The ageing
concept of content driven films
still seems to tremble like a toddler in the maelstrom of
multiplex-manipulation of the Indian film industry. When years ago, films like
‘Bheja Fry’ and far between ‘A Wednesday’ gained critical acclamation and swept
footfalls in single screens and sparsely growing multiplexes, it was surely a
startling surprise to see that tight budget, content-driven films too have an
audience. This was aside from the star-driven blockbusters, beyond (filmmaker)
Mahesh Bhatt’s love story prototype. He offered films in a wide range of genres
from ‘Saaransh’ to ‘Murder’ and he is again set to wield the megaphone.
A couple of years
ago, Tinseltown got caught in the tide of making strong content driven films
irrespective to their fate at the box-office, when the studios entered as an
alchemist to a flurry of filmmakers who would otherwise have never been able to
make their niche storytelling see the light of day, produce new genres and
create the new breed of stars we have now.
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Filmmakers like
Shoojit Sircar, Sujoy Ghosh, Anand L Rai, Nishikant Kamat and Vikramaditya
Motwane have ramified the set psyches of the audience with films that are not
just about stars pouncing on screen with a swag, but where content can also be
THE king. That is progress. Front-runner Anurag Kashyap and his clan of
filmmakers tightened their jaws and gave a sly smile to the sceptics.
The industry offered
a number of films like ‘Udaan’, ‘Kahaani’, ‘Drishyam’, ‘Piku’, ‘Pink’, ‘Shubh
Mangal Saavdhan’ and ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ and gave a berth to actors like
Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkumaar Rao ‘star of small films’ status. All these
films have something in common—they had poignant plots driven by stars of some
capacity.They got pompous promotion and considerably wide release irrespective
to their fate at the box-office.
The show-runners
still don’t seem too open to content-driven, tight films and bear an arbitrary
discretion towards screen sharing for them. When such films unravelled with
welcoming speed, the providence of such films still hangs in the balance in
India, though it has had the greatest effect. Films like ‘Mulk’ (Rishi Kapoor
and Taapsee Pannu) or ‘Manto’ (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) had two to one odd-time
shows in multiplex chains and no show for ‘Manto’ in standalone or single
screen theatres in Goa.
Making a small town
content-driven film is not like any new-found planet in the solar system. In
the 1970s, ‘80s, filmmakers like Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee made
films on simple small-town stories with “glam-less” actors Amol Palekar, Vidya
Sinha, Bindiya Goswami, Farooq Sheikh and Deepti Naval and they turned out to
be become iconic cult films. They were even commercially successful. But the
audience has changed. The advent of multiplex culture has disposed the audience
towards star-driven touted blockbusters and such content-driven films rest on
luck.
Over an informal, bit
abstract query on it, Saurabh Verma, Chief Marketing Officer at Inox Leisure
Limited, didn’t deviate much from my assumptions. “There is no small or big
film. All film shows are given on the basis of their potential demand in the
box office. Some films pick up and the shows increase instantly. That has
happened with ‘Mulk’, where shows increased and it sustained itself for more
than four weeks. Every multiplex ensures that films are studied and showcased
as per their demand on the ticket counter i.e. box office,” he said. His claims
were credible.
If it’s Salman Khan
launching his brother-in-law Ayush Sharma with another newcomer, Warina
Hussain, multiplexes deemed to have a better prospect? May not be so. But big
stars, producers, filmmakers of the industry and the coterie closing ranks
around them still try to protect unspoken assumption that in some situations
powerful men can set their own rules.
However,
the slow shift reflects a broad social change. Even if sooner, audience would
take almost a decade to be as supportive towards these finely branched
commercial films to brush shoulders with the ‘mainstream commercial films’ that
itself is still struggling to reach the absolute mass.
