Can women rule the box office?

Femme fatale Vidya Balan sucking blood out of Arshad Warsi's thumb inIshqiya was not just an open invitation by her to lure him into her web of deceit. She also succeeded in drawing the largely conservative family audience-men and women-to the cinema halls with her portrayal of a woman protagonist with more grey shades than ever displayed on Indian cinema. And she ensured box office success. Quite an achievement if you think about male-dominated Bollywood because when it comes to Friday jitters, it's the hero who the industry trusts to get its money back. But the tides seem to be slowly turning.

Women are steadily becoming as important consumers at the box office as men. There's probably still some time to go before they break the all-male mould, but the changes are evident. Today the woman consumer is becoming powerful in her own right, demanding and willing to pay for a film that reflects a slice of her life and realistic characters that have grey shades. Says adman and lyricist Prasoon Joshi, who has been involved in quite a few Bollywood projects along with Aamir Khan, says, "I totally agree that there could be a good market for women-oriented films in Bollywood. The women of this generation, grown up on satellite TV, world cinema and a fast-changing world, where they saw their mothers playing equal partners in their marriages than being a docile wife, want to pay to see the New Age woman on screen - the woman, who's balancing personal, professional life, earning more than ever and enjoying life."

But in a traditional industry like ours, where Friday afternoon jitters sends producers running for the safest and most tried and tested formulas to bank on-in Bollywood, a safe bet always zeroes in on the hero's ability to pull audiences-would a change like this seem practically feasible? Hollywood, the largest movie industry in the world for its sheer global reach, is a good place to look at to search for an answer to this question. A few films of late have bucked the trend of this extremely male-dominated industry(according to a research in 2009, women comprised just 9 per cent of all directors of Hollywood),and sent the producers in a tizzy as they have found a solid moneymaking machine in films made to appeal to women's audience solely.

The recent box office success of Sex And The City The Movie,which celebrated the life of single, professional, confident women in New York has paved way for a sequel that's about to release in May.

Women all over the world are waiting with bated breath to see what trajectory the lives of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha take after the first film. And what's more? There's even a strong buzz of a third sequel! And that's not where the female-driven movies success story ends. The Twilight Saga-The New Moon , which was another film driven by the power of its female audience, surpassed the box office collection of The Dark Knight, that had the top honours of fetching the highest amount ever in Hollywood in its opening week! And if that wasn't enough, last week, the romantic film Dear John came from nowhere to overthrow the 'Biggie of 2010'-Avatar-off its top position at the box-office.

Hollywood has found a goldmine in its global women audience. It would be unwise, if producers fail to gauge this trend and don't look for similar changes taking place here. We probably have miles to go before reaching a stage where like Sex And The City(it grossed a total of $ 152 million worldwide), a woman-oriented film earns a mammoth sum, but unless tested no one will ever know the potential of women-driven films. The keyword over here is how 'commercially viable' would these films be? Loveleen Tandon, co-director,Slumdog Millionaire, says, "Women are the emotional capital of most films. I don't think in today's world anyone would want to ignore them or think they do not have the power to drive people to theatres."

Abbas Tyrewala, director of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, though not totally convinced that box office success can be dependent on women solely in our country, believes that new ideas, bold scripts and corporate money that's going into producing novel genres are all paving the way for new beginnings."There are quite a few films in the past which have had very strong roles written both for its male and female protagonists(Read Jodha-Akbar, Fashion or the upcoming Rajneeti).The big budget films may not yet be taking a lot of risks with the Friday openings leaving it solely in the hands of the female audiences, but there low-budget films that have proved to be testing grounds for novel ideas that click as niches and then go on to become more mainstream." Think Nagesh Kukunoor's Doror Jug Mundra's Provoked. "In the same way that the genre of psychological thrillers found a new audience in the last few years, women-driven scripts too are going to find a place, provided they are also commercially viable," says Abbas.

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