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Is the Bengali audience changing?

Big banner films are failing at the box office while small budget films are great guns

Koel Mullick in Arundhati Koel Mullick in Arundhati

By Shoma A. Chatterji

Is the Bengali cinema audience changing the direction of the money-flow into the box office? It seems so. In recent weeks, the audience is lapping up slightly different films like Ramdhanu, drawing full or nearly full houses and top banner films made at huge budgets biting the dust.
Rangan Chakraborty-directed Bari Taar Bangla had a reasonably good run because of its original storyline and wonderful dialogue while Arundhati, produced by Shree Venkatesh Films, is running in just three single-screen theatres in far off places within the city and in the suburbs. This, despite extremely lavish mounting and Koel Mullick portraying the title role. It is the Bengali remake of the 2009-Telugu super-hit Arundhati. It is a wonder how the Telugu original was a big hit while the Bengali version is limping within four or five weeks of its release, confined to one show each in two single-screen theatres and several shows in a third theatre in Barasat, a suburb?
Why did Game, a big banner co-production of Grassroot Entertainment and Reliance Pictures with Jeet, a top draw er Bengali star, fail to do business in proportion to its big budget and high production values? Other than the legendary single-screen theatre chain of Minar-Bijoli-Chhabighar, it is running in seven single-screen theatres in distant suburbs into its fourth week. “On the other hand, Ramdhanu, a straightforward story featuring no big stars, no villains, no fights and no item number drew 94 per cent in its first week at Priya in South Kolkata and is doing much better than the big releases,” says Arijit Dutta of Priya Entertainments Pvt Ltd. Ramdhanu, with a social agenda and lots of small kids, offers wholesome entertainment for the family. Into its fourth week and made on a much smaller budget, it is doing reasonably good business in18 theatres and is still going strong.
Bari Tar Bangla is perhaps the first Bengali film that tackles the significance of Bengali not only as the mother tongue and as a language of communication but more importantly, as a political strategy of manipulating the masses. “It ran for four weeks and I am happy about the audience response,” says Rangan, adding, “I think it did well because it was funky, funny and entertaining. It did not do well in the suburbs and small towns because the subject addresses a niche, urban audience. I am glad that it ran for four weeks.”
“The audience taste is changing. We have observed that brazen masala movies done purely for the mass audience do not do well commercially. The success of Ramdhanu alongside the failures of Game and Arundhati are enough to substantiate my statement. Film-makers need to change their strategy to reach out once again and pull the audience to the theatres,” Arijit says,
“We need solid scripts for a film to tug at the taste buds and the hearts of the audience. If there is no script such as Game, the film will not run. It is that simple,” says Gautam Jain, producer and event manager with a long track record in the industry. “Films are made and released by the dozens every month. But how many get their investments back? Most of them are forgotten by the end of the first week. The success of Ramdhanu proves that the audience is story-hungry, give it a good story and it will fill the theatres,” he sums up.
Film-maker Aniket Chatterjee, with funny entertainers like Bye Bye Bangkok and Godaye Gandogol says, “I am prepared to write a solid script for free for producers and directors who are dedicated to buying off copyrights of Southern films. Arundhati was a big hit in Telugu but the Bengali audience did not blink twice before rejecting the Bengali version. We have an extremely rich treasury of literature to draw from. Most of the films made during the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s have become classics. Game has been directed by Baba Yadav, a choreographer who cannot read, write or speak Bengali, knows nothing of the Bengali identity, the Bengali way of life, the language and the mindset so how can he made a good Bengali copy of a regional film, tell me? This was bound to happen some day.”

 

First uploaded on: 04-07-2014 at 01:00 IST
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