Aparita

Toronto Star, [01/24/2003]

 

Huge Indian film biz faces creative, financial crisis. Alternatives sought to traditional plots, Hollywood copies.

Special to the Star

 

“But our treatment will be different.” It’s a cliched phrase often heard but seldom followed by Bollywood, the Mumbai (Bombay)-centred Indian film industry that churns out twice as many films as Hollywood every year.

When Bollywood could make and sell nearly 1,000 films a year, being original was not a big concern.
But suddenly Indian filmmakers, known for blending song and dance with heady melodrama, are being forced to take a reality check.

Observers of the multi-million dollar industry say it’s time to turn promises of new ideas into reality.
Until very recently, such a reassessment was unthinkable. But Bollywood was making lots of money then. Now, it is in the red.

The old formulas don’t seem to be working any more and simply re-making Hollywood movies in Hindi isn’t winning big enough audiences to fill the void.

The critical and financial downturn was sudden. The year that just ended saw Bollywood basking in international attention. Lagaan, a four-hour period piece based on a game of cricket made by hot actor-turned-producer Aamir Khan, was nominated for a foreign-picture Oscar.

(Previous Hindi-language nominees were New York-based Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay in 1989 and the Bollywood film Mother India in 1958.)

Lagaan was followed by the latest remake of the Indian classic Devdas, which was, at the time, Bollywood’s most expensive movie. It was featured at the Cannes Film Festival last spring.
Based on the love story of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and his queen Mumtaz Mahal, Taj Mahal recreates the ornate monument and period costumes as well as the famous battle of Samugarh that ended in a civil war during Shah Jahan’s reign.

Bollywood glam was chic in New York in recent years. Rumours were rife of planned U.S.-India co-productions. And then The Guru, a Working Title and Universal Studios production, premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last August.

Infused with elements of Hollywood and Bollywood, The Guru, which opens in Toronto next Friday, is about Ramu Gupta (Jimi Mistry), a young Indian dance teacher who goes to America to become a Hollywood actor. Instead, with some help from ditzy socialite Lexi (Marisa Tomei) and porn star Sharrona (Heather Graham), Gupta morphs into an Indian “spiritual leader” and overnight celebrity.

But as The Guru was making its way to mainstream theatres in North America, Bollywood went bust.

According to Indian news magazine Outlook, “the crisis-hit film industry” lost $930 million (Cdn.) between (Nov., 2001 and Nov., 2002). “The situation (was) so bad that experts (found) it difficult to put together a Top 10 for 2002.” The number of Bollywood films that could be called hits dropped from an average of 15-20 per cent of the total to 7-8 per cent.

Uncertainty was so high in Bollywood that many distributors had either stopped buying films or were buying them on a commission basis, reports Oulook.

“2002 was definitely the worst year for Bollywood in a decade,” trade reviewer Komal Nahta said in a telephone interview from Mumbai.

Almost 90 per cent of films released in 2002 failed to earn a profit and translated in huge losses for the distributors, said Nahta, who is also editor of Mumbai’s leading trade magazine, Film Information.

“This is the first time such a thing has happened. Usually the producers make money on the table, but this time even the big producers couldn’t sell their films to cover the actual cost of their movies.”

Bollywood’s dismal performance can be attributed to several factors, said Sudheesh Pachauri, an Indian media critic.

The global economic downturn and resultant loss of spending power made moviegoing an expensive proposition for the average middle-class Indian, who forms a large chunk of Indian cinema audience. Moreover, the rise of the next generation of Bollywood family dynasties - progeny with little more than the family name to their credit - has added to the Indian audience’s disenchantment with the dream-weaving factory.

“You need more than smooth body movements and good looks to become an actor your audience can relate to,” said Pachauri, on the phone from New Delhi. “Even today (veteran Bollywood superstars) Amitabh Bachchan and Govinda can draw people into the theatres because the average middle-class Indian can identify with them. But these (new) kids have no depth and filmmakers cast them, spending several million rupees on the projects. Where’s the sense in that?”

On top of that, adds Pachauri, Bollywood has run out of fresh ideas. “On the one hand there were many NRI (Non-Resident Indian) theme based movies, which don’t attract the Indian masses,” Pachauri said. “Or there were five films based on (the Indian freedom fighter) Bhagat Singh and not one of them did well.”

In fact, Hollywood films dubbed into Hindi fared better at the Indian box office than the big-banner Bollywood films, he adds.

Nahta, on the other hand, doesn’t believe that the Bollywood audience is so discerning as to look for original content in every movie. However, he adds, the audience, which is also exposed to world films through satellite television, does demand a novel and well-made presentation.

“In order to make quick money, filmmakers forgot about paying attention to the content. Once the boom slumped, that money was gone. And people are not going to go watch movies just for the stars; they get enough of that on TV,” explained Nahta.

“If an average middle-class person takes out his family to watch a movie, he can easily spend upwards of 700 rupees ($20-$30 Cdn.) on the tickets alone. Why would he spend that money on a bad movie? Right now there are such idiosyncrasies being shown in the films that even an average cine-goer thinks you are insulting his intelligence.”

So, what makes a hit Bollywood film these days? There is no particular formula, experts say. Scripts vary from the time-honoured boy-meets-girl and runs around a few trees singing songs theme to horror, suspense, family drama and inspirations from Hollywood hits.

The latest in movies inspired by Hollywood is Kaante, which, after a delay, was released Dec. 20. Dubbed the Indian remake of American Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic Reservoir Dogs, Kaante was perhaps one of the most anticipated movies of 2002. Bollywood hoped this testosterone-filled tale, starring India’s top leading men, including Amitabh Bachchan, would break the jinx. Kaante was shot in Los Angeles in seven weeks with an American supporting cast and crew.

The movie opened extremely well, according to Indian media. For the first time in months, “house full” signs were seen at theatres.

According to BBC South Asia, Kaante topped $ 4.7 million (Cdn.) in India plus $4.4 million (Cdn.) for overseas film rights and reached No. 7 in the UK while playing on only 30 screens. (It’s playing at the Albion and Woodside theatres in the Toronto area, which specialize in Indian movies.)

Nahta, however, cautions against making conclusions based on the reported figures.

“Kaante opened very well but the collections were dropping from the fourth day onwards, in India and outside of India,” he said. “Except for Mumbai, and to an extent New Delhi, the movie was a loser in every other (Indian) territory.

“The problem with Kaante was lack of good content. There wasn’t an attempt to make a good film or even write a proper script. Rehashed Hollywood films aren’t new, but you can’t just make a Hindi version. You have to `Indianize’ it. It has to make sense. (Kaante) looked like they watched the (Reservoir Dogs) DVD the previous night and then shot the film.”

But Bollywood seems to be in the mood for introspection, Nahta said. It’s a matter of survival for the world’s largest film industry.

Bollywood, which has earned its bad rap for haphazard production methods, is finally getting organized.

In an attempt to incorporate the industry, production companies and media houses are being formed. Institutional financial agencies such as banks, which are testing the Bollywood waters, insist on a proper schedule and bound scripts.

“Usually, Bollywood films are made with a skeleton story,” explained Nahata. “Scenes are written right on the sets 15 minutes before the shooting, with inputs from everyone. So there was no continuity or cohesiveness. But (filmmakers) are realizing that a good script is the backbone of every film. If you have the right script, you have a successful film.

“It’s a `do or die’ moment for filmmakers and they are starting to rethink (their strategies). Right now there’s a huge backlog of films made with the intention of making table profits. But I think films coming out in 2004 and onwards will be much better.”

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