Bollywood’s Hottest Trends By Komal Nahta

CITY, THE NEW CIRCUIT
A decade ago, the film industry used to talk in terms of crores of rupees worth of business for an entire circuit like Bombay, Delhi-U.P. etc. Individual cities in these circuits used to fetch revenues in lakhs of rupees. But the last ten years has seen all that change. Now, we see box-office figures of cities like Bombay, Delhi, Pune and Bangalore running into crores of rupees. Business has grown manifold in the last decade, thanks in no small measure to the revenues contributed by multiplexes. The cineplexes may be small-capacity houses but their gate collections are very big. This is, obviously, because the multiplexes charge admission rates as high as Rs. 250, 300, even Rs. 500 per head. Did you ever imagine in 1999 that a family of four would end up spending Rs. 2,000 on a single movie on weekend days, which is when the ticket rates are the highest? But that’s a reality today. And this reality has led to collections skyrocketing to unimaginable levels.

CRORE, THE NEW LAKH
If revenues have grown so much, can costs be lagging far behind? A major component of the cost of filmmaking is star prices. They have indeed reached obscene levels from what they were a decade ago. Heroes, who used to get paid some lakhs for acting in a film, today demand fees in crores of rupees. And those actors, who were approaching the crore mark, don’t come for anything less than Rs. 10, 15 or even 20 crore! Star prices have spiralled out of control, making filmmaking a nightmare for many producers even as indemand actors charge their dream fees.

If anybody says, he had seen this coming, he is lying, because nobody even in his wildest of dreams could’ve imagined that stars would ask for – and get! – such crazy amounts as remuneration.

Read more: The hottest Bollywood films of 2011!!

But corporatisation has contributed majorly to this kind of price hike. Flush with public money and with almost complete lack of knowledge of the filmmaking process, the corporates did not think twice before paying stars far more than their worth if only because they wanted to produce star-studded films. In a way, the excess fees they were paying the actors was like their entry fee to get into this industry. And since in the lives of stars, prices move in only one direction – upwards – irrespective of the fate of their films, the high and higher remunerations became the norm rather than the exception in the decade gone by.

STARS, THE NEW PRODUCERS
Another noticeable change, which started in the beginning of the decade but has now become a trend, is that of actors turning producers. Whether it is A-list stars like Aamir Khan and Akshay

Kumar or stars like Sanjay Dutt, everyone worth his salt turned producer in the decade gone by. Since the sources of revenues available to producers have increased, actors have realised the potential of profitability if their film clicks. As against just an acting fee, they can now make crores in profits if they are also the producers or, maybe, joint producers. Actors like Akshay Kumar insist on becoming partners in production when producers approach them with acting assignments. Aamir Khan was a partner in the biggest hit of 2009, 3 Idiots. Before ten years, there weren’t too many stars opting to take the additional responsibility of production, but today, most of the leading men double up as producers.

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NEW SUBJECTS
Another perceptible change observed in the last decade relates to the subjects which films tackle. With the multiplex culture setting in, filmmakers are willing to experiment with newer and hitherto untried topics. You cannot imagine that a No One Killed Jessica would’ve been made and marketed like a commercial film, by any producer a decade ago. Films like Bheja Fry, Khosla Ka Ghosla! and Tere Bin Laden may probably have been made in the nineties, but they, perhaps, would not have got the success they got in this decade. Since multiplexes are small-capacity cinemas, such films become commercially viable propositions even if a mere 200 people watch them in a show. Earlier, the cinemas used to have seating capacities of 800 to 1,000, even more. For such films to prove plus propositions, it was imperative that at least

400 to 600 people saw them in every show. But now, lesser people paying more (as admission rates in multiplexes are much higher than in single-screen cinemas) makes these hat ke films commercially viable, provided, of course, they find acceptance, like any other commercial film.

SHORT IS SWEET
In the last decade, our films have also become shorter. Gone are the days when films had to be of a running time of nearly or more than three hours. Today, a lot of films have a running time of 2 hours or just a little more. Sometimes, films don’t even have a duration of two hours. Shorter the film, more the number of shows a multiplex can screen it in. Coupled with the fact that multiplexes have multiple screens, the shorter length of the films is also responsible for films showing in up to 20 or even 24 shows daily in a multiplex! Compare this with the trademark 4 shows daily till a decade ago and you will agree that the film world has changed dramatically in the last decade. Because of the shorter duration, the number of songs in our films has also reduced. Filmmakers like Ram Gopal Varma actually don’t mind making songless films also.

Read more: Bollywood losses a whooping Rs 475 crore in 2010!

TECHNOLOGY & FILMS
In the last decade, we have also seen the quality of sound, visual effects and computer graphics in our films improve a hell of a lot. Ten years ago, even Shankar may not have been able to make a Robot but today, he has done it. Remember the sound effects in Bhoot? Try recalling a film with matching sound in the seventies, eighties or even nineties. Difficult, isn’t it? Today, our films are comparable to those made in Hollywood, as far as technique is concerned. A lot has changed in the decade gone by. And a lot is still changing. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that in the film industry, the only constant has been CHANGE. For, if filmmakers don’t keep innovating and improving, they will be left behind in the box-office race!

Read Komal Nahta’s take on Bollywood stars, films and box-office.

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