Very few people know that much before the Barjatiyas of Rajshri Productions set the box office on fire with their block-buster Hum Aapke Hain Kaun in 1991, the banner had a tryst with Bhojpuri cinema in 1982 when they doled out Nadiya Ke Paar, which starred Sachin and Sadhana Singh. A runaway success in the cow-belt, the movie with Bhojpuri dialects ran with a packed-to-the-capacity crowd for months in the theatres of North India, including Bihar and UP.

Three decades down the line, the Bhojpuri cinema has come a long way. From a modest budget of a few lakhs in early 70s, the industry today has more than Rs 500 crore at stake with its reigning superstar Manoj Tiwary reportedly jacking up his remuneration from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.

Incidentally, Bhagyashree, the discovery of Sooraj Barjatiya, too chose Bhojpuri cinema to make her comeback in the tinsel-town. The one-film wonder, who bid adieu to Bollywood and married Himalaya, after Rajshri Production’s Maine Pyar Kiya became an instant hit with her Bhojpuri film debut last year in Uthaile Ghungta Chand Dekhle.

The actress now joins the exclusive club of bigwigs like Dilip Kumar, Ajay Devgan, Mithun Chakraborty, Nagma, Kajol’s cousin Sharbani Mukherjee, who, of late, have featured in Bhojpuri movies.

Past perfect
The first Bhojpuri film to hit the theatre was Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Charaihbo, which was released in 1961 by Vishwanath Shahabadi. Other movies like Bidesia, Loha Singh, Lage Nahin Chute Ram followed and did reasonably well at the box office.

The 70s too had its share of hits and flops with two movies Dangal and Balam Pardesia being silver jubilee hits. Balam Pardesia was made by renowned filmmaker Nazir Hussain.

The 80s and 90s were lean period for Bhojpuri cinema after a string of flops. The main reason attributed for the downslide was double-entendre dialogues and incoherent storyline. The fortunes, however, turned for the better early this century when a struggling singer, Manoj Tiwary, in his bid to get a foothold in Bhojywood (as Bhojpuri cinema is fondly known in Bollywood) performed the lead role in Daroga Babu I love you. The movie which did a business of Rs 4 crore not only made Tiwary a star overnight but revived the plummeting fortunes of a dying industry.

Today many of the Bhojpuri movies have raked in more than a Karan Johar film, with one movie Sasura Bada Paisewala grossing over Rs 15 crore.

Big B joins the league
Bhojpuri cinema, however, got a shot in the arm when superstar Amitabh Bachchan decided to make his Bhojpuri debut in Gangaa, a home-production of his make-up man Deepak Sawant.

At a time when big banner movies sank without a trace at the box-office, Bhojpuri films, made on shoe-string budgets and shot in start-to-finish schedules, has made the producers’ bank balance soar by a few notches. “One reason for the boom time is the wide acceptance of Bhojpuri not only in the cow-belt zone, but even by overseas audience in places like Mauritius,” says the singer-cum-actor Manoj Tiwary, who also featured in Gangaa, along with Bachchan.

No wonder mainstream actor like Ajay Devgan too made his Bhojpuri debut in Dharti Kahe Pukar Ke, which ran to packed houses in Bihar theatres. The movie came close on the heels of Devgan (paired opposite Kajol’s cousin, Sharbani Mukherjee)  trying the vernacular language in Prakash Jha’s Apaharan and Gangajal.

Recently, out-of-job Bengali babu Mithun Chakraborty, too, made his Bhojpuri debut in Coolie which is said to have done reasonably well at the box office.

Even Nagma, who made more waves as a South Indian actress, had no inhibitions in playing the lead against Amitabh Bachchan of Bhojpuri cinema, Ravi Kishen, in Ab To Ban Ja Sajanwa Hamaar, which also featured Dilip Kumar and Saira Bano.

Nagma, the southern siren, also played the role of an investigative journo, who carried out sting operations in Pandit. Slim and svelte, Nagma, who shed her inhibitions (and loads of extra kilos) to switch over from Hindi-Tamil bandwagon to Bhojpuri movies in recent times, was quick to explain the raaz of her stunning looks. “Not only do I practice the Art of Living, but I have also become a trainer/instructor,” she says.

Having worked with most of the top banners, including Feroz Khan, (remember  FK’s Yalgaar), Nagma says she could not have asked for more. Explaining the reason why she shifted to Bhojpuri, Nagma says, “I could not have worked in B-grade films. With the passage of time, the next best option for me was to switch over to Bhojpuri cinema which has a tremendous potential and viewership not only in the Hindi heartland, but also abroad, like Mauritius.” The actress nowadays is busy attending premieres of Bhojpuri movies after her slick flicks Panditji Batayeen Na Hamar Biyah Kab Hoyi, and Dulha Milal Dildar were runaway hits.

Even Urvashi Dholakia, the much-hated ‘vamp’ of small screen (Komolika of Ekta Kapoor’s Kasauti Zindagi Ki), who hogged the limelight 23 years back when she featured in a soap advertisement in itsy-bitsy costumes, has made her debut in Bhojpuri movie Saas Rani, Bahu Naukrani, her home production.

If Komolika, oops Urvashi Dholakia, can act in Bhojpuri movies, how can Prerna, aka Shweta Tiwari of Kasauti Zindagi Ki-fame lag behind. She too attended the premier of her debut film Hamaar Saiyaan Hindustani opposite Ravi Kishen in Patna recently.

The movie has been produced and directed by Mohanji Prasad, known as Yash Chopra of Bhojpuri cinema.
Though Shweta, who belongs to Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh, can’t speak Bhojpuri fluently, she does not treat this as a handicap and has instead signed another Bhojpuri movie Kab Aibu Anganwa Hamar, this time opposite Manoj Tiwary.

Even Rambha, the southern siren, who could not speak either Hindi or Bhojpuri properly, has featured in a Bhojpuri movie Banke Bihari MLA, opposite Ravi Kishen.

If the remake of Sholay and Don can hit the theatres, why can’t someone come out with a Bhojpuri version of Mehboob Khan’s period movie Mother India. Mumbai-based Bihari producer-director Balwant Shastri released Piritiya Tohar, a Bhojpuri remake of Mother India on January 26 last year. The movie was an attempt to recreate the landlord-peasant exploitation saga and it featured the yesteryears actress of South, Sriprada, who enacted the role of Mother India. The movie, predictably, sank like the Titanic.

But undeterred, writer-director Kamal Anand recently dubbed Namak Halal into Bhojpuri. The new version was called Babua Khiladi Dadua Anadi, with Big B as Babua. The chartbusters like Jawane janeman, Raat baaki and Pag ghungroo were dubbed in Bhojpuri.

Bihari babu
No story on Bhojpuri cinema will be complete without mentioning Shatrughan Sinha, the original Bihari babu, who like Amitabh Bachchan, made his debut in Raja Thakur in September last year. Set against the backdrop of Bihar where the bridegroom is ‘kidnapped’ for marriage, the Bhojpuri flick was produced and directed by renowned fight director Tinu Verma.

Shatru played a village patriarch who helps eradicate social evils like dowry and is instrumental in reuniting the lead pair Nagma and Manoj Tiwary.

This was not the first time that Shotgun flirted with Bhojpuri cinema. Earlier, he had produced Bihari Babu in the late 80s in which he himself played the lead role. As the movie set the cash registers ringing in his home state and eastern UP, Shatrughan was bestowed upon with the acronym ‘Bihari Babu’.

In 1982, he had a brush with the local dialect in his maiden production Kalka, which, though made against the backdrop of the coal trade in Dhanbad, proved to be a box-office dud.

Shatru, however, resents his comparison with other actors who, of late, have been making foray into Bhojpuri cinema. “I have been associated with it much before any superstar, be it Dilip Kumar or Amitabh Bachchan, decided to join the league,” says the original Bihari babu.

Another Bihari who joined the Bhojpuri club was noted singer Udit Narayan who made his debut as producer with Kab Hoi Gauna Hamar.

Shot in the cool climes of Darjeeling, the movie was a box-office hit, propelling Udit to announce another Bhojpuri film, which will depict the plight of Biharis in Mauritius 150 years back. 

Going places
Explaining the reason behind the sudden success and enormous demand for Bhojpuri cinema, Shatru says, “It makes good business sense as these films are runaway hits in Bihar and UP. In overseas countries like Mauritius, a Bhojpuri film is an instant hit as it strikes an emotional chord with a lot of people there who belong to Bihar and UP.”

A Bihar-based distributor, who did not wish to be identified, said, “Most of the Bhojpuri films are made in small budgets, usually Rs 25 lakh to Rs 35 lakh, and they fetch more than Rs 1.5 crore. Many of the hits like Daroga Babu I love you have yielded 10 times their production cost,” he said, adding that Manoj Tiwary’s Sasura Bade Paisewala made with a modest budget of Rs 30 lakh, grossed an astronomical Rs 15 crore. Something which even Hindi blockbusters like Mangal Pandey: The Rising could not achieve.

Having turned the tide in its favour, the Bhojpuri industry is now talking only in crores, with an action movie Dhartiputra slated to be made on a stupendous amount of Rs 1.25 crore. 

And cashing in on the super-success of one Bhojpuri movie after another are the producers and distributors, who are now laughing all the way to the bank.