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Bollywood is changing..Being the largest single industry that is growing at an estimated rate of 15 percent per annum and India's economy with a sustained growth of 9-10 percent, is fuelling this growth whereby consumers have high purchasing power and more leisure time to unwind themselves in the armless reclining seats of the multiplexes where if you don't like the movie , instead of throwing your arms up in disgust you can put it around your partner and have paisa vasool magic moments regardless of the movie..

Indeed the things are changing in Bollywood..And the time tested 5 C's of cinematography ( a wonderful primer by Joseph V Masscelli, for anyone interested in learning the nitty gritty of filmmaking) has undergone a complete overhaul..The new age Bollywood has retained 5 C's but with its own twist and tadka..Now if you wanna be a filmmaker, apart from self study through DVD libraries you have to be aware and comfortable with these Cs to see you through the jungle that is Bollywood.

CORPORATES: Ah that's the new buzz word..With so much money being pumped into the entertainment industry and corporates allocating huge budgets to make movies, you may wonder why movies are not being made that really entertain, leave aside the social message or any philosophical fundas being discussed through them..Or in plain simple terms, why you are not getting to make that one unique movie you intend to make, when all around you morons are making moolah out of simple masala ..So if you are not in the loop let me update you..Corporates are not bothered about subjects per se..They are more concerned with the profits and bottom lines on their balance sheets..They are into portfolio management and work on law of averages..Nine dud movies to be offset by one mega blockbuster! And as in Hollywood, likewise in Bollywood no one knows what will click (despite all those managerial jargon of audience research, target segments, demographic profiles)..So one way to make sure that audience troops into the theaters is by way of getting the Stars on the project..Market is tuned to first three days of collections weirdly called ‘initial'..And if you don't have the initiative to get the initials of a star for your project, forget to get the Corporate funding.

CAMPS: ..You go to the corporate house and it says bring the star we will give you the funds..And you look at those dodos and wonder at their dumbness..If you had the star why would you need their funds..You could raise it from various other entities also.. what's the way out..It could really be a vicious circle.. you have a star willing to work with you, corporates are ready to fund you..No stars no funds..So you have to suck upto the stars..Its not that you can suck up to each and everyone..You have to be wary and circumspect about your approach..It may happen that you approach one star after hanging around his vanity van for days together and he gives you an audience..Then after more rounds of making your presence felt he listens to your story..In principle he agrees to do your film but puts you on hold..Now this is the crucial time and you are in a fix..Whether to wait for his green signal for the project whereby he allocates the necessary dates or bite your nails or twiddle your thumbs or go across to another vanity van..
You opt out for a latter choice and approach another star telling him the subject has been conceived keeping his image, acting prowess and talent in mind..He may ask you obliquely whether you have approached any one else for the project..Now if you are not a juggler and don't play your cards well it may happen that by blurting out the truth you may put him off because the name mentioned by you may be his bete noire..It could happen otherwise also..Just because you took his nemesis name whom you had approached first he may say yes simply to snatch the role..And you are happy..By that time the first star has got the whiff of your doing rounds and he comes around and says yes..Now you are in a dilemma..After lots of head-banging and churning and heart-burning you take a decision..You go along with the second star..And now approach the Corporate entity for the funding..But the said Coporate has some bonding from previous birth with the first star..It wants him on the project to make it operational..Bring him or else! it gives you and ultimatum..Back to square one..Now you are in pits..what to do.. the moral of the story is to stick to camps and don't play around..And things are much more feudal and demand extreme loyalty if you are dealing with big private players like YRF, RGV, MUKTA ARTS et al..So beware..Its like joining a mafia..You choose to get in but you will have to pay a heavy price if you want to get out..As a playboy you may lay many but as a budding director in Bollywood you have to put up in a tent with one camp to make some dent.

CASTING COU..PS: Ah! This is proverbial achilles heel in Bollywood's persona..Yes what you thought initially is also not off the mark..The couches have not been buried..Rather they are now stored in closets that are more sound proof and away from spy-cameras..So the casting couch exists but in new avatar..It is tom-tommed as casting coup..It used to happen in earlier feudal days of Bollywood also..But with Corporates coming in projects come first and couches just tag along later on ..With all due lip service paid to subjects, ultimately it is the pulling power of the stars that is of prime consideration while making a movie..
And Corporate entities have no creative insights..It has no intuition or gut feel..You may ask why? Simply because it is a corporate entity..Not a living breathing human being..And creative expression has to be evaluated with its emotional content..That only individuals can do, not the committees in the corporates..So to hedge their bets, corporates go for casting coups..And to be ambushed in such a coup whether one has to climb the couch is a different matter! When corporates can't get the desired stars in their coup they go crazy for multistarrers for the multiplexes packing one-two-three stars with male bonding and bosom friends .Hey baby howzzat for the starters!

COPY-ERS: To cope with the new age Bollywood you have to develop the muscle where you can say with conviction that if you are on the right side of the stars and the star-makers, you have the right to copy any story,scenes, scripts or films for the highest public good..After all if something is in Korean,Polish, Hungarian or Chinese and our poor, illiterate but emotional masses are not able to comprehend the languages, its our duty towards them to bring the same thing at their doorstep in a language with which they are conversant..So you have to have no qualms about copying or plagiarizing..Rather you have to be brazen about your deeds..You don't need a unique story, idea or a concept..You just need a group of people—producers, stars, distributors who understand the value of copying in this age of information overload..After all if you copy from one source it is plagiarism, if you copy from many it is research..So be inspired..Research your subjects and then unleash the copies on the masses with marketing blitz.

CRAFT-I-NESS : Arjuna knew the craft..Duroydhana knew the craft..But craft only cannot win the wars..Ardhsatya was a movie that brought to popular mindset the import of the phrase ardhsatya(half-truth)..In Mahabharta, in the battlefield at Kurukshetra, Yudhistra the embodiment of truth, was told by Krishna to just say Ashwathhama maara gaya(Ashwathhama is dead) and then to mumble in subdued voice the tagline ‘whether an elephant of that name or the son of Guru Dronacharya by that name, I am not sure!'..Yudhistra reluctantly did as was told and uttered the ardhsatya..And that proved to be a turning point in the battle that was going so far in favor of Kurus..So thats what Bollywood requires—dollops of half truths..But not told with reluctance but with brazenness..A recent example being the movie No Smoking that was pushed by the director as an anti-smoking movie to get a green signal from the leading star and to convince even the producers for funding..What it turned out to be but an expression of ones personal idiosyncracies and outlook..A very personal film made with producers moolah for public consumption! So craftsmanship is good..its a prerequisite..but its just not enough..you need craftiness to trawl through the sea to net a big fish in Bollywood..

Ignore these and you will be at sea as to what's happening and all the C's learnt from Joseph V Masscelli's book won't make you see the ground reality in the new age Bollywood.