Bollywood eyes good scripts, tight budgets in 2010

MUMBAI, Jan 6 - A focus on better scripts, tighter budgets and diligence are going to be the watchwords for Bollywood as the world's largest film industry looks to consolidate itself in 2010.

Industry insiders said Bollywood would look to hold back in the new year after Rajkumar Hirani's "3 Idiots" brought some cheer at the end of an otherwise bleak 2009.

"The industry will take a sobering pause in 2010. There will be diligence in terms of scripts and budgets," Sanjeev Lamba, CEO of Reliance Big Pictures, one of India's biggest production houses, told Reuters.

Bollywood spent more than 15 billion rupees and released 120 films last year, but only a handful of those made it to the list of successes.

A three month-long standoff between producers and multiplex owners also hit business.

"There has to be a sense of reality regarding the remuneration that various talents associated with a film get and the amount of revenue that a film is likely to make. Hopefully that should happen in 2010," Lamba said.

Reliance Big Pictures has as many as four mainstream Hindi releases lined up in the first half of the year, including the Hrithik Roshan starrer "Kites" and Mani Ratnam's "Ravan".

Other production houses are focusing on content.

"2010 will see a lot more importance being given to scripts rather than other peripherals," said Sidharth Roy Kapur, CEO of UTV Motion Pictures.

"We didn't see a lot of that in 2009. Content will be the way to go."

WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO?

The first half of 2010 will see some heavy-duty releases, including Karan Johar's much anticipated "My Name is Khan", starring Shah Rukh Khan, to be distributed by Fox Star Studios worldwide.

"Kites" will be released simultaneously in English and Hindi while "Ravan", starring Abhishek Bachchan and wife Aishwarya Rai, is set for release in June.

"The first half of the year will set the tone … 'Ravan', 'Kites' and 'My Name is Khan' will decide how well the industry does for the rest of the year," says Vajir Singh, executive editor of Box Office India.

The second half of the year will see films like Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Guzaarish", starring Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan, the Aamir Khan-starrer "Dhobi Ghaat" and Rajnikanth's "Robot" hitting movie screens across India.