“WHO IS TO BLAME?” Introspections by a young movie-maker.

Back to my blog after a while, this was a rather unlikely topic to write on. But, as one starts writing, one has to be true to his/her conscience. Two, also true to the ground realities. The reality is that Bollywood’s rough patch continues and it looks highly vulnerable at the moment. The purpose of this piece is as much an attempt at self-introspection before landing in Bollywood as a young producer; as much it is an effort to bring one of the core issues scaring Indian Cinema to its guts today.

Before proceeding on the exact theme, however, a bit of chit-chat…

Venturing in Bollywood as a young and suave Director is in. In vogue. In fashion. And, a sort of statement by a new brigade – “I’ve arrived.”.

On the other hand, taking a look at the producers, this brigade is conspicuously obscure there. Though we have a multitude of new kinds and species of producers venturing in, we are yet to see the arrival of young and professionally skilled producers. The older lot of producers with money amassed or mobilized continues to hold its ground. Good for Indian cinema. We’ll always be grateful to them for allowing the creative brigades over decades to bring to us all sorts of cinema. The recent fad is the corporatization of the production process and producers with the entry of big companies, with or without entertainment & media credentials.

We liked it when corporate houses backed the young and suave directors who were able to make cinema within small budgets and also earned critical acclaim, over and above profitability.  One example was followed by many and soon became a trend. We, today have so many bright directors who we can count on as chic and talented guys with at least one hit in their kitty. Who would otherwise had to be content with serving as an Associate of veteran directors. At any moment, we can easily count fifty such names.  And, this new wave has not only helped such young directors but, has also made second life possible for many veterans who were sort of written off. Surprisingly and suddenly, we saw many of the old directors with art or typically commercial cinema background hitting us with good films that made sense, amused us, entertained and, recovered revenues.

Back to the core theme of this piece of mine, I am worried about why is it that all of a sudden all the permutations and combinations have started to fail. That nothing really seems to be working for Bollywood!

That in spite of the sound of “all the best” and rituals of “rashee”, no film seems to be “wanted” by the viewers. Why is every film made to appear “blue” in the very first week?

We movie-buffs and movie-makers both had a bad time in the face of the multiplex-ceinemakers tiff that lasted 2 months. But, while the apparent impact was expected to be over within a month or two after the strike in the new circumstances, the lateral impact refuses to go. The entire fraternity will agree that they are yet to be able to figure out what exactly is the reason for continued despair at the Box Office. But, I strongly believe, one of the key reasons is hidden somewhere in what I have written till now.

I would like to deliberate upon some of the possible reasons with some amount of reasoning.

As said earlier, the industry is today full of young directors with at least one film that performed well at the box office as well with the critiques. The corporate production houses backed them and their second or subsequent offerings mostly failed to rekindle the magic. One reason may be that while we have so many bright kids on the block today each with credible debut record,  we must not forget that their first flick was a result of their passion-filled persistence of few years, and a dream project. Quick recognition got them offers they couldn’t say “no” to. Maybe the subsequent films lacked the depth and amount of work they gave to their earlier venture.

Another reason, many of my friends in the Bollywood do not very much like the corporate production houses for reasons best known to them. Is there some mismatch which, while ensures the film completes with all its ingredients, works against the interests of the film? Does it shun the film of its spark and magic in its desperate bid to monetize? The next apprehension of mine is if the erstwhile legendary producers are yet to come to terms with the new realities and they also find a mismatch in working with the new directors. I strongly believe, there must be something in the director-producer relationship which is helping this mess.

Then, comes the question of not-so-young directors. The ones on whom Bollywood always counts on. Unfortunately, in spite of their efforts to keep to their reputation, some failed to hit the bull’s eye. Some, on the other hand, even lost sight of what they wanted to make. Vishal Bhardwaj claimed before the release of ‘Kaminey’ that the audiences will see a new Vishal in this film. He was right. The film failed to receive whole-hearted appreciation of audiences as well critics that Vishal Bhardwaj is now used to. However, he did not let down his producers and investors. It performed satisfactorily at the Box Office. Similarly, Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Love Aajkal’ was found to be nowhere close to ‘Jab We Met’. Yet, he recovered the investments well. Good for him. Good for Saif. Now, coming to Ajay Devgn-Rohit Shetty combo, it has worked again with ‘All The Best’. ‘Wanted’ performed too, to help Salman and the producers. But, these are just the films that we can count.

The longer list has in the first row ‘What’s Your Rashee’ that kept everyone pondering about what exactly such a reputed director wanted to make. At least this was not expected of Ashutosh Gowarikar in these bad times. On the top of it, we have the much-awaited Diwali releases – Bollywood’s annual rituals. ‘Blue’ is doing miserably as per trade information at the moment. So is doing ‘Main Aur Mrs Khanna’. ‘Do Knot Disturb’ upset the likes of David Dhawan which is highly unusual. Follows them a long list of illustrious as well un-illustrious flicks like ‘Wake Up Sid’, ‘Kambakkht Ishq’, ‘Luck’ and so on. There is another category of movies which we suddenly start hearing about couple of weeks before their release. And nobody tends to remember them two weeks after their release. Surprisingly, these films also have some USP. But, what fails to amaze is that if producers are putting in big money on the first category of big films, directors are putting in their best of efforts, what is it that is to blame. Who is at fault? Everyone is doing the best to ensure it performs well.

Is it sudden outburst of these small-time films that seem to be releasing in bulk every week, meant to be forgotten by the week ends? Is there any formula behind such films, best known to the makers?

Is it a problem of too many? Is it that whole lot of cinemas that were blocked from getting released due to the multiplex-cinemakers tiff and are now releasing without a space for the moviegoers?

Is it that directors are trying to eat much more than they can chew and taking up too many films, too fast, only to disappoint the viewers?

Is it that producers are in too hurry to produce too many films, assuming that even if one out of five does well, they’ll be in profitability? But, if this is the case, isn’t it like putting the directors’ careers and viewers’ loyalty at stake?

Is it a problem of over-exposure with the TV intruding into films too much, eroding its charisma with too many previews, uncut versions, making, and promotional stints through reality shows? Are we guys now tired of the cinematic overdose on Idiot Box and developing a dislike for films that try to ‘penetrate’ too much and, beyond the forbidden limits? Is it something comparable to the ‘India Shining’ campaign that is held to have caused disaster for the advertisers in 2004 General Elections?

Is it that the Indian audience has come of age and started discarding ‘bad’ cinema? For that matter, if we try to slot together all the films that did well on one side and, the others on the other, we cannot name specific categories and genres with certainty that they’ll succeed or fail. We can’t still say that “all the hit films resemble each other” while it is true that “all the failed ones failed for reasons of their own”.

I have so many more questions while trying to introspect what is it that should work and what ensures the failure of a project in Bollywood today. There must some concrete reasons, beyond good cinema and bad cinema. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have so many of our best of Bollywood (directors, producers, actors all) engaged in bad cinema. Any help in breaking this code? Can anyone?

Or, simply, am I reacting too much?