Band of Boys

With six films this year, Bollywood tells several tales of friendship, albeit with men in lead.

He had, for long, wanted to make a movie that would connect with Indian youth but couldn't find the right story. One day, while watching veteran filmmaker Sai Paranjpe's Chashme Buddoor, filmmaker David Dhawan was transported back to his college days at Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, where he shared a room with friends.

It made Dhawan realise that Chashme Buddoor is the story he had been looking for. "Most Bollywood movies in the '70s and '80s had heroes willing to give up everything — love, riches as well as life — for friends. But Chashme Buddoor depicted friendship the way it is in real life — mostly fun but sometimes selfish," says Dhawan. The movie, by the same title as the original, but spelt Chashme Baddoor, will release in April.

Friendship is the one relationship which fills a void in people's lives. In the past, movies such as Karan Johar's Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Mansoor Khan's Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander portrayed friendship on screen, but it was Excel Entertainment's Dil Chahta Hai in 2000 that was perhaps the first movie on the subject of friendship. The production house has since explored the theme in Rock On!! and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara — 2013 will see a slew of films that use friendship as their theme.

First up this year is Kai Po Che! in March by the director of Rock On!!, Abhishek Kapoor. This will be followed by Chashme Baddoor, Priyadarshan's Rangrezz with Jackky Bhagnani in the lead, and director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK's Go Goa Gone. Rohan Sippy's next, Nautanki Saala, also tells the story of an unusual bond between the characters played by Ayushmann Khurrana and Kunaal Roy Kapur.

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