No Gecko for Bollywood as markets excite few Indians

Gordon Gekko is back, and how! After eight years in prison, the God of Greed is in sublime form ranting and raving against the systemic risks associated with modern-day finance. And for those who haven?t already had enough of the misdeeds of these disgraced titans of high finance in real life, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps beckons.

Yet, while the release of the Wall Street sequel has aroused a fair bit of interest back home, hardly any film-maker has ventured into exploiting plots linked to Dalal Street in India. This is despite the giddy bull run from 2003 to 2007 and the fact that Bollywood has taken a fancy to making movies mirroring real life situations in the past few years.

Contrast this with the spate of Hollywood movies that have piggybacked on the rise of equity culture in the US since 1980. Films such as Trading Places (1983), Wall Street (1987), Pi (1998), Boiler Room (2000), American Psycho (2000) and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) have all used the stock market as a sub-plot.

Industry observers feel that large swathes of India still sit under a cloud of financial illiteracy, which is why understanding equity jargon and market dynamics could be difficult for many. ?The common man may not be able to follow such movies since equity culture in India is limited to a few big cities,? says Hiren Gada, director, Shemaroo Entertainment. What’s more, children and housewives may not be able to relate to such movies, he adds. After all, in a country with a population of over 100 crore, just about 1.5 crore retail investors trade in equities. Hollywood, though, can afford to experiment with such plots as over 40% of US households own equities in some form or the other.

Not surprisingly, the occasional attempts at incorporating stock market themes haven?t been successful. Films like Gafla (2006), loosely revolving round the life of the late Harshad Mehta, the Big Bull of early 90s, bombed at the box office. Saas, Bahu Aur Sensex (2008), a comedy about unlikely investors in the stock market, turned out to be another damp squib.

Interestingly, in a book released in 2006 titled ?Indian Economic Transition through Bollywood Eyes?, authors Amir Ullah Khan and Bibek Debroy draw parallels between blockbuster movies and socio-economic realities of their times. So, while Dilip Kumar-starrer Naya Daur (1957) dwells on the adverse impact of industrial revolution, Damini (1993) portrays the frustration of Indian masses with the judicial system and Rang De Basanti (2006) showcases the collective angst against the corrupt bureaucracy. The fact that the book makes no mention of any film based on Dalal Street only underscores the lack of an equity culture in the country.

According to Abhishek Nayar, head (marketing), Percept Pictures, movies depicting real life situations or scams connected with the equity market will have a limited appeal in India. ?The market size for reality cinema is still very small. Melodrama, action, emotions and a mix of song & dance are still integral to Bollywood movies,? says Nayar. What?s critical, he says, is to broaden the theme and not market it as a movie centered on the markets.

Citing the example of the widely-acclaimed Lagaan, Nayar says that while the movie revolved round the game of cricket, it encompassed broader themes such as Partition and empowerment, despite the immense popularity of the sport in India. Similarly, while the 1987 Oscar-winning Wall Street delved into the cannibalistic world of corporate raiders, it also brought to the fore the perils of greed, a malaise which afflicted the capitalist American society even in the 1980s ? thus widening its appeal to a larger audience.

By the same token, a film depicting the life of, say, a Harshad Mehta cannot restrict itself to his involvement in the stock market scam but has to go the whole hog in uncovering his personality, his relationship with family and friends, his weaknesses and strengths, his modus operandi and the emotional turmoil the character had to go through behind the scenes. Then, the cinematic depiction of the evils of insider trading, over-leveraging or price rigging needs to be backed by a generous sprinkling of the staple Bollywood ?mirch masala?. Moreover, A-list actors are a must ? the absence of which was one of the key reasons Gafla failed to draw audiences despite a decent script, say industry observers.

And though there are no surefire winning formulas, ample doses of humour could help. In the just-released Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, humour perhaps is the movie?s only saving grace. Picture Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko addressing a young audience as Ninjas: a generation with No Income, No Jobs and No Assets, and throwing punch lines such as: ?Greed is good, now it seems it is legal, because everybody is drinking the same Kool-Aid?.

If box office collections are any indication, Hollywood has managed to concoct successful formulas in the past. The Pursuit of Happyness grossed $163 million, while Wall Street and Trading Places collected $43 million and $90 million respectively. But Nayar warns that Indian filmmakers should not try to replicate the success of Hollywood as the latter caters to a much wider audience. ?Bollywood cannot cater to a global audience. At the most, a market movie might appeal to 15-20% of the movie-going population in India,? he observes.

Indeed, Gordon Gekko might be back. But for the moment, Ghanshyam of Gorakhpur doesn?t seem too excited.