Gen X Doles Out Diwali Dhamaka In Bollywood

It was indeed a special Diwali this year as Bollywood witnessed three releases – all by new age directors with a fresh perspective.

Big budget Blue, India’s first under water adventure movie, has many names to boast of. Kylie Minogue, the Australian pop star who is internationally famous, and our desi Oscar winners A R Rahman and Resul Pookkutty are just some of them. The man who made these stalwarts come together and also made a multi super star ensemble cast possible is Anthony Dsouza, taking his first shot at Bollywood. However, he is no novice and has a host of ad films under his belt.

Anthony must be making a toast now as Blue has emerged the clear winner in the Diwali race. It apparently grossed around Rs. 19 crore over its first weekend in India and made good business in the international market as well.

Not far behind is Prem R Soni who hit a jackpot by bagging Sohail Khan Productions to make Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna (MAMK). The movie that stars Salman Khan, Sohail Khan and Kareena Kapoor has a plot that deals with issues of love, career and marriage. However, the bad news is that the movie has been slammed by critics and has got a shoddy response from audience as well. The film did much better in the key international markets though; probably because of a never ending obsession that NRIs nurture for the institution of marriage.

The third Diwali release, All The Best, is also by a young director who already has two super hits to his credit – Golmaal and Golmaal Returns. Rohit Shetty made the film for his friend and producer Ajay Devgn and managed to earn him big money too. The producer may want to think it is because he dropped an ‘a’ from his name; but trade pundits say it is all thanks to Rohit’s mastery over comedy that made this no-brain laugh riot such a huge success.

No matter what verdict the cash registers will pronounce for these films in the coming weeks, it is heartening to see production houses pin not just their hopes, but big money too, on new talent. Even earlier releases like Kambakkht Ishqq (Sabbir Khan), Wake Up Sid (Ayan Mukherjee) and upcoming ones like Kurbaan (Rensil D’Silva) Pankh (Sudipto Chattopadhyay) point towards a healthy trend where freshness is preferred over experience.

It looks like Gen X is all set to rule Bollywood and how!