Of 'bhaiyyas', Bhojpuri and Bollywood connection

A Bollywood cast and crew braved the north Indian winter to give the muharat shot for the first-ever Bhojpuri film at the Shaheed Smarak in Patna. It was February 16, 1961, and the movie was Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibon, which went on to become a huge hit.

Legend goes that the seeds for Bhojpuri cinema were sown after a chance conversation between the then India president Rajendra Prasad and Bollywood actor Nazir Hussain. Prasad asked Hussain why there were no movies being made in the native dialect.

Thus, a new regional film industry started taking shape. “In the last 50 years, much water has flown down the Ganga and the once fledgling industry which borrowed actors and singers from the Hindi film industry is now standing on its own feet,” says Bhojpuri writer Vidur Chaturvedi. “The industry is now supported by eight television channels, has its own awards show, and a trade magazine.”

Trade pundits estimate that each year nearly Rs25 crore is pumped into the industry and the turnover is more than double that amount. “The budgets are now increasing since the Bhojpuri market has great potential,’ says filmmaker Mohanji Prasad.

However, the situation was different till a decade ago when the prosperous Bhojpuri film industry of the 1960s and ‘70s was in the doldrums due lack of financiers, good scripts and saleable actors. “In the ‘80s and ‘90s, some filmmakers who were not familiar with the language or culture of the Bhojpuri-speaking masses started churning out badly made films which relied on violence, innuendos and titillating item numbers to attract the target audiences,” laments Chaturvedi.

The tide finally turned in the new millennium with the rise of superstars Ravi Kissen, Manoj Tiwari and Nirahua aka Dinesh Lal Yadav. Tiwari’s Sasura Bada Paisewala, which was made at a modest budget of Rs30 lakh, is said to be the first Bhojpuri film to have raked in profits amounting to Rs15 crore.
Kissen points out that the Rs200-crore Bhojpuri film industry is

making huge profits. “In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh each, there are nearly 400 theatres dedicated to Bhojpuri films,” he adds. “There are similar markets in other parts of the country catering to the Bhojpuri-speaking migrants. In Maharashtra, there are nearly 35 theatres for Bhojpuri films.”

Though quite a few Bhojpuri films are shot in UP and Bihar, Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra are the preferred destinations due to the access to skilled labour and better production and post production facilities.

Bollywood’s growing interest in its country cousin is also giving a boost to the industry. With Hindi film producers and actors taking a keen interest in Bhojpuri films, the industry is only going to get bigger and better, feel trade pundits.

— With inputs from Alok Deshpande