RULES: PYAR KA SUPERHIT FORMULA With Milind Soman as reel-life supermodel, an infatuated girl and her grandmother who dishes out love's laws, the film bucks Bollywood formulae.

Reality and romance rarely meet in Bollywood. The past decade in particular has been dedicated to gossamer fantasies where staggeringly rich and beautiful people met and mated. Chopra, Johar and their film guru Sooraj Barjatya set the tone that was slavishly imitated by the rest. Family values plus foreign locations plus designer love equalled box office. Not any more. The critical and commercial drubbing of Barjatya's Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon was the final nail on the cliche coffin. Sooraj, to steal a line from a Johar song, hua madham (is waning). Now a slew of directors are rewriting romance, with quirky, fresh, even dark tales of desire. It is love in the time of non-formula.

The family-grandparents, uncles, servants and Pomeranians-is booted out. Kal Ho Na Ho, in which Preity Zinta and Saif Ali Khan also star, has a maternal angle (played by Jaya Bachchan) but the focus is on three individuals having different personalities and how "they overcome life's challenges". Rohan Sippy, another debut director, is also clear that his upcoming romance Kuch Na Kaho is driven by "individual choices". "It is not about fulfilling expectations of your parents or the society but your own internal barometer," says Sippy. The film uses conventional grammar-Abhishek Bachchan plays an NRI, there is a disco song and the shaadi number-to take you through unconventional characters. Aishwarya Rai plays a feisty, middle-class working girl coping with serious emotional baggage. Says Sippy: "Women in Hindi films play either the virgin or the mother but this character is neither."

MUMBAI MATINEE Anant Balani, who believes that the age of conventional commercial cinema has ended, comes up with a black comedy about a 32-year-old ad executive who is desperate to lose his virginity. Instead of lust he stumbles on love.

KUCH NA KAHO It has its share of cliches in an NRI hero, a disco song and a shaadi number but the focus has shifted. It is about strong individuals making choices.

JOGGERS' PARK An unconventional story from Anant Balani. Produced by Subhash Ghai, the film slated for an August-release zooms in on the relationship between a retired judge (Victor Banerjee) and a bold and beautiful Mumbai model (Perizaad Zorabian).

In Tere Naam, also releasing in August, love takes a violent turn. Director Satish Kaushik re-imagines the Tamil hit Sethu as a north Indian tale. So Salman Khan plays a hooligan in Uttar Pradesh who falls inexorably in love with a priest's daughter in Vrindavan. Kaushik eschews the modern glam-gal heroine for the simple charms of Bhumika, a well-known Telugu actor. The hero's obsession turns to insanity and buckets of blood are shed. Kaushik says his film is violent in its emotions: "It is a shocking story and the treatment is mature. We have to move more to the realistic side."

Being realistic does not mean art house-style cinema verite but a story that has moorings. The 1990s were the '60s revisited-major presentation but minimal story. The tangential crafts-costumes, sets, make-up and choreography-seemed to edge out narrative. Now the focus is shifting back to the script. Rachel Dwyer, author of a book on the grandad of romance, Yash Chopra, believes that stories will necessarily be "more structured and tighter". Says writer Milap Zaveri: "Just Tommy Hilfiger clothes with 20,000 balloons won't work anymore. We are going to see romance treated in an honest and frank way. The texture will be real. It won't be filmi or over-dramatised."

The recent success of small-budget films like Ishq Vishq and Jhankar Beats suggests the audience prefers contemporary, urban romances to saccharine-laced melodramas. "Characters are becoming more identifiable," says Ken Ghosh, director of Ishq Vishq. In the upcoming Rules: Pyar Ka Superhit Formula, director Parvati Balagopalan looks at the agony of infatuation-a photographer's assistant has a crush on a supermodel (played by Milind Soman). Of course, the supermodel doesn't even know she exists. Enter a spunky grandma (Tanuja, who seems to be on a roll after Bhoot) who dishes out some wisdom. "The grandmother believes love is a game, and like any game it has rules," says Balagopalan. "If you play by these rules, you win." And granny helps the heroine hook the man of her dreams.

In fact, as budgets get smaller directors get more experimental. Director Sanjay Jha is currently at the Kumbh Mela in Nashik making Strings, a love story between a Briton (Adam Bedi, son of Kabir, makes his debut) and a priest's daughter. Two decidedly unconventional love stories directed by Anant Balani are also being released in August. Joggers' Park, produced by Subhash Ghai, looks at a relationship between a retired judge and a Mumbai model, while Mumbai Matinee, starring Rahul Bose, is a black comedy about a 32-year-old ad executive who is desperate to lose his virginity. His attempts to find sex, however, yield love. Balani believes the "conventional commercial cinema has collapsed". "We have to create a new language," he says. "Songs in Switzerland do not cut it anymore."

Director Kunal Kohli knows. Kohli seemingly had the dream debut-a big budget romantic triangle produced by Yashraj Films with the hottest young stars, Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee, in it. But Mujhse Dosti Karoge!, shot in Switzerland, brimming with designer clothes and shaadi songs, came a cropper last year. Kohli recalls standing in the stalls of a suburban Mumbai theatre on day two of the release: "One lady recognised me. She walked over and said, 'Nice film but try something new next time'."

This month Kohli starts shooting a love story, Hum Tum, starring Saif and Mukherjee, about the journey of two people. "I believe the romance I am making now does not have a parallel in Hindi cinema." He is listening to his audience. So, it seems, are the rest.