Bollywood is finally waking up to "non-conformist" cinema

After years of sticking to formulas, Bollywood is finally waking up to "non-conformist" cinema, with filmmakers exploring not only newer topics but innovative techniques.

The Bollywood of yesteryears is making way for experimental cinema, and the audience`s demand for fresh movie experiences lies at the centre of this change, say filmmakers and producers.

The latest and perhaps the most full-blown example in this long line is Dibakar Banerjee`s much talked about, `Love, Sex aur Dhokha`, India`s first digital film.

Dibakar, whose earlier directorial ventures have enthralled viewers and critics alike, has been known to believe in the maxim that the audience wants to feel connected to what is being shown on screen.

"My earlier films were on the periphery of mainstream Bollywood cinema, I agree, but what with their Box Office success and a National Award coming my way, I daresay the audience is accepting my idea of cinema," he told reporters.

Producer Ekta Kapoor, better known for her TV tear jerkers like `Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi` and `Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki`, took a risk with the film which has voyeurism as the central theme, but her belief in her director was never-faltering.

"It is a film we truly believed in. It was not a formula film. After giving two hits, Dibakar could have easily made a film with big stars but he did not. It is a big risk and speaks highly of his integrity as a filmmaker," Ekta told reporters.

Abhishek Kapoor, director of the highly acclaimed film ’Rock On’ couldn’t agree more.

"I think it is one of the most important films of our times," he said about ’Love, Sex aur Dhokha’.

The reality of the above statement is evident from the critical as well as commercial success of films like ’Kaminey’, ’Dev D’, ’Rock On’ and ’Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye’ which are unlike the regular fare that Bollywood has been serving audience for years.

The likes of Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj and Dibakar state the cosmopolitan Indian audience of today would immediately trash mediocre, predictable melodrama. It is more demanding, and more receptive. Which is why all these movies have enjoyed critical and commercial success.

Dibakar makes his motivations amply clear when he says, "With the kind of responses films termed as parallel or
unconventional, are getting these days, there might soon come a time when this divide would no longer exist. There would only remain the one key distinction, good films and bad films."

Kashyap, who gave a modern twist to the age-old story of Devdas and Paro in ’Dev D’, has expressed the angst of a film-maker who wants to break away from the mould saying that it was upto the audience to make sure that good cinema stays.

"If good films like the kind new Bollywood has been producing don’t work, then the audience must prepare itself to, go back to the cinema we have tried so hard to leave behind," he wrote on his blog.