Regional showbiz emerging out of Bollywood's shadow
By Priyanka Khanna

New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) Regional cinema seems poised to emerge out of the shadows of Bollywood. And the global success of "Sivaji - The Boss", the Rajnikant-starrer released in Tamil and Telugu, is not the only indicator. Films made in Bhojpuri have been routinely eclipsing Bollywood fare at the box-office.

Hindi movies, which dominated the Indian box-office for years and have come to be indicative of cinema in India, are being edged out by regional films as they make their presence felt in foreign film fests.

Yash Raj Films' latest venture "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom" starring Amitabh Bachchan found itself lagging far behind simultaneously released "Sivaji" and even trailing Bhojpuri film "Nirhua Rikshawala" at the turnstiles.

Marathi filmmaker Sandeep Sawant's "Shwaas" remains one of the most critically acclaimed Indian films in recent times. Director Rajnesh Domalpalli's Telugu film "Vanaja" was the winner of the Best Feature Debut award at the Berlin film festival this year.

And Kolkata-based filmmaker Aparna Sen has upstaged all her contemporaries by making "A Japanese Wife" - the first Indian film in Japanese, Bengali and English.

"Bollywood is a mere percentage of the Indian cinema as a complete entity. But the Indian psyche is such that it has personified Bollywood as mainstream cinema, and sidelined regional cinema. We have to end such compartmentalisation to be able to produce world-class movies," Marathi filmmaker Amol Palekar said in an interview to a national daily.

The Marathi film industry boasts of legends like Dadasaheb Phalke and V. Shantaram.