Several movies with a lesser-known cast and solid plot have trumped big-budget movies in recent times
BHUBANESWAR: ‘What’s in a name?’ asked William Shakespeare undermining the importance of being associated with a big name. Filmmakers in Bollywood seem to be obsessed about casting a big name in their movie, neglecting other essential elements in various big-budget movies. However, several movies with a lesser-known cast have trumped high-budget movies in recent times.
The months of October and November were a golden period for such movies. Films like Andhadhun, Badhaai Ho, Tumbaad, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety and Stree have earned twice or thrice their budgets as compared to other star-studded movies like Race-3, Thugs of Hindustan and Namaste England among others which were all spectacular failures in the box office.
“The key is to connect to your set of audience,” explains Preet Bedi, former CEO of Percept Picture Company. “When you try to appease everyone you end up with a mixed product only to be left with a wasteful marketing strategy. One has to identify story or a one-liner in an extensive manner so much so that it can be turned into a full-fledged movie.”
Punching above their weight, makers of Badhaai Ho that have already earned more than six times their budget of Rs. 29 crore have attributed their success to strong performances from their cast and undertaking the risk of floating a refreshing idea.
Amit Ravindernath Sharma, director of Badhai Ho in an interview suggests that a large number of movies are relying on hackneyed content and superstar fandom. “A 100-crore film is an overwhelmingly large budget and the risk taking becomes even bigger but that shouldn’t compromise the audience of a true entertainment.”
The issue of plagiarism and remakes of the content has always marred Bollywood. Be it cutting and sloshing Christopher Nolan’s Memento and recreating it as ‘Ghajini’ to the incessant makeovers of South-Indian films into epic action movies, big budget films have been evidently trite for a while.
Anurag Kashyap, a reverred Bollywood director who has a cult following based on his small-budget films such as Gangs of Wasseypur, Paanch and Raman Raghav 2.0, opined that there is generally a belief among the filmmakers that the audience in our country don’t value overly creative or subject-oriented films.
“Our audience is far smarter than what they are perceived to be. Movie making is an art of telling stories to your people. If you don’t tell them the story the way they like they are simply going to reject it. The financial aspect of a movie comes later but what really matters is a good script and how intelligently you project it,” he added.
However, an interesting counter argument is made by prominent actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui. He states that people love to see ‘stereotype being broken.’“People are bored by the miseries or disappointments around them. Our films are a method of escaping reality. They love their hero trouncing the villains and eventually getting the girl of their dreams,” he added. Apparently, this is evident by the fact that movies as Race-3 or ‘Baaghi 2’ who have been rated poorly by critics managed to make it big at the box office.
Largely, a film’s success or failure is judged by the audience. Kashyap’s idea of good story resonates with the people. “We spend a lot of money and time to watch a movie. It’s a recreational tool for common people like us and we expect a good film every time I visit a movie theatre. Sometimes it gets disappointing when big movie stars give us films that are completely rubbish,” says Nishant Jayanti, a avid movie lover.
Aviral Mishra, OP
