Bollywood A-listers like Shah Rukh Khan and 'The Big B' Amitabh Bachchan have dominated the industry in recent years, but aspiring directors now believe that success is possible without them - and at a fraction of the cost.

Successful films made on a shoestring include maverick director Ram Gopal Varma's black magic horror Phoonk (Blown Away) and Rock On, about four friends in a rock band.

They were followed earlier this year by Jannat (Paradise), Aamir, a story of a Muslim doctor held hostage by terrorists, and the love story Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (Either You Know It Or You Don't).

Phoonk even broke the Bollywood tradition of featuring the film's stars prominently in advertising. Instead it showed a large, black crow on publicity material.

Varma said his success proved that throwing money at films is now not everything in Bollywood.

'It's common knowledge that many a time stars are signed by directors not because they fit the characters but because the distributors and trade pundits demand them,' he said.

'Phoonk got tremendous opening all over the country and that proves that... you can pull in the audiences with a crow.'

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh said the development was positive and could make Bollywood and its traditional Hindi-language song and dance routine genre more diverse.

'Newer stories are finding their way into theatres in India,' he wrote on his popular website www.bollywoodhungama.com.

'Both Phoonk and Rock On didn't boast of A-list actors to lure the audiences in hordes, but the films let the powerful content do the talking,' he said.

Actor Rajeev Khandelwal, who starred in Aamir, agreed, arguing the case for greater artistic integrity.

'Bollywood is changing for the better with more meaningful scripts. I got many offers to do commercial films but I wanted to do a film with more meaningful scripts,' he said.

'Aamir was one of them. Thankfully it clicked and I am happy to see that.'

Indian film industry specialist Vinod Mirani offered another explanation: in the fiercely competitive world of Bollywood and global economic uncertainty, at the moment less is sometimes more.

'These small films are less risky and therefore producers are taking their chances,' he said.

'If they click it, they make it big. A film like Phoonk probably only cost 20 million rupees (S$646,320) but made five times that at the box office'.

'They will also make more money via satellite rights. So it makes economic sense to make such films.' --AFP