The year for Bollywood

mumbai: the magic of cinema did not work wonders for the hindi film industry in the first year of the new millennium, when the sagging fortunes of film-makers were further eroded with the box-office recording the highest number of flops. it was a disastrous year with barely a handful of the 155 movies released - the highest in recent years - managing to set the cash counters jingling.however, a glimmer of hope was provided with the appreciation of lagaan and gadar, produced by aamir khan and zee network respectively -- both new entrants in the production sector -- which notched up unprecedented collections in the country and abroad and set a rush among producers to tap patriotic themes as a winning formula for success. the box-office success of gadar worked wonders for the careers of director anil sharma and hero sunny deol, who signed several new films to be back into reckoning. after ashutosh gowariker-directed lagaan had a glorious run at the box-office, the movie earned the distinction of being selected as india's official entry to the oscars in the best foreign language film category. it was a ding-dong battle for supremacy between lagaan and gadar in terms of collections in the metropolis, the hub of the film trade, with the latter edging out lagaan to register astronomical revenue for zee, which also made its foray into the distribution sector, under banner of e-city films, acquiring bawandar and little john for all-india release. chandni bar, in which tabu gave a polished performance, mujhe kucch kehna hai, marking the debut of jeetendra's son tushar, dil chahta hai, ajnabi and indian managed to be commission-earners with moderate success at the box-office. the year-ender release kabhi khushi, kabhie gham, made with the biggest budget of rs 35 crore and biggest star-cast, comprising superstars amitabh bachchan, shah rukh khan and hrithik roshan, had a stupendous opening with a record 600 prints released all over the world -- 400 in india and 200 abroad. according to trade pundits, the film has grossed over million dollars in just three days in the us and collected 4,73,355 pounds by the first week-end of its release in uk. however, there were mixed reports about the film's response in small cities and towns, making trade analysts wonder if it could sustain in the long run. the colossal failures during the year at the box-office were subhash ghai's yaadein, shah rukh khan's one two ka four and asoka, jeetendra's kyunkii main jhoot nahin bolta, yeh raaste hain pyar ke, sunil shetty starrers yeh tera ghar, yeh mera ghar and ehsaas, tera mera sath rahen, amisha patel's yeh zindagi ka safar, fardeen khan starrer love ke liye kuch bhi karega, bas itna khwaab hai, lajja, kamal hassan's abhay, gaja gamini, deewanapan and moksha. among the actors, aamir khan with lagaan and dil chahta hai stayed afloat along with sunny deol with gadar and indian to emerge front-runners. amisha patel was the most in demand among heroines after the mega success of gadar. rumours about karisma kapoor's impending marriage with amitabh's son abishekh bachchan were doing the rounds all through the year with the actress denying them. her starrer zubeidaa did not fare well. gracy singh, who portrayed the popular character of dinki in the tv serial amanant, made her debut on the big screen with lagaan. she was gradually getting assignments in bollywood, being signed up opposite anil kapoor in satish kaushik's next production and opposite tushar kapoor in hindi remake of the telugu hit badri. aishwarya rai, another top heroine, did not have any hit to her credit during the year but her off-screen activities with hero salman khan caught the imagination of people with the actor even barging into her house to express his feelings to her but the actress played it cool. kareena kapoor, among the leading heroines, hogged the limelight with spirited performances in ajnabi, muje kucch kehna hai and kabhi khushi kabhi gham. another bad tiding for the movie industry during the year was the crisis situation for music companies, with lucrative prices offered for audio rights of films becoming a thing of the past. with music of films being downloadable on the internet and cheap mp3 format available to listeners, the sale of audio cassettes and cds was on the decline. the overseas and satellite rights were also reduced to rubble and there were no takers, which was another bad portent for the industry since producers generate their revenue from these rights. a ray of hope emerged at the fag-end of the year for the crisis-ridden industry when cable operators came to terms with producers to ink an historic mou to tackle piracy, which had been eating into the profits of the film trade. the industry lost about rs 900 crore in terms of revenue due to the menace, trade sources said. the global recession, september 11 terrorist strikes in the united states and the war in afghanistan were other setbacks for the industry as revenue generated from the overseas market mostly came to a standstill. according to a prominent overseas distributor, there was not only a slump but a virtual crash in the film market. "producers are making bad films. instead of concentrating on finer points of movie making, they are trying to make a fast buck by selling different rights before completion of the film", he said. leading actor akshay kumar married heroine twinkle khanna, daughter of rajesh khanna and dimple, to take the industry by surprise during the year. the success of monsoon wedding brought films made by nris into the limelight in bollywood. showman subhash ghai became a father at the age of 51 after a wait of 27 years when his wife rehana gave birth to a baby girl on december 24 at the breach candy hospital. he earlier had adopted his brother's daughter. it was also the silver jubilee year of his rs 400 crore concern mukta arts, which has gone public and under whose banner he made 14 films, out of which 12 were jubilee hits. another feather in the cap of the film-maker was the starting of his dream project, whistling woods, an institute of films, tv and media arts, for which chief minister vilasrao deshmukh laid the foundation stone at the state-owned film city on october 18. leading playback singer asha bhosale received the prestigious dadasaheb phalke award for lifetime contribution to the industry at the hands of president k r narayanan at vigyan bhawan in delhi on december 12. actor anil kapoor got the best actor award for his performance in pukar, while raveena tandon bagged the best actress award for daman to bring laurels for the hindi film industry at the 48th national awards function. earlier, asha's eldest sister, singing sensation lata mangeshkar was conferred with bharat ratna by the government in recognition of her sterling contribution to the growth and development of music. actor-film maker vijay anand was appointed chairman of the central board of film certification, replacing actress asha parekh, who resigned after completing her three -year term. the film city at goregaon in suburban mumbai was renamed after dadasaheb phalke, the father of indian cinema, at a function presided over by chief minister vilasrao deshmukh on april 30. a commemorative stamp on legendary actor raj kapoor was released here by union communication minister pramod mahajan to coincide with the showman's 77th birth anniversary on december 14. after a successful career in movies, shatrughan sinha, now a rajya sabha member, plunged into the theatre world after shabana azmi and jaya bachchan also decided to return to stage. his play pati, patni aur main has been making waves in the corridors of power in delhi. noted diamond merchant and film financier bharat shah was arrested for links with the underworld in the second week of january. nasim rizvi, producer of the controversial movie chori chori, chupke chupke, and his associate abdul rahim allah baksh were also remanded to judicial custody till january 8 in the same case. actor fardeen khan, sone of film maker and actor feroz khan, was arrested in may on drug charges. in a significant development, actor sanjay dutt, a co-accused in the 1993 serial bomb blast case, appeared before a designated tada court judge on december 18 and denied his involvement in the conspiracy. with the end of the taliban regime, latest videos and dvds of indian films flooded various stores across afghanistan and producers kuku kohli and aruna irani were among the first bollywood film-makers, planning to release their forthcoming movie yeh dil hai ashiana there to open up a new overseas territory for the film trade. noted actor ashok kumar, who enacted several memorable roles during the 50's and 60's -- the golden era of hindi movies -- died at his chembur residence after prolonged bouts of asthmatic attacks at the age of 90. the industry also saw the deaths during the year of u a thadani, president of theatre ownerss association, actress bhakti barve, producer asit sen and actor pradeep kumar.