Bollywood, Rolling...

• Enthiran, The Robot: This Rajni-Ash action fantasy is '09's biggest Tamil film, and the costliest ever Indian one. Directed by Shankar, the music is by Rahman.
  
• Sultan-the Warrior: Rajni, animated, directed by daughter Soundarya
  
• Villu: Prabhudeva's film, starring Vijay, Nayanthara
  
• Padikkathavan: Sooraj's offering, with Dhanush and Tamanna
  
• Naan Kadavul: A Bala film, with Arya, Pooja and music by Ilayaraja

• Ravan: Mani Ratnam's Tamil-Telugu-Hindi trilingual is a modern adaptation of Ramayana. Bachchan Jr is Ravan; wife Ash is Sita to South superstar Vikram's Ram.
  
• 13 B: A Tamil-Hindi bilingual supernatural thriller that stars Madhavan and Neetu Chandra

• Shob Choritra Kalponik: A Rituparno Ghosh film, starring Prosenjit and Bipasha
  
• Abohomann: Also by Ghosh, with Dipankar De, Mamata Shankar
  
• Janala: A Buddhadeb Dasgupta film, with Indranil Sengupta, Sahana Sen

• Samaantar: An Amol Palekar film, starring Sharmila Tagore, Samir Dharmadhikari, Kishore Kadam

• Kutty Srank: Shaji N. Karun's film, starring Mammooty, Meena Kumari, Padmapriya, Kamilini Mukherjee

• Ijjodu: M.S. Sathyu's film, with Meera Jasmine, Anirudh

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CCTC's biggest selling point, of course, is its lead star: the new emperor of Bollywood, Akshay Kumar. Raghavan claims he wrote the film with Akshay in mind. He was looking for an actor who could do action, comedy, drama and some cooking as well! "A mix of Harold Lloyd and Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow and Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjeev Kapoor," he says.

CCTC is opening with a humungous 1,400 prints worldwide. Of these, 130 are for America alone, the highest ever for an Indian film. It will be premiered in four major cities of the West—LA, NY, Toronto and London. When it opens next week it would typify the spirit of Bollywood this year—upbeat and optimistic. Never mind the gargantuan global financial crisis, Bollywood promises to be bigger than ever, with every top director and every major star lining up a project—from SRK, Aamir, Hrithik and Salman to Rakeysh Mehra, Ashutosh Gowariker, Raj Kumar Hirani, Karan Johar and Vishal Bhardwaj.

However, nothing seems to get larger than life than good old Akki. He has another biggie, debutant Sabir Khan's Kambakht Ishq, where he plays a Hollywood stuntman in search of love. Guest appearances, for a change, come from the West, with Sly Stallone, Brandon Routh, Carmen Electra and Denise Richards making their desi debuts.

Shahrukh Khan's home production, Priyadarshan's Billu Barber, has him in the most interesting pairing of his career—with Irrfan! Based on the Malayalam film Katha Parayumpol (also remade in Tamil as Kuselan), it plays on the Krishna-Sudama legend. Irrfan plays a modest barber in a small town. His run-down shop is on the verge of extinction in an increasingly competitive, liberalised world. Things take a turn and he suddenly becomes important in the eyes of the people when they get to know of his childhood buddy, superstar SRK. Lots of laughs followed by buckets of tears in the climax ensure a good time for all.

Vipul Shah's London Dreams is Salman Khan's big hope after a series of recent flops. It has him back together with Ajay Devgan after Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. The two, however, won't fight over Aishwarya here. The common object of their affections is Bollywood's new import from the South—Asin.

The dark horse in the world of biggies may well turn out to be Vishesh Films' sequel to their 2002 horror hit, Raaz. Directed by Mohit Suri, Raaz—The Mystery Continues is being tipped as India's most expensive horror film with chilling special effects. It has Kangana Ranaut playing a model whose paintings by artist Emraan Hashmi get mysteriously disfigured—ominous predictions of trouble in her life.

But 2009 will go down in history for the many debuts by women filmmakers. Later this month Farhan's sister Zoya Akhtar takes a bow with Luck By Chance, about the reality, fantasy and contradictions inherent in Bollywood. A starlet and a struggler meet in this unpredictable world where desires, opportunities, fate and destiny come together in strange patterns.

Writer Sooni Taraporevala debuts with Little Zizou, which has practically every well-known Parsi in its cast and credits. A charming tale of a young boy's obsession with football star Zinedine Zidane, it deals with the contentious issues of faith and fundamentalism, hope and tolerance through the boy's perspective.

Nandita Das's thought-provoking first outing Firaaq examines the impact of communal violence on human relationships. The film does this by presenting five stories. Last but not the least there's Aamir's wife Kiran Rao at the helm of Dhobi Ghat, with Smita Patil's talented son Prateik Babbar in the lead.