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Regional cinema seems poised to emerge out of the shadows of
Bollywood. And the global success of "Sivaji - The Boss", the
Rajnikant-starrer released in Tamil and Telugu, is not the only
indicator. Films made in Bhojpuri have been routinely eclipsing
Bollywood fare at the box-office. Hindi movies, which dominated the
Indian box-office for years and have come to be indicative of
cinema in India, are being edged out by regional films as they make
their presence felt in foreign film fests.
Yash Raj Films' latest venture "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom" starring
Amitabh Bachchan found itself lagging far behind simultaneously
released "Sivaji" and even trailing Bhojpuri film "Nirhua
Rikshawala" at the turnstiles.
Marathi filmmaker Sandeep Sawant's "Shwaas" remains one of the
most critically acclaimed Indian films in recent times. Director
Rajnesh Domalpalli's Telugu film "Vanaja" was the winner of the
Best Feature Debut award at the Berlin film festival this year.
And Kolkata-based filmmaker Aparna Sen has upstaged all her
contemporaries by making "A Japanese Wife" - the first Indian film
in Japanese, Bengali and English.
"Bollywood is a mere percentage of the Indian cinema as a complete
entity. But the Indian psyche is such that it has personified
Bollywood as mainstream cinema, and sidelined regional cinema. We
have to end such compartmentalisation to be able to produce
world-class movies," Marathi filmmaker Amol Palekar said in an
interview to a national daily.
The Marathi film industry boasts of legends like Dadasaheb Phalke
and V. Shantaram.
A country of more than a dozen official languages, India has
several different hubs of cinema scattered across the subcontinent,
churning out movies that cater mostly to regional audiences.
Bollywood's colourful song-and-dance spectacles generally boast
the biggest budgets, the biggest stars and the biggest domestic and
international penetration. But the Hindi film industry in Mumbai
accounts for only about a quarter of the 1,000 or so movies
produced in India annually.
The Tamil film industry and its Telugu-language counterpart in
Andhra Pradesh - two entertainment powerhouses - together released
nearly twice as many feature films last year as Bollywood.
"Everyone thinks Bollywood is the biggest in India, but it's
actually the south Indian movie market that is bigger than the
Hindi market," trade observer Hetal Adesara is quoted as saying in
The Los Angeles Times.
The growth in regional filmmaking is taking the same route that the
newspaper or the television industry has taken following influx of
funds.
Niche is the way to go in a fast globalising world. It is projected
that regional cinema will play a key role in fulfilling optimistic
forecasts of the potential of the country's movie industry.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), India's film business
was $2.1 billion in 2006 and is expected to more than double by
2011.
This year, Bollywood has struggled to match 2006's record at the
box office.
Several high-profile films with big-name stars have bombed.
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To build on the success of "Sivaji: The Boss" and give Bollywood a
run for its money, regional film industries need to undergo a major
shift in the way they do business.
Every year more than 350 movies are released in Kannada, Tamil,
Telugu and Malayalam but the success rate is low. Trade analysts
say judicious, sustained marketing and adoption of latest
technologies had a big role to play in the success of "Sivaji". And
that is the way to go for others.
Nagathihalli Chandrashekar a prominent director in the Kannada
industry, says: "We have to innovate and rise up to the present day
benchmark and try to market our films in other states and abroad
also. We have to adopt the DVD culture. From the beginning of each
and every project the producer and director have to think in global
way. Then only we can come out of this mess or else the whole
industry will sink."
The rise of multiplexes in towns and cities across the country is
providing a platform to regional films to exhibit themselves.
Recently released Bengali film, "The Bong Connection" had a bumper
opening and is a hit among multiplex goers.
The major challenge that the regional cinema needs to address is of
how to widen the audience base. Just as Bollywood movies are
screened with subtitles in not only the domestic but also in the
international market, the same should be done to encourage regional
cinema.
"The regional film fraternity needs a proper plan for
corporatisation, financing of movies, distribution and marketing of
films in not only India but internationally as well," said Bengali
actor Prasenjeet.
The solution, in Kerala-based filmmaker T.K. Rajeev Kumar's view,
was that the regional cinema industry should consider leveraging on
new mediums like Internet, international film festivals, satellite
television, broadcasters, and other such options to reach out to
newer audiences.
"We need to reach out to new audiences via new mediums, only after
doing this can we consider nationwide theatrical releases," he
said.
While we wait for regional cinema to go more corporate here is
hoping that the quotient of meaningful films by the likes of
Rituparno Ghosh, Budhadeb Das Gupta, and Adoor Gopalakrishnan does
not diminish.
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Bollywood has been feeling the heat from Hollywood studios as well.
Year 2007 has been touted as the biggest year for Hollywood and
things are no different in the Indian subcontinent. This month
alone, five Bollywood films released but "Ocean's 13" with George
Clooney garnered better revenues.
Last month, "Spiderman 3" hit the screens and became the
highest-grossing Hollywood film in India, overtaking "Titanic". The
key strategy was its simultaneous release in five Indian languages,
including Bhojpuri and Telugu.
Demand for quality regional films is clearly there and if regional
cinema and Bollywood are not able to meet it then it will be left
to Hollywood to make a sweep.
By Priyanka Khanna
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