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    (CNN) -- As the Indian film industry seeks to expand its reach beyond the subcontinent and its diasporic audiences, it's seeing increased investment. One of the companies backing the Bollywood boom is Studio 18, part of India's Network 18 conglomerate. CNN spoke to Tanuj Garg, head of Studio 18's UK and Ireland chapter, and Gayatri Batra, who heads up their UAE and Far East division, about the future of Indian films on the world stage. .................................... CNN: Tell us about Studio 18. Tanuj Garg: Well, Studio 18 is the recently set-up motion pictures arm of TV 18, which is India's largest media conglomerate. TV 18 owns, manages and runs four of India's largest news channels and deploys content across a range of platforms, such as Internet, voice, etc. So diversifying into the movie business was the most logical avenue for the TV 18 business. CNN: What impact is the cash injection of hundreds of millions of dollars into the Indian film industry making? Gayatri Batra: It's reaching to the global audience. We want to bridge the gap. India produces the maximum number of movies every year, whether it's regional or whether it's any kind. Garg: About 800 movies a year. Bollywood is becoming pretty much of a worldwide phenomenon right now, and a lot of people are jumping onto the Bollywood bandwagon, for the wrong reasons -- just because they think it's the place to be, without quite knowing why they want to be there. But the idea is to try and get as international as possible. The whole objective of this exercise is to sort of try and increase the quality and the output of films coming out of our studio, of upcoming and potential film makers, writers, screen writers. CNN: Traditionally, what would have been the obstacles to reaching a global audience? Garg: Well, the UK, the US and the UAE are typically the primary international markets for Bollywood films because there is a very large Asian population in these countries. In the more unconventional markets in Europe, the Far East, in the Southeast Asian belt, the perception of Bollywood has been pretty stereotyped. People perceive Bollywood as the typical song and dance extravaganza, with the hero chasing the heroine and dancing around trees, singing a couple of numbers and the heroine looking glamorous. I'd be lying if I said Bollywood has changed radically -- it hasn't. We still have the hard-core commercial potboilers and the blockbusters with glossy outfits and exotic locations, because that is typically what people want to see. But over the last couple of years there has been a radical metamorphosis in Bollywood, with a lot of realistic cinema coming forward, with a lot of parallel art-house cinema, with more identifiable subjects, more niche subjects, which sort of lend themselves to a more global audience. This alternate menu is finding increasing receptiveness with the non-resident Indian audiences overseas, because the youngsters from the modern generation are looking forward to more progressive, hip, young, new age, modern cinema. CNN: The recent Shilpa Shetty film, "Life in a... Metro" seemed clearly directed to an urban audience. Is there a separation between rural and urban audiences? Garg: I haven't seen "Life in a... Metro," but, from what I heard and read of it, that is one of the examples of new age cinema: merging four or five different parallel, concurrent stories and trying to prove a point. That was never the case in Bollywood until about ten years back. Bollywood is experimenting with new genres, teams, formats, film makers and actors, and that's a very healthy phenomenon because it's reaching out to a more diverse audience. Batra: It's getting more and more evolved. It still has the essence, what the viewers look for, and that essence is never going to go, because there's a certain sensibility and discipline which it comes with. Garg: People still look forward to the typical ingredients of a Bollywood film. Bollywood is trying to retain those ingredients, but still add a more modernistic touch or an edge to what they're trying to do. CNN: What is the role of critics in the Indian film industry? Can they destroy a movie? Garg: I disagree with the statement that critics can destroy a film, because I think as a viewer, if I want to watch a film, I'm going to watch it, irrespective of what the critic has given it: a one star rating, a two star rating or a three star rating. Batra: There have been instances where the critics have really written it off and the film still worked, just by purely word-of-mouth. Garg: But a good review helps. If a film is doing well, if people are curious and anxious about a film, if they're deciding how they'll spend their hard-earned money, and to which film they need to allocate their bucks, then a good review certainly helps. CNN: Tell us about India's passion for film. Garg: India is the only country in the world that turns out such an enormous amount of output. India is a movie-loving country. Indians are extremely passionate about cinema, it is their staple diet. Batra: It's an event, the movie-going experience, and after the emergence of multiplexes, it's a wholesome family experience where a father plans out the weekend around the movie which is going to be coming out this weekend. Garg: A mom, a pop and the entire family will actually get together, decide which movie they want to go for, do a bit of shopping in the malls, have a bit of popcorn, couple it with lunch, watch the movie, go out for a drive and get home late in the evening. CNN: How does that situation extend to rural areas? Garg: Single screens still give us a lot of revenues, but the growth of multiplexes has been so terrific in India that we are gradually beginning to notice an enormous amount of boom from the so-called multiplex phenomenon. Very often you have Indian film makers who say, "Hey, my film worked phenomenally in the multiplexes and that's what made my money." So the multiplexes are becoming an integral aspect of the movie-watching experience. Having said that, you cannot deny or deprive the rural audiences or the single screen audiences of their movie diet, because they are your masses, they are your front benchers and you need to find adulation and love from them. |
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