New Delhi, Aug 29 - Emaciated farmers ploughing the fields, parched fields, scheming land sharks, broken down huts - these may reflect the reality of many Indian villages, but seldom get captured in Bollywood films.

Audiences prefer an escape from the hard life of rural, agrarian India on screen, while filmmakers resort to idyllic, picture postcard landscapes in films with villages as their backdrop.

Actor-producer Sohail Khan's attempt to revive the forgotten rural essence in Hindi cinema with 'Kisaan', which released Friday, has got a lukewarm response and not-so-encouraging reviews. It revolves around farmers being forced to sell their lands to rich businessmen.

'Such films are appealing only if they are packaged in a viewer-friendly manner. Movies like 'Mother India' and the lot were epics and brought about an absolute change in movies thenceforth...The audience will only watch such films when the right minds work on them and make them in an authentic yet mass appeal manner,' Madhur Bhandarkar told IANS.

Agriculture's share in India's GDP has plummeted from 46 percent in 1960 to 20 percent at present despite the fact that about 70 percent of the population is still engaged in the rural sector. Simultaneously, films on the rural economy have also dwindled.

Puneet Sira, who has directed 'Kisaan', says his movie is a tribute to the country.

'India is going through an economic change and today more than ever, people are paying attention to the problems of the country... I am sure after 'Kisaan', we will realise that the audience is aware and ready for such issues to be brought on the big screen. We owe a lot to our motherland and this movie is a befitting tribute,' said Sira.

Arbaaz Khan, who plays one of the male leads, said: 'Farmer deaths have reached an all time high in our country. It's not like it's a problem that has just started. On the contrary, it's a problem our country has been facing for centuries. We just decided to make a film on the basic difficulty faced by our motherland.'

If 'Kisaan' hasn't got an encouraging response, 'Summer 2007' by producer Atul Pandey last year that focused on the issue of farmer suicides in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region was also a no show.

In fact, Bollywood has only had a handful of successful movies throwing light on farmers like 'Do Bigha Zamin' (1953) and 'Mother India' (1957) apart from 'Upkar', which was made by Manoj Kumar on late prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri's request.