Bollywood breathes easier as Bachchan helps reverse decline
From Naureen Aslam

MUMBAI—While a plunging box office has left Hollywood in a sweat, India’s Bollywood is breathing easier after four blockbusters by legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan helped reverse its declining fortunes in 2005.
Bollywood, India’s prolific Hindi-language film industry, invested 10 billion rupees in nearly 150 movies in 2005 and ended the year with a loss of around 1.35 billion rupees (29.8 million dollars) against losses of 1.75 billion in 2004, according to film analyst Komal Nahta.
With four of the 20 hits recorded at the box office this year to his credit, Bachchan, 63, emerged as the undisputed movie mogul of Bollywood despite a serious ailment in the past few months which has delayed shooting of his new projects.
“Bachchan was responsible for lower losses to a large extent after giving four super hits in 2005,” said Nahta. The four films — “Black”, “Waqt” (Time), “Sarkar” (Godfather) and “Bunty Aur Babli” — together grossed a whopping one billion rupees, he added. “No other actor achieved what Bachchan did this year, which goes to prove his clout,” Nahta told newsmen.
“Considering his age, scripts are still written for him which is something that has never happened before in Bollywood.” In Hollywood, ticket sale revenues dropped five percent in the first 11 months of 2005 while the number of Americans going to the cinema fell by 6.2 percent compared with the same period in 2004, according to box office trackers Exhibitor Relations Co Inc.
But in India, filmmakers adopted new storylines to keep afloat an industry often accused of aping Hollywood and got fans back to theatres, said Nahta. Of the 150 Hindi films released this year, around 20 were hits at the box office, eight more than last year, said another analyst, Indu Mirani.
“This year was much better even though the success to failure ratio remained the same at around 15 percent,” she said. “But in absolute terms, the movies that were successful were bigger hits with higher earnings which shows that more tickets were sold in 2005.”
India’s first fully-fledged animation film, “Hanuman” — the mythological story of the Hindu monkey god — also gave a boost, earning 80 million rupees against its cost of 30 million rupees in its first nine weeks. “While comedy and new themes made it in Bollywood this year, sex based films bombed,” said analyst Nahta.
Films with a high sex dose were a big draw in 2004, making actresses such as Mallika Sherawat and Neha Dhupia overnight stars. But their fortunes plummeted this year with no big releases. “The audience do not want sex movies, but demand a film with a good story,” said analyst Taran Adarsh. “Last year nudity was new but this year there was nothing new to it so audiences rejected sleaze.”
One offbeat film that clicked was “Page 3” — an attempt to look into the lives of the country’s elites through the eyes of a journalist. The 30-million -rupee film earned 120 million rupees. Comedy “Kya Kool Hai Hum” (How Cool We Are!), with no big stars, also did well, making 150 million rupees against a production cost of 50 million rupees.
The industry’s biggest hit, however, was a yet another comedy, “No Entry”, which grossed 450 million rupees on an outlay of 150 million rupees. The film revolves around a few married men indulging in extra-marital affairs. The biggest disappointment was the flop of big budget historical film “The Rising”, starring eccentric but popular actor Aamir Khan.
Khan, returning to the big screen after four years, failed to deliver in the role of Mangal Pandey, India’s first known revolutionary freedom fighter. “Indian audiences have always rejected historical films and ‘The Rising’ met the same fate,” said Nahta. The other big budget production to bite the dust was “Kisna” directed by veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghai. “The audience has become very unpredictable and there is no brand loyalty to any actor or director anymore,” said Mirani, with the exception of Bachchan.
“This was one important trend observed in 2005.” Pirated movies, meanwhile, continued to erode Bollywood’s earnings. “Bollywood lost at least five billion rupees worth of earnings to piracy. It’s the biggest menace for movie industries world over and Bollywood is no exception,” said Mirani.