Demand for star-rated actors in Indonesian television films

By Tuti Gintini

JAKARTA (JP): During the golden years of Indonesian films, few producers would eye Cok Simbara as many films he acted in were a flop even though he could act well.

After passing into oblivion in the film industry for quite a while, he made a comeback in Noktah Merah Perkawinan (Red Stain of Marriage) with popular actress Ayu Azhari. Surprisingly this teleseries won great popularity and became a household name. Obviously, Ayu's popularity helped catapult Cok to TV fame. Today both of them are among Indonesia's A-rated highly paid TV actors.

Ayu reportedly receives Rp 40 million (US$4,400) per episode, which needs only about two weeks to make.

Just like the big-screen films, teleseries, locally called sinetron, also adopts the star system. A marketing staffer of a private TV station says that whenever Ayu, now a mother of three, stars in a TV film, it is sure to succeed and is therefore fertile ground for commercials. No wonder TV film producers vie with one another to have her in their films.

Ayu's appearance in teleseries has helped popularize other names in the business. Cok is only an example. In the same way, a junior director may catch the attention of a TV film producer just because of doing a film casting Ayu.

Besides Ayu, there are quite a few other A-rated stars now such as Paramitha Rusady, Dian Nitami, Cut Keke, Lulu Tobing, Bella Saphira, Inneke Koesherawaty, Elma Theana, Adjie Pangestu, Peggy Melati Sukma, Krisdayanti, Primus Gunawan, Anjas Asmara, Jeremy Thomas and Ari Wibowo. Desi Ratnasari actually belongs to this class too, but her recent divorce and unsympathetic attitude may considerably affect her status.

The star system prevailed during the heyday of Indonesian films. Then we had the big five: Yenny Rachman, Dorris Callebout, Robby Sugara, Roy Marten and Yati Octavia. In their day, they dominated the Indonesian film world and their fees were too high for other stars to compete with. Top-class stars after them were Merriam Bellina, Lydia Kandau and Rano Karno.

Indonesian film producers have admitted that in the past it was the film brokers who had the final say about who should be in the cast. In the present era of teleseries, however, it is generally the advertisers and the marketing division of a television station that will determine the cast.

The negative effect of this is that the talent-scouting section and the casting director of a television station cannot really function. Eddy de Rounde, a talent-scouting division head at Indosiar, said it was often the case that the names of the stars for a particular cast were replaced with the advertisers' choice by the production and marketing sections.

"I think I pick the right persons for the right characters in the film, but I'm powerless against the marketing section," he said.

Chocky Situmorang, production manager of the same TV station, added that if the top stars requested by the advertisers or marketing department are not available, he would go ahead with the film production with other artists.

"I don't think, therefore, that we are overly dictated by them," he added.

Some TV series, indeed, do not rely on the star system. Indosiar, for example, airs Misteri Gunung Merapi (Mystery of Mt. Merapi), Lupus, Saras 008 and Cerita Cinta (Love Story). Even though they are without famous names, these series are quite popular and attract a lot of commercials.

On the other hand, most production houses always rely on famous stars for the films they supply to TV stations.

It is a public secret how Multi Vision's Raam Punjabi has cleverly secured the commitment of stars and directors that will bring him profit. He will give them luxury houses or cars to ensure that they will not work for other producers.

No wonder when TV films began to flourish in the 1990s, Raam's film productions were so dominant he was dubbed "King of Indonesia's TV films". Raam once said he was proud of this title because it was he who had pioneered the production of popular TV films.

Leo Sutanto, TV film producer of Prima Enterprise, said that actually he preferred to produce TV films without involving top stars and also without exploiting themes of romance and adultery. What he did is the opposite.

"Actually the TV station itself must set a good example of such a change in taste. We only supply the films and usually we find it difficult to sell our products if they do not include famous stars," he said.

Discipline

The high demand for top stars also results in other negative aspects. Cameraman Sri Atmo, for example, said that most top- ranking stars often come late to the location.

On the part of the stars, their late arrival may not be deliberate. Often the reason is they join too many film productions and accept too many offers for entertainment shows. Sometimes they arrive at the shooting location too tired for proper shooting. The shots must be repeated many times, a factor delaying production, of which the most important thing is actually teamwork. Very often, therefore, these over tired actors or actresses have to be hospitalized before the shooting is finished.

"Tamara Bleszinky was hospitalized because of typhoid fever after working day and night for the Ramadhan TV package," Sri Atmo said.

There is another bad story. A top actress came at 1 p.m. and had to be made-up. The make-up man was a newcomer. The actress refused him and insisted that the usual make-up man be brought to the location. Unfortunately he was engaged in another production. The result was the schedule had to be postponed. Other members of the crew, usually the lower-paid ones, could only heave a sigh because of the arrogant attitude of this top actress.

Of course, not all top stars are that bad. Paramitha Rusady is a good example. She is a professional top star ready to cooperate with everybody else in the production lineup.