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Horror of horrors, Bollywood takes
fright
By Sudha
Ramachandran
BANGALORE - In a bid to overcome
the punishing losses it suffered last year, the Hindi
film industry is turning to a new genre of films -
horror movies - to lure fans back to the cinema halls.
But while Bollywood directors might have summoned the
courage to break away from story lines with time-tested
formulas, whether they can tell a scary tale on the big
screen well enough remains to be seen.
Films
like Raaz (Secret), Makdee (Spider) and
Raat (Night), which dabble with the supernatural,
have all done well at the box office. The runaway
success last year of Raaz - it made Rs 280
million (US$6 million) on its Rs 50 million investment
and is said to be among the most profitable movies made
in recent years - appears to have ignited the idea that
scaring sells.
And now comes the huge success of
Bhoot (Ghost). Over the first weekend of its
release, Bhoot recovered the Rs 65 million invested in
its making. Bhoot confirmed the signals sent out
by Raaz last year that audiences were sick of
saccharine-sweet love stories and wanted something
different.
Frightening audiences out of their
wits, moviemakers realized, would not be such a bad idea
after all. At least 10 horror films are scheduled for
release this year. In Hawa (Wind), the rapist is
a sinister spirit. In Saaya (Shadow), a surgeon's
dead wife tries to reach out to him. Rudraksh
(Seed), the source of the demon king Ravana's powers,
sets off genetic mutation. And 88, Antop Hill is
the scene of multiple murders.
Last year,
Bollywood ran up losses amounting to Rs 3 billion. A
part of the reason for the losses is that the Hindi film
industry is chaotic. Filmmaking is plagued by cost
overruns and production delays. Piracy has cut into its
profits. Bollywood's connections with the underworld - a
major part of its funding comes from criminal syndicates
- has added to its troubles. A string of movies were
rejected at the box office last year. Weak storylines
were blamed for the disastrous performance of films.
Unlike Hollywood, the Indian film industry
churns out several hundreds of movies every year. It is
not uncommon for an actor to be working simultaneously
on a dozen films. Many filmmakers rely on star appeal,
lavish sets or song and dance routines to draw
audiences. Hollywood blockbusters are a major
inspiration for story ideas.
The plot of most
Hindi films runs something like this: Boy meets girl.
They fall in love. Several songs and dances in exotic
locations follow. A villain enters to complicate the
story; boy bashes up the villain, the lovers unite ...
and live happily ever after.
Denigrated for its
convoluted yet weak plots, melodramatic dialogues and
cardboard characters, Bollywood, nonetheless, has rarely
failed to entertain. It has a loyal following far beyond
India's borders. A large part of this following is in
Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Britain, the US and
South Africa - regions with a huge movie-mad South Asian
Diaspora - and even in countries like Russia and China,
where, for some reasons, the films strike a chord. In
Pakistan, Hindi films are hugely popular, but banned.
They are smuggled across to meet the huge market there.
Afghans were willing to risk their lives to watch Hindi
films when these were banned by the Taliban, and the
market is growing in that country now.
The
overseas market for Bollywood is expected to soon
account for up to 40 percent of a movie's profits. Small
wonder then that some directors have even tailored
movies to suit the Diaspora's tastes. One such movie was
Yaadein (Memories), which raked in $650,000 in
its opening weekend in the US. It sank at the Indian box
office, however.
It would be unfair to dismiss
Bollywood movies as plain fantasy or mindless rubbish.
To some extent, the industry has re-invented itself
every decade or so, reflecting the social evolution of
post-independence (1947) India. In the 1950s, for
instance, movies like Awara (Loafer) or Mother
India, while recounting individual struggles,
reflected the aspirations and idealism of a
newly-independent country. Films like Uphaar
(Gift) captured the surge of patriotism that swept
through the India of the 1960s. In the context of
mounting corruption and decaying political institutions,
the1970s and 1980s witnessed a wave of films depicting
the angry young man battling the corrupt system.
Unabashed consumerism alongside a return to conservatism
and "family values" in India of the 1990s found
reflection in movies like Hum apke hain kaun?
(Who am I to you?) and Dilwaale Dulhaniya le
Layenge (The lover will take his bride away).
In recent years, Bollywood has churned out
movies where the central characters are young, urban and
fun-loving. Unfortunately, these movies have failed to
connect with the masses, resulting in the huge losses
the industry suffered last year. Now, the runaway
success of horror films has made the Hindi film industry
sit up and reinvent itself. It is hoping that the
supernatural will draw audiences to the cinema halls and
end its financial nightmare.
The horror films
that have been lined up for release this year have much
in common. For one, several of them are suspiciously
similar to Hollywood films. Raaz was a remake of
What Lies Beneath, Hawa is similar to
The Entity and Anjaane (Unknown) is
inspired by The Others. Besides, all of them are
being made with small budgets and tight schedules.
Shooting for Saaya was completed in less than two
months and on a budget of Rs 25 million, Anjaane
was made on a budget of Rs 40 million.
In the
past, Bollywood's horror movies were set in remote
bungalows; the ghost was usually a woman, long hair
flowing, floating around in a white sari at night. Weird
things happened only on stormy nights. The current wave
of horror films is set in real surroundings - a flat in
middle-class Mumbai or Delhi. The face of the
supernatural is often unseen, the sound and visual
effects more sophisticated. The recipe for a horror
movie does not necessarily include blood-soaked teeth or
chopped limbs. As Namrata Joshi points out in Outlook,
"The idea is not to offer horror neat but as the main
ingredient of a heady, entertaining cocktail."
Bollywood is turning to the paranormal to pull
it out of the red, which is a rather scary thought.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
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