In these trying times, the industry is eagerly waiting with fingers crossed, the release of four big-budget films by Khans and Kumars of tinsel town that can give the film industry some respite, say insiders.

‘This year it will be difficult for Bollywood to equal previous year's growth due to the global economic meltdown in the market. But why blame only the market, even filmmakers are not producing good films. Banks are not ready to give money. After big budget films like ‘Drona’, ‘Kidnap’ and ‘Karzzzz’ bombed at the Box Office, it forced corporates to take a long hard look at their finances,’ says film trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

And what would happen to fat paychecks of 40-50 crores to numero uno's of Bollywood? ‘It will certainly have an impact over the soaring stars fees and budget of the film,’ he adds.

Ramesh Taurani of Tips says that this is a temporary phase and it will get over. ‘There is a correction in the prices of everyone from technical staff to stars, which is good as some of the actors were demanding sky high prices. It is also affecting the selling prices of distribution rights.’

Filmmakers who normally used to get easy loans from banks to produce their movies are no more finding lenders as the current global financial instability making the condition worse and banks refusing to give funds to Bollywood that received an industry status, a few years ago.

‘The main reason behind all these losses is that corporates who started financing the films to earn fast money have over-estimated by offering actors huge sums without thinking of recovering the cost in the event the films bomb,’ says Vinod Chhabra, producer and distributor.

Hinting at A-list film producers, he says that they have been showing fictitious profits of films to mislead the public. ‘And now as more than 95 per cent the films have bombed at the box office, there is a cash crunch in the industry,’ he says, adding that the film industry has lost close to Rs 600 million in the month of October alone.

According to ‘FICCI-PwC Entertainment & Media’ report 2008, the growth of the sector was a healthy one in 2007, i.e. over 17 per cent over 2006 but it may come down to single digits this year, thanks to slowdown in consumer spending across categories and cautious producers stalling projects.

Films such as Salman Khan's 'Yuvvraaj', Shahrukh Khan's 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’, Aamir Khan's 'Ghajini' and Akshay Kumar's 'Chandni Chowk To China' are some movies which have been predicted to be a big hit.

‘Surely, a lot would depend on how ‘Ghajini’, ‘Rab Ne

Bana Di Jodi’ and ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ fare at the box-office,’ says Adarsh.