Bollywood Trends to Watch Out For In 2011

2011 is a year which will be full of surprises for Bollywood, for several reasons. Some surprises that we’ve already witnessed. With movies with low expectations like Yamla Pagla Deewana doing good business and eagerly awaited ones like Saat Khoon Maaf dying a quiet and not so honorable death at the BO, it can surely get rather unpredictable. However, Bollywood seldom sees such a rocking start in a new year. No One Killed Jessica and Tanu Weds Manu have created enough business to get the moods swinging.
In my own opinion, 2011 will be great news for Bollywood. In all probability, nothing big will happen this year (unless Ra.One turns out to an Indian version of Avatar, which I hope it does, but speaking with prior experience in Bollywood attempts at animation, is hard to happen). But, all the movies that are lined up for release have a huge bankable quotient. For one, there are so many sequels with a repeat of the storytelling styles and similar characters and same actors as the original that it’s highly unlikely that these sequels will fail or create history. The long list of sequels releasing this year include Don 2, Aasman (sequel to Blue), Dostana 2, Dhamaal 2, Partner 2, and Most Wanted (Wanted 2). Again, there is the usual staple of remakes of regional Indian films and the Salman Khan starrer Bodyguard and John Abraham starrer Force are two main names here.

Four movies which set the trend for 2011

While we are at it, let’s try to decipher and predict the trends of the coming year.

Small is BIG:

Small movies like YPD and No One Killed Jessica minted money at the BO. Dhobi Ghat, the directorial debut of the newest Mrs. Khan on the block, was made at a shoestring budget of 5 crores and it grossed over 12 crores in theatre collections alone. There are several small, slice-of-life movies like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Chalo Dilli and Teen Thay Bhai scheduled for release round this year, which may score big with the audience.

Fewer Wasted Bucks at the Cost of the Director’s Delusions:

No Bhansali, no Gowarikar, no Mani Ratnam, hopefully no Farah Khan and certainly no Rakesh Roshan. Amazingly, all the bankable and “big” names of directors spelled doom at the box office in 2010. Now, we do have big names and big directors lined up for the upcoming releases of 2011, but these aforementioned ace director names are those which were known to produce one-of-their-kind movies which spelled instant success in the past and have turned turkeys at the box office turning 2010 into a dud-fest…probably they overestimated their own talents. Now, rest assured … we have the directorial debut of the legendary Pankaj Kapoor (Mausam with Shahid Kapoor) and re-launch of Jackky Bhagnani and two big movies of our King Khan lined up, so by no means will this year be dull.

More Spats and More Patch-ups:

Let me quote ACP Rathod (Madan Jain) from Page 3, here “there are no permanent friends or enemies in Bollywood”. The Bollywood tamasha of breakup and makeup is only warming up, it seems. Firstly, the much publicized spat of Shahrukh Khan and Farah Khan that led to several discussions and lots of gossip is a thing of the past now – Shahrukh Khan and Farah Khan have kissed and made up. The long lasting cold war between the iconic stars Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai seems to have been resolved their differences (back from the times of the Mangal Pandey movie) at a party of Akshay and Twinkle Kumar.

salmanandkatrina Bollywood Trends to Watch Out For In 2011

Salman and Katrina - In constant limelight for all the wrong reasons

The latest in this lot, the Katrina-Deepika hot/cold war seems to have been put to a rest at a Karan Johar party where, it is said, it was Deepika who took the initiative. Salman Khan’s long standing tiff with Priyanka Chopra seems to have been resolved at the latest Being Human charity show. Now, I am not saying all will continue to be well. This is tinsel-town and for sure we’ll be hearing about new friendships and newly found enemies. What’s B-Town without its scandals, anyways?

Praying Vehemently:

Finally here are some things, that I would certainly like to wish from providence. Here are those that fall high up in that list.

Ra.One does not repeat the 7 Khoon Maaf story of high expectations and low deliverables.
Shahrukh Khan stays away from damp squibs like The Total Wipeout and concentrates more on his career as an actor and producer.
Akshay does something … anything that looks fresh. We don’t want to see if it’s not new. Period.
Rani Mukherjee either finds success or gets married. We are not ready to tolerate more of her cheap publicity stunts that seem to have their roots in frustration.

Should anybody feel like adding to this list, please feel free to mention them in your comments.