So,
It happened in Hollywood, it happened in the book publishing industry and now it is happening in Bollywood. In the last couple of weeks, we had some big names come out, some star sons, some very hyped movies, we had Jimmy, which had Mimoh, Woodstock Villa which had Sikandar and we have just had Sarkar Raj, but clearly the movie that has stolen the thunder amongst all this is Aamir. Clearly what this means is that the Indian audience is coming of age and their tastes are changing. You cannot get them with gloss and starry names anymore. You certainly can't get them with hype. The only way into their hearts is a compelling script and that is lacking in a whole lot of starry products coming out now 
and that was not lacking in Aamir, hence it has built a super stature.
What is the reason for this trend?
Firstly it is not a trend. Times have changed and we have moved on as a nation. Globalization, both of the economy and the individual, whereby almost every household has a NRI (Non Resident) presence in it, higher disposable incomes, increased awareness of cinematic products, presence of multiplexes and alternative means of entertainment, primarily television, has ensured that the attention span is now limited and finally the breakdown of "star worshippers" has ensured that films are now subject to the same level of quality scrutiny, that we assign to any other product.
The decreased attention span correlates to an increased desire to "get out if you cannot get me" mentality. This is even true of the older generation. Their "get out" is to spend more time in front of the television or with their family. Hence a mere presence of a star actor (whom they can see a 100 times on television and advertisements) does not ensure attention span. Likewise camera clicks and tricks does not do it either. Finally, what grasps the Indian audience is a good story. This is more pronounced in this era of multiple means of broadcast communications.
The trend got it's first fillip when we had movies such as Bheja Fry, Honeymoon Travels and Khosla Ka Ghosla came out, but the common theme with all these elements was they were comedies, other than being low budget films. Now we move to the next level of drama and mystery: Johnny Gadaar, Manorma Six Feet Under, Black Friday and now Aamir. All of these films have one thing in common, no starts and very compelling scripts.
It is important to note that merely because a small budget film came out, is not the reason to watch a film, there are a lot of low budget crappy products floating around too. But having a compelling script that makes a dismal box office impact in Mumbai is kind of rare these days.
Clearly these days are a good time to be around as an audience for quality products.
Could this be a start of an era or am I overreacting?
Time will tell, but just as we moved on from bell bottoms and did not move back, we may have just moved from one era to, in my mind, a better one.
In fact one the biggest films last year, Chak De had the plethora of small actors and one big actor, trying to downplay his image and actually succeeding. Odds are that if he had not lived that life sometime in his life, he would not have been able to enact it, but he did live that life and he was able to reenact it and the audience was able to buy it. What they bought was not that big actor, but more a compelling script and some fine acting by some small actors.
Sincerely,
Vivek "it's the change moment in Indian cinema" Kumar
