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Bollywood on the road

There has been an increase in road films in the last one decade, post Dil Chahta Hai.

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Imtiaz Ali’s upcoming film Highway is based on a road-trip. While the genre is a staple fare in Hollywood, here it is attempted by filmmakers every few years. However, there has been an increase in journey films in the last one decade, post Dil Chahta Hai (2001).

Filmmakers have discovered that this is a safe formula. Though DCH itself doesn’t wholly qualify as a road movie, the journey of the three heroes formed part of the film’s crux and it spawned several films with road travel as an integral part. Films like Road (2002), Mr and Mrs Iyer (2002), Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd (2007) Jab We Met (2007), Road, Movie (2009), Anjaana Anjaani (2010), Chalo Dilli (2011) followed, and then the other Akhtar (Zoya) gave us Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) and further cemented the genre for B-Towners. Both of Ranbir Kapoor’s recent hits Barfi! and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani had him travel across cities/countries.

Director of Road, Movie, Dev Benegal says, “Travel, pilgrimage and discovery are an integral part of Indian lives. Our landscape has so much drama, narrative and so many stories in them — it’s a country begging for more road movies. I took what is quintessentially an American genre and gave it an Indian twist.”

The travel diaries!
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh points out that most road movies here centre heavily on romance and very few can actually be called as  strictly journey films. “There have been several films where protagonists fall in love over a journey, but very few are about the journey itself,” he adds. Explaining the sudden rise of such films, he adds that they suit the sensibilities of today’s generation. “Backpacking trips are something all youngsters can relate to, so the topic is naturally more viable today than it was a few years ago.”

Getting on board!  

Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd director, Reema Kagti, feels that it is not the genre that is exciting but the stories, “It’s not about genres working, it’s about the content. It’s not right to generalise whether the genre works or not. Treat each film as a separate case. If a film is good, it will work, whether or not it is a road movie, is irrelevent.” However, she agrees that the genre lends itself to interesting stories, “Stories happen over journeys and it’s interesting to tell them on the big screen.”

Bigger markets
According to Zoya, the present day is more conducive for these films, “The markets for these films have always been there, but are expanding now. The journey on road is also each character’s journey within. The story is about friendship and discovering one’s own self and that is relatable. That’s what ZNMD was about and perhaps that’s what clicked with the audience.  Apart from the aspirational journey, we always tend to seek a journey within too. Today’s generation is definitely better equipped to understand the genre.”

Imtiaz Ali’s Highway is set in six different states and captures the journey of two completely opposite people -- Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor who are thrown together by fate. To Ali, who has done his ‘road’ film with Jab we Met, this story was what was interesting. He explains, “I have thought of making this story in so many ways.. and finally what has come is the very essence.

All the hard substances are gone from it. I wanted to do it in a very pure manner and not contaminate it because sometimes your own incapacity as a storyteller comes in the way and you think of shortcuts. I am also trying to discover why is it that this story has always been in my mind. What is so intensely fascinating about it that I have not let it go.” It seems like Imtiaz is on his own journey of self-discovery.

Star appeal
For Alia, doing Highway was not just an onscreen journey but an inward journey too. “Highway was exactly the kind of road trip I was longing for. We too actually travelled across on road and I let it all soak in.” A self-confessed fan of ZNMD ad DCH she says that as an actor, the real challenge is to internalize the trip to an extent to feel what the character was going through. “I love the genre and plan to check out more films in it. Who doesn’t want to travel or take an adventurous road trip?”

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