<img alt="" src="/imagedata/2010/aug/ramkamal.jpg" align="left" border="0" />Social issues have always been a cause for filmmakers. The credit goes to Aamir Khan for taking up socially relevant issues with Tare Zameen Par as a debutant director, which sprung like a surprise to all. But now, it seems that he has almost set a trend for small filmmakers and they are trying to bring in a sort of revolution in Bollywood. The trend of small films which suddenly died after Akshay Kumar (Chandni Chowk To China and Khatta Meetha), Hrithik Roshan (Kites), Abhishek Bachchan (Drona and Ravaan) and Salman Khan (Veer) came with big budget blockbusters. But, unfortunately these films tanked at the box-office. The first half of Bollywood has been terrible, finally the ray of hope emerged from films with least expectation. Finally, Abhishek Sharma's Tere Bin Laden and Vikramaditya Motwane's Udaan has turned the table around. Now with Aamir's Peepli Live and Sushil Rajpal's Antardwand, the trend of small films will be back in Bollywood. Director Abhishek Sharma is not at all surprised by the success of his directorial venture Tere Bin Laden, Vikramaditya has been completed shaken with the kind of response he got. "Good films have worked, but unfortunately post recession, films tanked be it good, bad or worse. So that's most important to have the right kind of audience for such effort," says Pakistani singer-turned-actor Ali Zafar, who plays the protagonist in Tere Bin Laden.u00a0 Incidentally, Bollywood mainstream actor Salman Khan went out of his way to promote Tere Bin Laden and spoke highly about the film to draw the crowd. On the other hand, Aamir is going all out, and probably a step further than that to promote Peepli Live which is a satire based on the shoddy conditions of farmers. The story revolves around Natha, a poor farmer from Peepli village, who is about to lose his plot of land due to an unpaid government loan. A quick fix to the problem is a programme that aids the families of indebted farmers who have committed suicide. Local elections are around the corner and what might have been another unnoticed event turns into a 'cause celebr ufffd' with everyone wanting a piece of the action. "It's time for good cinema, overwhelmed with the response of Peepli Live promo," says Aamir. While Aamir's film has already created roar at international film festivals, back home we have Sushil Rajpal's National Award-winning film Antardwand which deals with a yet another unusual topic ufffd groom kidnapping that is rampant in the high-caste Bhumihar community in Bihar and other interiors of India. Rajpal says, "Groom abduction also has emotional and mental repercussions on the couple that has been forcefully married. Whether it is the dowry system, social and economic inequality, male dominance, the helpless girl's condition of being married yet unmarried if the groom refuses to accept her have all been portrayed with sensitive truthfulness." Again he has also made this film with almost a zero cast, with a bunch of newcomers like Raj Singh Chaudhary, Himanshi, Jaya Bhattacharya and Neelima. What makes the film more realistic is that it's based on a true incident as experienced by the Sushil's friend who was abducted by a village girl's father. They were forcefully married. Like the director says, "Over the years as I dwelt on this incident, I felt this personal story had wider social ramifications and relevance as the final outcome of such incidents remains sadly inconclusive." The question is that, will Bollywood revive the trend of making meaningful cinema and also churn good financial profit from such films, or will they just hype over budget star-studded films. These films are seeing the light of the day, because producers are not getting peeved about the box office result. But, the fact remains that there are various other films which are lying inside the cans and gathering dust. Distributors or producers are not keen on losing any more money. This situation needs to be answered. "Bad films deserve to be inside the cans. But I think Bollywood is waking up. From Karan Johar to Pritish Nandy, from Aamir Khan to Salman Khan everyone is promoting small films, good films. There are budget limitations in promoting these small films, but when we have mainstream celebrities talking highly about these films, then people take them seriously and that's how we can actually change the trend," says Vajir Singh, editor Box-Office Magazine. It seems that many producers are now showing interest in releasing small budget films, and accepting the fact that recession is over. Finally, content is the king, and and size doesn't matter.

Social issues have always been a cause for filmmakers. The credit goes to Aamir Khan for taking up socially relevant issues with Tare Zameen Par as a debutant director, which sprung like a surprise to all.

Size doesn't matter

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Size doesn't matter

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