hnbhagavan wrote:It is said by Music Academy president that only sponsorship money collected helps to run the show in the academy.In one of the earlier seasons - two years ago,the sponsorship money was reportedly around 45 Lakhs for the 15 days festival.Perhaps Sri Harimau sir may give ingenious break up of the expenditure and academy nets to fill its coffers.Perhaps all the 45 lakhs would not have been spent.Rs 45 lakhs was mentioned in an interview published in the Hindu.With 5 concerts per day definitely the expenditure may be at least one lakh or so as junior concerts may not get good remuneration.
This analysis will have to wait until this year's December Season is over.
Arriving at the Academy at 8:30 in the morning, the pull of the coffee at the canteen is stronger and of course my brain refuses to engage its gears until the coffee is consumed. So I never counted the number of banners that are displayed in the parking lot.
This December, I will count the number of banners, and using Rs 60 Lakhs as the total collection, estimate a price/banner.
I think the banners flutter around till Jan 10 when the Annual Udans Festival is over. So one has to think that the money has to cover 25 days rather than 15 days.
Rs 60 Lakhs for 25 days gives us Rs 2.4 Lakhs as the daily expense.
I need some assistance from a civil engineer to estimate the volume of the main building, a mechanical engineer to estimate the amount of BTUs needed to cool that with air conditioning and convert that to the cost of electricity. This can get complicated. But Rs 40,000 a day is not outrageous.
We have to add the cost of security and hiring valet parking attendants. Throw Rs 10,000 at that.
So we are left with Rs 190,000 for five concerts in a day.
The rumour I have heard is that past Sangeetha Kalanidhis get Rs 15,000. By the time you add 3-4 sidemen, the senior concerts can end up costing Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000. With the 9am, 4pm and 7 pm concerts featuring senior or popular artists costing that much, we are left with Rs 70,000 for the 11:45am and 1:30 pm slots.
It is safe to say the banners pretty much pay for the Season at the Academy.
If Sri Murali meant that the sponsorships enable the Academy to pay for the Season because the ticket sales alone is insufficient to cover all expenses, I can't explain it.