lagaan final report

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Page 1: Lagaan Final Report

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Roll No 19-24

Prateek (19), Trisha (20), Rikita(21), Rachit (22), Sonika (23), Resham (24)

Page 2: Lagaan Final Report

Dedicated to all those who paid their share of Lagaan so that a story could be immortalized on film!

….Re Bhaiyya chhoote lagan!

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An Idea that nearly died.A script no one had the

guts to touch.A shoot that was all but

abandoned.A spirit that refused to

accept defeat.

Page 3: Lagaan Final Report

Table of Contents

Objectives 4

Project Summary 5

Project Scope 6

Project Life Cycle in movies 7

Work Breakdown Structure 12

Stakeholders Analysis 14

Costing and Budgeting 16

Risk Analysis and Causal Mapping 20

Networking and Critical Path 25

Project Human Resource Management 28

Project Results 31

Group Analysis 32

Group learning

a. Rikita Gujral 35

b. Resham Hira 37

c. Sonika Gupta 40

d. Trisha Ghosh 43

e. Prateek Garg 46

f. Rachit Gunderia 48

References 51

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Objectives

Using Lagaan as the model project, the group would first of all like to highlight the “hard working project managers” and their importance. Project managers are mostly unsung heroes of business and technology, people who in most cases, stand outside the public eye but without whose talent, skills and hard work most neat ideas would never amount to anything. Certainly the project manager is but one of the many people who help shape the products, systems and artifacts of modern life, those things we take for granted as well as those we marvel at. Nonetheless, the project manager is the one who gets all the others involved, and then organizes and directs them so their combined efforts will come out right. In a way, this project is a tribute to the project managers all over the world by the group.

With the help of Lagaan, the group intends to have a closer and deeper look at the entire project life cycle covering the following topics:

1. Project Scope and Development Life Cycle2. Project Planning and WBS3. Stakeholders Analysis4. Cost Estimating & Budgeting5. Risks in Projects and Causal mapping6. Project Networking and Critical Path7. Human resource project management 8. Project integration 9. The structures and methods for the Governence and Management of project10. Providing suggestions for project management frameworks and methods.

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Project Summary

Lagaan, Once upon a time in India, is a 2001 Bollywood feature film made in India. The film, based on an original story by Ashutosh Gowariker, was also directed by him. It was produced by Aamir Khan, who plays the lead role, and stars Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley and Paul Blackthorne in supporting roles.

15th of June, 2001 saw history being made on the big screen. One of India's biggest movie hits ever, Lagaan was released worldwide and it was an instant success. Almost 3 years in the making, Lagaan was built on an astronomical budget of Rs. 250 million (almost US $ 5 million) (BoxOfficeIndia.com). It was not only a domestic success (domestic revenue: Rs. 389 million or US $ 7.78 million), but also won international acclaim and earned US $ 2.5 million at the international box-office. For debutante producer Aamir Khan, (who was also the lead actor in the movie) and director Ashutosh Gowariker, this was a huge canvas which could sway in either direction -become a monstrous hit, or fall flat on its face.

The movie is set in the Victorian period of the British Raj and revolves around the peasants from a barren village who are oppressed by high taxes imposed by the British. When the peasants attempt to persuade the officers to reduce the taxes, the officers put forth a proposition to the peasants. One senior officer offers to cancel their taxes for three years if their village team beats him at cricket. After accepting his proposition, the villagers face the arduous task of learning the game and playing for a result that will change their village's destiny.

The film received critical acclaim and awards at various international film festivals, as well as many Indian film awards. It also became the third Hindi-language film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film after Mother India and Salaam Bombay!. It was one of the biggest hits of 2001 while its DVD sales were the highest ever for a Bollywood movie up to 2007.

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Project Scope One of Indian cinema's biggest successes, Lagaan was not only big in terms of revenue and worldwide acclaim, but also for its grand scale - including an international cast, remote location shooting, 10,000 extras and a first time producer. Hence, Lagaan is a “unique” project. This project attempts to capture the aspects of Project Management in the making of this movie and reflects upon the Project's scope, Work Breakdown Structure, Risk Analysis and Governance methods. By combining these, a graphical representation of the entire process of movie making can be viewed from the eyes of Project Management.

The definition of the scope of such a huge project is very important as it clearly maps out what key activities should be carried out for the planning, arranging, controlling and implementing of the project successfully.

“Project scope management is primarily concerned with defining and controlling what is and is not included in the project.” (PMBOK Guide)

From the writer and director-Ashutosh Gowariker’s perspective, this project began with the initial idea inception stage which led to the full scripted storyline of the idea. This script was then pitched in front of Producers who would be willing to finance this project.

Hence, the scope of the project would involve activities which would span from pre-production planning and arrangements, scheduling and budgeting, to the actual shooting procedure, as well as post-production activities. Further, in terms of the business context, this project would necessarily aim at producing the planned film (which is the end product) within the scheduled time. Controlling the entire procedure of making the film is divided into manageable sub-divisions and the crew members are assigned their respective roles and responsibilities e.g. Set Building is to be supervised by the Art Director, Cinematography is to be handled by the Director of Photography, who also co-ordinates with the related departments like Sound, Lights etc.

There was a certain degree of madness in me....Ashutosh Gowarikar

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Project Life Cycle Applied To the Movies

An entertainment for 3hrs with a movie and just immediately passing remarks whether a hit or a flop within no time is the attitude of every cine- goer. However, these 3 hr movies are not made within 3 mins. It’s a long, tiring, time consuming, brain racking, co-ordinating activity which is not even easy to imagine.

Lagaan, one of India’s biggest blockbusters was no such exception. With its magnitude of risk it was even more complex and required intense intricate planning.

For simplifying things, the following classification can be considered.

The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s goals or objectives. Regardless of scope or complexity, any project goes through a series of stages during its life.

These concepts can be applied to the making of a movie in the following manner, in our case it is dealt with the making of Lagaan:

InitiationIn this first stage, the main theme and storyline of the movie is defined along with the approach to be taken to deliver the desired outputs on screen. The feasibility studies are conducted so as to ascertain the popularity at the box office.The various project heads are appointed that is the director, producer, screenplay writer, editor, financer etc. the list is exhaustive. They select their team members based on skills and experience to form particular units. Eg: Sound recording dept, Production team, Costumes team, Make up team etc.

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Initiation phase

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30th 1996Ashutosh nararted the script to aam ir khanThe idea w as to d ie that m om ent itself since aam ir khan rejected it as im plausible

August 1996Risk taken by ashutosh to go ahaed w ith h is dream

D ecem ber 1996Takes along 2 asst. W riters to kolkote, secluded from the city life and the story is converted to a fu ll script

3rd jan 1997Script is com pletetd

9th jan 1997Aam kir khan decides to giv the story a hearing aft rer a lot of persuasion

9th m arch 1997Aam ir is touched by the scriptBut not very sure to act in it , asks ashutosh to find a producer.

M ar 97- dec 97All producers refuse ( 3 risks involved - fa iled d irector, period ic fi lm , m ovies based on stars not the scripts)

Jan 98 3rd narration for aam ir. Convinced w ith the script, th inks of producing it h im self. ( R isks- expensive, bankruptcy if flop)

April 984th narration for aam ir a long w ith m any other respected audiences. Jham u sughand agrees for financing. ' Beleive in the pro ject'

M ay 98- june 99Production design ingBudgetingReena datt a jo ins as the asst d irector

Feb 99- m ay 99Reena datt a prepares the budget for 8 crores as earlier, but 14 crores is expected

June 99Various problem s occur- one schedule, one location, enorm ous casts, foreign actors, adapting to change, finding and build ing cham paner

O ct 98- june 99AR rahm an decided as the m usic com poser, how ever m usic w anted 2 m onths in advanceN itin desai- com plete the entire set before shooting begins, sceduling w as the m ost d iffi cult taskSync sound needed

O ct 99D ream team set

N ov -dec 99M ixed racia l cast- m ake up d iffi cult. N icole dem ers from hollyw ood called.D epartm ent heads have to get w ell acquainted w ith all problem s in advanceM ovie m agic soft w are used for bett er co-ord ination

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PlanningThe second phase includes a detailed identification and assignment of each task until the end of the project. It includes a risk analysis and a definition of criteria for the successful completion of each deliverable. The governance process is defined, stake holders identified and reporting frequency and channels agreed. This step in Lagaan was one of the most crucial steps since it involved immense planning and control as the entire set had to be constructed at one area with rigorous shooting from the beginning to the end. The climate, topography and other geographic factors played a very important role and involved a great deal of intricacy. The planning phase itself takes almost a year.

Execution and controllingThe most important issue in this phase is to ensure project activities are properly executed and controlled. During the execution phase, the planned solution is implemented to solve the problem specified in the project's requirements. In product and system development, a design resulting in a specific set of product requirements is created. This convergence is measured by prototypes, testing, and reviews. As the execution phase progresses, groups across the organization become more deeply involved in planning for the final testing, production, and support. This step in lagaan was another big hurdle and its crossing was not lesser than a milestone. Ashutosh and his entire crew kept a continuous check on the making; the various snapshots generated and kept refining the product till the very end.

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2nd jan 2000The enti re crew lands in bhu j

6th jan 2000The m uhu rat sho t is takenB iggest challen ge: feeling o f un ity to w ork und er ashu to sh 's leadersh ip and fin ish sh ooti ng by 13th m ay 2000

7th jan 2000The b udget crosses 16 croresU se of call-sheet for produ ctio n scheduling w hich g ives deta iled in form ati on

13tjh jan 2000M any challen eges faced regard ing clim ate , sync sou nd, extrem e tem peratures, coord inati o n betw een arti sts, m ake up m en for 68 artsists.

D uring janThe b riti sh actors arrive , the am o unt of d issati sfacti on in them is h ighA .K hangal sho ots from a stretcher d ue to po or health

15th febShooti ng is 15 days beh in d scheduleStarts using w ork structure to com e back on track

2oth febA rranging 10000 people fo r the cricket m atch and arran gem en ts for them is a m am m oth taskA rrangm ent o f an im als, carts

24th feb1200 cricketi ng sho ts to be sho t in 20 days accord ing to the deta iled paper w ork and in tricaciesT im e fram e since briti shers contract w ould end, d iffi cu lt to get n ew dates, arran gem en t for 2000 v illagers daily is d iffi cu lt

6 th m archR ealizati o n that sho oti ng a m atch is very d iffi cu lt indeed

8th m archIm m ense d iffi cu lty in sho oti ng the m atch leads to further 5 d ays delay The shooti ng period is po stp oned ti ll 18th jun e 2000 from 13th m ay 2000 w ith various com plicatio ns

29th m archShift of sh ooti ng from cricket p itch to palace of h is h ighness m aharao

30th m archThe m usic m aestro A R rahm an, subm its th e sou ndtracks needed

14th aprilA R rahm an and javed akhtar fly do w n again to bhu j to finalise the last so ng

1st m ay 2000Saro j kh an arrives in bhuj for the dance sequences

Enti re m ayFinalisin g the dances, son g sequences, n ight shoo ts

2nd juneFinal scenes for the cricket m atch ae shot15th jun e

The end seem s in sight, on ly patches of shots left

17th jun eThe shoot ends

4th ju lyThe land to be returned to villagers in the previous conditi on, the destructi on w ork begins

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ClosureIn this last stage, the entire cast and crew have to aim that the best is delivered. This stage involves the final mixing of sound, lyrics, background, editing and making a movie worth

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July 1st 2000Post production work begins, plans to release movie on 24th december

15th octoberRelease postponed to 1st june 2001

6th jan 2001Movie is 5.5 hrs longProblems in cricket match shots, plans to reshoot with same crew and effort

25th jan 2001Negotiataions with distributors begin

26th jan 2001Earthquake shakes bhuj, no further edits in the movie possibleContributions poured in to restructure bhuj

27th feb 2001Shooting at wankhede stadium to record the applause and cheerings4hr long movie

Until may 2001Final sound recording, editing etc to be completed

6th april 2001Music released

8th june 2001Screening for the actors

10th june2001Public screening at bhuj

15th june 2001After 2.5 yrs of writing, a year of pre production, 6 months shooting and 1 year in post production the movie releases at sun city, SA and 260 theatres in india

19th june onwardsPopularity comes in for lagaan along with the best reviews from the whose who of the industry

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Work Breakdown StructureThe process steps for developing a work break down structure that identifies all the tasks in the project’s work are depicted below:

Based upon the scope definition, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of the project is prepared, which enlists the activities required to complete the project successfully. WBS is just a list of activities and is not chronologically ordered as in the case of Project Network Diagram.The possible WBS diagram of this project is shown below.

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PlanDevelopment

Task Identification Work Breakdown

Task Assignment & Ownership

Logical Relationships and Dependencies

Task Duration

Project Schedule

Trade-offs, Optimization, and Risk Management

PlanDevelopment

Task Identification Work Breakdown

Task Assignment & Ownership

Logical Relationships and Dependencies

Task Duration

Project Schedule

Trade-offs, Optimization, and Risk Management

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a) Lagaan involved cast members from India as well British actors/actresses and hence the audition process has been divided into Domestic and International.b) The Exec Producer and Asst. Direction Team supervise over the status monitoring and Resource Management of the shooting.c) Lagaan was shot in a single slot of 6 months in a remote village called Bhuj in the west coast of India. Location Amenities have been specifically mentioned as secured and comfortable accommodation for the 300 cast and crew members, was very crucial.d) Special mention of extras audition has been done. Lagaan’s climactic cricket match involves 10,000 villagers.

Captain Russell: Tum…bolo….doogna lagan dogey, ya sharat manjoor hai?Bhuzan: Sarat manjoor hai

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Page 14: Lagaan Final Report

Stakeholders Analysis“Project stakeholders are individuals and organizations that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be affected as a result of project execution or project completion. They may also exert influence over the project’s objectives and outcomes.” [PMBOK Guide]It is crucial to understand and identify the stakeholders and determine their expectations and requirements so as to ensure a successful project. The stakeholders in this particular project can be:-

Director / Writer: - He invests his idea, skill, time and effort in bringing the project to life. He is the driving force and the head of the creative department.

Producer(s):- They invest the money and take care of the financial aspect of filmmaking. Right from the location and equipment hires to paying bills for the cast and crew members, they look over all of it.

Cast/Crew: - The 300 strong cast/crew members spend a long 6 month away from their families in a remote location until they complete their task. They are also the active participants and executers of the project.

Local Population: - The local population is also significantly affected by such a huge project being undertaken in their vicinity.

Law and Order: - The law and order of the location is also a stakeholder as it can affect the way the film is produced. Any disruption to the environment, anti-cruelty laws against animals etc are factors which influence the project.

Furthermore, contractual agreements between the different stakeholders can be related to distribution of share of revenue and profit margins, length of the contract period, safety, security and insurance agreements, and abidance to industry standards and labour laws

Success/Failure for each Stakeholder has been tabulated below.

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SUCCESS FAILURE

DIRECTOR / WRITER

Green signal for initiation Project rejected

On schedule shooting and completion

Project delay

Desired success of film Film not well received

PRODUCERS Proper channel of funds Financing problems

On schedule completion and shooting

Project delay

Desired success and expected profits

Film not doing good business

CAST / CREW On schedule completion and shooting

Film delayed

Expected contractual Pay-off Problematic pay off

Desired success of film Film not well received

LOCAL POPULATION

No disruption to local environment

Local environment disrupted

Local employment opportunities N/A

LAW AND ORDER No flora and fauna getting adversely affected

Flora and fauna hampered

Labour laws being followed Labour laws disobeyed

Mukhiya: Tumhari Khopdi Ghoom gayi hai. Bhuvan! Khud to doobogey, hum sabka bhi laike doobogey!(Have you gone crazy Bhuvan? Not only you, we will all be ruined!)

Lagaan

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Costing and Budgeting

.

In the next page, you will find a breakdown of the total production cost for Laagan, as gathered from various sources; including the net, the book “making of lagaan” etc.

In this example, the budget was Rs.250 Million and most people think that if the total box office amount exceeds that number, the movie would make a profit.

However, most people do not know that the studio ended up spending an additional Rs.50 Million on marketing and distribution. Simply put, the cost that goes with making a movie are much more than the total production budget than the average people hears or reads about.

Total Cost = Development Cost + Pre-Production Cost + Production Cost + Post-

ProductionCost

The total production cost is the price tag that everyone hears about when they say Lagaan cost Rs.250 Million to make for example. However, the average Bollywood feature film contains 6

stages and the cost of marketing and distribution are not included in the Total Cost.

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SCRIPT RIGHTS Ashutosh Gowarikar Rs.20 Million

SCREENPLAY Rs.15 Million

PRODUCERS Jhamu Sughand , Aamir Khan Rs.25 Million

DIRECTOR Ashutosh Gowarikar Rs.10 Million

ART DIRECTOR Nitin Chandrakant Desai Rs.15 Million

CAST

Aamir Khan Rs.10 Million

Gracy Singh Rs.7 Million

Rachel Shelly Rs.5 Million

Paul Blackthorne Rs.5 Million

PRODUCTION SHOOTING COST Extras Rs.45 Million

SPECIAL EFFECTS Rs.65 Million

MUSIC Rs.10 Million

COMPOSER A.R Rehman Rs.2 Million

LYRICIST Javed Akhtar Rs.4 Million

OTHER Rs.23 Million

TOTAL COST Rs.250 Million

The various costs involved at different stages of the filming is summarized below:

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Development: Rs. 30 Million (approx)

Before filming a movie, you need a story. The producer will work on acquiring the script which can be a costly expense. He will also sign a screenwriter to adapt the script into a film and possibly look for a potential director and main cast members so he can get financing on the project (if he isn’t backed by a major studio)

Pre-production: Rs. 25 Million (approx)

Once a project gets the green light, this is where the producer will start officially hiring all the cast members, director, and cinematographer, set designer, extras and hundreds of technical people needed to actually shoot a movie. All the planning that needs to be done before shooting begins is done here.

Production: Rs. 130 Million (approx)

This is the actual shooting of the film. Expenses includes everyone’s paycheck, the cost of fabricating sets, costumes, stunts and pyrotechnic, traveling, food catering, insurance, equipment, blocking streets off, renting facilities and all other cost related to filming the movie.

Below the line: Rs. 45 Million (Approx)

"Below-the-line" costs are the physical production expenses of the shoot, including crew fees. The costs of hiring and operating state-of-the-art equipment, corralling and feeding armies of extras, occupying and vacating locations, and, above all, employing thousands of high-salaried crew members are enormous. According to a source close film, "the daily burn rate for movie shoots is staggering. We were employing 10000 people on an average salary of Rs 200 a day, so you can see how the costs race up."

Post-production: 65 Million (Approx)

After shooting is finished, the movie still has to be put together. This is where the editor comes into play. If the movie needs CGI, the visual effect people might start working here. Another significant cost is scoring the movie with a composer and/or by buying rights to whatever songs the director wants in the movie. This can be quite costly as you may have to pay Millions to acquire the rights to play one single song in your movie.

Marketing : Rs. 25 Million (Approx)

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Think about a movie that you are looking forward to. Most likely, it was due to some type of marketing that made you aware of it. You might have seen a trailer during a prime-time TV commercial slot, a banner at the mall, advertisement in magazines and newspaper, a virtual ad banner on the internet etc…

This is called media buying and is usually a very costly process for your average Bollywood feature because you have to buy ad space and slots in every single market (domestic and foreign) you are planning to release the movie in. All of this at a very specific and simultaneous point in time, further driving up the price.

Additionally, think of all the thousands of movie posters and memorabilia that have to be created and then shipped all around the world as well as all the marketing related to selling DVDs and Blu Rays discs a few months later. Marketing a movie is an extremely costly enterprise.

Distribution : Rs. 25 Million (Approx)

A print is the physical copy of the movie that is locked in a metallic box and sent to the movie theater. A single print cost up to Rs.2,000. Multiply that by the number of screens and you can see that it adds up pretty fast. Add the cost of the logistics to produce, store, maintain, send and recover those prints from all around the world and this gets very expensive very fast.

Other cost here include things such as sending prints to foreign markets, printing DVDs, Blu Rays etc… Finally, one has to understand that the studio doesn’t recover all the money from the sale of tickets at the box office. The movie theaters get to keep a fraction of the revenue and various residual fees are docked off.

In the case of foreign box office, the studios recover even less money since they often have to find local distributors in those markets who will keep a significant portion of profits.

Produce! No way! That’s the last thing I want to do……Aamir Khan

Risk Analysis

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Risk can be defined as “Uncertainty inherent in plans and the possibility of something happening that can affect the prospects of achieving business or project goals”. [BS 6079] With Lagaan being a huge project, the possibility of risk to creep in from every nook and corner was high and it needed to be managed. The two main risks that needed to be dealt with were also directly related to two biggest constraints –Time and Money. Both can be classified as the main risks – i.e. over-budget and project-delay. The major risks contributing to this are discussed below:-

Uncertainty The script of Lagaan involved a lot of uncertain elements which was never seen before in Indian cinema.

The very first thing was the apprehensive attitude of Aamir Khan. He earlier had even pointed out that the script was utterly useless.

Ashutosh Gowarikar, the director, also had a poor track record. The director’s previous two movies had not been well received

The risk of making a period movie, and that too on a very large scale was one of the biggest factors that were holding this dream from becoming reality. Bollywood at this time was churning out romantic blockbusters, and coming out with a period movies was a big risk

There was no producer available to take the film. This was the Bollywood when the films were supposedly revolving around the stars, and not the story.

A period film, shot in a remote location with almost an unknown cast (except for the lead actor). Further, all these meant Lagaan had the risk of not doing well at the box-office.

ScheduleThe project was a “Single Schedule Film”. This means the Team Lagaan should be built in such a way, that all the members of the unit are ready to work on this project only, at a continuous stretch in Bhuj, sans commitment to any other project.

The things that could affect the schedule in a big way were:

Aamir not getting enough time to become a full fledged producer with all the responsibilities, due to lack of experience as well as his other commitments.

The whole set, village Champaner, has to be built on the barren lands of Bhuj before the shooting begins.

Being a single schedule project, all the lyrics as well as the music was to be done and recorded atleast a month prior to the start of shooting.

The Dream Team was to be built and all the auditions done well in advance, keeping in mind the prior commitments of the members.

Location

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Aamir Khan asked Ashutosh to consider a realistic location, with good scenery other than Kutchh. Plus, Aamir wanted a location which was not over exposed to the audience and public. It took additional 6 months to finally zero down to Bhuj.

Difficulty in persuading the farmers to sell their piece of land for the purpose of shooting, without hurting their sentiments or creating any suspicion.

.

Environment The location for the shooting was in Bhuj, Gujrat in Western India. The weather

conditions could get quite extreme and affect in the delay of the shoot. Further, sandstorms and heavy winds kept obstructing the shooting procedure

Accommodation Housing the entire 300 cast and crew members in a single location, was extremely

risky. Ensuring safety, security and proper food and lodging was essential. If not done properly, health conditions and safety of the cast and crew would be affected negatively.

Health The main cast and crew members were irreplaceable. Any one of them getting

injured or ill would mean the project to be halted completely. Such an incident happened with veteran actor A.K. Hangal, when he injured

himself during the shoot, leading to delay in the shooting.

Technical Equipment Malfunctions, technical shortcomings demanding rework and

customization etc. lead to project delay. Aamir decided to go for sync sounding. Although it would then reduce the time

period taken for dubbing, but that would then be an additional burden on the creativity and technical team, and lots of work had to be done for this before shooting.

Controlling Resources Co-ordination of 300 cast/crew members to consistently produce correct output as

well as behave as pre-planned is only possible in an ideal world. Over and above, the climax scene of Lagaan involves 10,000 extras. This could risk the entire shoot if not controlled.

As seen from Risk Analysis, we have discussed the main risks faced by this Project. On further analysis of the Project, the correlation between the issues and risks can be determined. The risks and issues are identified as the key ones faced by this project.

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The causal map figure (below) shows how the risks and issues are related to each other

Risk Causal Mapping Diagram[The blocks in blue denote the risks and issues faced by the project. The pink blocks denote the measures taken by the management to handle these risks and issues. ]

How Aamir handled the problems?

1. Producer Problem

When Aamir found that no producer was buying Ashutosh’s idea, he himself stepped forward and decided to produce the film.

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However, Aamir was busy with his pending projects Mela and Mann, and so found himself devoting time as a producer very half hearted.

For this, he came out with the solution of dividing his work. The responsibility of the budget was handed to his wife Reena who took over as executive producer, and financer Jhamu Sughand.

He alos introduced the concept of First AD in Bollywood, with appointment of Apoorva Lakhia.

2. Schedule

Most Hindi films are shot over several schedules of a few weeks each that stretch over a couple of years. It’s so because the stars of the film are already committed to a dozen of projects and hence can’t spare more than a few weeks for a single film at a stretch.

That means, a single project is divided into many small projects. Juggling dates to get the entire team together is the ultimate nightmare of a producer. This anarchic work culture has calamitous consequences on the creative process. The entire film must be shot from start to finish in a single schedule, in which every unit member will only live the world of lagaan.

Can a new work culture be created among those used to working the old way? For this pre planning was done with the help of schedule charts The location was zeroed down and Champaner was created with the help of local

people AR Rahman and Javed Akhtar were well informed about the requirement of songs

and music atleast 2 months before the start of the shoot. The Dream Team of almost all the people best in their class was formed A grand audition was done and the actors were well informed about the need of

their seclusion from other projects. The British actors were also auditioned in London itself.

3. Accommodation and Safety

This issue was personally dealt by Reena and Aamir’s sister Nikhat. Both of them visited all the possible eat outs and lodges available to choose the best one, in terms of comfort for the crew and the hygiene.

The scenes to be shot were arranged in such a way that if any unusual thing happens, the scene can be replaced by the other, so as to avoid any delay.

4. Still more challenges

Plot at the site: the villagers were not willing to leave the plot. This issue was dealt by appointment of a local contractor, Danabhai.

Work force: no one in the crew knew the art of boonda making. So it was decided to take the work force from the village itself to create Champaner.

Injury to a worker during the construction of cricket pavilion

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Dissatisfaction amongst the British actors. They were not satisfied with arrangements of toilets. So special toilets were set for them in the vanity vans.

Running out of construction materials for building Chanpaner. The whole script had to be re-written in Awadhi, so as to match the dialect of the

local people. This meant that the actors were asked to learn and practice speaking Awadhi. Raja Awasthi from Lucknow was asked for the help.

Mukesh Rishi who is to play Deva, opts out. Pradeep Rawat is cast in Deva’s role. Kutch is a dry state where possession of alcohol is an offence. This created

restlessness in the crew. Raghuveer Yadav was diagnosed with acute appendicitis and required surgery.

5. Post-production challenges and risks

All the Lagaanites knew that the fortunes of the film are tied to the cricket match, perhaps the longest climax in the cinematic history. If the match does not work, the film has no future. The length of the match itself was more than 2 ours!

Aamir was ready for the risk. He asked Reena to prepare a fresh budget for three weeks of reshoot at the cricket ground with the entire cast including the crowds, the village actors and the British actors.

Severe depression in markets. Major films have flopped leading to distributers suffering huge losses. The distributors are now offering a price at the ratio of rupees two crore per territory, exactly one crore less than expected.

The earthquake at Bhuj on the 26th of January also proved to be a possible factor for any further delay.

Gauri: Main tohre saath hoon. Bharosa hai mohe, tujhpe, tohri himmat pe

…..Gauri, Lagaan

Project Network And Critical Path

The entire project can be further sub-divided into two major subprojects. The first part is the Pre-Production Project, which ends with the Beginning of the Shoot.The second part is the Shooting and Post-Production which ends with the final element of the project, the Release of the movie.

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Pre-Production Project Network Diagram

Although, the project procedure begins with the Script Writing, but from a management point of movie, the project initiation start-point is after the Script is being given a go-ahead. The Project Network shown in Fig gives a graphical idea of the Project activities.

Shooting and Post-Production Project Network Diagram

The critical activities are the ones which contribute the highest to the risk factor of the entire project. These activities typically involve high time and resource and rely a lot on other uncertain

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factors like weather conditions, irreplaceable resources (like the Technical crew, leading members of cast etc.). Further, these could also be such activities which are mandatory to be completed for any other activity else to begin. Considering this, the following can be termed as critical activities.

a) The appointment of the correct Cast and Crew members for the project is the most crucial activity for the project. Without the right minded resources, any project can collapse and in case of this project, this is extremely essential.

b) The sheer size of such a project demands a proper planning and scheduling to control the time and money constraints effectively. Hence, project scheduling and planning is one of the critical activities.

c) Location Amenities and Set Design: Without proper amenities, the cast and crew member team cannot be kept on location. Set Design on the other hand serves the backdrop of the movie canvas which needs to be completed before the movie begins.

d) Shooting: For obvious reasons, the shooting of the movie is also one of the crucial activities because this is where all the planning is being implemented.

Based on this timescale [Gantt Chart, H.Maylor, Project Management], the critical path (the longest path of planned activities to the end of the project, and the earliest and latest that each activity can start and finish without making the project longer) for the project network can be deduced as shown in the figure below.

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Project Human Resource ManagementHuman resource management formed a very crucial part of the ‘Lagaan Project’. Unless and until the management of human resources was effective and efficient, the movie would have not been successful. The cast and the crew formed the pillars of the project.

In the making of Lagaan, four separate cultures were rubbing shoulders. It included

1. Around forty British actors2. A half westernized three hundred strong unit from Mumbai3. Sixty odd actors from tiny town of Bhuj.4. Around ten thousand Kutchi villagers.

The cast of lagaan is as follows:

Aamir Khan as Bhuvan. Ashutosh first thought of having Shahrukh Khan and Abhishek Bachchan for the role of Bhuvan. Khan suggested the name of Aamir for the role, while Bachchan chose to enter cinema with J. P. Dutta's Refugee (2000). It was only after this that Aamir was approached with the idea.

Gracy Singh as Gauri. Several actresses had offered to act in the film, but Aamir needed someone who matched the description of the character given in the script. After considering Sonali Bendre, Nandita Das, Rani Mukerji and Amisha Patel for the role, Ashutosh selected Gracy Singh for the female lead because he was convinced that she was a good actress and dancer. Singh, a newcomer, devoted all her time to the film.

Rachel Shelley as Elizabeth Russell. Paul Blackthorne as Captain Andrew Russell. Since the script also demanded a British

cast, Ashutosh and Aamir hired Danielle Roffe as one of the casting directors. After Danielle and Ashutosh screen-tested many, Rachel Shelley and Paul Blackthorne were chosen for the prime roles. Overall, the film cast 15 foreign actors.

Suhasini Mulay as Yashodamai. Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Raja Puran Singh. Raghuvir Yadav as Bhura, the poultry farmer. Yadav was selected based on his

performance in Earth (1998). He had undergone an appendicectomy operation in-between the filming schedule and returned to complete some of his scenes.

Rajesh Vivek as Guran, the fortune teller. Vivek was spotted by Ashutosh in the film Junoon (1978). His liking for cricket helped him in his role.

Raj Zutshi as Ismail, the potter. Zutshi's friendship with Aamir and association in several films brought him the role after the auditions.

Pradeep Rawat as Deva, a Sikh sepoy. Rawat's association with Aamir in Sarfarosh (1999) brought him the role of Deva which was initially intended for Mukesh Rishi. Rawat claimed that it was the highest ever compensation he received in his career.

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Daya Shankar Pandey as Goli, the man with the largest piece of land. Pandey, who preferred the role of Kachra, was known to Aamir and Ashutosh through previous films (Pehla Nasha (1993), Baazi (1995) and Ghulam (1998)). Pandey credited Ashutosh for his acting in the film, saying that Ashutosh and he would discuss the required emotions and expressions before shooting.

Shri Vallabh Vyas as Ishwar, the vaidya (doctor) in the village and Gauri's father. Yashpal Sharma as Lakha, the woodcutter. Sharma was chosen by Ashutosh after his

portrayal in Samar (1999). He said it was a good experience working with Aamir and Ashutosh during the film.

Amin Hajee as Bagha, the mute drummer. Hajee earlier worked in a film with Ashutosh. The friendly association brought Ashutosh to him with the script, which he liked, and thereafter he successfully auditioned for his role. His knowledge of mute people and some assistance from a music band helped him better prepare for his role. Ashutosh, who believed that Amin was like Sylvester Stallone, would refer to him as Stallone during filming.

Aditya Lakhia as Kachra, the untouchable. Lakhia's association with Ashutosh in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1993) and Pehla Nasha (1993) brought him this role. He read the book Everyone Loves a Good Drought by P. Sainath to better understand and portray his character. To get the distinct tanned look of the respective characters, the cast were asked to lie down under the sun.

Javed Khan as Ram Singh, Indian who works with British and helps Elizabeth in translating villagers language.

The management of all these diverse cultures was not an easy task and the production and the direction had to take special care to accommodate all these groups and maintain harmony for successful completion of the project in the scheduled time.

The British actors

It was important to coordinate the departure of the British actors from London and receiving them in Mumbai

Overseeing their travel from Mumbai to Bhuj Making sure that their baggage is safe and transporting it to Bhuj. Ensuring their foreign exchange payments The British actors had problems adjusting with the heat of Bhuj. They were also having different principles of the working methods and found it hard to

adjust to the Indian way of working eg: Rachel Shelly (Elizabeth) wanted the production to provide every British actor with the kit which consisted of the map of Bhuj and Kutch, a list of tourist spots, how one gets there, how long it takes and so on.

Accommodating them in places with proper facilities.

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Actors from Mumbai

Considering the fact that these actors are from westernized background, making them comfortable in Bhuj was an issue

Overseeing their travel from Mumbai to Bhuj Making sure that their baggage is safe and transporting them to Bhuj. Avtar Kishen Hangal, an 84 year old actor who had a back injury had to be taken care of-

thus affecting the shooting schedules. Liquor in dry Gujrat was difficult to obtain and hence there was unrest in the cast and

crew seen. The dinner could be served only till 10 pm at night and hence it would affect the actors

who were late causing friction. Unit members also complained the production about the leaking taps, geysers that don’t

heat water, air conditioners that keep tripping the fuse, televisions with missing remotes etc. In the tiny town like Bhuj, however, facilities for repairing these gadgets were scarce. Thus circulars were passed to the people to consider it to be their ‘home and not a hotel’.

Reena, an executive producer also threatened to leave as the schedules and costs seemed impossible. She had to be later convinced and motivated to carry on her good work.

Actors from Bhuj and the villagers from Kutch.

10,000 people were required to be collected and accommodated for shooting the cricket match which is 5% of the available population of the entire district. Arranging these actors was close to impossible. Initially an advertisement was put and later Dhanabhai made it possible on the name of Kutch’s dignity.

Food was a mammoth issue as providing food to 10,000 people for lunch breakfast and dinner was difficult.

This problem was solved by ordering packets of food from a big hotel in Kutch, located in Gandhidham.

It was unbearably hot in the morning and cooler at nights. Keeping the actors in the same attire for 24 hours of shooting for difficult.

Serving water individually to 10,000 people was difficult. Hence for this purpose, network of underground pipes were laid around the cricket ground. Hundreds of earthen pots were also kept for the same which also appeared in the scene.

Getting dhotis, gamchas and kurtas for thousands of people in the small place and convincing the youth who wore pants and shirts to change was another problem faced by the production.

The unrest in the crowd had to be handled by few numbers of people and maintaining their dignity was another issue.

The Project Result

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In Jan 2001, a catastrophic earthquake hit the village of Bhuj, six months after the shooting completed, and claiming 13,000 lives. Much before its worldwide release, the filmmakers screened it exclusively to the villagers of Bhuj.

Although Lagaan was delayed and over-budget, it did very well at the box office, and was highly appreciated in many film festivals worldwide. It was nominated for Best Foreign Film Category at the Academy Awards in 2002.

It won awards at Locarno, Portland, Leeds and Bergen International Film Festival. It also features at no.14 in the “50 films to See before You Die” list compiled by BBC and Channel 4.

Post release, Lagaan has spawned a huge number of merchandising items ranging from comics to toys. The DVD of Lagaan remains as the highest selling DVD in India

The initial reaction of Aamir and Ashutosh to Lagaan’s success was unexpected. They received the success with equanimity and then with growing irritation. Irritated at their own inability to fully enjoy the moment. Somehow, making the film had taken too much out of them, and so with the end of the journey, they were left quite foe a while with a feeling of emptiness. Curiously, the sentiment echoes in the hearts of Lagaanites all over the world.

Perhaps the big thing about Lagaan was that what happened off screen was much larger than what happened on screen the sense of achievement was the journey itself, in climbing mountain, not reaching the top. The journey has now run its course and Lagaanites know it well.

Even years later, as the film Lagaan dims from public memory, for all those who endured the trials of 1893 Champaner, the memories of that eventful journey are what will always endure.

Bhuvan: Haan Arjan, hum sapna dekhat hain. Aur sapna wohi saakar kar pavey hain, jo unhein dekhat hain

Group Analysis

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The scope of this project is very large, and hence, each activity was treated as a mini-project. Special care was taken to ensure that the project was being run on schedule. For this, call sheets were utilized to track records of attendance of cast on time. Precise timings for breaks were allotted and each activity was given a deadline.Project Scheduling, Detailed Budgeting and Resource Controlling were implemented to manage the project. Besides that, checkpoints at strategic points were used to monitor the progress of the project.

SUGESSTIONS FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORKS AND METHODS:Even though this project implemented some best practices mentioned above, it became over-budget and production was completed two months after the scheduled completion date. The uncontrollable risk factors did contribute to this delay; however, methods for governance of project could have helped in reducing the delay. Some of these frameworks and methods are briefly discussed below.

1. The 7-S framework of Project Management [H.Maylor, Project Management] provides a comprehensive set of issues that need to be considered. These are Strategy, Structure, Systems, Staff, Skills, Style/Culture and Stakeholders.

2. Project Management Process Groups Mapped to the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle [PMBOK Guide, 2004]: This process is an enhanced cycle which is applied on the interrelationships within and among the Process Groups. The Monitoring and Controlling Process is interacts with every aspect of the other Process Groups as shown in fig (below).

Project Management Process Groups Mapped to the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle3. Stage-Gates [T.Williams, Managing Resources and Operations] provide a check-point at

each stage of the project. It keeps a track record of the success/failure of an activity.

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Project Management Processes Stage-Gates Framework

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Our Learning

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Bhaley ghor andhera chaaveyChale chlo chale chalo

Koi raah mein naa tham jaaveyChale chalo

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Rikita Gujral, Roll no. 21

Topics Dealt: Project life cycle planning and development

“Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire” --Napoleon Hill

The core area researched and understood by me in the Project ‘The making of Lagaan’ has been about its inception and its planning to accomplish the mammoth task of making the movie successfully.

I basically applied the concepts of project planning to the making of a movie. A movie is just like another project but really a big one with many nitty-gritty involved. Through my analysis,( which is attached in the report) I’ve realized that its no easy task to make a movie, though when we look at it for 3 hrs we actually feel that its just a 30 min job to conceptualize and develop a concept. The audience judges the movie within the first 15-20 minutes and rates it as a flop or a hit. Once, when everyone understand the amount of hard work that gets involved in the entire process of entertainment one would start appreciating the entire project all the more. Atleast, I have resolved to do so henceforth.

The perfect recipe for a blockbuster movie:

Immense Team Work Making The Entire Crew, Cast To Believe In The Idea Music And Sound Co-Ordination Planning Visualizing Convincing The Financer For The Required Budget And Making Him Believe In

Your Concept The ‘Dependable’ Actor Creating A Dream Movie In A Stipulated Budget Estimating And Understanding The Cinema Goers Likes And Dislikes The Budgeting Process Contingency Planning

Lagaan, on the whole was a perfect blend of all these factors. There has been no such project in bollywood earlier where such a huge foreign casting was required and the shooting had to be dome without the creation of an artificial set.

The main steps involved in the making of the movie are discussed below and detailed in the report attached:

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1. Conception2. Planning3. Execution and controlling4. Closing

Also, the use of the ‘Magic media software’ helped align things and plan out daily tasks with proper scheduling. In its absence it was almost a Hercules task to make the movie in such a flawless format. The risk stakes involved were very high but the contingency planning paved the way out. Delays occurred inspite of the scheduling and the project was postponed by a few months but then was completed before its next deadline with great co-operation and belief.

Also, I tried understanding the scheduling and formulating a Gantt chart. The experience of forming the chart was a cumbersome process for such a mammoth activity but then the main matters were handled with it. It can be referred in the report.

At the end, I would just like to say that:

“The beginning is the most important part of the work”--Plato, Greek philosopher.

Resham Hira, Roll No. 24

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Topic: Project Planning and Development

USE of WBS

A key to successful project scheduling is to break down the project goals into tasks before you consider delivery dates, resource constraints, specific named resources, or task dependencies. This helps to objectively identify all of the work necessary without subconsciously leaving out real work in order to fit date constraints.

The WBS step helps accomplish the following key objectives:

Develops an objective, rational view of the amount of work required

Helps team grasp the skills required and amount of resources required for the project

Provides a clear framework for assigning to individuals a clear task definition and delegate the responsibility for completion

Lays a foundation for analyzing the task dependencies and for isolating and managing risks

Lays a foundation for developing a bottom-up estimate for the project schedule

Allows tradeoffs to be made consciously and with the proper consensus involved.

Using WBS

1. Identify how team members will be involved in creating the WBS and educate them on their role. The primary objective is to get all of the team participants to contribute to the definition of the work.

2. Determine an appropriate organization for your WBS and begin identifying major work efforts.

Break the top level of your WBS further into a hierarchical set of tasks.

This WBS information will feed the next step in the planning/scheduling process: Assigning resources to tasks.

Overview of WBS creation

The WBS is the first step in developing a detailed work plan for the project. Task Identification and WBS Creation bridges from the early Scope definition to creation of a detailed project schedule.

1) Start with: The ScopeDefines at the highest level what has to be done—what must be created and delivered to the project’s customers.

2) Create: The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)A top-down hierarchical description of the work required to produce what is called for in the Project Scope and achieve the mission, satisfy stakeholders

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• Provides approach for ‘decomposing’ the work into measurable units, which allows easier and more accurate estimates of duration, needed resources, and time required

• Helps ensure that the scope is completely defined and the team has not forgotten any work.

• Allows breakdown of work to deliverables, activities, tasks that can be assigned to an owner.

3) Based on the WBS, develop: The Project ScheduleCreated by adding resource assignments, task work effort and duration estimates, and dependencies to all tasks in the WBS.

Phases Identify major phases of work (e.g. specify, design, build, test…)

Major Project Deliverables and related milestones

Identify the major component deliverables of work required

Activities Identify the activities needed to create those deliverables. (Some interim, smaller deliverables such as documents may be involved.)

Tasks Break the activities down to an appropriate level of task detail.

Level 1 – Phases: A project plan, or schedule, is made up of the deliverables and milestones of the project, and depending on the level of detail required, the activities/tasks. Typically, this information can be organized into a number of natural groupings. In project planning, each group is called a phase and a name is given to it for ease of communication and reporting.

Level 2 – Deliverables & Milestones: Deliverables are the clearly defined and recognizable results or tangible work products of successfully completed activities/tasks performed during the project. They appear on a project plan in the past tense, to represent the completed activity/task and the accomplished result.

“Receivables” should also appear on the project plan. They are deliverables owed to the project by others outside of the project (usually other project teams), and upon which the project is dependent.

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Milestones are interim events or points in time during the project which identify the completion of a significant segment. They are most useful as measuring or tracking points to gauge the progress of the project.

Some milestones are “business-critical” milestones, in that they are not just a mechanism for giving the team interim targets; they have special significance, such as a contractual date with a customer.

Different individuals may identify different numbers of milestones based on their role in the project.

A milestone should be identified to indicate the completion of each phase of the project.

Levels 3 and 4+ – Activities & Tasks: Each phase of a project is composed of a number of major activities that will lead to achieving one or more deliverables. Activities are composed of a series of tasks that are the lowest level of detail that can comfortably be managed. Team members who will be performing the tasks should be involved in the activity/task planning process. Estimates of time to complete each task should be based on typical work effort required and then may be adjusted to reflect "real world" conditions.

1. The first and for most thing that I learned was the making of the best movies in Inida and Oscar nominated movie – ‘Lagaan’.

2. The teachings of Project management are essential in every sector 3. Innovation and being assertive is of prime importance for a person to lead and execute a

project4. Planning everything to smallest detail is important, if one wants to stand out and be

noticed.5. Moving out of one’s comfort zone is absolutely necessary to achieve something big in

life6. Determination and conviction in one’s idea can lead to a complete change in the whole

sector, and can create a sort of revolution. That is very evident in this case.7. In complex projects there needs to be a clear demarcation of responsibilities and duties,

which was clearly evident in ‘Lagaan’.

Sonika Gupta, Roll No. 23

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Topic: Stakeholders Analysis and Human Resource Management

Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets i.e. the people working there who individually and collectively contributes to the achievement of the objectives of the business.

The “Sponsor” in Lagaan is the producer of the film – Amir Khan

The “Director” here is the team leader who directs the team- Mr. Ashutosh Gowariker

The “Team” consists of the various stake holders like musicians, artist, actors, screenplay, cooks, producers, directors, costume designers etc.

Others stakeholders include:

Around forty British actorsA half westernized three hundred strong unit from MumbaiSixty odd actors from tiny town of Bhuj.Around ten thousand Kutchi villagers.

Sources of information:

I referred a book called“ Spirit of Lagaan” by Satyajit Bhatkal where I got an insight of the making of Lagaan, information on the problems faced while dealing with human resources and how team work and leadership skills helped to overcome the various conflicts, issues and mishaps related to human resources.

I also referred a few videos on www.youtube.com on the making of Lagaan.

A few other internet sources like

www.lagaan.com

www.wikipedia .com

which helped in the complete analysis of human resource management in project “Lagaan”

My Learning:

The management of such huge resources is important for the film to work well and it can be done only by proper planning, recruiting and team management. It consisted of following steps:

HR planning :

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Pre-planning for a year, including ten months for production issues and two months for his character, was tiring for Aamir. As a first-time producer, he obtained a crew of about 300 people for six months. Due to the lack of comfortable hotels in Bhuj, he hired a newly-constructed apartment and furnished it completely for the crew. Security was set up and a special housekeeping team was brought to take care of the crew's needs.

This included identifying and documenting the roles and responsibilities of the cast and crew in Lagaan.

A list of skills required by the project were listed so that people can be recruited as per requirements. Eg: Aamir needed someone who matched the description of the character given in the script. After considering Sonali Bendre, Nandita Das, Rani Mukerji and Amisha Patel for the role,[7][8] Ashutosh selected Gracy Singh for the female lead because he was convinced that she was a good actress and dancer. Singh, a newcomer, devoted all her time to the film

Since the script also demanded a British cast, Ashutosh and Aamir hired Danielle Roffe as one of the casting directors.[10] After Danielle and Ashutosh screen-tested many, Rachel Shelley and Paul Blackthorne were chosen for the prime roles. Overall, the film cast 15 foreign actors

Acquire project team:

The biggest problem of acquiring the team was to attain Bristish actors for an Indian film that was being produced by Amir Khan for the 1st time.

Appropriate people had to be identified and selected for the particular task. If any person backed out at the last moment or is unable to perform the appropriate role then arranging a replacement last moment could also be very difficult.

Before the project start it was important to identify the resource availability. This was not done correctly. Eg: 10,000 actors were to be arranged within a small period of time for the cricket scene. This had become close to impossible until Dhanabhai stepped in.

The team also consisted of diverse cultures and hence their adaptability had to be considered.

Development of the team:

Interaction with the team and making them comfortable was the job of the leader The youth which was collected from the villages in huge numbers had to be motivated to

work properly and in harmony. The team had to be trained on their respective tasks as the results of the project would

depend on the combined efforts of the team. Safe and secure environment had to be provided to the team so that they can give their

100% performance at the task given.

Managing the team

It involves tracking the performance of the cast and crew

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Ashutosh constantly provided feedback to the team regarding their performance. In fact petty matters like the crew should “stay in their rooms like their staying in their houses and not their rooms” were taken announced.

The conflicts had to be solved time to time. Here Amir Khan showed his leadership abilities in the team and helped sort out matters.eg: Once Rachel Shelly shouted at the wardrobe department for not having arranged hat pins. These were sorted by Amir by proper communication.

Also, the issues related to managing the crowd of 10,000 and providing them proper place, food ,water ,clothing and basic amenities without conflicting was a chaleging task which was handled well. Eg: there were only 3 hotels in and close to Bhuj which had 12-15 rooms each. 300 people could not be squeezed in small areas for 5 months. This problem was sorted by keeping in my the requirements of the cast and crew and a building called “Sahajanand towers” was taken on rent and amenities like Air conditioner, Geyser and furniture were acquired for each room. Thus human resources are considered to be “as assets in the project and not as liabilities”

There were issues of ego getting hurt and sometimes people didn’t want to follow the instructions as given.

These had to be monitored and solved through proper integration and communication. The production also saw to it that all the team member consider the project to be their

own and hence the “employees are engaged”

Problems faced:

Not much information on handling of the human resources is given online. The information on the stakeholders like cooks, makeup artists etc is not given which I feel also contribute to a large extent in the completion of a project successfully.

Trisha Ghosh, Roll No. 20

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Topic: Project Costing and Budgeting

Film Costing refers to managing the budget for a film during its production phase.

During script development, a rough budget is produced by filmmakers in order to convince film producers and film studios to give them a green-light for production.

During pre-production, a much more detailed film budget is produced. This document, which could be over 150 pages long, is used to secure financing for the film.

Multiple drafts of the budget may be required to cut down costs.

A budget is typically divided into four sections: above-the-line (creative talent), below-the-line (direct production costs), post-production (editing, visual effects, etc), and other (insurance,

DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY

The budgeting of the movie lagaan was procured from a thorough reading of the book and noting down the various data given over the entire book. Also various site in the net gave a picture of the actor’s fees, cost of employing extras and various marketing and distribution costs associated with the movie

LEARNINGS

After the Analysis of the compiled data as presented in the report and going through the budgets of various movies across various budgets; the following aspects associated with movie costing became very clear and an in depth understanding was developed.

The Budgeting For A Movie Includes Costing For:

Story rights:

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While Making Lagaan, Ashutosh had trouble finding a producer. Producers who showed interest in the script wanted budget cuts as well as script modifications.

Eventually, Aamir agreed to Ashutosh's suggestion that he'd produce the film. Aamir corroborated this by saying that the faith he had in Ashutosh, the story and script of the film, completion bond, etc).

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The right to produce a film based on a play, novel, video game or as a remake or sequel can cost anything from a couple of thousand to over 20 million

Screenplay:

An A-list screenwriter can be paid Rs.1 million to write the first three drafts of a script, with a further Rs.1 to Rs.2 million sole credit bonus. Typically the development of a script consumes 5 percent of a film's budget.

Producers: 

Film producers and executive producers are often well-paid, with a top producer earning a seven-figure salary upfront as well as bonuses and a share of the profits. (Often a producer will be given 40 percent of the net profits.

Director: 

An A-list director can command Rs.5 to Rs.10 million a film. Traditionally, a director's salary is about 7 percent of the final budget.

Cast:

An A-list actor can ask for anything from Rs.10 million to Rs.30 million, plus Rs.3 million in perks (trailer, entourage, etc.) and 20 percent of the gross profits. Extras are said to be paid a wage of Rs.50 to Rs.200 a day.

Production costs:

This includes the cost of actually shooting the film including sets, wardrobe, location filming, hotels and transportation. The most prestigious productions will often employ the most successful, and therefore most expensive, crew, with the director of photography usually the highest paid at about Rs.500,000 to Rs.1 million.

Visual effects:

Depends on the type of movie in question: a science fiction movie will employee hundreds of employees throughout the shooting; whereas movies like Lagaan required little bit of special effects and is done in a studio .

Music:

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The top film composers can ask for a seven-figure salary to compose an hour or so of original music.

COST CUTTING TECHNIQUES

A very interesting part that came up during the study was how cost- cutting is done during film-making.

The Various Ways In Which Lagaan Did Its Cost Cutting Included The Following:

Avoid location filming in famous or commercial areas:

The movie was shot in a remote location in Bhuj. This resulted in low costs. It was on entire on location shooting, so transportation costs etc were drastically reduced

Use unknown cast members rather than stars.

Except Aamir Khan, all other cast were from the television industry, theatre or newcomers. This ensured that the film stayed within budget

Eliminate night scenes. 

Most of the movie was shot in the day- light; this helped in reducing costs which are incurred by powerful and expensive lighting and paying night time fees to the crew.

Prateek Garg, Roll No. 19

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Topic: Risk Analysis and Causal Mapping

Objectives

In the class room, when I was going through the project management lectures, I remember the moment when I shuddered! It was when the word risk came into the discussion. And then I realized that one of the biggest factors that can make or break a project is this risk itself. I had earlier given a presentation on the risk management in Nelson Mandela Bridge. This gave me a good insight on the weightage of the risk and the requirement of risk mitigation steps well in advance. When my group came with the proposal of working on Lagaan for the Project management project, the very first thing that came in my mind was “how can movie be a risky business? It’s just a matter of a hit or flop”. But when I actually sat down working on it, I found that the whole movie was full of risks, right from the conception phase till the release of the movie!

Then, another term that was hitting me hard was the causal mapping. So I decided to give it a shot and did a risk causal mapping of the movie.

Sources of Information

The internet failed to come up with good information. However, it was the book “ Spirit of Lagaan” by Satyajit Bhatkal that give a full insight of the movie. This book is more of a diary maintained by the writer, and to my utter surprise, when I sat down reading it, marking the points constituting risk; I almost marked out every date!

My Learning

The very first thing that I learnt from this project is the extent to which a project is at risk. The risk is almost seen everywhere.

There has been a risk of three broad categories:

Schedule Budget People

And I realized that be it the project of making a bridge, or a movie production, the risks and the elements to be affected by the risks remain the same.

For example Scheduling:

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The whole movie is of massive scale, which required talent and creativity. It was not just a movie, it was actually a dream and passion of writer director Ashutosh. Aamir Khan sensed this fact and thus decided to have a cast completely devoted to this project only. This resulted in Lagaan to become a single schedule project. The riskd involved were many, as discussed in the report. But with careful planning and foresightedness of the Dream Team, every risk was mitigated properly.

As far as budgeting is concerned, there were constraints no doubt, like in any other project. The reasons were many, be it a risky affair or the grand scale shooting. Aamir knew how much it was essential for the team to stick to the budget.

People factor was playing an important role here as well. What started from a story set in a village finally became an international project. It then becomes very essential to make sure that all the risks associated with the people part like their health, safety, accommodation etc be taken care of.

HOW IS CAUSAL MAPPING HELPFUL IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT?

Causal Mapping graphically represents a correlation between the risks and issues of the Project. Furthermore, the management actions to be taken to rectify these issues are linked as well. This creates a clear picture of the key areas where focus and intense work is required so as to ensure that the project is completed successfully. The benefits of Causal Mapping in Project Management are listed below.

It gives rise to a richer knowledge of the project issues andenables the management to see the big picture and in detail aswell.Through Causal Mapping, predicting weakest links and their consequences becomes easy.Consequently, serious measures can be undertaken to eradicate these risks and issues.Severity of risks can be analyzed on the basis of interconnections and disconnections with other risks.Most importantly, in a huge project involving numerous activities, it serves as an aid to reduce complexity and view the risks and issues in feedback loops. This is vital to prevent projects from becoming absolute failures.

Rachit Gunderia, Roll no. 22

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Topic: Project Network and Critical Path diagram

OBJECTIVES:

1. Lagaan is one of my all time best movies and the very idea of understanding the intricacies of making the India’s only Oscar nominated film has always fascinated me.

2. In any film making project, just as Lagaan is, scheduling plays a very crucial role in ensuring that i) the film is completed and released on time ii) Resources and cost are optimized and kept at minimalistic levels as much as possible; iii) There is efficient co-ordination at all levels of management in the making of films. This is because it is not just the actors in the film that make the film successful but more so how all the behind the scene workers, right from lights man to the director, work in the direction of making the film successful. I therefore chose a topic from project scheduling so that it gives me the right prospects as to how the project scheduling takes place in the film making industry.

3. Understanding Project network. A project network is a graph (flow chart) depicting the sequence in which a project's terminal elements are to be completed by showing terminal elements and their dependencies.

4. Understanding the Critical path diagram. The critical path method (CPM) or critical path analysis is a mathematically based algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities. It is an important tool for effective project management.

5. Both the Project network and the Critical path diagram together form the main backbone of the entire project. Not only the way project is going to be moving, is decided by the very framework of these two important tools, but also the essence of driving the project to its desired level of success is decided by its framework.

6. Flexibility. A film making process is a rollercoaster of numerous ups and downs. There are such frequent changes in the plans or sometimes even the very objective of the project might change. This is what makes the film making projects different from the other usual projects that we come across. Thereby, it is absolutely necessary that we incorporate the right amount of the flexibility in our framing of the Project network and the Critical paths to incorporate these changes to a certain extent. Being a creative niche area projects like film making hold their own unique place as far as designing of critical path and project network is considered as they are different from the ones that we come across in any usual project.

7. Scheduling or the usage of these tools is not restricted only during the process of film making but also much before film shooting starts and even much after the and film shooting and editing ends. Thereby I always had to incorporate these aspects in my designing of Critical path diagram and the Project network diagram because it involves numerous pre and post production activities that are needed to be incorporated. Recruiting the crew, finalizing locations, analysis of means of transportations and numerous other activities are included under preproduction activities. Likewise marketing of film, distribution of films, promotional activities and numerous other activities fall under the post production activities which again have to be rightly incorporated, with right amount of flexibility as I mentioned previously.

ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY ME TO ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVES

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1. First of all, I started looking into the books which gave me a theoretical basis to proceed. I started understanding how a critical path and network diagram is basically formulated, why it is formulated and what is its importance not only in usual projects but keeping in mind that I am tackling a film making project. Also, I had to understand what is scheduling as a whole and know the depths of it.

2. Once I was through with the understanding of the CPM and Network diagram it became now important for me to take into account and develop the perspectives that go into the filmmaking projects. I started googling for the various film making projects and understanding what are the similar and the dissimilar features that are with the respect to other projects and how it could be used in my framework of the CPM and the network diagram.

3. The book on Lagaan which our group purchased has been of great help. It gave me the perspectives of the film maker. It helped us understand the entire project keeping myself in the shoes of the film maker. I was unable to understand what are the difficulties that are faced in practicality that I would never be get doing any other literature review.

4. The work of incorporating the areas of flexibility brought in a real challenge for me to tackle. I had to research really in depths and also look into a few case studies related to the film making that gave me an insight that in what areas of the entire project is greater flexibility required and in what areas little or no flexibility is required. Flexibility has a direct and an indirect role in the mitigation of risks. I worked with my partner Prateek in order to assess risks and try to create areas of flexibility in my formation of the CPM and the Project network.

5. I had to understand the project planning as a whole and look into areas wher CPM and network diagram played a role and try and incorporate and introduce linkage with the entire project planning process and thereby ensure that one gets a more complete and a clearer picture while reading the project.

CHALLENGES FACED

1. How to begin? That was the major challenge I faced. It is rightly said that the first move breaks the inertia. Being a film making project it was difficult in understanding the core processes that are involved as I did not have even a penny worth knowledge in the field. So I had to take baby steps to begin with and then leap into the core field of understanding.

2. Information Scarcity. The information available on the internet has much to do with numerous other projects like those of infrastructure, ship or airplane building but the details about the film making projects are a scare resource. I did not get the support from the internet the way I wanted.

3. Incorporating and understanding the flexibility within the CPM and network diagram was a key challenge as I had to understand the risk areas, the areas that require greater and less flexibilities.

4. Creative project. Lagan or for that instance any film making project is a creative project. The creative ideas that are drawn on top of the mgmt i.e. the director must seep into the bottoms i.e. to the star cast, and other crew members. Making of a Critical path and Network diagram of such a creative project and to systemize this very process according to me was a challenge.

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5. Introducing coordination. Coordinating the various activities (core activities and allied activities and pre and post production activities) and the establishment of linkages and deciding the order of such activities was a little challenging job.

LEARNING

1. I could say after the work done that whatever objectives I had kept in mind before taking up the tasks have been achieved.

2. I now have understood the process of formulation CPM and the network diagram, its role in scheduling, the process of scheduling and finally the significance of planning in Project Management.

3. A film makers perspectives seeped into me and the core basics of Project Management which are applied to the other projects, how are they different from a film making project.

4. Tackling challenges that are faced real time are different from the once learnt in theory or in simulated environment. I have learnt to develop a practical outlook to the theoretical approaches and thereby go ahead with the tackling of the challenges that are faced in formation of simple looking CPM and network diagrams.

I have managed to coordinate the classroom learning and then implement in actuality. The essence that drives classroom learning is others experience but while undertaking such activities like formulating a CPM and network diagram which may seem to be simple on the face, I have myself experienced and thereby am able to understand the significance of the classroom learning

References1. SATYAJIT BHATKAL, The Spirit of Lagaan, 2002, Popular Prakashan

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2. Top Earners 2000-2009, BoxOfficeIndia.com

3. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 3rd Edition, 2004,

Project Management Institute

4. BS6079, Guide to Project Management, 2002

5. H.MAYLOR, Project Management, 3rd Edition, 2005, Pearson Education

6. T.WILLIAMS, Managing Resources and Operations, Project Management, 2009, School of

Management, University of Southampton

7. Lagaan screens at Bhuj, Tribune India, June 13, 2001

8. Full list of Oscar winners and nominees, Guardian, Feb 12, 2002

9. Film buffs reveal must-see list, NEWS.BBC.CO.UK, Jul 23, 2006

10. Lagaan beats Sholay in DVD Sales, Financial Express, Jul 21, 2007

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