B-Town has become over-obsessed with numbers

How to make a Rs 100 crore Bollywood blockbuster? Tricky question. Let’s see. Trying throwing together such disparate ingredients as star power, fast-paced music, a love story, comic relief and an action-packed, nail-biting climax and there you go – congratulations, you’ve just made it to the 100 crore club and chances are, you are going to laugh all the way to the bank.

Feels like the 1980s once again, doesn’t it? Bollywood is facing a rather peculiar problem, and it comes from a number. Well, Rs 100 crore is the new benchmark for the success of any movie and the magic figure that any director wants to hit these days. For some directors, like Raju Hirani and Rohit Shetty, entering the golden 100 crore club seems as easy as entering a night club.

The age-old formula is now the new formula and guess what? It’s suiting everybody just fine. In recent months, we’ve seen Kick, Humshakals and likes and now, the latest entrant to this prestigious list is Bang Bang! What is common between these movies? Minimum story and maximum marketing budgets.

Smaller, story-driven movies get pulled out of theatres to make room for these audience-pleasing behemoths. This is the world of Shah Rukhs and Salmans where the Khans go over-the-top in outlandish scripts that don’t have them utilise even half of their talents.

Not that we are complaining. Make money by all means. We really don’t want to stop you. But how about trying to make money with a movie that’s actually good? Wouldn’t that be fair?

Think of Queen, the Kangna Ranaut-led small film with a big heart. Or Barfi!, a movie that people still talk about fondly two years after its release. The key factor in Barfi! and Queen is that they treated the audience like an intelligent, thinking being. Queen could have easily become slapstick and Barfi! sentimental and stereotypical – but didn’t.

What we are lamenting here is a sense of repetition and lack of originality. Why remake a film like Zanjeer or Himmatwala? Why not make Bang Bang! with more – Shahid Kapoor would agree – chutzpah?

At the end of the day, it boils down to making better choices but also making choices that reflect the heart, and not the head. Money is fine, but it’s not everything. Finding Fanny can be cited as a good example of that. By all measure, put your money your mouth is – but also where your heart is.

Are Bollywood folks listening?

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