Mumbai, Dec 22 - An intense cold war is raging in Bollywood between a section of independent producers and big corporate houses engaged in filmmaking.The independent filmmakers are up in arms against the recent practice of corporate houses entering into multimillion rupee, multi-filmmaking contracts with a just few reigning stars.Corporates engaged in filmmaking and film distribution include Percept Pictures, Eros Multimedia, Adlabs Films, Shree Ashtavinayak Cinevision and K. Sera Sera.Some earlier individual production banners, like Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts, have also gone public and are producing films with public money.Apart from these Indian filmmaking companies, Hollywood entities Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers have also recently invested in Hindi films.Sony recently partnered with Sanjay Leela Bhansali in the making of 'Saawariya' and Warner Bros has joined hands with Ashutosh Gowarikar for the latter's soon-to-be released 'Jodha-Akbar'.Not only are these stars being given a larger-than-life image, but this trend could result in disastrous consequences for the entire industry, independent filmmakers apprehend.By pampering them with bagfuls of money, the corporates are only making these stars greedier and unaffordable for talented individual filmmakers who are not as resourceful, veteran filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani said.'It is a well-known and accepted fact that Bollywood now has just a handful of stars who are capable of drawing the crucial initials (the critical first week's collections of a new release at the box office),' Nihalani told IANS.Many others endorse Nihalani's view and feel that the trend portends disaster for the industry, as the prices of the stars, determined by the corporate houses, will never come down.The result will be that only the corporates, with virtually unlimited funds at their disposal, will monopolise these stars.Others wanting to make films with these few stars will be able to do so only if they subject themselves to the whims of the corporates to avail of their funds.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
