I remember my childhood days when seeing an English film meant going to the city from the suburbs and watching the film in a few theatres that prided themselves on being the exhibitors for Hollywood. Had to make a whole half-day out of it, not even an evening would be enough. In college I remember that some of the theatres in the suburbs

had begun to show the Hollywood film but still not as many. Times have changed though and the multiplex has brought Hollywood here like never before. So we know this and we have seen English language films at the nearby multiplex, what is the big deal here?
The big deal here is that something that has never happened to the Indian Hindi film industry is happening now. The English film has become a huge competitor and is threatening to take the audiences away from the Hindi film. I would like to bring to your notice collections of a few recently released films and here goes: Hangover2 `6.8 crore in the first week, Kung Fu Panda `6.2 crore in the first week, Pirates of the Caribbean `10.2 crore in two weeks and Fast and Furious Five almost `11 crore in its fourth week. These are mindboggling numbers and better than most of the Hindi films that released in the same month. Almost all the Hollywood studios are here like they have never been before. Fox, Paramount, Warner and Disney to name a few. They are here and they are watching and they are also slowly devouring the market of the Hindi film with high quality and superior product made of huge budgets.
We can never ever equal the grandeur and thrill that they can sell. We might have the know-how but we simply don’t have that kind of money.
The problem is very, very serious and I am not just a doomsday prophecy maker seeking some sensation while writing a piece. Remember you read it here first that when Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon releases with Delhi Belly and Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap on July 1, it will give both the films a huge run for their money and will most surely challenge these Hindi films at the box office. Could you have imagined a few years back that an Amitabh Bachchan film and an Aamir Khan production would find stiff resistance from a foreign language film?
Is there a solution for this impending commercial disaster of Hindi cinema? There is. It is really very simple. Make films for India. Stop the English film in Hindi and make the Hindi film in Hindi.
There is no replacement for a Dabangg or a Wanted but there is a replacement for the pretentious wannabe Hindi film that wants to ape an American film. The audiences at the multiplex will make you change your idiom to suit their taste of American cinema and then abandon you for the Hollywood film. You will be left stranded audience-less.
The tragedy is that most of India is still waiting for the Hindi film while we are trying to make Hinglish films for the elite. If we don’t change and cater to the real audience then that audience will turn elsewhere — to perhaps regional cinema — and we be left with no choice but to make films that compete with Avatar. This is not to say that we cannot compete but why would someone watch a Hindi Avatar when an American version is available?