Bold and brazen: Revival of the raunchy on celluloid

They might not evoke the respect that Agrade movies get but one cannot take away credit from the imagination thatrsquos used in the content and titles of Bgrade films hitlist takes a quick look at the Bgrade film industry which seems to be more active than ever beforeSanjay Khandelwals Vatsyayana Kamasutra 2 is a sequel to his earlier hit film of the same nameSome of the most bizarre and funny titles registered with film associations generally belong to Bgrade films It is obviously a tactic to attract eyeballs and draw audiences inside theatres that still thrive on these kind of films The industry went through a lull for a while but now itrsquos back with ahem a bangA still from Kanti Shahrsquos film Kaamleela that is currently under productionA decade ago filmmakers such as Kanti Shah Kishan Shah Dilip Gulati Komal Gulati the late Jeetendra Chawda the late Joginder Chandani Gupta Sanjay Khandelwal Kumar Adarsh Ravi Patwa and Robin Ghai were credited with making popular Bgrade films Some of these players are back in the scene now and are busy making similar filmsA poster of Kumar Adarshs film Secret of Sex 2B and Cgrade films make a comebackTrade analyst Atul Mohan says ldquoYes sleaze is trying to make a comeback A decade ago we had at least one or two films release in a week Back then most filmmakers in this category were working round the clock to churn out one film after another We had 4050 films releasing in a year These cost around Rs 34 lakh to make and managed to garner business worth around Rs 1012 lakh Then supply exceeded demand and technology too grew rapidly with mobiles and computers becoming affordable Sexdriven content was not only relegated to filmsrdquoHe adds that the basic plot in most of these films was a revenge drama with a generous dose of sex The market for their films was so big that producers would make a film every two months An announcement about their next film would be made on the day their latest film had releasedrsquorsquoIn the last five years these films reached a saturation point and it became more difficult to find audiences for their films Some filmmakers diversified into other fields some opened postproduction studios and others moved to the Bhojpuri film industry With the slow disappearance of these films Cgrade English films were dubbed and presented with titles such as Chulbul Haseena Sexy Secretary Haseen Raatein and Mast Sali But looks like times are changing again in their favour and some are now making sequels to their earlier hit filmsCompetition heats upProducer Sanjay Khandelwal is busy making Vatsyayan Kamasutra 2 a sequel to his earlier hit film Vatsyayan Kamasutra Kumar Adarsh who is making the sequel to his film Secrets of Sex claims he is responsible for the revival of this section of the film industry He says ldquoA trade magazine said that because I started work on this sequel others are back to making similar filmsrdquo However Adarsh hates his film being dubbed as Cgrade He says ldquoSecrets of Sex Part 2 is an educational film on sex I have used the abbreviation SOS in the title to hint at an emergency and thus draw the audiencesrsquo attention The filmrsquos intention is solely to educate people about sex and the taboo attached to it My first film SOS was hugely popular online and managed to get about 20 million viewsrdquo he says After this film Adarsh will make a film called Red LightKanti Shah and Kishan Shah who are considered the undisputed badshahs of B and Cgrade films are also adding new films to their repertoire If Bhansali made Ramleela Kanti Shah is busy making Kaamleela Shah says ldquoIf there can be a Ramleela why canrsquot there be a Kaamleelardquo It may be recalled that soon after Katrina Kaifrsquos item song Sheela Ki Jawani was aired Kanti Shah made a film called Sheela Ki Jawani This film hit the screens even before Farah Khanrsquos Tees Maar Khan which featured Katrsquos item song was released in theatres Along with Kaamleela Shah is also making another film called MMS Kaand which is expected to release soon Kantirsquos brother Kishan too is getting ready to release a film unabashedly called XXXGood businessThese films are released in single screens in B and C centres in Mumbai and the producers make business to the tune of around R60000 per week But some of them fight shy of saying that their films are only made to titillate Producer Sanjay Khandelwal says that his films are not porn ldquoOne of my films is stuck with the Censor Board for eight months now Many films made by reputed producers have far more explicit scenesrdquoWell that again is a topic for another debate