Feb 03, 2006
Reuters
Indians watched anxiously two months ago as their best-known film icon went in to hospital on a stretcher -- doubled up in pain, his face gaunt and his head drooping.
As Amitabh Bachchan underwent surgery for a life-threatening stomach ailment, fans across South Asia and the Middle East prayed for his well being until the 63-year-old emerged smiling from the hospital almost three weeks later.
Bachchan had a medical check-up this week. But India's most recognisable screen name hasn't returned to work yet, keeping the Hindi film industry, commonly known as Bollywood, on tenterhooks.
It was Bachchan who helped reverse a steady decline in Bollywood's fortunes in 2005, and trade analysts say the industry is looking to him for another year of improvement.
"Amitabh Bachchan has at least four films this year and quality-wise, if not quantity-wise, his films impact Bollywood," film analyst Taran Adarsh told Reuters.
His illness has kept him from taking on new projects, but he has completed shooting for his parts in at least two films.
Bachchan's 2005 hits -- "Black", "Waqt", "Sarkar" and "Bunty Aur Babli" -- together grossed nearly 1 billion rupees (13 million pounds) in an industry that operates on low profit margins.
Last year, Bollywood cut its losses to 1.35 billion rupees on investment of 10 billion rupees, helped by a move towards serious, plot-based cinema, film-makers and analysts said.
The industry had lost 1.75 billion rupees in 2004 as its traditional song-and-dance offerings with melodramatic stories failed to cut much ice with increasingly sophisticated audiences.
Analysts say annual Bollywood revenues, estimated at $1.25 billion (702 million pounds) to $1.5 billion, could grow 16 percent per year over the next five years to 143 billon rupees.
SYMPATHY WAVE
The industry now waits with bated breath for the return of Bachchan, voted in a 2002 BBC Online survey as the most popular screen and stage icon of all time, ahead of Laurence Olivier and Alec Guinness.
The actor has said it could take up to six months for him to recover fully and that he does not know when he will resume work.
His absence is making advertisers sweat too. The star endorses an array of products from cars to chocolates and has about 55 billion rupees riding on him this year, according to estimates from Indian daily Hindustan Times.
However, film pundits said a sympathy wave for the ailing actor could help his film releases due this year, such as the extra-marital potboiler "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna", family drama "Baabul" and "Eklavya", a period film about palace intrigues.
"We had a decent last year, doing reasonably good business," film-maker Mahesh Bhatt said.
"We can look forward to an exciting, good year in 2006 in which idea-driven films will rule," said Bhatt, whose production house has five films slated for 2006, including "Suicide Bomber" -- inspired partly by the London bombings last July.
The year's first hit, "Rang De Basanti" starring Aamir Khan, uses a blend of narratives to tell the story of five friends and their struggle to break away from their modern-day consumerist existence to relate to characters from India's freedom struggle.
While Bachchan films are not the only ones keenly awaited by Bollywood, the strength of his legacy will be tested in others.
A few 1970s hits that catapulted him to fame -- "Sholay", "Don" and "Amar Akbar Anthony" -- are being remade with younger stars.
The "Don" remake stars heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan, the leading of Bollywood's three Khans - the others being Aamir and Salman - whose earning power is rivalled only by Bachchan.
Shah Rukh, whose "Paheli" was an unsuccessful Indian Oscar entry this year, will be eagerly watched in the Bachchan co-starrer "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna", while "Baabul" stars Salman Khan and, once again, Bachchan.
Trade analysts also expect more strong plots and costume dramas with "Othello", "Umrao Jaan", "Jodha-Akbar" and "Prithiviraj-Sanjukta".
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