Creative Producers Vs Financial Producers - a point of view

I have been observing two big film industries (Hindi & Tamil) in India for over a decade now and has strong views based on my interactions with leading Producers on the need to be a Creative Producer than being a Financial Producer to be reasonably successful.

Unfortunately, most Producers whom we see in the film industry are Financial Producers or Deal Makers, who put together a team and leave it to the Director to complete the project by giving them all financial and manpower support. They are at best aware of the "One Line of the Script" or the theme and have very limited idea about the final script and screenplay, leading to Director taking the liberty and doing what he feels like, which most of the times turn out to be average to bad, except a few.

After leaving the final script part to the Directors, the Financial Producers depend or trust so much on the Directors that many a times, they do not even see the double-positive (edit version) before the first copy is prepared, leading to the film coming out as just the Director's point of view, instead of a teamwork and its point of view. When the film's first copy is taken out or ready for first copy, many Producers realize that the film is not up to their expectations or meeting commercial viability. They then try to do desperately whatever they can do. But even at that stage, most Directors convince them (with examples of how such previous films succeeded) that it will do well and they need not worry. When the Producer trusting even at that stage, does the marketing and distribution of the film, he ends up with a dud at the box office. When the losses occur, they commence speaking ill about the Director and his film among friends and media.

I would squarely blame these Producers for all such failures. As the eminent Producer-Director Yash Chopra once said, it is not the films that fail, but the scripts and budgets, which fail. When the scripts and budgets go wrong, no film can be saved. Unless the Producers decide to work closely with Directors on the final script and the budget, the films will normally come out without any control on both these aspects, and more or less a failure in hand.

No Director is God who knows exactly what will work with the audience, since if that is the case, the film industries in every language will not be facing over 90% failures. Every Director is trying to state a point of view and it may or may not work with the audience. A Producer should be the person, who is able to understand the script better, get more views from other team members or experienced people before giving the go ahead to commence the work. He then, should work closely with the Director to fine tune the script and screenplay so that it meets the audience's expectations on 6 "E"s , we mentioned earlier (or whatever parameter he feels adequate) before finalizing the same.

The Director must be given the freedom to translate the final approved script into celluloid in his own way as each one has his own style and presentation and that is where the creativity comes in.The Director also must be given all the freedom to improve on the pre-approved screenplay-dialogues during the shoot. There the Producer cannot intervene as at the shooting spot, only the Director must be the captain. However, before getting into that stage, every Producer must play a strong role in working with the Director for as many days in finalizing the script and screenplay, which helps to save him later of all the troubles.

Being a Financial Producer is relatively easy as one needs to just put together a team and organize funds and leave the rest to the Director and the production team. However, being a Creative Producer is tough. He or she must be involved in every stage of script, screenplay and dialogues, finalize the composition of songs with the Director, finalize the casting, budgeting and actual production. Net, the Creative Producers must be "hands on" on the project, knowing each and every detail (including the dialogues and music of the film), so that they are a great support to the Director and a good team member. When the Producers behave like "Mudhalalis or Owners" of a film, they remain as "Financial Producers". When they are actively involved in every aspect of the film they become "Creative Producers" who have great control over the project.

Of course, Creative Producers are hated/disliked by the Directors who look for free hand in the film and wish to take all credit for the final outcome. But at the end of the day, it is the money of the Producer, which is at stake. Hence, my personal view is every Producer must be a Creative Producer to have great control over the films and also have total ownership for the final output. The Producers must treat the Directors as a team member and a team leader and give the respect due than treating him like a God before the film release and treat him like a Demon post the release and failure of a film.

This point of view can be corroborated with the success ratio of known Creative Producers like Yash Chopra, Karan Johar (in Hindi), R.B. Choudhry (Super Good films), AVM Studios, Kavithalaya banner (in Tamil) etc.

I will discuss in another blog the success ratio of Producer-cum-Directors Vs pure Directors.