Bollywood's dream merchants have churned out sleaze offerings this Valentine's day, giving romantic films the go by.

For people keen to watch mushy stuff with someone special, cinema halls were certainly not the place.

Indian theatres unveiled dampers, sex-thriller "Chahat: Ek Nasha" and sex-drama "Sheesha". "Finding Neverland" and "The Aviator" from Hollywood are the other movies released over the weekend.

Indian viewers were treated to an over-sexed Neha Dhupia in "Sheesha" and an over-weight Manisha Koirala in "Chahat...".

In her second film after "Julie" where Neha had exposed a lot but also showed some acting ability, the former Miss India loses more inhibitions but gains no acting prowess. Neha has a double role opposite Sonu Sood in "Sheesha".

In "Chahat...", a talent like Manisha is wasted away as a flabby, swollen and knocked out fading pop star. She is cast opposite Aryan Vaid with the girl-next-door-turned-wannabe diva Preeti Jhangiani thrown in for a good measure.

While established stars will have no time for good old love stories, some newcomers will try and keep the flames of love burning with little success.

The only so-called romantic film to be released was "Humdum" with new entrants Romit Raaj and Rrutu Joshi. The college flick requires its leads to enter a game show in which they are required to fall in love.

This is Kushan Nandy's second film after "88 Antop Hill". The film may not have much going for it but it is heartening to see producers and directors daring to think differently. But for the average Hindi film fan who has for long savoured the opulence of Yash Raj Chopra's romances, "Humdum" was no match.

Hollywood Reporter's annual top 100 film production houses in the world, released recently, lists Yash Raj Films at number 28, and the family-owned production company has love tales to credit for its success.

Last year, the Padma Bhushan awardee and his son Aditya netted Rs.1.36 billion ($31 million) with a modern day light-hearted romance "Hum Tum" and an epic love tale - "Veer-Zaara". The Chopras will try to better their record this year with more love stories.

There's Shaad Ali's "Bunty Aur Babli", which is a road romance starring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee. Aishwarya Rai had shot for an item number in the film opposite the father and son duo before she left for the US to promote Gurinder Chadha's "Bride and Prejudice".

Another project on the floors is debutant Siddharth Anand's story of attraction in Australia, with Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta. However, the most eagerly awaited project will be Kunal Kohli's tale of mature love between Aamir Khan and the very talented Kajol.

For die-hard romantics, Bollywood promises to make up for a dry Valentine's Day in the year ahead.

Writer Javed Akhtar, who has scripted some of Bollywood's most enchanting films, says viewers can expect more mature love stories from the industry. Bollywood has invariably depicted love as a fantasy set on the college campus but a mature love story is dignified and reasonable, but still retain emotions, says Akhtar, while citing the Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Nargis-starrer "Andaz" (1949) as his example of a "really mature love story".

The opening day box-office collections for new releases "Sheesha" and "Chahat..." were dismally low. In Mumbai, both films averaged below 30 percent collections.

The exhibitors and single-screen theatre owners are likely to continue screening Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Black" that has collected Rs.17 million ($385,000) in Mumbai.

The Rani Mukherjee-Amitabh Bachchan film is a critic's delight and word of mouth can help the film in a major way. Pritish Nandy Corporations' release - "Shabd" - starring the beautiful Aishwarya Rai opposite Sanjay Dutt and Zayed Khan - had a weak opening all over India.

"If the ratio of flops rose to an all-time high in the first month of 2005, the first week of February ('Black', 'Shabd') has not really reversed the trend. The opening day or weekend figures of a majority of films are pathetic, the business of most films is dismal, the economics of the film industry has gone haywire," tell the analysts.

That also holds true for Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgan's "Insan", Suniel Shetty-Ajay Devgan's "Blackmail" and multi-starrer "Padmashri Laloo Prasad Yadav". Subhash Ghai's "Kisna" has turned out to the filmmaker's biggest flop ever.

The only heartening performance was of "Page 3" that continues to do good business in A class centres even if it was rejected in the B and C class centres. Being a low-budget film, the revenue it earned in multiplexes was enough for it to sail through.

The weeks ahead are not likely to change the tide. Coming up on Feb 18 is "Zameer" by producer Eklavya Visions P. Ltd. The film stars Ajay Devgan, Amisha Patel and Mahima Chaudhary.

"Jurm" by director Vikram Bhatt and starring Bobby Deol, Lara Dutta, Milind Soman and Gul Panag; "Socha Na Tha" with newcomers Abhay Deol and Ayesha Takia; "Chehraa" with Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea, Preeti Jhangiani and Irrfan Khan are likely to be released on the same day.

Before the end of the month, the lid is likely to go off "Bewafaa" which is generating audience interest on account of its soulful music. The Dharmesh Darshan film casts Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpai, Kareena Kapoor, Sushmita Sen, Shamita Shetty and Kabir Bedi.

"Bewafaa" is an intense romantic drama and the best bet for Bollywood's dismal exhibitors and distributors. If it is successful, then love will once again be credited for making work go around in Bollywood.

Like they say, love conquers all.