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178 Responses to “D-Day, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (ongoing), the rest of the box office”
Friday 17th July 2013 10.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has done very well in its first week with collection of 51 crore nett approx. The weekdays held strong in most circuits with East Punjab having outstanding performance in week one followed by Delhi/UP (Delhi – excellent, UP – average) and then Mumbai. The business of the film in single screen centres has not been so strong.
The first week collections are the third best of the year after Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Race 2 and it is also likely to emerge the third highest grossing film of 2013 although a good steady run till Chennai Express releases on Eid could take it above Race 2 and into second spot.
D Day And Ramaiya Vastavaiya Poor Start Bhaag Milkha Bhaag To Dominate
Friday 19th July 2012 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The two major new releases of the week D Day and Ramaaiya Vastavaiya both opened to a poor response of 15-20%. The collections are weak at multiplexes all over and single screens are not likley to be any better although Ramaiya Vastavaiya may do better in single screens of small markets like CP Berar and CI.
The weekend is set to be dominated by Bhaag Milka Bhaag and it could also turn out that Bhaag Milkha Bhaag may be the front runner on Friday as well unless one or both of the new releases pick up well later on today.
In Delhi city and East Punjab the 8th day morning collections of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag are much better than the opening show collections of D Day and Ramaiya Vastavaiya.
Even if Bhaag Milkha Bhaag remains a bit lower than one or both of the new releases on Friday, the weekend should be a different story as Bhaag Milkha Bhaag will show huge growth on Saturday and Sunday as it is an established film with appreciattion.
B.O. update: ‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’ takes lead, ‘D-Day’ dull!
By Taran Adarsh, July 19, 2013 – 13:22 IST
RAMAIYA VASTAVAIYA fetched a good start at several screens, mainly at single screens. D-DAY, on the other hand, had a lukewarm/ordinary start, but that was expected. However, the film is carrying rave reports and the business should gather momentum from evening shows onwards. The film giving a tough fight to the new releases is BHAAG MILKHA BHAAG. It continues to be the first choice of moviegoers, as per trends.
Friday 19th July 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Lootera has not found appreciation with the paying public which is reflected in the poor second week collections of just 4-4.25 crore nett. A drop of 82% week on week. The two week total for the film is 27.50 crore nett.
The film had a big fall all over, even in a circuit like West bengal where it did better in week one although West Bengal will be its best performer comparatively with lifetime business of around 2 crore nett.
The lifetime business of the film will remain below 30 crore nett as the film is not likely to add much more than 1.50 crore nett for a 29 crore nett finish.
The much awaited Rohit Shetty’s Chennai Express starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone will now release on a Saturday, August 9. Initially Eid was supposed to fall on August 8. However, the festival is now being celebrated on August 9 and a bank holiday has been declared on the same day.
Gaurav Verma, Director of India Theatrical Distribution Studios Disney UTV announced that the release was planned keeping a holiday in mind and hence, it was postponed by one day.
Both the new releases have Shruti Hasan as the common factor. And both have chances of becoming average earners as these movies are not that bad and may have some audience. While Ship is earning rave reviews and is no threat to any of the movies. Seems to be too philosophical.
In 1980 came Subhash Ghais film based on the now-hit formula of reincarnations! Karz! But forward to 2012, Rishi Kapoor’s new lease of life came with the poster boy of romance tapping his negative side. Menacing performances from Agneepath, Aurangzeb and now the Nilkhil Advani directed D-Day. Different characters, different roles, an actor par excellence. In an exclusive interview with TIMES NOW’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, Rishi Kapoor, Bollywood actor, talks about his new film, D-Day. http://www.timesnow.tv/NHR-Spl-Rishi-now-as-goldman—1/videoshow/4432450.cms
Back home from #DDay. Overall satisfying watch. Unlike first half , Second half was complete edge of seat thriller with many well shot scenes. Irfan khan is scene stealer, though his act is familiar but still he got all claps. I hate to say this, but Rishi Kapoor looked forced and misfit.Though He did good job, but terror and required screen presence was complete missing. Arjun, Huma and Shruti delivered their career best. Nikhil Advani chose neither mainstream nor complete artistic format, its somewhere in between. At points he tried to shot as realistic as Satya .. and at points he had taken as much liberty as Gadar. But nevertheless it was engaging watch .. specially second half where u can’t afford to miss any shot. At BO .. it should do somewhere around 40 Crore .. though I wish it crossing 60 and becoming clean Hit.
Also .. after Attacks of 26/11, this is second movie during my stay in Hyderabad which got claps at the end.
Something to ponder:
When we say Gujarat’s agriculture growth is 10-11% since whole last decade
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we say he made the asia’s biggest solar plant,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we say Gujarat is d only state in the whole of india to provide 24*7 and 365 days electricity to almost all of its 18,000 villages,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we recall to them World Bank’s statement of 2011 in which they said, Gujarat roads are ewuivalent to international standards,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we say Gujarat is the first state in country to have “high speed wireless Broadband service in its all 18,000 villages,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When in 2010 Forbes Magazine ratedf Ahmedabad the fastest growing city in the India and 3rd in world,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we tell them Gujarat Tourism is growing faster than ever before,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we tell them according to central govt’s labour bureau’s report, Gujarat has the lowest unemployment rate in country,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When NaMo is being chosen as d best current Indian leader in almost all of those surveys & polls again n again
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we say 2003-2013 is the only 10 straight years in Gujarat history which are riot-free,
THEY STILL SAY 2002 Riots!
But when we remind them, 1947 Bengal riots, 1969 Gujarat riots,1980 Moradabad riots, 1984 anti-Sikh riots, 1983 Nellie Assam riots, 1989 Bhagalpur riots and more than 18 riots, all of which occured during CONgress rule,
THEY CHANGE THE TOPIC Altogether!!
lol. Good One. The problem is they all are jealous of Modiji and his success. May there be one modi in each of the states in India and may all Indians (and by all I mean all) be proud of their hindu identity!!
Sonia married into Kashmiri Pandit family and her kids are from that lineage but she didn’t do one single thing for those pandits who are living like refugees in their own country!
At least Modi would have protected those poor blokes and done something about those who kicked them out of their homes!! Sometimes “riots” are needed for people who think this is zero sum game!
I agree with this. I wouldn’t say ‘2002 riots’. I’d call them pogroms! I’d say the same for the anti-Sikh violence in Delhi. The word ‘riot’ is one of the great abstractions in the Indian political vocabulary, at least over the past 70-80 years. The specific politics behind each riot and the questions of responsibility are then effaced.
Modi hilariously said the other day that even if a car he’s riding in runs over a “puppy” he’d feel pain. leaving aside the disgusting nature of the comparison (where he unwittingly illuminates his thinking..) the problem here is that he was the one driving the car! So one can’t have it both ways. Either he’s a totally incompetent administrator who doesn’t deserve the reputation he has in which case there’s nothing to celebrate or he does deserve his press in which case he engineered and/or aided the programs. Of course in these debate many agree with this with the whole ‘Muslims-needed-to-be-taught-a-lesson’ tone. This is more or less an indirect way of saying he enabled the violence. Now one might argue whether it’s justifiable or not but the moment one uses that justification one is agreeing that he was the author of the violence in some way or the other. Of course at the same time the very same people oscillate between two positions and more:
1)He’s not responsible for anything
2)he is responsible but the Muslims deserved it after Godhra
3)what pogrom? It’s just an understandable riot
So again even accepting the other side of the argument here the inescapable logic still leads one to some sort of engineered violence or one where (to use Modi’s own terms) one might have braked before hitting the puppy but one chose not to! Or else he’s just incompetent. Which one is it?
He has nothing to with pogroms. But, he does have a program- to carry the nation and its people forward. It is sad however that misplaced liberal ideology and the tendencies to exploit insecurities of the minorities might put unsormountable road blocks in his way!
Incidentally I think one should watch Hey Ram closely for lessons in where such logic of vengeance and so forth takes. The film isn’t really about political extremism. Or it is so but more importantly it is about an ordinary person who suffers devastatingly at the hands of another community and who quite naturally is radicalized. But the film then explores the darkness of this posture or the moral-ethical implications of choosing to act in vengeance. And of course the climax reverses the entire equation. This has been my point all along. We can debate all the factors, we can choose to believe certain things but at the end of the day we are nonetheless led to this most essential question — even if such an event happened so what? Does this give one the right to act against others who had nothing to do with the violence? In the name of the same abstraction? We all have our chosen histories, our anecdotes to justify our actions but we forget that the other side is armed with exactly the same arsenal. The darkness in this sense is equal on both sides when it comes to such ideological positions.
I have seen Hey Ram, but I have also witnessed riots and have been the victim of it, so I know a little bit…..
One thing is undeniable- 2002- NO riots in Gujrat !!! koi toh reason hoga ??
otherwise jahan minority mein hai wahan rioys, aur jahan majority mein hain wahan sey minorities ko desh nikala !!!
This IS the naked truth !!!
“but I have also witnessed riots and have been the victim of it, so I know a little bit…..”
yes but that’s the point of the film. Kamal’s character is such a ‘witness’. Of course those who experience such things are often not the most reliable witnesses on the same. There’s a whole scientific literature of trauma that deals with this. Because what one experiences is so extreme and so frightening that one cannot possibly be a completely unbiased narrator later on. Sometimes one isn’t even coherent enough to do so. Such people do witness events of brutality and incredible horror but that isn’t the entire story. In other words there is a ‘global’ meaning to the event (or in its entirety) quite separate from individual acts of horror. So for instance if there’s a terrorist attack and hundreds are killed or maimed or whatever. One could as a witness observe these things. But that would be very different from comprehending the ‘thematic’ nature of the act itself. Why the terrorists acted as they did, etc etc.
Hey Ram sey yaad aaya Chaube jee !!
when Chetan Bhagat wrote an article on behalf of Muslim youths , all the commies and Muslims got so fucking worked up and called him all sorts of names.
Kamal hasan had no such problem with Hey Ram, in fact becharey kee Vishwswaroopam almost ban ho gayee !!
Commies please take a moment and remember that !!!
Only your reading of Hey ram is not Truth but there can be another readings of same …. If you can diss others reading, same can be done to your readings.. we can only put readings here with facts or empirical evidence… here is another reading of Hey Ram as usual commies wills say its Right’s reading and vice versa
irrespective of how the media covers this (and I think the problem here was that they called it a pogrom which they neglected to in 1993 in Bombay), and of course one can debate all of this, and speaking for myself I have often criticized a certain liberal soft-peddling of certain issues in the media, this shouldn’t stop us from recognizing the awful nature of what happened. If we too follow the same tired old narratives and formulas when it comes to these events we are just like the media. So I am certainly aware of the public discourse on all such events (which is by the way why I keep highlighting the anti-Sikh violence because this too never got the attention it deserved and certainly not the characterizations it required). So we can’t condemn horrific violence but condoning it when the equation is shaped differently. I refuse to accept any justification for any pogrom (and I am not at all confused about what this means) irrespective of contexts and histories. Not sure how much clearer I can be than this. Now when it comes to riots that are somewhat murkier events though still not without responsible parties (either way) here too one should really state things as they are. The same logic holds for terrorism as far as I’m concerned. All the grievances in the world do not justify this kind of violence. So for instance in the Sri Lankan situation Tamilians in certain parts of the country faced awful institutional barriers and often violence. The response to this by the LTTE was historically comprehensible perhaps but their violence was still atrocious. It’s not ok to kill people because they are part of a majority, even if they ideologically agree with all kinds of repressive actions. So on and so forth. If Modi’s family were being attacked by a Muslim mob I would be on Modi’s family’s side. Can’t be clearer than this. If Modi were personally being attacked I’d be more conflicted just as I would be conflicted about lots of other political monsters around the world.
also you should read articles my Madhu kiswar.. even I used to think that Modi was personally responsible for negligence ( which to some extent may still be true) but he actually acted pretyy swiftly, called the Army right away and asked for help from all the states….
so now I believe it was more of a spontaneous act by hindus against Godhra than anything else..
But this does NOT fit the narrative of commies and NDTV, Congress and Tehlaka and Kafila !!!!!!
No report that I would consider unbiased and comprehensive holds him less than responsible. But let’s leave this aside. The left becomes a screen when one is on the other side and doesn’t like certain unpalatable truths. It happens on the other side in the same way. So if you criticize Muslims or even fanatical Mullahs in any way the sense is that you’ve giving ammunition to the other side. So everyone plays this game. My point is I know how the right plays certain episodes and how the left plays them. Let’s move beyond this. Because there’s a purposefully ‘naive’ position where one pretends to be on one side only because the other side is extreme. The other side does exactly the same thing. Now if I were in politics where the stakes are a lot higher every which way I would be more careful about saying certain things even if I thought they were true because of larger consequences. But here on a blog there is no reason to succumb to these old stale divisions.
Notice how you would never have believed Madhu Kiswar when she was attacking Modi but the moment she started defending him find her completely truthworthy and reliable!
Very well said. If tomorrow digvijay singh(the most abused congress man) joins modi chorus, he will become reliable and trustworthy! I dont want modi to become a martyr. If he is destined to die, he has to die of natural causes. There is a saying in sanskrit, paapi chirayu.
By the way, about the supreme court judgments. When they were delivering coalgate, 2G judgments. middleclasses were lapping it up. When the same supreme court struck off common entrance test, the judgment is called unfortunate because it is pinching the same middleclass. The supreme court also dleivered some controversial judgments recently as CJ was about to retire. Allowing dance bars in mumbai which NCP strongman R.R.Patil firmly opposes as it is his pet subject and also CJ’s judgment refusing to lower the age for juvenile offenders to 16. In banks, managers are not allowed to disburse loans when they are about to retire or about to be shifted. Why not the same thing for CJs too? All said and done, supreme court is the only institute the common people have to look forward to as political classes of all hues are failing them in one way or the other.
I was actually believing that Modi was a tactical supporter and therefore was actually not a fan of Modi ( I still believe he is too autocratic for India) , but now because of Social media -the truth is coming out and it sides with Modi – he may have been negligent buy he did not Order the police to go and kill like the commies will have us believe.
I am pained the way the younger people are disrespecting Advani, but at the same time they are fed up with status quo.
P.S.- ab halaat yahan tak aa gaye kee log Madhu ko Digvijay sey compare kar rahe hain !! wah bhi wah ..
Maadam- itnee akal shayad hai hum mein kee kisskee baat mein dum hai aur kaun dumb hai !!!
Incidentally I’ve always felt irrespective of your political views that your polemic was always most forceful in the context of media narratives on these events. And I’m not saying this is unimportant. Just that if one recognizes there are narratives and on all sides one should try and move beyond them.
You like to use the word pograms because either you are making typing error or you forgot what it means. If you are so hell bent on making such use of this word, then why just Modi, 99% of politicians are running some type of Pograms.
On the puppy coming under the wheel: it shows how compassionate he is!! Really. I am perpetually stopping car to stop squishing those little squirrels or turtles. But every once in blue while a squirrel gets squished. Am I guilty of it?!?! That is the big question. If Modi is true blue hindu, then he doesn’t believe he is the “doer” of the action. If he is not the “doer” of the action, then he doesn’t need to have any guilt feelings as well. If he had called Army right away and they had arrived right away (the bureaucratic machinery takes its own sweet time in India), nothing, believe me, nothing would have changed in term of playing blame game and calling Modi names because the reasons for doing so are pure jealousy and the fact that he is winning elections repeatedly. End of story. Like Rocky, I too am from area where riots get started (in my famous town) and believe me even though I belong to majority, I am petrified. So we all are victims, not just the ‘minority’ community. And some times when minority community gets into “zero-sum game” mode, some actions are appropriate so that growth/development/peace takes place!!!!! That is exactly what happened since 2002. There are NO riots since then!!!!!! Only growth, development and peace. Maybe rest of the states need to implement these “pograms” as you call them mistakenly so everyone tows the line and not take undue advantage of their ‘minority’ state and create undue fears in minds of poor, law abiding majority!!!
on the whole ‘doer’ bit pretty sure Krishna did not have this in mind when offering some of his counsels to Arjun!
But there’s an important Zizekian point here nonetheless. Note how the kind of reading you’re offering (and which I reject) could justify any kind of violence. When does one truly become responsible? Hitler might not be the ‘doer’ of his actions following this logic!
On the rest you just an have a very limited (excuse me for saying this) understanding of what ‘Hindu’ means. And in more ways than one. I addressed some of this the other day too.
Finally I use the word ‘pogrom’ in very precise terms.
I know. And I think it is YOU who doesn’t have understanding of what Hindu means. I include every one…those who converted (forcefully or otherwise) as well who dwell in the bhumi of Bharat. Don’t want to argue because we will go in circles. On the doership, it is very righteous war. While rest of the Hindus might have the complex that Arjuna had in the first chapter, Modi doesn’t have any!! If I was leader of Swaminarrayan sect, I would have directed my “congregation” to do something if my temple was attacked by the mullahs dictats in Gandhinagar, in my own backyard!!! Or you should see the movie made by Ramu recently. Unfortunately all the so called leaders are impotent. I would reiterate that you should vacation in Pakistan or Kashmir for even 5 days. The brahm that Naryanmurthy had on socialism came out in 72 hrs in a communist cell in Europe and he became thankfully a diehard capitalist for life generating jobs and wealth for whole of India!!! Some of this needs to be done on you as well.
Di: you including everyone who converted is beside the point — the question is whether they want to be included under the term “Hindu”; the fact that it doesn’t even seem to register with you that someone might have a legitimate issue with this speaks volumes. And here’s another thought: of we are searching for a label for everyone who dwells in Bharat, what’s wrong with “Indian”?
No relax(ing) only Milkha(singh).
Q: those who don’t want to be termed “Hindu”, can go elsewhere!! You should see how I definite the word and mean by it. Everyone came here (to Hindustan) so they could practice their own religion peacefully. Hai kay nahi? Then why don’t they just do that. Why create “ched” into the thali they are eating. Namakharams.
@ Satyam, since its never ever even mentioned by the media, Hindu’s too got killed by muslims in Ahmedabad. What about them? How can it be pogram when both sides suffered casulties. Please check the meaning of pogram the 1984 Anti Sikh riots were pograms not 2002!
Rajen: I hope we also don’t just say “NaMo” when Gujarat’s laggard status in many human development indices is cited. Modi has been good for Gujarat’s economy but this notion that he is the only messiah in a generation of idiots is propaganda that is fed by his friends in the media (of whom there are many, even as others hate him — polarisation sells). There are important areas where Gujarat has made little to no progress (eg malnutrition) and if Modi is to be given the credit for everything then he should also shoulder this blame. There are other states which have performed solidly as well, and we never hear those leaders trumpeted as miracle workers — eg chauhan in MP; Sheila Dixit in Delhi — which isn’t fair.
By the way, note that both pro- and anti-Modi groups have one thing in common: the belief that this man is a comic book character, who does everything all by himself. The anti-Modi group inadvertently gives other Hindu extremists a free pass by focusing obsessively on him; while the pro-crowd inadvertently shows the dangerous impoverishment of its hopes and ideas of democracy by pinning everything on one man.
Till 1937 before Punjab elections, Jinnah used to proclaim Muslims are Insecure and bad results of Punjab election forced Jinnah to change tracks and claim ” Islam Khatre main hain” and Rest is history..
Same is done by so called fiberals, Congress, Coomies : Hold them to any debate and they will just say ” Secularism Khatrain main Hain”… Thats Where Modi hit them with Burka comment…
Michael D, Satyam educates us in auteur cinema. And rest of us try remove all kinds of “brahms” he has. He quite gullible and innocent and easily manipulated by people like Barkha Dutt, Commies and Sardesi.
you have to earn it. You cannot just weild it because you want to. If you are terrorist and you have the astra, you will go about destroying. I don’t think that the people in India (and I am talking about minorities as well) are unhappy and scared. If that was the case, Qalander would have happily relocated to Pakistan where he has relatives instead of choosing India. Even the creator of Pakistan was unhappy living in Pakistan (Jinnah).
P.S. I would be very happy to give you plane tickets to fly you to Pakistan and live there for a week. If you don’t get visa, I will choose Kashmir for you as second option. You will come back wiser 😉
The greatest fans of Pakistan outside Pakistan are many in the Hindutva circles who see Pakistan as the model to be followed on this side of the border as well! On the rest I’m going to let Qalandar speak for myself should he see this discussion.
No! What I am saying is that India is the ONLY, and let me reiterate ONLY country in world where EVERY one is welcome. Be it the persecuted jews thousands of years ago or parsis or Chinese from cultural revolution or Pakistanis or Tibetians or recent bhutanis…I can go on and on. Even USA rejected the jews that were persecuted in Nazi Germany. Had they only come to India, they would have survived and flourished.
This is the ONLY land in the entire earth who is so generous and magnanimous. It is the very same Hindutvaa that is so welcoming, compassionate and kind! Something YOU of all people will fail to see.
Di: Indian inclusiveness is truly wonderful; but it doesn’t need the label of “Hindutva” — a twentieth century political philosophy with antecedents that owe more to European ideologies of nationalism than to Indian traditions. The comment that Indian inclusiveness is only due to any one thing is anyway too simplistic, and ignores the dense historical record.
I think what Di means ( and I agree0 is that if the appeasement continues where the congress and the commies have even compromised the IB and CBI just to nail Modi ( and not a single word from Commies about this, which does not come as a surprise since they are deshdrohee anyways) then eventually Hindustaan will become Pakistan and an Aurangzeb will be ruling India ( and it is not Utkal like hyperbole LOL!!!)
Unfortunately for India, it looks increasingly unlikely that Modi will make it to power in 2014. He just does have the allies that would support him in case of a hung parliament. IMO BJP is the best option at the center, Congress has plundered enough over the last 8 years
I agree.. hope I am not proven wrong on Modi but I think the 2002 ‘stain’ still sticks to him in a national sense. Certain alliances will become that much harder if he is presented as the PM candidate.
Madhu Kishwar lost credibility as she suddenly switched sides as if she is Buddha getting gyan. For Buddha it took years while madu took few hours!
So Kishwar= GautamBuddha.
She changed sides after she visited Gujraat and talked to several hundred people including muslims….
Bhoola agar sudhar jaye toh use bhoola nahin kehtey !!
righhhhht , Teesta, and parents of Ishrat ( who suddenly have fancy cars) and other commies in Gujrat toh jaise mar gaye…
berry convenient !!
what about the chief of Darul in Lucknow who praised Modi for doing good stuff for muslims but the mullahas forced him to resign ???
kya bakwaas !!
One cant go on a killing spree. One has to wait for the correct time and pounce like a wounded tiger.
Would like to know what benefits the recent converts to modism got. Atleast Teesta is sticking to one party till now.
Di, Thank you very much for your inclusiveness but as someone whose home is in India and whose ancestors “converted” a long time ago- I emphatically reject the “Hindu” label. Please keep it to yourself…
Glad you made that point Chipguy.. there’s a kind of violence in insisting that a ‘conversion’ that happened centuries ago or whatever somehow doesn’t mean anything. Not to mention the ‘originalist’ fantasy at the heart of such a claim.
For a hindu the “label” doesn’t matter. If you believe in life force in all (including the trees), you are a hindu. There are basis tenets. And I won’t include all. I KNOW for sure Indian muslims/Christians/parsis…think VERY differently from rest of their tribes in rest of the globe. Something about being raised in India, makes them very-very unique. And I don’t have time to go into circles and arguments with people who don’t have love. love for the land that “allowed” them to be. To not have that loyalty because they are scared of the label of “hindu”.
For instance how could you know what my religion is?!? I may not even be a hindu based on your definition of it as “religion”!
Maybe go an live in that country where your “religion” is majority and come back a HINDU to live in Hindustan forever. Sarey jahan sey accha…
See, this is where you have me confused. You are conflating loyalty and patriotism to a political entity (India) with a religion (Hindu). While I’m Indian to the core, I definitely am not Hindu. My religious practices may be different from my co-religionists across the globe, but believe me, they are even more different from Hindus. You of course, are at liberty to call yourself Hindu or not as you please, but as always, my request is that you not label me as Hindu just because I’m Indian. And, since my ancestors have been in the country just as long as yours have, we have no plans to cut our ties to India, thank you very much.
But notice the contradiction in your position. A Hindu is on the one hand something specific, everyone in India is Hindu whether they are so actively in the present or converted a thousand years ago (by this definition most people in the Middle East are still Christians or Jews having ‘converted’ to Islam.. or all Europeans are really ‘pagans’ having converted to Christiantiy.. on and on… this is a fairly absurd definition!)… on the other hand being a Hindu is such an abstraction that one could be anything from an atheist to a Muslim could be one since it’s about some kind of New Age abstraction! So you can’t argue both sides on this.
Secondly the idea that ‘everyone’ is a Hindu irrespective of whatever labels they used once upon a time and so on is itself a BRITISH/COLONIAL idea. You are mouthing precisely their ideas. For them everyone who didn’t belong to a Biblical religion was simply a Hindu. The idea that whether it’s 300 BC or 600 AD and irrespective of how people in those ages identified themselves they were all nonetheless Hindus is a colonial narrative which is where you get a word like ‘Hinduism’.
Faith is a very different thing from the facts. One is free to believe anything one likes. But when one is arguing history things are rather different. You cannot even reconcile the the universe of the Rg Veda with that of the Mahabharata. They’re completely different. However a later orthodox ‘canon’ makes them all part of the same set of ‘holy’ texts. Which is fine. That’s the way things work in history but those older folks who just had the Rg Veda and so on would have been rather amused by such a definition. This of course gets into the other thorny question of who exactly these people were who spoke the oldest version of Sanskrit on record (Vedic) or at least used it as a liturgical text. There are various scholarly theories on where they came from and so on based on all kinds of evidence including most importantly the linguistic kind (for instance the most closely related language to Sanskrit is in fact Old Persian) but this whole ‘hey we were always in India since the Big Bang’ is just bunk.
But again as a matter of faith one has every right to believe anything. One just can’t bring those faiths to an objective debate on the historical record.
An Indic identity is very different from ‘Hindu’. Is an Indic identity always marked by strands of belief that could be put under a Hindu rubric? Absolutely. But that’s making a very different point. Much as Christians in the Mideast are marked by Islamic culture. That doesn’t make them Muslims. But the traffic also flows in the other direction. There is no important variant of Hindu faith in North India not marked by the encounter with Islam in a deep cultural sense. Certain modes of Islamic practice in the Mideast predate the advent of this faith. So on and so forth. Consider the word ‘shaheed’ in Hindi vocabulary. It is used even in non-Muslim contexts when the term itself comes from the Muslim faith. There are a million such examples. The reverse is also true. The Indian brand of Islam is called Indo-Islam by scholars because it has various strands of Hindu influence and so on. Cultural traffic does not only flow in one direction.
Di I think we may be going off topic here…kaun kya tha , kya faraq padta hai…Kaun kya hai aur kua kar raha hai is more important…
also – I would never ever dare to bring up to ARR kee bhai aap pehley Hindu they !!!!!!!!
Sattu, I mean Hindu and not indic identity.
@Rocky: it matters really. It does. For the reason you wrote that India would be ruled by Aurangzeb..those very same reasons!! It is precisely for this reason, the minorities SHOULD be, MUST be interested in one identity and that of a Hindu Identity, the very same one that protected them, allowed them to flourish and allows them freedom without any fears. Go read Swami Vivekananda’s speech/talk on religious “tolerance”. In tolerance there is a feeling of low/high. Hinduism is all about ACCEPTANCE and not mere tolerance. It upholds ALL paths that lead to HIM/HER. Pray which other culture/nation has such awesomeness?? Sarve bhavantu sukhinah..sarve..सब लोग सुखी हों! सभी लोग स्वस्थ हों! सभी लोग लालच से परे हो एक दुसरे के साथ भाईचारे एवं प्यार से रहें और कोई भी किसी भी तरह की तकलीफ और बीमारी से दूर रहे!
Can we have a separate thread like Indian politics? Every blog is stifled and diverted. Whoever wants to discuss Modi can go there as Barkhagate is overflowing.
NVNV on which Ramaiya Vastavaiya is based, was quite entertaining with siddharth and teesha in the lead. It was good in telugu and with a bigger hero and heroine, it would have worked better in hindi too.
The humans can learn something from animals. Why no animal, however intelligent, doesn’t have gods or the worship system. While animals have loyalty, compassion among their own herds, they dont go preach or worship. If we humans can only cultivate something on those lines! Religion has become another political party with all the murkiness. It has lead to ghettoisation, isolation and extremism. When Buddha tried something out of the box, it became a religion! It is all my belief, your belief. I think commercial conversion should stop because it has political undertones. In this respect, hinduism does not convert people just like some other religions like parsi. And also some religions prohibit family planning which has both religious and somewhat political undertones. Only education, enlightenment, tolerance may lead civilisation to survive the onslaught of politics of religions. In US, some consider Yoga as religious onslaught and try to ban. Recent California school teaching yoga and some parents resisting it and the court ruling. While the same US asks India to allow conversions in the name of religious freedom.
Saturday 20th July 2012 10.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
D Day had a poor first day as it grossed around 2.50 crore nett. The film was poor across the board with slightly better collections at some centres of Mumbai circuit probably due to the fact it is an underworld film. The collections in mass circuits were very poor while North India was hugely affected by Bhaag Milkha Bhaag as that film is a one horse race in Delhi and Punjab.
Ramaiya Vastavaiya was also poor on day one as it collected 3.25 crore nett on day one. The collections were poor across multiplexes all over though the film did a bit better in CPCI Rajasthan belt. The collections in the North for Ramaiya Vastavaiya were very dull.
Both films will find it tough at the box office unless they can show huge growth on Saturday and Sunday.
D-day is one heck of a thriller that also works wonderfully as a character drama. Accuse me of hyperbole but in its structure and best moments, it reminded me of Sholay, and just like that classic, the tone here is grim, almost elegiac. Although the film’s subject is as patriotic as they come, Advani (did he really make this damn film???) almost exclusively focuses on the theme of loss, and imbues the entire film with an air of resignation about the uncertainties of this war on terror. Not the best commercial decision but ballsy.
Another great decision is making Dawood a puppet and pointing fingers at the rotten machinery that is the ISI.
There are logical flaws for sure but its hard to complain when an action film gives so much attention to its characters, detailing and presents a fully realized world that you can feel and smell.
Acting is superb, with Irfan again proving he is in a class of his own.
Will write more about but just go see this whopper of a film.
Wow — I had no intention of watching this film but yours and other people’s comments are really changing my mind! Will try and catch it tonight or tomorrow…
Henry has said things more eloquently than i could ever do, but just to add- this is a very dark and engrossing film and watchable even in its weakest moments. Advani uses his actors very astutely- Rampal, thankfully, hardly gets any lines; Irrfan gets the best ones. And i loved Chandan Roy Sanyal (‘Mikhail’ from Kaminey) back on screen. Sadly Rishi, for the most part, is made to look like a buffoon (‘trigger kheench, maamla mat kheench’ etc would have perfectly fine in, say OUATIM. Thankfully the ‘masala’ bit is reigned in here by the director). And Alvida is a great song-sequence matching the ones from David, Shaitan and Raabta (Agent Vinod).
One thing which i found problematic though was the fact that out of the 4 Indian agents who are sent to capture Dawood, 3 are Muslims- I am not sure what Advani is trying to say here- that there are very many patriotic Muslims in India. But the minute you try to shove this down our throats, aren’t you defeating your very purpose. Does the patriotism of a Muslim needs to be highlighted all the time?
On Advani, let’s not forget that he co-wrote the screenplay of Sudhir Mishra’s “Iss Raat Ki Subah Nahi”, so he should probably stick to darker dramas such as this one
Also as a side note- While watching Advani’s film I was remembering Mani Shankar’s a good little millitary-espionage action thriller ’16 December’ (Danny rocked in that film) which too made certain bold statements. And Shankar’s two latter efforts, Mukhbir and Tango Charlie (some portions of the film, like the Naxalite ones, are very well-done, though Bobby Deol ruined the film for me) were very dark films. Still believe that with the right kind of budget and actors, Mani Shankar can make a very good millitary thriller.
That also reminds of a film which handled the Kashmir issue very deftly- Shoojit Sircar’s Yahaan.
Saturday 20th July 2012 21.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is set for a strong second week as it collected around 3.50 crore nett on its 8th day. The collections were better than both the new releases D Day and Ramaiya Vastavaiya mainly thanks to business in Delhi and East Punjab. In other circuits the collections were lower than Ramaiya Vastavaiya.
The film will show a big jump on Saturday and Sunday and the weekend can comfortably go to over 13 crore nett. The film will continue to dominate in the North and should gross around 90 crore nett in its lifetime business with chances to beat the the 93 crore nett plus figures of Race 2 which is second biggest grosser of the year till date.
Maharashtra government grants tax exemption to Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
By Subhash K. Jha, July 20, 2013 – 14:23 hrs IST
Showing an exemplary attentiveness to the film’s far-reaching inspirational impact, the Maharashtra government on Saturday granted tax exemption to Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s exceptional bio-pic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
The speedy manoeuvre has taken Mehra by complete surprise.
Says Rakeysh, “We anticipated a tax exemption. But the fact that the Maharashtra government acted so speedily is very heartening. The film would now be accessible to those middleclass Indians who cannot afford the ticket prices at multiplexes. That thought makes me very happy.”
Rakeysh is hopeful other states would follow suit and grant his amazing Milkha bio-pic tax exemption in the coming week.
Farhan Akhtar who plays Milkha in the film says, “I am extremely grateful to the Chief Minister and Revenue Minister of Maharashtra for their support in this regard. They’ve ensured that Milkhaji’s inspiring life would now be accessible to many more citizens in Maharashtra.”
this is huge for the film. Getting it in just the second week and in the largest territory will really jack up the gross. On the other hand if it’s mostly multiplex-fare taxes are very low in these anyway.
wanted to suggest if you could create a new post for people to put in their strictly “one liner” views/ratings or summary on whatever one catches up with, be it a tv series or movie or docu etc…this would make it easy to search for suggestions and good stuff to see whenever one wishes to..ofcourse the detailed reviews can continue in separate posts as this blog already been doing it…but then i’m sure people dont get time to put up detailed reviews for everything they see…but a one liner would be certainly helpful for others…
the recent viewings that you’ve been putting is kind of stamp for what stuff you think might be good to watch but then since there is no archive its kind of lost over time…
another reson for doing this is the way netflix/amazon prime etc are designed it does get complicated sometimes to search on the “good stuff”…since you can’t sort them by the way want to..
and one always wishes if the ‘likes’ and dislikes of fellow commenters would be stored in one place…
this is a ridiculous way to draw sympathy……kamal hasan did for his last film. The film is a hit and enjoy that mehra instead of such statement. You had to sell your property – so what???
Checked out D-Day today, not a bad effort even though the story goes from gripping in the first half to unbelievable in the second. But hats off to nikhil advani on making this movie, to make a movie on Dawood and telling it like it is. It takes a lot of guts to make a movie which is antagonistic towards pakistanis even though atleast in the overseas market they do contribute towards the BO returns.
I find it ironic that D-Day which potrays Dawood as a villan is end up making a lot less than OUATIM in which Dawoods character has been romanticized. Its like a Hollywood movie portraying the lighter or nice side of Osama Bin Laden
Is Raanjhanaa the tale of an irrational, impassioned, obsessive lover, or thinly disguised male supremacist storytelling?
All the articulate criticism about the glorification of stalking in Raanjhanaa has led me to some serious introspection and self-doubt. Have I become so corrupted by Bollywood that I’m unable to recognize problematic gender stereotyping and latent misogyny of the films I’m a part of?
Without prejudice to critical reviews, there is another possible reading of the film. Despite its gimmicky, populist and male favouring one-liners, the film may be interpreted within its generic context. Raanjhanaa is the tragedy of an irrational, impassioned, obsessive lover. Depicting such a crazed state-of-mind on-screen requires the lover doing things that go against ordinary and socially accepted expressions of love. Kundan’s wrist slitting is neither intelligent, nor advisable. It is a device that portrays the crazed intensity of his passion. Similarly driving his scooter into the Ganges with Zoya behind is a reflection of his shock and trauma upon discovering that she loves another man, not an attempt to murder.
Kundan is a deeply flawed character. He’s selfish, delusional, mercurial, thoughtless, hugely impulsive, self-destructive and bad tempered! However an easy rejection of him is difficult and he is rendered endearing in his naïve innocence. He actually believes that Zoya will remember and reciprocate his love in spite of differences of geography, religion, class, education and thinking. Writer Himanshu Sharma has created a hero harking back to the literary tradition of the intensely-passionate-deeply- flawed-self-destructive-tragic-male-protagonist, seen in almost every ‘great’ tragedy in literature be it Saratchandra’s Devadas or Shakespeare’s Othello. Sharma’s Raanjhanaa remains consistent with the generic patterns of the tragic form, as we are compelled to sympathise with this problematic male protagonist who mistreats the very women he loves but is redeemed by the author in a noble death.
In my eyes Kundan never becomes a serious figure of threat because Zoya is never shown to be scared of him. Her first response to his overture is a fearless confident taunt and a tight slap. Because Zoya consistently remains unflinching and unafraid, Kundan never fully becomes that sinister, threatening, figure of the dangerous stalker.
Raanjhanaa is an unapologetic celebration of crazy love. A story of how love makes otherwise rational people behave in a stupidly self-damaging manner. Why else would an educated and smart Zoya engineer a bizarre, Tughlaqesque and almost certainly dangerous charade of a having a Muslim boyfriend and marrying him with parental consent in a traditional ceremony? Why would the otherwise shrewd and ever-practical Jasjit play along? They act in sheer desperation to realise their love. Feisty Bindiya’s love is undeterred despite humiliation and beatings and it makes her pray to Gau-mata for Zoya’s death, but also participate the next moment in a plan to rid Zoya of an unwanted suitor. What except deep love for his friend would drive the otherwise eminently sensible and grounded Murari to participate in unrealistic plans to win an evidently unattainable girl. Kundan isn’t the only one eccentric in love.
Zoya’s character has been criticized for being manipulative, cold and heartless. To me Zoya was just a very human, and thus imperfect young girl dealing with confusing, contradictory and eventually very painful matters of the heart. What is so wrong with an adolescent 14-year old being flattered and responsive to the devotion of a young boy, being both curious and nervous about that first kiss, having her anger at Kundan’s lie dissipate into tears at his hysterical wrist-slashing? What is wrong if eight years later she has moved on? In fact Zoya’s character is not calculating but naive in trusting Kundan’s friendship, she’s honest about her lack of love for him, about her boyfriend. She’s perfectly frank and sensible when she asks him if he intends to ruin her life for that one childish mistake she made? And when she lies, it is to save Kundan the pain of realizing that Zoya in fact did not reject him because he was a Hindu, that she simply didn’t love him! With Zoya, Sharma taps another classic literary trope- the unattainable lady love, the mistress-on-a pedestal who the poet will never attain but continually pine for. Zoya is finally redeemed despite all her flaws when she says wretchedly in the climax to Kundan that ‘The world will spit on me if I fall in love with you, but I think I have.’ Zoya’s tragedy is that she must plot murder to prevent herself from falling in love with the very man who ruined her life and accidentally killed her fiancé.
Raanjhanaa, like Sharma’s earlier Tanu Weds Manu is a film generously laced with dialogue that reflects a male-dominated worldview, a stereo-type infested, though not hate-filled, folk wisdom and wry humour regarding gender relations and matters of the heart. Sharma’s characters speak the thoughts and language of the world where they belong- the largely socially conservative, patriarchal world of small town India. And so a 16 year old Bollywood buff Kundan reflecting the Bollywood influence on his generation says, “In UP tire or scare a woman into accepting you.” An unpremeditated inter-textual moment! And Murari similarly laments that doctors and engineers often steal the love of mohalla lads. In Sharma’s world men are indulgently helpless and harmlessly exasperated at women. Whether it is the inability of Manu’s father to check his vulgar ill-behaved wife in Tanu Weds Manu, or Raanjhanaa’s Jasjit lamenting that plans born of women’s minds cannot be trusted; Sharma’s men are bewildered at the ways of women. This may make them conservative but not misogynists. Both of Sharma’s screenplays depict the world as is. If Zoya’s parents are conservative Muslims, they will oppose an inter-religious marriage. If Kundan’s father is the head priest of the Kashi Vishwanath temple, the family will live in a Brahmin ghetto with Brahmin neighbours. If childhood friends share a sibling-like bond they will not shy away from hitting and abusing one another. But Raanjhanaa is not the story of Muslim-Hindu relations in Benaras, nor is it a study of the social relations between the numerous castes that inhabit the city, and it is certainly not the story of some inaccurately and grandiosely imagined quasi-leftist student political movement threatening to sweep Delhi’s assembly elections. Raanjhanaa is the story of a boy who like the Raanjhaa of folklore fell obsessively in love with an unattainable girl. She loved someone else, and he despite initially trying to help the girl unite with her lover, on learning of her lie to him unthinkingly unleashed a tragedy that ruined the lives of everyone involved and found redemption only in death. A male-centric perspective? Yes. Politically incorrect? Indeed! Disturbing? Certainly! Emotionally compelling? Also! Misogynistic? I beg to differ.
(Swara Bhaskar is an actress based in Mumbai and her films include Raanjhanaa, Listen Amaya, and Tanu Weds Manu. She can be reached at @ReallySwara on Twitter)
Sunday 21st July 2013 14.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag had strong growth on Saturday as it collected 5.25-5.50 crore nett taking its second weekend collection to around 9 crore nett and the weekend collections should be around 16 crore nett.
The new releases D Day and Ramaiya Vastavaiya could not score at the box office so the door is left open for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag to put up a big second week total.
The film has been granted a tax exemption in Maharashtra which will help collections stay strong in Mumbai and Pune which are the places where it is collecting well in Maharashtra.
D Day And Ramaiya Vastavaiya Show Limited Growth On Saturday
Sunday 21st July 2013 13.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
D Day and Ramaiya Vastavaiya showed limited growth on Saturday with D Day collecting 3 crore nett and Ramaiya Vastavaiya grossing around 4 crore nett.
The approx two day figures for both films are as follows.
D Day
Friday – 2,50,00,000
Saturday – 3,00,00,000
Ramaiya Vastavaiya
Friday – 3,50,00,000
Saturday – 4,00,00,000
D Day showed growth of 20% while Ramaiya Vastavaiya was 10-15% while both needed to show much better numbers on Saturday due to the poor opening day collections.
uly 21, 2013
Weekend Box Office Reflects a Season of Big-Budget Stumbles
By BROOKS BARNES
LOS ANGELES — The disasters were supposed to stay on the screen.
With extremely weak domestic ticket sales over the weekend for “R.I.P.D.” and “Turbo,” Hollywood has now sustained six big-budget duds since May 1, the start of the film industry’s high-stakes summer season. The other failing movies have been “After Earth,” “White House Down,” “Pacific Rim” and “The Lone Ranger.”
A couple of misfires, sure. But six?
Studios point to a number of problems, starting with that ever-pesky criterion, quality. In the Twitter age, audiences can spot a stinker from a mile away, and the unfortunately titled “R.I.P.D.” and “After Earth” in particular were both considered poorly made. But the deeper issue is an overreliance by studios on the same kind of expensive movie. One or more cinematic behemoths — those loaded with similar-looking computer-generated effects, films that cost $130 million to $225 million to make — have arrived almost weekly since May, fragmenting and fatiguing the audience.
Studios have also tried to sell most of these as “original,” which in Hollywood-speak means not a sequel or a remake. In reality, movie companies have largely just reassembled familiar parts. “Pacific Rim,” which featured giant robots, seemed to share DNA with “Transformers.” “The Lone Ranger” was “Pirates of the Caribbean” in Old West drag. “R.I.P.D.” was “Men in Black” lite.
Moviegoers are pushing back. The No. 1 movie in North America over the weekend was “The Conjuring,” a period haunted house film that cost Warner Brothers $20 million to make and received stellar reviews. It took in $41.5 million, according to box office estimates compiled by Hollywood.com.
Universal’s “R.I.P.D.,” which starred Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds as ghost cops, took in a disastrous $12.8 million, for seventh place. Universal said the movie cost $130 million (not including marketing), but the Hollywood trade news site Deadline.com said the actual price was $154 million.
“It failed, and we’re unhappy, and I’m not going to make excuses,” said Nikki Rocco, Universal’s president for distribution.
Audiences have repeatedly made hits out of smaller films this summer. Another example is “Now You See Me,” an ensemble thriller that cost Summit Entertainment about $75 million to make. The movie — the kind of midrange film that studios have largely abandoned as they focus more on pictures that play globally — has taken in $200.4 million worldwide and is still playing.
What does this mean for Hollywood? No lesser a power than Steven Spielberg has predicted a wholesale shift in studio strategy.
“There’s going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen mega-budget movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that’s going to change the paradigm,” Mr. Spielberg said at a University of Southern California media event last month.
On Sunday, Ms. Rocco seemed to acknowledge as much. “Absolutely, this opens your eyes,” she said. “You would be stupid if you didn’t look really hard at what the audience is telling you.”
She noted that her studio had said no to proposed films like an ambitious adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness” because of cost concerns. “You have to be very, very cautious when you’re spending money like this, and Universal has been,” she said.
It is possible to make so-called tent-pole movies for less money; “Despicable Me 2” cost $76 million, while “Turbo” cost about $135 million. But some investments are necessary. Skimping on computerized effects would probably result in even bigger messes, analysts say. What’s needed, some studio executives said, is a recalibration of the kinds of movies being put into production.
Cutting back on marketing is also difficult. Studios are slowly moving toward cheaper means to reach consumers — social media, Web campaigns — but executives are reluctant to trim spending on expensive TV ads and billboards, because those tools are still seen as effective ways to turn out an audience.
Don’t expect to see much change at the multiplex in the near future. The movie business changes slowly, in part because huge films now take two years or more to make. Computer-animated pictures — there are six this summer, up from three in the same period last year — can take even longer. Sony has “Amazing Spider-Man” sequels lined up through 2018.
And studios spent the last four days at Comic-Con — the annual gathering of comic-book, fantasy and science-fiction fans — previewing one mega-movie after another. Warner Brothers notably unveiled plans for a “Man of Steel” sequel featuring both Superman and Batman.
The unusually large number of high-profile failures in recent months creates headaches for studios beyond near-term financial losses. Movies like “The Lone Ranger,” which cost Disney about $375 million to make and market, were designed to start franchises. That will not be happening: “The Lone Ranger” has taken in just $147.6 million worldwide, roughly half of which goes to theater owners.
Another hopeful series in the making, “Turbo,” which also featured Mr. Reynolds (his voice, that is), took in $21.5 million over the weekend, for a total since opening on Wednesday of about $31.2 million — one of the weakest opening results in DreamWorks Animation’s history.
“At this level, we would expect a substantial write-down on the film,” Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen and Company, wrote in a research note on Thursday.
Anne Globe, DreamWorks Animation’s chief marketing officer, wrote in an e-mail on Sunday, “Turbo still has a lot of play time left, particularly in the international territories, where we had strong openings this weekend.” She added that the film’s A-plus score in children’s exit polls would “propel word of mouth through the rest of the summer.”
Not all of Hollywood’s major pictures have struggled. Universal has scored with both “Fast & Furious 6,” which has taken in $712.5 million worldwide, and “Despicable Me 2,” which has so far sold about $584.6 million in tickets. But “R.I.P.D.” was so expensive that Universal watched a portion of the hard-fought profits from those hits go up in smoke.
Still, Ms. Rocco dismissed the notion of too much soul searching. “When an ‘R.I.P.D.’ happens,” she said, “you pull up your socks, and you get going.”
Monday 22nd July 2013 10.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
D Day had a dull weekend with business around the 9.25 crore nett mark. The business on Friday was 2.50 crore nett, Saturday grossed 3 crore nett and on Sunday business went to 3.75 crore nett.
The film did a bit better in Mumbai circuit as even the underworld gangster films that score mainly do better in this circuit. Mumbai circuit. Mumbai grossed around 3.75 crore nett but collections outside Mumbai were awful with Delhi/UP grossing a very low 1.80 crore nett and East Punjab even worse with 72 lakhs nett and no other circuit managed even 50 lakhs nett.
The film may remain steady over the weekdays but its likely to be with low collections and the damage has been done with such a low weekend.
Monday 22nd July 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ramaiya Vastavaiya had a poor weekend with business around the 12.25 crore nett mark. The business on Friday was 3.50 crore nett, Saturday grossed 4 crore nett and on Sunday business went to 5.25 crore nett.
The business of the film was better in single screen circuits like Bihar, CP Berar, CI and Rajasthan. UP also was better comparatively but Delhi city had very bad collections which meant Delhi/UP remained dull.
The 12 plus weekend is a very poor return for film a film which is pretty costly especially for its face value. The business on Sunday in some parts of the did see healthy growth but overall weekend figures are just too low.
This is disheartening. In an age of vapid, consumerist fantasies like YJHD, D-Day is a real film that does not shy away from portraying real grief and loss.
The character of Valli Khan, played by Irfan, is one of the most achingly heartbreaking ones I have seen in a long time. A man who has lived in Pakistan for over 9 years, with a beautiful wife and son, operates a small business, mingles with the locals and has become more Pakistani than Indian in many ways. What he ends up doing for his mission leaves him in no-man’s land with regard to his national identity, and that is one of the many themes Advani has tackled wonderfully.
this movie deserves write up and is in league of inglorious basterds or gang of waseeypur
nikhil advani literally shocks and hard to beleive he made tearjekers like kal ho na ho and over the top chandni chowk to china
signs of evolution which was visible from his animation movie which won national award and now this brilliant movie which for me is the best of the year and this is a welcome change for a director who started with johars school of filmmaking
just loved the last lines where arjun says the story must have been told by many times but will there be audiences which so aptly describes dark tone and even commercial outing
even the repeated physical torture of shruti hassan and finally rape visualized by arjun in song is so nicely done and finally the simultaneous action of wali khans action in climax and how his son given poison at the same time and that to coming from a maker who made cheesy movies at the start of his career
good to see no political correction and appeasement followed with research hitting on indian political establishment
good to see inspiration flowing from where it should be:
they took out over the top stuff from dongri to dubai and made shootout at wadala but surprisingly didnt name the real name of sonu soods character but atleast advani was gutsy in his portrayl of karachi deception or one say inspiration
didnt mind ghanchakkar to which took inspiration from one of the best hindi writers we have and climax was indeed very nice though not the final product
And therein lies the problem. Something I’ve ranted about for years. An age in which YJHD becomes such a blockbuster isn’t really waiting for more sensible cinema! While different genres can always exist in any industry there is always a ‘secret pact’ that holds them together. This constitutes the ideological ‘key’ of that age. In Bollywood this really means the multiplex audiences because they drive this economy. YJHD proves this once more. The typical masala film can open hugely in multiplexes but not sustain as much there, when it does so in smaller centers the gross cannot be magnified in the same way. But when there is a very stable multiplex film like YJHD huge numbers can be thrown up without any help from elsewhere. So it’s true that most of contemporary masala is terrible but so is YJHD. There is simply no reason why YJHD should gross twice as much as Singham except for the fact that those who are more in tune with YJHD in an ideological sense drive the Bollywood gross.
Of course I’m not being naive here. Certain kinds of offbeat films or low key ones or more narrative-based dramas and so on are not huge hits in any age. But commercial cinema in other ages has been far more responsible and this same cinema was also much more successful than the alternatives in those very same ages. If you go through the 60s the quintessential hit of that age is a film with lots of songs in Kashmir! In the 50s things were very different, cinema was often darker and more subversive even in its most escapist formats. Similarly in the 70s you would be hard pressed to find a big hit in any given year which is the equivalent of a 60s ‘songs-in-Kashmir’ deal. Not that I have a problem with the 60s. I enjoy many of those films.
Satyam: What you are saying is true. But there is also no excuse of Transformers and Pirates being the highest grossers of the year. And notice how media, even over there, plays this extremely dirty game where a Pacific Rim, before the release, is reduced by the papers/newscasters as ‘Transformers vs Godzilla’ (notice how everyone in india is saying the same about P.Rim without even caring to watch it. No one cares to check that this is the same guy who made the most ‘human’ and ‘joyful’ superhero film even when the lead is actually supposed to be a devil). For these guys Godzilla and Transformers are actually one and the same (who cares about the entire socio-political history of Japan represented by those Kaiju films)- to put in Indian terms there is supposed to be no difference Don and Race (hey, both are action thrillers, who cares what Masala means).
However where Hollywood succeeds is that the middle-range hits, say a Departed/Shutter Island, are much better films compared to their Bollywood counterparts
@ Satyam–there’s a certain problem with this ‘superior genre’ business wherein a YJHD automatically becomes ‘inferior’ just bcos of its genre. Believe me, it is NOT that easy to pull off a Yjhd–though it may appear so…
Yeah this genre HAS certain key elements working for it –for eg the likes of Amy WILL break down the gates and continue to see these flicks FDFS irrespective of quality etc. But at the end of the day, the FILM has to work amongst its target audience.
Those who make intellectual ‘good’ flicks and suffer the ‘D-day’ fate(incidentally d-day looks a surprisingly good film though haven’t seen it), need to have a relook at their —
A)Budgeting & cast
B)Target audience
C) Brand positioning
D) Honest expectations (financial and critical) prerelease
These are CRITICAL elements on designing any project and these filmmakers get these wrong-period,,,
The likes o kjo and even aamir may not be the best film makers, but they know these key elements (for the current phase–even they may lose the perspective 5-10 years ago)
Those lamenting about the under/poor performance shoudl have an HONEST relook at factors -A to D
They will realise that there WAS something wrong in the project even at conceptualisation level….if they are HONEST with themselves ….
Let me put it in Hollywood terms — there’s a difference between every other rom-com dished out by Hollywood (and some are better than others) and Linklater’s trilogy! No genre is superior definitionally but certain genres have a more lowbrow history than others. of course Hollywood has a great tradition of romantic comedies. Many classic or even great films from the past fall in this genre. So not saying that applies here but in contemporary Bollywood the DCH kind of film is rare. Just about every film that has followed in its wake is inferior to it without exception though some are better than others. I didn’t mind YJHD in the sense that it wasn’t unwatchable or anything. Both leads were easy to watch, the supporting cast was fine, just that the film was utterly empty. As for it not being ‘easy’ to make such a film, nothing is easy! Presumably it’s not easy to make Hangover or Meet the Parents either since not every film in these genres is as well-received! What does that mean though? Yeah Transformers does many times the gross that Pacific Rim does. And yeah not every empty blockbuster does as much as Transformers. So what? These things have no bearing on a film’s quality. There is a formula to commercial that is not easily managed in any film but just because it’s improbable doesn’t mean that success here equals some sort of artistic accomplishment or even one of meaningful entertainment. There is simply no logical link between the two.
“What does that mean though?”–
‘Giving a monkey a gun!!’–This is what it is about … 🙂
One may agree or not –finances and books have to be explained and accounted for (though one may not want to!)
Unless one is a Spielberg or a Cameron with PROVEN ability of handling big blockbusters AND is not yet a spent force shoudl NOT be unleashed onto these big budgets.
These numbers NEED and DESERVE responsibility!!
One can’t hide behind fickle audience tastes or ‘inferior genre’ or ‘intelligence!!!
Im not here to ‘defend’ romcoms but the difference in budgets and potential of damage a flop can cause does differ.
And the meaning of ’empty’ can also differ.
On one sense the theatres at ‘lone ranger’ theatres certainly were ’empty’ indeed.
Anther case study of ‘how to conceptualise a product’
Is linklaters trilogy
Three human beings (including director and screenwriter(s)
No big budget
No nonsense
No pretence
No intellectualisation
Simple honest film making …
Ps: note that u have seen ‘before midnight’-how did u find it -don’t think it is your type of movie though hahaha
Salman and SRK patchup at whose behest? It could not have been voluntary. Anyways, the secret peacemaker must be congratulated but will the fans follow suit?
The Khans empire is being attacked by ranbir and now Farhan Akhtar. Better they face the onslaught together.
Hope this patchup has nothing to do with someone ruling bollywood scene.
Weekend Report: ‘Conjuring’ Haunts First With Record Opening
by Ray Subers
The Conjuring
July 21, 2013
Four new movies opened nationwide this weekend, and the cheapest of the bunch came out on top.
Supernatural horror movie The Conjuring, whose budget was less than one-quarter of any of the other movies, took first place with an excellent $41.5 million. Meanwhile, Turbo and Red 2 underwhelmed, while R.I.P.D. was the latest costly misfire this Summer.
Overall, the Top 12 earned an estimated $181.5 million this weekend. That’s off 19 percent from the same period last year, when The Dark Knight Rises single-handedly accounted for over $160 million.
The Conjuring’s $41.5 million debut is a new record for an original R-rated horror movie ahead of last month’s The Purge ($34.1 million). It’s also the second-highest start ever for a supernatural horror movie ahead of Paranormal Activity 2 ($40.7 million). For distributor Warner Bros., it’s also higher than Pacific Rim’s opening last weekend, which is particularly noteworthy given Pacific Rim’s price tag was nearly ten times as high as that of The Conjuring.
On paper, The Conjuring seemed like a slam dunk: supernatural horror is always popular, and the “based on a true story” angle is advantageous as well. And, with The Purge almost completely gone from theaters, there wasn’t any competition. What pushed it to the next level, though, was the actual marketing for The Conjuring, which was legitimately terrifying. Warner Bros. made clear that they had a true scary movie on their hands, and crowds turned out in droves. That audience wound up being 53 percent women and 59 percent over the age of 25.
While most horror movies burn out immediately after opening weekend, there’s reason to believe The Conjuring could buck this trend. Aside from the strong reviews (85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), it received a fantastic “A-” CinemaScore from audiences, which is nearly unprecedented for the genre. Without any direct competition coming up, there’s a chance that the strong word-of-mouth pushes The Conjuring close to $100 million by the end of its run.
In second place, Despicable Me 2 dipped 43 percent to an estimated $25.1 million. That was good enough to beat animation newcomer Turbo, which reinforces just how popular the Despicable brand is among family audiences. To date, Despicable Me 2 has earned $276.2 million, which makes it the eighth-highest-grossing animated movie ever, and the top one since Toy Story 3 in 2010.
DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo failed to shift out of first gear this weekend: the snail racing movie took in an estimated $21.5 million, which is the lowest start for a DreamWorks movie since 2006’s Flushed Away. Including its Wednesday and Thursday grosses, Turbo has earned $31.2 million, which is a slightly slower start than recent DreamWorks Animation disappointment Rise of the Guardians ($32.3 million in its first five days).
Turbo’s poor start can be attributed mostly to very unfavorable scheduling. It opened within a month of Monsters University and Despicable Me 2, two heavyweight animated sequels that are on pace to combine for around $600 million. That was a risky move, and the marketing never clicked enough to help it get out of the shadow of those bigger entries. Family audiences only have so much cash to spend, and Turbo seems to have come out on the losing end of this calculation.
Turbo’s audience had an even gender split, and also skewed younger (55 percent under the age of 25). The movie received a very good “A” CinemaScore, and should play well over the next few weeks. Still, it faces direct competition from The Smurfs 2 in less than two weeks, and could ultimately have a tough time getting past $100 million.
In its second weekend, Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups 2 fell 52 percent to an estimated $20 million. That’s actually a slightly softer decline than the first Grown Ups had at this point, and Grown Ups 2 continues to slightly outpace the original as well. To date, it’s earned $79.5 million, and will be past $100 million by this time next weekend.
Playing at 3,016 locations, Red 2 debuted in fifth place this weekend with an estimated $18.5 million. That’s a bit lower than the first movie, which opened to $21.8 million in October 2010. The slight decline lines up with the performance of The Expendables 2, another geriatric action sequel. In both cases, it seems like there wasn’t quite enough to differentiate the movie from its well-liked predecessor, which tends to prevent a sequel from matching the original in attendance. As expected, the audience skewed older (67 percent over 35) and male (52 percent).
The first Red wound up being a word-of-mouth hit that played well through the Fall; with a Summer release and less audience enthusiasm (decent “B+” CinemaScore), it’s very unlikely that Red 2 holds up as well.
After Pacific Rim slightly disappointed last weekend, there was hope that it would make up some ground in its second weekend. That didn’t wind up being the case: the Guillermo Del Toro monsters vs. robots movie plummeted 57 percent to just under $16 million. The drop and the gross lines up nicely with Cowboys & Aliens, which also translated a years-worth of hype in to slightly underwhelming grosses.
Fortunately for Pacific Rim, its overseas results will be much, much better than Cowboys & Aliens. Through 10 days, Pacific Rim has earned $68.2 million at the domestic box office, and could still wind up earning just over $100 million by the end of its run.
All the way down in seventh place, R.I.P.D. bombed with $12.8 million at 2,852 locations. That opening is identical to last Summer’s sci-fi action comedy The Watch, which also debuted to $12.8 million (and was one of the biggest disappointments of Summer 2012). It’s also easily the lowest debut so far this year for a movie that cost over $100 million. The movie’s audience was 53 percent male and 57 percent over the age of 25, and they awarded it a weak “C+” CinemaScore (which lines up nicely with its 11 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes).
Based on the awful reviews and the poor word-of-mouth, R.I.P.D. will likely disappear quickly from theaters. Don’t fret for distributor Universal Pictures, though: Fast & Furious 6 and Despicable Me 2 will combine for around $1.5 billion worldwide, which surely goes a long way to offset R.I.P.D.’s failure.
Speaking of Universal: as of this weekend, the studio has earned over $1 billion at the domestic box office. That’s a new record for them ahead of last year, when they reached the mark in the first week of August.
In limited release, The Way, Way Back earned a very good $2.2 million from 304 locations. To date, the Sundance hit has earned $4.6 million, and will expand in to at least 650 locations next weekend.
In its second weekend, Fruitvale Station grossed $742,000 from just 34 locations, which translates to an excellent $21,824 per-theater average. With strong reviews and great word-of-mouth, Fruitvale should be able to expand nationwide over the next month or so.
Opening at 353 locations, Girl Most Likely took in a weak $736,000. That’s disappointing considering star Kristen Wiig’s previous success, and considering distributor Roadside Attractions has consistently been able to get these moderate releases to over $1 million in their opening. It’s likely that the movie’s awful reviews had something to do with this: it’s currently sitting at 16 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which is only slightly better than R.I.P.D. (and is also more important for limited releases like this).
Finally, Only God Forgives—which reteams Ryan Gosling with Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn—took in $315,000 from 78 theaters. That’s not a very good start, though it’s off-set to some extent by its day-and-date VOD release.
Around-the-World Roundup
Despicable Me 2 held on to first place at the overseas box office with $35.4 million this weekend. It’s now earned $308.4 million, which is ahead of the original movie’s $293 million final total. Despicable Me 2 is quickly approaching $600 million worldwide, and will blow past $700 million before the end of its run.
Pacific Rim was a close second this weekend with $34.8 million from 48 territories. It opened in first place in France with $3.8 million, and debuted to $2 million in Germany. To date, it’s earned $110.3 million, and still has openings in China, Spain, Brazil and Japan on the way.
Coinciding with its domestic debut, DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo took in $22.6 million from 28 markets (representing around 25 percent of the international marketplace). That’s a very good start for an original movie about car racing—Cars, for example, topped out at $217.9 million, which is a figure that Turbo should be able to match. The movie had a great $8.4 million start in Russia, and was also solid in Mexico ($3.4 million) and Brazil ($1.85 million).
Monsters University added $20.7 million this weekend for a new total of $283.9 million. It’s now the seventh-straight Pixar movie to pass $500 million worldwide, which is a remarkable accomplishment for the animation studio. Monsters still has Italy and China on the way, and should ultimately wind up above $600 million.
World War Z earned $12 million from 61 markets this weekend. To date, the Brad Pitt zombie flick has taken in $269.5 million overseas, and still has released in Spain and Japan coming up. On a worldwide basis, World War Z is at $456.4 million, which is remarkably higher than fellow Paramount release Star Trek Into Darkness ($448.6 million).
Red 2 opened to $7.6 million this weekend, most of which came from South Korea ($5.2 million). Meanwhile, R.I.P.D. debuted to $6.8 million, almost all of which was from a strong debut in Russia ($6.4 million).
Yeah the domestic gross is a bummer, and the international numbers, though better, are I think being a bit oversold here. Because of the latter though there is talk that they may make a sequel! I personally enjoyed it very much.
Hollywood will have more reason to backpedal on imaginative, original productions (I don’t mean Pacific Rim is some shining beacon of originality in narrative-it’s not-but it’s also not a reboot, sequel, prequel, adaptation, whatever) with directors like Del Toro who deserve a big budget. Meanwhile Del Toro’s friend and compatriot, Cuaron, has Gravity coming out. Saw the trailer with Pacific Rim and it’s now probably the film I look forward to most this year, maybe even more than Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street.
yes I too loved the movie. On a related note I also checked out before Midnight finally and it’s extraordinary how Linklater has been able to maintain his edge across the trilogy. I revisited the first two films before watching this one and I liked them even more than when I first saw them.
I think Pacific Rim’s non- performance is kind of baffling. Other than the disadvantage of not being a sequel, hard to fathom why its performance domestically is so lacklustre! It has been very well reviewed and by all accounts is a very good film for the fenre. Even internationally, it doesntblook luke it is setting BO on fire.
some have talked about how a movie without stars and not with the instant recognition of a superhero franchise always operates at a disadvantage. There might be a great deal of truth to this but it doesn’t explain everything. Because had the movie been loved it would have picked up quickly. That didn’t happen. I think part of it is that much as with Bollywood blockbusters in Hollywood also have to keep pushing certain ’emotional’ buttons in very obvious ways (even Cameron has always done this). This film does a bit of that but doesn’t go all-out. At the same time it’s not the Transformers deal where all the SFX are pitched in very vulgar, obvious ways for instant gratification. Not knocking them, I enjoy many of those films but they’re not meant for much more than big initials. Del Toro as actually created a world with his film but it’s hard to pull this off at the box office. Put differently this film cannot just be consumed by the average teen (the principal demographic for such films) the way Transformers can. Del Toro has always had enough integrity not to do this. I like both installments of Hellboy but you can’t begin to compare the grosses of these films with even under performers in the superhero genre elsewhere. So even as I regret this film’s box office fate I can’t say I am totally surprised.
It might also be big movie fatigue. With the exception of Iron Man 3, (which domestically doubled its budget, all the more impressive because it took some risks in really leaning more on its screenplay than on effects) there hasn’t been a big live-action movie this summer that’s had impressive numbers. (Or been impressive outside of the box office for that matter.) This includes Man of Steel. Pacific Rim meanwhile was a bit of an underdog in every sense with no identifiable brand-name and an uneasy link to Transformers (uneasy because it doesn’t have the brand-name of that series, which then means it’s an association based on quality, or lack thereof, of the material) which itself hasn’t exactly hurdled ahead in profits to any impressive degree. In general I think there’s a general sense of malaise or disillusionment surrounding movies that scream BIG and of course Pacific Rim had a promotional campaign entirely focused on this.
Of all the summer blockbusters this year, I enjoyed World War Z the most…haven’t read the book, but have heard they could have done way more with this film. Still, found it very entertaining…
Didn’t see any superhero films, just tired of them.
agreed.. specially the closing or rather climactic sequence was something I absolutely loved. Apparently they initially had a much more regular predictable sort of climactic moment much like the opening sequence. However through the film’s troubled production history they at one point decided to go in for something much more low key and it works marvelously. They weren’t even expecting much from it commercially but it turned out to be a hit.
WWZ was fine, can’t say I found it very memorable though. I probably preferred something like I Am Legend to this one. The third Iron Man though was the most fun I think I’ve had barring maybe Pacific Rim. And this is from someone who shares your weariness with the superhero genre. What they “got” with IM3 was that the Robert Downey Jr. Show is more the point of this series than the actual superhero stuff and leaning on this as they did they made an eminently watchable movie in an age where this kind of thing, at this point, has been done to death.
Director Anand Gandhi’s “Ship of Theseus”, that released in just five cities, collected Rs.25.46 lakh on the opening weekend.
Made on a budget of Rs.2.5 crore (with print and advertising), it released Friday in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.
“Ship of Theseus” did a business of Rs.11.05 lakh Sunday, Rs.9.20 lakh on Saturday and Rs.5.21 lakh Friday. That’s a total of Rs.25.46 lakh, said a statement.
Filmmaker Kiran Rao has released the film in collaboration with UTV Motion Pictures.
The story in “Ship of Theseus” talks about human values and features three characters – an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and a stock broker.
Now, the film will release in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Kochi on demand. Director Anand Gandhi’s “Ship of Theseus”, that released in just five cities, collected Rs.25.46 lakh on the opening weekend.
Made on a budget of Rs.2.5 crore (with print and advertising), it released Friday in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.
“Ship of Theseus” did a business of Rs.11.05 lakh Sunday, Rs.9.20 lakh on Saturday and Rs.5.21 lakh Friday. That’s a total of Rs.25.46 lakh, said a statement.
Filmmaker Kiran Rao has released the film in collaboration with UTV Motion Pictures.
The story in “Ship of Theseus” talks about human values and features three characters – an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and a stock broker.
Now, the film will release in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Kochi on demand.
There are reports that 100 kg of heroine was seized by cops from a taxi in Mumbai
The cops said on further investigation it turned out to be Sonakshi Sinha!!
The timely apt bloodbath –Pacific rim and the ‘Lone’ Ranger!!!
Somehow these two flicks never interested me from the word-go.
Not because of any real ‘flaws’ as such and it wasn’t these films themselves which were the issue. Infact they looked well put together and executed projects.
But there’s something about these obese, bloated projects which is obscenely indicative of the times we live in.
The ‘bigger better deal’ that used to be a reserve for certain adept females (!!) now can be said about these sequels/prequels/franchise vfx ‘extravaganzas’.
There’s one thing that’s been common in TDKR, iron man, man of steel–after a while, one wonders–What the heck is going on–I mean, it gets more than mechanical!
Obviously for kids (& overgrown kids) that’s not obvious.
In a way, this genre has become more predicatable than the humble ‘rom com’ since the latter atleast has a certain ‘human touch’ and ‘soul’ (usually ) & above all don’t cost a bomb!!!!
The problem isn’t only the overemphasis on ‘synthetic special effects’ only but a certain over-reliance on ‘technique’ and the ‘lack of soul’.
In the current economic scenario, it is a very timely and infact necessary reality check to put these errant producers under check.
Spielberg (as usual) was right recently and this stuck in my mind.
Something on the lines of —
Try visualising a small film which is high on concept and u literally scrape through n struggle gettin the finances needed.
Conceptualise a ‘big extravaganza’ and the moneybags literally pour in spontaneously
Time these moneybags get a reality check–
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has emerged a SUPER HIT and the third biggest hit of 2013 after Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Aashiqui 2 as it saw rock steady collections in its second weekend of around 16 crore nett.
The film continued its excellent run in Delhi and Punjab and could well be amongst the top ten grossing films of all time in Delhi/Up and East Punjab. The ten day business of the film is 69.50 crore nett approx.
The film has been given a tax exemption in Maharashtra and although it has not done well in Maharashtra outside Mumbai city and Pune, the contribution from these two cities is huge for Maharashtra. This could help the film touch the 100 crore nett mark.
Q. Will it be Dhoom 3 or Krrish 3 that will break the opening record of Ek Tha Tiger?
A. It may be Besharam. Infact Besharam may break all records including 3 Idiots lifetime record and the likes of Krrish 3 and Dhoom 3 may be chasing Besharam instead of Ek Tha Tiger opening or 3 Idiots lifetime.
Besharam is likely to reap the full rewards from the YJHD box office story. But it’s unlikely to be able to pull off an ETT or potentially D3/Krrish 3 if all three perform at their best. This because Besharam won’t do much outside multiplexes. Whether the YJHD performance can be substantially improved upon remains to be seen since this film too was a multiplex deal. A bigger opening is definitely possible but whether it can sustain as well again becomes debatable. Meanwhile the real benchmark for Krrish 3 or Dhoom 3 isn’t really matching or doing better than D3. This has been unbreachable barrier in absolute terms so far but really one cannot use the absolute standard. One has to account for the 4 years or so that will have intervened in between by the time any of these films release. D3 for instance should be doing well in excess of 200 crores. In 2006 D2 had the biggest initial and total and good trending. To live upto those standards all round the film would have to do 300 crores. Not joking. But at the very least it ought to be doing 250. Obviously the media will go crazy over it with far less but that’s the real standard here. Similarly Krrish if it repeats the performances of the previous two films in the franchise will or ought to be doing 275 crores or something. These numbers sound like a lot but keep in mind that just about all the big masala grossers have been underperforming or even tanking after big openings. Meanwhile YJHD maintained its pace and did 185 or whatever it was. In other words a film with wider appeal could easily do more than this with similar audience acceptance. It’s hard to pull it off with masala because both sets of audiences cannot be kept equally happy. Difficult to thread this needle without a proper script-based masala film (Ghajini had it and did huge numbers). But D3 won’t have that problem. The rest is basically a question of how well they’ve made the film for the genre, how well they’ve used the stars and so on. As a matter of fact and though the film did very well I thought D2 could have done 100 crores in 2006. It just wasn’t a good enough script. Between the two one could still make a greater excuse for Krrish 3 not living up to the franchise’s previous benchmarks. With Rakesh Roshan what makes the film universal also makes it cheesy for multiplex demographics and it’s hard to maintain that pace if most demographics don’t like it equally. So keeping this factor in mind even a 230 crore or more number would be perhaps acceptable here, assuming an ETT like initial. Less than this would be disappointing unless of course the film opens less than expected. Once again though it just has to touch 200 and the media will start calling it a 200 crore club and not care about the rest. All I’m saying is that there might be some excuse for Krrish 3 but none exists for D3.
If Besharam underperforms, the bar for other films will be reduced. Besharam has a new heroine and the burden will be solely on Ranbir’s starpower while he shared his starpower with that of Deepika P. in YJHD.
Dhoom 3 seems to be for an elite audience while Krrish 3 seems to be for the masses.Both have their own sets of limitations irrespective of starpower. Maybe some dark horse may walk away with the honours. Here I am not bothered about BO but the quality. Will it be different in some special way? It will also test the starpower of the lead.
What I am trying to say is a film like Dhoom 3, an action flick without an emotional storyline and with a niche star like aamirkhan is a difficult proposition. While ghajini and 3 Idiots had emotional content.
Think besharam will have a lower (but v good) multiplex pull but the single screen maybe better due to the abhinav kashyap effect. Not sure of the mom-dad cast though….what’s the rest of the cast?
Don’t get taken in by the slightly ‘senior citizen’ look of the promo. Had the same vibe myself, but was coaxed to to it out by a musician friend (the idyllic location helped!). I ended up liking it better than the musician buddy who got hung up with some technicalities of string music. As I’ve said earlier, a good film doesn’t come with reputations, statutory warnings or groundwork-it works for itself! These words convey my sentiments on this film. The moments when and idea for a story, the intelligence of a script to tell it, the sensitivity of the director to make it work, and the cast of extraordinary actors to make it visual come all too infrequently these days in the films that cross our theater screens. A LATE QUARTET is such a complete success on so many levels that it should be considered a standard for filmmaking excellence. It is cerebral, yes, it is best appreciated by people who are involved in some way with classical music even if that be solely as an audience, but the dynamics of this little ‘community’ of people drawn together by a lasting contract to rehearse and perform for the better part of their time and the effect of physical proximity and the risks of intellectual/artistic distances have rarely been so exquisitely painted.
The honored Fugue Quartet has been living and performing together for 25 years: first violin Daniel Lerner (Ukrainian American actor Mark Ivanir), second violin Robert Gelbart (Philip Seymour Hoffman), cellist Peter Mitchell (Christopher Walken), and violist Juliette Gelbart (Catherine Keener) make such perfect music together that we would never guess their lives are askew. Peter is diagnosed as having Parkinson’s Disease and understands that his performing days are now severely limited; the Gelbart’s marriage is at risk because of the tatters of time and the dealing with daughter Alexandra (Imogen Poots) who reacts to her history of being an alone child by entering into a physical affair with obsessive Daniel and Robert’s ill-advised one night stand with the young beautiful Pilar (Liraz Charhi); Robert’s surfacing jealousy of wanting to be first violin: the struggle with whether the quartet should disband due to Peter’s illness or continue with a new cellist. All of this complex interplay of human relationships is underlined by the quartet’s rehearing of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14, opus 131 – a long quartet of seven movements played without interval. It is a sensitively drawn allegory that takes us all the way to the end of the film.
In addition to the bravura acting of the four lead actors there are side stories that are enormously touching: the affair between Alexandra and Daniel, the conflict between Alexandra and her absentee mother (a brilliant scene), the schism between Robert and Juliette as the foundation of their marriage begins to crumble, and the extraordinarily sensitive moment when Peter longs for his deceased wife Miriam – as the image of Miriam (Anne Sofie von Otter) is seen and heard in is mind.
An obvious glory of the film is its music. Beethoven’s No.14, Op.131 is one of his most profound late quartets, and its colours illuminate the drama that develops, right up to the climactic concert.
The film does two other things miraculously well. First, it takes us behind the scenes and convincingly shows us how a musical ensemble works — or fails to work. Anyone who has performed music with other people — even in a rock group — will recognise themselves in these characters. Secondly, A Late Quartet cleverly dramatises its central message, which is that some combinations of people are much greater than they could ever be on their own or in another group.
To add, this has a grope of middle aged /ageing actors but has a universal theme executed maturely and sensitively whilst maintaining the requisite sentimentality and gravitas. For ‘real’ music lovers.
But above all, this one has no big budgeted franchise, no action set pieces, not even pseudo-reputation helping along and definitely not red bikini clad/ superhero costume laden ‘extravaganzas’. But it’s got not one but multiple acting clinics and many superbly nuanced acting moments.
I invite the talented and brilliantly knowledgeable ‘cineaste panel’ own this panel to kindly opine whose was the best acting performance-the problem is that all the actors on display on nominees in this ‘genuine acting contest’ !!
This is not to be confused with Hoffmann’s Quartet and though it sounds a similar morose ‘elderly’ vibe, it’s not exactly Amour either!
The other day, there was talk here of the likes of ‘Pacific Rim’ and ‘Lone Ranger’ (rightly) failing–and though there were some useful comments, the key messages remained unchanged somewhat in the discourse. Does ‘bigger’ ‘flashier’ ‘ expensive’ and gaudy always have to better and does it automatically deserve (paying) eyeballs?
This is one of those really nice, small, independent films for adults that attracts great actors not with fat paychecks, but with the opportunity to do great work together, even if few ever see it.
If you like music, A Late Quartet is a no-brainer. If you don’t, but want to see a story about the tensions that can build over time in a group of experts, brought to life by some of the best actors in the game, at the top of their games with histrionic understated mastery.
I don’t know–what the ‘ratings’ or ‘rotten tomatoes’ percentages etc are (which many check out at an impulse before ‘declaring’ their own)–c’mon folks, watch movies with your hearts & have the conviction to back up your own instincts — be it a Nolan or a Tarantino -shouldnt we put em to the real test before idolising & worshipping them?
Enjoyed this one. classically classy…
Ps: if anybody has checked this one out (doubt it somehow) would be interesting to know which one u feel was the best performance here & why ? Thanx…
Also, a few days earlier there was a ‘debate’ on music here with some quite exotic names being thrown in (some of whom I admit to not knowing about!). With due respect to all the other esteemed commenters here, and at the risk of sounding arrogant, this ones really only for the true lovers of music & ‘mature’ cinema (sorry again, folks)
I’m intrigued by the performances here.
Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour, Catherine Keener, Imogen Poots and finally a surpisingly unsettling (for me) performance by the little-known (till now to me) Mark Ivanir…
Will specially value the comments of Satyam and utkal uncle on this one….thanx (though on this film I will be surprised to get any comments from them haha)
Hollywood and bollywood both are suffering from the same problem. More more watchable movies and less and less profitable films. The paying public cant watch every movie(both time and money constraints) and they wait for the dvds.
Salman Khan has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. What his old friend aamir and new friend srk will say? Will there be petitions in support of him? Meanwhile curative petition of sanjay dutt has been rejected by the supreme court. Hard times for bollywood?
Milkha’s success casts a long shadow on the Box Office
By Subhash K. Jha, Jul 24, 2013 – 04:26 IST
The phenomenal Box Office success of the Milkha Singh bio-pic has thrown the movie business into a tizzy. While in the first week, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s bio-pic raked in approximately Rs. 55 crores, in the second week it maintained a lead over the new releases, raking in Rs 3.58 crores in Mumbai, as opposed to the Rs. 3.42 crores opening for Prabhudheva’s new release Ramaiya Vastavaiya and Rs. 2.45 crores for Nikhil Advani’s D-Day.
Says the film’s jubilant director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, “Our film’s reach has exceeded all our expectations. We knew Milkhaji’s story would have a resonant emotional impact. But we couldn’t have guessed it would reach so far and wide.”
The immediate impact of the ace-runner’s saga is a heightened interest in films related to sports and sports persons. Debutant director Omung Kumar is shooting a bio-pic on boxer Mary Kom. Ekta Kapoor has bought the movie rights of the life of cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin. And a biopic on the life of legendary hockey player Dhyan Chand is in the pipeline.
Says Farhan Akhtar, “I am just so happy. Acceptance and recognition of one’s effort is such a wonderful feeling.”
By Bollywood Hungama News Network, Jul 24, 2013 – 13:09 hrs IST
The latest ruling by the court in Salman Khan’s hit and run case states that the actor will be tried for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Under the new charges framed against him, Salman can face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty.
On the other hand, Khan has pleaded not guilty in court; while during the hearing the actor’s council has demanded that the media be restrained in terms of reporting on the trial, to which the judge has petitioned the media to exercise self restraint on reportage, while also exempting Salman from a personal appearance in the next court hearing, which is slated for August 19.
It’s just the really unfortunate part of India. Being from India, I know that law doesn’t mean anything…justice doesn’t mean anything…it’s all politics. Corrupt…almost every damn person. -_-
Blue Jasmine and Cate Blancett from the film have strong buzz indeed. Here is Rick Marianetti on the film:’ Seeing Blanchett’s exhausting, exhilarating performance is like watching a great opera diva dive into the role of Violetta or Elektra. Wielding a sense of entitlement as boundless as it is unjustified, Jasmine is an insufferable, condescending, unintentionally funny woman barley stabilized by a steady intake of Xanax and Stoli. Yet by the end of the film, she will have you in tears. It’s a magical performance.
Unlike “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989), where comedy and tragedy unfold in parallel plotlines, here they reside in the same scene, even the same frame. While the comic elements are unmistakably Allen, there is no Woody stand-in, like Kenneth Branagh in “Celebrity” (1998). Nor does the director appear in the film. It’s not a good thing when you know a character so well you can see the punch lines coming from over the horizon, as in “To Rome with Love” (2012). Allen has made “Blue Jasmine” fresh while managing to weave into the film every comic genre but slapstick.’
Chennai Box-Office – July 19-21
Tuesday, 23 July , 2013, 12:12
The `Kadal Raasa` reigned supreme at the CBO this week. Maryan opened well and netted approximately Rs 1.65 Cr in first three days from nearly 35 screens in Chennai and suburbs. Heavy rains during the weekend dampened the box-office.
In the number two position is Suriya`s Singam 2, which is almost neck to neck with the number one in its third week. At number three is UTV`s TVSK which is rock steady at the box-office.
Bhaag Milka Bhaag continues to do super business in Tamil Nadu especially Chennai city multiplexes. BMB is in the fourth place. And at number five is White House Down, which took an average opening.
Wednesday 24th July 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag looks set to hit the 100 crore nett mark as collections remain rock steady on the weekdays. The film will gross around 26 crore nett in week two which will take the two week collections close to 80 crore nett and then it has two weeks before a big film arrives.
The non performance of D Day and Ramaiya Vastavaiya helped the collections in the second week and it should dominate the box office for the next two weeks unless one of the small to medium budget films to be releases surprise.
If it does mange to hit the 100 crore nett mark it will be the 18th film to do so and second this year after Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.
Ranbir-Katrina’s Intimate Spanish Holiday
“You don’t get to see such beautiful pictures. It also establishes that Ranbir and Katrina are in love with each other,” says Ram Kamal Mukherjee, Editor of Stardust that has carried exclusive pictures of Ranbir and Katrina holidaying together in an undisclosed location in Spain in its latest edition. “The pictures have been shot by an international photographer who was completely unaware who they were. He causally asked me how big are Ranbir and Katrina. I said regarding what! He said that I have a few of their pictures holidaying together. The pictures were shot at a private beach where Ranbir and Katrina were seen indulging in a few water sports as well,” Mukherjee added.
There have been several news reports of Ranbir and Katrina seeing each other for quite some time now. They’ve also been seen travelling together in cars but these pictures are a tell-all on how close the two are. “There’s no harm in falling in love. As a responsible media person we should guard ourselves. In the article we’ve not spoken about their past, Salman or Deepika. We’ve just given the pictures and we’ve said these two are in love and are looking nice. We’ve drawn the line over there,” says Mukherjee.
Katrina has always closely guarded her personal life while Ranbir and Deepika admitted to being in a relationship and gracefully moved on after parting ways. “Katrina never spoke about Salman and never said that she is in love with him. She always said that Salman is a very good friend, is indispensible in her life. Ranbir was vocal about his love for Deepika. I think his experience with media was not that great (then) and (now) maybe this is his way of saying that yes we are in love and the pictures say a million bucks,” Mukherjee concluded.
Chennai Express Vs OUATIMD: Has UTV gone back on their word to Balaji?
By Bollywood Hungama News Network, July 29, 2013 – 12:27 hrs IST
When two major films are slated to release on the same day, it’s not surprising that there will be fireworks. However, avoiding the clash that was to be this Eid, Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures postponed the release of their Akshay Kumar-Imran Khan starrer Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbaai Dobaara to the following week (Aug 15), while UTV’s Shah Rukh Khan-Deepika Padukone starrer Chennai Express continued with the Eid release on Aug 8 (Thursday).
A source adds “This understanding came into being post both production houses reached a mutual agreement which stated that, while UTV would book a bulk of the screens for Chennai Express on Eid, they would in turn release a certain number of screens for Balaji’s OUATIMD on Aug 15.”
However, with Eid shifting to Friday from Thursday (as predicted earlier), the release date of Chennai Express was shifted from Aug 8 at Aug 9. This results in Chennai Express getting a full-fledged all out theatrical run of only 6 days as OUATIMD arrives on the following Thursday (Independence Day). Shah Rukh Khan, who is going all out to promote Chennai Express would surely want his film to be registered at least amongst the top 3 grossers of this year, especially with Ranbir Kapoor sitting on the top at the moment, and losing the business of even one day could dent that possibility majorly.
Looking at all these factors, it seems that UTV has scrapped the earlier agreement of releasing certain number of screens for OUATIMD. Adds the source, “With UTV shifting the release of Chennai Express by a day, they wanted a complete 7 day run for the film. In fact they even asked Balaji to shift OUATIMD by a day. But how could Balaji give up a major holiday release day? Finally, UTV decided to not abide by the initial agreement of releasing screens for OUATIMD which has not gone down well with the big bosses at Balaji Motion Pictures.”
When contacted, sources from UTV refuted the story saying, “As of now, we haven’t even looked into the distribution angle, nor have we booked any screens. This entire process of booking screens will start a little before the film releases, so how can the question of releasing screens arise? Besides both films are big so we don’t think that there will be much of a problem for OUATIMD or for that matter Chennai Express to book screens.” Further adding, “There was no such deal of releasing screens in the first place between UTV and Balaji.”
Last month, it was Karan Johar who stepped in to break the war between SRK-UTV and Balaji to work out a mutual understanding and avoid the clash between the two biggies Chennai Express and OUATIMD. The resultant was Balaji shifting their film to the following week for an Independence Day release. But now, with the sudden death of this mutual agreement and Chennai Express taking up maximum screens, OUATIMD certainly has an uphill task once it releases. Also, team Balaji seems quite miffed with the whole situation and it needs to be seen whether Karan Johar will have to step in once again to sort this ugly situation.
Monday 29th July 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has grossed over 90 crore nett in 17 days as it grossed around 9-9.50 crore nett in its third weekend. The figures for the film till date are as follows.
Week One – 53,37,00,000
Week Two – 27,98,00,000
Week Three – 9,25,00,000 approx
TOTAL – 90,60,00,000
The film will now comfortably go over 100 crore and even beat a couple of 100 crore nett grossers like Bol Bachchan and Jab Tak Hai Jaan. It could even challenge the 106 crore nett figures of Barfi! and Don 2,
D Day And Ramaiya Vastavaiya Fall Heavily In Second Weekend
Monday 29th July 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
D Day and Ramaiya Vasavaiya fell heavily in their respective second weekend’s as D day collected around 2.25 crore nett and Ramaiya Vastavaiya around 3.75 crore nett. D day fell 75% while Ramaiya Vastavaiya fell 70% ands these falls are from poor first week collections.
The total for D Day after ten days is 16 crore nett approx while Ramaiya Vastavaiya is around 23.50 crore nett after ten days. D day is dull across the board while Ramaiya Vastavaiya is doing average business in places like Rajasthan, CI and parts of Maharashtra but with major contributors like Delhi, Punjab and Mumbai city dull it makes little difference to the overall collections.
The new releases performed poorly but that did not give any boost to D Day or Ramaiya Vastavaiya.
SATYAMSHOT 
July 19, 2013 at 2:02 AM
Top 5: ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ has remarkable Week 1, Hit!
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July 19, 2013 at 2:03 AM
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag Has Very Good First Week
Friday 17th July 2013 10.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has done very well in its first week with collection of 51 crore nett approx. The weekdays held strong in most circuits with East Punjab having outstanding performance in week one followed by Delhi/UP (Delhi – excellent, UP – average) and then Mumbai. The business of the film in single screen centres has not been so strong.
The first week collections are the third best of the year after Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Race 2 and it is also likely to emerge the third highest grossing film of 2013 although a good steady run till Chennai Express releases on Eid could take it above Race 2 and into second spot.
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July 19, 2013 at 2:02 AM
D Day And Ramaiya Vastavaiya Poor Start Bhaag Milkha Bhaag To Dominate
Friday 19th July 2012 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The two major new releases of the week D Day and Ramaaiya Vastavaiya both opened to a poor response of 15-20%. The collections are weak at multiplexes all over and single screens are not likley to be any better although Ramaiya Vastavaiya may do better in single screens of small markets like CP Berar and CI.
The weekend is set to be dominated by Bhaag Milka Bhaag and it could also turn out that Bhaag Milkha Bhaag may be the front runner on Friday as well unless one or both of the new releases pick up well later on today.
In Delhi city and East Punjab the 8th day morning collections of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag are much better than the opening show collections of D Day and Ramaiya Vastavaiya.
Even if Bhaag Milkha Bhaag remains a bit lower than one or both of the new releases on Friday, the weekend should be a different story as Bhaag Milkha Bhaag will show huge growth on Saturday and Sunday as it is an established film with appreciattion.
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July 19, 2013 at 7:53 AM
B.O. update: ‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’ takes lead, ‘D-Day’ dull!
By Taran Adarsh, July 19, 2013 – 13:22 IST
RAMAIYA VASTAVAIYA fetched a good start at several screens, mainly at single screens. D-DAY, on the other hand, had a lukewarm/ordinary start, but that was expected. However, the film is carrying rave reports and the business should gather momentum from evening shows onwards. The film giving a tough fight to the new releases is BHAAG MILKHA BHAAG. It continues to be the first choice of moviegoers, as per trends.
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July 19, 2013 at 2:03 AM
Lootera Grosses 27.50 Crore In Two Weeks
Friday 19th July 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Lootera has not found appreciation with the paying public which is reflected in the poor second week collections of just 4-4.25 crore nett. A drop of 82% week on week. The two week total for the film is 27.50 crore nett.
The film had a big fall all over, even in a circuit like West bengal where it did better in week one although West Bengal will be its best performer comparatively with lifetime business of around 2 crore nett.
The lifetime business of the film will remain below 30 crore nett as the film is not likely to add much more than 1.50 crore nett for a 29 crore nett finish.
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July 19, 2013 at 2:04 AM
The much awaited Rohit Shetty’s Chennai Express starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone will now release on a Saturday, August 9. Initially Eid was supposed to fall on August 8. However, the festival is now being celebrated on August 9 and a bank holiday has been declared on the same day.
Gaurav Verma, Director of India Theatrical Distribution Studios Disney UTV announced that the release was planned keeping a holiday in mind and hence, it was postponed by one day.
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July 19, 2013 at 3:26 AM
Both the new releases have Shruti Hasan as the common factor. And both have chances of becoming average earners as these movies are not that bad and may have some audience. While Ship is earning rave reviews and is no threat to any of the movies. Seems to be too philosophical.
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July 19, 2013 at 7:42 AM
D day should flop..It is enough of gangster movies now.Same thing will happen to OUATIMD.
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July 19, 2013 at 9:54 AM
Brilliant as usual………..
http://www.swapan55.com/2013/07/storm-in-drapery-on-significance-of.html
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July 19, 2013 at 12:39 PM
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bhaag-milkha-bhaag-inspiring-for-youngsters-waheeda-rehman/407938-8-66.html
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July 19, 2013 at 3:44 PM
In 1980 came Subhash Ghais film based on the now-hit formula of reincarnations! Karz! But forward to 2012, Rishi Kapoor’s new lease of life came with the poster boy of romance tapping his negative side. Menacing performances from Agneepath, Aurangzeb and now the Nilkhil Advani directed D-Day. Different characters, different roles, an actor par excellence. In an exclusive interview with TIMES NOW’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, Rishi Kapoor, Bollywood actor, talks about his new film, D-Day.
http://www.timesnow.tv/NHR-Spl-Rishi-now-as-goldman—1/videoshow/4432450.cms
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July 19, 2013 at 10:33 PM
Part-2
http://www.timesnow.tv/NHR-Spl-Rishi-now-as-goldman—2/videoshow/4432451.cms
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July 19, 2013 at 3:46 PM
Interview: Milkha Singh on Milkha Singh – part I
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/interview-milkha-singh-on-milkha-singh–part-i/407912-5-138.html
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July 19, 2013 at 3:48 PM
Back home from #DDay. Overall satisfying watch. Unlike first half , Second half was complete edge of seat thriller with many well shot scenes. Irfan khan is scene stealer, though his act is familiar but still he got all claps. I hate to say this, but Rishi Kapoor looked forced and misfit.Though He did good job, but terror and required screen presence was complete missing. Arjun, Huma and Shruti delivered their career best. Nikhil Advani chose neither mainstream nor complete artistic format, its somewhere in between. At points he tried to shot as realistic as Satya .. and at points he had taken as much liberty as Gadar. But nevertheless it was engaging watch .. specially second half where u can’t afford to miss any shot. At BO .. it should do somewhere around 40 Crore .. though I wish it crossing 60 and becoming clean Hit.
Also .. after Attacks of 26/11, this is second movie during my stay in Hyderabad which got claps at the end.
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July 19, 2013 at 4:39 PM
Something to ponder:
When we say Gujarat’s agriculture growth is 10-11% since whole last decade
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we say he made the asia’s biggest solar plant,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we say Gujarat is d only state in the whole of india to provide 24*7 and 365 days electricity to almost all of its 18,000 villages,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we recall to them World Bank’s statement of 2011 in which they said, Gujarat roads are ewuivalent to international standards,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we say Gujarat is the first state in country to have “high speed wireless Broadband service in its all 18,000 villages,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When in 2010 Forbes Magazine ratedf Ahmedabad the fastest growing city in the India and 3rd in world,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we tell them Gujarat Tourism is growing faster than ever before,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we tell them according to central govt’s labour bureau’s report, Gujarat has the lowest unemployment rate in country,
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When NaMo is being chosen as d best current Indian leader in almost all of those surveys & polls again n again
THEY SAY 2002 Riots!
When we say 2003-2013 is the only 10 straight years in Gujarat history which are riot-free,
THEY STILL SAY 2002 Riots!
But when we remind them, 1947 Bengal riots, 1969 Gujarat riots,1980 Moradabad riots, 1984 anti-Sikh riots, 1983 Nellie Assam riots, 1989 Bhagalpur riots and more than 18 riots, all of which occured during CONgress rule,
THEY CHANGE THE TOPIC Altogether!!
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July 19, 2013 at 4:55 PM
lol. Good One. The problem is they all are jealous of Modiji and his success. May there be one modi in each of the states in India and may all Indians (and by all I mean all) be proud of their hindu identity!!
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July 19, 2013 at 4:58 PM
Sonia married into Kashmiri Pandit family and her kids are from that lineage but she didn’t do one single thing for those pandits who are living like refugees in their own country!
At least Modi would have protected those poor blokes and done something about those who kicked them out of their homes!! Sometimes “riots” are needed for people who think this is zero sum game!
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July 20, 2013 at 12:19 AM
Re: “sometimes riots are needed”? I think that’s ’nuff said.
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July 19, 2013 at 5:33 PM
ha ha..good one …..
Rana Ayub, Burqa Dutt, Rajdeep, Javed Akhtar and Sriniwas jain should read this,,
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July 19, 2013 at 5:36 PM
I agree with this. I wouldn’t say ‘2002 riots’. I’d call them pogroms! I’d say the same for the anti-Sikh violence in Delhi. The word ‘riot’ is one of the great abstractions in the Indian political vocabulary, at least over the past 70-80 years. The specific politics behind each riot and the questions of responsibility are then effaced.
Modi hilariously said the other day that even if a car he’s riding in runs over a “puppy” he’d feel pain. leaving aside the disgusting nature of the comparison (where he unwittingly illuminates his thinking..) the problem here is that he was the one driving the car! So one can’t have it both ways. Either he’s a totally incompetent administrator who doesn’t deserve the reputation he has in which case there’s nothing to celebrate or he does deserve his press in which case he engineered and/or aided the programs. Of course in these debate many agree with this with the whole ‘Muslims-needed-to-be-taught-a-lesson’ tone. This is more or less an indirect way of saying he enabled the violence. Now one might argue whether it’s justifiable or not but the moment one uses that justification one is agreeing that he was the author of the violence in some way or the other. Of course at the same time the very same people oscillate between two positions and more:
1)He’s not responsible for anything
2)he is responsible but the Muslims deserved it after Godhra
3)what pogrom? It’s just an understandable riot
So again even accepting the other side of the argument here the inescapable logic still leads one to some sort of engineered violence or one where (to use Modi’s own terms) one might have braked before hitting the puppy but one chose not to! Or else he’s just incompetent. Which one is it?
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July 19, 2013 at 5:41 PM
He has nothing to with pogroms. But, he does have a program- to carry the nation and its people forward. It is sad however that misplaced liberal ideology and the tendencies to exploit insecurities of the minorities might put unsormountable road blocks in his way!
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July 19, 2013 at 5:42 PM
Incidentally I think one should watch Hey Ram closely for lessons in where such logic of vengeance and so forth takes. The film isn’t really about political extremism. Or it is so but more importantly it is about an ordinary person who suffers devastatingly at the hands of another community and who quite naturally is radicalized. But the film then explores the darkness of this posture or the moral-ethical implications of choosing to act in vengeance. And of course the climax reverses the entire equation. This has been my point all along. We can debate all the factors, we can choose to believe certain things but at the end of the day we are nonetheless led to this most essential question — even if such an event happened so what? Does this give one the right to act against others who had nothing to do with the violence? In the name of the same abstraction? We all have our chosen histories, our anecdotes to justify our actions but we forget that the other side is armed with exactly the same arsenal. The darkness in this sense is equal on both sides when it comes to such ideological positions.
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July 19, 2013 at 5:48 PM
I have seen Hey Ram, but I have also witnessed riots and have been the victim of it, so I know a little bit…..
One thing is undeniable- 2002- NO riots in Gujrat !!! koi toh reason hoga ??
otherwise jahan minority mein hai wahan rioys, aur jahan majority mein hain wahan sey minorities ko desh nikala !!!
This IS the naked truth !!!
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July 19, 2013 at 6:18 PM
“but I have also witnessed riots and have been the victim of it, so I know a little bit…..”
yes but that’s the point of the film. Kamal’s character is such a ‘witness’. Of course those who experience such things are often not the most reliable witnesses on the same. There’s a whole scientific literature of trauma that deals with this. Because what one experiences is so extreme and so frightening that one cannot possibly be a completely unbiased narrator later on. Sometimes one isn’t even coherent enough to do so. Such people do witness events of brutality and incredible horror but that isn’t the entire story. In other words there is a ‘global’ meaning to the event (or in its entirety) quite separate from individual acts of horror. So for instance if there’s a terrorist attack and hundreds are killed or maimed or whatever. One could as a witness observe these things. But that would be very different from comprehending the ‘thematic’ nature of the act itself. Why the terrorists acted as they did, etc etc.
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July 20, 2013 at 4:22 PM
Hey Ram sey yaad aaya Chaube jee !!
when Chetan Bhagat wrote an article on behalf of Muslim youths , all the commies and Muslims got so fucking worked up and called him all sorts of names.
Kamal hasan had no such problem with Hey Ram, in fact becharey kee Vishwswaroopam almost ban ho gayee !!
Commies please take a moment and remember that !!!
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July 20, 2013 at 3:56 AM
Only your reading of Hey ram is not Truth but there can be another readings of same …. If you can diss others reading, same can be done to your readings.. we can only put readings here with facts or empirical evidence… here is another reading of Hey Ram as usual commies wills say its Right’s reading and vice versa
The false symmetries of Hey Ram
http://centreright.in/2013/03/the-false-symmetries-of-hey-ram/
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July 19, 2013 at 5:45 PM
Satyam, as per Tehlkas and NDTV there has been just one riot ( 2002) and just one encounter ( Ishrat) since 1947.
Is this fair ???
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July 19, 2013 at 5:53 PM
irrespective of how the media covers this (and I think the problem here was that they called it a pogrom which they neglected to in 1993 in Bombay), and of course one can debate all of this, and speaking for myself I have often criticized a certain liberal soft-peddling of certain issues in the media, this shouldn’t stop us from recognizing the awful nature of what happened. If we too follow the same tired old narratives and formulas when it comes to these events we are just like the media. So I am certainly aware of the public discourse on all such events (which is by the way why I keep highlighting the anti-Sikh violence because this too never got the attention it deserved and certainly not the characterizations it required). So we can’t condemn horrific violence but condoning it when the equation is shaped differently. I refuse to accept any justification for any pogrom (and I am not at all confused about what this means) irrespective of contexts and histories. Not sure how much clearer I can be than this. Now when it comes to riots that are somewhat murkier events though still not without responsible parties (either way) here too one should really state things as they are. The same logic holds for terrorism as far as I’m concerned. All the grievances in the world do not justify this kind of violence. So for instance in the Sri Lankan situation Tamilians in certain parts of the country faced awful institutional barriers and often violence. The response to this by the LTTE was historically comprehensible perhaps but their violence was still atrocious. It’s not ok to kill people because they are part of a majority, even if they ideologically agree with all kinds of repressive actions. So on and so forth. If Modi’s family were being attacked by a Muslim mob I would be on Modi’s family’s side. Can’t be clearer than this. If Modi were personally being attacked I’d be more conflicted just as I would be conflicted about lots of other political monsters around the world.
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July 19, 2013 at 5:54 PM
also you should read articles my Madhu kiswar.. even I used to think that Modi was personally responsible for negligence ( which to some extent may still be true) but he actually acted pretyy swiftly, called the Army right away and asked for help from all the states….
so now I believe it was more of a spontaneous act by hindus against Godhra than anything else..
But this does NOT fit the narrative of commies and NDTV, Congress and Tehlaka and Kafila !!!!!!
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July 19, 2013 at 6:14 PM
No report that I would consider unbiased and comprehensive holds him less than responsible. But let’s leave this aside. The left becomes a screen when one is on the other side and doesn’t like certain unpalatable truths. It happens on the other side in the same way. So if you criticize Muslims or even fanatical Mullahs in any way the sense is that you’ve giving ammunition to the other side. So everyone plays this game. My point is I know how the right plays certain episodes and how the left plays them. Let’s move beyond this. Because there’s a purposefully ‘naive’ position where one pretends to be on one side only because the other side is extreme. The other side does exactly the same thing. Now if I were in politics where the stakes are a lot higher every which way I would be more careful about saying certain things even if I thought they were true because of larger consequences. But here on a blog there is no reason to succumb to these old stale divisions.
Notice how you would never have believed Madhu Kiswar when she was attacking Modi but the moment she started defending him find her completely truthworthy and reliable!
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July 19, 2013 at 8:20 PM
Very well said. If tomorrow digvijay singh(the most abused congress man) joins modi chorus, he will become reliable and trustworthy! I dont want modi to become a martyr. If he is destined to die, he has to die of natural causes. There is a saying in sanskrit, paapi chirayu.
By the way, about the supreme court judgments. When they were delivering coalgate, 2G judgments. middleclasses were lapping it up. When the same supreme court struck off common entrance test, the judgment is called unfortunate because it is pinching the same middleclass. The supreme court also dleivered some controversial judgments recently as CJ was about to retire. Allowing dance bars in mumbai which NCP strongman R.R.Patil firmly opposes as it is his pet subject and also CJ’s judgment refusing to lower the age for juvenile offenders to 16. In banks, managers are not allowed to disburse loans when they are about to retire or about to be shifted. Why not the same thing for CJs too? All said and done, supreme court is the only institute the common people have to look forward to as political classes of all hues are failing them in one way or the other.
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July 19, 2013 at 10:24 PM
I was actually believing that Modi was a tactical supporter and therefore was actually not a fan of Modi ( I still believe he is too autocratic for India) , but now because of Social media -the truth is coming out and it sides with Modi – he may have been negligent buy he did not Order the police to go and kill like the commies will have us believe.
I am pained the way the younger people are disrespecting Advani, but at the same time they are fed up with status quo.
P.S.- ab halaat yahan tak aa gaye kee log Madhu ko Digvijay sey compare kar rahe hain !! wah bhi wah ..
Maadam- itnee akal shayad hai hum mein kee kisskee baat mein dum hai aur kaun dumb hai !!!
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July 19, 2013 at 6:20 PM
Incidentally I’ve always felt irrespective of your political views that your polemic was always most forceful in the context of media narratives on these events. And I’m not saying this is unimportant. Just that if one recognizes there are narratives and on all sides one should try and move beyond them.
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July 19, 2013 at 7:01 PM
You like to use the word pograms because either you are making typing error or you forgot what it means. If you are so hell bent on making such use of this word, then why just Modi, 99% of politicians are running some type of Pograms.
On the puppy coming under the wheel: it shows how compassionate he is!! Really. I am perpetually stopping car to stop squishing those little squirrels or turtles. But every once in blue while a squirrel gets squished. Am I guilty of it?!?! That is the big question. If Modi is true blue hindu, then he doesn’t believe he is the “doer” of the action. If he is not the “doer” of the action, then he doesn’t need to have any guilt feelings as well. If he had called Army right away and they had arrived right away (the bureaucratic machinery takes its own sweet time in India), nothing, believe me, nothing would have changed in term of playing blame game and calling Modi names because the reasons for doing so are pure jealousy and the fact that he is winning elections repeatedly. End of story. Like Rocky, I too am from area where riots get started (in my famous town) and believe me even though I belong to majority, I am petrified. So we all are victims, not just the ‘minority’ community. And some times when minority community gets into “zero-sum game” mode, some actions are appropriate so that growth/development/peace takes place!!!!! That is exactly what happened since 2002. There are NO riots since then!!!!!! Only growth, development and peace. Maybe rest of the states need to implement these “pograms” as you call them mistakenly so everyone tows the line and not take undue advantage of their ‘minority’ state and create undue fears in minds of poor, law abiding majority!!!
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July 19, 2013 at 8:11 PM
on the whole ‘doer’ bit pretty sure Krishna did not have this in mind when offering some of his counsels to Arjun!
But there’s an important Zizekian point here nonetheless. Note how the kind of reading you’re offering (and which I reject) could justify any kind of violence. When does one truly become responsible? Hitler might not be the ‘doer’ of his actions following this logic!
On the rest you just an have a very limited (excuse me for saying this) understanding of what ‘Hindu’ means. And in more ways than one. I addressed some of this the other day too.
Finally I use the word ‘pogrom’ in very precise terms.
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July 19, 2013 at 8:55 PM
I know. And I think it is YOU who doesn’t have understanding of what Hindu means. I include every one…those who converted (forcefully or otherwise) as well who dwell in the bhumi of Bharat. Don’t want to argue because we will go in circles. On the doership, it is very righteous war. While rest of the Hindus might have the complex that Arjuna had in the first chapter, Modi doesn’t have any!! If I was leader of Swaminarrayan sect, I would have directed my “congregation” to do something if my temple was attacked by the mullahs dictats in Gandhinagar, in my own backyard!!! Or you should see the movie made by Ramu recently. Unfortunately all the so called leaders are impotent. I would reiterate that you should vacation in Pakistan or Kashmir for even 5 days. The brahm that Naryanmurthy had on socialism came out in 72 hrs in a communist cell in Europe and he became thankfully a diehard capitalist for life generating jobs and wealth for whole of India!!! Some of this needs to be done on you as well.
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July 19, 2013 at 9:22 PM
I think you should relax..
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July 20, 2013 at 12:15 AM
Di: you including everyone who converted is beside the point — the question is whether they want to be included under the term “Hindu”; the fact that it doesn’t even seem to register with you that someone might have a legitimate issue with this speaks volumes. And here’s another thought: of we are searching for a label for everyone who dwells in Bharat, what’s wrong with “Indian”?
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July 20, 2013 at 5:52 AM
No relax(ing) only Milkha(singh).
Q: those who don’t want to be termed “Hindu”, can go elsewhere!! You should see how I definite the word and mean by it. Everyone came here (to Hindustan) so they could practice their own religion peacefully. Hai kay nahi? Then why don’t they just do that. Why create “ched” into the thali they are eating. Namakharams.
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July 20, 2013 at 7:46 AM
@ Satyam, since its never ever even mentioned by the media, Hindu’s too got killed by muslims in Ahmedabad. What about them? How can it be pogram when both sides suffered casulties. Please check the meaning of pogram the 1984 Anti Sikh riots were pograms not 2002!
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July 20, 2013 at 12:25 AM
Rajen: I hope we also don’t just say “NaMo” when Gujarat’s laggard status in many human development indices is cited. Modi has been good for Gujarat’s economy but this notion that he is the only messiah in a generation of idiots is propaganda that is fed by his friends in the media (of whom there are many, even as others hate him — polarisation sells). There are important areas where Gujarat has made little to no progress (eg malnutrition) and if Modi is to be given the credit for everything then he should also shoulder this blame. There are other states which have performed solidly as well, and we never hear those leaders trumpeted as miracle workers — eg chauhan in MP; Sheila Dixit in Delhi — which isn’t fair.
By the way, note that both pro- and anti-Modi groups have one thing in common: the belief that this man is a comic book character, who does everything all by himself. The anti-Modi group inadvertently gives other Hindu extremists a free pass by focusing obsessively on him; while the pro-crowd inadvertently shows the dangerous impoverishment of its hopes and ideas of democracy by pinning everything on one man.
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July 20, 2013 at 3:59 AM
Till 1937 before Punjab elections, Jinnah used to proclaim Muslims are Insecure and bad results of Punjab election forced Jinnah to change tracks and claim ” Islam Khatre main hain” and Rest is history..
Same is done by so called fiberals, Congress, Coomies : Hold them to any debate and they will just say ” Secularism Khatrain main Hain”… Thats Where Modi hit them with Burka comment…
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July 19, 2013 at 6:33 PM
Is this thread about cinema or about Gujrat riots and Modi.
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July 19, 2013 at 6:51 PM
Michael D, Satyam educates us in auteur cinema. And rest of us try remove all kinds of “brahms” he has. He quite gullible and innocent and easily manipulated by people like Barkha Dutt, Commies and Sardesi.
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July 19, 2013 at 6:55 PM
where the likes of Modi are concerned I just wish I had a brahmastra for a day!
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July 19, 2013 at 7:06 PM
you have to earn it. You cannot just weild it because you want to. If you are terrorist and you have the astra, you will go about destroying. I don’t think that the people in India (and I am talking about minorities as well) are unhappy and scared. If that was the case, Qalander would have happily relocated to Pakistan where he has relatives instead of choosing India. Even the creator of Pakistan was unhappy living in Pakistan (Jinnah).
P.S. I would be very happy to give you plane tickets to fly you to Pakistan and live there for a week. If you don’t get visa, I will choose Kashmir for you as second option. You will come back wiser 😉
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July 19, 2013 at 8:15 PM
The greatest fans of Pakistan outside Pakistan are many in the Hindutva circles who see Pakistan as the model to be followed on this side of the border as well! On the rest I’m going to let Qalandar speak for myself should he see this discussion.
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July 19, 2013 at 9:03 PM
No! What I am saying is that India is the ONLY, and let me reiterate ONLY country in world where EVERY one is welcome. Be it the persecuted jews thousands of years ago or parsis or Chinese from cultural revolution or Pakistanis or Tibetians or recent bhutanis…I can go on and on. Even USA rejected the jews that were persecuted in Nazi Germany. Had they only come to India, they would have survived and flourished.
This is the ONLY land in the entire earth who is so generous and magnanimous. It is the very same Hindutvaa that is so welcoming, compassionate and kind! Something YOU of all people will fail to see.
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July 20, 2013 at 12:10 AM
Di: Indian inclusiveness is truly wonderful; but it doesn’t need the label of “Hindutva” — a twentieth century political philosophy with antecedents that owe more to European ideologies of nationalism than to Indian traditions. The comment that Indian inclusiveness is only due to any one thing is anyway too simplistic, and ignores the dense historical record.
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July 19, 2013 at 10:32 PM
I think what Di means ( and I agree0 is that if the appeasement continues where the congress and the commies have even compromised the IB and CBI just to nail Modi ( and not a single word from Commies about this, which does not come as a surprise since they are deshdrohee anyways) then eventually Hindustaan will become Pakistan and an Aurangzeb will be ruling India ( and it is not Utkal like hyperbole LOL!!!)
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July 22, 2013 at 2:52 PM
Q: some day over a cuppa coffee we shall discuss and thou shall agree with me wholeheartedly 😉 🙂
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July 19, 2013 at 6:59 PM
Unfortunately for India, it looks increasingly unlikely that Modi will make it to power in 2014. He just does have the allies that would support him in case of a hung parliament. IMO BJP is the best option at the center, Congress has plundered enough over the last 8 years
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July 19, 2013 at 8:13 PM
I agree.. hope I am not proven wrong on Modi but I think the 2002 ‘stain’ still sticks to him in a national sense. Certain alliances will become that much harder if he is presented as the PM candidate.
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July 19, 2013 at 8:37 PM
Mayavati is more acceptable with all her statues. Atleast she will elevate the status of dalits nationally. An Indian Obama.
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July 19, 2013 at 10:26 PM
Madhu Kishwar= Diggi
mayawati= Obama
what next
BigB= Kanhaiyya Lal!!!
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July 19, 2013 at 10:33 PM
Madhu Kishwar lost credibility as she suddenly switched sides as if she is Buddha getting gyan. For Buddha it took years while madu took few hours!
So Kishwar= GautamBuddha.
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July 19, 2013 at 10:35 PM
She changed sides after she visited Gujraat and talked to several hundred people including muslims….
Bhoola agar sudhar jaye toh use bhoola nahin kehtey !!
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July 19, 2013 at 10:41 PM
Bhoola agar sudhar jaye toh use bhoola nahin kehtey !!
Use kehte hain chameleon. Those hundreds of muslims want to live, not die.
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July 19, 2013 at 10:48 PM
righhhhht , Teesta, and parents of Ishrat ( who suddenly have fancy cars) and other commies in Gujrat toh jaise mar gaye…
berry convenient !!
what about the chief of Darul in Lucknow who praised Modi for doing good stuff for muslims but the mullahas forced him to resign ???
kya bakwaas !!
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July 19, 2013 at 11:09 PM
One cant go on a killing spree. One has to wait for the correct time and pounce like a wounded tiger.
Would like to know what benefits the recent converts to modism got. Atleast Teesta is sticking to one party till now.
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July 20, 2013 at 9:34 AM
So for Some – Teesta, Diggi, Mayawati are all better than Modi..Ek -“Osama Jee” kee kami reh gayee hai…unkee bhee arti utaar lo !!!
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July 19, 2013 at 9:09 PM
Di, Thank you very much for your inclusiveness but as someone whose home is in India and whose ancestors “converted” a long time ago- I emphatically reject the “Hindu” label. Please keep it to yourself…
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July 19, 2013 at 10:03 PM
Glad you made that point Chipguy.. there’s a kind of violence in insisting that a ‘conversion’ that happened centuries ago or whatever somehow doesn’t mean anything. Not to mention the ‘originalist’ fantasy at the heart of such a claim.
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July 20, 2013 at 5:59 AM
For a hindu the “label” doesn’t matter. If you believe in life force in all (including the trees), you are a hindu. There are basis tenets. And I won’t include all. I KNOW for sure Indian muslims/Christians/parsis…think VERY differently from rest of their tribes in rest of the globe. Something about being raised in India, makes them very-very unique. And I don’t have time to go into circles and arguments with people who don’t have love. love for the land that “allowed” them to be. To not have that loyalty because they are scared of the label of “hindu”.
For instance how could you know what my religion is?!? I may not even be a hindu based on your definition of it as “religion”!
Maybe go an live in that country where your “religion” is majority and come back a HINDU to live in Hindustan forever. Sarey jahan sey accha…
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July 20, 2013 at 10:52 AM
See, this is where you have me confused. You are conflating loyalty and patriotism to a political entity (India) with a religion (Hindu). While I’m Indian to the core, I definitely am not Hindu. My religious practices may be different from my co-religionists across the globe, but believe me, they are even more different from Hindus. You of course, are at liberty to call yourself Hindu or not as you please, but as always, my request is that you not label me as Hindu just because I’m Indian. And, since my ancestors have been in the country just as long as yours have, we have no plans to cut our ties to India, thank you very much.
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July 20, 2013 at 11:16 AM
But notice the contradiction in your position. A Hindu is on the one hand something specific, everyone in India is Hindu whether they are so actively in the present or converted a thousand years ago (by this definition most people in the Middle East are still Christians or Jews having ‘converted’ to Islam.. or all Europeans are really ‘pagans’ having converted to Christiantiy.. on and on… this is a fairly absurd definition!)… on the other hand being a Hindu is such an abstraction that one could be anything from an atheist to a Muslim could be one since it’s about some kind of New Age abstraction! So you can’t argue both sides on this.
Secondly the idea that ‘everyone’ is a Hindu irrespective of whatever labels they used once upon a time and so on is itself a BRITISH/COLONIAL idea. You are mouthing precisely their ideas. For them everyone who didn’t belong to a Biblical religion was simply a Hindu. The idea that whether it’s 300 BC or 600 AD and irrespective of how people in those ages identified themselves they were all nonetheless Hindus is a colonial narrative which is where you get a word like ‘Hinduism’.
Faith is a very different thing from the facts. One is free to believe anything one likes. But when one is arguing history things are rather different. You cannot even reconcile the the universe of the Rg Veda with that of the Mahabharata. They’re completely different. However a later orthodox ‘canon’ makes them all part of the same set of ‘holy’ texts. Which is fine. That’s the way things work in history but those older folks who just had the Rg Veda and so on would have been rather amused by such a definition. This of course gets into the other thorny question of who exactly these people were who spoke the oldest version of Sanskrit on record (Vedic) or at least used it as a liturgical text. There are various scholarly theories on where they came from and so on based on all kinds of evidence including most importantly the linguistic kind (for instance the most closely related language to Sanskrit is in fact Old Persian) but this whole ‘hey we were always in India since the Big Bang’ is just bunk.
But again as a matter of faith one has every right to believe anything. One just can’t bring those faiths to an objective debate on the historical record.
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July 20, 2013 at 11:51 AM
chipguy, whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, you have a very distinct hindu identity 🙂
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July 20, 2013 at 1:02 PM
An Indic identity is very different from ‘Hindu’. Is an Indic identity always marked by strands of belief that could be put under a Hindu rubric? Absolutely. But that’s making a very different point. Much as Christians in the Mideast are marked by Islamic culture. That doesn’t make them Muslims. But the traffic also flows in the other direction. There is no important variant of Hindu faith in North India not marked by the encounter with Islam in a deep cultural sense. Certain modes of Islamic practice in the Mideast predate the advent of this faith. So on and so forth. Consider the word ‘shaheed’ in Hindi vocabulary. It is used even in non-Muslim contexts when the term itself comes from the Muslim faith. There are a million such examples. The reverse is also true. The Indian brand of Islam is called Indo-Islam by scholars because it has various strands of Hindu influence and so on. Cultural traffic does not only flow in one direction.
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July 20, 2013 at 2:06 PM
Di I think we may be going off topic here…kaun kya tha , kya faraq padta hai…Kaun kya hai aur kua kar raha hai is more important…
also – I would never ever dare to bring up to ARR kee bhai aap pehley Hindu they !!!!!!!!
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July 20, 2013 at 2:29 PM
As long as this identity remains a figment of your imagination and does not impinge on my consciousness in any way, I guess we can leave it at that…
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July 22, 2013 at 2:49 PM
Sattu, I mean Hindu and not indic identity.
@Rocky: it matters really. It does. For the reason you wrote that India would be ruled by Aurangzeb..those very same reasons!! It is precisely for this reason, the minorities SHOULD be, MUST be interested in one identity and that of a Hindu Identity, the very same one that protected them, allowed them to flourish and allows them freedom without any fears. Go read Swami Vivekananda’s speech/talk on religious “tolerance”. In tolerance there is a feeling of low/high. Hinduism is all about ACCEPTANCE and not mere tolerance. It upholds ALL paths that lead to HIM/HER. Pray which other culture/nation has such awesomeness?? Sarve bhavantu sukhinah..sarve..सब लोग सुखी हों! सभी लोग स्वस्थ हों! सभी लोग लालच से परे हो एक दुसरे के साथ भाईचारे एवं प्यार से रहें और कोई भी किसी भी तरह की तकलीफ और बीमारी से दूर रहे!
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July 19, 2013 at 10:08 PM
Can we have a separate thread like Indian politics? Every blog is stifled and diverted. Whoever wants to discuss Modi can go there as Barkhagate is overflowing.
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July 19, 2013 at 10:14 PM
Where is munna?
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July 20, 2013 at 1:25 PM
Sorry.. busy with move..Will start one..
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July 20, 2013 at 12:44 AM
NVNV on which Ramaiya Vastavaiya is based, was quite entertaining with siddharth and teesha in the lead. It was good in telugu and with a bigger hero and heroine, it would have worked better in hindi too.
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July 20, 2013 at 6:43 AM
The humans can learn something from animals. Why no animal, however intelligent, doesn’t have gods or the worship system. While animals have loyalty, compassion among their own herds, they dont go preach or worship. If we humans can only cultivate something on those lines! Religion has become another political party with all the murkiness. It has lead to ghettoisation, isolation and extremism. When Buddha tried something out of the box, it became a religion! It is all my belief, your belief. I think commercial conversion should stop because it has political undertones. In this respect, hinduism does not convert people just like some other religions like parsi. And also some religions prohibit family planning which has both religious and somewhat political undertones. Only education, enlightenment, tolerance may lead civilisation to survive the onslaught of politics of religions. In US, some consider Yoga as religious onslaught and try to ban. Recent California school teaching yoga and some parents resisting it and the court ruling. While the same US asks India to allow conversions in the name of religious freedom.
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July 20, 2013 at 8:24 AM
http://www.sify.com/movies/bhaag-milkha-bhaag-leaves-jaya-bachchan-teary-eyed-news-national-nhuqasadcbi.html
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July 20, 2013 at 8:30 AM
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July 20, 2013 at 9:30 AM
D Day And Ramaiya Vastavaiya First Day Business
Saturday 20th July 2012 10.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
D Day had a poor first day as it grossed around 2.50 crore nett. The film was poor across the board with slightly better collections at some centres of Mumbai circuit probably due to the fact it is an underworld film. The collections in mass circuits were very poor while North India was hugely affected by Bhaag Milkha Bhaag as that film is a one horse race in Delhi and Punjab.
Ramaiya Vastavaiya was also poor on day one as it collected 3.25 crore nett on day one. The collections were poor across multiplexes all over though the film did a bit better in CPCI Rajasthan belt. The collections in the North for Ramaiya Vastavaiya were very dull.
Both films will find it tough at the box office unless they can show huge growth on Saturday and Sunday.
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July 20, 2013 at 4:27 PM
D-day is one heck of a thriller that also works wonderfully as a character drama. Accuse me of hyperbole but in its structure and best moments, it reminded me of Sholay, and just like that classic, the tone here is grim, almost elegiac. Although the film’s subject is as patriotic as they come, Advani (did he really make this damn film???) almost exclusively focuses on the theme of loss, and imbues the entire film with an air of resignation about the uncertainties of this war on terror. Not the best commercial decision but ballsy.
Another great decision is making Dawood a puppet and pointing fingers at the rotten machinery that is the ISI.
There are logical flaws for sure but its hard to complain when an action film gives so much attention to its characters, detailing and presents a fully realized world that you can feel and smell.
Acting is superb, with Irfan again proving he is in a class of his own.
Will write more about but just go see this whopper of a film.
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July 20, 2013 at 5:30 PM
thanks Henry. looking forward to it. I’ve only heard good things about it.
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July 21, 2013 at 1:08 AM
Wow — I had no intention of watching this film but yours and other people’s comments are really changing my mind! Will try and catch it tonight or tomorrow…
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July 21, 2013 at 2:55 AM
Have any of you read/heard of The Karachi Deception- the plot seems to resemble that of D-Day’s.
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July 21, 2013 at 4:08 AM
I have not…
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July 21, 2013 at 12:10 PM
Henry has said things more eloquently than i could ever do, but just to add- this is a very dark and engrossing film and watchable even in its weakest moments. Advani uses his actors very astutely- Rampal, thankfully, hardly gets any lines; Irrfan gets the best ones. And i loved Chandan Roy Sanyal (‘Mikhail’ from Kaminey) back on screen. Sadly Rishi, for the most part, is made to look like a buffoon (‘trigger kheench, maamla mat kheench’ etc would have perfectly fine in, say OUATIM. Thankfully the ‘masala’ bit is reigned in here by the director). And Alvida is a great song-sequence matching the ones from David, Shaitan and Raabta (Agent Vinod).
One thing which i found problematic though was the fact that out of the 4 Indian agents who are sent to capture Dawood, 3 are Muslims- I am not sure what Advani is trying to say here- that there are very many patriotic Muslims in India. But the minute you try to shove this down our throats, aren’t you defeating your very purpose. Does the patriotism of a Muslim needs to be highlighted all the time?
On Advani, let’s not forget that he co-wrote the screenplay of Sudhir Mishra’s “Iss Raat Ki Subah Nahi”, so he should probably stick to darker dramas such as this one
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July 21, 2013 at 12:20 PM
Also as a side note- While watching Advani’s film I was remembering Mani Shankar’s a good little millitary-espionage action thriller ’16 December’ (Danny rocked in that film) which too made certain bold statements. And Shankar’s two latter efforts, Mukhbir and Tango Charlie (some portions of the film, like the Naxalite ones, are very well-done, though Bobby Deol ruined the film for me) were very dark films. Still believe that with the right kind of budget and actors, Mani Shankar can make a very good millitary thriller.
That also reminds of a film which handled the Kashmir issue very deftly- Shoojit Sircar’s Yahaan.
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July 29, 2013 at 3:51 AM
It is a good thriller. Thought that it lost some edge in second half. I was also wondering, is this an Advani’s movie! 🙂
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July 20, 2013 at 9:30 AM
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag Set For Strong Second Week
Saturday 20th July 2012 21.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is set for a strong second week as it collected around 3.50 crore nett on its 8th day. The collections were better than both the new releases D Day and Ramaiya Vastavaiya mainly thanks to business in Delhi and East Punjab. In other circuits the collections were lower than Ramaiya Vastavaiya.
The film will show a big jump on Saturday and Sunday and the weekend can comfortably go to over 13 crore nett. The film will continue to dominate in the North and should gross around 90 crore nett in its lifetime business with chances to beat the the 93 crore nett plus figures of Race 2 which is second biggest grosser of the year till date.
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July 20, 2013 at 9:31 AM
Excellent. Very pleased for Mehra.
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July 20, 2013 at 9:32 AM
Maharashtra government grants tax exemption to Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
By Subhash K. Jha, July 20, 2013 – 14:23 hrs IST
Showing an exemplary attentiveness to the film’s far-reaching inspirational impact, the Maharashtra government on Saturday granted tax exemption to Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s exceptional bio-pic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
The speedy manoeuvre has taken Mehra by complete surprise.
Says Rakeysh, “We anticipated a tax exemption. But the fact that the Maharashtra government acted so speedily is very heartening. The film would now be accessible to those middleclass Indians who cannot afford the ticket prices at multiplexes. That thought makes me very happy.”
Rakeysh is hopeful other states would follow suit and grant his amazing Milkha bio-pic tax exemption in the coming week.
Farhan Akhtar who plays Milkha in the film says, “I am extremely grateful to the Chief Minister and Revenue Minister of Maharashtra for their support in this regard. They’ve ensured that Milkhaji’s inspiring life would now be accessible to many more citizens in Maharashtra.”
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July 20, 2013 at 9:32 AM
this is huge for the film. Getting it in just the second week and in the largest territory will really jack up the gross. On the other hand if it’s mostly multiplex-fare taxes are very low in these anyway.
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July 20, 2013 at 3:23 PM
Hey Satyam,
wanted to suggest if you could create a new post for people to put in their strictly “one liner” views/ratings or summary on whatever one catches up with, be it a tv series or movie or docu etc…this would make it easy to search for suggestions and good stuff to see whenever one wishes to..ofcourse the detailed reviews can continue in separate posts as this blog already been doing it…but then i’m sure people dont get time to put up detailed reviews for everything they see…but a one liner would be certainly helpful for others…
the recent viewings that you’ve been putting is kind of stamp for what stuff you think might be good to watch but then since there is no archive its kind of lost over time…
another reson for doing this is the way netflix/amazon prime etc are designed it does get complicated sometimes to search on the “good stuff”…since you can’t sort them by the way want to..
and one always wishes if the ‘likes’ and dislikes of fellow commenters would be stored in one place…
what say? just a suggestion…
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July 20, 2013 at 5:31 PM
that’s a good idea… will look into this.. thanks for the suggestion..
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July 20, 2013 at 9:20 PM
http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2013/jul/210713-we-had-to-sell-off-our-property-to-make-bhaag-milkha-bhaag-rakeysh-omprakash-mehra.htm
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July 20, 2013 at 9:39 PM
this is a ridiculous way to draw sympathy……kamal hasan did for his last film. The film is a hit and enjoy that mehra instead of such statement. You had to sell your property – so what???
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July 20, 2013 at 9:42 PM
ok so that was from the producer bharati – but again why make such statements? beyond me……
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July 20, 2013 at 11:31 PM
I think it is not for getting sympathy but how much a producer undergoes if he is not in the league of Karan Johar or an Aditya Chopra.
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July 21, 2013 at 12:02 AM
Checked out D-Day today, not a bad effort even though the story goes from gripping in the first half to unbelievable in the second. But hats off to nikhil advani on making this movie, to make a movie on Dawood and telling it like it is. It takes a lot of guts to make a movie which is antagonistic towards pakistanis even though atleast in the overseas market they do contribute towards the BO returns.
I find it ironic that D-Day which potrays Dawood as a villan is end up making a lot less than OUATIM in which Dawoods character has been romanticized. Its like a Hollywood movie portraying the lighter or nice side of Osama Bin Laden
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July 21, 2013 at 4:05 AM
OT,
When Chief Judicial Magistrate thinks acts like that…….
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Chief-judicial-magistrate-booked-for-wifes-murder/articleshow/21201153.cms
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July 21, 2013 at 4:25 AM
Swara Bhaskar (Bindiya in Raanjhanaa)-
Crazy love in Banaras
12 hours ago , By Swara Bhaskar
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/crazy-love-in-banaras/article4935904.ece/?maneref=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2Ffpg6rvNjof
Is Raanjhanaa the tale of an irrational, impassioned, obsessive lover, or thinly disguised male supremacist storytelling?
All the articulate criticism about the glorification of stalking in Raanjhanaa has led me to some serious introspection and self-doubt. Have I become so corrupted by Bollywood that I’m unable to recognize problematic gender stereotyping and latent misogyny of the films I’m a part of?
Without prejudice to critical reviews, there is another possible reading of the film. Despite its gimmicky, populist and male favouring one-liners, the film may be interpreted within its generic context. Raanjhanaa is the tragedy of an irrational, impassioned, obsessive lover. Depicting such a crazed state-of-mind on-screen requires the lover doing things that go against ordinary and socially accepted expressions of love. Kundan’s wrist slitting is neither intelligent, nor advisable. It is a device that portrays the crazed intensity of his passion. Similarly driving his scooter into the Ganges with Zoya behind is a reflection of his shock and trauma upon discovering that she loves another man, not an attempt to murder.
Kundan is a deeply flawed character. He’s selfish, delusional, mercurial, thoughtless, hugely impulsive, self-destructive and bad tempered! However an easy rejection of him is difficult and he is rendered endearing in his naïve innocence. He actually believes that Zoya will remember and reciprocate his love in spite of differences of geography, religion, class, education and thinking. Writer Himanshu Sharma has created a hero harking back to the literary tradition of the intensely-passionate-deeply- flawed-self-destructive-tragic-male-protagonist, seen in almost every ‘great’ tragedy in literature be it Saratchandra’s Devadas or Shakespeare’s Othello. Sharma’s Raanjhanaa remains consistent with the generic patterns of the tragic form, as we are compelled to sympathise with this problematic male protagonist who mistreats the very women he loves but is redeemed by the author in a noble death.
In my eyes Kundan never becomes a serious figure of threat because Zoya is never shown to be scared of him. Her first response to his overture is a fearless confident taunt and a tight slap. Because Zoya consistently remains unflinching and unafraid, Kundan never fully becomes that sinister, threatening, figure of the dangerous stalker.
Raanjhanaa is an unapologetic celebration of crazy love. A story of how love makes otherwise rational people behave in a stupidly self-damaging manner. Why else would an educated and smart Zoya engineer a bizarre, Tughlaqesque and almost certainly dangerous charade of a having a Muslim boyfriend and marrying him with parental consent in a traditional ceremony? Why would the otherwise shrewd and ever-practical Jasjit play along? They act in sheer desperation to realise their love. Feisty Bindiya’s love is undeterred despite humiliation and beatings and it makes her pray to Gau-mata for Zoya’s death, but also participate the next moment in a plan to rid Zoya of an unwanted suitor. What except deep love for his friend would drive the otherwise eminently sensible and grounded Murari to participate in unrealistic plans to win an evidently unattainable girl. Kundan isn’t the only one eccentric in love.
Zoya’s character has been criticized for being manipulative, cold and heartless. To me Zoya was just a very human, and thus imperfect young girl dealing with confusing, contradictory and eventually very painful matters of the heart. What is so wrong with an adolescent 14-year old being flattered and responsive to the devotion of a young boy, being both curious and nervous about that first kiss, having her anger at Kundan’s lie dissipate into tears at his hysterical wrist-slashing? What is wrong if eight years later she has moved on? In fact Zoya’s character is not calculating but naive in trusting Kundan’s friendship, she’s honest about her lack of love for him, about her boyfriend. She’s perfectly frank and sensible when she asks him if he intends to ruin her life for that one childish mistake she made? And when she lies, it is to save Kundan the pain of realizing that Zoya in fact did not reject him because he was a Hindu, that she simply didn’t love him! With Zoya, Sharma taps another classic literary trope- the unattainable lady love, the mistress-on-a pedestal who the poet will never attain but continually pine for. Zoya is finally redeemed despite all her flaws when she says wretchedly in the climax to Kundan that ‘The world will spit on me if I fall in love with you, but I think I have.’ Zoya’s tragedy is that she must plot murder to prevent herself from falling in love with the very man who ruined her life and accidentally killed her fiancé.
Raanjhanaa, like Sharma’s earlier Tanu Weds Manu is a film generously laced with dialogue that reflects a male-dominated worldview, a stereo-type infested, though not hate-filled, folk wisdom and wry humour regarding gender relations and matters of the heart. Sharma’s characters speak the thoughts and language of the world where they belong- the largely socially conservative, patriarchal world of small town India. And so a 16 year old Bollywood buff Kundan reflecting the Bollywood influence on his generation says, “In UP tire or scare a woman into accepting you.” An unpremeditated inter-textual moment! And Murari similarly laments that doctors and engineers often steal the love of mohalla lads. In Sharma’s world men are indulgently helpless and harmlessly exasperated at women. Whether it is the inability of Manu’s father to check his vulgar ill-behaved wife in Tanu Weds Manu, or Raanjhanaa’s Jasjit lamenting that plans born of women’s minds cannot be trusted; Sharma’s men are bewildered at the ways of women. This may make them conservative but not misogynists. Both of Sharma’s screenplays depict the world as is. If Zoya’s parents are conservative Muslims, they will oppose an inter-religious marriage. If Kundan’s father is the head priest of the Kashi Vishwanath temple, the family will live in a Brahmin ghetto with Brahmin neighbours. If childhood friends share a sibling-like bond they will not shy away from hitting and abusing one another. But Raanjhanaa is not the story of Muslim-Hindu relations in Benaras, nor is it a study of the social relations between the numerous castes that inhabit the city, and it is certainly not the story of some inaccurately and grandiosely imagined quasi-leftist student political movement threatening to sweep Delhi’s assembly elections. Raanjhanaa is the story of a boy who like the Raanjhaa of folklore fell obsessively in love with an unattainable girl. She loved someone else, and he despite initially trying to help the girl unite with her lover, on learning of her lie to him unthinkingly unleashed a tragedy that ruined the lives of everyone involved and found redemption only in death. A male-centric perspective? Yes. Politically incorrect? Indeed! Disturbing? Certainly! Emotionally compelling? Also! Misogynistic? I beg to differ.
(Swara Bhaskar is an actress based in Mumbai and her films include Raanjhanaa, Listen Amaya, and Tanu Weds Manu. She can be reached at @ReallySwara on Twitter)
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July 21, 2013 at 10:44 AM
Very interesting interpretation by Swara.
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July 21, 2013 at 9:25 AM
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag Has Strong Growth On Saturday
Sunday 21st July 2013 14.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag had strong growth on Saturday as it collected 5.25-5.50 crore nett taking its second weekend collection to around 9 crore nett and the weekend collections should be around 16 crore nett.
The new releases D Day and Ramaiya Vastavaiya could not score at the box office so the door is left open for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag to put up a big second week total.
The film has been granted a tax exemption in Maharashtra which will help collections stay strong in Mumbai and Pune which are the places where it is collecting well in Maharashtra.
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July 21, 2013 at 9:25 AM
D Day And Ramaiya Vastavaiya Show Limited Growth On Saturday
Sunday 21st July 2013 13.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
D Day and Ramaiya Vastavaiya showed limited growth on Saturday with D Day collecting 3 crore nett and Ramaiya Vastavaiya grossing around 4 crore nett.
The approx two day figures for both films are as follows.
D Day
Friday – 2,50,00,000
Saturday – 3,00,00,000
Ramaiya Vastavaiya
Friday – 3,50,00,000
Saturday – 4,00,00,000
D Day showed growth of 20% while Ramaiya Vastavaiya was 10-15% while both needed to show much better numbers on Saturday due to the poor opening day collections.
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July 21, 2013 at 11:16 AM
rooting for D-Day here
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July 21, 2013 at 10:51 AM
according to Addtoday, Bhaag has housefull sunday while RV and DD are showing healthy jumps.
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July 21, 2013 at 2:50 PM
sorry…but just had to post this. could this be the end of a feud???
O::::
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July 21, 2013 at 4:38 PM
uly 21, 2013
Weekend Box Office Reflects a Season of Big-Budget Stumbles
By BROOKS BARNES
LOS ANGELES — The disasters were supposed to stay on the screen.
With extremely weak domestic ticket sales over the weekend for “R.I.P.D.” and “Turbo,” Hollywood has now sustained six big-budget duds since May 1, the start of the film industry’s high-stakes summer season. The other failing movies have been “After Earth,” “White House Down,” “Pacific Rim” and “The Lone Ranger.”
A couple of misfires, sure. But six?
Studios point to a number of problems, starting with that ever-pesky criterion, quality. In the Twitter age, audiences can spot a stinker from a mile away, and the unfortunately titled “R.I.P.D.” and “After Earth” in particular were both considered poorly made. But the deeper issue is an overreliance by studios on the same kind of expensive movie. One or more cinematic behemoths — those loaded with similar-looking computer-generated effects, films that cost $130 million to $225 million to make — have arrived almost weekly since May, fragmenting and fatiguing the audience.
Studios have also tried to sell most of these as “original,” which in Hollywood-speak means not a sequel or a remake. In reality, movie companies have largely just reassembled familiar parts. “Pacific Rim,” which featured giant robots, seemed to share DNA with “Transformers.” “The Lone Ranger” was “Pirates of the Caribbean” in Old West drag. “R.I.P.D.” was “Men in Black” lite.
Moviegoers are pushing back. The No. 1 movie in North America over the weekend was “The Conjuring,” a period haunted house film that cost Warner Brothers $20 million to make and received stellar reviews. It took in $41.5 million, according to box office estimates compiled by Hollywood.com.
Universal’s “R.I.P.D.,” which starred Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds as ghost cops, took in a disastrous $12.8 million, for seventh place. Universal said the movie cost $130 million (not including marketing), but the Hollywood trade news site Deadline.com said the actual price was $154 million.
“It failed, and we’re unhappy, and I’m not going to make excuses,” said Nikki Rocco, Universal’s president for distribution.
Audiences have repeatedly made hits out of smaller films this summer. Another example is “Now You See Me,” an ensemble thriller that cost Summit Entertainment about $75 million to make. The movie — the kind of midrange film that studios have largely abandoned as they focus more on pictures that play globally — has taken in $200.4 million worldwide and is still playing.
What does this mean for Hollywood? No lesser a power than Steven Spielberg has predicted a wholesale shift in studio strategy.
“There’s going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen mega-budget movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that’s going to change the paradigm,” Mr. Spielberg said at a University of Southern California media event last month.
On Sunday, Ms. Rocco seemed to acknowledge as much. “Absolutely, this opens your eyes,” she said. “You would be stupid if you didn’t look really hard at what the audience is telling you.”
She noted that her studio had said no to proposed films like an ambitious adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness” because of cost concerns. “You have to be very, very cautious when you’re spending money like this, and Universal has been,” she said.
It is possible to make so-called tent-pole movies for less money; “Despicable Me 2” cost $76 million, while “Turbo” cost about $135 million. But some investments are necessary. Skimping on computerized effects would probably result in even bigger messes, analysts say. What’s needed, some studio executives said, is a recalibration of the kinds of movies being put into production.
Cutting back on marketing is also difficult. Studios are slowly moving toward cheaper means to reach consumers — social media, Web campaigns — but executives are reluctant to trim spending on expensive TV ads and billboards, because those tools are still seen as effective ways to turn out an audience.
Don’t expect to see much change at the multiplex in the near future. The movie business changes slowly, in part because huge films now take two years or more to make. Computer-animated pictures — there are six this summer, up from three in the same period last year — can take even longer. Sony has “Amazing Spider-Man” sequels lined up through 2018.
And studios spent the last four days at Comic-Con — the annual gathering of comic-book, fantasy and science-fiction fans — previewing one mega-movie after another. Warner Brothers notably unveiled plans for a “Man of Steel” sequel featuring both Superman and Batman.
The unusually large number of high-profile failures in recent months creates headaches for studios beyond near-term financial losses. Movies like “The Lone Ranger,” which cost Disney about $375 million to make and market, were designed to start franchises. That will not be happening: “The Lone Ranger” has taken in just $147.6 million worldwide, roughly half of which goes to theater owners.
Another hopeful series in the making, “Turbo,” which also featured Mr. Reynolds (his voice, that is), took in $21.5 million over the weekend, for a total since opening on Wednesday of about $31.2 million — one of the weakest opening results in DreamWorks Animation’s history.
“At this level, we would expect a substantial write-down on the film,” Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen and Company, wrote in a research note on Thursday.
Anne Globe, DreamWorks Animation’s chief marketing officer, wrote in an e-mail on Sunday, “Turbo still has a lot of play time left, particularly in the international territories, where we had strong openings this weekend.” She added that the film’s A-plus score in children’s exit polls would “propel word of mouth through the rest of the summer.”
Not all of Hollywood’s major pictures have struggled. Universal has scored with both “Fast & Furious 6,” which has taken in $712.5 million worldwide, and “Despicable Me 2,” which has so far sold about $584.6 million in tickets. But “R.I.P.D.” was so expensive that Universal watched a portion of the hard-fought profits from those hits go up in smoke.
Still, Ms. Rocco dismissed the notion of too much soul searching. “When an ‘R.I.P.D.’ happens,” she said, “you pull up your socks, and you get going.”
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July 22, 2013 at 2:26 AM
D Day Has Dull Weekend
Monday 22nd July 2013 10.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
D Day had a dull weekend with business around the 9.25 crore nett mark. The business on Friday was 2.50 crore nett, Saturday grossed 3 crore nett and on Sunday business went to 3.75 crore nett.
The film did a bit better in Mumbai circuit as even the underworld gangster films that score mainly do better in this circuit. Mumbai circuit. Mumbai grossed around 3.75 crore nett but collections outside Mumbai were awful with Delhi/UP grossing a very low 1.80 crore nett and East Punjab even worse with 72 lakhs nett and no other circuit managed even 50 lakhs nett.
The film may remain steady over the weekdays but its likely to be with low collections and the damage has been done with such a low weekend.
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July 22, 2013 at 2:27 AM
Ramaiya Vastavaiya Has Poor Weekend
Monday 22nd July 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ramaiya Vastavaiya had a poor weekend with business around the 12.25 crore nett mark. The business on Friday was 3.50 crore nett, Saturday grossed 4 crore nett and on Sunday business went to 5.25 crore nett.
The business of the film was better in single screen circuits like Bihar, CP Berar, CI and Rajasthan. UP also was better comparatively but Delhi city had very bad collections which meant Delhi/UP remained dull.
The 12 plus weekend is a very poor return for film a film which is pretty costly especially for its face value. The business on Sunday in some parts of the did see healthy growth but overall weekend figures are just too low.
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July 22, 2013 at 10:49 AM
This is disheartening. In an age of vapid, consumerist fantasies like YJHD, D-Day is a real film that does not shy away from portraying real grief and loss.
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July 22, 2013 at 10:55 AM
The character of Valli Khan, played by Irfan, is one of the most achingly heartbreaking ones I have seen in a long time. A man who has lived in Pakistan for over 9 years, with a beautiful wife and son, operates a small business, mingles with the locals and has become more Pakistani than Indian in many ways. What he ends up doing for his mission leaves him in no-man’s land with regard to his national identity, and that is one of the many themes Advani has tackled wonderfully.
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July 23, 2013 at 5:39 PM
this movie deserves write up and is in league of inglorious basterds or gang of waseeypur
nikhil advani literally shocks and hard to beleive he made tearjekers like kal ho na ho and over the top chandni chowk to china
signs of evolution which was visible from his animation movie which won national award and now this brilliant movie which for me is the best of the year and this is a welcome change for a director who started with johars school of filmmaking
just loved the last lines where arjun says the story must have been told by many times but will there be audiences which so aptly describes dark tone and even commercial outing
even the repeated physical torture of shruti hassan and finally rape visualized by arjun in song is so nicely done and finally the simultaneous action of wali khans action in climax and how his son given poison at the same time and that to coming from a maker who made cheesy movies at the start of his career
good to see no political correction and appeasement followed with research hitting on indian political establishment
vintage stuff
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July 23, 2013 at 6:22 PM
good to see inspiration flowing from where it should be:
they took out over the top stuff from dongri to dubai and made shootout at wadala but surprisingly didnt name the real name of sonu soods character but atleast advani was gutsy in his portrayl of karachi deception or one say inspiration
didnt mind ghanchakkar to which took inspiration from one of the best hindi writers we have and climax was indeed very nice though not the final product
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July 22, 2013 at 11:16 AM
And therein lies the problem. Something I’ve ranted about for years. An age in which YJHD becomes such a blockbuster isn’t really waiting for more sensible cinema! While different genres can always exist in any industry there is always a ‘secret pact’ that holds them together. This constitutes the ideological ‘key’ of that age. In Bollywood this really means the multiplex audiences because they drive this economy. YJHD proves this once more. The typical masala film can open hugely in multiplexes but not sustain as much there, when it does so in smaller centers the gross cannot be magnified in the same way. But when there is a very stable multiplex film like YJHD huge numbers can be thrown up without any help from elsewhere. So it’s true that most of contemporary masala is terrible but so is YJHD. There is simply no reason why YJHD should gross twice as much as Singham except for the fact that those who are more in tune with YJHD in an ideological sense drive the Bollywood gross.
Of course I’m not being naive here. Certain kinds of offbeat films or low key ones or more narrative-based dramas and so on are not huge hits in any age. But commercial cinema in other ages has been far more responsible and this same cinema was also much more successful than the alternatives in those very same ages. If you go through the 60s the quintessential hit of that age is a film with lots of songs in Kashmir! In the 50s things were very different, cinema was often darker and more subversive even in its most escapist formats. Similarly in the 70s you would be hard pressed to find a big hit in any given year which is the equivalent of a 60s ‘songs-in-Kashmir’ deal. Not that I have a problem with the 60s. I enjoy many of those films.
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July 22, 2013 at 1:20 PM
Satyam: What you are saying is true. But there is also no excuse of Transformers and Pirates being the highest grossers of the year. And notice how media, even over there, plays this extremely dirty game where a Pacific Rim, before the release, is reduced by the papers/newscasters as ‘Transformers vs Godzilla’ (notice how everyone in india is saying the same about P.Rim without even caring to watch it. No one cares to check that this is the same guy who made the most ‘human’ and ‘joyful’ superhero film even when the lead is actually supposed to be a devil). For these guys Godzilla and Transformers are actually one and the same (who cares about the entire socio-political history of Japan represented by those Kaiju films)- to put in Indian terms there is supposed to be no difference Don and Race (hey, both are action thrillers, who cares what Masala means).
However where Hollywood succeeds is that the middle-range hits, say a Departed/Shutter Island, are much better films compared to their Bollywood counterparts
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July 22, 2013 at 4:39 PM
yes and a lot of critics have complained about the negative WOM that was created for Pacific Rim using tracking polls and so on.
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July 22, 2013 at 2:22 PM
Couldn’t agree more.
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July 22, 2013 at 6:08 PM
@ Satyam–there’s a certain problem with this ‘superior genre’ business wherein a YJHD automatically becomes ‘inferior’ just bcos of its genre. Believe me, it is NOT that easy to pull off a Yjhd–though it may appear so…
Yeah this genre HAS certain key elements working for it –for eg the likes of Amy WILL break down the gates and continue to see these flicks FDFS irrespective of quality etc. But at the end of the day, the FILM has to work amongst its target audience.
Those who make intellectual ‘good’ flicks and suffer the ‘D-day’ fate(incidentally d-day looks a surprisingly good film though haven’t seen it), need to have a relook at their —
A)Budgeting & cast
B)Target audience
C) Brand positioning
D) Honest expectations (financial and critical) prerelease
These are CRITICAL elements on designing any project and these filmmakers get these wrong-period,,,
The likes o kjo and even aamir may not be the best film makers, but they know these key elements (for the current phase–even they may lose the perspective 5-10 years ago)
Those lamenting about the under/poor performance shoudl have an HONEST relook at factors -A to D
They will realise that there WAS something wrong in the project even at conceptualisation level….if they are HONEST with themselves ….
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July 22, 2013 at 6:19 PM
Let me put it in Hollywood terms — there’s a difference between every other rom-com dished out by Hollywood (and some are better than others) and Linklater’s trilogy! No genre is superior definitionally but certain genres have a more lowbrow history than others. of course Hollywood has a great tradition of romantic comedies. Many classic or even great films from the past fall in this genre. So not saying that applies here but in contemporary Bollywood the DCH kind of film is rare. Just about every film that has followed in its wake is inferior to it without exception though some are better than others. I didn’t mind YJHD in the sense that it wasn’t unwatchable or anything. Both leads were easy to watch, the supporting cast was fine, just that the film was utterly empty. As for it not being ‘easy’ to make such a film, nothing is easy! Presumably it’s not easy to make Hangover or Meet the Parents either since not every film in these genres is as well-received! What does that mean though? Yeah Transformers does many times the gross that Pacific Rim does. And yeah not every empty blockbuster does as much as Transformers. So what? These things have no bearing on a film’s quality. There is a formula to commercial that is not easily managed in any film but just because it’s improbable doesn’t mean that success here equals some sort of artistic accomplishment or even one of meaningful entertainment. There is simply no logical link between the two.
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July 22, 2013 at 6:31 PM
“What does that mean though?”–
‘Giving a monkey a gun!!’–This is what it is about … 🙂
One may agree or not –finances and books have to be explained and accounted for (though one may not want to!)
Unless one is a Spielberg or a Cameron with PROVEN ability of handling big blockbusters AND is not yet a spent force shoudl NOT be unleashed onto these big budgets.
These numbers NEED and DESERVE responsibility!!
One can’t hide behind fickle audience tastes or ‘inferior genre’ or ‘intelligence!!!
Im not here to ‘defend’ romcoms but the difference in budgets and potential of damage a flop can cause does differ.
And the meaning of ’empty’ can also differ.
On one sense the theatres at ‘lone ranger’ theatres certainly were ’empty’ indeed.
Anther case study of ‘how to conceptualise a product’
Is linklaters trilogy
Three human beings (including director and screenwriter(s)
No big budget
No nonsense
No pretence
No intellectualisation
Simple honest film making …
Ps: note that u have seen ‘before midnight’-how did u find it -don’t think it is your type of movie though hahaha
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July 22, 2013 at 3:25 AM
Salman and SRK patchup at whose behest? It could not have been voluntary. Anyways, the secret peacemaker must be congratulated but will the fans follow suit?
The Khans empire is being attacked by ranbir and now Farhan Akhtar. Better they face the onslaught together.
Hope this patchup has nothing to do with someone ruling bollywood scene.
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July 22, 2013 at 11:53 AM
Weekend Report: ‘Conjuring’ Haunts First With Record Opening
by Ray Subers
The Conjuring
July 21, 2013
Four new movies opened nationwide this weekend, and the cheapest of the bunch came out on top.
Supernatural horror movie The Conjuring, whose budget was less than one-quarter of any of the other movies, took first place with an excellent $41.5 million. Meanwhile, Turbo and Red 2 underwhelmed, while R.I.P.D. was the latest costly misfire this Summer.
Overall, the Top 12 earned an estimated $181.5 million this weekend. That’s off 19 percent from the same period last year, when The Dark Knight Rises single-handedly accounted for over $160 million.
The Conjuring’s $41.5 million debut is a new record for an original R-rated horror movie ahead of last month’s The Purge ($34.1 million). It’s also the second-highest start ever for a supernatural horror movie ahead of Paranormal Activity 2 ($40.7 million). For distributor Warner Bros., it’s also higher than Pacific Rim’s opening last weekend, which is particularly noteworthy given Pacific Rim’s price tag was nearly ten times as high as that of The Conjuring.
On paper, The Conjuring seemed like a slam dunk: supernatural horror is always popular, and the “based on a true story” angle is advantageous as well. And, with The Purge almost completely gone from theaters, there wasn’t any competition. What pushed it to the next level, though, was the actual marketing for The Conjuring, which was legitimately terrifying. Warner Bros. made clear that they had a true scary movie on their hands, and crowds turned out in droves. That audience wound up being 53 percent women and 59 percent over the age of 25.
While most horror movies burn out immediately after opening weekend, there’s reason to believe The Conjuring could buck this trend. Aside from the strong reviews (85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), it received a fantastic “A-” CinemaScore from audiences, which is nearly unprecedented for the genre. Without any direct competition coming up, there’s a chance that the strong word-of-mouth pushes The Conjuring close to $100 million by the end of its run.
In second place, Despicable Me 2 dipped 43 percent to an estimated $25.1 million. That was good enough to beat animation newcomer Turbo, which reinforces just how popular the Despicable brand is among family audiences. To date, Despicable Me 2 has earned $276.2 million, which makes it the eighth-highest-grossing animated movie ever, and the top one since Toy Story 3 in 2010.
DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo failed to shift out of first gear this weekend: the snail racing movie took in an estimated $21.5 million, which is the lowest start for a DreamWorks movie since 2006’s Flushed Away. Including its Wednesday and Thursday grosses, Turbo has earned $31.2 million, which is a slightly slower start than recent DreamWorks Animation disappointment Rise of the Guardians ($32.3 million in its first five days).
Turbo’s poor start can be attributed mostly to very unfavorable scheduling. It opened within a month of Monsters University and Despicable Me 2, two heavyweight animated sequels that are on pace to combine for around $600 million. That was a risky move, and the marketing never clicked enough to help it get out of the shadow of those bigger entries. Family audiences only have so much cash to spend, and Turbo seems to have come out on the losing end of this calculation.
Turbo’s audience had an even gender split, and also skewed younger (55 percent under the age of 25). The movie received a very good “A” CinemaScore, and should play well over the next few weeks. Still, it faces direct competition from The Smurfs 2 in less than two weeks, and could ultimately have a tough time getting past $100 million.
In its second weekend, Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups 2 fell 52 percent to an estimated $20 million. That’s actually a slightly softer decline than the first Grown Ups had at this point, and Grown Ups 2 continues to slightly outpace the original as well. To date, it’s earned $79.5 million, and will be past $100 million by this time next weekend.
Playing at 3,016 locations, Red 2 debuted in fifth place this weekend with an estimated $18.5 million. That’s a bit lower than the first movie, which opened to $21.8 million in October 2010. The slight decline lines up with the performance of The Expendables 2, another geriatric action sequel. In both cases, it seems like there wasn’t quite enough to differentiate the movie from its well-liked predecessor, which tends to prevent a sequel from matching the original in attendance. As expected, the audience skewed older (67 percent over 35) and male (52 percent).
The first Red wound up being a word-of-mouth hit that played well through the Fall; with a Summer release and less audience enthusiasm (decent “B+” CinemaScore), it’s very unlikely that Red 2 holds up as well.
After Pacific Rim slightly disappointed last weekend, there was hope that it would make up some ground in its second weekend. That didn’t wind up being the case: the Guillermo Del Toro monsters vs. robots movie plummeted 57 percent to just under $16 million. The drop and the gross lines up nicely with Cowboys & Aliens, which also translated a years-worth of hype in to slightly underwhelming grosses.
Fortunately for Pacific Rim, its overseas results will be much, much better than Cowboys & Aliens. Through 10 days, Pacific Rim has earned $68.2 million at the domestic box office, and could still wind up earning just over $100 million by the end of its run.
All the way down in seventh place, R.I.P.D. bombed with $12.8 million at 2,852 locations. That opening is identical to last Summer’s sci-fi action comedy The Watch, which also debuted to $12.8 million (and was one of the biggest disappointments of Summer 2012). It’s also easily the lowest debut so far this year for a movie that cost over $100 million. The movie’s audience was 53 percent male and 57 percent over the age of 25, and they awarded it a weak “C+” CinemaScore (which lines up nicely with its 11 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes).
Based on the awful reviews and the poor word-of-mouth, R.I.P.D. will likely disappear quickly from theaters. Don’t fret for distributor Universal Pictures, though: Fast & Furious 6 and Despicable Me 2 will combine for around $1.5 billion worldwide, which surely goes a long way to offset R.I.P.D.’s failure.
Speaking of Universal: as of this weekend, the studio has earned over $1 billion at the domestic box office. That’s a new record for them ahead of last year, when they reached the mark in the first week of August.
In limited release, The Way, Way Back earned a very good $2.2 million from 304 locations. To date, the Sundance hit has earned $4.6 million, and will expand in to at least 650 locations next weekend.
In its second weekend, Fruitvale Station grossed $742,000 from just 34 locations, which translates to an excellent $21,824 per-theater average. With strong reviews and great word-of-mouth, Fruitvale should be able to expand nationwide over the next month or so.
Opening at 353 locations, Girl Most Likely took in a weak $736,000. That’s disappointing considering star Kristen Wiig’s previous success, and considering distributor Roadside Attractions has consistently been able to get these moderate releases to over $1 million in their opening. It’s likely that the movie’s awful reviews had something to do with this: it’s currently sitting at 16 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which is only slightly better than R.I.P.D. (and is also more important for limited releases like this).
Finally, Only God Forgives—which reteams Ryan Gosling with Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn—took in $315,000 from 78 theaters. That’s not a very good start, though it’s off-set to some extent by its day-and-date VOD release.
Around-the-World Roundup
Despicable Me 2 held on to first place at the overseas box office with $35.4 million this weekend. It’s now earned $308.4 million, which is ahead of the original movie’s $293 million final total. Despicable Me 2 is quickly approaching $600 million worldwide, and will blow past $700 million before the end of its run.
Pacific Rim was a close second this weekend with $34.8 million from 48 territories. It opened in first place in France with $3.8 million, and debuted to $2 million in Germany. To date, it’s earned $110.3 million, and still has openings in China, Spain, Brazil and Japan on the way.
Coinciding with its domestic debut, DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo took in $22.6 million from 28 markets (representing around 25 percent of the international marketplace). That’s a very good start for an original movie about car racing—Cars, for example, topped out at $217.9 million, which is a figure that Turbo should be able to match. The movie had a great $8.4 million start in Russia, and was also solid in Mexico ($3.4 million) and Brazil ($1.85 million).
Monsters University added $20.7 million this weekend for a new total of $283.9 million. It’s now the seventh-straight Pixar movie to pass $500 million worldwide, which is a remarkable accomplishment for the animation studio. Monsters still has Italy and China on the way, and should ultimately wind up above $600 million.
World War Z earned $12 million from 61 markets this weekend. To date, the Brad Pitt zombie flick has taken in $269.5 million overseas, and still has released in Spain and Japan coming up. On a worldwide basis, World War Z is at $456.4 million, which is remarkably higher than fellow Paramount release Star Trek Into Darkness ($448.6 million).
Red 2 opened to $7.6 million this weekend, most of which came from South Korea ($5.2 million). Meanwhile, R.I.P.D. debuted to $6.8 million, almost all of which was from a strong debut in Russia ($6.4 million).
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July 22, 2013 at 11:54 AM
Pacific Rim didn’t deserve this fate..
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July 22, 2013 at 3:17 PM
Yeah the domestic gross is a bummer, and the international numbers, though better, are I think being a bit oversold here. Because of the latter though there is talk that they may make a sequel! I personally enjoyed it very much.
Hollywood will have more reason to backpedal on imaginative, original productions (I don’t mean Pacific Rim is some shining beacon of originality in narrative-it’s not-but it’s also not a reboot, sequel, prequel, adaptation, whatever) with directors like Del Toro who deserve a big budget. Meanwhile Del Toro’s friend and compatriot, Cuaron, has Gravity coming out. Saw the trailer with Pacific Rim and it’s now probably the film I look forward to most this year, maybe even more than Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street.
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July 22, 2013 at 4:42 PM
yes I too loved the movie. On a related note I also checked out before Midnight finally and it’s extraordinary how Linklater has been able to maintain his edge across the trilogy. I revisited the first two films before watching this one and I liked them even more than when I first saw them.
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July 22, 2013 at 5:13 PM
I think Pacific Rim’s non- performance is kind of baffling. Other than the disadvantage of not being a sequel, hard to fathom why its performance domestically is so lacklustre! It has been very well reviewed and by all accounts is a very good film for the fenre. Even internationally, it doesntblook luke it is setting BO on fire.
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July 22, 2013 at 6:13 PM
some have talked about how a movie without stars and not with the instant recognition of a superhero franchise always operates at a disadvantage. There might be a great deal of truth to this but it doesn’t explain everything. Because had the movie been loved it would have picked up quickly. That didn’t happen. I think part of it is that much as with Bollywood blockbusters in Hollywood also have to keep pushing certain ’emotional’ buttons in very obvious ways (even Cameron has always done this). This film does a bit of that but doesn’t go all-out. At the same time it’s not the Transformers deal where all the SFX are pitched in very vulgar, obvious ways for instant gratification. Not knocking them, I enjoy many of those films but they’re not meant for much more than big initials. Del Toro as actually created a world with his film but it’s hard to pull this off at the box office. Put differently this film cannot just be consumed by the average teen (the principal demographic for such films) the way Transformers can. Del Toro has always had enough integrity not to do this. I like both installments of Hellboy but you can’t begin to compare the grosses of these films with even under performers in the superhero genre elsewhere. So even as I regret this film’s box office fate I can’t say I am totally surprised.
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July 23, 2013 at 10:44 AM
It might also be big movie fatigue. With the exception of Iron Man 3, (which domestically doubled its budget, all the more impressive because it took some risks in really leaning more on its screenplay than on effects) there hasn’t been a big live-action movie this summer that’s had impressive numbers. (Or been impressive outside of the box office for that matter.) This includes Man of Steel. Pacific Rim meanwhile was a bit of an underdog in every sense with no identifiable brand-name and an uneasy link to Transformers (uneasy because it doesn’t have the brand-name of that series, which then means it’s an association based on quality, or lack thereof, of the material) which itself hasn’t exactly hurdled ahead in profits to any impressive degree. In general I think there’s a general sense of malaise or disillusionment surrounding movies that scream BIG and of course Pacific Rim had a promotional campaign entirely focused on this.
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July 23, 2013 at 1:06 PM
Of all the summer blockbusters this year, I enjoyed World War Z the most…haven’t read the book, but have heard they could have done way more with this film. Still, found it very entertaining…
Didn’t see any superhero films, just tired of them.
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July 23, 2013 at 1:19 PM
agreed.. specially the closing or rather climactic sequence was something I absolutely loved. Apparently they initially had a much more regular predictable sort of climactic moment much like the opening sequence. However through the film’s troubled production history they at one point decided to go in for something much more low key and it works marvelously. They weren’t even expecting much from it commercially but it turned out to be a hit.
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July 23, 2013 at 1:31 PM
WWZ was fine, can’t say I found it very memorable though. I probably preferred something like I Am Legend to this one. The third Iron Man though was the most fun I think I’ve had barring maybe Pacific Rim. And this is from someone who shares your weariness with the superhero genre. What they “got” with IM3 was that the Robert Downey Jr. Show is more the point of this series than the actual superhero stuff and leaning on this as they did they made an eminently watchable movie in an age where this kind of thing, at this point, has been done to death.
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July 23, 2013 at 1:55 PM
On I am Legend didn’t like anything else in the film as much as the first 15 min or so.
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July 22, 2013 at 12:10 PM
Midweek: ‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’ best at single screens, ‘D-Day’ at plexes
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July 22, 2013 at 12:10 PM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 4h
#BhaagMilkhaBhaag *actuals – Wknd 2* Fri 4 cr, Sat 6 cr, Sun 7.50 cr. Total: 17.50 cr. Grand total: 71.29 cr. HIT.
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July 22, 2013 at 12:22 PM
http://www.india-forums.com/bollywood/hot-n-happening/35383-hip-of-theseus-collects-rs-25-46-lakh-on-opening-weekend.htm#5643126
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July 22, 2013 at 12:24 PM
Director Anand Gandhi’s “Ship of Theseus”, that released in just five cities, collected Rs.25.46 lakh on the opening weekend.
Made on a budget of Rs.2.5 crore (with print and advertising), it released Friday in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.
“Ship of Theseus” did a business of Rs.11.05 lakh Sunday, Rs.9.20 lakh on Saturday and Rs.5.21 lakh Friday. That’s a total of Rs.25.46 lakh, said a statement.
Filmmaker Kiran Rao has released the film in collaboration with UTV Motion Pictures.
The story in “Ship of Theseus” talks about human values and features three characters – an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and a stock broker.
Now, the film will release in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Kochi on demand. Director Anand Gandhi’s “Ship of Theseus”, that released in just five cities, collected Rs.25.46 lakh on the opening weekend.
Made on a budget of Rs.2.5 crore (with print and advertising), it released Friday in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.
“Ship of Theseus” did a business of Rs.11.05 lakh Sunday, Rs.9.20 lakh on Saturday and Rs.5.21 lakh Friday. That’s a total of Rs.25.46 lakh, said a statement.
Filmmaker Kiran Rao has released the film in collaboration with UTV Motion Pictures.
The story in “Ship of Theseus” talks about human values and features three characters – an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and a stock broker.
Now, the film will release in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Kochi on demand.
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July 22, 2013 at 1:01 PM
A cruel but funny joke:
There are reports that 100 kg of heroine was seized by cops from a taxi in Mumbai
The cops said on further investigation it turned out to be Sonakshi Sinha!!
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July 22, 2013 at 2:21 PM
LOL.
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July 22, 2013 at 4:39 PM
ha!
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July 22, 2013 at 5:42 PM
Kate Middleton delivers the ‘Royal Baby’–congrats…
Finally after kates paparazzi ‘topless’ scandal, something for the royals to cheer about
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/kate-middleton-gives-birth-baby-2078678
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July 22, 2013 at 5:55 PM
The timely apt bloodbath –Pacific rim and the ‘Lone’ Ranger!!!
Somehow these two flicks never interested me from the word-go.
Not because of any real ‘flaws’ as such and it wasn’t these films themselves which were the issue. Infact they looked well put together and executed projects.
But there’s something about these obese, bloated projects which is obscenely indicative of the times we live in.
The ‘bigger better deal’ that used to be a reserve for certain adept females (!!) now can be said about these sequels/prequels/franchise vfx ‘extravaganzas’.
There’s one thing that’s been common in TDKR, iron man, man of steel–after a while, one wonders–What the heck is going on–I mean, it gets more than mechanical!
Obviously for kids (& overgrown kids) that’s not obvious.
In a way, this genre has become more predicatable than the humble ‘rom com’ since the latter atleast has a certain ‘human touch’ and ‘soul’ (usually ) & above all don’t cost a bomb!!!!
The problem isn’t only the overemphasis on ‘synthetic special effects’ only but a certain over-reliance on ‘technique’ and the ‘lack of soul’.
In the current economic scenario, it is a very timely and infact necessary reality check to put these errant producers under check.
Spielberg (as usual) was right recently and this stuck in my mind.
Something on the lines of —
Try visualising a small film which is high on concept and u literally scrape through n struggle gettin the finances needed.
Conceptualise a ‘big extravaganza’ and the moneybags literally pour in spontaneously
Time these moneybags get a reality check–
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July 23, 2013 at 1:08 AM
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has emerged a SUPER HIT and the third biggest hit of 2013 after Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Aashiqui 2 as it saw rock steady collections in its second weekend of around 16 crore nett.
The film continued its excellent run in Delhi and Punjab and could well be amongst the top ten grossing films of all time in Delhi/Up and East Punjab. The ten day business of the film is 69.50 crore nett approx.
The film has been given a tax exemption in Maharashtra and although it has not done well in Maharashtra outside Mumbai city and Pune, the contribution from these two cities is huge for Maharashtra. This could help the film touch the 100 crore nett mark.
BOI
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July 23, 2013 at 1:22 AM
Q. Will it be Dhoom 3 or Krrish 3 that will break the opening record of Ek Tha Tiger?
A. It may be Besharam. Infact Besharam may break all records including 3 Idiots lifetime record and the likes of Krrish 3 and Dhoom 3 may be chasing Besharam instead of Ek Tha Tiger opening or 3 Idiots lifetime.
BOI question answer segment.
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July 23, 2013 at 3:19 AM
Besharam is likely to reap the full rewards from the YJHD box office story. But it’s unlikely to be able to pull off an ETT or potentially D3/Krrish 3 if all three perform at their best. This because Besharam won’t do much outside multiplexes. Whether the YJHD performance can be substantially improved upon remains to be seen since this film too was a multiplex deal. A bigger opening is definitely possible but whether it can sustain as well again becomes debatable. Meanwhile the real benchmark for Krrish 3 or Dhoom 3 isn’t really matching or doing better than D3. This has been unbreachable barrier in absolute terms so far but really one cannot use the absolute standard. One has to account for the 4 years or so that will have intervened in between by the time any of these films release. D3 for instance should be doing well in excess of 200 crores. In 2006 D2 had the biggest initial and total and good trending. To live upto those standards all round the film would have to do 300 crores. Not joking. But at the very least it ought to be doing 250. Obviously the media will go crazy over it with far less but that’s the real standard here. Similarly Krrish if it repeats the performances of the previous two films in the franchise will or ought to be doing 275 crores or something. These numbers sound like a lot but keep in mind that just about all the big masala grossers have been underperforming or even tanking after big openings. Meanwhile YJHD maintained its pace and did 185 or whatever it was. In other words a film with wider appeal could easily do more than this with similar audience acceptance. It’s hard to pull it off with masala because both sets of audiences cannot be kept equally happy. Difficult to thread this needle without a proper script-based masala film (Ghajini had it and did huge numbers). But D3 won’t have that problem. The rest is basically a question of how well they’ve made the film for the genre, how well they’ve used the stars and so on. As a matter of fact and though the film did very well I thought D2 could have done 100 crores in 2006. It just wasn’t a good enough script. Between the two one could still make a greater excuse for Krrish 3 not living up to the franchise’s previous benchmarks. With Rakesh Roshan what makes the film universal also makes it cheesy for multiplex demographics and it’s hard to maintain that pace if most demographics don’t like it equally. So keeping this factor in mind even a 230 crore or more number would be perhaps acceptable here, assuming an ETT like initial. Less than this would be disappointing unless of course the film opens less than expected. Once again though it just has to touch 200 and the media will start calling it a 200 crore club and not care about the rest. All I’m saying is that there might be some excuse for Krrish 3 but none exists for D3.
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July 23, 2013 at 4:17 AM
If Besharam underperforms, the bar for other films will be reduced. Besharam has a new heroine and the burden will be solely on Ranbir’s starpower while he shared his starpower with that of Deepika P. in YJHD.
Dhoom 3 seems to be for an elite audience while Krrish 3 seems to be for the masses.Both have their own sets of limitations irrespective of starpower. Maybe some dark horse may walk away with the honours. Here I am not bothered about BO but the quality. Will it be different in some special way? It will also test the starpower of the lead.
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July 23, 2013 at 8:56 AM
Dhoom 3 and elite audiences?!
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July 23, 2013 at 2:45 PM
Aamir Khan does not have mass appeal the way the others khans have. Dhoom 3 is in no way a dabangg or even a ghajini.
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July 23, 2013 at 4:55 PM
wasn’t Aamir in Ghajini?! It broke all records at the time. Then there was 3I which also broke all records and also starred Aamir.
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July 24, 2013 at 12:44 AM
What I am trying to say is a film like Dhoom 3, an action flick without an emotional storyline and with a niche star like aamirkhan is a difficult proposition. While ghajini and 3 Idiots had emotional content.
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July 23, 2013 at 2:44 AM
http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2013/jul/230713-d-day-ramaiya-vastavaiya-collect-rs-10-and-12-crore-respectively.htm
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July 23, 2013 at 4:35 AM
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/ship-of-theseus-can-it-be-indias-oscar-entry-this-year/408771-8-66.html
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July 23, 2013 at 10:04 AM
Think besharam will have a lower (but v good) multiplex pull but the single screen maybe better due to the abhinav kashyap effect. Not sure of the mom-dad cast though….what’s the rest of the cast?
Anyhow lately am liking the space this guy is in–somehow enjoy his films-
Happy ending saif-ileana-Kalki
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/saif-ali-khan-in-happy-ending-film-opposite-ileana-dcruz-and-kalki-koechlin/1/292560.html
Unsure of Kalki –thou she was quite good in Yjhd …
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July 23, 2013 at 7:24 PM
A LATE QUARTET
Don’t get taken in by the slightly ‘senior citizen’ look of the promo. Had the same vibe myself, but was coaxed to to it out by a musician friend (the idyllic location helped!). I ended up liking it better than the musician buddy who got hung up with some technicalities of string music. As I’ve said earlier, a good film doesn’t come with reputations, statutory warnings or groundwork-it works for itself! These words convey my sentiments on this film. The moments when and idea for a story, the intelligence of a script to tell it, the sensitivity of the director to make it work, and the cast of extraordinary actors to make it visual come all too infrequently these days in the films that cross our theater screens. A LATE QUARTET is such a complete success on so many levels that it should be considered a standard for filmmaking excellence. It is cerebral, yes, it is best appreciated by people who are involved in some way with classical music even if that be solely as an audience, but the dynamics of this little ‘community’ of people drawn together by a lasting contract to rehearse and perform for the better part of their time and the effect of physical proximity and the risks of intellectual/artistic distances have rarely been so exquisitely painted.
The honored Fugue Quartet has been living and performing together for 25 years: first violin Daniel Lerner (Ukrainian American actor Mark Ivanir), second violin Robert Gelbart (Philip Seymour Hoffman), cellist Peter Mitchell (Christopher Walken), and violist Juliette Gelbart (Catherine Keener) make such perfect music together that we would never guess their lives are askew. Peter is diagnosed as having Parkinson’s Disease and understands that his performing days are now severely limited; the Gelbart’s marriage is at risk because of the tatters of time and the dealing with daughter Alexandra (Imogen Poots) who reacts to her history of being an alone child by entering into a physical affair with obsessive Daniel and Robert’s ill-advised one night stand with the young beautiful Pilar (Liraz Charhi); Robert’s surfacing jealousy of wanting to be first violin: the struggle with whether the quartet should disband due to Peter’s illness or continue with a new cellist. All of this complex interplay of human relationships is underlined by the quartet’s rehearing of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14, opus 131 – a long quartet of seven movements played without interval. It is a sensitively drawn allegory that takes us all the way to the end of the film.
In addition to the bravura acting of the four lead actors there are side stories that are enormously touching: the affair between Alexandra and Daniel, the conflict between Alexandra and her absentee mother (a brilliant scene), the schism between Robert and Juliette as the foundation of their marriage begins to crumble, and the extraordinarily sensitive moment when Peter longs for his deceased wife Miriam – as the image of Miriam (Anne Sofie von Otter) is seen and heard in is mind.
An obvious glory of the film is its music. Beethoven’s No.14, Op.131 is one of his most profound late quartets, and its colours illuminate the drama that develops, right up to the climactic concert.
The film does two other things miraculously well. First, it takes us behind the scenes and convincingly shows us how a musical ensemble works — or fails to work. Anyone who has performed music with other people — even in a rock group — will recognise themselves in these characters. Secondly, A Late Quartet cleverly dramatises its central message, which is that some combinations of people are much greater than they could ever be on their own or in another group.
To add, this has a grope of middle aged /ageing actors but has a universal theme executed maturely and sensitively whilst maintaining the requisite sentimentality and gravitas. For ‘real’ music lovers.
But above all, this one has no big budgeted franchise, no action set pieces, not even pseudo-reputation helping along and definitely not red bikini clad/ superhero costume laden ‘extravaganzas’. But it’s got not one but multiple acting clinics and many superbly nuanced acting moments.
I invite the talented and brilliantly knowledgeable ‘cineaste panel’ own this panel to kindly opine whose was the best acting performance-the problem is that all the actors on display on nominees in this ‘genuine acting contest’ !!
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July 23, 2013 at 7:42 PM
A LATE QUARTET-contd
This is not to be confused with Hoffmann’s Quartet and though it sounds a similar morose ‘elderly’ vibe, it’s not exactly Amour either!
The other day, there was talk here of the likes of ‘Pacific Rim’ and ‘Lone Ranger’ (rightly) failing–and though there were some useful comments, the key messages remained unchanged somewhat in the discourse. Does ‘bigger’ ‘flashier’ ‘ expensive’ and gaudy always have to better and does it automatically deserve (paying) eyeballs?
This is one of those really nice, small, independent films for adults that attracts great actors not with fat paychecks, but with the opportunity to do great work together, even if few ever see it.
If you like music, A Late Quartet is a no-brainer. If you don’t, but want to see a story about the tensions that can build over time in a group of experts, brought to life by some of the best actors in the game, at the top of their games with histrionic understated mastery.
I don’t know–what the ‘ratings’ or ‘rotten tomatoes’ percentages etc are (which many check out at an impulse before ‘declaring’ their own)–c’mon folks, watch movies with your hearts & have the conviction to back up your own instincts — be it a Nolan or a Tarantino -shouldnt we put em to the real test before idolising & worshipping them?
Enjoyed this one. classically classy…
Ps: if anybody has checked this one out (doubt it somehow) would be interesting to know which one u feel was the best performance here & why ? Thanx…
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July 23, 2013 at 7:57 PM
Also, a few days earlier there was a ‘debate’ on music here with some quite exotic names being thrown in (some of whom I admit to not knowing about!). With due respect to all the other esteemed commenters here, and at the risk of sounding arrogant, this ones really only for the true lovers of music & ‘mature’ cinema (sorry again, folks)
I’m intrigued by the performances here.
Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour, Catherine Keener, Imogen Poots and finally a surpisingly unsettling (for me) performance by the little-known (till now to me) Mark Ivanir…
Will specially value the comments of Satyam and utkal uncle on this one….thanx (though on this film I will be surprised to get any comments from them haha)
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July 23, 2013 at 8:02 PM
haven’t seen it..
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July 24, 2013 at 5:39 AM
Hollywood and bollywood both are suffering from the same problem. More more watchable movies and less and less profitable films. The paying public cant watch every movie(both time and money constraints) and they wait for the dvds.
Salman Khan has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. What his old friend aamir and new friend srk will say? Will there be petitions in support of him? Meanwhile curative petition of sanjay dutt has been rejected by the supreme court. Hard times for bollywood?
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July 24, 2013 at 8:43 AM
Milkha’s success casts a long shadow on the Box Office
By Subhash K. Jha, Jul 24, 2013 – 04:26 IST
The phenomenal Box Office success of the Milkha Singh bio-pic has thrown the movie business into a tizzy. While in the first week, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s bio-pic raked in approximately Rs. 55 crores, in the second week it maintained a lead over the new releases, raking in Rs 3.58 crores in Mumbai, as opposed to the Rs. 3.42 crores opening for Prabhudheva’s new release Ramaiya Vastavaiya and Rs. 2.45 crores for Nikhil Advani’s D-Day.
Says the film’s jubilant director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, “Our film’s reach has exceeded all our expectations. We knew Milkhaji’s story would have a resonant emotional impact. But we couldn’t have guessed it would reach so far and wide.”
The immediate impact of the ace-runner’s saga is a heightened interest in films related to sports and sports persons. Debutant director Omung Kumar is shooting a bio-pic on boxer Mary Kom. Ekta Kapoor has bought the movie rights of the life of cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin. And a biopic on the life of legendary hockey player Dhyan Chand is in the pipeline.
Says Farhan Akhtar, “I am just so happy. Acceptance and recognition of one’s effort is such a wonderful feeling.”
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July 24, 2013 at 8:43 AM
Salman Khan charged with culpable homicide
By Bollywood Hungama News Network, Jul 24, 2013 – 13:09 hrs IST
The latest ruling by the court in Salman Khan’s hit and run case states that the actor will be tried for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Under the new charges framed against him, Salman can face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty.
On the other hand, Khan has pleaded not guilty in court; while during the hearing the actor’s council has demanded that the media be restrained in terms of reporting on the trial, to which the judge has petitioned the media to exercise self restraint on reportage, while also exempting Salman from a personal appearance in the next court hearing, which is slated for August 19.
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July 24, 2013 at 12:48 PM
Woody Allen’s latest, Blue Jasmine, a loose adaptation of Streetcar Named desire, is getting strong reviews.
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July 24, 2013 at 2:12 PM
http://www.bollywoodmantra.com/news/is-being-a-key-witness-in-salmans-case-a-crime/12094/
this is upsetting
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July 24, 2013 at 2:20 PM
Are you talking about Ravindra Patil, the constable who was hounded and allowed to die like a dog?
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July 24, 2013 at 8:46 PM
yes, exactly! That’s exactly what I’m upset about.
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July 24, 2013 at 10:12 PM
Even Arnab is not taking up this matter. The power of the powerful and the rich.
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July 24, 2013 at 10:19 PM
It’s just the really unfortunate part of India. Being from India, I know that law doesn’t mean anything…justice doesn’t mean anything…it’s all politics. Corrupt…almost every damn person. -_-
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July 24, 2013 at 4:26 PM
Blue Jasmine and Cate Blancett from the film have strong buzz indeed. Here is Rick Marianetti on the film:’ Seeing Blanchett’s exhausting, exhilarating performance is like watching a great opera diva dive into the role of Violetta or Elektra. Wielding a sense of entitlement as boundless as it is unjustified, Jasmine is an insufferable, condescending, unintentionally funny woman barley stabilized by a steady intake of Xanax and Stoli. Yet by the end of the film, she will have you in tears. It’s a magical performance.
Unlike “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989), where comedy and tragedy unfold in parallel plotlines, here they reside in the same scene, even the same frame. While the comic elements are unmistakably Allen, there is no Woody stand-in, like Kenneth Branagh in “Celebrity” (1998). Nor does the director appear in the film. It’s not a good thing when you know a character so well you can see the punch lines coming from over the horizon, as in “To Rome with Love” (2012). Allen has made “Blue Jasmine” fresh while managing to weave into the film every comic genre but slapstick.’
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July 24, 2013 at 5:32 PM
Jobs
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July 24, 2013 at 10:21 PM
Kutcher is going to be the ruination of this movie. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY would they get KUTCHER to play Steve Jobs!?
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July 25, 2013 at 1:21 AM
Chennai Box-Office – July 19-21
Tuesday, 23 July , 2013, 12:12
The `Kadal Raasa` reigned supreme at the CBO this week. Maryan opened well and netted approximately Rs 1.65 Cr in first three days from nearly 35 screens in Chennai and suburbs. Heavy rains during the weekend dampened the box-office.
In the number two position is Suriya`s Singam 2, which is almost neck to neck with the number one in its third week. At number three is UTV`s TVSK which is rock steady at the box-office.
Bhaag Milka Bhaag continues to do super business in Tamil Nadu especially Chennai city multiplexes. BMB is in the fourth place. And at number five is White House Down, which took an average opening.
http://www.sify.com/movies/boxoffice.php?id=15034657&cid=13525926
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July 25, 2013 at 1:24 AM
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag Looking To Touch 100 Crore
Wednesday 24th July 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag looks set to hit the 100 crore nett mark as collections remain rock steady on the weekdays. The film will gross around 26 crore nett in week two which will take the two week collections close to 80 crore nett and then it has two weeks before a big film arrives.
The non performance of D Day and Ramaiya Vastavaiya helped the collections in the second week and it should dominate the box office for the next two weeks unless one of the small to medium budget films to be releases surprise.
If it does mange to hit the 100 crore nett mark it will be the 18th film to do so and second this year after Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.
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July 25, 2013 at 5:27 AM
Its just awesome that this film is touching 100cr,excellent film by farhan
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July 25, 2013 at 8:59 AM
Ranbir-Katrina’s Intimate Spanish Holiday
“You don’t get to see such beautiful pictures. It also establishes that Ranbir and Katrina are in love with each other,” says Ram Kamal Mukherjee, Editor of Stardust that has carried exclusive pictures of Ranbir and Katrina holidaying together in an undisclosed location in Spain in its latest edition. “The pictures have been shot by an international photographer who was completely unaware who they were. He causally asked me how big are Ranbir and Katrina. I said regarding what! He said that I have a few of their pictures holidaying together. The pictures were shot at a private beach where Ranbir and Katrina were seen indulging in a few water sports as well,” Mukherjee added.
There have been several news reports of Ranbir and Katrina seeing each other for quite some time now. They’ve also been seen travelling together in cars but these pictures are a tell-all on how close the two are. “There’s no harm in falling in love. As a responsible media person we should guard ourselves. In the article we’ve not spoken about their past, Salman or Deepika. We’ve just given the pictures and we’ve said these two are in love and are looking nice. We’ve drawn the line over there,” says Mukherjee.
Katrina has always closely guarded her personal life while Ranbir and Deepika admitted to being in a relationship and gracefully moved on after parting ways. “Katrina never spoke about Salman and never said that she is in love with him. She always said that Salman is a very good friend, is indispensible in her life. Ranbir was vocal about his love for Deepika. I think his experience with media was not that great (then) and (now) maybe this is his way of saying that yes we are in love and the pictures say a million bucks,” Mukherjee concluded.
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July 25, 2013 at 9:18 AM
Nice foursome. Salman, Katrina, Ranbir, Deepika!
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July 25, 2013 at 9:30 AM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/No-one-was-ready-to-pick-Bhaag-Milkha–Mehra/articleshow/21330201.cms
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July 29, 2013 at 7:39 AM
Chennai Express Vs OUATIMD: Has UTV gone back on their word to Balaji?
By Bollywood Hungama News Network, July 29, 2013 – 12:27 hrs IST
When two major films are slated to release on the same day, it’s not surprising that there will be fireworks. However, avoiding the clash that was to be this Eid, Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures postponed the release of their Akshay Kumar-Imran Khan starrer Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbaai Dobaara to the following week (Aug 15), while UTV’s Shah Rukh Khan-Deepika Padukone starrer Chennai Express continued with the Eid release on Aug 8 (Thursday).
A source adds “This understanding came into being post both production houses reached a mutual agreement which stated that, while UTV would book a bulk of the screens for Chennai Express on Eid, they would in turn release a certain number of screens for Balaji’s OUATIMD on Aug 15.”
However, with Eid shifting to Friday from Thursday (as predicted earlier), the release date of Chennai Express was shifted from Aug 8 at Aug 9. This results in Chennai Express getting a full-fledged all out theatrical run of only 6 days as OUATIMD arrives on the following Thursday (Independence Day). Shah Rukh Khan, who is going all out to promote Chennai Express would surely want his film to be registered at least amongst the top 3 grossers of this year, especially with Ranbir Kapoor sitting on the top at the moment, and losing the business of even one day could dent that possibility majorly.
Looking at all these factors, it seems that UTV has scrapped the earlier agreement of releasing certain number of screens for OUATIMD. Adds the source, “With UTV shifting the release of Chennai Express by a day, they wanted a complete 7 day run for the film. In fact they even asked Balaji to shift OUATIMD by a day. But how could Balaji give up a major holiday release day? Finally, UTV decided to not abide by the initial agreement of releasing screens for OUATIMD which has not gone down well with the big bosses at Balaji Motion Pictures.”
When contacted, sources from UTV refuted the story saying, “As of now, we haven’t even looked into the distribution angle, nor have we booked any screens. This entire process of booking screens will start a little before the film releases, so how can the question of releasing screens arise? Besides both films are big so we don’t think that there will be much of a problem for OUATIMD or for that matter Chennai Express to book screens.” Further adding, “There was no such deal of releasing screens in the first place between UTV and Balaji.”
Last month, it was Karan Johar who stepped in to break the war between SRK-UTV and Balaji to work out a mutual understanding and avoid the clash between the two biggies Chennai Express and OUATIMD. The resultant was Balaji shifting their film to the following week for an Independence Day release. But now, with the sudden death of this mutual agreement and Chennai Express taking up maximum screens, OUATIMD certainly has an uphill task once it releases. Also, team Balaji seems quite miffed with the whole situation and it needs to be seen whether Karan Johar will have to step in once again to sort this ugly situation.
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July 29, 2013 at 7:39 AM
Taran has BMB at 92:
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/box-office/special-features/id/225
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July 29, 2013 at 8:04 AM
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag Crosses 90 Crore In 17 Days
Monday 29th July 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has grossed over 90 crore nett in 17 days as it grossed around 9-9.50 crore nett in its third weekend. The figures for the film till date are as follows.
Week One – 53,37,00,000
Week Two – 27,98,00,000
Week Three – 9,25,00,000 approx
TOTAL – 90,60,00,000
The film will now comfortably go over 100 crore and even beat a couple of 100 crore nett grossers like Bol Bachchan and Jab Tak Hai Jaan. It could even challenge the 106 crore nett figures of Barfi! and Don 2,
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July 29, 2013 at 8:04 AM
D Day And Ramaiya Vastavaiya Fall Heavily In Second Weekend
Monday 29th July 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
D Day and Ramaiya Vasavaiya fell heavily in their respective second weekend’s as D day collected around 2.25 crore nett and Ramaiya Vastavaiya around 3.75 crore nett. D day fell 75% while Ramaiya Vastavaiya fell 70% ands these falls are from poor first week collections.
The total for D Day after ten days is 16 crore nett approx while Ramaiya Vastavaiya is around 23.50 crore nett after ten days. D day is dull across the board while Ramaiya Vastavaiya is doing average business in places like Rajasthan, CI and parts of Maharashtra but with major contributors like Delhi, Punjab and Mumbai city dull it makes little difference to the overall collections.
The new releases performed poorly but that did not give any boost to D Day or Ramaiya Vastavaiya.
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