Big names, big budgets fall flat in Bollywood in 2010

Big names and big budgets largely fell flat in Bollywood in 2010, analysts said, but the year at least saw new directors emerge unafraid to push the boundaries to cater for a changing audience.

India's popular Hindi-language film industry was expected to turn around its fortunes in 2010, after the previous 12 months saw revenues slump due to the effects of the global economic crisis, a producers' strike and swine flu fears. But few major releases were a success and instead many of the plaudits went to smaller productions with young directors, casts of relative unknowns and innovative scripts.

"It has been a let-down year because only a dozen-odd films made it big at the box office," said Bollywood analyst Vinod Mirani. "Most of the films failed at the script level, as audiences rejected them outrightly."

Among the biggest disappointments were "Kites", a romantic drama starring Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori, and "Raavan", a loose adaptation of the Indian epic Ramayana, with husband and wife duo Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai.

"Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey" (Freedom Struggle), a period piece based on a rebellion against British colonial rule starring Bachchan and Deepika Padukone, disappointed, as did the Roshan-Rai movie "Guzaarish" (Request).

Salman Khan's epic "Veer", the comedy "No Problem" with Sanjay Dutt and the retro comedy "Action Replayy" with Akshay Kumar and Rai were also poorly received.

"The saddest part is that many of the big films were looking so good in proposals but in actual reality, they bombed at the box office," trade analyst Komal Nahta said.

Industry figures on exactly how Bollywood and the rest of Indian cinema fared in 2010 are not expected until early next year but the indications of a lacklustre performance again raised concerns about the standard of script-writing.

The handful of hits included Salman Khan's action-comedy-romance "Dabangg" (Fearless), plus the Ajay Devgn starrers "Golmaal 3" and "Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai".

The action-crime-drama "Raajneeti" (Politics), the comedy "Housefull", and romantic comedy "I Hate Luv Storys" also did well.

South Indian megastar Rajinikanth's science-fiction fantasy "Endhiran" (Robot) had a record opening weekend of 21 million dollars.

Shah Rukh Khan's "My Name Is Khan" -- hailed by its makers as Bollywood's first global film -- was another notable success, although more so abroad than in India.

They were joined by the Aamir Khan-produced "Peepli Live", a biting satire on the tensions between rural and urban India, and "Tere Bin Laden" (Without You Bin Laden), a farce about a farmer who is the double of the world's most wanted man.

"Love Sex Aur Dhokha" (Love, Sex Betrayal) caused a stir with its sex, nudity and voyeurism, while the comedy "Phas Gaya Re Obama" ("Obama is Trapped") won fans before the US president's visit to India in November.

Nikhat Kazmi, a film critic at the Times of India newspaper, said the success of these small films was "startling" and for him defined the year.

"All they had was a sensible story told sensibly and sensitively. The films credited their viewers with both IQ and EQ (emotional quotient) and won instant applause for doggedly steering clear of the formula," he wrote last week.

Kazmi said that "bloat is definitely a bad word in (the) film business today" and there had been a perceptible shift in what cinema audiences want in modern India. "Old is no longer gold in an industry where the viewer profile has changed drastically and has been taken over by the digi-kids who like their drama current, contemporary and completely fresh," he added.

One experienced film producer agreed, calling on studios to invest more in quality writing. "They are only running after big actors and big names and not after the script. They should invest more in writers and good stories rather than actors and big directors," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.