In October 2024, Dharma Productions, a well-known film production company in India, was facing significant financial difficulties despite the immense popularity of their predecessor films. By 2019, their productions often fell short of commercial expectations, and by 2024, the company had only recovered on one out of four films released. Karan Johar, the director-producer who inherited the company from his father in 2004, was in talks to sell a 50 percent stake due to these struggles.
Jigra, a thriller set in Thailand and starring Alia Bhatt, was produced at a cost of 800 million rupees ($9.2m) and faced skepticism about its potentials, despite promotional efforts by Dharma Productions including claims of a trailer with over 40 million views, buzz which was largely created by influencers associated with the movie.
To cope with the fear of negative reviews impacting the film’s success, Dharma Productions decided not to hold pre-release screenings for critics, which is traditionally beneficial for influencers seeking monetary benefits from offering positive reviews. This practice, whereby influencers are paid for positive reviews, has been a norm in Bollywood for a long time, with deals ranging from packages for promotional efforts to cash-only transactions directly negotiated.
The financial model underlying paid reviews has been under scrutiny, with concerns over the validity and impact of such practices. While paid positive reviews are argued by some to only slightly influence a film’s performance within the first week of release, many in the industry insist that these can create a fake positive word-of-mouth effect, which is highly influential in film marketing.
The revelation of so-called “rate cards” further emphasizes the issue, with organized systems for buying positive reviews tailored by PR and marketing firms. While some established media organizations require formal agreements and substantial fees, negotiations with influencers are typically based on negotiations conducted before film previews, dictated by the level of enthusiasm around a particular release.
Karan Johar’s decision to forgo paying for reviews with Jigra was seen as an attempt to stand against the entrenched practices where success is often fabricated rather than organically achieved. Despite maintaining traditional media partnerships, Dharma Productions actively avoided engaging social media influencers. The exclusion of influencers did not, however, save Jigra from a disappointing performance, indicating the industry’s reliance on organic success rather than fabricated support.
Critics argue that Bollywood’s struggles could be attributed to inflating box office numbers and manipulating reviews, rather than focusing on quality film production. This issue has prompted discussions about the sustainability of Bollywood’s business model and the need for a cleaner operational environment that relies less on paid promotions.
Karan Johar eventually sold a 50 percent stake in Dharma Productions to Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of Serum Institute of India, indicating a paradigm shift within the industry as production houses seek financial support amid dwindling revenues.
The issue of paid reviews is not unique to Bollywood; examples of similar practices can be found worldwide, such as Sony Pictures’ payment to audience members for positive reviews in the early 2000s and the Golden Globes awards controversy in 2022 over paid promotional trips. The prevalence of such practices highlights a global challenge in showbiz regarding authenticity and the value of honest criticism.
Moving forward, there are calls within the industry to address this as a systemic issue, with genuine concerns over maintaining the integrity of film criticism and avoiding the manipulation of audience perception. The challenge for Bollywood will be to reform and return to fostering organic success for its films.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/3/7/how-the-business-of-buying-movie-reviews-is-destroying?traffic_source=rss
