from the child, the viewers revolt. Another defining moment occurs when Bajrangi leaves her with the travel agent (with the child helplessly waving from behind the glass door); and the viewers become truly relieved when Bajrangi reclaims the child from the travel agent’s evil designs (smashing the evil doers in the sole macho scene of the movie)! All this is made poignant by the fact of the child not being able to speak.

Continuing the emotional journey, viewers get excited when Bajrangi decides to go to Pakistan to return the child to her mother and father, completely and innocently unmindful of the adversities of crossing the Indo-Pak border without any documents and without any knowledge of her home’s location. One of the final defining moments comes when the child is able to spot her mother in the journalist’s video of Dargah. The defining moments of the movie are critically important as they touch the heart, tug the emotions and make us live the emotional journey of Bajrangi and the child. It is not that the movie does not have its lighter moments, all of them anchored around the childlike innocence of Bajrangi or the well-meaning efforts of the journalist. Even the lighter moments invariably warm our hearts. The sum-total of the defining moments makes Bajrangi Bhaijan a truly defining movie, with natural emotionalism expressed in the most delicate and sensitive manner. 

  

Cast to perfection

Bajrangi Bhaijan scores very high in terms of how roles have been defined and characterization effected. Each role in the movie is delicately etched and thoughtfully enacted. Three principal characters carry the entire film, in a manner of speaking.  The initial crowd puller, of course, is Salman Khan who played the role of a devout Hindu Bramhin and a Hanuman Bhakt, called in the film as Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi or Bajrangi. The real heart stealer, however, is Harshaali Malhotra who expressively and touchingly played the role of Shahida or Munni, a mute hapless Muslim girl from Pakistan lost in unknown land. The third is Nawazuddin Siddiqui who played the role of Chand Nawaz, an intrepid TV channel journalist who understands genuine human emotions with empathy. The great thing about the characterization is that the director brought them out as good, lovable human beings even if they are also prone to some ordinary human proclivities. For example, Bajrangi is an exceptionally innocent do-gooder but his first reaction to the child tagging along with him is to detach himself; similarly when he comes to know that Munni is, in fact, a devout Muslim child, he entrusts her to a deceitful travel agent to take her to Pakistan (to protect his guardian family’s emotional stability) not knowing the consequences thereof.  

Shahida, the girl child, despite being taken care of very well in Dayanand’s family prays with devotion when she gets into a Masjid or erupts with joy when she has the opportunity to eat non-vegetarian food. Chand Nawaz, who plays a major role in guiding and protecting Bajrangi in the hostile Pakistani territory and the cops on chase, initially follows Bajrangi and Shahida just to get a scoop on Hindustani jasoos (spies). All other roles have been portrayed with a similar touch of realism. Probably, the true idealist in the movie is Rasika, daughter of Dayanand (played by Sharat Saxena) and who loves Pawan for his simple innocence; she acts as the moral compass for the family, and more importantly to Bajrangi, beleaguered in a swathe of emotions from time to time.  It is the touch of absolute human normality in otherwise sterling hearts that makes all the characters come real without even a touch of superficiality. The script writer and the director have together brought to life a set of characters who resonate with the inner subtleties and innate warmth of typical humans whether they are jeans clad ultra-modern youngsters or traditional-to-the-core family elders of this highly materialistic era.

Emotive power and visual splendour

Indian cinema, as Indian movie goers are aware, has had a glorious record of heart-warming family dramas, each with real-life portrayal of sensitive human emotions by India’s famed thespians. Bajrangi Bhaijan, without doubt, represents another evocative evolution of the emotive dimension of the Indian cinema. The movie also demonstrates that movie makers and movie actors can cast themselves in roles contrarian to their past, and in less than three hours deliver soothing messages of human oneness and togetherness which decades of harangue fail to deliver. In addition, Baahubali and Bajrangi herald a new wave of globalization of Indian cinema. The movie, like Baahubali, is another striking example of what an insightful director with a clear vision can achieve in making blockbusters that could appeal universally. The Baahubali and Bajrangi Bhaaijan phenomena also demonstrate that movies that touch the heart and appeal to the mind, with added visual splendour and musical vibrancy, have all the potential to take the Indian cinema across global frontiers.

Posted by Dr CB Rao on August 9, 2015

The Epic Sweep of Rajamouli’s Baahubali: A Towering Show of Indian Competence and Enterprise

There are somethings in life that need to be seen, heard and experienced to believe them. India’s Telugu magnum opus movie “Baahubali: The Beginning” is one such phenomenal achievement. Taken simultaneously in Tamil as well, and dubbed into Hindi and Malayalam, Baahubali was released globally in 4,000 screens on July 10, 2015. The fantasy period film, billed as the most expensive Indian movie ever made at USD 40 million (Rs 250 crore), has opened to rave reviews and blockbuster collections, crossing the Rs 250 crore mark in the very first week. It has won the appreciation and approbation of ‘who is who’ of Indian Cinema. The movie that has been in the making for over three years is the dream, passion and magic of its director, S S Rajamouli. Singlehandedly, as the leader responsible for screenplay and direction, he conceptualized and catalysed a mammoth planning and execution effort to bring Baahubali onto the screens. In Rajamouli’s and Baahubali’s success lie certain inspirational guidance for Indians and Indian organizations who despair that India cannot match up to international standards. The film demonstrates that India can indeed take quantum leaps to match or exceed the best that the world can do.    

In terms of scale and scope, Baahubali has set new records. The film was canned in specially created sets, fields and expanses of Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad (RFC) as well as in Oravakal Rock Gardens in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, Athirappily waterfalls in Thrissur, Kerala for over two years. The film had a preceding one year of preproduction planning. What started as a single movie became a two part movie given the multi-generational story narration, with a sequel “Baahubali: The Conclusion” committed upfront for release in 2016. Some highlights of the movie relate to the gripping narration of a story involving warring brothers (across two generations) for Mahishmati kingdom, one brother being good and the other evil and the triumph of good over evil, breath-taking visuals of waterfalls, expanses and hills of India and snow mountains of Bulgaria, nearly 5000 visual effects shots that enhanced the scale and depth of visual splendour, unprecedented aerial and multi-dimensional shots of the mammoth set of Mahishmati fort, installation of a massive 125 feet high and 8 tonne weight statue, over 20,000 uniquely designed weapons, and use of 110 acre space in RFC with 2,000 artistes for a year for battle scenes. At least seven key actors dedicated themselves to the movie for over two years while 25 national awardee technicians worked on the movie exclusively.

Visualization + Detailing

S S Rajamouli may have directed only nine movies in the past but with each movie has won accolades for making films each increasing levels of uniqueness in thematic content and differentiation in film making. Baahubali, however, represents a quantum leap in his directorial style and story narration. Verily, it is his most intense effort in bringing high technology visual effects with sweepingly successful impact to the Indian cinema to date. According to Rajamouli, the story has been developing with him for seven years, with key roles emerging adding drama and emotion to the story. That he has been able to accommodate eight key characters in pivotal roles and have both hero and anti-hero almost as powerful equals and yet narrate the story in a silky smooth fashion reflects his competence. Rajamouli has amazing clarity in narration, and a rare skill in aesthetically translating to the screen what he visualizes.

Rajamouli is detail oriented and meticulous in his work, and never takes his viewers for granted. Some of his directorial tweaks are out of the box yet very logical. There is a scene in the movie in which the hero tattoos on the hand of the warrior heroine as she sleeps on the riverside dipping her hand in the water; an alert warrior, she is not disturbed by the underwater calligraphy as several small fish are seen to dabble with her hand simultaneously. In a follow-up tattoo scene, he is able to repeat it on the warrior girl even as she is ready to shoot an arrow by bringing on a green slithering snake onto the arrow, and making her stay frozen and fixated on the snake until she is able to release the arrow with the snake.  It is this capability of Rajamouli that pervades throughout the movie and makes the period fantasy look and feel not only visually grand but also emotionally inspiring, transporting the viewers into the mythical kingdom and the life with the protagonist characters.

Specialization + Integration

Specialization with integration ensured end-to-end success for the movie. As Rajamouli states, selection of, and dependence on, the most appropriate technicians and artistes has paid off handsome dividends. The faith in the completely fictional story developed by Vijayendra Prasad was the bedrock of the movie. The heads for visual effects (Srinivas Mohan), cinematography (Senthil Kumar), art (Sabu Cyril) and costumes (Rama Rajamouli) are not only the best in the field but they gave also their best to the movie. Each expert had absorbed Rajamouli’s visualization and narration, and produced expected output. Sabu Cyril drew more than 20,000 sketches in the pre-production phase. The Art department became a design studio and construction factory for developing the unique sets of fort, weaponry and sculptures with contemporary construction materials sporting period look as well as colour schemes reflecting historical times. The cameraman, Senthil, is an expert in use of sophisticated digital cameras, drones, cranes, blue mat and slow motion technologies. He is an adept at enhancing physical camera capture with computer graphics and visual effects.

Srinivas Mohan is the master CGI and VFX Supervisor of India who played a major role in Baahubali’s success. His work on 1,500 feet high waterfalls, snow avalanche, war sequences, beheaded walk, statue installation, and aerial shots of Mahishmati fort (to name just a few) with the latest software and multiple visual effects studios resulted in unprecedented visual grandeur for the movie. Rama played a stellar role in designing costumes to various lead actors that are appropriate for the period film, providing authenticity. Costumes and actors enhanced mutual impact. The costumes of warriors, kings and commoners reflected authenticity that is vital for a period firm. They were ably supported by music composer, M M Keeravani, stunt choreographer team led by Peter Hein, dance choreography led by Prem Rakshit, sound engineer P M Satheesh and editor K Venkateswara Rao, among others, to make each and every scene an extraordinary audio-visual experience. And to add to the novelty, a completely new language called Kilikili was created by the lyricist Madan Karky to be spoken by Kalakeya tribe! The key in all this was that each of the functional specialists were narrated the movie vision and visual expectations by Rajamouli, and each absorbed and responded to the expectations, and worked in an integrated and symbiotic manner making the whole far richer than the sum of the parts.

Dedication + Development

No new amazing task can be accomplished by merely following past achievements. Breakthrough achievement requires not only dreamy passion, extraordinary vision and innovative strategy but also development of high performing talent with new skillsets that can enable quantum leaps in execution. However, dedication to the cause comes first and development next. The life of Rajamouli mirrors the lives of several self-made leaders, rising from the constraints of oscillating poverty and common community to pinnacles of visualization and expertise. As Rajamouli says the stories of Hindu epics such as Mahabharatam and Ramayanam narrated by his grandmother in his childhood left a deep impression on him to create such epic sagas on the celluloid. Each of the key actors in the movie, Prabhas as Baahubali, the hero, Rana as Bhallala Deva, the warring brother, Anushka Shetty as Devasena, Tamanna as Avanthika, Ramya Krishna as Sivagami, Nasser as Bijjaladeva, and Satyaraj as Kattappa dedicated themselves to the movie fulltime all through without any distractions or other career options. All of them placed once in a lifetime opportunity of Baahubali higher than alternative and possibly higher revenue opportunities.

Prabhas and Rana learnt sword fighting and horse riding as well as marshal arts, endured serious injuries, followed stringent diet and exercise patterns to reflect the challenging requirements of their roles, from looks to skills. Each of the other actors also underwent gruelling makeovers to match the requirements. Thousands of stunt artistes from all over India were housed and trained in RFC for the battle scenes for over a year. Yet, the whole team functioned as a family with shared food, domestic attention and camaraderie. The core team of Rajamouli, Rama, Vijayendra Prasad, Keeravani and Sri Valli belonged to a common family but succeeded in enveloping the hundreds and thousands of workers in a similar familial atmosphere inspired by a common cause. Producers, Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni placed unwavering faith on Rajamouli despite this being an extraordinarily high budget film for India.  Dedication and development must come with a canopy of gratitude. Rajamouli gave the credit to director K Raghvendra Rao as the presenter of Baahubali because he gave Rajamouli the first break in independent advertisement and commercial television serial making. The first frame of the movie pays homage to the Telugu cine stalwarts who passed away in recent times.       

Leap, unbounded

The success of Baahubali spawns far beyond the success of a movie in India; it triggers a sense of national pride that India Can! Every Indian in the faraway shores of USA today aspires to see the movie and feel proud that India can conceptualize and make such world-class celluloid epics. Baahubali inspires that India can match world standards in conceptualization and execution of mega projects. It demonstrates that Indian talent that works for international companies can produce a completely Indian product bettering world standards. It teaches that the rich history and ethos of India are indeed of epic potentialities even contemporaneously. Baahubali also underscores a leader’s sagacious and bold role in scripting a future of unseen and immense potential. Almost invariably, the leader who achieves dramatic transformations dreams big. As Rajamouli admits he likes to dream of larger than life images. However, he has the tenacity to persevere till he is able to launch on his mission and translate them into physical realities. No one had any expectations when the project was announced in 2011 that Baahubali would be the high technology visual spectacle that it has been shaped into. It is easy to develop an Avatar in a Hollywood ecosystem which routinely makes Jurassic, Terminator and Avengers series. However, Baahubali proved that an Avatar level film making is possible in India too, and that too at quarter the cost of a similar Hollywood movie. Indian leaders have to only dream of building infrastructure in India as in US, Japan or China and there could be no reason why India cannot indeed build such infrastructure (Incidentally, a movie of Baahubali’s vision and scale required the scale and scope of the infrastructure of Ramoji Film City). 

Dreaming a greater future and raising the bar continuously is an essential enabler for world-leading development. The key lesson from Baahubali for India’s build for the future is that India has the necessary competencies for world class design, construction, manufacture, and delivery. What is required is visionary leadership that can dream big, visualize the dreams, detail the visions and deploy leaders who can execute the parts and finally deliver the project as a whole. If one individual as Rajamouli can deliver a magnum opus which is truly a world-class Indian movie, clearly other endowed leaders and administrative entities and business organizations should be able to create world-class infrastructure and deliver world-class projects in India in their domains. The three formulae identified in this blog post as the key drivers of Baahubali’s success, Visualization + Detailing, Specialization + Integration and Dedication + Development, constitute the unique alchemy for India’s quantum leaps of the future. If the Baahubali momentum is maintained in its follow-on part, referencing the movie as Indian Avatar may be passe; future Hollywood movies could be referenced as Hollywood’s Baahubali! Prior to release of Baahubali this could have been a bizarre statement but today it is a logical aspiration. So must be the aspirations to discover new laws and theorems, innovate new science and technology, make global products and services and build new infrastructure, ENTIRELY AND INDIGENOUSLY IN INDIA, COMPLETELY WITH INDIAN TALENT.    

Posted by Dr CB Rao on July 19, 2015

Indian Bollywood Blockbuster Movie Magic: Ten Management and Leadership Lessons

The last four months have seen the successful launch of four Hindi multi-starrer blockbuster movies from Bollywood, each featuring different pairs of actors, and each with a significantly different theme. These, as the avid Indian movie audience would acknowledge, are Chennai Express, Krrish3, Ram-Leela and Dhoom 3. Chennai Express has Shahrukh Khan in the lead, Krrish 3 Hrithik Roshan, Ram-Leela Ranveer Singh and the latest Dhoom 3 Aamir Khan and Abhishek Bachhan. Deepika Padukone is the heroine in two of the blockbusters while Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif are the heroines in two others. All the lead actors of the four blockbusters are top stars of Bollywood. The four films are lavishly mounted with high production values and deployment of graphics and special effects rarely seen on the Indian screen. All of these movies conform to the proven Bollywood formula of music, dance and heroics. And, all of these have proved to be international successes and national blockbusters.

Thematically, each film has amazingly different takes. Two of the movies belong to family drama genre and two to action genre. Chennai Express is a typical Indian lighthearted movie of fun and frolic, with a heady concoction of next door South Indian ambience and theatrical heroics. Krrish 3 is a scientific fantasy on the lines of Superman and Spiderman, with good triumphing over evil, but in a delectably Indian fashion. Ram-Leela is an intoxicating fusion of Shakespearean tale and Indian family rivalries, in a riot of color and beauty.  Dhoom 3, just released, is a tantalizing international escapade of a lovable soft heroic villain, as the lead of an antagonist pair. Two of the movies, as the suffixes indicate, are sequels. All the movies gained from superstar power and added power to stars as well. Each took several months to take, certain dance and chase sequences required days of practice and Crores of Rupees of spend. Uniformly, all the movies benefitted from snappy taking, notwithstanding the typical Indian proneness to lengthy introductions, inescapable song and dance sequences and the inevitable 150 minutes plus of movie length.

High style, some substance

Somewhat cynically, it may be observed that the history of successive blockbusters of either Hollywood or Bollywood demonstrates the power of high technology overwhelming the weakness of low rationality. Whether it is Harry Potter, Avatar or Batman, Spiderman and Superman movies, the intent is clearly to transport the audience to newer thematic universes through a slew of special effects covering up slender storylines. The four Bollywood movies probably have uneven storylines, but have immensely benefitted from deployment of high cinematic technology. The important factor in all the four movies has been that none of the movies was un-Indian, in fact all of them, and certainly three of them, emphasize the indigenous and ethnic elements pretty strongly. This trend is also borne out in other blockbuster hits in other Indian languages, be it Telugu or Tamil. The plausible lesson is that an Indian blockbuster needs to disown nothing of its theatrical tradition but needs to layer it with dollops of technology.

The concept of ‘transportation’ of audience has significant differences between Hollywood and Bollywood. Having experienced to advanced living, the Western audience needed to be transported to sci-fi worlds of outer universe, repeatedly. Probably, the only successful Hollywood franchise that stayed on in physical locations for audience transportation was the highly successful James Bond series.  For Hollywood, it is the virtual virtuosity of science and technology creating new universes. For Bollywood, however, it is more of transportation to more exotic physical locations of India and the advanced countries, including for the latest Dhoom 3 shot extensively in Chicago. Interestingly, Indian movies, more particularly the Telugu ones, have a historical tradition of transporting audience to mythological and folklore realms.  Be that as it may, the essence of successful movie making is transportation of audience to a world that is fantastic and fantasizing, not reachable except in the confines of the movie theatre. That said, the Bollywood blockbuster saga has many lessons for management and leadership, ten key ones being discussed below. 

1.      Integrated imagination is foundation

The greatest feature of moviemaking is imagination. Every department involved in moviemaking, be it story writing, screenplay writing, music creation, cinematography, choreography, art and set making or editing has the common characteristic of imagination, besides each department’s core competence. While moviemaking in general may have such departmental imagination, blockbuster movies are notable for the way individual departmental imaginations are aligned and integrated. The higher the level of integrated imagination the greater would be the blockbuster status. In contrast, business enterprises tend to be conformist and devolve the responsibility of imagination only on planning departments, and a few leaders. Even the few existent imaginative initiatives are not perfectly integrated. Ability to imagine departmentally and functionally, with alignment and integration, is a key aspect of successful organizations.

2.      Direction is execution

Business management theorizes and practices that the chief executive of an organization assisted by a team of functional leaders manages an entity and delivers success. In a typical business or industrial organization, the chief executive leads and directs but rarely executes by himself or herself. In contrast, the director of a movie dons multiple hats.  A great director not only imagines the entire movie but also drives and integrates imaginations of different departments. He not only plans and resources, but also actually executes his directorial responsibilities on a daily basis, covering all actors, and all departments of moviemaking, until the final product of a fully edited movie is censored and released. The chief executive of a movie thus overturns the conventional wisdom that leaders need to lead while executives need to execute. While establishing and running an enterprise is quite distinct from movie making, the lesson from movie making of the leader taking complete ownership and being associated with execution should not be lost sight of. Business leaders may derive greater success by emulating the concept to execution ownership of movie directors. 

3.      Sensory experience drives success

Each of the four Bollywood blockbusters mentioned earlier, or for that matter any blockbuster movie of any ethnicity or language, demonstrates that heightened sensory experience transports the audience to a world of acceptance and appreciation. While products and services of enterprises are not two-hour capsules like movies and are longer lasting, such a feature underscores even more the need for a higher sensory experience for users to be attracted and attached to a product or service.  This principle is relevant for leadership and managerial initiatives too. The success of the blockbuster movies indicates that the incorporation of varied emotions is an essential component of success in Indian ethnicity. The success of several market-facing multinational corporations in India, from Unilever to P&G, is based on their sales and marketing strategies that are ethnically emotive. Internal organizational processes that make and sell products as well as products and services that cater to users equally require ethnic sensitivity, albeit in different shades and emphases. 

4.      Creativity adds spark to success

Over the last 100 years of the Indian cinema, several thousands of movies in various Indian languages have been produced on the basic Indian formula of family dynamics and dance and song mechanics. The freshness the Indian movie technicians have been bringing to the celluloid screen with newer lyrics and tunes as well as energetic choreographic movements (notwithstanding the value erosion in some cases), integrating in the process modern technologies and global trends is truly amazing. Indian moviemaking demonstrates that even an age-old formula can be rendered fresh with a dash of creativity. Managers and leaders, who are often faced, with highly repetitive processes and are often expected to deliver the beaten messages, must take a leaf out of the Indian movie makers to add a dash of creativity to make the processes, procedures and deliveries fresh and appealing. Charismatic leaders and managers differentiate themselves from the pedestrian ones on the basis of creativity.       

5.      Age or culture no bar

Moviemaking is a universal art with no barriers of age, language, region or religion. This is one enterprise, in which the youngest technician can make the best of movies on a shoestring budget, and budding actors, musicians and lyricists can turn stars overnight. It is also an industry which can see the most seasoned and aged directors mount pictures of contemporary standards. Indian Bollywood, in particular, has been home for multi-religious prosperity. For the predominantly Hindu movie audience, the three superstars are Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan. Corporations need to look beyond the demographic profiles and focus on talent and performance as the primer drivers of acceptance, independent of preconceived perceptions on backgrounds or regions and religions. Corporations also must be willing to provide integrated project opportunities for youngsters to deliver and for seniors to reinvent themselves.

6.      Exceptional people, exceptional success

A review of the blockbuster movies reveals that they are made by teams of exceptional people in all departments, including the director himself or herself. While a few exceptional technicians tend to take other average talent in stride to make good movies, blockbuster movies that are differentiated in all respects tend to have exceptional professionals leading all the departments. This has an important lesson for those corporations which seem to treat performance appraisals as distribution of annual increments. The concept of normal distribution of ratings and increments is, in most cases, is justifiably reflective of the talent and profiles that calibrate themselves in a natural manner. However, like blockbuster movies, trendsetting organizations encourage and institutionalize top-ranking talent across the organization. This approach reflects a penchant and passion to accept nothing less than exceptional talent and hold back nothing in rewarding such talent exceptionally (even if it covers the total organization) for exceptional performance.

7.      Job clarity delivers clear results

The art of moviemaking, often considered unregulated and self-taught, is quite scientific, and reflects the highest principles of organizational design and organizational behavior that are not seen commonly even in evolved business organizations. Moviemakers provide the greatest respect to departmental structuring. Each department, be it production, art, photography, music, lyrics, dialogues, dress, lighting, logistics or editing, has its core competence and core delivery clearly defined. Each department knows how it can add value to the other departments and the overall movie but is resolutely focused on its core delivery. Unlike the complex organizational structures where accountability is often confused with collaboration, and functional delivery is obfuscated with value chain management, moviemaking has clear departmentation. Blockbuster movies get recognized for superior departmental delivery as much as other movies are noted for any slippages that could have led to less than optimal performance. For corporations as much as for celluloid, job clarity produces clear results.

8.      Nativity is not naivety

Despite the sweep of modernity in the Indian society and the overwhelming influence of Hollywood on the movie scene, the Indian movies continue to retain their nativity. In fact, reflection of native values and practices is an integral element of successful Indian movies. This is not surprising as the centuries old hoary traditions of India have not only withstood the ravages of multiple foreign invasions and occupations but have consolidated themselves, globalizing with integration of modern trends. Some corporations tend to think that they must bring in change for change sake, often viewed in terms of Western practice and wisdom. On the other hand, more successful organizations respect and cater to nativity, leveraging nativity for acceptance of modern requirements. As the resurgence of practices of Yoga and Ayurveda across the World demonstrates, nativity is not naivety but is representative of authenticity.   

9.      Global quality, Indian costs

The newer Bollywood blockbuster movies represent a step-function jump in quality, almost to the best global standards, and have called for significantly higher production budgets hitherto unseen in India. Even so, the production budgets of the four movies cited were around USD 12 million each for the family drama genre and around USD 20 million each for action genre with special effects (even including shooting in overseas locations). This contrasts extremely favorably with the very high production costs that were upwards of USD 280 million for the likes of Titanic, Spiderman 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean. Clearly, Indian movie magic can extend to achieving global quality with local costs. Of late, there have been doubts whether India would consolidate its advantage as global manufacturing hub. The Bollywood movie magic demonstrates that India still enables a unique paradigm of global quality with local costs. The Indian movie industry and the Governments must seize the opportunity by setting up the likes of Universal and Disney studios in India.  

10.  One for all, all for one

The most interesting aspect of blockbuster moviemaking is the interest the director takes in all the departments for functional perfection and the interest all the departments take in matching up to the director’s vision. From listening to and improving upon the storyline through music sittings to determining shooting angles and playacting for the actors in each day’s shooting, to quote a few, the director participates in every function, and collaborates with each departmental head. The situation that obtains in business or other enterprises is starkly different. From the Chief Executive down to the Functional Heads, the practice is to let the others perform to their goals, with the heads and chiefs limiting themselves to reviews, assessments and management of performance and consequence of their reporting executives.  The assessed individuals also strangely disregard any partaking of functional interests by their superiors, criticizing it as micromanagement. Managers and leaders should emulate the way a blockbuster movie director and his team members work on a ‘one for all, all for one’ principle to realize the director’s vision of a blockbuster movie in the making.

Movie magic, leadership logic

Movies are often seen as nothing more than 150 minutes of entertainment. Indian movies, anchored in their templates of emotions, songs and dances, are seen as even more escapist entertainment. Worse still, most professionals and leaders have a marked disdain for moviemaking as a poor cousin of any organized enterprise. However, behind these 150 minutes of celluloid experience lie important lessons of management and leadership which can be imbued in the day to day as well as strategic business and corporate management practices. There is, in fact, no project like making of an intended blockbuster movie, translating a directorial concept into a magnum opus, working in the process with hundreds of talented leaders and individuals on a daily basis. There is no power like the power of a blockbuster movie in riveting the attention and collecting the adulation of the society. Successful moviemaking is dexterous management of total uncertainty and creation of a creative extravanganza from the simplest of ideas, based on talent, imagination, creativity, passion, dedication and team work.

The history of Indian film making has several chapters scripted by movie moguls and actor stalwarts through their cinematic contributions. In several cases, from the popular Raj Kapoor to the legendary NT Rama Rao, hugely successful moviemakers demonstrated synergistic core competencies in a number of domains such as acting, screenplay, scripting and direction, to name a few. People who are familiar with the Telugu film industry aver the kind of deep research and strict discipline that NTR brought to his inimitable mythological roles. Aamir Khan reportedly practiced for over 45 days to get his tap dance in Dhoom 3 to perfection.  Successful movie stalwarts never stopped learning; they continued to learn and demonstrate personal leadership in multiple domains, spurring imagination and creativity, and seamlessly merging with every element of the movie making system from light boys to musical geniuses. The ten principles of successful movie making identified in this blog post have relevance and applicability in the broader realms of management and leadership for all enterprises and for all organizational endeavors.

Posted by Dr CB Rao on December 22, 2013