[icernet] Bollywood breaks budget record

[Arul Selvan]

  The most expensive Indian film ever made is being developed for the 
global market, it has been reported. Action adventure film EK is 
estimated to have a budget of $20m (£12m), according to trade website 
ScreenDaily.com. Producer Aditya Basu Bhattacharya told ScreenDaily that 
he was in the process of choosing an A-list Hollywood actor for the lead 
role. EK will not include any of the usual Bollywood features such as 
singing and dancing.

The Indian film industry is hoping the horror genre will turn around its 
fortunes, after it reportedly lost $500,000 last year. Love stories have 
made up the bulk of Bollywood's film output over the years but audiences 
may be tiring of the same format. Despite its problems, India's 
struggling film industry is expected to go into profit by 2004. Films 
like Raaz or Makdee and Raat, which all dabble in the supernatural, have 
been huge hits and some new films are trying to emulate that success. 
But the growth will be down to larger companies becoming more dominant 
and fewer films being produced, according to management consultants KPMG 
International.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2981959.stm