2010 a not-so-'Dabangg' year for Bollywood

So what if 'Dabangg' managed to scorchthe box office with a rich haul of Rs 145 crore. The bitter truth is that ithasn't been a 'Dabangg' year for Bollywood in terms of revenue receipts. Withnearly 180 films released this year, trade analysts are finding it hard to pickout the top ten blockbusters from an industry which is struggling withgargantuan loss figures averaging at Rs 300 crores. Technically there are just ahandful of films that have managed to make sizeable profits this year. Theseinclude films like 'Dabangg', 'Golmaal 3', 'Once Upon A Time In Mumbai','Rajneeti', 'Housefull' and 'Peepli Live'.But the biggest eye-openerof the year has been a small budgeted, completely experimental film. DibakarBannerjee's innovative take on modern love in a messed up age not only walkedaway with critical acclaim for its brave new idiom and its bold new theme, italso managed to teach Bollywood its most important lesson. With a productioncost of just Rs 1 crore and a revenue of Rs 8 crore, the film has enunciated thenew business model for the film industry. Think big, but keep itsmall: that's the new survival mantra for a busted Bollywood that is battlingthe blues with biggies like 'Veer' and 'Kites' biting the dust. And it isn't LSDalone which is boasting about economies of scale. Films like 'Atithi Tum KabJaoge', 'Peepli Live', 'Tere Bin Laden' and 'Phas Gaye Re Obama' which hadrational budgets and reasonable profits also prove that bloat is definitely abad word in film business today. Even a film like 'My Name is Khan' whichmanaged to gross a Rs 80 crore plus isn't being viewed as a big hit by tradeanalysts, simply because it cost Fox studios much more than that (Rs 100 crore)to buy and distribute the film.Looking back, 2010 definitely standsout as the year of the small yet startling pack. Think of the films that standout at curtain call...'Udaan', 'Tere Bin Laden', 'Well Done Abba', 'PeepliLive', 'Lahore', 'Do Dooni Char', 'Ishqiya' and LSD are some of the films thatmade the industry proud despite the absence of larger-than-life stars andshock-and-awe budgets. All they had was a sensible story told sensibly andsensitively. The films credited their viewers with both IQ and EQ (emotionalquotient) and won instant applause for doggedly steering clear of the formula.The year has seen an efflorescence of new directors andscriptwriters ��� Vikramaditya Motwane (Udaan), Habib Faisal (Do DooniChar), Danish Aslam (Break Ke Baad), Abhishek Chaubey (Ishqiya), Anusha Rizvi(Peepli Live), Abhishek Sharma (Tere Bin Laden), Subhash Kapoor (Phas Gaye ReObama), Punit Malhotra (I Hate Luv Stories), Vijay Lalwani (Karthik CallingKarthik), Maneesh Sharma (Break Ke Baad), Farrukh Kabir (Allah Ke Bandey),Abhinav Kashyap (Dabangg), Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan (Lahore), Parmeet Sethi(Badmash Company) ��� who are willing to take risks and tell a differentstory. Contrast this with the unsavoury fate of the films by stalwarts ���'Veer', 'Raavan', 'Action Replayy', 'Kites', 'Rakth Charitra' ��� and thepicture is clear. Old is no longer gold in an industry where the viewer profilehas changed drastically and has been taken over by the digi-kids who like theirdrama current, contemporary and completely fresh.In terms ofentertainers, the year belonged to Salman for reinventing the superhero in'Dabangg', Ranbir Kapoor for his riveting rendition of a desi Michael Corleonein Rajneeti, Ajay Devgan for rock steady roles in 'Once Upon a Time in Mumbai','Aakrosh' and 'Golmaal 3' and Vidya Balan for getting slutty in style in'Ishqiya'. Of course, India still waits for Shiela ki Jawani to explode onscreen this week.