You can make films with men, women, washing machines and dogs: Vikas Bahl

Two years ago, Bollywood tided over its first quarter woes with an unexpected high as Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani raced past the Rs 50 crore mark at the box-office. The director’s professional obituary had been written the day he announced a thriller involving a pregnant Vidya Balan and a virtually unknown cast, but Sujoy’s heroine proved the calculations wrong. And by the fourth week he was jubilant:“Content is not just king but queen too.”
Cut to 2014.A Queen is ruling the box-office again, her closest challenger being a ‘horrex’ powered by former porn star, Sunny Leone, which has grossed over Rs 35 crore in less than a week in India itself while Queen has already hit a half century.
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Anand Vishal, Head of Operations, Fun Cinemas, informs that Ragini MMS 2 is being patronised by youngsters, including girls, and Queen is drawing women in the afternoon shows. While he exults about “woman power”, Queen’s director Vikas Bahl maintains, “You can make films with men, women, washing machines and dogs. As long as the content is good they will sell.”
Trade analyst Amod Mehra attributes the success of these films to the timing of their release. “They released during exam season when the only entertainment is cricket and the audience was hungry for films. Queen’s protagonist Rani struck a chord with contemporary women who make up a large share of the multiplex audience,” he reasons.
Madhur Bhandarkar, who has made a career out of woman-centric films, from Chandni Bar to Heroine, admits that the growth of multiplexes has contributed hugely to the success of films which revolve around a female protagonist.
“Shyam Benegal’s Ankur and Bhumika would release in a couple of theatres in matinee shows. In comparison my Heroine opened in 1100 screens and even though the budget had escalated from Rs 1.50 crore for Chandni Bar to Rs 21 crore for Heroine, it was able to cover its cost in the first three days itself,” he maintains.
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Madhur who is currently busy with two women-centric films—Madamji and Calender Girls--insists that sticking to a limited budget is key to a film’s success. As all his heroines slashed their market price for a ‘performance-oriented role’, he has been able to allay the fears of producers and distributors who still don’t believe that a viewer will never spend Rs 300 to watch a cast toplined by an actress.
“Producers have come to realise that the exorbitant fees charged by the leading heroes, leaves them with hardly anything even if the film is a superhit,” says another trade analyst Taran Adarsh, pointing out that Ramesh Taurani refused to cast Saif Ali Khan recently when he reportedly demanded Rs 20 crore.
Taking the thought further, Anubhav Sinha who recently produced the Madhuri Dixit-Juhi Chawla starrer, Gulaab Gang, lists four ingredients that cook up a hit—subject, budget, music and timing of release. “We didn’t lose money while Queen and Ragini MMS 2 are raking in the moolah. It’s a positive sign,” he asserts.
Ekta Kapoor, the producer of the horror hit, reinforces this opinion pointing out that while she backs content and not gender, she foresees a time when almost half, if not more, of the film scripts will be dominated by women. “Personally, the heroines make me count,” she asserts.
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Leading distributor Ramesh Sippy reminds us that even English Vinglish, led by Sridevi, did good business, so did Rekha’s Jeevan Dhaara and Raakhee’s Tapasya. “Women-centric films boast of better narratives, especially if driven by an able director,” he avers.
There are a series of heroine-centric films coming up apart from the usual suspects. These include Pradeep Sarkar (Mardaani), Indra Kumar (Super Nani with Rekha), Subhash Ghai (Kaanchi introducing Mishti Mukherjee) and Sanjay Gupta who is collaborating with an LA-based production house on a Hindi-English remake of a foreign language film revolving around a woman protagonist and two important male characters.
“It’s such a thrill to be finally doing a woman-centric subject in Hollywood,” exults Gupta, who is best known for his testosterone pumping whodunits. Ad filmmaker Sai Kabir is gearing up for his first film, another Kangana Ranaut starrer, Revolver Rani, and is enthused by the success of Queen as the market is “upbeat”. He is already working on a dozen other scripts, all of them women-centric.
Ishqiya and Dedh Ishqiya director Abhishek Chaubey's next film is set in Punjab with an ensemble cast and one “kickass woman character.” And Devang Dholakia is working on what is being hyped as India’s first 'chick flick' with Sunny Leone and Karishma Tanna, leading the cast.
Explaining the trend Imtiaz Ali whose Highway showcased Alia Bhatt as an actress, points out that the audience has always been ready to accept the heroine being more than an eyecandy. “And now they are more ready than ever before,” he asserts.
But Tanuj Garg, co-producer of Ragini MMS 2, warns filmmakers not to get carried away because, “nobody wants to see a bad film with a good actress”. Scriptwriter Robin Bhatt endorses his view, saying that the film industry has a herd mentality and it is not woman power but just good content that has succeeded.
So, in the end we come a full circle with Sujoy’s assertion, “Content is king, and queen too.”
WATCH: Kangana Ranaut in the song 'London Thumakda' from 'Queen'