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Frames of chance

SUPERHIT A scene from "Rang De Basanti"

The media might be too engrossed with the travails of Salman Khan but the average film fan, it seems, cannot have enough of masala. This year Bollywood has seen three consecutive super hits — Rang De Basanti, Malamaal Weekly and Taxi No 9211. Then there have been films like Aksar and Zinda, which have successfully defied convention.

Rang De Basanti revolves around a group of five friends played by Aamir Khan, Soha Ali, Kunal Kapoor, Siddharth and Sharman Joshi who go through a rollercoaster ride of changes. The central character is Alice, a young documentary filmmaker who comes to India with her grandfather's diary to shoot a film based on freedom fighters. Seen as stirring patriotic fervour in the youth, the movie received a critics' rating of 77 per cent and was termed a superhit as per box office collections. The second hit, Taxi No 9211, starring Nana Patekar and John Abraham, is set in Mumbai. It is the story of a chance encounter between the two characters, a day in the life of two opposites. It received a critics' rating of 58 per cent with an above-average box office verdict.

The Bollywood hit during March was Malamaal Weekly starring Paresh Rawal, Riteish Deshmukh, Om Puri, Shakti Kapoor and Rakhi Sawant. Based on a story by the director Priyadarshan, it is set a comedy set in a small town, involving a lottery ticket and a bunch of hilarious characters. It received huge collections during the first week despite the lack of a star. Says film distributor Surinder Pal, "It is quite surprising that a low-budget film overtook high-budget films this time. The Indian audience is now looking at quality acting and concrete storyline." Wrapped up in Rs.80 lakhs, the film got a collection of two crores from the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh regions. There were 49 prints distributed across the country. Surinder feels it is only the storyline of the movie that could make it a blockbuster, its audio being the second factor.

Unpredictable

According to veteran film distributor Sanjay Mehta, unless a film is well mounted and publicised, it falls flat at the box office. "Since the film business is unpredictable in nature, there is not a single producer or director who would not want to cash in on the initial hype of the film." Filmmakers are experimenting to draw in the multiplex crowd. "Multiplexes have changed the USP of cinema," says Sanjay who has distributed many movies such as Page3, Yahaan and the recent musical hit Aksar. His Tom, Dick and Harry is round the corner.

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