By Jayshree Bajoria BBC correspondent in Bombay

Same old story? Posters of Bollywood stars on sale in India

But all is not well in its world of singing, dancing heroines and moustache-twirling villains.

The global fame of the Bombay film industry might have grown in recent years, but profits are falling fast.

The blame, say critics, lies with the hackneyed, highly predictable plots.

Film after film often features near-identical storylines, masked by little more than a fresh cast and new song-and-dance routines.

In an effort to bring new plots to Bollywood, an Indian Government-funded body has announced plans to hold a nationwide competition for the five best film scripts.

The National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has said will pay up to $10,000 for the best script it receives.

'No story'

The head of the NFDC, Deepankar Mukhopadhyay, tells the BBC he hopes this will bring more meaning - and more money - to Bollywood.

What is unpalatable is when you see a superstar playing a heart-patient in a film, dancing madly to 'bhangra' beats Deepankar Mukhopadhyay

Glancing at trade figures spread out before him, he says: "Out of 246 films released in Bollywood in 2003, only one was a super-hit and five were hits.

"There were a couple more whose performance was average and they could regain the money spent.

"But mostly, films flopped, and the reason why so many films are flopping is because they are bad. There is no story in the films."

Mr Mukhopadhyay believes it is time to move on from the tired format of love triangles, mother-son melodramas and plots involving separated brothers.

And while he has the highest regard for legendary Indian film-makers such as Satyajit Ray and Basu Chatterjee, he is keen to point out that not all new films are bad.

"It was amazing to see a film where a goon [thug] goes to medical school to become a doctor," he says of the recent Hindi hit, Munnabhai MBBS.

Not from Bollywood: Director Satyajit Ray is revered for his artistry

Elsewhere, however, Mr Mukhopadhyay finds himself irked by Bollywood's typical disregard for consistency.

"What is unpalatable is when you see a superstar playing a heart-patient in a film, dancing madly to 'bhangra' beats," he says.

Bad box-office

Mr Mukhopadhyay believes a mindless, quick-fix ideology - a sort of 'Bollywood-by-numbers' approach - is responsible.

"I don't understand why it has become the norm to go abroad for outdoor locales," he says, deriding another recent trend in Bollywood.

"If the script demands that it be set in another country, I can understand - but please don't go abroad to show a tulip garden or a waterfall in a song."

Will someone find a new way of telling the old boy-meets-girl tale?

By the end of this year, the NFDC plans to have judged the five best scripts from all the entries it receives.

Some of the winning scripts might be made into films by the NFDC itself; others will be bought by the corporation and re-sold to interested producers.

Writer, producer and director Karan Johar thinks it is a wonderful idea.

"Screenplay is a huge problem in our industry and because the stories are weak, the films suffer at the box office.

"All writers in the film fraternity will have to understand that unless there are original and interesting ideas, good films can't be made and the industry can't progress."