[icernet] Crunch time in Bollywood

[Arul Selvan]

  Huge Indian film biz faces creative, financial crisis Alternative 
sought to traditional plots, Hollywood copies. "But our treatment will 
be different." It's a clichéd phrase often heard but seldom followed by 
Bollywood, the Mumbai (Bombay)-centred Indian film industry that churns 
out twice as many films as Hollywood every year. When Bollywood could 
make and sell nearly 1,000 films a year, being original was not a big 
concern. But suddenly Indian filmmakers, known for blending song and 
dance with heady melodrama, are being forced to take a reality check. 
Observers of the multi-million dollar industry say it's time to turn 
promises of new ideas into reality. Until very recently, such a 
reassessment was unthinkable. But Bollywood was making lots of money 
then. Now, it is in the red.

According to Indian news magazine Outlook, "the crisis-hit film 
industry" lost $930 million (Cdn.) between (Nov., 2001 and Nov., 2002). 
"The situation (was) so bad that experts (found) it difficult to put 
together a Top 10 for 2002." The number of Bollywood films that could be 
called hits dropped from an average of 15-20 per cent of the total to 
7-8 per cent.

Source:
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