The Bengali film industry, which had been a beacon for the country's film industry until the

1980s, is
in a turnaround mode. At a time when Bollywood continues its roller-coaster ride, there are cheers in
the Bengali film industry with several commercial successes. The dark period of the 1990s when
Bengali tinsel town was on a steep decline seems like a nightmare that's best forgotten. And, with
the money pouring in, producers from other States are now knocking on the doors of Bengali
directors. Industry sources say that the best proof of the comeback is seen in the increasing number
of cinema houses showing Bengali films. Even a few years ago, of the 800 cinemas in the State, no
more than 350 were showing just Bengali films. The remaining had spread their risk showing a mix
of either Hindi and English or Hindi and Bengali films. In 2008, nearly 700 theatres were showing
Bengali films.
Bombaiyer Bombete, produced by Ramoji Films at a cost of Rs 8 million, recovered its costs within
three weeks and earned 20 million in all . The movie has brought back the concept of family
entertainment with Sandip Ray's gambit of contemporising the plot paying him rich dividend.
Admitting that he did not expect this success, he told Life that he was now lining up another such
film for release next year. Earlier, a film by award-winning director Buddhadeb Dasgupta's Mondo
Meyer Upakhyan (The Tale of a Fallen Girl) produced by Arjoe Entertainments netted nearly Rs
7 million through sale of overseas rights against a cost of Rs 0.6 million. Haranath Chakraborty His
film Sathi (Companion) created a record by recouping over five times its production cost, although
the film Chokher Bali, with big names like Aishwariya Rai, Rituparno Ghosh and Tagore, failed to
yield expected results. The movie, billed at Rs 16.5 million (the highest among Bengali films).[41] Total
number of cinema theatre is approx 400.But there are films like 'Kaler rakhal'(2008)by Sekhar Das
which created huge controversy for its strong political comments on contemporary Bengal, despite
its formal brilliance too, was not successful in the box office as the film was unceremoniously
withdrawn from the theatres.
Loose and unorganised production activities, dominated and dictated by providers of capital led to
proliferation of sub-standard films, which were most often commercial failures. The recent successes
have come through some concerted effort by Parallel Cinema which has tapped the domestic
market, even while scouting the overseas ones, hitting the festival circuit somewhere in between. As
such, celluloid creations of award-winning directors like Gautam Ghosh, Rituparno
Ghosh and Aparna Sen started bringing money for their producers. However, at around the same
time, movies in the commercial circuit (directors like to call them mainstream cinema) also started
doing well, supported strongly by the response from the semi-urban areas. The big Bollywood
banners such as Mukta Arts and Rajshri films are now showing interest in funding Bengali films.