With movies like Newton, Toilet Ek Prem Katha and Bareilly Ki Barfi becoming box office hits, it is peak time for small towns in Bollywood movies, says PRAGYA MITTAl
There was a time when Hindi movies were all about a rich girl falling in love with the boy from the other side of the town. In fact, many of Raj Kapoor movies were on these lines and movie goers lapped these up. There were hits because most aspired to be in Raj Kapoor’s shoes — after all he got the girl in the end. And not just any girl. A girl that men dream of marrying — who would do their bidding. After all in Teen Deviyaan, Dev Anand marries Nanda in the end because he feels that she would make the most suitable wife.
This was also the time when films like Do Bigha Zameen and Mother India were made that showcased the plight of Indian villages. Movies have always been a reflection of what the society is all about. In the 70s and the 80s, many aspired to travel abroad but could not even think of doing so. Movies shot in locales outside of India helped people see the world. Movies like love In Paris and love In Tokyo ensured that people saw the world sitting in a theatre even in a small town of India. The era of action-drama, romance-thriller threw up movies like Sholay and Zanjeer.
But it was not until Chandni that opened doors for movies based in foreign locales. The 80s and the 90s were all about which movie was shot in which foreign country. These films were not only entertaining but many got to see places that they would otherwise have never travelled to. But then people got bored of watching movies that were so far removed from reality. They wanted to see situations that were relatable and drawn from real life situations.
This led filmmakers to look for storylines that were nearer to home and that meant — stories that were about the girl next door — what is life like in the small towns and villagesIJ What struggles do the middle and lower-class people go through to make their dream come trueIJ What are the common societal issues and that people are fighting forIJ From Anurag Kashyap to Prakash Jha to Aanand l Rai, filmmakers have tried to give us a sneak-peak into the life of common man and the issues that surround them.
So it is not surprising that films like Haider shot in Kashmir, Gangs of Wasseypur shot in Bihar, Ranjhana and Masaan shot in Varanasi, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha shot in Mathura, Bareilly Ki Barfi in Bareily, Badrinath Ki Dulhania shot in Kota, Newton shot in Naxal area of Chattisgarh and Sanjay Dutt’s come back movie— Bhoomi —shot in the backdrop of Agra became talk of the town. Some even became BO hits. Since these films have had the cash registers ringing, filmmakers have now started to look for scripts that have a small town stamp on it. Qareeb Qareeb Single and Firangi are some of the movies that are again based in the backdrop of the small town and shot in real locations to capture the right ambience.
The genre is varied. Some are fiction, some are biopics like Mary Kom, Paan Sigh Tomar and even Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and others are inspired by true events.
“Movies based out of small town are rich in content and are close to reality. People find a connect to these stories. Therefore, these kinds of movies are the future of Bollywood,” casting director Mukesh Chabbra says.
Directors prepare multiple drafts of the character sketches that go through multiple changes. “When it comes to scripting, the story and character sketches, it is very important that these should not look alienated from what we are showing and hurt the sentiments of the people from that place. It should look real and viewers, who belong to that particular place, should feel that what has been shown is true. This way there is relatability with a particular project,” Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, the director of Bareilly Ki Barfi and Nil Battey Sannata opines.
Targeted at the masses, these movies portray the life of an ordinary man living in a small town. This creates curiosity among not only people living in other small towns but also metros who are caught up in the hustle and bustle of a big city life. Not only do such movies tell the others that they are no different from them, they have an entertainment quotient since they are true to life.
“Majority of the movies have a bigger target audience but to understand what they would like to watch and make an entertaining film out of it is what the trick is. Even people living in a city who are influenced by urbanisation want to see good films that take them back to their roots. Even low budget films like Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, which is made under the budget of Rs 3 crore, have done box office collection of Rs 5 crore in first two days of the release, making a profitable proposition for the filmmakers to recover the cost and make reasonable profit,” film critic Murtaza Ali Khan tells you.
Apart from the rising demand of the small town stories, there has been a shift from having theatrical dialogue delivery to now dialect driven realism. From Bundelkhandi in Paan Singh Tomar to Haryanvi in Tanu Weds Manu Returns, filmmakers and actors are leaving no stone unturned to catch the right dialect.
“When we shoot in a particular region, it is very important to use the dialect of that place but at the same time, the dialogues should be universally understood. The balance is maintained to keep in mind that audience does not get over-bored and enjoy the movie,” Tiwari says.
Even actors, these days, are no longer striving for roles that are hero material. They want to challenge themselves by stepping out of their comfort zone and playing characters that exist in real time by adapting to the everyday lifestyle and mannerism of the people living in a particular town. While casting the actors for such films, directors have their own list of things they are looking for in their actor and the one who comes closest to their list gets the role.
“Once the actor gets finalised, they go through workshops. We bring in local artists on board who work closely with them so that they look like they belong to that place. We sometimes prefer to cast local artists or actors who belong to the region that we want to showcase in the movie since they already know the basics. All this is done within the budget that f the film,” Chabbra says.
And it is not just ensuring that the actor gets into the character or that the storyline has a small town woven into it, in order capture the essence and the beauty the small town, filmmakers ensure that the shooting takes place in that particular town to get the right ambiance, add to the authenticity and make it as realistic as possible.
The reason is simple. “Stories found in these small towns cannot be shot in big cities. That magic can only be created in small regional places. So we prefer to shoot in real locations,” Sandeep Singh, co-producer of Bhoomi, says.
Agrees Tiwari adds: “The line producers play a major role when shooting in small town. They know the locals who come with us on location scouting and help in taking permission from the Government.”
But shooting in the scenic places in those regions comes with many challenges. ‘People are unaware of shooting formats and it becomes difficult to handle the crowd during shoots. As soon as they know that there is shooting going on of a movie in their town, they throng in the area. When we were shooting for Bhoomi in Agra, a huge crowd gathered to see Sanjay Dutt. It became difficult to handle them,” Singh recounts.
