The future looks bright for filmmakers says Amar Kaushik on nominations of small-budget gems shining upfront to some regular big Bollywood blockbusters

Directors such as Amar Kaushik, Sriram Raghavan, Rahi Anil Barve and Amit Sharma became household names with their 2018 hits Stree, AndhaDhun, Tumbbad and Badhaai Ho respectively. Changing the definition of blockbuster movies, the audience is now willingly venturing into films that are creatively appealing and comes with an honest and original storytelling Big Star cast movies in the likes of thugs of Hindoostan, Zero, 102 Not Out featuring the crème de la crème of the tinseltown saw itself come and go like passing clouds. The unimpactful movies stand testament to the age old fact - Content is King. For the longest time, there was a perception that the success of any film is majorly driven by big-budgets and superstar actors. However, a small section of filmmakers are debunking the concept with going astray n the treatment of films. This year’s nominations are peppered with such releases that had offbeat plots, new faces, and most importantly, small budgets. When it comes to small budget movies, filmmakers usually experiment with their plots, leading to content-driven movies such as Amar Kaushik's Stree, Amit Sharma's Badhaai Ho, and Sriram Raghavan's Andhadhun. Most of these films were made on a budget of less than INR 40 crore, but yielded thrice the amount in the box office. There is another silver lining to small-budget movies - they fish out some of the brightest talents in the film industry like Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, among others Movies such as Andhadhun which was touted as the best Bollywood movie had a budget of INR 30 crore and Badhaai Ho was made on a budget of INR 29 crore. Amar Kaushik, whose maiden movie Stree witnessed a whopping 8 nominations at the Reel Movie Awards said, "I believe that the Indian Film Industry was always predominated by content. Lately, filmmakers sidelined the fact and tried to gain mileage for their films, riding on the names of big stars that featured in them. It was deemed to be short lived. But, the times are changing and the tables are turning. The future looks bright for filmmakers. It is an honour for me to be nominated for the REEL Movie Awards and I'd like to thank News18 for considering my work on par with directors like Meghna Gulzar and Sriram Raghavan." While there have been small-budget movies in the past that have done superlatively in the box office, one can see an uptick on the trend this year. It was a year that saw a transition of cinephiles accepting genuine performances than just make-believe. The 2nd edition of REEL Movie Awards that will honor and recognize the best of talent in cinema and digital are set to happen on 26th March 2019. The show will be hosted by Rajeev Masand and will witness the presence of celebrated personalities from the Indian film industry.