Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana and 1920 : Evil Returns have jingled the cash registers.
Both these movies are of controlled medium budget and come from the stable of acclaimed filmmakers. Luv...is co-produced by maverick Anurag Kashyap while 1920 is directed by edgy Vikram Bhatt.
Where as Luv ...tries to push the envelope of the comic genre and test the audience taste for the unpredictable and commonplace quips, 1920...is a sequel of Bhatt's 1920 film and plays with horror and haunts.
At a time when big ticket films and cut-out stars jostle with each other to garner audience eyeballs and greens, small budget films are cunningly edging into the competition and raking in the moolah.
Big producers are mixing small and big films in their production portfolios to minimize risks.
70s onward small was always safe and beautiful in Btown. Remember Basu Chatterjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee - the doyens of popular small cinema. They stood their own during the height of Bacchan mania and multistarrer wave.
70s also saw the middle-of-the-road cinema. Benegal-Nilhani brigade crafted Ankur, Manthan and Ardh Satya and held sway for a decade or so.
It is another matter that commerce and changing tastes broke the back of the movement and the filmmakers entered the mainstream with some regret , some wisdom and fierce vengence (Zubeida, Well Done Abba, Takshak, Dev...).
Today, the scene is no different. Majority of committed filmmakers don't have the werewithal to make big films. They have chosen a better option. Strong script, new treatment and newer and able actors. Result is immensely lovable , close-to-the-heart movies. Movies which earn well at the box office as well.
