It's been a mixed year for the Indian film industry. Big-budget films which were hyped and expected to do well didn’t. Instead smaller films clicked with the audience which was willing more than ever to experiment and watch different things. There was a spurt in new directors, new actors, new ideas. Boxoffice collections show that at least five Bollywood films crossed the Rs 50-crore mark, and this does not include the end of the year returns from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Ghajini. In 2008, we actually saw a brand new Bollywood, “a version 2.0” as PNC’s Pritish Nandy puts it. So far, the Bollywood year belongs to Abbas Tyrewallah, Dibakar Banerjee, Abhishek Kapoor, Rajkumar Gupta, Nishikant Kamat, Neeraj Pandey – relatively new names, bursting with new ideas. Take Dibakar Banerjee’s Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye, which can’t be more different than his first release Khosla Ka Ghosla but what a marvel it is. UTV launched Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, about a superthief, who wants the world to know about his art but can’t because it also means he will get caught, on the Friday Mumbai was still in shocks after the terror attacks.
It obviously didn’t get the release it was seeking, but the movie has picked up tremendously, thanks to word-of-mouth publicity. Inspired by a real-life incident in Delhi, Banerjee did rigorous research to make it as real as possible. “The best thing that’s happened to this industry is that people as unBollywood like me are getting to do films the way they want to,” says Banerjee.
In 2008, the changing preferences of the audience came through like never before. Films with substantial content did well, over-hyped projects failed to sizzle at the box-office (think Tashan, Bhootnath, Yuvraaj). Tyrewala, who took up the “challenge to make the most commercial Hindi film ever with love, loss and the patch-up at the airport”, saw his film Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na work wonders at the box-office because he told the story so well. Tyrewallah has written such wonderful screenplays and dialogues from Maqbool to Munnabhai MBBS and Jaane Tu… was his first directorial venture. Says Rajkumar Gupta whose Aamir, a story about an ordinary man caught in extraordinary circumstances, did well at the theatres: “What you need is the content, a script, a story the audience can connect to, not big budgets,” says Gupta. He points out that a film like Aamir gives hope to new directors waiting in the wings.” Scriptwriter Jaideep Sahni points out that the audience has consistently been supporting films which give them something new, irrespective of the genre or aesthetic schools.
Ram Sampat, who composed a catchy jingle for Sony Ericsson, took the mighty Roshans to court when he found that that tune had worked its way into two songs for Krazzy 4. At a time when Bollywood is waking up to intellectual property rights, Sampat always knew he had a case and the Roshans had to pay up. Then, Warner Brothers may have sued the producers of Hari Puttar for sounding too much like Harry Potter but the story seemed straight out of Home Alone. Even Dil Kabaddi starring the likes of Irrfan Khan, Rahul Bose and Soha Ali Khan is a scene-by-scene copy of Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives. Says an analyst: “As Bollywood corporatises itself and also becomes a global player, the industry will have to take issues like IPR seriously.” One of the biggest trends of 2008 was the way Bollywood marketed its films. Now, producers are marketing the film to the target audience. A lot of micro-marketing is happening.Producers are also waking up to the potential of new media to promote films.
It obviously didn’t get the release it was seeking, but the movie has picked up tremendously, thanks to word-of-mouth publicity. Inspired by a real-life incident in Delhi, Banerjee did rigorous research to make it as real as possible. “The best thing that’s happened to this industry is that people as unBollywood like me are getting to do films the way they want to,” says Banerjee.
In 2008, the changing preferences of the audience came through like never before. Films with substantial content did well, over-hyped projects failed to sizzle at the box-office (think Tashan, Bhootnath, Yuvraaj). Tyrewala, who took up the “challenge to make the most commercial Hindi film ever with love, loss and the patch-up at the airport”, saw his film Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na work wonders at the box-office because he told the story so well. Tyrewallah has written such wonderful screenplays and dialogues from Maqbool to Munnabhai MBBS and Jaane Tu… was his first directorial venture. Says Rajkumar Gupta whose Aamir, a story about an ordinary man caught in extraordinary circumstances, did well at the theatres: “What you need is the content, a script, a story the audience can connect to, not big budgets,” says Gupta. He points out that a film like Aamir gives hope to new directors waiting in the wings.” Scriptwriter Jaideep Sahni points out that the audience has consistently been supporting films which give them something new, irrespective of the genre or aesthetic schools.
Ram Sampat, who composed a catchy jingle for Sony Ericsson, took the mighty Roshans to court when he found that that tune had worked its way into two songs for Krazzy 4. At a time when Bollywood is waking up to intellectual property rights, Sampat always knew he had a case and the Roshans had to pay up. Then, Warner Brothers may have sued the producers of Hari Puttar for sounding too much like Harry Potter but the story seemed straight out of Home Alone. Even Dil Kabaddi starring the likes of Irrfan Khan, Rahul Bose and Soha Ali Khan is a scene-by-scene copy of Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives. Says an analyst: “As Bollywood corporatises itself and also becomes a global player, the industry will have to take issues like IPR seriously.” One of the biggest trends of 2008 was the way Bollywood marketed its films. Now, producers are marketing the film to the target audience. A lot of micro-marketing is happening.Producers are also waking up to the potential of new media to promote films.
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