A Series of box-office disasters involving Bollywood’s top
producers and stars have forced several corporate interests to reconsider their
ambitious production plans for the massive Hindi film market. The resulting
turmoil will undoubtedly cause problems and difficulties in the near future,
but from a wider and longer-term perspective, this phase may even turn out to
be a blessing in disguise if this leads to some badly-needed reforms.

These reforms can help to improve the economics of film
making in Mumbai in significant ways, an impact which can hopefully spread to
other regional centres as certainly its need is being felt. What may ultimately
prove even more important is that these reforms can help create conditions in
which new and younger film makers (plus of course, some experienced but
neglected ones) have a better chance to make and exhibit films on a wider
diversity of issues that are closer to reality and society’s real needs
compared to what is normally offered by Bollywood.

Old-timers would recall the New Wave cinema heralded by
films like Bhuvan Shome and Garm Hawa in Hindi and Nirmalyam (Malayalam) and
Kaadu (Kannada) in the late 1970s. People, who were fed up with big formula
films, had welcomed the aesthetically better and more socially relevant films
made at low budgets and lined up to see them, not just at film festivals but
even at mainstream cinema halls. Of course, the audience for such films was not
too big, but given that they were made at very low budgets, they could still
happily recover their costs and make modest profits. A somewhat similar but
hopefully wider breakthrough can and should be attempted now.

The market for Hindi films has always been a huge one — a
factor that ensured the inflow of adequate finance at an early stage of the
industry when the pattern of filmmaking was quite haphazard. Gradually a few
institutions like Bombay Talkies  and
Prabhat came to be recognised as reliable centres of good filmmaking,
attracting talent as well as finance. In the post-Independence period, the
overall conditions remained chaotic, but due to their immense talent or huge
popularity or both, a few outstanding individuals like Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt,
Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and V Shantaram could create institutions, which
supported teams of talented professionals in various areas of filmmaking.

The next stage came with the increasing infiltration of
finance from dubious sources. That led to an increasing need for
government-supported institutional finance, which for some years became a
significant supporter of quality low-budget films. At the same time, on the
strength of their well-deserved reputation, filmmakers like Hrishikesh Mukerjee
and BR Chopra continued to produce quality, more or less steadily.

But the need for better management practices was voiced from
time to time and this led to the more recent stage in which several big corporate
interests entered the field of Hindi film production. It included the leading
corporate houses of India as well as top-of-the-line multinational companies in
the entertainment business.

However, the experience of some of those corporate backers
did not prove to a happy one as several films produced by them and publicised
with great fanfare failed to do well at the box office, and in some cases even
reported huge losses. One after another, much-talked about films, produced by
big banners, failed to attract viewers — the list includes Fitoor, Tamasha,
Mohenjo Daro, The Flying Jatt, Great Grand

Masti, Bombay Velvet, Hawaizaada and Tevar. Huge amounts had
been spent on these films and quite a few of the new smart corporate kids were
left wondering where they had gone wrong and how. They may not get enough time
to make amends as some of their bosses are already scaling back their plans of
Hindi film production given the huge financial losses being cited in trade
circles for some of these films — for example Rs.55 crore in the case of
Fitoor.

That brings us to one of the biggest problems plaguing
filmmaking in Bollywood, one that has been worsening over the years instead of
being corrected. The problem relates to an artificially created over-dependence
on a few big stars for selling films and the consequent willingness of making
huge payments to them.

This problem has become so huge that even in these times of
rising production costs as much a 50 to 40 per cent of the total budget may be
taken up by payments to stars. In addition, a lot of other money gets spent on
tailoring the entire shooting schedule to the dates given by stars who may be
working at the same time on too many projects. Another problem is meeting the
expenses of their retinues and responding to their whims and tantrums.

When the big corporate houses came in, they did not really
try to challenge or correct such long-prevailing problems. Rather, they
appeared to have thought that they can outbid others and use the star system to
their advantage. Things, as is amply apparent, did not work out that way for
the simple reason that this is not the reality.

People may be initially attracted by star names but
ultimately it is the real qualities of good film making, which have an
important role in the appreciation of films. This in turn means that story and
script have a very important role, as also do good dialogues, lyrics, editing
apart from acting and direction. A preoccupation with the star system and other
high cost gimmicks like shooting in exotic locations have been an unnecessary
burden and in addition, led to the relative neglect of other, very important
aspects of filmmaking.

 The huge losses
suffered recently by several big budget and star-driven movies may lead to a
reconsideration of the existing economics of the Indian film industry, which
invests so heavily in overdependence on the star system. That might entail
weakening of the star system but it will help to significantly reduce normal
budgets and create more space for new acting talent to flower in the film
industry. Above all, the weakening hold of the star system will make it
possible for new filmmakers who could not afford these stars earlier to now
make their presence felt. Therefore, the viability of directors who want to make
films based on social reality is also likely to improve, particularly if they
can form collectives based on mutual help and co-operation.

Overall, certain conditions are becoming more conducive for
another New Wave cinema to emerge, but of course this will not happen on its
own. Strong commitment and hard work by groups of filmmakers, artists and
technicians are needed in order to make use of new emerging opportunities in
the industry.