Newcomers are a hit in Bollywood

Success of film, Vicky Donor, was powered by a story line and performances by debutants — Ayhushmann and Yami.

NEW DEHLI:

Working with newcomers is no longer risky! Film-makers say audiences crave for freshness on screen and new talent helps bring growth to the movie business. From highlighting absolutely unconventional themes to revisiting classic genres, the new breed of film-makers have hit filmdom with a vengeance. And, most importantly, they are telling their stories through new faces.

Shoojit Sircar’s INR50 million Vicky Donor about sperm donation reaped gold at the ticket window by grossing INR1340 million in the opening weekend thanks to the story line and performances by debutants — Ayhushmann Khurrana and Yami Gautam.

It was followed by Habib Faisal’s Ishaqzaade. He revisited the passionate love drama genre with first timer Arjun Kapoor and one-film-old Parineeti Chopra to make it engrossing. His risk has yielded more than satisfactory results at the box office; the film has garnered INR2366 million in the first few days.

If film-makers are enterprising enough to shun formulae and stars, audiences are showing the same spirit and flexibility by accepting new concepts and fresh faces.

“Everybody wants to watch new faces because they have been watching the same old faces for a long time.” Luv Ranjan, the director of Pyaar Ka Punchnama, told IANS. Pulkit Samrat won praise for his debut performance in Bittoo Boss, despite the fact that the film was not a big success at the box office. Other new faces who came into the limelight were Amy Jackson in Ekk Deewana Tha, Paoli Dam in Hate Story and Esha Gupta in Jannat 2.

Dibakar Banerjee, credited for introducing new story telling techniques, describes this change as an essential step to keep the movie business growing. “Until and unless you step out of your comfort zone and try something new, no new grounds will be broken, no new films will be launched, no new stars will be discovered, people won’t get to see new stories and our industry will not be injected with new blood. And when you don’t do that, you keep shrinking: when you do that, you keep expanding,” stated Banerjee.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2012.