It was the beginning…
It was not that long ago, 2007 to be precise, when people were a big fan of typical “masala” films. People didn’t bother about the logic either, they were too happy to watch their favorite stars, irrespective the quality of the movie that they were doing. But in 2008, things started changing.
Suddenly, films of big stars were turning into flops, and many big budget movies tanked at the box office . The sure shot formula of comedy movies stopped working, which was working fine in 2007. Big films like Drona, Yuvvraaj, Love Story 2050, Karzzz etc. were big time disasters. This happened despite of the fact that all of them were heavily promoted.
And small budget films with no face value actors like A Wednesday, Welcome to Sajjanpur, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Rock On and Aamir etc. were doing better business than many big budget movies. Moreover, they were appreciated by people and critics alike from all over India. This was a clear indication that Bollywood was changing, and for the better!
And now let’s talk about 2009. Chandni Chowk to China, 2009’s first big released, tanked big time at the box office, and even Akshay Kumar couldn’t save it. What was the reason behind that? The script of the movie was written poorly, director was third class, and don’t even make me start talking about the action scenes.
And then Dev D released which was not heavily promoted, but is doing very good business and has been appreciated by everyone. One of the reasons it worked because it was unique, cleverly written and had powerful performances.
It’s now clear that people don’t watch movies just because of stars, now they watch movies which have some quality. Audience is smarter these days but sadly, filmmakers are still acting as nincompoops.
Let’s find out some reasons why Bollywood is changing and how it’ll affect the future.
1. The Multiplex audience – Undoubtedly, they have the most important role to play in the transmutation of Bollywood, which we are seeing today. As I said above, audience is getting smarter and this is our Multiplex audience only. They pay a very high price to watch movies and they don’t want to waste their precious money on watching some crap film. They want quality, and it doesn’t matter who the actor is. A Wednesday, Dev.D and Rock On are the prime examples for this.
2. The Youth and the Internet and the exposure to Hollywood – According to many surveys, a large proportion of the movie watching audience comprises of people between the age group of 18 – 35. Now you must be thinking how is this affecting Bollywood? Let me tell you how.
Today, almost everyone in India, especially in big cities, have an internet connection. Many of the hardcore internet users use the internet to download movies, music and ahem… porn. Due to this, they’ve a lot of exposure to Hollywood movies, which are known for their scripts, special effects, and superb performances. As a consequence of this, they know what quality is and they expect the same standard from Bollywood.
But when our filmmakers give us movies like Victory, CC2C, Yuvvraaj, they know that this movie is going to be another crap, and they keep themselves away from such stuff, and thus the movie flops. We’re getting smarter cinematically because of Hollywood, which is a good thing.
3. The Young Filmmakers – Young people are coming with fresh ideas and new approach towards filmmaking. As they are young, they instantly connect with the moving going audience, which I said earlier, is filled with young people, which result in hits. Dev.D is the perfect example as the language of the film was the normal talk we use every day.
The Award Functions
Another aspect which got affected badly this year is the award functions of Bollywood. If you go through the nominations of this year, you’ll find a “Reader’s choice” and “Critics choice” related voting system in almost every award ceremony. Now this critic system was not that popular couple of years back.
But this year, they are giving too much important to both of these systems. Why? Because they know the audience is smart now, so they can’t ignore critically acclaimed movies. That’s why you see “A Wednesday” winning this year, while Khosla Ka Ghosla didn’t win any award in 2005, in the major categories.
As these movies don’t have any big stars, award organizers are in a big conundrum. If they are start giving awards to these small budget movies then the big stars won’t attend the function and then the T.V ratings will drop. Honestly, if we leave out Filmfare, all other award functions don’t have any standard. They all are known for licking stars’ asses to bring them to functions.
So, in order to give them awards, they give them through Reader’s choice awards. And to be very frank, I don’t trust these awards, after seeing the winners of Max Stardust awards. According to their reader’s choice awards, best film is Singh is Kinng. This clearly explains how badly they are licking the ass of Akshay Kumar. In a poll conducted by Bollywood Hungama, Ghajini and Rab ne Bana Di Jodi were the top two movies, according to readers, and I do trust that result.
The organizers knew that Aamir Khan was not going to accept the award anyway, and people have something against Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, so they gave the award to Singh is Kinng. I’m not getting into any actor war, I’m stating a point. Check out the imdb.com profiles of all the 3 movies and you’ll know what I’m talking about. And A Wednesday is not nominated as the best film in Filmfare awards this year, how come? Dostana, Ghajini, Singh is Kinng got nominated but not A Wednesday? That’s a fucking conspiracy.
The thing is that the sudden change in the taste of audience has shocked everyone. It’ll take some time to get used to this. One thing they should is to lift their standards and stop following the actors like a dog chasing a car. And please, telecast the function live! We should go towards the Oscar way, which is the clear indication of classic movies, you can’t doubt that!
I’m hoping that the nominations of next year would be better, and fair, with focus on the actors who gave good performances, irrespective to their star status.
Survival of the Fittest
Bollywood is going through evolution and it is now the time of Survival of the Fittest. Only those people will survive who can mould them according to the latest trends. If you can’t then your career is over. The new wave is coming, and it’s going to change everything for forever.
All the big stars have to do critically acclaimed cinema in order to win awards and applause from the audience. Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, and Hritihik Roshan are somewhat safe as they have My Name is Khan, 3 Idiots, and Kites under their belts, respectively.
Salman Khan is pretty much out of the race and his career is almost over with back to back flops last year. And this brings us to Akshay Kumar, if he starts doing something other than comedy then he has a little chance otherwise he is also gone.
Now let’s come to the young actors. Shahid Kapoor is in real danger now because he is known as the next lover boy of Bollywood, which is not a good sign and if you see his past films, most of his movies are love stories.
Imran Khan is doing an interesting film “Delhi Belly” and he has a good chance of surviving, but he has to work on his acting skills and voice modulation badly. Otherwise, he’ll be a one hit wonder.
And the last two actors, Ranbir Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar. Ranbir Kapoor certainly has the charisma, and the acting talent to survive in Bollywood and Farhan Akhtar is the next big thing. With two critically acclaimed films under his belt, Rock On!! and Luck By Chance under his belt, Farhan is ready to rock.
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