Bollywood lingo has small town stamp

By Priyanka Khanna Sep 30, 2007, 18:53 GMT

New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS) There is a new lingo in town. Replacing the American twang and the gangster slang in an increasing number of fables hitting multiplexes are dialects from small towns of India.

If you were pleasantly surprised to have to strain yourself to follow what Shreyas Talpade is saying in a Delhi University-based film - 'Dil Dosti Etc.' - or were doubling over with laughter watching 'Dhol' and the antics of Rajpal Yadav, who hails from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, then thank the rapid economic growth sweeping across Tier 2 cities Bollywood is keen to cash in on.

Campuses that look straight out of Archie Comics and characters who sport nothing less than DKNY labels are rapidly becoming a thing of past even in films targeting multiplex and overseas markets. The new face of mass entertainment is much more informed with earthy sensibilities.

The turnaround happened with the pan-India success of 'Bunty Aur Babli' that told the story of two small-town denizens with dreamy eyes and is becoming a norm after 'Rang De Basanti' that was based in a metropolis but retained the charm of Old Delhi.

Both films were crafted by filmmakers who have grown up from milieus different from the glitz and glamour of tinsel town.

Notable works like 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi', 'Omkara' and 'Eklavya' further established that to reach the vast market beyond the metros, Hindi cinema will need to reflect the aspirations of small towns.

India's multiplex bandwagon has gone beyond the metros to redefine entertainment in B and C class towns, says a report in a business weekly.

'The first phase (of the multiplex story) saw emergence of multiplexes in metros, and now this growth is spreading to Tier 2 and 3 cities like Lucknow, Indore, Nasik, Aurangabad, Kanpur, Amritsar and so on,' Ajay Bijli, managing director, PVR Cinemas, was quoted as saying.

Other top multiplex players like Adlabs Films (in which Anil Ambani holds a 51 percent stake), Inox Leisures, Shringar Cinemas (Fame multiplexes), Fun Multiplex (of the Essel group) and Cinemax India too have ventured to small towns across the country from Darjeeling to Mangalore to Ghaziabad to Pimpri to Pune to Panipat to Allahabad to Indore to Latur to Agra to Thane to Lucknow to Hyderabad to Nasik to Jaipur to Visakhapatnam.

Projects are under way in places like Kochi, Bhatinda, Coimbatore, Kota, Madurai and Ambala.

The rising prominence of smaller towns can be gauged from the fact that movie stars are now touching down at these places to promote their films. At present, as much as 65 percent of the total box office collections in the country come from non-metros and it is likely to change to 30:70 ratio for metro-non-metro in three-to-five years

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To serve the changing tastes, Bollywood is dishing out films that are about the ebbs and tides of politics, the hopes of folks from small towns and the dynamics of mofussil societies.

Mumbai had long ceased to be the city for Bollywood dream merchants to base their fables. The national capital had till recently become the hot favourite. But the way things are going, that too will shift.

Creative minds like Prakash Jha, Sudhir Mishra, Vishal Bhardwaj, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Shaad Ali, Anurag Kashyap and Tigmanshu Dhulia, among others, are contributing in a significant way to this shift.

And they are aided by people like Prasoon Joshi (dialogues for 'Rang De Basanti'), Lucknow's Kamlesh Pandey (script of 'Rang De Basanti') and Indore's Swanand Kirkire (dialogues for 'Chameli' and lyrics for 'Parineeta').

'The Bombay boys have lost touch with reality,' says Sudhir Mishra, who grew up in Lucknow and spent his formative years on the campus of Sagar University. 'The reference points of Mumbai-born filmmakers are severely limited,' adds Prakash Jha.

Clearly it is the so-called 'outsiders' who are on a stronger wicket and the day is not far when city-bred superstars like Hrithik Roshan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan will be upstaged by Bollywood equivalents of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Prashant Tawang.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service