But not everything sells. Feel good sagas like Hum Apke Hain Kaun, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Dil To Pagal Hai have made record collections. What the NRIs want is a mix of the trendy and the traditional. Something like KKHH in which the heroine in a mini-skirt can sing a bhajan. What works are well-crafted romantic stories with foot-tapping music and excellent choreography, shot in picturesque locales. Big names like Subhash Ghai and Yash Chopra do matter. However, only selected stars are crowd-pullers - Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Aishwarya Rai, Salman and Aamir Khan to name a few. Comedies of the David Dhawan variety have limited appeal. And please no offbeat or art movies. Also, no substandard stuff like Hello Brother or Badshah (even if they feature big stars).

The Right Masala Ingredients: Money and 'Phoren' markets

Big overseas territories like US/Canada, UK/Europe and the Gulf as well as the smaller ones like Fiji, South Africa and Singapore are becoming important markets for distributors. Now they are not worried if a film does not do well at B and C class centers in India. The amount that they can fetch here is peanuts compared to what they could get overseas. These markets have become so lucrative that even filmmakers have jumped into the film distribution bandwagon and ventured overseas. They are now laughing all the way to the bank. The only people complaining are the pundits who fear that with filmmakers targeting only the audience abroad, the larger Indian audience will be ignored. Arre yaar, what to do? At the end of the day, the name of the game is, 'Paisa Vasool'!

Post Comment

Name : Email : Password : Comments :