Content is king in Bollywood

The success of 2 recent movies Paan Singh Tomar and Kahani, both made on extremely small budgets, is heart warming. For starters, there were no big stars or fashioniestas, only 2 strong actors playing the leads with a motley competitive bunch of supporting cast

Irfan Khan and Vidya Balan have both been around for long. Though they have been excellent actors, their average looks or non-filmy backgrounds have ensured less media coverage and less chances to excel in mainstream Bollywood. At least Irfan has got a chance to showcase his talent to a global audience through movies like "SlumDog Millionaire", "A Mighty Heart" and "The Namesake", Vidya has mostly played second fiddle to other younger and more attractive leading ladies, despite having a good body of work (Lage Raho Munnabhai, Parineeta etc). It is only since 2010, after playing a slew of strong feminine roles in movies like Ishqiya, Paa, No One Killed Jessica and The Dirty Picture that the world started taking notice of her histrionic abilities

Tigmanshu Dhulia and Sujoy Ghosh, 2 directors known for their offbeat work, took chances with movies that didn't offer much but for the script and the actors who played the protagonists. One was set in Chambal, the other in Kolkata. There were no song and dance sequences, no skimpily clad actors, no OTT actions sequences (a disturbing trend in recent films - without naming anybody, a few films without a story actually became mega-hits riding on the popularity of one actor). Made on extremely tight budgets, with little extravagance, they struck a chord with the audiences

The only other movie that made big money this year was the remake of the cult classic Agneepath, but it had everything going in its favor - a strong cast, a leading production house backing it, remake of a film of the legendary Big B, not to forget the songs, dance, action sequences etc

But as the 2 small budget movies proved, audiences have matured. They know what to see and what to reject -a remake of a big Hollywood hit turned out to be a dud earlier this year. They loved Big B singing "ekla chalo tre", rather than Small B trying to woo a "nadaan ladki", they made icons out of superbly enacted roles like Bob Biswas rather than a recently married couple

A vicious cycle of poorly written movies with just big names starting in the kid-2000s somehow seems to have come to an end. Yes, there will be individuals who will draw crowds, but, the makers will think twice before dishing out inane stuff. Mr. Singh, sorry, time to move on, you are no longer the king, content is