| Vinay Pathak, in an earlier interview to Business Standard, attributed the success of his "little film" Bheja Fry to the "changing attitudes of the audiences". | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jaideep Sahni, one of the most prolific screenplay writers in contemporary Indian cinema, in another interview, mentioned that the Hindi film industry in 2007 belonged to a brand of cinema where audiences were relating to a new breed of creative people. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pritish Nandy, CEO, PNC, says, "The coming year will be crucial. It will belong to well-made medium budget films that are targeted at urban Indian audiences." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sahni and Pathak are two of the more prominent names that have succeeded in 2007. If Sahni is a Yash Raj favourite (penning fine scripts for Bunty aur Babli, Chak De! India and Aaja Nachle), Pathak is one of the most sought after character artistes after Bheja Fry, a Rs 51 lakh budget film that grossed Rs 25 crore this year.
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| Metro and Dhol, by Anurag Kashyap and Priyadarshan respectively, made Rs 30 crore and Rs 25 crore. Even Imtiaz Ali's modest offering, Jab We Met (the film released post the infamous Kareena-Shahid break-up), surprised audiences with its light-hearted humour. Like Ali, R Balki (chairman, Lowe), in his debut film, Cheeni Kum, churned a loveable script with humour as its perfect icing. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Clearly, what made the Indian film industry a formidable force in 2007 was the creativity and experimenting by a new breed of writers, directors and actors. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Take the case of Himesh Reshammiya, the music director, whose popular tunes, despite getting snubbed by a certain section of listeners, were a rage with the masses. Things got better when he was launched as an actor in Aap Ka Suroor, directed by Prashant Chadda and produced by T-Series. It was the year's biggest opener (90-100 percent), beating records set by Krrish and Dhoom 2. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If Reshammiya made inroads, a host of directors too made sure their films didn't go unnoticed in the festival circuit. Bhavna Talwar's Dharma, for instance, might not have had big box office collections but it bagged a host of international awards, including for the best film at AFFF 2007. Dharma was Talwar's debut attempt at directing stalwarts like Pankaj Kapoor and Supriya Pathak. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The festival circuit also took note of Vasanth Balan who directed Veyil, the first Tamil film ever to gain entry at the Cannes Film Festival. Made on a budget of Rs 2 crore, Veyil, within the first month of its release, had already raked in business worth Rs 7-8 crore. "Veyil gave a break to 50 different newcomers in different departments of the film," says Balan. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Speaking of the south Indian film industry, Rajnikant ruled 2007. His film Sivaji released with 760 prints; made on a budget of Rs 70 crore, it's grossed Rs 150 crore already and is still counting. The man who has been in the industry for decades (his antics in Bollywood haven't gone unnoticed either) sprung a surprise with this hit, especially as Amitabh Bachchan's Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (released the same day) was a disaster. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Its flop notwithstanding, what got noticed were Jhoom's dance steps and the credit goes to Vaibhavi Merchant, one of the busiest choreographers in the industry today. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coming from a family of dancers (she trained under her uncle, Chinni Prakash), Merchant has made the likes of Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit (Aaja Nachle) dance to her tunes. She was recently seen on Indian television, for the first time as a judge on a dance show, where drama queen Rakhi Sawant cried foul and made allegations against Merchant and the other judges. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If Merchant is so busy, it could also be because Farah Khan moved to direction. Her debut film Main Hoon Na was a superhit and Khan gave us another blockbuster on Diwali with Om Shanti Om, one of the biggest grossers of 2007 (Rs 50 crore, according to sources). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Interestingly, it's the role of Gauri Khan, the film's producer, which got attention. Farah, in fact, credits a large part of the success of her film to Gauri, who also was on the cover of a prominent lifestyle mag. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Others like Anil Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan announced their productions too. While Kapoor released Gandhi - My Father (it collected Rs 70 lakh or so), Saif will announce his production in 2008. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aamir Khan, on the other hand, turned to direction with Taare Zameen Par. A Rs 14 crore film, it grossed Rs 15 crore within the first three days of its release. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Akshay Kumar's Welcome, a masala entertainer, made at Rs 20 crore, has made Rs 35 crore in three days. Kumar rarely lets his audiences down. In fact Namaste London, his other release in 2007, grossed a whopping Rs 90 crore. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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