2002 saw the emergence of a new phenomenon: Hinglish films. While many hail this trend, it has its fair share of nay sayers as well.

Not everyone is comfortable with Hinglish language films. Purists dismiss Hinglish as a fad. According to Narayana Iyer of Delhi University, "This kind of code-switching, as linguists call this moving back and forth between two languages, fails to give a clarity of thought and expression to serious work."

Mrinal Pande, who quit Star News over the lack of proper representation to Hindi at NDTV's newsroom, among other reasons, says there is no need to pollute either language, Hindi or English. "I get angry when people say the language I used on my shows was tough. There is no such thing as tough and easy as far as language goes. There is only good Hindi or bad Hindi. Just because Hinglish is widely used does not mean that we should leave it just like that. But that is a different story."

Trade pundits like Vinod Mirani, editor Box Office, see no future for Hinglish films. Mirani argues, "These films have no commercial scope. Audiences in Ranchi, Akola, Bilaspur, Kolhapur, Sholapur are not interested in these films. They want out and out commercial films. What sense does it make if the film does well in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai but nowhere else? The collection figures of these films are hyperboles. In today's times of high production costs, you need to recover in crores. I am sure these films recover in lakhs."

Click on the pictures above for a look at some of the Hinglish films to be released in 2003.

Earlier Story
Hinglish, the new catchphrase in Bollywood
Tell us! Do you think Hinglish films are here to stay?

Text: Vickey Lalwani