Small budgets fight it out among 100cr club

Mumbai: While the 100 crore club became a fad in Bollywood this year with star-driven films raking in the moolah at the box office, small budget movies too made their presence felt among the bigwigs with strong content and entertainment factor.

Superstars - Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir - ruled the box office with the success of 'Ek Tha Tiger', 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan' and 'Talaash', on the other hand the innovative subjects of movies like 'Gangs of Wasseypur', 'Kahaani', 'Vicky Donor' and 'Paan Singh Tomar' connected with the audience.

"It was a better year this time. A lot of big and small budget films have done well. New kind of films with innovative subjects were being made and audience liked them. There were only a few disappointments this year. Overall it seems the year was good for the Hindi film industry," trade analyst Vinod Mirani told us.

'Kahaani', directed by Sujoy Ghosh and starring Vidya Balan, became a huge hit as a suspense thriller. The film was everything but a typical Bollywood project - pregnant female protagonist, small scale set-up in Kolkata city and almost half the dialogues in Bengali.

Another path-breaker was Shoojit Sircar's 'Vicky Donor', with the male protagonist playing the role of a sperm donor, a profession still considered a taboo. The film's music and Delhi-setting was loved by the audience.

Anurag Kashyap's two-part epic 'Gangs of Wasseypur' was a resounding success. With a rural crime setting, lot of violence and not so famous faces, the film impressed both the critics and the audience. The film was even screened at the prestigious Cannes film festival.