Bollywood is all set to take us back in time. Extravagant film sets, opulent costumes, and dialogues in tune with the historic era will enthral the audience in the upcoming period films like Lootera, Bombay Velvet, and Mehrunissa that will hit the theatres next year. Meanwhile Karan Johar, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Madhureeta Anand and Marathi director Umesh Kulkarni have also announced their period film projects.
Most of the upcoming period films will also have a big star cast from Anushka Sharma and Ranbir Kapoor in Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet; Irrfan Khan, Chitrangada Singh, Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor for Sudhir Mishra’s Mehrunissa to Sanjay Dutt in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Fateh Singh and Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh in Ali Abbas Zafar’s film titled Gunday. John Abraham is also going to play a warrior in yet to be titled 18th century costume drama by Sabal Shekhawat.
Filmmaker Madhureeta Anand, whose erotic period drama will go on floors next month, says the industry has not really ever explored the period films genre yet. “Period films have a lot of appeal to them. We have had period epics like Mughal-e-Azam, and recently Jodhaa Akbar but such films can be counted on fingers,” says Madhureeta.
However, scriptwriter and lyricist Junaid Wasi says, Bollywood is finally coming-of-age when it comes to recreating bygone era. “Though high budgets discourage many filmmakers of getting into such projects we now have better technology and directors who are willing to experiment with storyline. So far the industry hasn’t experimented much with period film scripts. Most of our period films revolve around love stories,” says Junaid, who is working on a period film that doesn’t have romance at its core.
Research, sadly, is by and large not Bollywood’s strong point, says Anna M.M. Vetticad, author, The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. “Firstly because of an overall lackadaisical attitude which is inexcusable, and second, for a reason that you can’t fault the industry for — Hindi films are made at a minuscule budget compared to Hollywood films and tickets here are sold at a fraction of the average ticket price in the US. This means that recovering costs is much tougher for a period film than for most other genres, and it’s natural for producers to be wary on that front,” adds Anna.
Madhureeta agrees. “Either a period film becomes an unforgettable success or simply flops at Box Office. Therefore, a period film needs not just a strong script and grand film sets but a promising star cast who can not just justify the characters but also attract audience,” she adds.
Star cast also decides the fate of a period film at BO, agrees film distributor Sanjay Chhatar. “And the charm of period films enthral audience more in bigger cities than smaller centres where people mostly like to see masala films. However, period films always come as big promises for cinema lovers,” says Sanjay.