2010 rewind: First & Foremost

Even though the spotlight seemed to be on Abhinav Kashyap and Anusha Rizvi,who directed Dabangg and Peepli Live respectively,for most part of the year,there were other debutant directors who made their mark in 2010. Directors Abhishek Sharma (Tere Bin Laden),Abhishek Chaubey (Ishqiya),Vikramaditya Motwane (Udaan),Habib Faisal (Do Dooni Chaar),Punit Malhotra (I Hate Luv Storys) and Maneesh Sharma (Band Baaja Baaraat) achieved the kind of success that eluded prominent names like Anurag Basu (Kites),Mani Ratnam (Raavan),Vipul Shah (Action Replayy) and Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Guzaarish) and Ashutosh Gowariker (Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey).

Acclaimed filmmaker Anurag Kashyap’s younger brother,Abhinav has been in the film business for years. But 2010 gave his career a new high. “Life has never been better,” smiles the 38-year-old. “Everything’s changed around me. Now I get appointments when I want them. My family and I don’t fret over my career.” Ditto with Faisal,who also wrote Siddharth Anand’s Salaam Namaste and another recent success,Band Baaja Baarat. The director of Do Dooni Chaar recounts,“I have been writing for so many years. But nobody even knew my name. When you have a successful first film everything falls into perspective.”

With 2010 witnessing some major disappointments,the success of first-time directors gave the industry reasons to celebrate. These successes also helped the industry get over the setback it had suffered due to the recession and multiplex-producer fallout. “Big directors failed because of the content,the first-timers worked because of their unconventional approach,” explains trade analyst Taran Adarsh. As expected,these newbies brought in fresh ideas: Udaan talked about a teenager’s relationship with his autocratic father; Tere Bin Laden turned the craze for migrating to Amrica into a laugh-riot; and Band Baaja Baaraat offered a heart-warming rom-com. Almost all of them had hardly any film legacy to boast of. In some cases,they even didn’t have any prior experience in film production. A case in point is Rizvi,a journalist and documentary filmmaker whose experiences in her prior assignments helped lend perspective and depth to her satire on rural India. “The fresh stories and interesting narrative helped. “With so many new people,there are new stories to tell. And it is the courage to narrate these new stories that sets them apart from the rest,” explains Adarsh.

At the same time,one cannot ignore the fact that most of the successful films have stuck to conservative budgets,except Dabangg. “Having a limited budget increases the chances of getting a producer on board since they know that it’s easier to recover costs,” explains Motwane. However,even Abhinav admits that he had not considered making the film on a scale this big when he first headed out in search of a producer.

With success comes the burden of expectations. Well before Dabangg could release,Kashyap had to begin conceptualising a sequel that will do even better than his first. “The next one always has to be bigger and better,but it is important to not get delusional about the power the first hit may bring you,” he smiles.

Some have chosen to stay away from adulation in oredr to achieve that. “After Tere Bin Laden was declared a hit,I ran away from the city for two months,” says Sharma,who did not want to get carried away by its box-office performance. “I wanted to distance myself from everything. There is no point basking in past glory,I had to start work on my next,” says the reclusive director. Despite having co-written critically acclaimed films like Omkara and Kaminey with Vishal Bharadwaj,Chaubey has always led a life far-removed from limelight. Ishqiya’s success didn’t change that. “I was extremely happy with the response my film got,but I really haven’t changed. I continue to work at my own pace,” he says.

However,unlike Sharma and Chaubey,Siddharth P Malhotra (We Are Family) failed to impress despite enjoying the support of producers Karan Johar. Similarly,Danish Aslam’s Break Ke Baad was termed a bore and Faruk Kabir’s Allah Ke Banday received mixed responses. “All experiments do not succeed. Sometimes you have to keep trying,” says Adarsh.

Irrespective of the film’s fate at the box-office,Punit,popular fashion designer Manish Malhotra’s nephew who made the most successful film for Dharma Productions this year,feels that there is always a lesson to learn. “There are a lot of things that I will do differently in my second film,but the love and support I got while making my first one will remain an unforgettable experience.”

IN many respects,the year 2010 belonged to Dabangg and Peepli Live. The highest grosser of the year with Rs 250 crore,the former helped shake off the recession’s after-effects as Salman Khan took masala entertainment to a new level. The latter,India’s official entry to the Oscars,once again established that it’s the idea and execution that matter,not the budget or star cast. Despite the difference in their cinematic approaches,these two films were linked by one common factor. Both the films were results of two young first-time directors’ toil.

Even though the spotlight seemed to be on Abhinav Kashyap and Anusha Rizvi,who directed Dabangg and Peepli Live respectively,for most part of the year,there were other debutant directors who made their mark in 2010. Directors Abhishek Sharma (Tere Bin Laden),Abhishek Chaubey (Ishqiya),Vikramaditya Motwane (Udaan),Habib Faisal (Do Dooni Chaar),Punit Malhotra (I Hate Luv Storys) and Maneesh Sharma (Band Baaja Baaraat) achieved the kind of success that eluded prominent names like Anurag Basu (Kites),Mani Ratnam (Raavan),Vipul Shah (Action Replayy) and Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Guzaarish) and Ashutosh Gowariker (Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey).

Acclaimed filmmaker Anurag Kashyap’s younger brother,Abhinav has been in the film business for years. But 2010 gave his career a new high. “Life has never been better,” smiles the 38-year-old. “Everything’s changed around me. Now I get appointments when I want them. My family and I don’t fret over my career.” Ditto with Faisal,who also wrote Siddharth Anand’s Salaam Namaste and another recent success,Band Baaja Baarat. The director of Do Dooni Chaar recounts,“I have been writing for so many years. But nobody even knew my name. When you have a successful first film everything falls into perspective.”

With 2010 witnessing some major disappointments,the success of first-time directors gave the industry reasons to celebrate. These successes also helped the industry get over the setback it had suffered due to the recession and multiplex-producer fallout. “Big directors failed because of the content,the first-timers worked because of their unconventional approach,” explains trade analyst Taran Adarsh. As expected,these newbies brought in fresh ideas: Udaan talked about a teenager’s relationship with his autocratic father; Tere Bin Laden turned the craze for migrating to Amrica into a laugh-riot; and Band Baaja Baaraat offered a heart-warming rom-com. Almost all of them had hardly any film legacy to boast of. In some cases,they even didn’t have any prior experience in film production. A case in point is Rizvi,a journalist and documentary filmmaker whose experiences in her prior assignments helped lend perspective and depth to her satire on rural India. “The fresh stories and interesting narrative helped. “With so many new people,there are new stories to tell. And it is the courage to narrate these new stories that sets them apart from the rest,” explains Adarsh.

At the same time,one cannot ignore the fact that most of the successful films have stuck to conservative budgets,except Dabangg. “Having a limited budget increases the chances of getting a producer on board since they know that it’s easier to recover costs,” explains Motwane. However,even Abhinav admits that he had not considered making the film on a scale this big when he first headed out in search of a producer.

With success comes the burden of expectations. Well before Dabangg could release,Kashyap had to begin conceptualising a sequel that will do even better than his first. “The next one always has to be bigger and better,but it is important to not get delusional about the power the first hit may bring you,” he smiles.

Some have chosen to stay away from adulation in oredr to achieve that. “After Tere Bin Laden was declared a hit,I ran away from the city for two months,” says Sharma,who did not want to get carried away by its box-office performance. “I wanted to distance myself from everything. There is no point basking in past glory,I had to start work on my next,” says the reclusive director. Despite having co-written critically acclaimed films like Omkara and Kaminey with Vishal Bharadwaj,Chaubey has always led a life far-removed from limelight. Ishqiya’s success didn’t change that. “I was extremely happy with the response my film got,but I really haven’t changed. I continue to work at my own pace,” he says.

However,unlike Sharma and Chaubey,Siddharth P Malhotra (We Are Family) failed to impress despite enjoying the support of producers Karan Johar. Similarly,Danish Aslam’s Break Ke Baad was termed a bore and Faruk Kabir’s Allah Ke Banday received mixed responses. “All experiments do not succeed. Sometimes you have to keep trying,” says Adarsh.

Irrespective of the film’s fate at the box-office,Punit,popular fashion designer Manish Malhotra’s nephew who made the most successful film for Dharma Productions this year,feels that there is always a lesson to learn. “There are a lot of things that I will do differently in my second film,but the love and support I got while making my first one will remain an unforgettable experience.”