Bollywood is gradually opening its doors to young and talented film-makers who are experimenting with off-track scripts in commercial cinema. Reema Kagti, holding a degree in mass communications from Mumbai, has emerged in the forefront of these trend-setters with her directorial debut "Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd".

Sriram Raghavan was a TV scriptwriter till he made "Ek Hasina Thi", while Bhavana Talwar was also into journalism before directing "Dharam".

Homi Adajania is an ex-model till he turned film-maker with "Being Cyrus". Manish Acharya took a risk that no established film-maker would take. He sold off his software company in America to fund "Loins of Punjab Presents".

Film literate and with convincing concepts, these film-makers are making cinema especially for the urban crowd. However, producers funding their projects often back out at the last minute fearing adverse box-office results.

The distributors and producers of "Shootout at Lokhandwala" panicked when they saw the film without a single song. On their insistence director Apoorva Lakhia added three songs to the film which went on to become a hit. Cine-goers actually complained why the songs had been forced in.

So, although it is a good start, the GeNext film-makers of Bollywood have a struggle ahead before they change the mindset of the industry.