Small is big in corporate Bollywood

An artist paints a hoarding for an upcoming Bollywood movie inside an art studio in Delhi's old quarters August 6, 2003. Corporates are increasingly coming to the rescue of filmmakers trying to find a niche in India's film industry, one where big budgets and an array of film stars are beyond the reach of many.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Corporates are increasingly coming to the rescue of filmmakers trying to find a niche in India's film industry, one where big budgets and an array of film stars are beyond the reach of many.

A Bollywood film without elaborate song-and-dance sequences may not be the norm but some directors have taken the leap -- and survived.

"Ten years ago, it would have been difficult to make a small budget, no star film in Bollywood, but today people are realising that small can be big and big can be small," said Raj Kumar Gupta.

Gupta's debut film "Aamir" made its mark last month despite opening in cinemas the same day as the big-budget "Sarkar Raj".

While he was scouting around for producers, Gupta found many insisting he pick an established Bollywood star to play a Muslim doctor unwittingly trapped in a Mumbai terror plot.

But the director was adamant.

"I was convinced that if an established star essayed the role, the person would be bigger than the character, which is something I didn't want," Gupta said.

Production house UTV picked up the film, convinced the script was a winner but aware of its restrictions. And television actor Rajeev Khandelwal made his Bollywood debut.

"We knew that with a film like 'Aamir', (it) would be difficult to make unless we made it in a very tight budget. It had a first time director, first time actor," said Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO of UTV Motion Pictures.

"So we knew that if we had to make this film work commercially, we had to make it within a very tight budget, without compromising on the look and feel of the film. We spent Rs 2 crore, and spent an equal amount on publicity," he added.

NEW TREND IN BOLLYWOOD

Making films sans stars in Bollywood may no longer be the riskier option.

Industry trade analyst Taran Adarsh cites the examples of films like "Tashan" which didn't live up to box-office expectations in 2008 despite featuring stars like Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Akshay Kumar.

But smaller films like "Aamir" have made money and producers now seem content to finance several low-budget films at a time.

Kapur says the success of "Aamir" and the 2006 hit "Khosla Ka Ghosla" will increasingly be the trend in Bollywood, where big stars charge exorbitant amounts along with a share in the film's profits.

"We will make films like 'Jodhaa Akbar' (which cost around Rs 40 crore), but we will also do films like 'Dev D' or 'Mahadev', which are all below Rs 6-crore films," he said.

Shailendra Singh of Percept Ltd, another company producing films across genres, believes filmmakers just need to focus on their audience.

"Nothing can go wrong when you focus on the consumer and create products that they will like," he said.