Akshay Kumar plays a villager in 'Singh is Kinng', Abhay Deol plays a middle class young man in 'Ahista Ahista' and Saif Ali Khan had in 'Omkara' traded his urban charm to turn rustic. In 'A Wednesday' Nasseruddin Shah surprised many with his character of a common man who fights terrorism in his own way.

With actors opting for real life characters in their film, the larger than life hero of Indian cinema with superhuman qualities is slowly losing out to the characters which are deeply rooted in reality.

Talking about his role in the upcoming film, Shah Rukh Khan had said both the character in 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' were inspired by the real people he met during the game shows like 'Kaun Banega Karorpati' and 'Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hai'.

With films like 'Swades' and 'Chake De!', King Khan had already begun his shift away from designer roles.

However, the new trend in the film industry is not the result of an overnight revolution, small budget films like 'Iqbal', 'Dor', 'Khosla Ka Ghosla', 'Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd' 'Black and White', 'Bheja Fry' and 'Mithya' with common man stories have broken the superiority of big budget films by getting a good show at the Box Office.

Abhay Deol, who returns in another guy-next-door character turned 'thief' in ‘Oye Lucky Oye!’, a film inspired and based on the real life thieves, says, "People should relate to your character. I have always been attracted to characters I could relate with because I cannot see myself beating 10 people in one blow."

His character in 'Ek Chalis Ki Last Local' and 'Ahista-Ahista' potrays middle class people struggling with everyday problems.

The new awakening in the Bollywood can also be contributed to the fact that big budget films like 'Tashan' 'Drona' and 'Karzzz' have bombed at the Box Office badly while small budget films with a good packaged story line continue to surprise trade pundits by scripting success at the box office.

The current recession has also affected this shift in the mood. Producers don't want to risk their money on multi-star projects.

Contributing to this change are the new crop of young directors, who are bold in their ideas and approach as they do not want to try the beaten formula of Bollywood.

Imtiaz Ali's film 'Jab We Met' despite being a simple story of guy meets girl made an impact for being fresh in its packaging, first time director Aamir Khan's 'Taare Zameen Par', Rajat Kapoor's 'Mithya' and Dibakar Banerjee's 'Khosla Ka Ghosla' and Abhishek Kapoor's 'Rock On' are just few films which have made an impact on the new age filmmaking in India.

Dibakar Banerjee who returned with 'Oye Lucky Oye!’ after 'Khosla Ka Ghosla', says, "Indian cinema has started to focus on contemporary realities and making films which are not the usual song and dance or are based on the designer NRI weddings".

"It is no longer possible to ignore the various faces of reality that surrounds us. Cinema is after all the reflection of society," Banerjee says.

Actor Imraan Hashmi, who is known for his grey characters in films like 'Gangster' and 'Kalyug' finds typical Bollywood hero thing boring.

He played the character of a bookie in 'Jannat', a film based on match-fixing in cricket while in his upcoming horror film 'Raaz-The Mystery Continues', he plays the character of a painter.

"We are not perfect in real life then why should we appear so on screen. I find it very boring to portray the typical Bollywood hero in my films. I would rather do a negative role," he said.