I am going to write about how the Indian film industry especially Bollywood has managed to suppress the growth of regional movies despite a good part of regional movies being qualitatively at par if not superior to the fare that Bollywood dishes out. My review is motivated by recent comments made by Mammootty (the malayalam Superstar) in the recently concluded IIFA awards where he said that the IIFA awards should be renamed the Indian International Hindi film Awards because there is not any participation by regional movies in the event. Aptly stated - and I agree with him cent percent because this is the typical attitude displayed upon regional movies.
Regional movies are categorised and then stereotyped by Bollywood into two main categories :-
1) The Masala movies of Rajnikanth , Chiranjeevi where people where white suits and white shoes and there are hundred pots and hundreds of dancers
2) The Art movies from Kerala , Bengal , Assam where a person sits and stares at the ceiling for hours together.
By such extreme categorisation they then marginalise viewer’s interest in regional movies and continue to dish out the same stuff .
The main points I would like to make are :-
1) Regional Movies if dubbed / released with sub-titles can eat into Bollywood’s unhealthy share
Bollywood has an unhealthy share of viewers because Hindi is the most spoken language. However this easy money has made it unresponsive to changing times and stubborn.It has metamorphised into a Family wood where sons , daughters , nephews , nieces of those in the industry stick on and in the process not allow genuine talent to move up the ranks by sheer clout!! In that way Bollywood is one of the most customer- unfriendly outfits in India
Regional movies have also their share of pariarchal and matriarchal ties but in the last 10 years they have been the breeding ground of world- class talent. And this talent has today found their way into Bollywood and provide the saving grace share of good hindi movies in a year. For example :- A R Rehman , Nagesh kukunoor , Rituparna Ghosh , Konkana Sen Sharma , Mani ratnam , Ravi K Chandran are responsible for movies like Rang De Basanti , Black , mr & mrs Iyer , Iqbal ...
Movies like Kandukondein Kandukondein and Roja are some examples which if dubbed or released with sub-titles can give any Bollywood movie a runfor its money.
2)Technically Superior
As far as I know at least Tamil movies are technically superior to Hindi movies. They have embraced the latest technology whether it be digital or Dolby before Bollywood even though Bollywood has more money. So much so that even new age Bollywood movies liek Krrish are actually being developed in Prasad Studios in chennai.
Also a regional movie has better quality content in terms of story , acting and music than a typical bollywood movie. They get completed in 3-5 months on an average because the entire team starting from the technicians to the director to the actors have a disciplined approach. Compared to this a Bollywood movie takes at least 1 year to get over with because everyone from the actor to the choreographer throws tantrums. Just imagine the waste of time and resources and the interest cost which the producer has to shell out !!!!!No wonder regional movies offer better ROI than Bollywood and so corporatisation has a better chance in regional movies
3) Mera Baap Mera Movie
A typical Bollywood star would owe it to his Baap , Mama or some other relative to have made it big in Bollywood but regional movies have many many rags to riches stories of people who have come up from the ranks because of genuine talent.
Kamal hassan was a movie stuntman , Directors like hari , bala , vasanth and actors like Nasser , Mohanlal have come up only because of their talent.The list is very long out here .
4) Regional Discrimination
Whether it be the Bollywood filmi media or the National media they discriminate against the regional movies and write down any regional stars when they attempt to move to the nationwide canvas.
I distinctly remember when Kamal hassan’s Abhay was released in Mumbai - Khaled Mohammed of TOI gave a one and half rating while on th same day a run of the mill stupid Bollywood movie got a three rating. I agree that Abhay had its share of problems but teh other movie in comparison (I dont remember the name) could’nt even scratch the surface of kamal hassan’s talent. Where Mohanlal’s role in ’Company’ of RGV was the best feature of the entire movie - Ajay Devgan and Vivek Oberoi hogged the credit.
So whats the way forward :-
1) Hollywood studios investing in india should look at regional movies more and they would get better ROI on their investments instead of pouring money into Mere Baap Ka MovieDesh that is Bollywood
2) More regional movies shoudl be released with English sub-titles in Cinemas and also movie channels. We are watching French , iranian and Spanish movies with sub-titles but unfortunately there are comparable if not betetr movies made in our own country.
3) More professionals should enter into the film industry in general and remove the clout of a few families who control the game.
You are most welcome to agree / disagree with me and offer suggestions.