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277 Responses to “Besharam, the rest of the box office”
Besharam To Have Second Widest Release Of All Time
Tuesday 1st October 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam is set for the widest release of all time after Chennai Express. It will be Ranbir Kapoor’s widest release easily crossing the 3100 screens of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.
Chennai Express had released on 3700 screens and Besharam will fall short of that due to less screens in the South. Chennai Express had a phenomenal release in the South as there was no major Tamil or Telugu release at the time so Chennai Express got a release where normally Hindi films don’t get a release as exhibitors needed a new film for Eid weekend. In Tamil Nadu/Kerala, Chennai express was released on nearly 175 screens when most other big films come on less than 100 screens. It was a similar story in Nizam/Andhra and Mysore and its because of the release that Chennai Express has smashed records in these areas by such huge margins.
Besharam will release on around 3500 plus screens with the 200 screen shortfall coming down South. The advances are good for the film all over be it multiplexes or single screens but with such a wide release advances don’t really matter as the key is can it keep up the pace all through the day and how big is that second day fall as it is a Wednesday release. Dabangg 2 is the second widest release at the moment with 3450 screens which Besharam should surpass when it releases tomorrow (Wednesday).
Wednesday 2nd October 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam took a flying start with multiplexes recording 90% occupancies on average over the first two shows. The opening in Delhi NCR was extraordinary and as big as any film with collections 100% at most theatres.
If we compare with record openers like Chennai Express and Ek Tha Tiger than the opening is comparable in the big cities but as the city gets smaller there is a gap between Besharam and those films. This is also indicates that when the noon show starts at single screens it will be less than those films.
The single screens will still be huge but not at the level of Ek Tha Tiger or Chennai Express as although the film has more commercial ingredients than the regular Ranbir Kapoor film, the promos do indicate a Rom-Com rather than action or masala film.
The release for the film is huge and if it gets that 80% start at single screens and keeps the pace going at multiplexes then the first day total could go to around 25 crore nett. The chances are there with it being a holiday as long as public reports don’t disappoint.
Wow Ranbir…anything over 20crrs prove how big Ranbir is now and rests any doubt about his superstar status. This movie had hardly any buzz…lol it was releasing today and people were hardly speaking about it and Rambo Rajkumar, Raam Leela, Bullet Raja were getting more attention
It will be fun to see the much of the public & the trade guys mast!@##$%ng over Ranbir Kapoor. As expected, the trade guys (or whatever one wants to call them) have the ‘pitch’ ready as one calls in cricket parlance. The commentary is going to be only in fours and sixes; no singles, no wides, and definitely no dot balls!!!
BESHARAM is surely an apt title for the movie!!!! Let the number games/auction begin..
Cinema; quality – huh? what are those Mars-centric terms??
Oh yeah…as if most of the blockbusters have quality….if quality was to measure box office then Rocket Singh would have been Ranbir’s biggest blockbuster not YJHD
Ya I know..talking about quality is equivalent to talking about Goddard or Ray..the quality of SHOLAY or BAAZIGAR has a different dictionary meaning I guess..
The movie had a terrible WOM. The opening day is good though and can just fall short of 25 cr but lifetime 100 cr looks out of question. This looks like it will fall from tomorrow. Also the question on who really called the shots in da bang will surface now.
quite surprised. How hard is is to make a passable film in this genre?! Kashyap was always going to be a bit of a wildcard since he hadn’t done something like this before. Still for even Taran to give it 1.5 stars shows it’s utterly terrible. And Kashyap deserves all the blame he gets. Following on YJHD he couldn’t have asked for a better deal here.
I had this feeling from trailors that if this film go wrong it can go wrong very badly. The kind of character – the over the top, loud and lewd guy – sometimes you are treading on a very fine line between an endearing character and a complete turn off. This one looks to be falling in the turn off category. The first day will be fine and looks to be around 23 crores now but it is going to be downhill from tomorrow morning
A bad film from any actor, superstar , whoever –deserves to fail. Reviews are terrible — and frankly, am not surprised. The ads and promos had put me off. The Lunchbox is going strong. Glad that this little film with fabulous performances from real actors –who portray real believable people — it’s doing well, deserves to.
I am surprised some people in this forum saw some worth in the film. I mean it could have surprised, but if one had to go by the trailer, it was lame in every department. The jokes were flat, the songs were stale, the staging of the songs unimaginative. The song, ‘ Jo Haal Dil Ka’ was the last straw for me..such a pointless, unimaginative rehash of the 80’s songs! Only Ranbir seemed to be trying his best. Everything else was crap. Wahta pity, seemingly intelligent directors , ranging from Mani Ratnam and Sanjay Bhnsali to Anil Sharma and Sajid Khan fail to recognize what elements in their last successful films were the good elements and what were the bad.
It was not a question of worth. This movie is intended to make money and sell papers further stamping RK’s stardom. So, in light of that, QUALITY was not at all one of the metrics here!! All that it has to do is is have at least 0.25 tsp of proper masala in it and it would click. Now if the maker doesn’t even bother to work on very minimal stuff like pacing, music, and a half-decent storyline, what can anyone do?
I expected/still expect this film to do well because basically, the ULTIMATE goal is 100 crores, which even trash like GM can make. Quality (& by quality I mean the standards for some good masala) is somewhere down, buried deep down beneath the rubble of over-praising media and public manipulation. When the bar itself is so low, so beneath everything, naturally the expectations also nose-dive.
We are setting the bar so low when everything and everybody is just busy counting money in the first 10 minutes, 50 minutes, 1 day or so, that over-bending is causing the audience to become hunch-backs!!
Why? I think 100crr plus will be fine…little disappointing but will be fine given how it looked from the promos and hardly anyone cared. Whatever business it will be doing is purely on Ranbir’s star power inspite of so much of negativity around the movie. SRK survived so many low 100crr grosser (and looked out of top race) before he hit it out of the park with CE
yes but for all those examples doesn’t each star have far more that did?! Satyagraha isn’t a fair example anyway (or Talaash in some ways.. both films could have got to that point but the bar is higher for these sorts of subjects.. it’s not like asking why RNBDJ didn’t reach 100 despite being liked when Ghajini did 115 releasing around the same time!) but in the other strong genres the point is that a film has to be utterly rejected not to be able to get to 100 crores. In other words it must be absolutely hated. This is a false standard anyway. It’s like asking how many films in Hollywood make 200m. Because even the worst Pirates or Transformers installments go comfortably past this benchmark. That doesn’t mean everyone loves them. And no one raises the question: hey how many films go past 200? These kinds of questions are raised in India because of completely partisan reasons. If you want to pretend that Ra One getting to 100 means something you have to call this a benchmark. So on and so forth. For all these films that open at a certain level 150 really ought to be the more reasonable benchmark, not 100.
“I am surprised some people in this forum saw some worth in the film”—
It wasn’t ‘Some people’ but ‘only me!’ Lol
I can’t comment without seeing the film but this wasn’t supposed to have a Yjhd catchy vibe anyways & having a ‘kashyap’ at the helm meant there was inherent box office risk (big time!)
But the negativity on this one has been unprecendented as of people were WAITING to pounce on the film and kill it!!
I don’t care –if it fails, let it fail–targets won’t be revised !!
Less than 120 crores should be poor(as I said before) !
Anyhow long term, this should have a sobering effect on ranbir and prevent him going the ‘Rajesh khanna’ way.
Having said that, I still had /have more belief in abhinav kashyap and even pallavi sharda.
Will still catch it this week!
The only difference is that I may have to catch it today /early on incase the reviews are so bad and the film is taken off from the theatres near me (has happened in the past!)
The decision that I shall catch this film on the big screen was made the day I read the tagline—
“Na apmaan ka bhay
Na sammaan ka moh”
Wow
And I won’t change now either ….
Ps: this is not about fans or apologists who revise the targets /predictions after seeing the first weekend collections!!!
🙂
“The song, ‘ Jo Haal Dil Ka’ was the last straw for me.”—
This is how a ‘fully clothed heroine!’ Is bothering folks!!
C’mon folks–rise above this superficiality 🙂
Hmm maggie–the ‘timing’ of that declaration is interesting –just on the eve of besharam release!!
Srk and aamir are old hats in this but even Salman having to resort to this shows that ranbirs now a real threat to them!
Anyhow read somewhere that ranbir declared pre release lat week that he KNEW the response to trailers etc was poor but he was ready for any verdict -no excuses…
Proud of that —this guy ranbir will stay and rule long after these flicks and khans have gone…
He’s here for the long run…
Ager Yjhd, rockstar, barfi–ranbir could have gone for ANY sure shot hit maker aka kjo clan
But does he choose?
Abhinav and anurag (kashyap brothers) for besharam and Bombay violet!!
THE risky eccentric mavericks around …
Ok maggie–checking out pallavi sharda (more than) match steps with ranbir here.. (Incase the film turns out to be too bad shortly lol)
Reveiws seem overwhelmingly bad but am not sure about WOM.
If WOM is also bad, obviously will crash from Mon but public has its own mind. But, certainly is not a blockbuster.
The ‘Real’ Big movie has actually released in TN today. ‘Idharthane Aasapattai Balakumara’. The movie has released to rave reviews and taken an excellent opening too. Infact even in Sathyam cinemas Besharam has been given smaller screens compared to IAB. This looks like the 4th success for Vijay Sethupathy in a row after Pizza, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kannom and Soodhu Kaavum. The actor is building a fantastic resume of movies and his next two movies ‘Rummy’ and ‘Pannaiyarrum Padminiyum’ also promises to be very exciting.
Ok folks–before the ‘negativity’ spreads &/or the film gets taken off midweek (& difficult to get ‘company’)—checking out besharam today itself shortly…
The defintive review shortly (
Doodh ka doodh!)… 🙂
Paida nanga huaa to
Kaahe ki kaahe ki sharam
Maai baap naa hi
Naa koi dharam
Tedhe medhon se kadak
Seedhe saadon se naram
Fun harfunmaula hardum….
This is worst reviewed Ranbir movie…although not very surprising as the trailers and vibe were really bad for this…Ranbir should improve his acting style in action sequences…seems he have done comedy action like APKGK during fight scenes. May be he needs to do some intense and serious action roles. Besharam might get away with 100crr or so but overall it will definitely affect his next movie and star status. What he have garnered among public as giving quality movie have been hit hard with Besharam…YJHD also to some extent but that was somehow passable. He needs something like Rocket Singh/Barfi/Rockstar next to gain that trust again.
Think you’re flying off the deep end. Even if this is some massively bad movie it doesn’t represent some major violation on Ranbir’s part that he now has to redeem himself for! He’s hit a strong enough stride right now that a failure here won’t really hurt him, much less hobble his overall relationship with the audience. If anything it’s Abhinav Kashyap who’s going to get beat up here if the reviews are to be trusted, which is, as always, a major caveat in these matters especially when it’s this early. I’m going to wait for a few voices and of course Rangan to weigh in to see what’s up here.
Besharam Takes Bumper Opening; Milestone For Ranbir?
by Box Office India (October 2, 2013)
Ranbir Kapoor has created a stir at the box office once more, with Besharam rocking the ticket counter on its opening day, a national holiday, today. The film took a bumper opening in almost all territories and is expected to earn Rs 20 crore, all-India NBOC.
With this film, which also features Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor and debutante Pallavi Sharda, Ranbir has finally joined the big league of actors as he has been accepted in a massy avatar. Let’s find out what distributors have to say about Kapoor’s latest release.
Rajesh Thadani, Multimedia Combines, Mumbai
Being a Ranbir Kapoor film, Besharam opened on a slow note. But from the second show, the film saw huge growth and the occupancy is around 99 per cent all over India as well as in Mumbai. The film will definitely do business of Rs 20 crore on day one all-India and around Rs 7 crore in Mumbai.
Brijesh Tandon, HK Tandon And Company, Delhi-UP
In UP and Delhi, the film is running house full since the second show of the day. Word-of-mouth publicity is also very good. It’s Ranbir’s first massy film and everyone has accepted him in the massy avatar. On day one, Besharam will earn around Rs 4.5 crore in our territory.
Jaspal Dhingra, Nanaskar Enterprises, East Punjab
Besharam is doing outstanding business in our circuit. The film is growing with every show. However, it didn’t open as well as Ranbir’s last film, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani still, it is going strong and it’s got a long week to run. On day one, the film will do business of around Rs 1.7 crore.
Gaurav Gaur, O’real Imaginations, Rajasthan
Besharam is a massy film and Ranbir Kapoor has joined the big league of actors, where he appeals to all types of audiences. In Rajasthan, the film is clocking 100-per cent occupancy in single-screens and multiplexes. Collections on day one are pegged at Rs 1 crore.
Debashish Dey, Aum Moviez, West Bengal
Besharam is doing outstanding business in West Bengal. Every show is house full here and there is huge advance booking for the night shows. On day one, the film will clock around Rs 1 crore. We expect great returns at the weekend as well.
Looks even worse than that…at least ra-one have vfx and all. The wom seems utterly poor and the cracks have started to appear on the first day itself. Abhinav should now shut up and Ranbir should start paying attention to scripts….again.
But may be Ranbir thought it will be something different for him…looks like all the blame should go to Abhinav who have literally come up with C grade flick here.
Wednesday 2nd October 2013 13.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam is looking at the third highest opening day collections of all time. The multiplexes have opened to excellent response (bumper at places) but the single screen opening is not what it should be.
In a territory in Delhi/UP, the multiplexes and few single screens in Delhi city are bumper, most multiplexes in UP are very good but single screens in UP are just good (65-70%) which is good for a normal day but not a holiday.
It is similar story in circuits like Rajasthan and CI where multiplexes are performing very well but single screens are not as they should be. The film is likely to get the third highest opening ever but is unlikely to reach the 25 crore nett mark as single screens have not performed as they should have. The reports of the film are also not that strong but that will come more into play from tomorrow onwards.
I think entire blame shouldn’t go to Abhinav. When Ranbeer did Rocket Singh, WUS, Rockstar, Burfi and YJHD. Then everyone said Ranbeer has a good sense of script. Now if he fas choosen Besharam then some blame should go to him. If we give Ranbeer benifit of doubt then it is like Meetha-Meetha gadam kadwa-Kadwa thu.
while i agree with the narrative on Besharam…the only problem i have is Taran and most indian box office ‘experts’ do not show consistency in this area. if this were a SRK or Sallu starrer, we’d be reading all kinds of crazy superlatives right about now and no mention of what it really “should’ve” collected.
Indeed Ranbir belongs to top tier…the OD just proves it…however the wom seems so bad that the cracks have started to appear from evening shows itself and might struggle to hit 100crrs.
The late night shows for this movie dropped so the first day is around 20 which is okay for a movie releasing on a holiday. Today there is a major drop across the board and early estimates are looking to be around 8 crore which is poor. From today onwards and if today is 8 crores this will not add much more than 60 crores s expect the movie to wind down at 80 crores. The movie needed 110 crores for a clean hit status so we are looking at a below average fare here with losses of around 25 crores.
A very poor result for all concerned. This also yet again shows that if a movie is not liked then holiday will not help and drop will show the next day itself. In hindsight I have now started admiring the fact that ra-one which is the benchmark of a badly rejected movie these days managed 115 crores inspite of opening on a laxmi pooja day and having its best day on the second day when the WOM was already out. Yes the movie underachieved but the movie did show that srk had a very good pull among paying publics because its not how much your hits do but really how much your flop movies do that give a more clearer indication of your crowd pulling status.
There’s a reason why SRK is/was called the ‘king’ for so long !
Whilst I may have had issues with some of his acting styles (& politics), as I’ve maintained, all things considered, he has been the guy ( since bachchan!),..
Ps: lol @ the immense hurry in declaring besharam a flop..few minutes into the first show onwards
I’d disagree on two counts assuming your totals are correct. Firstly it’s not fair to compare Ranbir with SRK. He’s doing very well but he’s starting out. He can’t be expected to to have the same kind of base in the audience. But secondly one should really introduce two important points here. Ra One wasn’t just any film but a sci-fi Hollywoodized deal that was hyped to death. To say that it had the very same standard to live upto that for instance barfi did is rather strange. So if Barfi is doing 100 crores isn’t it a complete disaster that Ra One just did 15 crores more on a vastly greater print count and what not? Even leaving aside the colossal difference in budgets? Again it’s mystifying why (and leaving aside the partisans) people continue to follow this one-size-fits-all strategy. We just had in Hollywood a movie on the most iconic American novel and starring a very important star. The movie did 110m or whatever and everyone counted it as a success. The same star got 260m with Nolan on Inception. That too was counted as big success. But even the latter was very far from Depp’s Pirates totals. Only in India do we set up these insane analogies. Or I should correct that. People do this online or in the trade. No distributor goes by these expectations. But it’s even worse. We see the Pirates kind of deal (Ra One or whatever) do what Gatsby did and we start giving credit to the star for getting the audience in! Dirty Picture gets 70-80 crores or whatever and we wish to give credit to SRK for doing 30-40 crores more than this in expensive crazily hyped films that sometimes happen to be sequels or sequels to remakes and release on the biggest holiday periods! We all know the list! I just mentioned RNBDJ. The initial wasn’t even particularly strong here, good but not fantastic. More recently we saw how lethargic JTHJ was. The same for Don2. and so on. It’s a bizarre idea that unless a big hyped SRK film doesn’t end at 60 crores he’s proved something! But that’s mathematically almost impossible on a release of this scale. So Ranbir is so new in the game, he’s going through a great phase but he’s still very young and he now has a film which might be a box office disaster and it’s doing 80 (according to you). And we’re going to give credit to SRK for 30 crores more than this on Ra One?! Which doesn’t mean that I disagree with the idea that SRK has a base. But the bar can’t be kept that low. It’s like some others here who pop up from time to time saying ‘oh he at least did 100’. yeah but the 100 crore standard is a red herring give that a strong one week number gets you to 70-80% of that number! Even beyond this we can see just how badly these films were underperforming when ETT, YJHD, CE suddenly put up these massive numbers in one week or ten days. The market didn’t suddenly change overnight! The fact that Ra One got to 100 after tanking shows how insignificant the 100 crore standard is for major films/stars. So it proves exactly the opposite.
Haha satyam
Btw Must give credit to mr/Miss krish — s/he can accurately predict the first week,& lifetime totals even after the first day( heck first show)
And seems s/he maybe right here 🙂
I am not saying that Ra-one at 115 is a success. It is no doubt a flop. Movies like Barfi, TDP etc are well liked movies so they are not a comparison. Here is a flop which was universally panned (except Taran) , got the worst reviews possible, SRK was lampooned, ridiculed for it so much so that he was a laughing stock and his brand value was shaken so much that his next film didnt get a bumper opening. So this was not an ordinary flop which people forget and get over it. People talk about Ra-one and RGV ki Aag even today when a bad movie releases. So for this movie to then release on a Laxmi Pooja day, get a moderate 14 crore on Day 1 but still end up with 115 crores in India and 200 crores worldwide is bizarre. A bad movie drops on Day 2 whether it is hyped or not hyped, we saw it with Besharam, we saw it with OUATIMD where the movie dropped inspite of adding 1000 screens. Hence it doesnt make sense that Ra-one had its first big drop only on the 6th day (the 3rd day of Ra-one was a working day too). The only sense I can make out of it that the star power of SRK worked in getting the audiences as the WOM was surely terrible. The same thing happened even with JTHJ but there it can be explained as the reviews were not terrible, the star cast was stronger and the Yash Chopra sympathy factor was there but even then the movie only got to around 102 crores, 13 crores less than Ra-0ne.
Your final sentence is surprising as I do not know of any other flop which did 100 crores. Movies like Body Guard, ETT, Agneepath which all started well but maybe didnt reach their trending potentials werent flops and werent panned. Infact they were all liked by more people than not. The only other underperformer by a major star was Talaash but that can be explained by the genre factor.Ra-one was not liked, was panned, ridiculed, but reached within 5 crores of Agneepath and 10 crores of Ready. That requires some getting…
I actually think the box office is sometimes erratic on these big movies over the first few days but if you average out over a 5-7 day period a certain high end number is maintained more often than not. For instance Agneepath did 22 crores or so on day 1 but then did 11 on day 2. The latter would suggest a total tank. It however stabilized after this.
On those other 100 crore films my point has long been that they shouldn’t be considered hits. At least not in any easy sense of the term.
But on SRK notice how there’s a contradiction in your position. You seem to be saying that even with a film that was as panned as Ra One SRK somehow got it to 100 crores. People hated it but somehow showed up because of SRK (by the way you might be underestimating a very young demographic here… the same holds for Krrish.. with such movies you get a very young audience interested, the Disney effect, if you will, and then the adults have to show up to accompany these kids whether they wish to or not. With the same demographic reviews don’t matter at all. Now of course even kids won’t accept just any film but with Krrish the adults who show up also end up liking it or not minding it. With Ra One all groups probably didn’t care for it. My larger point is that with this sort of reception a non-fantasy film would have probably tanked even worse than this). Let’s accept this claim for the moment. But then this doesn’t explain why much better reviewed films and where the audience didn’t at least hate them ended up in the very same range (Don2 with the most lucrative holiday period, JHTJ could have done way more even with competition since there wasn’t really much overlap between the two films on key demographics, RNBDJ, MNIK etc). Between OSO and CE the only SRK film that opened big was Ra One. Every other film either had a relatively decent opening and then trended well (only RNBDJ in this group) or wasn’t that great even on trending. In other words if you take out CE there was clearly a ceiling on SRK’s films. Since no one in their right mind would say Don2 was just the same as Ra One or that JTHJ was this and so on the question becomes: why couldn’t SRK get more done there if your estimation of his standing is correct? In other words if a star can get minimal numbers on a tank he can get far more in the better film. We expect Besharam to do 80 or a 100 or whatever even if it tanks but we also see YJHD doing 90-100 crores more than this. Wouldn’t it be a little surprising if both Besharam and YJHD ended up in roughly the same range?!
And so the more obvious answer I think is this — Ra One was disliked but those other films weren’t liked a whole lot more. There is a way to explain this. There are films that are hated but attract a larger initial audience. There are those that most viewers find ok but that never excite the box office. And so all those other SRK films after OSO never really got off to true flying starts. And ‘ok’ wasn’t enough to make up the gap. Ra One on the other hand did but tanked. That’s how these films end up in roughly the same range. If it were just about SRK Don2 should have done 150 crores at minimum. A younger SRK at his peak could have done this but one in relative decline could not. This is another way of reframing my older point. Much as if SRK had a normal film that got the Besharam reception it would probably do worse than Besharam. Because he doesn’t have that kind of die-hard base anymore in the same numbers. Ranbir meanwhile even with bad reviews can probably get enough of younger demographic interested to drive up the initial numbers.
It’s not just about SRK. Aamir got a good initial on Talaash, the film wasn’t liked enough to sustain this. Not many it’s safe to say were calling it a bad film but there were those for whom it didn’t do much and the ones who liked it didn’t go crazy over it for the most part. Without more commercial frills such films cannot put up big grosses (i.e. with that kind of reception). On the other hand D3 could get to double that number even if most of the audience just found it to be ok. Because this will get those big numbers starting out. It doesn’t mean that somehow Aamir’s star power has been proven here where it wasn’t on Talaash. The metrics are just very different on the two films. The difference though is that Aamir has been enjoying his peak career for many years now and so ends up getting the best initial or something close to it relative to the genre he tackles. SRK hasn’t done this because his peak career was much earlier. Much as Salman has been throwing up initials since Dabanng the way he never did before let alone successively over a number of films. CE is the exception in SRK’s lineup, not the rule. Because if it were the latter many other films of his would have opened like this or OSO. But even with many advantages they didn’t. Now HNY might because Farah Khan produces the sort of circus that gets the audience in (assuming the film is liked). This too doesn’t necessarily prove as much because he’s done well with her before for the same reason. But leaving this aside it’s clear that SRK can run up the numbers in the right project. But that is different from a star who can do this in ‘any’ project or at least one like Salman who can throw up in a compressed period of time huge numbers on the most ordinary projects. Also running up the numbers has to be contextualized in an age where Grand Masti gets to a 100 (according to Taran) or Race 2 (compared to which the first Race was a classic) does the same or much lesser films, sometimes in trickier genres, get to 80-100 crores.
Yes its possible that with big movies the BO can be erratic at times but most universally panned movies do drop early. Agneepath went to 11 crores as it was a working day and stabilized soon after. You make a good point though on kids liking Ra-one which certainly explains partially how it managed to sail through the initial few days. But there is still a huge inverse correlation between the universal panning the movie got and the 200 crores it made.
On SRK the reason why audience werent as gungho about him as in the 90’s and early 2000’s is because he always played himself. And there is a limit one can take the same thing. Thats why when a Swades or a CDI came they were lapped up.
Its a pity SRK didnt learn from CDI. To be fair to him he dabbled at many different kinds of movies post CDI but the issue was not really the difference in the movies but the fact that the actor playing the role was doing the same thing irrespective of the genre. Post OSO and till CE , SRK did only RNBDJ, MNIK, Ra-one, Don 2 and JTHJ and they were actually quite different movies but the actor in SRK made a appearance only in RNBDJ and JTHJ to an extent. They werent really a CE or a OSO kind of movie to open big. and whats worse is that MNIK, Ra-one, Don 2 and JTHJ were very poor products. There was competition from other movies in some cases the movie was affected by the Sena shutdown, Thakreys death etc but if the movies were any good they all would have done more.
The only good movie he did from OSO to CE was RNBDJ which was really endearing and if not for Ghajini coming on its 12 th day would have done lot more but even that movie is not a movie which would have opened big even with another actor. The genre factor does affect every one to an extent, even Aamir is affected as can be seen by Talaash. So its hardly surprising that only Ra-one opened big. I would rather take an actor doing different things and not opening big than a Salman doing the same thing and opening big every time.
this is in a way always the problem with the more iconic star who represents something specific. Reinvention becomes much more difficult. The iconic ‘currency’ keeps tugging at the star but it doesn’t pack in as much bang for the buck. In fact increasingly less over time. On the other hand even a successfully realized effort elsewhere runs the danger of canceling out the signature.
to add to this for a while a star with a strong enough base can appear in the right project and still run up the numbers. But the ‘meaning’ of this achievement is very different. Obviously from a business standpoint the star is still very viable but it becomes increasingly hard to manufacture those products. One way out is to do less and less and to present each appearance as an event. Or one gets connected to a ‘circus’ where there are lots of things to attract the audience. The star doesn’t have to carry the whole load. Again all of this isn’t reinvention but it’s not a bad compromise.
Don 2 had a great opening weekend, the first day was the biggest opening ever for a non holiday Friday and the 3rd biggest ever overall. It did 40+ in it’s first weekend which was the 4th highest weekend ever and the only movies to do more were ra.1, dabangg and bg.
Plus srk is the only actor in the 100cr club who has movies from different genres. none of his last 4 movies have been similar.
The argument is lost when 5 qualifiers are added! This is the game sites like BOI play! RNBDJ also had the best opening for all films that released when people were not paying attention to Ghajini..
I know this sounds like a fantasy.. but isn’t it a better one than BOI’s?
I think that right from the first trailer, this looked really crap. At that time I felt that it didn’t work at all for me but then I thought it may do the trick with others. Finally, it seems that no one liked it.
I have my own doubts on Kashyap’s ability to deliver something good on his own. Remember, his own initial take on Dabang was very different from what the final product was. Salman said Kashyap brought him a melodramatic script but then Salman changed and tweeked a lot of things to transform it into a masala entertainer.
As for Besharam, the first impression was so off-putting that it will take a miracle to find anything good in the movie.
Thursday 3rd October 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam has had a good first day with collections looking to be around the 19.50 crore nett mark as per early estimates. The film has recorded extraordinary collections in Delhi NCR and East Punjab but the rest of the country ranged from very good to good.
The collections were not bad anywhere but at places they where not what they should be on a big holiday. Across Delhi NCR and East Punjab it recorded the second highest collections ever after Ek That Tiger but in some centres like CP Berar, Maharashtra and Gujarat the collections were in the same range as Grand Masti.
The film did see falls in collections in the evening and night shows at most places. On the face of it the 19.50 crore nett approx first day total is very good but considering how it started and the fact it was a big holiday the collections should have been more towards the 25 crore nett range rather than the 20 crore nett range. There will be a big drop today (Thursday) and the key for the film is how big will the drop be. If it was to go over 50% then the film could even struggle to be an average fare.
The Games
Saw besharam yesterday. Ranbir has learnt the importance of the art of media management from stalwarts like SRK & aamir. What took the cake as the usually ‘above these games’ kool guy but he too declared (on the day of release!) that the masala genre was dying! Perhaps the katrina leaked Spain bikini pics with ranbir has something to do with this. There seemed an ’emasculation’ element in Salmans utterings there lol
As for taran adarsh, it was laughable how he gave one star (!!) to besharam whilst he goes gaga over not much better/worse fare like CE, bodyguard. Even his twitter feed says ‘first day 20 crores +’ but after clarifying that it should have done more haha
What I liked
A) Pallavi Sharda
B) The music had a distinctive soft melodious retro 90s appeal and was good. Esp the title song –the lyrics of that track was enough reason to see the flick …
C) like action comedies in general
D) the overall cast was good
E) abhinav kashyap suppressed his maverick urges and genes and stuck to the masala genre
What was not good/bad
A) the Wafer thin plot/ flimsy premise
Whilst I personally don’t go to watch movies to see ‘stories unfold on screen!’ And so on, most viewers are looking for a ‘story’ or credible plotline and they will cry hoarse
B) appeared lazy film-making at the script level and the blame has to be shared by abhinav kashyap for taking things for granted after signing ranbir and family (!)
C) the ‘family element’ robbed some of the credibility and whilst ranbirs parents must be having a ball of a time (literally!) shooting the films, feel the film, the directors grip and ranbir himself felt ‘restricted’ by their presence
D) I didn’t mind this but many (esp the gen-x-er wassup crowd!) won’t take kindly to the middle/lower middle class indian setup, earthy dialogues & lyrics (that I liked!)
E) I liked it but the overall young crowd won’t like the de-glam look of ranbir and esp pallavi sharda.
Pallavi literally was given a de-glam ‘behanji’ wardrobe and a half baked role (though she did well esp for her first lead role!)
Box office & the ‘politicised motivated’ average viewer/ netizen
There has been extreme negativity starting even from 15 minutes into the first show it seems(!!). There was twitterati apparently spreading negativity whilst into ten minutes of their first day first show viewing(!)
There are ‘fans’ of ranbir who are actually fans of some other superstars and change positions depending on other convoluted designs. For eg an apparent ranbir fan till now (while pulling down say aamir!) may suddenly become anti-ranbir now when he is a threat to srk or Salman and so on.
So there are snippets of these ‘motivated fans’ declaring that cracks appeared even 39 or 16 minutes into. The first snow and so on…
The movie has obvious flaws and word of mouth isn’t good.
But it’s not much better or worse than an average 100 crores ‘money spinner’. What may save the film from total embarrassment is that abhinav kashyap knows basic film making and he has stuck to the light family action comedy brief (!)
I do not agree that any crap film can make 100 crores nowadays –nope, when it goes down hill, every crore becomes difficult and negativity is exponential –talaash wasn’t even a bad /hated
film(even taking into account it’s so-called avant garde genre lol!)
Inspite of everything going against it, I (against all odds!) still maintain that I will be surprised if this doesn’t make 100 crores or en my earlier figure of 120 crores plus…
Finally, this may only be a good sobering moment on ranbirs career (& especially for the currently berserk rishi kapoor!). And no, all those suddenly spelling doomday for ranbir shoudl take it easy. Even their idols at a comparative stage had numerous (& many nore) guddus, afsana hai pyaar kas, love love loves and so on.
Let’s not even go there…
I’ve noticed a similar negativity when hritik Roshan was tearing away from the crowd & (to a much lesser extent!) even abhishrek around guru/bunts Babli and so on.
There is a deep rivalry amongst the three khans but at times of real ‘ crisis’ ( against genuine threats) here IS a certain ‘understanding’ and even amongst the (shared) fans.
The hold over media/ machinations are also triggered in these times. Till now, the only actors to cause real panic to the the three khans have been hritik and now ranbir.
Not condoning the obvious flaws in besharam and in ranbirs range (& screen presence!) but these aspects also need highlighting.
Ps:this is not to be viewed in communal /regional/background lines! I being relatively unbiased (lol) and not attached to any one fan club , I can perhaps see these machinations and comment on them more freely 🙂
I do agree to a great extent. That when other stars have very strong periods irrespective of whether the media is softer on them or not when they fail the reviews and reactions are incredibly harsh. The same doesn’t happen when SRK has a bad film and so forth. No one gave RA One these sorts of reviews even when these were negative. And you’re right on Taran too. He’s given garbage more stars than this. I’m willing to concede Kashyap has messed up completely here but it’s just hard to believe this is the worst film known to mankind!
Part of it is “don’t burn your bridges”. with 3 khans, they’ve proven that they’re in top 5 for over 20 years and no sign of slowing down. So the media is little resistent to be harsh on them because they need to sell their publication and they need support of what’s selling.
this also hold true for most big production houses. they might have one bad year but you know they’ll hit it big following year.
It goes in everything. Media is not as harsh on Tendulkar as they would be on new player.
Taran will do stuff like praise the actor but will kill the movie simply because he doesn’t like the maker/director.
I don’t agree at all that they’ve been in the top 5 for over 20 years. Salman was almost extinct for most of the past decade (before Wanted) and the projects he was getting proved this. SRK was in the top 5 if perhaps we start counting before Deewana released! and in more recent years it’s a kind of default position since it’s hard to fall below the top 5! I still would argue with the SRK/Aamir example less than the Salman one. Overall one has to be more precise. To call it a top 5 thing is actually very misleading without contextualizing things properly. This very label becomes possible when you bunch them up like marshmallows. Which has unfortunately been the case for very long and betrays a communal coding. hrithik has been a top 5 star since 2000. That’s pretty long but he doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt in the same way.
I should add here though that Aamir has never received the benefit of the doubt in the same way. MP received, and unfairly, a great deal of negativity. It’s laughable to see Ranbir being called a superstar when Aamir wasn’t getting his due even after ’06 when he had the RDB/Fanaa double. It wasn’t until Ghajini that the media narrative changed when Aamir had been at it since Lagaan. So the trade has never loved Aamir. Since Ghajini they’ve gone along as it’s hard to argue against such super-grosses! But Salman for years was nowhere on the radar and they never picked on him at all. In fact when Wanted happened they pretended as if he was always this kind of star! SRK with all his deep media ‘investments’ (in every sense!) was a different ballgame altogether.
I did say I liked her but must add that I can’t say why!! The reviews on her are unanimously negative!
Some co-viewers (especially female) I watched the film with, hated pallavi & went to great lengths to diss her (to my discomfiture!)
To be frank, even I can’t say what I like about her (which is strange!)
The last time I liked some hindi film heroines like this (eg nargis fakhri & diana penty!) they are yet to do a proper lead role since!!
All I can say is–there’s something about her…
And all I can do is–
Wish her all the best for her career
Balaji Motion Pictures Ltd. has acquired the Hindi film adaptation rights to the book, ‘The Devotion of Suspect X’ to be made into a major motion picture.
The Devotion of Suspect X, a novel by Keigo Higashino, is the third in his cult Detective Galileo series and his most acclaimed work so far. The novel won the 6th Honkaku Mystery Grand Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in the mystery novels category in Japan.
The English translation of the novel was nominated for the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Novel and the 2012 Barry Award for Best First Novel. More than a jaw-dropping 2 million copies of the best-selling book have been sold worldwide so far.
Acclaimed director Sujoy Ghosh, whose previous release was the blockbuster Vidya Balan-starrer Kahaani, has been signed to direct the feature.
Commenting on the deal, said Tanuj Garg, CEO – Balaji Motion Pictures, “We are proud to have clinched the rights of one of the world’s most celebrated detective novels. It has heart, drama and thrill, and as a content-driven studio, we believe that it will make for an engaging and entertaining feature film.”
The writing is underway and the cast is still to be finalized. The principal photography is expected to commence in early-2014.
Ok now Alfonso has a lot to answer..Et tu Alfonso??
————–
‘Hollywood film Gravity is lifted from my script’
October 03, 2013 12:46 IST
Tamil script writer Paranjothi S claims that the script of Hollywood film Gravity is lifted from one of his stories.
It is a grave allegation to make but Paranjothi S, a Tamil script writer alleges that the story of the Hollywood film Gravity, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, is lifted from his script written in 2003.
“My story starts at the LA airport where a Boeing 777 with 373 passengers and crew members gets ready to fly to Australia. When the flight reaches a height of 60,000 feet, it just disappears.
“A couple of scientists from NASA locate the plane and find that it is floating in empty space. There is oxygen only for 12 minutes and the passengers have to be rescued in 12 minutes. I had titled it first as Gravity and then No Way to Hide,”says Paranjothi.
In 2007, he was introduced to an Indian distributor of Hollywood films from Australia, called Peter Alvin, who had the copyright of 3,000 Hollywood films.
When Paranjothi was introduced to Alvin through a common friend, he narrated the story of Gravity to him.
“He was mighty impressed with my script. So, he asked for a synopsis. I sent a mail on November 21 with the title Loss of Gravity. I still have the email in my mail box. I sent another mail on the 23rd but after that, there was no news of him,” says the script writer.
With a strong desire to see his script as a Hollywood film, Paranjothi made a failed attempt to sell the script to Ashok Amritraj through an acquaintance in 2010. On October 26, 2011, he decided to register his script at the Writers Guild of America.
In June 2013 a friend who knew about the script, asked him, “So finally a movie has been made based on your script?” The friend was referring to the film Gravity co-written, co-produced, co-edited and directed by Alfonso Cuarón starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock.
A shocked Paranjothi saw the trailer and read about the film, and found an uncanny resemblance between the film and his story.
“I am sure that the film was lifted from my script as any member of the Guild can open any script that is registered there. I feel my script has been stolen. Instead of the Boeing, it is a spacecraft here and in my script and in the film, two astronauts go to save it. I tried to contact one of the producers on twitter. I was blocked immediately. That itself shows he is trying to hide something.”
Paranjothi has now approached the Tamil Nadu directors’ union with all the evidence that he has.
He has also contacted a lawyer in London to try and stop the release of Gravity in India and all over the world.
“No one gave RA One these sorts of reviews even when these were negative.” Because it wasn’t that bad. There were so many positives. The basic story line was good. Songs were awesome . Special effects were way ahead of anything done till then. So I don’t get it, why should it have got this kind of reviews?
with a number of other stars Ra One would have been utterly mauled by the same reviewers. Much as it’s simply impossible to believe Besharam merits a 1.5 from Taran given what he’s given to all kinds of films in the past.
There you go. Abhinav is already blaming SRK and Salman fans for the debacle
Ranbir Kapoor’s Besharam has been panned by the critics and audience on social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook, but the director of the film, Abhinav Kashyap isn’t too pleased with the media and people with ‘vested interests’.
In a telephonic conversation with Mumbai Mirror, Abhinav says he is happy with the response that the film has got. The first day numbers are the highest for both the director and the actor, yet, a certain section of the audience and media is targeting the film.
“I have the first day numbers of the film which is the highest for both me and Ranbir. I really don’t understand why the English media and certain people with vested interest are panning the film. I think they are not able to accept Ranbir in the character he is playing.”
The director said even though the film is being liked by the audience, he is also worried that the negativity on social media platforms might eventually begin to have an impact on the film’s performance at the box office.
“I am getting calls from my friends from cinema halls. People are roaring in laughter! I am happy with film’s first day collection. The collection might drop in the normal course of events as Thursday is a working day. But, then there are people who actually read reviews and tweets before deciding to go for a movie. And I am worried that these negative comments might actually have an impact on the film’s fate at the box-office.”
The Dabangg director concluded by saying ‘certain forces’ dont want the film to work
“It all started when the promos of the film were released. Fans of Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan fans took offence to certain scenes, although we had no intention to hurt anyone. With whatever is happening around Besharam, I smell some kind of a sinister plan. Certain forces don’t want the film to succeed.
he should just move on. He squarely deserves the blame here. He had a very hot post-YJHD star, in this genre it wouldn’t have taken much to get a success. By the bankrupt standards in force today you get an initial and if you then just add 30% to the gross after week 1 people start calling it a hit based on the overall number. So really he had a low bar here. This is separate from the media reception which seems to me hyperbolic. But leaving this aside, and I’ve made this point before, the Dabanng reception made Kashyap hotter than he deserved to be. The film had a great trailer but really the actual product was just passable. Sure it ha d hugely successful soundtrack plus all the Salman iconic moments, the character et al, with all this though Kashyap could have achieved much more than he did. The film didn’t match Ghajini’s trending let alone anything more. It looks like Besharam wasn’t really his genre at all. Perhaps he should have stuck to the Dabanng terrain for a bit. Either way it’s entirely his fault. One can give directors some leeway when they try something interesting or risky and then fail but if it’s something run-of-the-mill for the genre there’s no excuse for failing colossally. If that turns out to be the case here.
“Much as it’s simply impossible to believe Besharam merits a 1.5 from Taran given what he’s given to all kinds of films in the past. ” I don’t think there has been a film this bad in recent memory. Maybe Himmatwala. And RGV Ka Aag. It is worth checking what kind of rating Tran gave those films. Not very high I am sure. And why single out Taran? I think the critics are pretty unanimous on this one. A has been the audience. I haven’t read anyone who can be taken seriously saying anything remotely good about the film.
Thursday 3rd October 2013 19.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam has seen a huge fall in collections all over on day two. The falls are in the range of 60-70% as compared to the first day. Even places like Delhi and Punjab which saw a bumper first day have crashed badly.
The film had a strong start on Wednesday morning but collections were down a bit in the evening so even if we take the evening/night fall at 50% compared to Wednesday the film is still looking at a 60% fall on its second day.
The second day basically means the film looks set to struggle as Friday may show a further a drop with some respite on Saturday and Sunday but that will not be good enough.
The paying publics spoken on ‘besharam’ –no excuses/ no spins!
And don’t think hourly updates are needed on this.
It needed 150 crores plus and atleast 120 crores plus (@ the minimum)
And it seems that even 70-80 (the talaash tally) maybe difficult now.
As simple as that.
For ranbir–actually it’s a good sobering thing –another success and he would be fornicating on the streets !! Lol
Also a reality check for rishi kapoor who was berserk!
But do NOT think it will adversely affect ranbir at all –infact this should only harden him and teach him some things on media managment and risky projects …
it will affect abhinav kashyap but even he seems to have made profit on the table …
It will affect pallavi sharda who seems a sensible talented actress who is trying to make it on her own–she better join the DP or Kat school of survival (though Im unsure she will get any major chances again)
Ps: I maintain that I loved the tagline, title track though the film didn’t materialise what seemed to be promised in the promo or with the dabang antecedents of the director …
Ps: must add that this shoudl also send some shivers down the krish3 and dhoom3 team–audiences and the paint public should never be taken for granted (spins etc dont help)
Media manipulation etc makes no difference in these scenarios..
The verdicts too obvious …
Btw to complete the album–There was another good track in the film
Less likely pallavi will get another major break now –it’s a pity since saw some potential there & would have been good to see her in more films..
Hopefully should get this out of my system now lol
actually I was about to say SRK might get lucky this year. Rakesh Roshan can never be underestimated on the Krrish series and it’s true that advertising has never been great on this franchise but it must be said that after a pretty decent or better (at least for the target audience) first trailer the remaining song ones have been appalling. Mostly because the music has been terrible. Doesn’t look like a movie that will cross CE by a huge margin if it does that. Again Rakesh Roshan has always had very good trending (not just openings) on every film he’s done with Hrithik and that history deserves some respect. All I’m saying is the film might not have enough to establish a convincing gap with CE.
A similar argument could be made for D3. Now here the one big difference is that a proper preview has so far not been shown. However whatever advertising choices they have made so far have been pretty miserable. Now both films are of course inoculated against poor advertising. They’ll still get massive initials. But on such big films it’s odd to see such indifferent and/or cheap advertising.
Not being a naysayer on either film. I still expect them to be the biggest grossers but the question is by how much? And secondly it’s true that they also come with greater expectations and so nothing can be taken for granted.
“actually I was about to say SRK might get lucky this year. ”
SRK isn’t just lucky
I always had high regards for him as an achiever (not so much as an actor) but the day he came back in CE–I feel he has become a ‘legend’ !!
Ps: on a lighter note–
Both srk (after chennai express) and ranbir (after Yjhd) were pleasantly surprised by their success
They wrongly believed their Di.ks had grown a lot
The other factor was Deepikas ‘job’ which contributed a lot 🙂
though my phrasing wouldn’t have been the same (!!) it’s true that Deepika seems far more crucial to these two films than many actresses are in similar lead parts. Many even preferred her in YJHD. Not sure if I’d go that far but in CE I think she added a certain burst of freshness that this film needed given the lead star and so forth. And being the first post-YJHD film of course helped as well.
Ranbir though would be right to feel cheated here. A one-two punch would have been something else altogether. Also this was his best chance at a huge grosser in the immediate future. Because the Imtiaz Ali or Anurag Basu stuff (he plays apparently a 17 year old boy in this film) is not likely to put up the same numbers even on the best possible day. He doesn’t have another Johar production coming up right away either. Bombay Velvet will have even lower box office benchmarks. Not that he has a problem any which way given his recent run. But it does seem like Besharam might become the kind of epic failure that cannot just be talked away.
by the way SRK has been in this business as long as he has by not believing some of the stuff his online fans seem to. So note how the moment he had CE and an unexpectedly big success here he immediately started moving fast on HNY. Because there’s no other film he could potentially do at the moment where he could get a similar result. Farah Khan puts up the right circus. The film has Deepika once again. And Abhishek is also likely to be very resurgent by the time this film releases. So it’s not as if after CE he suddenly felt he didn’t have a problem and went with a totally solo deal once again!
HNY was in plan for year and was going to start shooting when it did, all of this was planned prior to CE release. You don’t get dates of all the actors, permission from Dubai government and all the shooting location on the fly…
Yes I know it’s been in the works for a long time and has been delayed for one reason or another. The script has constantly been changed and so forth. But the project was really green-lighted right after CE. Before CE there was no sense that it would start so soon after the latter. On the rest that’s not such a big deal. these things are juggled around all the time.
“by the way do I sense the Hrithik fan heaving a sigh of relief at Besharam’s fate?!”
Haha Satyam-touché
Surprised –ONLY YOU could have correctly sensed that in all this spin
Salute 🙂
^ actually I’m very very fond of this title track–Really …(dont really care bout the rest of the film much)
And that’s no spin
This song brings out the true ‘besharam’ in me …(as if written for me!) 🙂
Ok bye
Just got back from Besharam. Not sure what the critics are crying about. If they can bear tripe like Ready/Bodyguard/RaOne, then this is certainly a few steps ahead. Ranbir is hilarious as the uncouth vulgar Besharam. It is a totally irreverent movie, with lots of hilarious one-liners and acts. Sure, the pacing is not tight throughout, many songs are especially forced in. But it is certainly not as bad as its made out to be. Seems like a bourgeois vs elite issue here. The movie is set entirely in the middle-class alleys of Delhi/Chandigarh, full of the usual Kashyap brothers North Indian milieu and visuals. Perhaps the reviewers cannot digest Ranbir in a Lawaaris type of hoi polloi character. IMO, he suited it to a T. The heroine leaves a lot to be desired. Rishi/Neetu could have toned down their obnoxious act, but perhaps they had to portray the loudness. The Rishi toilet jokes with Neetu giving ‘tatti’ dialogs were gross, yet enticed laughter. People actually stayed back until the end of the credit roll song, seemingly amused at this movie.
All this newborn critical awakening by reviewers seems more like a Khanspiracy against an emerging Kapoor.
good to hear, thanks for your thoughts. Yeah the idea that this was the worst movie ever was a bit hard to buy. And to repeat the earlier point when SRK or Salman have such movies (Aamir never does anything that poor, at least not since Mela!) that are either quite intolerable and/or commercially completely questionable (this hasn’t happened to Salman in a while of course) the same critics either do their best to defend them or pretend not to see. So ignoring stuff amounts to the same. Again all of this isn’t about defending Besharam. I haven’t even seen the film. It’s about these conveniently inconsistent standards.
One of my friend who watched yesterday echoes similar feelings…he agreed although the movie is definitely not good but is on similar level like CE, Ready etc then why its made out to look like one of the worst film ever if the others were given pass.
True, the standards are totally inconsistent. The Khan trio is at an exalted status, so everything is a pass. Despite YJHD, Ranbir has not yet attained that exalted status. Otherwise, everyone would not be going hammer and tongs at this. Personally, I did not find CE script any better in terms of plot. It had gaping holes as well. But, Shetty is a master at execution, and knows exactly how to extract the best performance out of his characters.
Also, the lack of an A grade heroine did make a diff. Pallavi is quite short, unconventional in an age of leggy heroines, and the height diff with Ranbir is glaring in some scenes. Her dancing is not great, acting is passable. Wud rate her weaker overall than even Nargis Fakhri, who at least is certified eye candy.
GM was advertised as a vulgar brainless comedy, and perfectly pitched for its target demographic. This movie has been rejected precisely because it serves up a diff dish than what it advertises. There is no skinshow, but a whole bunch of vulgarity! So family audiences would be turned off no matter what.
Nykavi is on a roll here–apt points again..
Also agree that nargis is a non-actor (though she brought the innocent natural vulnerability to rockstar) and pallavi isn’t gorgeous or ‘leggy’ (though don’t agree she can’t act or dance!)
But perhaps I will be the only one to ljke them.
Anyhow, doesn’t matter since those I really like either won’t get another film or turn out to be guys /freaks 🙂
I am not sure if it is the worst film ever, but it is certainly one of the worst Hindi films in years. So atrocious that I walked out of the theatre 20 minutes before the film ended. And the vulgarity at display here is beyond belief. I am being extremely serious when I say this that one could do multiple viewings of Dus Numberi, Aag and Ra.One than sit through this Kashyap film. Very sad that Ranbir decided to associate himself with this.
Its pretty bizarre that people are blaming the Khans, the reviews, the media and everything on the failure of this movie. The paying public do not like the movie and they are not swayed by fans of Khans or reviews. Period. And the general feedback that I have been getting is exactly what Saurabh has sauid. The movie is downright vulgar. I know we have been saying that even a bad film can get to around 80 – 90 crores but the paying public will never accept a film that they consider inoffensive and specially when there is a A grade star in it. I always thought this movie will be loud and hammy and thats why the movie was treading the thin line of balance and hence could falter. But the movie it seems is downright inoffensive and such movie CRASH. and thats what happened. Believe it or not some theatres are removing Besharam this weekend and alloting screens to Lunchbox and ‘Grand Masti’. Now the last movie here is vulgar but there the audience expect it to be just that. In Besharam no one expected it to be that and that was its undoing.
speaking for myself I’m not blaming anyone other than Kashyap for this failure. However as always I do think the reception is a part of the larger narrative. These things don’t operate in a vacuum. A ‘fact’ is never anything without the contexts in which it is embedded. So I’m fine with Besharam being called one of the worst films as long as many others get awarded the same prize. But they’re not! How many atrocious films have we seen which are defended in the name of ‘entertainment’ and what not. My only point here is that whatever Besharam’s demerits might there doesn’t seem to be a difference in kind between it and many other films these days. I’m sure it’s more vulgar or raunchier or whatever but I must admit that here too seeing what else is on display I’m a bit mystified by this sudden indignation on everyone’s part. Most of Bollywood in most of its commercial guises today is an industry that operates in very bad taste! Again not defending Besharam here. But if I might risk a surmise my sense is that there is an element of the spoof here perhaps that has offended people. It’s a point I’ve long made. There are lots of films that flop and even terribly but people move on. But there are some that invite intense negativity and even hysteria. In these instances it’s to my mind almost never about the simple ‘badness’ of the movie. That’s too easy an explanation. It’s I think about a larger ideological construct. Once more I’m not defending Besharam. I found YJHD just about watchable so I’m hardly with this genre even on its best day. But given that this is Ranbir we’re talking about (and not Abhishek against whom this kind of negativity would be more comprehensible) it’s interesting to see how the tables have completely been turned from YJHD to Besharam or how the media establishment’s ultimate blue-eyed boy who couldn’t make a wrong choice suddenly has a film which is being crazily castigated. Along the same lines the fall on day 2 is also about some deeper negative chord that this film has struck. Otherwise all kinds of poor films even when they fall don’t fall quite this hard after relatively strong starts. You had Tees Maar Khan of course. Another film with spoof elements! Tashan was the same. I’m not arguing against everyone here who’s disliked the film. I’m just suggesting that it’s implausible this is the worst film around given the stuff we regularly see out of bollywood and are evidently entertained by.
Well, Kashyap didn’t walk out of Dabangg2 on amicable terms. That is why you see conspiracy theories of sabotaging the movie. When has Taran (or Joginder Tuteja) given less than 2 star for a major star movie?
IMO, the vulgarity would be shocking for people expecting some lovey-dovey family maa-baap-beta combo. Not sure how the plot is in anyway more atrocious as compared to the string of brainless entertainers we have become accustomed to.
Rishi’s potty sitting shots are indeed gross, so is the scene with Ranbir exposing his butt-cleavage while taking a bath! Or his crotch-sock stuffing antics..lol. Aamir Khan did the smart thing, he produced Delhi Belly but did not star in it. Besharam is a cross of DB/GM/APKGK with a pinch of BuntyBabli/Laawaris thrown in for good measure. However, people thought they were going for a clean comedy/actioner like CE.
If it was YJHD releasing instead of Besharam and YJHD was a follow up to some 190 crore fictional Ranbir starrer, I am sure reactions would have been very positive irrespective of whether Ranbir was threating the Khan trio or not. YJHD may not have been liked by some but the movie is not offensive. Its a harmless movie. Besharam is just the opposite.
By the way the movie has had another fall today. I dont know if it is possible to collect that low on the third day when the movie is playing on 3500 screens but we might be looking at less than 5 crores today
Some good points by nykavi ..agree partly
Yup besharam snot better/worse than other such films and liked the title song and bits of typical kashyapism
But my sense was the kashyap opened the champagne the moment he got ranbir on board–even the script seemed very lazy as if written on rum !!
Yeah there was initial conspiracy wherein negative tweets were being sent off even before the first show interval started –but the public verdicts clearly negative, so didn’t matter much in the end.
Besharam crashed on day two with collections around the 6.5 crore nett mark. The two day total is around 25.75 crore nett. The film has fallen 65% on day two. The crash as uniform all over with Mysore being best circuit which fell around 55%. The film is now looking to close out its first three days at around 31 crore nett which is not even in the top three for Ranbir Kapoor.
The first day business should have taken the film to safety with even below par trending for the rest of the week but the film has had an epic crash which is unlike anything seen before.
Saturday and Sunday should see a bit better collections but with collections likely to range from 6-8 crore nett over the next three days which could take the five day weekend to around 46-47 crore nett.
Lol at this Khanspiracy Theory. Do you think they have this stronghold on public that they can stop public to go to theatre ? If that is true then why there is Ra One, Talaash and from 2000-09 period of salman ? As far as critics review is concerned they have thrashed Grand Masti. Many well know critics even refused to reviet it. But look at the buisness in BO. No i am not talking about that both films are same. My main point is nobody can make your film to go from 20 cr to 6 cr on day 2 if film is itself not bad.
Since the advent of social media, there seems to be a race to either hype or trash new movies. If a universal perception is created, it does affect collections. One can never rule out manipulation amongst our ‘honest’ media/stars.
I agree. because a multiplex audience is assuredly affected by this stuff. Obviously this isn’t the difference between a hit and a flop but the margins can be exaggerated either way, specially with the latter.
Anurag Kashyap is the new Nikhil Adavani in town. Got off to a good, successful first film but you do get the feeling that the producers/hero were the main driving force behind the first success. When it comes to doing it on their own, they find it tougher.
I thought right after YJHD, Ranbir was in a position to threaten the Khans. But then right after CE and the Besharam debacle, SRK is probably safely back at No.3 behind Aamir and Salman. Ranbir may now just see Hrithik fly past him after Krrish 3. And Akshay Kumar will probably be back in the thick of things with Boss and the Thupakki remake coming up in the next few months.
“SRK is probably safely back at No.3 behind Aamir and Salman”—think srk is now joint no 1 with the other two–any of these three can strike big in the right film
Btw Salman seems biggest currently on paper but such freak phases don’t last too long. Srk still has the biggest far reaching fan base —
Though all three will diminish inevitably in 3-5 years.
This setback is good for ranbir–he has to learn a few things (like media managment) and spend less time on the beach !!
Obviously the dark horse in the top 3 will always be hritik
If krish3 is any good–hritik will cream the competition …(on box office)
But the bottomline hasn’t changed–
The three khans hold sway for 3-5 years followed inevitably by hritik and ranbir…
B.O. update: ‘Besharam’ drops badly on Day 2
By Taran Adarsh, October 4, 2013 – 11:06 IST
BESHARAM, the biggie that had a midweek release [Wednesday, 2 October], embarked on a super start on Day 1. The national holiday + Ranbir Kapoor’s superstardom [after BARFI! and YEH JAWAANI HAI DEEWANI] + Abhinav Kashyap’s immediate outing after the trendsetting DABANGG + Extensive release strategy by Reliance ensured an impressive total on its opening day [Rs. 21.56 cr, according to an official statement issued by Reliance]. However, the cracks were visible on the opening day itself, since the evening/night shows did not perform to the optimum.
The word of mouth tilts towards negative, which explains why the business declined considerably on Day 2 [Thursday, 3 October]. Of course, the business does witness a declining trend if it’s a working day after a big holiday, but in this case, even the circuits which performed exceedingly well on Day 1, witnessed sharp falls. As per the official statement issued by Reliance, the Day 2 figure is 7.13 cr. The final total after day two stands at 28.69 cr.
Saw #Besharam yesterday .. I enjoyed it as much as PPNH, CE, APKGK, Ready, ETT etc .. nothing more nothing less … but I do understand why at BO it is failing likes of Himmatwala, Drona and Kites … very difficult to explain, many factors comes in for this sort of result ..
“must say this is quite stunning.. never expected this result even in the worst case scenario..”
Yes it is exciting and remarkable (though not for the producer lol)
It’s surprising but I’m not stunned or anything bcos have always maintained that —
a) nothing’s taken for granted and it’s not that easy to create blockbusters
b) one should respect the ETT, Yjhd and CE when they happen
c) for every ‘easy blockbuster’ –there’s a himmatwala, bra1, ouatimd & besharam
d) this is actually good in the long run
Keeps the film makers on their toes and keeps it fun n interesting on blogs 🙂
There was initial conspiratorial negativity with negative tweets within 15 minutes of screening, but it didn’t matter much since the public verdicts obvious on besharam..
But it doesn’t help when–
Abhinavs got the whole Salman arbaaz khan daan gunning for him
Ranbirs being accused of making fun of srk and Salman
And moreover ranbirs found boning katrina on the beach in bikinis
Ok hear this–
Some Salman fans boycotted besharam bcos of ranbirs ‘stealing Salmans girlfriend’ lol
C’mon folks–Salmans used to all this-it’s happened b4…
Ps: all eyes now on krish3 and dhoom3
Let the fun continue 🙂
Samar- I do feel Salman is the biggest right now. He seems to be the undisputed No.1 these days. As for between SRK and Aamir, I do feel that SRK was underperforming before CE and even Ranbir seemed to be ahead of him. But CE puts SRK right back among the top 3. And I do feel that Aamir will furher cement the No.2 position with D3. We’ll probably need to wait until the end of the year but it does seem that SRK has played his last card for some time with CE, but with Krish3, D3 ad Mental coming up it’s the turn of Aamir, Salman and Hrithik to play theirs. And if these work and they will strengthen their respective positions.
By RACHEL SALTZ
Babli is a lovable lout, a cocky car thief in Delhi with loud shirts and the inevitable heart of gold. But that’s not enough for a Bollywood hero. Babli’s also an orphan who gives his ill-gotten gains to the orphanage where he grew up and still lives, sharing a bed with his sidekick, T2, as in “Terminator 2.”
In “Besharam,” a romantic comedy that takes time out for some tricked-up martial arts fighting, Babli is played with I’ll-try-anything gusto by Ranbir Kapoor, a dynastic star who has brought part of the dynasty along for the ride. His father, Rishi Kapoor (son of the Great Showman Raj Kapoor), and mother, Neetu Singh (the former Baby Sonia), play a brawling Mr. and Mrs. — cops with hearts of gold (you doubted it?) beating under corrupt khakis.
“Besharam” means shameless, and this film, directed by Abhinav Singh Kashyap, mostly is. In scenes with his parents, Ranbir often delivers some variation on this idea: If I’m bad, it’s because I had no mom and dad to guide me.
And the comedy skews low even when it involves Bollywood royalty. We’re treated to multiple scenes of Rishi on the potty, while Ranbir’s crotch is a magnet for the camera: Babli’s signature move is a little pluck and adjust.
Shameless, though, doesn’t mean undisciplined. “Besharam” is frequently crude, but it’s also unusually clean in its plotting. And it has a kind of unblushing vitality that is especially strong in the dance numbers, which feature big crowds, lots of color and an old-fashioned Bollywood desire to please.
again this is the exact opposite of what Taran and many other critics have said in this regard. Not necessarily taking a position here but it’s an old habit of Indian critics to pretend the script is always the problem when they don’t like a film. This when over the last 15-20 years strong scripts have been about as common in Hindi films (even successful ones) as Tamil dialog.
I’ll take the position that this film is probably better than the mauling it’s getting…just a sense I’m getting from some of the general commentary surrounding it. I’ll skip this on the big screen but I do plan to see it. It’s not far from the truth that when mainstream Hindi film critics have ganged up on a film there’s probably something worthwhile in it.
Thanx Satyam–that’s an unusually apt, crisp and spot on review..
Ironically Rachel saltz has got the vibe right -something that Bablis own compatriot reviewers couldn’t /didn’t want to!
“it has a kind of unblushing vitality that is especially strong in the dance numbers, which feature big crowds, lots of color and an old-fashioned Bollywood desire to please.”— yup
Inspite of its super flopdom, stand with its title song & central premise though the script and direction let ranbir down here..
I should make a point here in the context of some of the debates we were having recently about the authenticity of sites in films (Budapest as ‘Italy’ in HDDCS provoked all of this) and Utkal and some others here claimed that as long as the audience couldn’t tell it didn’t matter. But here’s a good related example. The Tamil gaffe Rangan refers to. 95% of the film’s audience is a Hindi speaking one and a non-Tamil speaking one. I leave out 5% here for folks in Chennai or Bangalore who understand both languages and would spot this error. Not a large number in any case, certainly not one that could have an appreciable box office impact. For the larger audience it’s just about the fact that there is Tamil being used. On the other hand one could easily use Malayalam or even Telugu and the same audience wouldn’t be able to tell (alright with Telugu you have a larger audience in Andhra at home in both languages that could tell but you get my point). These things matter, specially in a film where the entire point revolves around getting some of these details right. If it were only about what audiences could recognize or not as being authentic one could change a great deal in a great many films. And certain gaffes are just bigger ones than others.
By the way this is not like the famed (or notorious) anachronistic example of clocks in Julius Caesar. Because in many of those Shakespeare plays the past or even the present (exorcized places like Illyria and so forth) serves as a kind of fantasy site and is not meant to be literally accurate. It would be a bit odd though if Arthur Miller represented a period America in the Crucible which was completely inauthentic! We don’t complain when Hollywood represents India as some kind of Orientalist fantasy in its classic period. It’s part of the terrain. One can examine the ideological construct here but it’s not meant to be authentic in any literal sense. Similarly when Manmohan Desai makes Dharam Veer we don’t ask where these kingdoms exist or where those sartorial curiosities where the Roman gladiator’s attire and the Renaissance prince’s finery co-exist in time! It’s once again a fantasy site where a Shakespeare-like configuration comes about (mixing of genres and moods and so on). But when Johar tries to pass off some parts of NY as some others it matters because here a literal truth is being represented and there isn’t enough plausibility to the ‘exchange’. To use the Coppola example again and leaving aside the logistical challenges it’s one thing to show the jungles of the Philippines and call them those of Vietnam. It would be quite another to shoot in Manila and call it Saigon!
To add to that, There is a scene in HDDCS, when Aishwarya and Devgun are at a restaurant and she orders some wierd food and that starts eating Chillis left and right, they waiter in the background is not shouting in Italian, but its hungarian. (not sure if this would help the debate at all)
I still dont get the logic. If majority of the audience could not make out of it was Malayalam or Tamil, how would it matter? I mean directors use sets of a known building instead of the real building with the knowledge that the audience wont know the difference. Or feel the difference to be of such a degree that they would care. I mean how many from f the audience know that the train track in Dil Se is not in the North-East? How many care?
Satyam: It’s good that you brought in Shakespear’s plays on the Elizabethan stage. The pint is every film, every play , every performance has a key of realism at which it is being performed. That’s why we don’t mind the train in Dil Se, because we know a great deal of realism is not being attempted in the film. The level of realism in terms of speech, costumes, locales… that is being followed in a film like HDDCS permits use of Budapest as an Italian city. Certainly much more than use of Spain as russia in Dr Zhivago, or Sri Lanka as Varanasi in Water or India as Pakistan in A Mighty Heart.
And I assure the audience in Philippines can make out that it is Philippines and not Vietnam. But I am not so sure they enjoyed Apocalypse Now any less.
You still haven’t answered my earlier questions in this regard. Going by your logic London could be called Paris and Kabul could be called Stockholm as long as the majority of the audience doesn’t know the difference! Again as I said earlier your argument seems to be either don’t shoot in a desert of Yemen if you’re calling it a desert in Saudi Arabia or else you might as well call San Francisco Prague if the majority of the audience is not likely to see the difference!
On Dil Se note how Ratnam in a sense merges the Northeast with Ladakh and so on to create a very abstract kind of space. He doesn’t really specify the insurgency. It could be ‘any’ insurgency. However had he called it something specific the same questions would have arisen. The space Ratnam is trying to represent is one of marginality with respect to the nation-state. These are places at the ‘edge of the nation-state’ and only remotely connected to the national ‘capital’. The movie therefore depends on the alienation that SRK’s character undergoes in these spaces. This is like the Shakespearean gesture of constructing a space around an idea (exotic or otherwise). I’ve already quoted Desai and Hollywood examples in this regard.
The point as always isn’t about realism but plausibility. If one says that Italy could be any European country because the audience wouldn’t be able to tell the difference that might be literally true but it would nonetheless make for an implausible fiction. Because the film is belying its own referents. I could not differentiate between the jungles of India from those of Pakistan or Bangladesh though perhaps the residents of the Philippines are much better versed in these matters and can keep all their East Asian jungles apart. Much as I’m sure there are folks who can separate Yemeni deserts from Saudi Arabian kinds.
Taking your logic further I am unsure why anywhere in an artists work an author even bothers to represent things accurately. A french novelist could be describing ac city totally other than Berlin when he talks about the latter. Possibly most of his readership wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. One could say in a movie that Britain has a president and was founded two centuries ago or so whereas the US has a parliamentary system and ruled China once. Perhaps here too the audience wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Finally on your Madras Cafe example why not just have everyone speak Bengali and call it Tamil? The majority of the audience wouldn’t recognize this either!
In general I think you’re completely confusing plausibility and verisimilitude with a weak notion of realism.
They ave to change status of many more ATBB films to BB because they have given CE a BB status.If CE with a budget of around 70 cr has done 220 plus and is a BB then how can they put films like Dabbang or any other in ATBB category.
lol…the khans must be smiling now…after YJHD this is a disaster follow up on box office for Ranbir…but he is still young and will learn…still think he is no. 5 after 3 khans and HR and don’t see it changing anytime soon. Bombay Velvet won’t be big at box office and Jagga Jasoos sounds flop and outdated by the name itself. However if Bombay Velvet is great then RK will have another big blockbuster with Imtiaz Ali. Rather than Aburag Basu he should run after Shimit Amin for project.
Don’t think Imtiaz Ali is the blockbuster kind of filmmaker. Unless he makes something like LAK where a big initial and a half-decent follow-through can put up big numbers. In Jagga Jasoos he apparently plays a 17 year old boy. Sounds to me like the Barfi sort of deal. This could certainly repeat that film’s performance. Kashyap is unlikely to get him big numbers but those sorts of films you do mostly for the acclaim anyway and then if you get decent or better numbers that’s a bonus. It is true that unless something surprising happens none of these films are likely to post very big numbers. Then again he got them for the first time really with YJHD. So if he does another Johar production or whatever he could get the same. Before this he had a number of successful films but no stratospheric numbers. You can’t really get those without genre. Besharam in this sense had the best chance of repeating the YJHD on paper. it must be said though that unless he now adds something along the lines of YJHD to that sequence he has something more risky purely in that box office sense. None of these films is a sure shot though all of them are likely to open well relative to the genres.
Give the guy a break. He is easily the most successful of all stars under 30 yrs of age. The Khans too have had disasters in the 90s. Everyone goes through a learning phase. He has 20yrs to catch up with the Khans. The biggest plus of Besharam is Ranbir’s natural effortless portrayal.
Rishi too was natural, but perhaps became the first mainstream hero to have had a crapping scene with full sound effects. He literally had his 40yr career flushed down the toilet with that gross scene. Kashyap was not satisfied yet, so he had him sit on the potty once again. Later he has Rishi pull a gun on Neetu and threaten her. Neetu is presented as this greedy money-loving constable. All those audiences who went in expecting a Rishi-Neetu romance of yesteryears were in for a rude shock. It is perhaps here that a Sallu wouldve toned down Kashyap’s extra-creativity. Ranbir-Rishi didn’t seem to have questioned all this at all.
I think that first ‘potty’ scene was hilarious actually. but i do get some of the family audience that may have found this cheap and vulgar. the first 20-30 mins were actually funny and entertaining…and then the film went down hill from there. Ranbir shows his natural talents but i really liked the new girl…pallavi…she has potential and she can definitely dance.
this movie was just dumb overall…the direction is the weakest link here no doubt. i agree with satyam bhai that abhinav was truly given a silver platter here and he royally messed it up!!
I think that the 100cr is still a benchmark not easily attainable. Even with a huge star, good music and excellent promotions a film cant achieve the 100cr figure if the audience dont like the film. eg Himmatwala, Talash, Khiladi 786 and now Besharam. On the other hand if the film is good it can do a 100cr even without a big star and promotions. eg. Bhaag Milkha.
It’s quite attainable unless a film is utterly rejected on day 1. That happens with few films. Talash cannot be put in that bracket anyway. This was a different cup of tea. Of course its 90 crores in any case put it way ahead of what those other films grossed.
What about Zindagi na milegi dobara those who are obsessed with this 100 cr number or think it is some sort of benchmark for success always miss this one why ? Talaash made as much as ZNMD and both belongs to same production house .
@ it must be said that after a pretty decent or better (at least for the target audience) first trailer the remaining song ones have been appalling. Mostly because the music has been terrible.
@ A similar argument could be made for D3. whatever advertising choices they have made so far have been pretty miserable.
So Cracks are starting to visible on the wall. Few weeks ago the CE record was calkwalk for both the films and D3 was 300 cr movie. Now there are ifs and buts. But don’t worry you are not alone. I am not sure it you watch ETC channal or not ? They show Buzz and pridiction for a film. They started 160 cr for K3 now came down to 110 cr though for D3 they have set 200 cr and this is the first time thet pridict 200 cr for any movie.
“actually I was about to say SRK might get lucky this year. ”
OK if SRK took a crap film (atleast for me) to around 210 cr it is plain luck and if Aamir took a good (some say mordern day classic) movie to 202 cr it is his achivement. Then some people raise question on others intention. The fact is if 3 idiots 202 cr is a monumental achivement then CE 210 cr too is a great success. Note i am using word monumental for 3 idiots and just great for CE and still if some people doesn’t belive that CE success is a great effort then i have nothing more to say.
CE making 227 crore in India and over 400 crore worldwide is nothing, every movie does that…
At least that’s what i’m led to believe by some on this site…
And if you counter that argument, you have bad faith, you’re uneducated, and there’s whole bunch of other names…
The fact is even today doing 100 crore is no cakewalk for most movies. Let’s not forget out of over 100 hindi movies that releases in a year, only about 7% makes over 100 crore. If you take away 3 khan, HR and Ranbir , you might end up with about 2 to 4 movies making over 100 crore in a year.
Besharam proves them all wrong because it had big star, holiday release, and one of the biggest (if not the biggest) release and yet the result is for everyone to see. Not to forget the fate of Himmatwala, UOATIMD, Satyagraha, etc…
As I always say, PAYING AUDIENCE is the final judge. They can make movie like BMB a hit and at the same time make GM a hit.
Well, I guess i’m happy with my bad faith because i have something to smile about.
On the other hand, look at you, you’re a priniciple of bad faith. over a decade of misery and only way you can make your self feel good is by calling names to fans of all actors except bachhan.
Delusion always gives one smiles but they’re usually not genuine ones. The anxiety reveals itself one way or the other! But hey if you’re smiling I’m glad this blog is enabling that for you..!
by the way I don’t even have a problem with the delusion aspect of it. I’ve seen too many like you over time. But you were pretending to be this very reasonable, fair guy (or gal!). But scratch below the surface and the true self emerges! And here it’s not about comparing one star with another or whatever. You’re a SRK fan that’s fine. But your claims about him are profoundly dishonest. One doesn’t have to go to other stars to get this. Otherwise to each their own. You’re welcome to your alternate reality!
Let’s be serious! By the way that discussion I was indulging in wasn’t for you. Serious (and sincere) conversations are very dangerous for you. You should stay away from them.
Besharam fell another 15% on Friday after the epic 65% crash on Thursday. The collections on Friday were around 5.75 crore nett which takes it 3 day total to 31.50 crore nett.
Saturday and Sunday should see better collections but when collections are already down to the 6 crore nett levels it all becomes irrelevant. Saturday may be up a little or in the same range while Sunday should be up by 10-15% so the film is looking to add another 13 crore nett which would give it a five day weekend of around 45 crore nett.
Even if the film had fallen 50% on day two it could have been safe as it would have got a 50 crore share while now it is losses all around with the lifetime share struggling to hit even 35 crore.
Saturday 5th October 2013 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam crashed after a strong start. The warning signs were there on day one as collections came off noticeably in the evening. The film saw one of the biggest day to days drops at 65%. The business over the first two days was a little under 26 crore nett. FLOP
Warning had low collections of around 3 crore nett in week one
Phata Poster Nikhla Hero dropped badly in week ywo collecting around 6 crore nett taking its total to 36 crore nett. FLOP
The Lunchbox held up well with 7 crore nett in week two taking its total to over 18 crore nett.
Grand Masti collected 7.75 crore nett in week three taking its total to 90.50 crore nett. SUPER HIT
Ha if besharam touches 50 crores, they should celebrate!
Anyhow, there are ‘lessons’ before one moves on to other things.
There are NO ‘easy blockbusters’
It’s only a retrospective finding –himmatwala, talaash, besharam, bra1, ouatimd, khiladi786 are testimony of that.,,
So, ETT, CE, Yjhd deserve respect
3 idiots can’t get anymore ‘respect’ than it’s already (rightly) getting…
Besharam promised a family bonding comedy but instead had edgy elements
But won’t take the ‘vulgarity’ charge seriously
Delly belly had graphic depiction of ‘gal going down on guy’ & a full blown SONG on ‘masturbation’ & guys fighting each other for ‘blowjob’
So don’t give me bullshit about ‘vulgarity’ here
Yeah abhinav kashyap needs to be kept under leash and he wasn’t even at his a-game
As for ranbir–I mean it when I say it’s actually good for him in the long run..
Have no problems with his fornicating on sets and on yeh beach, but think now he needs to be more cautious with his lineup
Be very wary with anurag kashyaps ‘Bombay velvet’
It will be a damn good film but can vouch that anurag is really Abhinavs ‘elder bro’ in terms of risky edgy stuff–unlikely to do anything on the box office
Think ranbir should learn about ‘media spin and management’ from ‘stalwarts’ like srk and aamir. Anyhow he has loads of time and is here to stay.
He will do well to sign a kjo-ayan flick now though 🙂
The diff between DB and Besharam is: the former was not a wide release, in fact had an English release for several multiplexes. DB was advertised as a vulgar film, so the middle class conservative masses never went for it. It was a hit at 50crs. Besharam was advertised as the next vehicle by the ‘new’ superstar. It was the second-widest release, on the hope of crossing 150crs. Howerver, said superstar forgot that the conservative masses love their superstars to be squeaky clean. No potty jokes, crotch jokes, hard-on jokes, etc etc. This is where he miscalculated.
Personally, I did not find it offensive, its just harmless fun. But you cannot fool with the conservative paying public like that. Aamir Khan understood that, and smartly excused himself from starring in DB (except that last song). Having Imran do it was again harmless, because Imran is just a multiplex star (which is why he cannot pull weight with stuff like OUATIM2). Perhaps, Ranbir thought that if Imran can do it, why cant he? Or perhaps this movie was in production before the stupendous success of YJHD which elevated him to that ‘squeaky clean’ superstar level. Ranbir will learn from this hopefully.
That difference is obvious -Which is why db was a suxess with the same earnings as besharam(though I’m not a fan of db).
But don’t think ranbir (or abhinav) are fool enuf to have the db analogy and compete with Imran Khan!!
Infact sometimes too safe n squeaky clean also becomes meh (unlike u have someone like kjo doing the mix!)
So the idea was good to make it edgy but it’s the execution that fell short.. Abhinav started celebrating the day he got ranbir on board and was clearly wither not on full flow or Salman had done value additions/deletions in dabang!
Inspite of all this, besharam had it to reach 100 crores but once negativity of this magnitude spreads, I told earlier –“even one crores becomes difficult”
Within the same premise and context —
If one wishes to see superior stuff, recommend
‘Oye lucky lucky oye’ — the ‘Delhi thief ‘ bit is done much better both by dibakar and abhay deol..besharam had a bigger scale and expectations (& much more negativity and enemity etc) which added to its obvious demerits
Just checked Britney’s return (back from wilderness after a fall from grace !)
She seems to have got a good makeover, styling, worked on her physique
The original dance machine seems to have got the right groove –correct mix of endearing charisma
Think Britney’s got a hit on her comeback ..
Whatta a way to start the morning lol
Oops isn’t she a mom now –who cares?
And there’s S&M as well…
Ps: Amy –make notes 🙂
Btw where has sanju aka sanjana disappeared. Apparently she had some altercations with some commentators here.
She seems to have gone on a self-exile and joined anu
And the two of them are now surviving on ‘girl on girl’ action …
C’mon folks—
‘Girl on girl’ action (& ‘girl & dog’ relationships) ain’t good enuf
🙂
By Subhash K. Jha, Oct 5, 2013 – 10:16 hrs IST
Bouncing back quickly from the debacle of Zanjeer and its Telugu version Thoofan, Ram Charan will now team up with Salman Khan for a film that would be produced by Salman Khan.
Ram Charan flew from Hyderabad on Tuesday to meet Salman. The two had a hush-hush meeting over lunch at Salman’s home in Mumbai where it was decided that the two stars would come together for a film. Sohail Khan was also present at the meeting.
When contacted Ram Charan admitted, “Yes, I was in Mumbai. I had come to meet Salman. We are working on a project together.”
Ram Charan gives Salman a clean chit in the whole Zanjeer copyright controversy where Salman’s father writer Salim Khan joined hands with his former partner Javed Akhtar to sue the new Zanjeer makers for copyright infringement
Says Ram defensively, “Salman really couldn’t intervene in the matter. It was a matter involving the Writers’ Association. He couldn’t say anything beyond a point. Even Salim Khan Saab was very supportive. It’s just that he had to stand by Javed Akhtar Saab, or the writers’ community would have been offended. But to be honest they were fighting for a film that wasn’t anything like theirs.”
Ram Charan seems to have bounced back after the double debacle last week.Jokes the affable star, “Apoorva Lakhia and I need to sit down and make a list of the 10 reasons why Zanjeer didn’t work. It really doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve already moved on to my next project in Telugu. It’s called Yevadu. And it releases for Dussehra on October 10. That’s a full-on action thriller. My fans like to see me fight. They rejected Thoofan because most of the time I was just angry and seething silently. That’s not how they like to see me.”
Now with the project with Salman happening, Ram Charan is upbeat about his Hindi career. “I’ve nowhere to go but ahead since I’ve touched rock-bottom with Zanjeer. Actually I had things much too easy so far. My life and my career were like a fairytale. I think I needed to be jolted.”
“All things equal, I think HR is bigger then Ranbir anyway, ”
Haha can’t disagree Saira ..
On a comparable career stage, ranbir has a better range and is more ‘evolved’ as an actor
As for whose bigger, if the project is apt and he gets a favoured genre, HR can be ‘bigger’ than anyone out there 🙂
Hrithik is a different story at the box office when it comes to his father’s films. This has always been true. The one exception is D2 but this was a multistarrer and a sequel. many stars could fill the D2 space without the numbers being affected. But not many could fill the Krrish space. In fact no current star I can think of would be as effective playing that kind of superhero (not every kind). But he’s good as gold with Filmkraft. In past years there was never a time when a big SRK film outgrossed a Filmkraft Hrithik film, barring K3G (which was ahead of KNPH though MOhabbetin was behind KNPH) which too had Hrithik but of course Bachchan as well. Today once again all else being equal Krrish would outgross CE. In 2006 D2 outgrossed Krrish. Once more all else being equal D3 would outgross Krrish 3.
Of course he’s on average one of the industry’s top openers on any commercial venture. This too has been true since his debut film. When you go to different stuff though his initial suddenly plummets. Any number of films prove this. Here he’s either decent or less than this but never great. For instance ZNMD opened at the same level as MBKD while Rockstar opened bigger than both. JA had a low initial all things considered. Guzaarish had a very poor one.
“Sallu and SRK now hold the longest ‘hit’ and 100cr streak. the more things change…the more they stay the same.”
This has to be comment of the year (change/same piece)…
That’s what i’ve been saying for 2 months now here. 3 khans have been in top 5 for about 20 years now and I see same for 5 more years. HR and Ranbir will be in it too every year.
Then you have 2nd tier with Akshay, Farhan, may be Shahid and irfan.
Rest are garbage.
Actors like Nawaaj, Irfan khan are in different league based on the movies they do.
“K3 will outgross CE and D3will outgross K3” Lol! Some people are thinking like as boxoffice can dance at their tunes.Actually it is kiddish to make any such prediction regarding B.O beforehand.Both K3 and D3 have disappointed so far with their promos/teasers whatever.
Finally, the only real regret I have from besharam is that it seems to have let down poor pallavis career..,
Apparently Im not the only sympathiser
Someone just sent me a ‘pallavi sharda fan club’ lol
I’m currently off fb or twitter so all I can do is plug it here …
Behind the scenes of #Besharam with Australian actress
Pallavishardafanclub
@pallavisharda and @ranbirkapoor on @abc730 abc.net.au/news/2013-10-0…
I hope your humility is helping you survive your failure’s vicissitudes, Mr. Khan. Because this is B.S.! Stealing someone’s speech is deplorable and keeping mum about its source is downright disgusting.
I know many of you are probably thinking that it’s just a few lines that have been ripped off, but the man literally quoted those lines verbatim and didn’t even credit her for it. He came across as this humble and honest guy who spoke from his heart, while a couple of parts of his speech were clearly stolen.
I don’t know if his speech writer messed up or he intentionally stole it; either way, I don’t like this one bit. And even if he did want to use parts of Rowling’s speech, the least he could have done was credit her or maybe paraphrase some of those lines, but no. The man concluded his speech with the choicest of words plucked from Rowling’s speech that earned him a standing ovation.
LOL, cant say it is in any way surprising. Par for the course given who it is. What may be a little bit surpsing is not thinking if someone would notice!
The concept of credit is actually alien to Indians. That is what at least I found in Indian academics. In US the emphasis is even if you write one page it should be yours or with proper credits. Most of the students who were caught were Indian or Chinese.
“And it is to Kashyap’s credit that, at least in the early portions, he allows his film to get as creepy and disgusting – in a humorous manner, because, of course, Babli is essentially a child – as its protagonist. Babli, half asleep, rams his morning wood into the hip of his roommate (Titu, played by Amitosh Nagpal). He stuffs Titu’s sock into his crotch, for “padding,” so he can make a better impression on women. His declaration of love to Tara incorporates a vasectomy scenario. He even participates in an utterly gratuitous shower scene where he keeps giving the audience glimpses of his arse crack. The most shameless scene in the film, however, belongs to Inspector Chulbul Chautala (Rishi Kapoor) – he’s married to Head Constable Bulbul Chautala (a screechy Neetu Singh) – whose relief from constipation is documented with near-scientific rigour. We hear not only the rrrip, but also the plop.
At some point, I began to think that this is how I’d describe Besharam to someone: “Imagine Mr. India transformed into a road movie while Anil Kapoor kept adjusting his crotch!” It isn’t a stretch to spot the Mogambo-lite villain, played by Javed Jaffrey, who follows his forebear’s footsteps, terrorizing all those little orphan children. And you can round off the similarities with a Calendar-like sidekick in Titu, and a career-minded heroine who hates the hero (before falling for him). This film, too, embraces slapstick with fervor. The action sequences are as likely to feature fearsome rocket launchers as a portly old man who simply takes a deep breath and blows the villains away. And a chase, mid-way, transforms into a love story – between dogs, as Tujhe dekha to yeh jaana sanam plays on the soundtrack. (And so that things don’t get too cutesy, we still stick to the “shameless” agenda when Babli pees all over the memory of that number. He literally relieves himself in a mustard field, filled with all those pretty yellow flowers, while singing that song.)”-
this sounds like a film that Anurag Kashyap might have made. This irreverence would have fit well in Dev D! But it’s true that if you’re engaging in a certain kind of subversion it’s very hard to pull it off with a star, specially not one who doesn’t have a ‘bad boy’ image. A major film with this tone just isn’t a good idea anyway. Which is not to say that I’m supporting everything about the movie. Just that the moment one reads Rangan’s description and what he thinks are the film’s stronger points one knows right away why the film was instantly rejected. It’s never about weak scripts and so on. One could say this about a lot of films that work. When you have certain kinds of lines (the rape one is pretty funny!) or the padding moment you’ve lost most of your multiplex audience! Not just because you have those elements but more importantly because those elements clearly lampoon more traditional stuff in the same genre. In other words all the films that people like to think are very different and very subversive but are actually very tame (a point I’ve constantly made) are turned inside out in such attempts. Now a film like Besharam might just be a failure in any case (Rangan of course says this) but this is not the primary reason it fails at the box office. Rangan says this about a lot of other films that work in the same sense.
looks like the Khan media machine got to Ranbir…now that he has entered the big league, he has to tread carefully. even though he has the Kapoor last name and backing, he will also be pulled down ruthlessly just like Hrithik was after KNPH.
I don’t understand this constant pillorying of the ‘ multiplex generation’. Like it or not we are the youth of today, and it is to us that you are pitching your movies. So get used to who we are. We have our own sensibilities and our own sense of aesthetics. So don’t try to force your stale 70’s stuff down our throats. We like all kinds of stuff. We like the sensitive treatment of gender relations among today’s youth, rendered with a lightness of touch ( YJHD). We like stories of raw, unbridled passion in small towen India ( Raanjhana). WE like sweet love stories ( Aashiqui). We like human stories of struggle, success ..and failure ( Bhag Milkha Bhag). We like minimalistic stories of human yearning among Indian middle class ( The Lunchbox). Welike films that are irreverent, smart and funny ( Delhi Belly). We like films that are irreverent, not-so-smart and funny ( Grand Masti). We like films that tell a suspenseful tale ( Khaani). We like films that tell different, quirky stories of middle India ( Vicky donor, Shudh Desi Romance, Kai Po Che). WE like films that experiment boldly with form and content ( Dvd D, Gangs of Wasseypur, Love, Sex aur Dhoka, Barfi, Rockstar). We like films that make us think ( Ship of Theseus). We like films that take up a relevant theme and treat it with insight and humour ( 3 Idiots) using larger than laife imagery. We like fun fables that take us on a charming joy ride ( Chennai Express). Once in a while we like a bit of song and dance and harmless fun ( Dabangg, Bodygyard, ETT). And what we don’t like are lazy, vacuous, unintelligent, stale fare that take us for granted ( Himmatwala, Teri Meri Kahani, Besharam). And as I said, we are what we are. We read les books. But we surf the Net. We see more films. We are better exposed to the world, are less protected. We have a mind of our won. So, better get used to us.
No, youth can’t have their own opinion. Your opinion don’t count. You can’t have an opinion. You have to believe that all actors are worthless except bachhan and only the movie that a delusional person likes matters. Otherwise you’re dishonest.
All the movies you’ve listed above and many more can be used any time against one another to bring certain actors down and can be flip/flopped based on if the argument is about boxoffice or quality of a film.
I’m just joking on what i said above.
But I agree 100% with you and that’s what i’ve been trying to say on this blog. Why can’t we just enjoy movies???
Why must some people always spend their time on bringing certain actors and movies down.
Everybody has their own opinion and choice. If I like vanilla ice cream and you like chocolate, who am i to say my flavor is better then yours? specially if there are 2 people who likes vanilla and 2000 that likes chocolate.
By the way, I’ve been watching movies since early 70’s, I hope you don’t feel all people from that era are delusional and forcing stuff on others. My father who grew up on 50’s/60’s movies thought that most of the movies in 70’s were garbage. Person who grew up with 70s movies will think that of 80’s/90/s movies and so on.
We just have to be mature and respect the paying audience. Let’s not be delusional and act like all movies are good and makes 100 crore.
“We just have to be mature and respect the paying audience. Let’s not be delusional and act like all movies are good and makes 100 crore.”
What I’m trying to say with above comment is let’s not assume every movie makes 100 crore like it’s being portrayed by some. The fact is less then 9% of movies make 100 crore or more. And when a movie does make that, let’s celebrate it and not spend time on degrading makers, fans, paying audience, etc., if it doesn’t star your fav actor.
Take Grand Masti for an example. There is something in that movie that clicked with audience hence the movie is hit. How do you explain Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum not making 100 crore if all movies like GM are to be hit???
“We are better exposed to the world, are less protected.”
and here I thought no one knew the difference between Italy and Budapest..!
Now on the rest not sure who the ‘we’ is because you lump together films that have an audience of 2 with those that have an audience of 2000 and attribute it to this imaginary ‘we’ that likes all kinds of films.
On the rest I won’t repeat everything I’ve said in the past beyond two central points. Firstly on every index of political and social registers the dominant cinema of this age whether in a very commercial sense or in the more popular multiplex sense (which is to say smaller films that are nonetheless popular with a smaller cross-section or are at least critically more acclaimed than others) is actually more ‘regressive’ than the very same combination of genres in the 70s (or even the 50s). There is a certain error on your part (deliberate or otherwise) in using the old bogeyman of masala cinema to represent the 70s when there was in fact a lot else going on from the middle cinema of that period to experimental stuff like Basu Bahattacharya’s to the art movement of the age. The 70s simply cannot be beaten on these scores but here my more precise point is that cinema today is simply not as edgy, as interesting, as entertaining, as fulfilling for want of a better word than the best cinema of an earlier age (I would locate this in the 70s and the 50s).
The second more polemical drift in your response involves if you’ll excuse my saying this a cheap populist appeal (surprisingly so for someone invested in today’s cinema!). I wonder if Lata should be forced down the throats of Alka Yagnik fans. They might object in the same ways!
And this of course gets me to my largest point in these and most other contexts. Again will try and be brief because I’ve expanded on this stuff before. There is a kind of easy nostalgia which is foolish but more often than not it is superseded by an unthinking in the present and ‘this-is-the-best-of-all-possible-worlds’ syndrome. One can define artistic or entertainment currents through the prism of an ‘age’ or a constellation of concerns that define any age but this cannot be one’s only framework. Let me provide an example:
1) Deewar is a great film and one of those fine efforts that defines the 70s.
2) Deewar is a great film because it was made in the 70s.
The two statements are very different. In the first instance the point would be to elevate an important work and index it to larger cross-currents of its period. The second statement however suggests a kind of causality. The latter is the kind of logic common to all nostalgias and all forms of ‘presentism’. In each case one views everything through the prism of a set of choices that one is invested in for ‘natural’ reasons of experience. Such a perspective does allow for the celebration of works from different ages but only those that are completely canonized and exist almost a museum pieces.
All of this is very different from ‘thinking’ a work or a series of films or a body of work of any kind through its age. One cannot really transport oneself to another period but one can think from within the work as best as one can and then correlate it with a larger set of historical, political contexts or whatever. This doesn’t mean that such a reception is only about an ‘intellectual’ response. Absolutely not! Because the other side of this coin, and possibly the more important one, is about being open enough to a very different tradition or a different series within the same tradition to be able to value it in the true sense. Which involves (to get a bit philosophical about it) a kind of ‘unhinging’. Because what is most obviously familiar to one in the form of one’s own films (the films of one’s age) must be de-familiarized and at the same time one must become more intimate with traditions far removed from one’s time and space. This is partly about enough experience with different stuff but it is more crucially about the right mental ‘openness’ in these matters.
The moment one strikes a false note like ‘we’ who are ‘today’s youth’ or whatever one is on the wrong path. Even as a simple logical matter this could be illustrated. Because the youth of every age thinks the very same thing. Clearly they can’t all be right! Otherwise the movies of the 80s ought to be considered as worthwhile as the movies of the 50s (in Hindi)! If they were all right then Arthur Miller must also be as great a playwright as Shakespeare! If they were all correct then Shaan must be as good a singer as Kishore Kumar. So there is this logical problem and then there is that larger theoretical one where aesthetic choices are simply framed by ‘political’ ones (‘we’).
Notice how this is different from an ideological perspective such as mine or a set of political readings that do not necessarily privilege one age but any age and any work which bears those ‘codes’. So I might be dismissive about most of contemporary Bollywood but not when it’s about MP or Talaash or Raavan or Dil Se or Khakee or Dev and similarly some other examples. In the same sense when I privilege contemporary Tamil cinema it is because I find here the same set of political choices that I like. This clearly shows it’s not about the present or the past for me. If it’s about Hindi cinema I’d take the 70s and then the 50s over anything else. If it’s about the 80s I’d take Malayalam cinema and aspects of Tamil cinema over anything else. Over the last twenty years or so I’d take Tamil as a commercial industry over the alternatives (even if I am unable to keep up with this cinema as much as I would like to). From the mid-50s to the early-70s the Bengali commercial industry might well be the strongest Indian one. One might disagree with all my judgments but they’re not ‘chauvinistically’ attached to any given age or industry. It might seem like that sometimes over here because the contexts are mostly about Hindi cinema. I often talk about Hollywood films and even though here too I don’t think we’ve been going through any great renaissance (the last great Hollywood age was the 70s.. most critics would agree about this) I am very happy to recognize important works as an when they occur. In fact I often risk overstatement in these matters. I just saw Gravity and at least on 3D and on the right kind of screen it’s probably the most wondrous film experience I can think of in a theater. I wasn’t around to watch 2001 in a theater or the Searchers or whatever so I can’t universalize it more than this. But I found what I saw stunning for more reasons than one.
Once again it’s not about today or yesterday, about India or the US.. we are all invested in certain immediate experiences and that’s absolutely fine. I can watch certain kinds of guilty pleasures far more easily than others for these reasons. But I try and not to confuse what I am very personally invested in with that which is truly important. I loved Avatar but I had a much more mixed sense of what this film meant or represented versus what I feel in both contexts on Gravity. When I revisit Kamalahaasan’s Guru I am not under the illusion that this is some fine piece of commercial cinema! Nor the same when I watch Bachchan’s Yaarana!
I have broken a brevity promise once more (!) but again if you want to get into the ‘we’ of ‘today’ your argument is certainly not with me because that’s not a format I endorse in this or any other matter.
on Gravity incidentally I’ve put up these links before but if one can this film should be seen on an authentic IMAX theater (most IMAX screens are not authentic ones..). Here’s a list of theaters outside the US which have authentic IMAX screens (look for theaters with the 1570 format code):
So in NY City for example the only option is the Loews at Broadway and 68th.
I can’t stress this point enough though. It’s pointless not watching this film on a big screen. So if you don’t have authentic IMAX located near you find the biggest screen you can!
By the way the difference between real IMAX and the rest isn’t just one of size but also one of format. Nolan to counter this problem released Dark Knight only in proper IMAX theaters.
CA is the best state in the US for authentic IMAX screens. 12 in the state! Of course there’s also a question of space here. for instance some of the Southern or Southwestern states seem overrepresented in this sense. But whichever way one cuts it one screen for the five boroughs of NY is shockingly low! The science or natural history museums don’t count as they don’t screen this stuff.
how many of them are remembered as such and has shelf life ..you are seriously mixing indie cinema(the new genre as they say) with some 2 or 3 commercial stuff…
Happy New year is a long pending project which got delayed due to many factors.Z is right by saying that HNY was planned way before CE release.Laugh worthy thing in above comment is Srk needs help from Abhishek,Boman Irani etc for keeping up the momentum.
In my experience people who laugh too hard are usually ‘trying’ to laugh that hard when the truth pierces some of their defenses and releases their anxieties! Having said that the statement you’ve made is a caricature of a more serious claim. On the rest no one is unaware that HNY has been on again off again at least since after MHN. Bachchan was once supposed to be part of this. There is a silly literalism in these matters that often misses the larger picture (or point being made).
SRK is able to pull all the actors, techincians, director, get the shooting approval from dubai gvmt, as well as get shooting planned and approval from all the different location in dubai, and many other factors involved with shooting the film, specially in foreign location. All these stuff in couple weeks.
I hope you go tmy sarcasm.
Some people who are delusional for more then a decade now will say anything.
The five day total stands at around 37 crore nett and it is likely that film will stay below 45 crore nett or if Sunday does better than expected at best it will be 45 crore nett.
Something seriously went wrong with Besharam, it was supposed to easily do 100 crore business. what I understand from this is that 100 crore is not easy even for a top star after a blockbuster. The film has to be liked by the audience.
tees mar khan , besharam and himmatwala all panned heavily and did over 50 cr with attrocious word of mouth…shows more how much the bar is low with 100 cr scam penetrated and advertised as such especially when multiplexes has engulfed the interior of the country and new base emerging
delhi belly and grand masti has shown the market for cheap stuff but atleast they should be packaged with non veg stuff while comparatively besharam had touch of 70’s and looked stale …a half baked seriousness followed by silliness which was neither here nor there
dabang had masala and heavy involvement of salim khan (part of salim javed) and anurag while besharam showed where abhinav stands now on his own
when shammi kappor played an orpan who looked after orphanage in brahamachari he had class and originality..
when bachchan did the same in lawaris it had class and message ….the banter in apni to jaisi taisi kat jayegi that to in time when crtical structure was operated by elite upper class
when in bunty and bubli father , son and family had shared it had authenticity of small town india(u.p) while in besharam again location of delhi and haryani with there vesrion of lower middle class is fake both of haryana and delhi and so are characters with no consistency
father the cop and son the thief (not in reel life) had chemistry but surprisingly real family didn’t exhibit those..
besharam is the mismatch of some genuine old classic infact a heavy mixed along with a modern one rip off but its bad one a real bad one
Spare a thought for Dravid guys. What a player! Boria Majumadar once said it rightly that had Tendulkar never played for India, Dravid would have been this nation’s best ever batsman.
Whether one was a fan of him is immaterial. If one was ever a fan of Indian cricket, or cricket in general, you had to love Jammy
Scott Bowles, USA TODAY 12:35 p.m. EDT October 6, 2013
Dazzling effects propel the sci-fi thriller to a surprisingly convincing win at theaters, while “Runner Runner” stumbles at the starting gate.
Fueled by the strongest reviews of the year, Gravity hit the stratosphere at the box office this weekend, running rings around the latest thriller from Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake.
The Sandra Bullock outer space saga collected $55.6 million, a record in October, according to studio estimates.
The haul easily eclipsed analysts’ projections of $35 million, and its near-unanimous positive reviews, analysts say, make it an early frontrunner in the awards race.
Propelling sales: IMAX theaters, which accounted for $11.2 million, the biggest October opening for any film in the colossal format. Company CEO Greg Foster says that the bulk of the nation’s 425 IMAX theaters have booked Gravity for the next month.
“We have a special relationship with space films, beginning with our documentaries, and this is the kind of quality movie our audience expects,” he says.
3-D acquitted itself well, too, as it accounted for 80% of ticket sales, according to distributing studio Warner Bros. Gravity eclipsed the October debut record of Paranormal Activity 3, which opened to $52.5 million in 2011.
The film earned an astounding thumbs-up from 98% of the nation’s critics, according to survey site Rottentomatoes.com.
Fans were nearly as over the moon: 91% of moviegoers said they enjoyed the movie, directed by Alfonso Cuaron and co-starring George Clooney. Nearly 60% of the audience was 35 and over, and the movie scored an A- with moviegoers, according to pollsters CinemaScore.
Tim Briody of Boxofficeprophets.com says that Gravity had no trouble hitting the box office stratosphere despite the unpredictable nature of science fiction films — particularly original ones.
But the $100 million picture managed to combine “incredible effects, horror movie-style vibe (seriously, try and watch any scene from it without wanting to hold your breath), an A-list cast and ridiculously positive word-of-mouth to set everything up properly for the largest opening in months.”
And it gives the fall season, which often sees sluggish ticket sales until Thanksgiving, critical momentum as studios try to catch last year’s ticket sales pace.
“The real question at this point is how high it can go,” says Ray Subers of Box Office Mojo.
Gitesh Pandya of Boxofficeguru.com says that Gravity drew non-sci-fi fans in part with its high-powered stars, particularly Bullock, who has discovered 2013 is her lucky number. Earlier this year, her comedy The Heat opened to $39 million on its way to $159 million. Both Bullock and Clooney scored the highest debuts of their career this weekend.
“Bullock remains a major star, very likable, and very bankable,” Pandya says.
Affleck and Timberlake couldn’t find their way to the bank this weekend as their crime thriller Runner Runner fell well below expectations. The only other newcomer of the weekend — which scored a miserable 8% approval rating among critics, Rottentomatoes.com says — mustered only $7.6 million, good for third place.
The animated comedy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 took second place with $21.5 million, while the drama Prisoners took fourth with $5.7 million.
The Ron Howard racing film Rush rounded out the top five with $4.4 million. Final figures are due Monday.
Yesterday we had chance to see Gravity morning show (as daughter had play date). The choice was between catching up with sleep and movie. We chose former 🙂
LOL Munna , I saw it in IMAX 3-D today. great visuals , but found it a bit slow . also same thing, aag hee aag but nothing happens to Sandra from lake Zurich, IL LOL
Monday 6th October 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam had that normal Sunday jump with collections remaining low. A 6.75-7 crore nett wouldhave been a just about decent figure for Monday but that is what Besharam collected on Sunday. The daily collections for the first five days are as follows
The film has awful 10% occupancies in early shows of Monday morning and it looks like the lifetime toalof the film will be around the 60 crore nett mark which is lower than the expected extended weekend of the film
‘Besharam’ is an epic disappointment!
By Taran Adarsh, October 7, 2013 – 11:17 IST
By now everyone who’s a fan of masala films must’ve realized that BESHARAM has turned out to be an epic disappointment, a colossal waste of fine talent and resources. Ranbir Kapoor [after BARFI! and YEH JAWAANI HAI DEEWANI] + Abhinav Kashyap [after DABANGG] + masala genre [the flavor of the season] + timing its release on a national holiday [2 October; 5-day weekend] + super promotion and release strategy by Reliance should’ve translated into a groundbreaking start at the BO. But BESHARAM has botched up all chances of setting new benchmarks. The film has failed to deliver. Not Ranbir Kapoor…
Thanks to his superstardom, Ranbir drew the audience to the plexes and single screens on the day of release. But, ultimately, the content has to do the talking and BESHARAM is an absolute letdown on that front. The business continued to dwindle with each passing day [escalating slightly on Sunday], clearly indicating that the audience has rejected the film. I dread to think what the figures will be on weekdays, given the fact that its biz over the weekend was shockingly low.
Star value coupled with hype and hoopla can assure an impressive start at the ticket window, but for any film to have long legs, it ought to be backed by strong content. The spectator is in a mood to lap up anything and everything, provided it appeals to him/her. In this case, the negative word of mouth spread faster than wild fire and the cracks were visible on its opening day itself, towards the evening/night shows specifically.
There’s a lesson to be learnt here. A lesson we have learnt many a times in the past, but pay no heed to time and again. Never take the audience for granted. Your past laurels can help you momentarily, but when you’re out on the field, you’re judged by your current ability and skills. Hope we remember this the next time!
/* Life and times of an Amitabh Bachchan look-alike*/
Firoz watched his first Amitabh Bachchan movie, Khoon Pasina (1977), in his native town, Budaun, in Uttar Pradesh, at the age of 10. In Budaun, people would collect just to stare at the posters of a Bachchan movie, put up outside theatres, 15 days before its release. Inside, they would hoot every time Bachchan appeared, throw money at the screen, dance on their seats or in the aisles.
Tuesday 8th October 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam went to very low levels on Monday as it fell more than 50% from its Friday business. The collections on Monday are even lower than a low collecting rejected film like Phata Poster Nikhla Hero. The daily collections for the first six days are as follows
The film has 46.50 crore nett in six days and will collect around 53 crore nett over its extended first week if it shows that normal 15% weekdays daily fall. The lifetime total is looking to be 60 crore nett on a best case scenario.
” The image I have had of making the more family, bubble-gum, NRI kind of films, will take me a lot of time to deconstruct, but whether it was directing a film like ‘My Name Is Khan’ or being a part of ‘Bombay Talkies’ or associating with films like ‘The Lunchbox’, we do want to spread our wings. You could argue that why would I want to deconstruct at all, but that is because my sensibility adheres to all kinds of cinema. While I love the films that I have made in the past, I am also an audience that would clap in my seat watching ‘The Lunchbox’. I am a cinema child. I grew up watching parallel films as much as I watched potboilers.”
yeah right!
“Yes, I can’t wait to. Shah Rukh and I have the best director-actor chemistry anyone can have. He knows it, I know it, we know it. Every time we come together, we will make a magical movie. He knows my beats as a filmmaker and I know his, as an actor. The way we understand each other, I don’t think I will be able to have that tuning with any other actor. When I write a film with Shah Rukh in it, I will put in that pause I know he will take. Likewise, he knows the emotion I need. He will look at me and say, ‘You want it more teary, right?’ We have that understanding that comes from the amount of time we have spent together. I have spent 500 days of my life on set and 2000 days personally with him. So how will I not know him better than any other filmmaker? The connection we have can be rekindled any time and it will always be like it always was. We have the synergy that words cannot have. We have a silent understanding that from my end, is a lot more respect, and from his end, is a lot more love. We will work together when I write that script for him that not only warrants his superstardom, but also a film that he has not done before.”
Let’s hope the audience is in on the chemistry next time around unlike KANK and MNIK!
Romantic longing has provided the cinema with some of its most glorious and idealistic movies: Casablanca and Brief Encounter are films with an unabashed, unironic passionate flame at their centre.
Movies such as Gone With the Wind and Doctor Zhivago lent something grand and epic to romantic love, but it was perhaps the much-loved weepie An Affair to Remember that did the most to introduce us to the more domestic idea of the chick flick or the date movie – the romantic film adored by women and tolerated by their husbands and boyfriends.
The romantic comedy was a further refinement, almost invented in its modern sense by Woody Allen and revived by Rob Reiner with his smash-hit, When Harry Met Sally, a success that has spawned a thousand sucrose imitations. Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood For Love is probably the most potent, old-fashioned romance of recent times. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung have that seductively heartbreaking self-sacrifice shown by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman or Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. Love will never go out of fashion.
the ideal combination would be that of IMAX and RealD 3D but no such thing exists! IMAX is hard to beat but there is something to be said for the depth and ’roundedness’ (for want of a better word) of Real 3D.
My next viewing will be on a Real D screen but it’s going to be hard after having seen it on the biggest screen in the city. But in general I think this film is more of a 3D movie than it is an IMAX film. Mainly because I think Cuaron seems more interested in opening up and illuminating planes of depth and movement and space that exist outside of the ones the IMAX format has already broken past. Not to mention Curaon did not shoot the film using IMAX cameras, at least as far as I know.
Finally caught up with GRAVITY on IMAX 3D – had to make-do with non-1570 one. Worth every cent of the expensive $17.50 price-tag. A truly, truly wonderful achievement that lingers on even after is brought down to the 1-D of life and its rigmarole. The first 20 minutes till the astronauts come into real view are spell-binding. Terrifically captures how unimportant the human is to the overall cosmic scheme – however evolved one might be technologically. A must, must watch for a fantastic effect on the senses.
Glad to see the actor playing Sharif (Phaldut Sharma) singing MERA JOOTA HAIN JAPANI in space! Equally glad to see SHANKAR JAIKISHAN’s names in the end-credits!!
” I was in Africa shooting for a film. A local asked me where I was from. When I said India he said he knows 3 things about India…the Taj Mahal, spicy food and Amitabh Bachchan. That is the kind of legend he is.”
SATYAMSHOT 
October 2, 2013 at 1:51 AM
Besharam To Have Second Widest Release Of All Time
Tuesday 1st October 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam is set for the widest release of all time after Chennai Express. It will be Ranbir Kapoor’s widest release easily crossing the 3100 screens of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.
Chennai Express had released on 3700 screens and Besharam will fall short of that due to less screens in the South. Chennai Express had a phenomenal release in the South as there was no major Tamil or Telugu release at the time so Chennai Express got a release where normally Hindi films don’t get a release as exhibitors needed a new film for Eid weekend. In Tamil Nadu/Kerala, Chennai express was released on nearly 175 screens when most other big films come on less than 100 screens. It was a similar story in Nizam/Andhra and Mysore and its because of the release that Chennai Express has smashed records in these areas by such huge margins.
Besharam will release on around 3500 plus screens with the 200 screen shortfall coming down South. The advances are good for the film all over be it multiplexes or single screens but with such a wide release advances don’t really matter as the key is can it keep up the pace all through the day and how big is that second day fall as it is a Wednesday release. Dabangg 2 is the second widest release at the moment with 3450 screens which Besharam should surpass when it releases tomorrow (Wednesday).
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October 2, 2013 at 2:28 AM
Besharam Has Excellent Start
Wednesday 2nd October 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam took a flying start with multiplexes recording 90% occupancies on average over the first two shows. The opening in Delhi NCR was extraordinary and as big as any film with collections 100% at most theatres.
If we compare with record openers like Chennai Express and Ek Tha Tiger than the opening is comparable in the big cities but as the city gets smaller there is a gap between Besharam and those films. This is also indicates that when the noon show starts at single screens it will be less than those films.
The single screens will still be huge but not at the level of Ek Tha Tiger or Chennai Express as although the film has more commercial ingredients than the regular Ranbir Kapoor film, the promos do indicate a Rom-Com rather than action or masala film.
The release for the film is huge and if it gets that 80% start at single screens and keeps the pace going at multiplexes then the first day total could go to around 25 crore nett. The chances are there with it being a holiday as long as public reports don’t disappoint.
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=6117&nCat=
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October 2, 2013 at 2:33 AM
Wow Ranbir…anything over 20crrs prove how big Ranbir is now and rests any doubt about his superstar status. This movie had hardly any buzz…lol it was releasing today and people were hardly speaking about it and Rambo Rajkumar, Raam Leela, Bullet Raja were getting more attention
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October 2, 2013 at 2:58 AM
ROFLMAO…
It will be fun to see the much of the public & the trade guys mast!@##$%ng over Ranbir Kapoor. As expected, the trade guys (or whatever one wants to call them) have the ‘pitch’ ready as one calls in cricket parlance. The commentary is going to be only in fours and sixes; no singles, no wides, and definitely no dot balls!!!
BESHARAM is surely an apt title for the movie!!!! Let the number games/auction begin..
Cinema; quality – huh? what are those Mars-centric terms??
All the best..
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October 2, 2013 at 3:12 AM
Oh yeah…as if most of the blockbusters have quality….if quality was to measure box office then Rocket Singh would have been Ranbir’s biggest blockbuster not YJHD
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October 2, 2013 at 9:27 AM
Ya I know..talking about quality is equivalent to talking about Goddard or Ray..the quality of SHOLAY or BAAZIGAR has a different dictionary meaning I guess..
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October 2, 2013 at 6:13 AM
Way to go Ranbir…
Sky is the limit for this guy with the way he is hitting fours and sixes 🙂
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October 2, 2013 at 7:30 AM
It’s getting a lot of negative reviews so it might crash from Monday. Ranbir starpower should help it sail thru.
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October 2, 2013 at 7:43 AM
Yeah…the reviews are awful it seems
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October 2, 2013 at 8:13 AM
The movie had a terrible WOM. The opening day is good though and can just fall short of 25 cr but lifetime 100 cr looks out of question. This looks like it will fall from tomorrow. Also the question on who really called the shots in da bang will surface now.
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October 2, 2013 at 9:46 AM
quite surprised. How hard is is to make a passable film in this genre?! Kashyap was always going to be a bit of a wildcard since he hadn’t done something like this before. Still for even Taran to give it 1.5 stars shows it’s utterly terrible. And Kashyap deserves all the blame he gets. Following on YJHD he couldn’t have asked for a better deal here.
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October 2, 2013 at 9:58 AM
I had this feeling from trailors that if this film go wrong it can go wrong very badly. The kind of character – the over the top, loud and lewd guy – sometimes you are treading on a very fine line between an endearing character and a complete turn off. This one looks to be falling in the turn off category. The first day will be fine and looks to be around 23 crores now but it is going to be downhill from tomorrow morning
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October 2, 2013 at 12:06 PM
Haven’t read the review but a pass from Adarsh should be a sign of hope!
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October 2, 2013 at 12:21 PM
Taran gave it 1.5 stars!!
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October 2, 2013 at 1:30 PM
Yes, that’s what I mean. If he’s telling people to skip it, it’s perhaps not the worst sign.
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October 2, 2013 at 3:27 PM
Ha, true!
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October 2, 2013 at 8:29 AM
A bad film from any actor, superstar , whoever –deserves to fail. Reviews are terrible — and frankly, am not surprised. The ads and promos had put me off. The Lunchbox is going strong. Glad that this little film with fabulous performances from real actors –who portray real believable people — it’s doing well, deserves to.
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October 2, 2013 at 8:46 AM
public are loving this film.
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October 2, 2013 at 8:54 AM
I am surprised some people in this forum saw some worth in the film. I mean it could have surprised, but if one had to go by the trailer, it was lame in every department. The jokes were flat, the songs were stale, the staging of the songs unimaginative. The song, ‘ Jo Haal Dil Ka’ was the last straw for me..such a pointless, unimaginative rehash of the 80’s songs! Only Ranbir seemed to be trying his best. Everything else was crap. Wahta pity, seemingly intelligent directors , ranging from Mani Ratnam and Sanjay Bhnsali to Anil Sharma and Sajid Khan fail to recognize what elements in their last successful films were the good elements and what were the bad.
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October 2, 2013 at 12:16 PM
Find it more of a pity that there are audience members who would think to compare Mani Ratnam and Sajid Khan on any imaginable level.
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October 2, 2013 at 2:35 PM
Utkal:
It was not a question of worth. This movie is intended to make money and sell papers further stamping RK’s stardom. So, in light of that, QUALITY was not at all one of the metrics here!! All that it has to do is is have at least 0.25 tsp of proper masala in it and it would click. Now if the maker doesn’t even bother to work on very minimal stuff like pacing, music, and a half-decent storyline, what can anyone do?
I expected/still expect this film to do well because basically, the ULTIMATE goal is 100 crores, which even trash like GM can make. Quality (& by quality I mean the standards for some good masala) is somewhere down, buried deep down beneath the rubble of over-praising media and public manipulation. When the bar itself is so low, so beneath everything, naturally the expectations also nose-dive.
We are setting the bar so low when everything and everybody is just busy counting money in the first 10 minutes, 50 minutes, 1 day or so, that over-bending is causing the audience to become hunch-backs!!
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October 2, 2013 at 3:04 PM
It has to be a trash that audience likes in order for it to make 100 crore. What percentage of movies in a year makes 100 crore?
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October 2, 2013 at 3:07 PM
Anything below 125 crore for this movie is a failure.
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October 2, 2013 at 5:07 PM
Why? I think 100crr plus will be fine…little disappointing but will be fine given how it looked from the promos and hardly anyone cared. Whatever business it will be doing is purely on Ranbir’s star power inspite of so much of negativity around the movie. SRK survived so many low 100crr grosser (and looked out of top race) before he hit it out of the park with CE
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October 2, 2013 at 8:40 PM
the better question might be: what percentage of trash with a significant star does not get to 100 crores?!
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October 3, 2013 at 4:30 AM
Who are the significant star?
I thought Akshay was but we saw what happenned to UOATIMD.
I thought Devgan was but we saw what happenned to Himmatwala and satyagraha.
I thought aamir was but talaash didn’t go over 100 crore.
SRK, salman, aamir, HR and Ranbir can get you a big opening but rest is dependent on the movie.
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October 3, 2013 at 6:34 AM
yes but for all those examples doesn’t each star have far more that did?! Satyagraha isn’t a fair example anyway (or Talaash in some ways.. both films could have got to that point but the bar is higher for these sorts of subjects.. it’s not like asking why RNBDJ didn’t reach 100 despite being liked when Ghajini did 115 releasing around the same time!) but in the other strong genres the point is that a film has to be utterly rejected not to be able to get to 100 crores. In other words it must be absolutely hated. This is a false standard anyway. It’s like asking how many films in Hollywood make 200m. Because even the worst Pirates or Transformers installments go comfortably past this benchmark. That doesn’t mean everyone loves them. And no one raises the question: hey how many films go past 200? These kinds of questions are raised in India because of completely partisan reasons. If you want to pretend that Ra One getting to 100 means something you have to call this a benchmark. So on and so forth. For all these films that open at a certain level 150 really ought to be the more reasonable benchmark, not 100.
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October 2, 2013 at 10:02 AM
“I am surprised some people in this forum saw some worth in the film”—
It wasn’t ‘Some people’ but ‘only me!’ Lol
I can’t comment without seeing the film but this wasn’t supposed to have a Yjhd catchy vibe anyways & having a ‘kashyap’ at the helm meant there was inherent box office risk (big time!)
But the negativity on this one has been unprecendented as of people were WAITING to pounce on the film and kill it!!
I don’t care –if it fails, let it fail–targets won’t be revised !!
Less than 120 crores should be poor(as I said before) !
Anyhow long term, this should have a sobering effect on ranbir and prevent him going the ‘Rajesh khanna’ way.
Having said that, I still had /have more belief in abhinav kashyap and even pallavi sharda.
Will still catch it this week!
The only difference is that I may have to catch it today /early on incase the reviews are so bad and the film is taken off from the theatres near me (has happened in the past!)
As of now–
Hum lut gaye aake tere mohalle 😉
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October 2, 2013 at 10:09 AM
The decision that I shall catch this film on the big screen was made the day I read the tagline—
“Na apmaan ka bhay
Na sammaan ka moh”
Wow
And I won’t change now either ….
Ps: this is not about fans or apologists who revise the targets /predictions after seeing the first weekend collections!!!
🙂
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October 2, 2013 at 10:23 AM
“The song, ‘ Jo Haal Dil Ka’ was the last straw for me.”—
This is how a ‘fully clothed heroine!’ Is bothering folks!!
C’mon folks–rise above this superficiality 🙂
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October 2, 2013 at 11:02 AM
http://movies.ndtv.com/bollywood/salman-khan-mass-entertainer-films-might-die-totally-426808?pfrom=home-latest
Is it that ominous ???
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October 2, 2013 at 11:14 AM
RIP Tom Clancy.
A generation of fiction writing comes to an end, many of his novel, were made as Blockbusters. My favourite being The Hunt for Red October.
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October 2, 2013 at 11:46 AM
RIP Clancy.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/02/us/tom-clancy-obit/
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October 2, 2013 at 2:56 PM
Name change or email ID change puts the comment in spam
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October 2, 2013 at 4:42 PM
oops sorry didn’t notice the extra ‘a’ there…
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October 2, 2013 at 11:15 AM
Hmm maggie–the ‘timing’ of that declaration is interesting –just on the eve of besharam release!!
Srk and aamir are old hats in this but even Salman having to resort to this shows that ranbirs now a real threat to them!
Anyhow read somewhere that ranbir declared pre release lat week that he KNEW the response to trailers etc was poor but he was ready for any verdict -no excuses…
Proud of that —this guy ranbir will stay and rule long after these flicks and khans have gone…
He’s here for the long run…
Ager Yjhd, rockstar, barfi–ranbir could have gone for ANY sure shot hit maker aka kjo clan
But does he choose?
Abhinav and anurag (kashyap brothers) for besharam and Bombay violet!!
THE risky eccentric mavericks around …
Ok maggie–checking out pallavi sharda (more than) match steps with ranbir here.. (Incase the film turns out to be too bad shortly lol)
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October 2, 2013 at 11:26 AM
Can’t rule out immense/preplanned negativity on besharam (irrespective of the demerits of the film) has ensured this film doesn’t even take a start!
lemme ensure atleast an opening/ start (before the crash!)
‘Lut gaye’ will be filmed on both maggie & Oldgold
& oldgold- thanx for those ‘laddoos’ 🙂
Sab ko lallu banaa ke
Dil phenkaa tujh parr
Hum lut gaye ainvayi aake tere mohalle …
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October 2, 2013 at 11:45 AM
Reveiws seem overwhelmingly bad but am not sure about WOM.
If WOM is also bad, obviously will crash from Mon but public has its own mind. But, certainly is not a blockbuster.
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October 2, 2013 at 3:02 PM
Day 1 looks like 22 crs…
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October 2, 2013 at 12:29 PM
The ‘Real’ Big movie has actually released in TN today. ‘Idharthane Aasapattai Balakumara’. The movie has released to rave reviews and taken an excellent opening too. Infact even in Sathyam cinemas Besharam has been given smaller screens compared to IAB. This looks like the 4th success for Vijay Sethupathy in a row after Pizza, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kannom and Soodhu Kaavum. The actor is building a fantastic resume of movies and his next two movies ‘Rummy’ and ‘Pannaiyarrum Padminiyum’ also promises to be very exciting.
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October 2, 2013 at 2:35 PM
Ok folks–before the ‘negativity’ spreads &/or the film gets taken off midweek (& difficult to get ‘company’)—checking out besharam today itself shortly…
The defintive review shortly (
Doodh ka doodh!)… 🙂
Paida nanga huaa to
Kaahe ki kaahe ki sharam
Maai baap naa hi
Naa koi dharam
Tedhe medhon se kadak
Seedhe saadon se naram
Fun harfunmaula hardum….
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October 2, 2013 at 3:06 PM
This is worst reviewed Ranbir movie…although not very surprising as the trailers and vibe were really bad for this…Ranbir should improve his acting style in action sequences…seems he have done comedy action like APKGK during fight scenes. May be he needs to do some intense and serious action roles. Besharam might get away with 100crr or so but overall it will definitely affect his next movie and star status. What he have garnered among public as giving quality movie have been hit hard with Besharam…YJHD also to some extent but that was somehow passable. He needs something like Rocket Singh/Barfi/Rockstar next to gain that trust again.
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October 2, 2013 at 3:39 PM
Think you’re flying off the deep end. Even if this is some massively bad movie it doesn’t represent some major violation on Ranbir’s part that he now has to redeem himself for! He’s hit a strong enough stride right now that a failure here won’t really hurt him, much less hobble his overall relationship with the audience. If anything it’s Abhinav Kashyap who’s going to get beat up here if the reviews are to be trusted, which is, as always, a major caveat in these matters especially when it’s this early. I’m going to wait for a few voices and of course Rangan to weigh in to see what’s up here.
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October 2, 2013 at 8:45 PM
Besharam Takes Bumper Opening; Milestone For Ranbir?
by Box Office India (October 2, 2013)
Ranbir Kapoor has created a stir at the box office once more, with Besharam rocking the ticket counter on its opening day, a national holiday, today. The film took a bumper opening in almost all territories and is expected to earn Rs 20 crore, all-India NBOC.
With this film, which also features Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor and debutante Pallavi Sharda, Ranbir has finally joined the big league of actors as he has been accepted in a massy avatar. Let’s find out what distributors have to say about Kapoor’s latest release.
Rajesh Thadani, Multimedia Combines, Mumbai
Being a Ranbir Kapoor film, Besharam opened on a slow note. But from the second show, the film saw huge growth and the occupancy is around 99 per cent all over India as well as in Mumbai. The film will definitely do business of Rs 20 crore on day one all-India and around Rs 7 crore in Mumbai.
Brijesh Tandon, HK Tandon And Company, Delhi-UP
In UP and Delhi, the film is running house full since the second show of the day. Word-of-mouth publicity is also very good. It’s Ranbir’s first massy film and everyone has accepted him in the massy avatar. On day one, Besharam will earn around Rs 4.5 crore in our territory.
Jaspal Dhingra, Nanaskar Enterprises, East Punjab
Besharam is doing outstanding business in our circuit. The film is growing with every show. However, it didn’t open as well as Ranbir’s last film, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani still, it is going strong and it’s got a long week to run. On day one, the film will do business of around Rs 1.7 crore.
Gaurav Gaur, O’real Imaginations, Rajasthan
Besharam is a massy film and Ranbir Kapoor has joined the big league of actors, where he appeals to all types of audiences. In Rajasthan, the film is clocking 100-per cent occupancy in single-screens and multiplexes. Collections on day one are pegged at Rs 1 crore.
Debashish Dey, Aum Moviez, West Bengal
Besharam is doing outstanding business in West Bengal. Every show is house full here and there is huge advance booking for the night shows. On day one, the film will clock around Rs 1 crore. We expect great returns at the weekend as well.
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October 2, 2013 at 10:30 PM
Is it Ranbeer’s Ra-One ?
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October 3, 2013 at 2:49 AM
Looks even worse than that…at least ra-one have vfx and all. The wom seems utterly poor and the cracks have started to appear on the first day itself. Abhinav should now shut up and Ranbir should start paying attention to scripts….again.
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October 3, 2013 at 2:51 AM
But may be Ranbir thought it will be something different for him…looks like all the blame should go to Abhinav who have literally come up with C grade flick here.
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October 3, 2013 at 12:20 AM
Besharam Targets Third Highest Opening Day
Wednesday 2nd October 2013 13.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam is looking at the third highest opening day collections of all time. The multiplexes have opened to excellent response (bumper at places) but the single screen opening is not what it should be.
In a territory in Delhi/UP, the multiplexes and few single screens in Delhi city are bumper, most multiplexes in UP are very good but single screens in UP are just good (65-70%) which is good for a normal day but not a holiday.
It is similar story in circuits like Rajasthan and CI where multiplexes are performing very well but single screens are not as they should be. The film is likely to get the third highest opening ever but is unlikely to reach the 25 crore nett mark as single screens have not performed as they should have. The reports of the film are also not that strong but that will come more into play from tomorrow onwards.
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October 3, 2013 at 3:16 AM
I think entire blame shouldn’t go to Abhinav. When Ranbeer did Rocket Singh, WUS, Rockstar, Burfi and YJHD. Then everyone said Ranbeer has a good sense of script. Now if he fas choosen Besharam then some blame should go to him. If we give Ranbeer benifit of doubt then it is like Meetha-Meetha gadam kadwa-Kadwa thu.
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October 3, 2013 at 3:18 AM
@taran_adarsh
Big holiday [2 Oct] + Ranbir after #Barfi and #YJHD + Massive release… #Besharam should’ve collected ₹ 25 cr+ on Wed. It didn’t!
#Besharam – India *early estimates*: Wed ₹ 20 cr+.
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October 3, 2013 at 3:25 AM
while i agree with the narrative on Besharam…the only problem i have is Taran and most indian box office ‘experts’ do not show consistency in this area. if this were a SRK or Sallu starrer, we’d be reading all kinds of crazy superlatives right about now and no mention of what it really “should’ve” collected.
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October 3, 2013 at 3:27 AM
i still think Ranbir belongs in the top tier with the Khans and Hrithik. YJHD has cemented his place for a film or two IMO.
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October 3, 2013 at 3:47 AM
Indeed Ranbir belongs to top tier…the OD just proves it…however the wom seems so bad that the cracks have started to appear from evening shows itself and might struggle to hit 100crrs.
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October 3, 2013 at 8:34 AM
The late night shows for this movie dropped so the first day is around 20 which is okay for a movie releasing on a holiday. Today there is a major drop across the board and early estimates are looking to be around 8 crore which is poor. From today onwards and if today is 8 crores this will not add much more than 60 crores s expect the movie to wind down at 80 crores. The movie needed 110 crores for a clean hit status so we are looking at a below average fare here with losses of around 25 crores.
A very poor result for all concerned. This also yet again shows that if a movie is not liked then holiday will not help and drop will show the next day itself. In hindsight I have now started admiring the fact that ra-one which is the benchmark of a badly rejected movie these days managed 115 crores inspite of opening on a laxmi pooja day and having its best day on the second day when the WOM was already out. Yes the movie underachieved but the movie did show that srk had a very good pull among paying publics because its not how much your hits do but really how much your flop movies do that give a more clearer indication of your crowd pulling status.
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October 3, 2013 at 8:45 AM
There’s a reason why SRK is/was called the ‘king’ for so long !
Whilst I may have had issues with some of his acting styles (& politics), as I’ve maintained, all things considered, he has been the guy ( since bachchan!),..
Ps: lol @ the immense hurry in declaring besharam a flop..few minutes into the first show onwards
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October 3, 2013 at 9:36 AM
I’d disagree on two counts assuming your totals are correct. Firstly it’s not fair to compare Ranbir with SRK. He’s doing very well but he’s starting out. He can’t be expected to to have the same kind of base in the audience. But secondly one should really introduce two important points here. Ra One wasn’t just any film but a sci-fi Hollywoodized deal that was hyped to death. To say that it had the very same standard to live upto that for instance barfi did is rather strange. So if Barfi is doing 100 crores isn’t it a complete disaster that Ra One just did 15 crores more on a vastly greater print count and what not? Even leaving aside the colossal difference in budgets? Again it’s mystifying why (and leaving aside the partisans) people continue to follow this one-size-fits-all strategy. We just had in Hollywood a movie on the most iconic American novel and starring a very important star. The movie did 110m or whatever and everyone counted it as a success. The same star got 260m with Nolan on Inception. That too was counted as big success. But even the latter was very far from Depp’s Pirates totals. Only in India do we set up these insane analogies. Or I should correct that. People do this online or in the trade. No distributor goes by these expectations. But it’s even worse. We see the Pirates kind of deal (Ra One or whatever) do what Gatsby did and we start giving credit to the star for getting the audience in! Dirty Picture gets 70-80 crores or whatever and we wish to give credit to SRK for doing 30-40 crores more than this in expensive crazily hyped films that sometimes happen to be sequels or sequels to remakes and release on the biggest holiday periods! We all know the list! I just mentioned RNBDJ. The initial wasn’t even particularly strong here, good but not fantastic. More recently we saw how lethargic JTHJ was. The same for Don2. and so on. It’s a bizarre idea that unless a big hyped SRK film doesn’t end at 60 crores he’s proved something! But that’s mathematically almost impossible on a release of this scale. So Ranbir is so new in the game, he’s going through a great phase but he’s still very young and he now has a film which might be a box office disaster and it’s doing 80 (according to you). And we’re going to give credit to SRK for 30 crores more than this on Ra One?! Which doesn’t mean that I disagree with the idea that SRK has a base. But the bar can’t be kept that low. It’s like some others here who pop up from time to time saying ‘oh he at least did 100’. yeah but the 100 crore standard is a red herring give that a strong one week number gets you to 70-80% of that number! Even beyond this we can see just how badly these films were underperforming when ETT, YJHD, CE suddenly put up these massive numbers in one week or ten days. The market didn’t suddenly change overnight! The fact that Ra One got to 100 after tanking shows how insignificant the 100 crore standard is for major films/stars. So it proves exactly the opposite.
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October 3, 2013 at 9:57 AM
Haha satyam
Btw Must give credit to mr/Miss krish — s/he can accurately predict the first week,& lifetime totals even after the first day( heck first show)
And seems s/he maybe right here 🙂
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October 3, 2013 at 11:36 AM
Apex : He , not she…
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October 3, 2013 at 11:22 AM
I am not saying that Ra-one at 115 is a success. It is no doubt a flop. Movies like Barfi, TDP etc are well liked movies so they are not a comparison. Here is a flop which was universally panned (except Taran) , got the worst reviews possible, SRK was lampooned, ridiculed for it so much so that he was a laughing stock and his brand value was shaken so much that his next film didnt get a bumper opening. So this was not an ordinary flop which people forget and get over it. People talk about Ra-one and RGV ki Aag even today when a bad movie releases. So for this movie to then release on a Laxmi Pooja day, get a moderate 14 crore on Day 1 but still end up with 115 crores in India and 200 crores worldwide is bizarre. A bad movie drops on Day 2 whether it is hyped or not hyped, we saw it with Besharam, we saw it with OUATIMD where the movie dropped inspite of adding 1000 screens. Hence it doesnt make sense that Ra-one had its first big drop only on the 6th day (the 3rd day of Ra-one was a working day too). The only sense I can make out of it that the star power of SRK worked in getting the audiences as the WOM was surely terrible. The same thing happened even with JTHJ but there it can be explained as the reviews were not terrible, the star cast was stronger and the Yash Chopra sympathy factor was there but even then the movie only got to around 102 crores, 13 crores less than Ra-0ne.
Your final sentence is surprising as I do not know of any other flop which did 100 crores. Movies like Body Guard, ETT, Agneepath which all started well but maybe didnt reach their trending potentials werent flops and werent panned. Infact they were all liked by more people than not. The only other underperformer by a major star was Talaash but that can be explained by the genre factor.Ra-one was not liked, was panned, ridiculed, but reached within 5 crores of Agneepath and 10 crores of Ready. That requires some getting…
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October 3, 2013 at 11:46 AM
Have you looked at the budget of the two movies before making a comparision or is that an inconvinient number??
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October 3, 2013 at 12:12 PM
I actually think the box office is sometimes erratic on these big movies over the first few days but if you average out over a 5-7 day period a certain high end number is maintained more often than not. For instance Agneepath did 22 crores or so on day 1 but then did 11 on day 2. The latter would suggest a total tank. It however stabilized after this.
On those other 100 crore films my point has long been that they shouldn’t be considered hits. At least not in any easy sense of the term.
But on SRK notice how there’s a contradiction in your position. You seem to be saying that even with a film that was as panned as Ra One SRK somehow got it to 100 crores. People hated it but somehow showed up because of SRK (by the way you might be underestimating a very young demographic here… the same holds for Krrish.. with such movies you get a very young audience interested, the Disney effect, if you will, and then the adults have to show up to accompany these kids whether they wish to or not. With the same demographic reviews don’t matter at all. Now of course even kids won’t accept just any film but with Krrish the adults who show up also end up liking it or not minding it. With Ra One all groups probably didn’t care for it. My larger point is that with this sort of reception a non-fantasy film would have probably tanked even worse than this). Let’s accept this claim for the moment. But then this doesn’t explain why much better reviewed films and where the audience didn’t at least hate them ended up in the very same range (Don2 with the most lucrative holiday period, JHTJ could have done way more even with competition since there wasn’t really much overlap between the two films on key demographics, RNBDJ, MNIK etc). Between OSO and CE the only SRK film that opened big was Ra One. Every other film either had a relatively decent opening and then trended well (only RNBDJ in this group) or wasn’t that great even on trending. In other words if you take out CE there was clearly a ceiling on SRK’s films. Since no one in their right mind would say Don2 was just the same as Ra One or that JTHJ was this and so on the question becomes: why couldn’t SRK get more done there if your estimation of his standing is correct? In other words if a star can get minimal numbers on a tank he can get far more in the better film. We expect Besharam to do 80 or a 100 or whatever even if it tanks but we also see YJHD doing 90-100 crores more than this. Wouldn’t it be a little surprising if both Besharam and YJHD ended up in roughly the same range?!
And so the more obvious answer I think is this — Ra One was disliked but those other films weren’t liked a whole lot more. There is a way to explain this. There are films that are hated but attract a larger initial audience. There are those that most viewers find ok but that never excite the box office. And so all those other SRK films after OSO never really got off to true flying starts. And ‘ok’ wasn’t enough to make up the gap. Ra One on the other hand did but tanked. That’s how these films end up in roughly the same range. If it were just about SRK Don2 should have done 150 crores at minimum. A younger SRK at his peak could have done this but one in relative decline could not. This is another way of reframing my older point. Much as if SRK had a normal film that got the Besharam reception it would probably do worse than Besharam. Because he doesn’t have that kind of die-hard base anymore in the same numbers. Ranbir meanwhile even with bad reviews can probably get enough of younger demographic interested to drive up the initial numbers.
It’s not just about SRK. Aamir got a good initial on Talaash, the film wasn’t liked enough to sustain this. Not many it’s safe to say were calling it a bad film but there were those for whom it didn’t do much and the ones who liked it didn’t go crazy over it for the most part. Without more commercial frills such films cannot put up big grosses (i.e. with that kind of reception). On the other hand D3 could get to double that number even if most of the audience just found it to be ok. Because this will get those big numbers starting out. It doesn’t mean that somehow Aamir’s star power has been proven here where it wasn’t on Talaash. The metrics are just very different on the two films. The difference though is that Aamir has been enjoying his peak career for many years now and so ends up getting the best initial or something close to it relative to the genre he tackles. SRK hasn’t done this because his peak career was much earlier. Much as Salman has been throwing up initials since Dabanng the way he never did before let alone successively over a number of films. CE is the exception in SRK’s lineup, not the rule. Because if it were the latter many other films of his would have opened like this or OSO. But even with many advantages they didn’t. Now HNY might because Farah Khan produces the sort of circus that gets the audience in (assuming the film is liked). This too doesn’t necessarily prove as much because he’s done well with her before for the same reason. But leaving this aside it’s clear that SRK can run up the numbers in the right project. But that is different from a star who can do this in ‘any’ project or at least one like Salman who can throw up in a compressed period of time huge numbers on the most ordinary projects. Also running up the numbers has to be contextualized in an age where Grand Masti gets to a 100 (according to Taran) or Race 2 (compared to which the first Race was a classic) does the same or much lesser films, sometimes in trickier genres, get to 80-100 crores.
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October 3, 2013 at 1:02 PM
Yes its possible that with big movies the BO can be erratic at times but most universally panned movies do drop early. Agneepath went to 11 crores as it was a working day and stabilized soon after. You make a good point though on kids liking Ra-one which certainly explains partially how it managed to sail through the initial few days. But there is still a huge inverse correlation between the universal panning the movie got and the 200 crores it made.
On SRK the reason why audience werent as gungho about him as in the 90’s and early 2000’s is because he always played himself. And there is a limit one can take the same thing. Thats why when a Swades or a CDI came they were lapped up.
Its a pity SRK didnt learn from CDI. To be fair to him he dabbled at many different kinds of movies post CDI but the issue was not really the difference in the movies but the fact that the actor playing the role was doing the same thing irrespective of the genre. Post OSO and till CE , SRK did only RNBDJ, MNIK, Ra-one, Don 2 and JTHJ and they were actually quite different movies but the actor in SRK made a appearance only in RNBDJ and JTHJ to an extent. They werent really a CE or a OSO kind of movie to open big. and whats worse is that MNIK, Ra-one, Don 2 and JTHJ were very poor products. There was competition from other movies in some cases the movie was affected by the Sena shutdown, Thakreys death etc but if the movies were any good they all would have done more.
The only good movie he did from OSO to CE was RNBDJ which was really endearing and if not for Ghajini coming on its 12 th day would have done lot more but even that movie is not a movie which would have opened big even with another actor. The genre factor does affect every one to an extent, even Aamir is affected as can be seen by Talaash. So its hardly surprising that only Ra-one opened big. I would rather take an actor doing different things and not opening big than a Salman doing the same thing and opening big every time.
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October 3, 2013 at 2:07 PM
this is in a way always the problem with the more iconic star who represents something specific. Reinvention becomes much more difficult. The iconic ‘currency’ keeps tugging at the star but it doesn’t pack in as much bang for the buck. In fact increasingly less over time. On the other hand even a successfully realized effort elsewhere runs the danger of canceling out the signature.
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October 3, 2013 at 2:58 PM
to add to this for a while a star with a strong enough base can appear in the right project and still run up the numbers. But the ‘meaning’ of this achievement is very different. Obviously from a business standpoint the star is still very viable but it becomes increasingly hard to manufacture those products. One way out is to do less and less and to present each appearance as an event. Or one gets connected to a ‘circus’ where there are lots of things to attract the audience. The star doesn’t have to carry the whole load. Again all of this isn’t reinvention but it’s not a bad compromise.
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October 3, 2013 at 3:46 PM
Don 2 had a great opening weekend, the first day was the biggest opening ever for a non holiday Friday and the 3rd biggest ever overall. It did 40+ in it’s first weekend which was the 4th highest weekend ever and the only movies to do more were ra.1, dabangg and bg.
Plus srk is the only actor in the 100cr club who has movies from different genres. none of his last 4 movies have been similar.
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October 3, 2013 at 4:01 PM
The argument is lost when 5 qualifiers are added! This is the game sites like BOI play! RNBDJ also had the best opening for all films that released when people were not paying attention to Ghajini..
I know this sounds like a fantasy.. but isn’t it a better one than BOI’s?
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October 3, 2013 at 5:50 AM
I think that right from the first trailer, this looked really crap. At that time I felt that it didn’t work at all for me but then I thought it may do the trick with others. Finally, it seems that no one liked it.
I have my own doubts on Kashyap’s ability to deliver something good on his own. Remember, his own initial take on Dabang was very different from what the final product was. Salman said Kashyap brought him a melodramatic script but then Salman changed and tweeked a lot of things to transform it into a masala entertainer.
As for Besharam, the first impression was so off-putting that it will take a miracle to find anything good in the movie.
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October 3, 2013 at 6:36 AM
Besharam Has Good First Day
Thursday 3rd October 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam has had a good first day with collections looking to be around the 19.50 crore nett mark as per early estimates. The film has recorded extraordinary collections in Delhi NCR and East Punjab but the rest of the country ranged from very good to good.
The collections were not bad anywhere but at places they where not what they should be on a big holiday. Across Delhi NCR and East Punjab it recorded the second highest collections ever after Ek That Tiger but in some centres like CP Berar, Maharashtra and Gujarat the collections were in the same range as Grand Masti.
The film did see falls in collections in the evening and night shows at most places. On the face of it the 19.50 crore nett approx first day total is very good but considering how it started and the fact it was a big holiday the collections should have been more towards the 25 crore nett range rather than the 20 crore nett range. There will be a big drop today (Thursday) and the key for the film is how big will the drop be. If it was to go over 50% then the film could even struggle to be an average fare.
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October 3, 2013 at 7:13 AM
Besharam
The Games
Saw besharam yesterday. Ranbir has learnt the importance of the art of media management from stalwarts like SRK & aamir. What took the cake as the usually ‘above these games’ kool guy but he too declared (on the day of release!) that the masala genre was dying! Perhaps the katrina leaked Spain bikini pics with ranbir has something to do with this. There seemed an ’emasculation’ element in Salmans utterings there lol
As for taran adarsh, it was laughable how he gave one star (!!) to besharam whilst he goes gaga over not much better/worse fare like CE, bodyguard. Even his twitter feed says ‘first day 20 crores +’ but after clarifying that it should have done more haha
What I liked
A) Pallavi Sharda
B) The music had a distinctive soft melodious retro 90s appeal and was good. Esp the title song –the lyrics of that track was enough reason to see the flick …
C) like action comedies in general
D) the overall cast was good
E) abhinav kashyap suppressed his maverick urges and genes and stuck to the masala genre
What was not good/bad
A) the Wafer thin plot/ flimsy premise
Whilst I personally don’t go to watch movies to see ‘stories unfold on screen!’ And so on, most viewers are looking for a ‘story’ or credible plotline and they will cry hoarse
B) appeared lazy film-making at the script level and the blame has to be shared by abhinav kashyap for taking things for granted after signing ranbir and family (!)
C) the ‘family element’ robbed some of the credibility and whilst ranbirs parents must be having a ball of a time (literally!) shooting the films, feel the film, the directors grip and ranbir himself felt ‘restricted’ by their presence
D) I didn’t mind this but many (esp the gen-x-er wassup crowd!) won’t take kindly to the middle/lower middle class indian setup, earthy dialogues & lyrics (that I liked!)
E) I liked it but the overall young crowd won’t like the de-glam look of ranbir and esp pallavi sharda.
Pallavi literally was given a de-glam ‘behanji’ wardrobe and a half baked role (though she did well esp for her first lead role!)
Box office & the ‘politicised motivated’ average viewer/ netizen
There has been extreme negativity starting even from 15 minutes into the first show it seems(!!). There was twitterati apparently spreading negativity whilst into ten minutes of their first day first show viewing(!)
There are ‘fans’ of ranbir who are actually fans of some other superstars and change positions depending on other convoluted designs. For eg an apparent ranbir fan till now (while pulling down say aamir!) may suddenly become anti-ranbir now when he is a threat to srk or Salman and so on.
So there are snippets of these ‘motivated fans’ declaring that cracks appeared even 39 or 16 minutes into. The first snow and so on…
The movie has obvious flaws and word of mouth isn’t good.
But it’s not much better or worse than an average 100 crores ‘money spinner’. What may save the film from total embarrassment is that abhinav kashyap knows basic film making and he has stuck to the light family action comedy brief (!)
I do not agree that any crap film can make 100 crores nowadays –nope, when it goes down hill, every crore becomes difficult and negativity is exponential –talaash wasn’t even a bad /hated
film(even taking into account it’s so-called avant garde genre lol!)
Inspite of everything going against it, I (against all odds!) still maintain that I will be surprised if this doesn’t make 100 crores or en my earlier figure of 120 crores plus…
Finally, this may only be a good sobering moment on ranbirs career (& especially for the currently berserk rishi kapoor!). And no, all those suddenly spelling doomday for ranbir shoudl take it easy. Even their idols at a comparative stage had numerous (& many nore) guddus, afsana hai pyaar kas, love love loves and so on.
Let’s not even go there…
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October 3, 2013 at 7:33 AM
The khan triumvirate -the rivalry (& complicity!)
I’ve noticed a similar negativity when hritik Roshan was tearing away from the crowd & (to a much lesser extent!) even abhishrek around guru/bunts Babli and so on.
There is a deep rivalry amongst the three khans but at times of real ‘ crisis’ ( against genuine threats) here IS a certain ‘understanding’ and even amongst the (shared) fans.
The hold over media/ machinations are also triggered in these times. Till now, the only actors to cause real panic to the the three khans have been hritik and now ranbir.
Not condoning the obvious flaws in besharam and in ranbirs range (& screen presence!) but these aspects also need highlighting.
Ps:this is not to be viewed in communal /regional/background lines! I being relatively unbiased (lol) and not attached to any one fan club , I can perhaps see these machinations and comment on them more freely 🙂
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October 3, 2013 at 9:39 AM
I do agree to a great extent. That when other stars have very strong periods irrespective of whether the media is softer on them or not when they fail the reviews and reactions are incredibly harsh. The same doesn’t happen when SRK has a bad film and so forth. No one gave RA One these sorts of reviews even when these were negative. And you’re right on Taran too. He’s given garbage more stars than this. I’m willing to concede Kashyap has messed up completely here but it’s just hard to believe this is the worst film known to mankind!
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October 3, 2013 at 9:52 AM
Agree there Satyam…
There have been far worse films than besharam which have been lionised by taran ..
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October 3, 2013 at 12:30 PM
Agree 100%.
Part of it is “don’t burn your bridges”. with 3 khans, they’ve proven that they’re in top 5 for over 20 years and no sign of slowing down. So the media is little resistent to be harsh on them because they need to sell their publication and they need support of what’s selling.
this also hold true for most big production houses. they might have one bad year but you know they’ll hit it big following year.
It goes in everything. Media is not as harsh on Tendulkar as they would be on new player.
Taran will do stuff like praise the actor but will kill the movie simply because he doesn’t like the maker/director.
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October 3, 2013 at 2:05 PM
I don’t agree at all that they’ve been in the top 5 for over 20 years. Salman was almost extinct for most of the past decade (before Wanted) and the projects he was getting proved this. SRK was in the top 5 if perhaps we start counting before Deewana released! and in more recent years it’s a kind of default position since it’s hard to fall below the top 5! I still would argue with the SRK/Aamir example less than the Salman one. Overall one has to be more precise. To call it a top 5 thing is actually very misleading without contextualizing things properly. This very label becomes possible when you bunch them up like marshmallows. Which has unfortunately been the case for very long and betrays a communal coding. hrithik has been a top 5 star since 2000. That’s pretty long but he doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt in the same way.
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October 4, 2013 at 8:20 AM
I should add here though that Aamir has never received the benefit of the doubt in the same way. MP received, and unfairly, a great deal of negativity. It’s laughable to see Ranbir being called a superstar when Aamir wasn’t getting his due even after ’06 when he had the RDB/Fanaa double. It wasn’t until Ghajini that the media narrative changed when Aamir had been at it since Lagaan. So the trade has never loved Aamir. Since Ghajini they’ve gone along as it’s hard to argue against such super-grosses! But Salman for years was nowhere on the radar and they never picked on him at all. In fact when Wanted happened they pretended as if he was always this kind of star! SRK with all his deep media ‘investments’ (in every sense!) was a different ballgame altogether.
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October 3, 2013 at 7:48 AM
Addendum- Pallavi Sharda
I did say I liked her but must add that I can’t say why!! The reviews on her are unanimously negative!
Some co-viewers (especially female) I watched the film with, hated pallavi & went to great lengths to diss her (to my discomfiture!)
To be frank, even I can’t say what I like about her (which is strange!)
The last time I liked some hindi film heroines like this (eg nargis fakhri & diana penty!) they are yet to do a proper lead role since!!
All I can say is–there’s something about her…
And all I can do is–
Wish her all the best for her career
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October 3, 2013 at 9:27 AM
After creating this ‘doodh ka doodh’ commentary on besharam…
I need ‘doodh’ aka milk… (& ‘laddoos’)
Where are they … 🙂
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October 3, 2013 at 9:50 AM
Balaji Motion Pictures ropes in Sujoy Ghosh
Balaji Motion Pictures Ltd. has acquired the Hindi film adaptation rights to the book, ‘The Devotion of Suspect X’ to be made into a major motion picture.
The Devotion of Suspect X, a novel by Keigo Higashino, is the third in his cult Detective Galileo series and his most acclaimed work so far. The novel won the 6th Honkaku Mystery Grand Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in the mystery novels category in Japan.
The English translation of the novel was nominated for the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Novel and the 2012 Barry Award for Best First Novel. More than a jaw-dropping 2 million copies of the best-selling book have been sold worldwide so far.
Acclaimed director Sujoy Ghosh, whose previous release was the blockbuster Vidya Balan-starrer Kahaani, has been signed to direct the feature.
Commenting on the deal, said Tanuj Garg, CEO – Balaji Motion Pictures, “We are proud to have clinched the rights of one of the world’s most celebrated detective novels. It has heart, drama and thrill, and as a content-driven studio, we believe that it will make for an engaging and entertaining feature film.”
The writing is underway and the cast is still to be finalized. The principal photography is expected to commence in early-2014.
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October 3, 2013 at 10:03 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 2h
#GrandMasti [till Sunday] ₹ 95.25 cr, Mon ₹ 1.35 cr, Tue ₹ 1.31 cr, Wed ₹ 65 lacs. Grand total: ₹ 98.56 cr nett.
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October 3, 2013 at 10:04 AM
taran_adarsh
@taran_adarsh
#Besharam Wednesday – territorial-wise breakup issued by Reliance Ent Mumbai: ₹ 7.17 cr DelhiUP: ₹ 5.18 cr Punjab: ₹ 2.29 cr Rajasthan: ₹ 1.11 cr CP: ₹ 97 lacs CI: ₹ 84 lacs Bengal: ₹ 88 lacs Mysore: ₹ 1.21 cr Nizam: ₹ 92 lacs TNK: ₹ 22 lacs Bihar: ₹ 42 lacs Assam: ₹ 17 lacs Orissa: ₹ 18 lacs Total: ₹ 21.56 cr
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October 3, 2013 at 10:06 AM
Ok now Alfonso has a lot to answer..Et tu Alfonso??
————–
‘Hollywood film Gravity is lifted from my script’
October 03, 2013 12:46 IST
Tamil script writer Paranjothi S claims that the script of Hollywood film Gravity is lifted from one of his stories.
It is a grave allegation to make but Paranjothi S, a Tamil script writer alleges that the story of the Hollywood film Gravity, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, is lifted from his script written in 2003.
“My story starts at the LA airport where a Boeing 777 with 373 passengers and crew members gets ready to fly to Australia. When the flight reaches a height of 60,000 feet, it just disappears.
“A couple of scientists from NASA locate the plane and find that it is floating in empty space. There is oxygen only for 12 minutes and the passengers have to be rescued in 12 minutes. I had titled it first as Gravity and then No Way to Hide,”says Paranjothi.
In 2007, he was introduced to an Indian distributor of Hollywood films from Australia, called Peter Alvin, who had the copyright of 3,000 Hollywood films.
When Paranjothi was introduced to Alvin through a common friend, he narrated the story of Gravity to him.
“He was mighty impressed with my script. So, he asked for a synopsis. I sent a mail on November 21 with the title Loss of Gravity. I still have the email in my mail box. I sent another mail on the 23rd but after that, there was no news of him,” says the script writer.
With a strong desire to see his script as a Hollywood film, Paranjothi made a failed attempt to sell the script to Ashok Amritraj through an acquaintance in 2010. On October 26, 2011, he decided to register his script at the Writers Guild of America.
In June 2013 a friend who knew about the script, asked him, “So finally a movie has been made based on your script?” The friend was referring to the film Gravity co-written, co-produced, co-edited and directed by Alfonso Cuarón starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock.
A shocked Paranjothi saw the trailer and read about the film, and found an uncanny resemblance between the film and his story.
“I am sure that the film was lifted from my script as any member of the Guild can open any script that is registered there. I feel my script has been stolen. Instead of the Boeing, it is a spacecraft here and in my script and in the film, two astronauts go to save it. I tried to contact one of the producers on twitter. I was blocked immediately. That itself shows he is trying to hide something.”
Paranjothi has now approached the Tamil Nadu directors’ union with all the evidence that he has.
He has also contacted a lawyer in London to try and stop the release of Gravity in India and all over the world.
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October 3, 2013 at 12:46 PM
LOL…this cracked me up.
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October 3, 2013 at 11:49 AM
“No one gave RA One these sorts of reviews even when these were negative.” Because it wasn’t that bad. There were so many positives. The basic story line was good. Songs were awesome . Special effects were way ahead of anything done till then. So I don’t get it, why should it have got this kind of reviews?
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October 3, 2013 at 12:14 PM
with a number of other stars Ra One would have been utterly mauled by the same reviewers. Much as it’s simply impossible to believe Besharam merits a 1.5 from Taran given what he’s given to all kinds of films in the past.
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October 3, 2013 at 3:16 PM
There you go. Abhinav is already blaming SRK and Salman fans for the debacle
Ranbir Kapoor’s Besharam has been panned by the critics and audience on social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook, but the director of the film, Abhinav Kashyap isn’t too pleased with the media and people with ‘vested interests’.
In a telephonic conversation with Mumbai Mirror, Abhinav says he is happy with the response that the film has got. The first day numbers are the highest for both the director and the actor, yet, a certain section of the audience and media is targeting the film.
“I have the first day numbers of the film which is the highest for both me and Ranbir. I really don’t understand why the English media and certain people with vested interest are panning the film. I think they are not able to accept Ranbir in the character he is playing.”
The director said even though the film is being liked by the audience, he is also worried that the negativity on social media platforms might eventually begin to have an impact on the film’s performance at the box office.
“I am getting calls from my friends from cinema halls. People are roaring in laughter! I am happy with film’s first day collection. The collection might drop in the normal course of events as Thursday is a working day. But, then there are people who actually read reviews and tweets before deciding to go for a movie. And I am worried that these negative comments might actually have an impact on the film’s fate at the box-office.”
The Dabangg director concluded by saying ‘certain forces’ dont want the film to work
“It all started when the promos of the film were released. Fans of Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan fans took offence to certain scenes, although we had no intention to hurt anyone. With whatever is happening around Besharam, I smell some kind of a sinister plan. Certain forces don’t want the film to succeed.
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October 3, 2013 at 3:28 PM
he should just move on. He squarely deserves the blame here. He had a very hot post-YJHD star, in this genre it wouldn’t have taken much to get a success. By the bankrupt standards in force today you get an initial and if you then just add 30% to the gross after week 1 people start calling it a hit based on the overall number. So really he had a low bar here. This is separate from the media reception which seems to me hyperbolic. But leaving this aside, and I’ve made this point before, the Dabanng reception made Kashyap hotter than he deserved to be. The film had a great trailer but really the actual product was just passable. Sure it ha d hugely successful soundtrack plus all the Salman iconic moments, the character et al, with all this though Kashyap could have achieved much more than he did. The film didn’t match Ghajini’s trending let alone anything more. It looks like Besharam wasn’t really his genre at all. Perhaps he should have stuck to the Dabanng terrain for a bit. Either way it’s entirely his fault. One can give directors some leeway when they try something interesting or risky and then fail but if it’s something run-of-the-mill for the genre there’s no excuse for failing colossally. If that turns out to be the case here.
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October 3, 2013 at 12:24 PM
“Much as it’s simply impossible to believe Besharam merits a 1.5 from Taran given what he’s given to all kinds of films in the past. ” I don’t think there has been a film this bad in recent memory. Maybe Himmatwala. And RGV Ka Aag. It is worth checking what kind of rating Tran gave those films. Not very high I am sure. And why single out Taran? I think the critics are pretty unanimous on this one. A has been the audience. I haven’t read anyone who can be taken seriously saying anything remotely good about the film.
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October 3, 2013 at 12:28 PM
Re: I haven’t read anyone who can be taken seriously saying anything remotely good about the film.
Is that a jab at Alex?-:)
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October 3, 2013 at 12:32 PM
One of those rare threads where there is something to agree with in all posts. Even Alex, Z and Krish!
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October 3, 2013 at 2:03 PM
Besharam has gone down by as much as 70 percent in some circuits. This is looking like a disaster now, let alone being a below average affair
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October 3, 2013 at 2:23 PM
Besharam Goes Down Heavily On Day Two
Thursday 3rd October 2013 19.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam has seen a huge fall in collections all over on day two. The falls are in the range of 60-70% as compared to the first day. Even places like Delhi and Punjab which saw a bumper first day have crashed badly.
The film had a strong start on Wednesday morning but collections were down a bit in the evening so even if we take the evening/night fall at 50% compared to Wednesday the film is still looking at a 60% fall on its second day.
The second day basically means the film looks set to struggle as Friday may show a further a drop with some respite on Saturday and Sunday but that will not be good enough.
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October 3, 2013 at 4:58 PM
The paying publics spoken on ‘besharam’ –no excuses/ no spins!
And don’t think hourly updates are needed on this.
It needed 150 crores plus and atleast 120 crores plus (@ the minimum)
And it seems that even 70-80 (the talaash tally) maybe difficult now.
As simple as that.
For ranbir–actually it’s a good sobering thing –another success and he would be fornicating on the streets !! Lol
Also a reality check for rishi kapoor who was berserk!
But do NOT think it will adversely affect ranbir at all –infact this should only harden him and teach him some things on media managment and risky projects …
it will affect abhinav kashyap but even he seems to have made profit on the table …
It will affect pallavi sharda who seems a sensible talented actress who is trying to make it on her own–she better join the DP or Kat school of survival (though Im unsure she will get any major chances again)
Ps: I maintain that I loved the tagline, title track though the film didn’t materialise what seemed to be promised in the promo or with the dabang antecedents of the director …
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October 3, 2013 at 5:06 PM
Talaash made 90. It made close to 70 in week 1.
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October 3, 2013 at 5:05 PM
Ps: must add that this shoudl also send some shivers down the krish3 and dhoom3 team–audiences and the paint public should never be taken for granted (spins etc dont help)
Media manipulation etc makes no difference in these scenarios..
The verdicts too obvious …
Btw to complete the album–There was another good track in the film
Less likely pallavi will get another major break now –it’s a pity since saw some potential there & would have been good to see her in more films..
Hopefully should get this out of my system now lol
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October 3, 2013 at 5:10 PM
actually I was about to say SRK might get lucky this year. Rakesh Roshan can never be underestimated on the Krrish series and it’s true that advertising has never been great on this franchise but it must be said that after a pretty decent or better (at least for the target audience) first trailer the remaining song ones have been appalling. Mostly because the music has been terrible. Doesn’t look like a movie that will cross CE by a huge margin if it does that. Again Rakesh Roshan has always had very good trending (not just openings) on every film he’s done with Hrithik and that history deserves some respect. All I’m saying is the film might not have enough to establish a convincing gap with CE.
A similar argument could be made for D3. Now here the one big difference is that a proper preview has so far not been shown. However whatever advertising choices they have made so far have been pretty miserable. Now both films are of course inoculated against poor advertising. They’ll still get massive initials. But on such big films it’s odd to see such indifferent and/or cheap advertising.
Not being a naysayer on either film. I still expect them to be the biggest grossers but the question is by how much? And secondly it’s true that they also come with greater expectations and so nothing can be taken for granted.
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October 3, 2013 at 5:22 PM
“actually I was about to say SRK might get lucky this year. ”
SRK isn’t just lucky
I always had high regards for him as an achiever (not so much as an actor) but the day he came back in CE–I feel he has become a ‘legend’ !!
Ps: on a lighter note–
Both srk (after chennai express) and ranbir (after Yjhd) were pleasantly surprised by their success
They wrongly believed their Di.ks had grown a lot
The other factor was Deepikas ‘job’ which contributed a lot 🙂
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October 3, 2013 at 5:26 PM
though my phrasing wouldn’t have been the same (!!) it’s true that Deepika seems far more crucial to these two films than many actresses are in similar lead parts. Many even preferred her in YJHD. Not sure if I’d go that far but in CE I think she added a certain burst of freshness that this film needed given the lead star and so forth. And being the first post-YJHD film of course helped as well.
Ranbir though would be right to feel cheated here. A one-two punch would have been something else altogether. Also this was his best chance at a huge grosser in the immediate future. Because the Imtiaz Ali or Anurag Basu stuff (he plays apparently a 17 year old boy in this film) is not likely to put up the same numbers even on the best possible day. He doesn’t have another Johar production coming up right away either. Bombay Velvet will have even lower box office benchmarks. Not that he has a problem any which way given his recent run. But it does seem like Besharam might become the kind of epic failure that cannot just be talked away.
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October 3, 2013 at 5:32 PM
by the way SRK has been in this business as long as he has by not believing some of the stuff his online fans seem to. So note how the moment he had CE and an unexpectedly big success here he immediately started moving fast on HNY. Because there’s no other film he could potentially do at the moment where he could get a similar result. Farah Khan puts up the right circus. The film has Deepika once again. And Abhishek is also likely to be very resurgent by the time this film releases. So it’s not as if after CE he suddenly felt he didn’t have a problem and went with a totally solo deal once again!
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October 4, 2013 at 2:55 AM
HNY was in plan for year and was going to start shooting when it did, all of this was planned prior to CE release. You don’t get dates of all the actors, permission from Dubai government and all the shooting location on the fly…
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October 4, 2013 at 6:22 AM
Yes I know it’s been in the works for a long time and has been delayed for one reason or another. The script has constantly been changed and so forth. But the project was really green-lighted right after CE. Before CE there was no sense that it would start so soon after the latter. On the rest that’s not such a big deal. these things are juggled around all the time.
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October 3, 2013 at 5:34 PM
no one’s ‘just’ lucky in this business.. and yet no one can operate without a great admixture of luck either..
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October 3, 2013 at 5:27 PM
I wasn’t taking about the box office only but also their Di.ks 🙂
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October 3, 2013 at 5:30 PM
I always assume you’re only talking about the latter in most discussions..
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October 3, 2013 at 5:33 PM
by the way do I sense the Hrithik fan heaving a sigh of relief at Besharam’s fate?!
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October 3, 2013 at 5:44 PM
“by the way do I sense the Hrithik fan heaving a sigh of relief at Besharam’s fate?!”
Haha Satyam-touché
Surprised –ONLY YOU could have correctly sensed that in all this spin
Salute 🙂
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October 3, 2013 at 5:34 PM
Haha
Anyhow Have given the title song /lyrics get my personal award & a standing ovation …
To hell with Hits & flops …
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October 3, 2013 at 5:52 PM
^ actually I’m very very fond of this title track–Really …(dont really care bout the rest of the film much)
And that’s no spin
This song brings out the true ‘besharam’ in me …(as if written for me!) 🙂
Ok bye
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October 4, 2013 at 12:00 AM
Just got back from Besharam. Not sure what the critics are crying about. If they can bear tripe like Ready/Bodyguard/RaOne, then this is certainly a few steps ahead. Ranbir is hilarious as the uncouth vulgar Besharam. It is a totally irreverent movie, with lots of hilarious one-liners and acts. Sure, the pacing is not tight throughout, many songs are especially forced in. But it is certainly not as bad as its made out to be. Seems like a bourgeois vs elite issue here. The movie is set entirely in the middle-class alleys of Delhi/Chandigarh, full of the usual Kashyap brothers North Indian milieu and visuals. Perhaps the reviewers cannot digest Ranbir in a Lawaaris type of hoi polloi character. IMO, he suited it to a T. The heroine leaves a lot to be desired. Rishi/Neetu could have toned down their obnoxious act, but perhaps they had to portray the loudness. The Rishi toilet jokes with Neetu giving ‘tatti’ dialogs were gross, yet enticed laughter. People actually stayed back until the end of the credit roll song, seemingly amused at this movie.
All this newborn critical awakening by reviewers seems more like a Khanspiracy against an emerging Kapoor.
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October 4, 2013 at 12:23 AM
good to hear, thanks for your thoughts. Yeah the idea that this was the worst movie ever was a bit hard to buy. And to repeat the earlier point when SRK or Salman have such movies (Aamir never does anything that poor, at least not since Mela!) that are either quite intolerable and/or commercially completely questionable (this hasn’t happened to Salman in a while of course) the same critics either do their best to defend them or pretend not to see. So ignoring stuff amounts to the same. Again all of this isn’t about defending Besharam. I haven’t even seen the film. It’s about these conveniently inconsistent standards.
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October 4, 2013 at 1:41 AM
One of my friend who watched yesterday echoes similar feelings…he agreed although the movie is definitely not good but is on similar level like CE, Ready etc then why its made out to look like one of the worst film ever if the others were given pass.
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October 4, 2013 at 2:50 AM
This movie is nowhere near the level of CE, according to critics or paying public.
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October 4, 2013 at 8:24 AM
True, the standards are totally inconsistent. The Khan trio is at an exalted status, so everything is a pass. Despite YJHD, Ranbir has not yet attained that exalted status. Otherwise, everyone would not be going hammer and tongs at this. Personally, I did not find CE script any better in terms of plot. It had gaping holes as well. But, Shetty is a master at execution, and knows exactly how to extract the best performance out of his characters.
Also, the lack of an A grade heroine did make a diff. Pallavi is quite short, unconventional in an age of leggy heroines, and the height diff with Ranbir is glaring in some scenes. Her dancing is not great, acting is passable. Wud rate her weaker overall than even Nargis Fakhri, who at least is certified eye candy.
GM was advertised as a vulgar brainless comedy, and perfectly pitched for its target demographic. This movie has been rejected precisely because it serves up a diff dish than what it advertises. There is no skinshow, but a whole bunch of vulgarity! So family audiences would be turned off no matter what.
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October 4, 2013 at 9:21 AM
Nykavi is on a roll here–apt points again..
Also agree that nargis is a non-actor (though she brought the innocent natural vulnerability to rockstar) and pallavi isn’t gorgeous or ‘leggy’ (though don’t agree she can’t act or dance!)
But perhaps I will be the only one to ljke them.
Anyhow, doesn’t matter since those I really like either won’t get another film or turn out to be guys /freaks 🙂
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October 4, 2013 at 9:26 AM
I am not sure if it is the worst film ever, but it is certainly one of the worst Hindi films in years. So atrocious that I walked out of the theatre 20 minutes before the film ended. And the vulgarity at display here is beyond belief. I am being extremely serious when I say this that one could do multiple viewings of Dus Numberi, Aag and Ra.One than sit through this Kashyap film. Very sad that Ranbir decided to associate himself with this.
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October 4, 2013 at 9:45 AM
Incredible.. the reactions to this film have been so dramatically different. Of course it goes without saying that the majority is with you!
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October 4, 2013 at 9:46 AM
By the way Dus Numberi (if you’re referring to the Manoj Kumar film) doesn’t deserve to be in that company!
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October 4, 2013 at 10:51 AM
Its pretty bizarre that people are blaming the Khans, the reviews, the media and everything on the failure of this movie. The paying public do not like the movie and they are not swayed by fans of Khans or reviews. Period. And the general feedback that I have been getting is exactly what Saurabh has sauid. The movie is downright vulgar. I know we have been saying that even a bad film can get to around 80 – 90 crores but the paying public will never accept a film that they consider inoffensive and specially when there is a A grade star in it. I always thought this movie will be loud and hammy and thats why the movie was treading the thin line of balance and hence could falter. But the movie it seems is downright inoffensive and such movie CRASH. and thats what happened. Believe it or not some theatres are removing Besharam this weekend and alloting screens to Lunchbox and ‘Grand Masti’. Now the last movie here is vulgar but there the audience expect it to be just that. In Besharam no one expected it to be that and that was its undoing.
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October 4, 2013 at 10:57 AM
i meant offensive
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October 4, 2013 at 11:02 AM
speaking for myself I’m not blaming anyone other than Kashyap for this failure. However as always I do think the reception is a part of the larger narrative. These things don’t operate in a vacuum. A ‘fact’ is never anything without the contexts in which it is embedded. So I’m fine with Besharam being called one of the worst films as long as many others get awarded the same prize. But they’re not! How many atrocious films have we seen which are defended in the name of ‘entertainment’ and what not. My only point here is that whatever Besharam’s demerits might there doesn’t seem to be a difference in kind between it and many other films these days. I’m sure it’s more vulgar or raunchier or whatever but I must admit that here too seeing what else is on display I’m a bit mystified by this sudden indignation on everyone’s part. Most of Bollywood in most of its commercial guises today is an industry that operates in very bad taste! Again not defending Besharam here. But if I might risk a surmise my sense is that there is an element of the spoof here perhaps that has offended people. It’s a point I’ve long made. There are lots of films that flop and even terribly but people move on. But there are some that invite intense negativity and even hysteria. In these instances it’s to my mind almost never about the simple ‘badness’ of the movie. That’s too easy an explanation. It’s I think about a larger ideological construct. Once more I’m not defending Besharam. I found YJHD just about watchable so I’m hardly with this genre even on its best day. But given that this is Ranbir we’re talking about (and not Abhishek against whom this kind of negativity would be more comprehensible) it’s interesting to see how the tables have completely been turned from YJHD to Besharam or how the media establishment’s ultimate blue-eyed boy who couldn’t make a wrong choice suddenly has a film which is being crazily castigated. Along the same lines the fall on day 2 is also about some deeper negative chord that this film has struck. Otherwise all kinds of poor films even when they fall don’t fall quite this hard after relatively strong starts. You had Tees Maar Khan of course. Another film with spoof elements! Tashan was the same. I’m not arguing against everyone here who’s disliked the film. I’m just suggesting that it’s implausible this is the worst film around given the stuff we regularly see out of bollywood and are evidently entertained by.
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October 4, 2013 at 12:55 PM
Well, Kashyap didn’t walk out of Dabangg2 on amicable terms. That is why you see conspiracy theories of sabotaging the movie. When has Taran (or Joginder Tuteja) given less than 2 star for a major star movie?
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October 4, 2013 at 11:01 AM
IMO, the vulgarity would be shocking for people expecting some lovey-dovey family maa-baap-beta combo. Not sure how the plot is in anyway more atrocious as compared to the string of brainless entertainers we have become accustomed to.
Rishi’s potty sitting shots are indeed gross, so is the scene with Ranbir exposing his butt-cleavage while taking a bath! Or his crotch-sock stuffing antics..lol. Aamir Khan did the smart thing, he produced Delhi Belly but did not star in it. Besharam is a cross of DB/GM/APKGK with a pinch of BuntyBabli/Laawaris thrown in for good measure. However, people thought they were going for a clean comedy/actioner like CE.
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October 4, 2013 at 11:15 AM
If it was YJHD releasing instead of Besharam and YJHD was a follow up to some 190 crore fictional Ranbir starrer, I am sure reactions would have been very positive irrespective of whether Ranbir was threating the Khan trio or not. YJHD may not have been liked by some but the movie is not offensive. Its a harmless movie. Besharam is just the opposite.
By the way the movie has had another fall today. I dont know if it is possible to collect that low on the third day when the movie is playing on 3500 screens but we might be looking at less than 5 crores today
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October 4, 2013 at 2:13 PM
Incredible.. this looks to be a very singular tanking..
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October 4, 2013 at 6:22 AM
Some good points by nykavi ..agree partly
Yup besharam snot better/worse than other such films and liked the title song and bits of typical kashyapism
But my sense was the kashyap opened the champagne the moment he got ranbir on board–even the script seemed very lazy as if written on rum !!
Yeah there was initial conspiracy wherein negative tweets were being sent off even before the first show interval started –but the public verdicts clearly negative, so didn’t matter much in the end.
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October 4, 2013 at 1:20 AM
Besharam Has Epic Crash
Friday 4th October 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam crashed on day two with collections around the 6.5 crore nett mark. The two day total is around 25.75 crore nett. The film has fallen 65% on day two. The crash as uniform all over with Mysore being best circuit which fell around 55%. The film is now looking to close out its first three days at around 31 crore nett which is not even in the top three for Ranbir Kapoor.
The first day business should have taken the film to safety with even below par trending for the rest of the week but the film has had an epic crash which is unlike anything seen before.
Saturday and Sunday should see a bit better collections but with collections likely to range from 6-8 crore nett over the next three days which could take the five day weekend to around 46-47 crore nett.
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October 4, 2013 at 1:38 AM
must say this is quite stunning.. never expected this result even in the worst case scenario..
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October 4, 2013 at 1:39 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 25s
#Besharam has a drastic fall on Day 2 [Thursday].
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October 4, 2013 at 5:04 AM
Lol at this Khanspiracy Theory. Do you think they have this stronghold on public that they can stop public to go to theatre ? If that is true then why there is Ra One, Talaash and from 2000-09 period of salman ? As far as critics review is concerned they have thrashed Grand Masti. Many well know critics even refused to reviet it. But look at the buisness in BO. No i am not talking about that both films are same. My main point is nobody can make your film to go from 20 cr to 6 cr on day 2 if film is itself not bad.
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October 4, 2013 at 9:32 AM
Since the advent of social media, there seems to be a race to either hype or trash new movies. If a universal perception is created, it does affect collections. One can never rule out manipulation amongst our ‘honest’ media/stars.
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October 4, 2013 at 9:51 AM
I agree. because a multiplex audience is assuredly affected by this stuff. Obviously this isn’t the difference between a hit and a flop but the margins can be exaggerated either way, specially with the latter.
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October 4, 2013 at 5:58 AM
Anurag Kashyap is the new Nikhil Adavani in town. Got off to a good, successful first film but you do get the feeling that the producers/hero were the main driving force behind the first success. When it comes to doing it on their own, they find it tougher.
I thought right after YJHD, Ranbir was in a position to threaten the Khans. But then right after CE and the Besharam debacle, SRK is probably safely back at No.3 behind Aamir and Salman. Ranbir may now just see Hrithik fly past him after Krrish 3. And Akshay Kumar will probably be back in the thick of things with Boss and the Thupakki remake coming up in the next few months.
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October 4, 2013 at 6:01 AM
P.S.- sorry meant Abhinav Kashyap instead of Anurag there.
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October 4, 2013 at 6:16 AM
Rahul how come do u rate Amir in top 3?What has he done after 3i?
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October 4, 2013 at 6:18 AM
“SRK is probably safely back at No.3 behind Aamir and Salman”—think srk is now joint no 1 with the other two–any of these three can strike big in the right film
Btw Salman seems biggest currently on paper but such freak phases don’t last too long. Srk still has the biggest far reaching fan base —
Though all three will diminish inevitably in 3-5 years.
This setback is good for ranbir–he has to learn a few things (like media managment) and spend less time on the beach !!
Obviously the dark horse in the top 3 will always be hritik
If krish3 is any good–hritik will cream the competition …(on box office)
But the bottomline hasn’t changed–
The three khans hold sway for 3-5 years followed inevitably by hritik and ranbir…
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October 4, 2013 at 7:04 AM
But the right film for two of them happens to be every film!
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October 4, 2013 at 6:23 AM
Taran:
#Besharam Wed, Thu – official figures – territorial breakup issued by Reliance Ent
Mumbai: ₹ 7.17 cr, ₹ 1.88 cr
DelhiUP: ₹ 5.18 cr, ₹ 1.94 cr
Punjab: ₹ 2.29 cr, ₹ 72 lacs
Rajasthan: ₹ 1.11 cr, ₹ 42 lacs
CP: ₹ 97 lacs, ₹ 34 lacs
CI: ₹ 84 lacs, ₹ 29 lacs
Bengal: ₹ 88 lacs, ₹ 43 lacs
Mysore: ₹ 1.21 cr, ₹ 34 lacs
Nizam: ₹ 92 lacs, ₹ 33 lacs
TNK: ₹ 22 lacs, ₹ 9 lacs
Bihar: ₹ 42 lacs, ₹ 18 lacs
Assam: ₹ 17 lacs, ₹ 9 lacs
Orissa: ₹ 18 lacs, ₹ 8 lacs
Total: ₹ 21.56 cr [Wed], ₹ 7.13 cr [Thu]
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October 4, 2013 at 6:25 AM
B.O. update: ‘Besharam’ drops badly on Day 2
By Taran Adarsh, October 4, 2013 – 11:06 IST
BESHARAM, the biggie that had a midweek release [Wednesday, 2 October], embarked on a super start on Day 1. The national holiday + Ranbir Kapoor’s superstardom [after BARFI! and YEH JAWAANI HAI DEEWANI] + Abhinav Kashyap’s immediate outing after the trendsetting DABANGG + Extensive release strategy by Reliance ensured an impressive total on its opening day [Rs. 21.56 cr, according to an official statement issued by Reliance]. However, the cracks were visible on the opening day itself, since the evening/night shows did not perform to the optimum.
The word of mouth tilts towards negative, which explains why the business declined considerably on Day 2 [Thursday, 3 October]. Of course, the business does witness a declining trend if it’s a working day after a big holiday, but in this case, even the circuits which performed exceedingly well on Day 1, witnessed sharp falls. As per the official statement issued by Reliance, the Day 2 figure is 7.13 cr. The final total after day two stands at 28.69 cr.
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October 4, 2013 at 6:28 AM
Saw #Besharam yesterday .. I enjoyed it as much as PPNH, CE, APKGK, Ready, ETT etc .. nothing more nothing less … but I do understand why at BO it is failing likes of Himmatwala, Drona and Kites … very difficult to explain, many factors comes in for this sort of result ..
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October 4, 2013 at 6:31 AM
“must say this is quite stunning.. never expected this result even in the worst case scenario..”
Yes it is exciting and remarkable (though not for the producer lol)
It’s surprising but I’m not stunned or anything bcos have always maintained that —
a) nothing’s taken for granted and it’s not that easy to create blockbusters
b) one should respect the ETT, Yjhd and CE when they happen
c) for every ‘easy blockbuster’ –there’s a himmatwala, bra1, ouatimd & besharam
d) this is actually good in the long run
Keeps the film makers on their toes and keeps it fun n interesting on blogs 🙂
There was initial conspiratorial negativity with negative tweets within 15 minutes of screening, but it didn’t matter much since the public verdicts obvious on besharam..
But it doesn’t help when–
Abhinavs got the whole Salman arbaaz khan daan gunning for him
Ranbirs being accused of making fun of srk and Salman
And moreover ranbirs found boning katrina on the beach in bikinis
Ok hear this–
Some Salman fans boycotted besharam bcos of ranbirs ‘stealing Salmans girlfriend’ lol
C’mon folks–Salmans used to all this-it’s happened b4…
Ps: all eyes now on krish3 and dhoom3
Let the fun continue 🙂
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October 4, 2013 at 6:48 AM
Samar- I do feel Salman is the biggest right now. He seems to be the undisputed No.1 these days. As for between SRK and Aamir, I do feel that SRK was underperforming before CE and even Ranbir seemed to be ahead of him. But CE puts SRK right back among the top 3. And I do feel that Aamir will furher cement the No.2 position with D3. We’ll probably need to wait until the end of the year but it does seem that SRK has played his last card for some time with CE, but with Krish3, D3 ad Mental coming up it’s the turn of Aamir, Salman and Hrithik to play theirs. And if these work and they will strengthen their respective positions.
It’s all relative and a matter of opinions.
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October 4, 2013 at 6:58 AM
NY Times:
October 3, 2013
MOVIE REVIEW
Anything for a Laugh
By RACHEL SALTZ
Babli is a lovable lout, a cocky car thief in Delhi with loud shirts and the inevitable heart of gold. But that’s not enough for a Bollywood hero. Babli’s also an orphan who gives his ill-gotten gains to the orphanage where he grew up and still lives, sharing a bed with his sidekick, T2, as in “Terminator 2.”
In “Besharam,” a romantic comedy that takes time out for some tricked-up martial arts fighting, Babli is played with I’ll-try-anything gusto by Ranbir Kapoor, a dynastic star who has brought part of the dynasty along for the ride. His father, Rishi Kapoor (son of the Great Showman Raj Kapoor), and mother, Neetu Singh (the former Baby Sonia), play a brawling Mr. and Mrs. — cops with hearts of gold (you doubted it?) beating under corrupt khakis.
“Besharam” means shameless, and this film, directed by Abhinav Singh Kashyap, mostly is. In scenes with his parents, Ranbir often delivers some variation on this idea: If I’m bad, it’s because I had no mom and dad to guide me.
And the comedy skews low even when it involves Bollywood royalty. We’re treated to multiple scenes of Rishi on the potty, while Ranbir’s crotch is a magnet for the camera: Babli’s signature move is a little pluck and adjust.
Shameless, though, doesn’t mean undisciplined. “Besharam” is frequently crude, but it’s also unusually clean in its plotting. And it has a kind of unblushing vitality that is especially strong in the dance numbers, which feature big crowds, lots of color and an old-fashioned Bollywood desire to please.
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October 4, 2013 at 7:03 AM
“but it’s also unusually clean in its plotting.”
again this is the exact opposite of what Taran and many other critics have said in this regard. Not necessarily taking a position here but it’s an old habit of Indian critics to pretend the script is always the problem when they don’t like a film. This when over the last 15-20 years strong scripts have been about as common in Hindi films (even successful ones) as Tamil dialog.
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October 4, 2013 at 10:13 AM
I’ll take the position that this film is probably better than the mauling it’s getting…just a sense I’m getting from some of the general commentary surrounding it. I’ll skip this on the big screen but I do plan to see it. It’s not far from the truth that when mainstream Hindi film critics have ganged up on a film there’s probably something worthwhile in it.
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October 4, 2013 at 7:08 AM
Thanx Satyam–that’s an unusually apt, crisp and spot on review..
Ironically Rachel saltz has got the vibe right -something that Bablis own compatriot reviewers couldn’t /didn’t want to!
“it has a kind of unblushing vitality that is especially strong in the dance numbers, which feature big crowds, lots of color and an old-fashioned Bollywood desire to please.”— yup
Inspite of its super flopdom, stand with its title song & central premise though the script and direction let ranbir down here..
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October 4, 2013 at 10:26 AM
As always an interesting read from Rangan:
I think he’s still overall kinder on the film than I would be but I do share his general sense of the film’s strengths (and weaknesses).
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October 4, 2013 at 10:42 AM
I should make a point here in the context of some of the debates we were having recently about the authenticity of sites in films (Budapest as ‘Italy’ in HDDCS provoked all of this) and Utkal and some others here claimed that as long as the audience couldn’t tell it didn’t matter. But here’s a good related example. The Tamil gaffe Rangan refers to. 95% of the film’s audience is a Hindi speaking one and a non-Tamil speaking one. I leave out 5% here for folks in Chennai or Bangalore who understand both languages and would spot this error. Not a large number in any case, certainly not one that could have an appreciable box office impact. For the larger audience it’s just about the fact that there is Tamil being used. On the other hand one could easily use Malayalam or even Telugu and the same audience wouldn’t be able to tell (alright with Telugu you have a larger audience in Andhra at home in both languages that could tell but you get my point). These things matter, specially in a film where the entire point revolves around getting some of these details right. If it were only about what audiences could recognize or not as being authentic one could change a great deal in a great many films. And certain gaffes are just bigger ones than others.
By the way this is not like the famed (or notorious) anachronistic example of clocks in Julius Caesar. Because in many of those Shakespeare plays the past or even the present (exorcized places like Illyria and so forth) serves as a kind of fantasy site and is not meant to be literally accurate. It would be a bit odd though if Arthur Miller represented a period America in the Crucible which was completely inauthentic! We don’t complain when Hollywood represents India as some kind of Orientalist fantasy in its classic period. It’s part of the terrain. One can examine the ideological construct here but it’s not meant to be authentic in any literal sense. Similarly when Manmohan Desai makes Dharam Veer we don’t ask where these kingdoms exist or where those sartorial curiosities where the Roman gladiator’s attire and the Renaissance prince’s finery co-exist in time! It’s once again a fantasy site where a Shakespeare-like configuration comes about (mixing of genres and moods and so on). But when Johar tries to pass off some parts of NY as some others it matters because here a literal truth is being represented and there isn’t enough plausibility to the ‘exchange’. To use the Coppola example again and leaving aside the logistical challenges it’s one thing to show the jungles of the Philippines and call them those of Vietnam. It would be quite another to shoot in Manila and call it Saigon!
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October 4, 2013 at 2:04 PM
To add to that, There is a scene in HDDCS, when Aishwarya and Devgun are at a restaurant and she orders some wierd food and that starts eating Chillis left and right, they waiter in the background is not shouting in Italian, but its hungarian. (not sure if this would help the debate at all)
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October 4, 2013 at 11:23 AM
I still dont get the logic. If majority of the audience could not make out of it was Malayalam or Tamil, how would it matter? I mean directors use sets of a known building instead of the real building with the knowledge that the audience wont know the difference. Or feel the difference to be of such a degree that they would care. I mean how many from f the audience know that the train track in Dil Se is not in the North-East? How many care?
Satyam: It’s good that you brought in Shakespear’s plays on the Elizabethan stage. The pint is every film, every play , every performance has a key of realism at which it is being performed. That’s why we don’t mind the train in Dil Se, because we know a great deal of realism is not being attempted in the film. The level of realism in terms of speech, costumes, locales… that is being followed in a film like HDDCS permits use of Budapest as an Italian city. Certainly much more than use of Spain as russia in Dr Zhivago, or Sri Lanka as Varanasi in Water or India as Pakistan in A Mighty Heart.
And I assure the audience in Philippines can make out that it is Philippines and not Vietnam. But I am not so sure they enjoyed Apocalypse Now any less.
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October 4, 2013 at 2:27 PM
You still haven’t answered my earlier questions in this regard. Going by your logic London could be called Paris and Kabul could be called Stockholm as long as the majority of the audience doesn’t know the difference! Again as I said earlier your argument seems to be either don’t shoot in a desert of Yemen if you’re calling it a desert in Saudi Arabia or else you might as well call San Francisco Prague if the majority of the audience is not likely to see the difference!
On Dil Se note how Ratnam in a sense merges the Northeast with Ladakh and so on to create a very abstract kind of space. He doesn’t really specify the insurgency. It could be ‘any’ insurgency. However had he called it something specific the same questions would have arisen. The space Ratnam is trying to represent is one of marginality with respect to the nation-state. These are places at the ‘edge of the nation-state’ and only remotely connected to the national ‘capital’. The movie therefore depends on the alienation that SRK’s character undergoes in these spaces. This is like the Shakespearean gesture of constructing a space around an idea (exotic or otherwise). I’ve already quoted Desai and Hollywood examples in this regard.
The point as always isn’t about realism but plausibility. If one says that Italy could be any European country because the audience wouldn’t be able to tell the difference that might be literally true but it would nonetheless make for an implausible fiction. Because the film is belying its own referents. I could not differentiate between the jungles of India from those of Pakistan or Bangladesh though perhaps the residents of the Philippines are much better versed in these matters and can keep all their East Asian jungles apart. Much as I’m sure there are folks who can separate Yemeni deserts from Saudi Arabian kinds.
Taking your logic further I am unsure why anywhere in an artists work an author even bothers to represent things accurately. A french novelist could be describing ac city totally other than Berlin when he talks about the latter. Possibly most of his readership wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. One could say in a movie that Britain has a president and was founded two centuries ago or so whereas the US has a parliamentary system and ruled China once. Perhaps here too the audience wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Finally on your Madras Cafe example why not just have everyone speak Bengali and call it Tamil? The majority of the audience wouldn’t recognize this either!
In general I think you’re completely confusing plausibility and verisimilitude with a weak notion of realism.
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October 4, 2013 at 2:13 PM
Looks like BOI changed the status of Dabangg from ATBB to BB
http://boxofficeindia.com/npages.php?page=shownews&articleid=6114&nCat
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October 4, 2013 at 10:10 PM
They ave to change status of many more ATBB films to BB because they have given CE a BB status.If CE with a budget of around 70 cr has done 220 plus and is a BB then how can they put films like Dabbang or any other in ATBB category.
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October 4, 2013 at 4:53 PM
lol…the khans must be smiling now…after YJHD this is a disaster follow up on box office for Ranbir…but he is still young and will learn…still think he is no. 5 after 3 khans and HR and don’t see it changing anytime soon. Bombay Velvet won’t be big at box office and Jagga Jasoos sounds flop and outdated by the name itself. However if Bombay Velvet is great then RK will have another big blockbuster with Imtiaz Ali. Rather than Aburag Basu he should run after Shimit Amin for project.
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October 4, 2013 at 5:14 PM
Don’t think Imtiaz Ali is the blockbuster kind of filmmaker. Unless he makes something like LAK where a big initial and a half-decent follow-through can put up big numbers. In Jagga Jasoos he apparently plays a 17 year old boy. Sounds to me like the Barfi sort of deal. This could certainly repeat that film’s performance. Kashyap is unlikely to get him big numbers but those sorts of films you do mostly for the acclaim anyway and then if you get decent or better numbers that’s a bonus. It is true that unless something surprising happens none of these films are likely to post very big numbers. Then again he got them for the first time really with YJHD. So if he does another Johar production or whatever he could get the same. Before this he had a number of successful films but no stratospheric numbers. You can’t really get those without genre. Besharam in this sense had the best chance of repeating the YJHD on paper. it must be said though that unless he now adds something along the lines of YJHD to that sequence he has something more risky purely in that box office sense. None of these films is a sure shot though all of them are likely to open well relative to the genres.
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October 4, 2013 at 8:23 PM
Give the guy a break. He is easily the most successful of all stars under 30 yrs of age. The Khans too have had disasters in the 90s. Everyone goes through a learning phase. He has 20yrs to catch up with the Khans. The biggest plus of Besharam is Ranbir’s natural effortless portrayal.
Rishi too was natural, but perhaps became the first mainstream hero to have had a crapping scene with full sound effects. He literally had his 40yr career flushed down the toilet with that gross scene. Kashyap was not satisfied yet, so he had him sit on the potty once again. Later he has Rishi pull a gun on Neetu and threaten her. Neetu is presented as this greedy money-loving constable. All those audiences who went in expecting a Rishi-Neetu romance of yesteryears were in for a rude shock. It is perhaps here that a Sallu wouldve toned down Kashyap’s extra-creativity. Ranbir-Rishi didn’t seem to have questioned all this at all.
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October 5, 2013 at 1:33 AM
I think that first ‘potty’ scene was hilarious actually. but i do get some of the family audience that may have found this cheap and vulgar. the first 20-30 mins were actually funny and entertaining…and then the film went down hill from there. Ranbir shows his natural talents but i really liked the new girl…pallavi…she has potential and she can definitely dance.
this movie was just dumb overall…the direction is the weakest link here no doubt. i agree with satyam bhai that abhinav was truly given a silver platter here and he royally messed it up!!
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October 5, 2013 at 1:47 AM
btw…ranbir is 31. but yes amongst the ‘youngsters’ (imran and shahid) he is easily the most successful.
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October 4, 2013 at 4:59 PM
I think that the 100cr is still a benchmark not easily attainable. Even with a huge star, good music and excellent promotions a film cant achieve the 100cr figure if the audience dont like the film. eg Himmatwala, Talash, Khiladi 786 and now Besharam. On the other hand if the film is good it can do a 100cr even without a big star and promotions. eg. Bhaag Milkha.
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October 4, 2013 at 5:15 PM
It’s quite attainable unless a film is utterly rejected on day 1. That happens with few films. Talash cannot be put in that bracket anyway. This was a different cup of tea. Of course its 90 crores in any case put it way ahead of what those other films grossed.
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October 4, 2013 at 6:08 PM
What about Zindagi na milegi dobara those who are obsessed with this 100 cr number or think it is some sort of benchmark for success always miss this one why ? Talaash made as much as ZNMD and both belongs to same production house .
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October 4, 2013 at 11:32 PM
Because Talaash was aamirs first big release after 3I.
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October 4, 2013 at 9:23 PM
@ it must be said that after a pretty decent or better (at least for the target audience) first trailer the remaining song ones have been appalling. Mostly because the music has been terrible.
@ A similar argument could be made for D3. whatever advertising choices they have made so far have been pretty miserable.
So Cracks are starting to visible on the wall. Few weeks ago the CE record was calkwalk for both the films and D3 was 300 cr movie. Now there are ifs and buts. But don’t worry you are not alone. I am not sure it you watch ETC channal or not ? They show Buzz and pridiction for a film. They started 160 cr for K3 now came down to 110 cr though for D3 they have set 200 cr and this is the first time thet pridict 200 cr for any movie.
“actually I was about to say SRK might get lucky this year. ”
OK if SRK took a crap film (atleast for me) to around 210 cr it is plain luck and if Aamir took a good (some say mordern day classic) movie to 202 cr it is his achivement. Then some people raise question on others intention. The fact is if 3 idiots 202 cr is a monumental achivement then CE 210 cr too is a great success. Note i am using word monumental for 3 idiots and just great for CE and still if some people doesn’t belive that CE success is a great effort then i have nothing more to say.
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October 4, 2013 at 10:11 PM
err.. excuse me.. 202cr was in 2009..210cr is in 2013
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October 4, 2013 at 11:30 PM
CE making 227 crore in India and over 400 crore worldwide is nothing, every movie does that…
At least that’s what i’m led to believe by some on this site…
And if you counter that argument, you have bad faith, you’re uneducated, and there’s whole bunch of other names…
The fact is even today doing 100 crore is no cakewalk for most movies. Let’s not forget out of over 100 hindi movies that releases in a year, only about 7% makes over 100 crore. If you take away 3 khan, HR and Ranbir , you might end up with about 2 to 4 movies making over 100 crore in a year.
Besharam proves them all wrong because it had big star, holiday release, and one of the biggest (if not the biggest) release and yet the result is for everyone to see. Not to forget the fate of Himmatwala, UOATIMD, Satyagraha, etc…
As I always say, PAYING AUDIENCE is the final judge. They can make movie like BMB a hit and at the same time make GM a hit.
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October 5, 2013 at 5:28 AM
No you have bad faith anyway!
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October 5, 2013 at 8:11 AM
Well, I guess i’m happy with my bad faith because i have something to smile about.
On the other hand, look at you, you’re a priniciple of bad faith. over a decade of misery and only way you can make your self feel good is by calling names to fans of all actors except bachhan.
Just love it 🙂
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October 5, 2013 at 9:58 AM
Delusion always gives one smiles but they’re usually not genuine ones. The anxiety reveals itself one way or the other! But hey if you’re smiling I’m glad this blog is enabling that for you..!
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October 5, 2013 at 10:10 AM
by the way I don’t even have a problem with the delusion aspect of it. I’ve seen too many like you over time. But you were pretending to be this very reasonable, fair guy (or gal!). But scratch below the surface and the true self emerges! And here it’s not about comparing one star with another or whatever. You’re a SRK fan that’s fine. But your claims about him are profoundly dishonest. One doesn’t have to go to other stars to get this. Otherwise to each their own. You’re welcome to your alternate reality!
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October 5, 2013 at 5:27 AM
Let’s be serious! By the way that discussion I was indulging in wasn’t for you. Serious (and sincere) conversations are very dangerous for you. You should stay away from them.
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October 5, 2013 at 1:00 AM
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/asia/100-years-of-bollywood-movie-magic-in-mumbai-8858736.html
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October 5, 2013 at 1:10 AM
@ rr.. excuse me.. 202cr was in 2009..210cr is in 2013.
Kavi mahoday that is why i said 3 idiots 202 cr is a monumental achivement and CE 209 cr is just great not monumental.
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October 5, 2013 at 5:30 AM
Aur sath mein ahsaan bhi jata diya … “Note i am using word monumental for 3 idiots and just great for CE ”
🙂
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October 5, 2013 at 1:18 AM
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/screen-exclusive-in-conversation-with-bollywoods-crown-prince-ranbir-kapoor/1178337/0
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October 5, 2013 at 5:35 AM
good read..
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October 5, 2013 at 6:10 AM
“Aamir sir, after Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani was constantly in touch with me about how much business the movie had done”
Lolll 🙂
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October 5, 2013 at 1:34 AM
Besharam Goes Down Further On Friday
Saturday 5th October 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam fell another 15% on Friday after the epic 65% crash on Thursday. The collections on Friday were around 5.75 crore nett which takes it 3 day total to 31.50 crore nett.
Saturday and Sunday should see better collections but when collections are already down to the 6 crore nett levels it all becomes irrelevant. Saturday may be up a little or in the same range while Sunday should be up by 10-15% so the film is looking to add another 13 crore nett which would give it a five day weekend of around 45 crore nett.
Even if the film had fallen 50% on day two it could have been safe as it would have got a 50 crore share while now it is losses all around with the lifetime share struggling to hit even 35 crore.
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October 5, 2013 at 2:05 AM
well i guess ranbir’s ‘hit’ streak and (presumably) 100cr streak comes to an end.
Sallu and SRK now hold the longest ‘hit’ and 100cr streak. the more things change…the more they stay the same.
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October 5, 2013 at 6:46 AM
BESHARAM Crashes WARNING Has Low First Week
Saturday 5th October 2013 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam crashed after a strong start. The warning signs were there on day one as collections came off noticeably in the evening. The film saw one of the biggest day to days drops at 65%. The business over the first two days was a little under 26 crore nett. FLOP
Warning had low collections of around 3 crore nett in week one
Phata Poster Nikhla Hero dropped badly in week ywo collecting around 6 crore nett taking its total to 36 crore nett. FLOP
The Lunchbox held up well with 7 crore nett in week two taking its total to over 18 crore nett.
Grand Masti collected 7.75 crore nett in week three taking its total to 90.50 crore nett. SUPER HIT
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October 5, 2013 at 6:46 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 5h
#Besharam sinks further. Fri *early estimates* ₹ 5.75 cr.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 2h
#Besharam Fri *actuals* 5.68 cr.
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October 5, 2013 at 6:48 AM
they can calculate that precisely.. hey it’s not 5.75, it’s 5.68. This joke is too pathetic to even laugh..
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October 5, 2013 at 6:51 AM
will say that the way this is going even assuming a somewhat better Sat and Sun anything over 60-65 seems unlikely for a lifetime total.
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October 5, 2013 at 7:03 AM
Ha if besharam touches 50 crores, they should celebrate!
Anyhow, there are ‘lessons’ before one moves on to other things.
There are NO ‘easy blockbusters’
It’s only a retrospective finding –himmatwala, talaash, besharam, bra1, ouatimd, khiladi786 are testimony of that.,,
So, ETT, CE, Yjhd deserve respect
3 idiots can’t get anymore ‘respect’ than it’s already (rightly) getting…
Besharam promised a family bonding comedy but instead had edgy elements
But won’t take the ‘vulgarity’ charge seriously
Delly belly had graphic depiction of ‘gal going down on guy’ & a full blown SONG on ‘masturbation’ & guys fighting each other for ‘blowjob’
So don’t give me bullshit about ‘vulgarity’ here
Yeah abhinav kashyap needs to be kept under leash and he wasn’t even at his a-game
As for ranbir–I mean it when I say it’s actually good for him in the long run..
Have no problems with his fornicating on sets and on yeh beach, but think now he needs to be more cautious with his lineup
Be very wary with anurag kashyaps ‘Bombay velvet’
It will be a damn good film but can vouch that anurag is really Abhinavs ‘elder bro’ in terms of risky edgy stuff–unlikely to do anything on the box office
Think ranbir should learn about ‘media spin and management’ from ‘stalwarts’ like srk and aamir. Anyhow he has loads of time and is here to stay.
He will do well to sign a kjo-ayan flick now though 🙂
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October 5, 2013 at 9:31 AM
The diff between DB and Besharam is: the former was not a wide release, in fact had an English release for several multiplexes. DB was advertised as a vulgar film, so the middle class conservative masses never went for it. It was a hit at 50crs. Besharam was advertised as the next vehicle by the ‘new’ superstar. It was the second-widest release, on the hope of crossing 150crs. Howerver, said superstar forgot that the conservative masses love their superstars to be squeaky clean. No potty jokes, crotch jokes, hard-on jokes, etc etc. This is where he miscalculated.
Personally, I did not find it offensive, its just harmless fun. But you cannot fool with the conservative paying public like that. Aamir Khan understood that, and smartly excused himself from starring in DB (except that last song). Having Imran do it was again harmless, because Imran is just a multiplex star (which is why he cannot pull weight with stuff like OUATIM2). Perhaps, Ranbir thought that if Imran can do it, why cant he? Or perhaps this movie was in production before the stupendous success of YJHD which elevated him to that ‘squeaky clean’ superstar level. Ranbir will learn from this hopefully.
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October 5, 2013 at 9:57 AM
That difference is obvious -Which is why db was a suxess with the same earnings as besharam(though I’m not a fan of db).
But don’t think ranbir (or abhinav) are fool enuf to have the db analogy and compete with Imran Khan!!
Infact sometimes too safe n squeaky clean also becomes meh (unlike u have someone like kjo doing the mix!)
So the idea was good to make it edgy but it’s the execution that fell short.. Abhinav started celebrating the day he got ranbir on board and was clearly wither not on full flow or Salman had done value additions/deletions in dabang!
Inspite of all this, besharam had it to reach 100 crores but once negativity of this magnitude spreads, I told earlier –“even one crores becomes difficult”
Within the same premise and context —
If one wishes to see superior stuff, recommend
‘Oye lucky lucky oye’ — the ‘Delhi thief ‘ bit is done much better both by dibakar and abhay deol..besharam had a bigger scale and expectations (& much more negativity and enemity etc) which added to its obvious demerits
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October 5, 2013 at 6:27 AM
—I think she’s back !!
Just checked Britney’s return (back from wilderness after a fall from grace !)
She seems to have got a good makeover, styling, worked on her physique
The original dance machine seems to have got the right groove –correct mix of endearing charisma
As ‘work b..ch’
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October 5, 2013 at 6:41 AM
Think Britney’s got a hit on her comeback ..
Whatta a way to start the morning lol
Oops isn’t she a mom now –who cares?
And there’s S&M as well…
Ps: Amy –make notes 🙂
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October 5, 2013 at 6:30 AM
Btw where has sanju aka sanjana disappeared. Apparently she had some altercations with some commentators here.
She seems to have gone on a self-exile and joined anu
And the two of them are now surviving on ‘girl on girl’ action …
C’mon folks—
‘Girl on girl’ action (& ‘girl & dog’ relationships) ain’t good enuf
🙂
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October 5, 2013 at 6:54 AM
Salman Khan to team up with Ram Charan
By Subhash K. Jha, Oct 5, 2013 – 10:16 hrs IST
Bouncing back quickly from the debacle of Zanjeer and its Telugu version Thoofan, Ram Charan will now team up with Salman Khan for a film that would be produced by Salman Khan.
Ram Charan flew from Hyderabad on Tuesday to meet Salman. The two had a hush-hush meeting over lunch at Salman’s home in Mumbai where it was decided that the two stars would come together for a film. Sohail Khan was also present at the meeting.
When contacted Ram Charan admitted, “Yes, I was in Mumbai. I had come to meet Salman. We are working on a project together.”
Ram Charan gives Salman a clean chit in the whole Zanjeer copyright controversy where Salman’s father writer Salim Khan joined hands with his former partner Javed Akhtar to sue the new Zanjeer makers for copyright infringement
Says Ram defensively, “Salman really couldn’t intervene in the matter. It was a matter involving the Writers’ Association. He couldn’t say anything beyond a point. Even Salim Khan Saab was very supportive. It’s just that he had to stand by Javed Akhtar Saab, or the writers’ community would have been offended. But to be honest they were fighting for a film that wasn’t anything like theirs.”
Ram Charan seems to have bounced back after the double debacle last week.Jokes the affable star, “Apoorva Lakhia and I need to sit down and make a list of the 10 reasons why Zanjeer didn’t work. It really doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve already moved on to my next project in Telugu. It’s called Yevadu. And it releases for Dussehra on October 10. That’s a full-on action thriller. My fans like to see me fight. They rejected Thoofan because most of the time I was just angry and seething silently. That’s not how they like to see me.”
Now with the project with Salman happening, Ram Charan is upbeat about his Hindi career. “I’ve nowhere to go but ahead since I’ve touched rock-bottom with Zanjeer. Actually I had things much too easy so far. My life and my career were like a fairytale. I think I needed to be jolted.”
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October 5, 2013 at 7:10 AM
Meh @ Salman -ramchooran film…
Anyhow –The other off-shoot here is that
SRK is back at the top with CE
Also (as I mentioned earlier) there’s this ranbir-hritik match up this year…with besharam and krish coming
Ps: as an innocent unbiased observer–
Even krish3 doesn’t seem ‘safe’ but it probably suffices to say
hritik seems to have won that contest 🙂
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October 5, 2013 at 8:00 AM
Yes, because Krissh3 is being made by Rakesh Roshan.
All things equal, I think HR is bigger then Ranbir anyway, however, Ranbir is in top 5.
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October 5, 2013 at 10:01 AM
“All things equal, I think HR is bigger then Ranbir anyway, ”
Haha can’t disagree Saira ..
On a comparable career stage, ranbir has a better range and is more ‘evolved’ as an actor
As for whose bigger, if the project is apt and he gets a favoured genre, HR can be ‘bigger’ than anyone out there 🙂
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October 5, 2013 at 1:08 PM
Agree. When HR clicks, he clicks big time (KNPH, KMG, Dhoom2, Krissh).
Personally, I would bet on Ranbir for being in top position in future.
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October 5, 2013 at 2:08 PM
Hrithik is a different story at the box office when it comes to his father’s films. This has always been true. The one exception is D2 but this was a multistarrer and a sequel. many stars could fill the D2 space without the numbers being affected. But not many could fill the Krrish space. In fact no current star I can think of would be as effective playing that kind of superhero (not every kind). But he’s good as gold with Filmkraft. In past years there was never a time when a big SRK film outgrossed a Filmkraft Hrithik film, barring K3G (which was ahead of KNPH though MOhabbetin was behind KNPH) which too had Hrithik but of course Bachchan as well. Today once again all else being equal Krrish would outgross CE. In 2006 D2 outgrossed Krrish. Once more all else being equal D3 would outgross Krrish 3.
Of course he’s on average one of the industry’s top openers on any commercial venture. This too has been true since his debut film. When you go to different stuff though his initial suddenly plummets. Any number of films prove this. Here he’s either decent or less than this but never great. For instance ZNMD opened at the same level as MBKD while Rockstar opened bigger than both. JA had a low initial all things considered. Guzaarish had a very poor one.
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October 5, 2013 at 8:23 AM
@ Amirsfan
“Sallu and SRK now hold the longest ‘hit’ and 100cr streak. the more things change…the more they stay the same.”
This has to be comment of the year (change/same piece)…
That’s what i’ve been saying for 2 months now here. 3 khans have been in top 5 for about 20 years now and I see same for 5 more years. HR and Ranbir will be in it too every year.
Then you have 2nd tier with Akshay, Farhan, may be Shahid and irfan.
Rest are garbage.
Actors like Nawaaj, Irfan khan are in different league based on the movies they do.
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October 5, 2013 at 7:29 PM
“K3 will outgross CE and D3will outgross K3” Lol! Some people are thinking like as boxoffice can dance at their tunes.Actually it is kiddish to make any such prediction regarding B.O beforehand.Both K3 and D3 have disappointed so far with their promos/teasers whatever.
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October 5, 2013 at 10:18 AM
this one’s for Apex (or at least half of it is!):
THUMBS UP: Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan Suit Up In Style!
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October 5, 2013 at 10:24 AM
Thanx Satyam –actually abhishrek looks good here.. If he can get rid of his atrocious designers anu Sandeep and improve his styling.
Btw I have a weakness for the ‘grey tie’
Amy knows why 😉
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October 5, 2013 at 10:28 AM
Finally, the only real regret I have from besharam is that it seems to have let down poor pallavis career..,
Apparently Im not the only sympathiser
Someone just sent me a ‘pallavi sharda fan club’ lol
I’m currently off fb or twitter so all I can do is plug it here …
Behind the scenes of #Besharam with Australian actress
Pallavishardafanclub
@pallavisharda and @ranbirkapoor on @abc730 abc.net.au/news/2013-10-0…
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October 5, 2013 at 10:36 AM
A rare mildly positive review..
Pallavishardafanclub
“@accessbollywood: Besharam Movie Review: Game, Set & Match – @pallavisharda is a surprise package..
bit.ly/18rxzPf”
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October 5, 2013 at 10:54 AM
I hope your humility is helping you survive your failure’s vicissitudes, Mr. Khan. Because this is B.S.! Stealing someone’s speech is deplorable and keeping mum about its source is downright disgusting.
I know many of you are probably thinking that it’s just a few lines that have been ripped off, but the man literally quoted those lines verbatim and didn’t even credit her for it. He came across as this humble and honest guy who spoke from his heart, while a couple of parts of his speech were clearly stolen.
I don’t know if his speech writer messed up or he intentionally stole it; either way, I don’t like this one bit. And even if he did want to use parts of Rowling’s speech, the least he could have done was credit her or maybe paraphrase some of those lines, but no. The man concluded his speech with the choicest of words plucked from Rowling’s speech that earned him a standing ovation.
http://mercurialpurple.blogspot.in/2013/10/from-jk-to-srk-word-sure-travels.html?m=1
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October 5, 2013 at 10:55 AM
LOL, why am I not surprised?!
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October 5, 2013 at 11:19 AM
LOL, cant say it is in any way surprising. Par for the course given who it is. What may be a little bit surpsing is not thinking if someone would notice!
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October 5, 2013 at 2:35 PM
The concept of credit is actually alien to Indians. That is what at least I found in Indian academics. In US the emphasis is even if you write one page it should be yours or with proper credits. Most of the students who were caught were Indian or Chinese.
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October 6, 2013 at 2:07 AM
Oops, just saw these comments, after creating a new thread for this story…
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October 5, 2013 at 2:37 PM
this is pathetic. SRK has become a poser. IMO he is not alone though, there are many others in the industry who try to be something they are not.
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October 5, 2013 at 2:43 PM
I know 😉
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October 5, 2013 at 3:17 PM
Not you. He meant stars:-)
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October 5, 2013 at 3:42 PM
And I meant Amir Khan 🙂
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October 5, 2013 at 4:10 PM
“And I meant Amir Khan ”
Touché 🙂
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October 5, 2013 at 4:38 PM
@ oldgold -oblivious to this speech controversy—srk is minting money in NZ & meeting the NZ PM
🙂
http://india.nydailynews.com/entertainmentarticle/903e9457cc8f5593eb3ad6d0ffae3cad/new-zealand-pm-greets-srk-in-auckland
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October 5, 2013 at 3:21 PM
what he stole again ..allready did once at yale where mukesh ambani took him
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October 5, 2013 at 11:31 AM
Rangan on Besharam-
“And it is to Kashyap’s credit that, at least in the early portions, he allows his film to get as creepy and disgusting – in a humorous manner, because, of course, Babli is essentially a child – as its protagonist. Babli, half asleep, rams his morning wood into the hip of his roommate (Titu, played by Amitosh Nagpal). He stuffs Titu’s sock into his crotch, for “padding,” so he can make a better impression on women. His declaration of love to Tara incorporates a vasectomy scenario. He even participates in an utterly gratuitous shower scene where he keeps giving the audience glimpses of his arse crack. The most shameless scene in the film, however, belongs to Inspector Chulbul Chautala (Rishi Kapoor) – he’s married to Head Constable Bulbul Chautala (a screechy Neetu Singh) – whose relief from constipation is documented with near-scientific rigour. We hear not only the rrrip, but also the plop.
At some point, I began to think that this is how I’d describe Besharam to someone: “Imagine Mr. India transformed into a road movie while Anil Kapoor kept adjusting his crotch!” It isn’t a stretch to spot the Mogambo-lite villain, played by Javed Jaffrey, who follows his forebear’s footsteps, terrorizing all those little orphan children. And you can round off the similarities with a Calendar-like sidekick in Titu, and a career-minded heroine who hates the hero (before falling for him). This film, too, embraces slapstick with fervor. The action sequences are as likely to feature fearsome rocket launchers as a portly old man who simply takes a deep breath and blows the villains away. And a chase, mid-way, transforms into a love story – between dogs, as Tujhe dekha to yeh jaana sanam plays on the soundtrack. (And so that things don’t get too cutesy, we still stick to the “shameless” agenda when Babli pees all over the memory of that number. He literally relieves himself in a mustard field, filled with all those pretty yellow flowers, while singing that song.)”-
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October 5, 2013 at 11:42 AM
excellent read.. and it makes clear why people have had a special problem with this film..
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October 5, 2013 at 11:53 AM
this sounds like a film that Anurag Kashyap might have made. This irreverence would have fit well in Dev D! But it’s true that if you’re engaging in a certain kind of subversion it’s very hard to pull it off with a star, specially not one who doesn’t have a ‘bad boy’ image. A major film with this tone just isn’t a good idea anyway. Which is not to say that I’m supporting everything about the movie. Just that the moment one reads Rangan’s description and what he thinks are the film’s stronger points one knows right away why the film was instantly rejected. It’s never about weak scripts and so on. One could say this about a lot of films that work. When you have certain kinds of lines (the rape one is pretty funny!) or the padding moment you’ve lost most of your multiplex audience! Not just because you have those elements but more importantly because those elements clearly lampoon more traditional stuff in the same genre. In other words all the films that people like to think are very different and very subversive but are actually very tame (a point I’ve constantly made) are turned inside out in such attempts. Now a film like Besharam might just be a failure in any case (Rangan of course says this) but this is not the primary reason it fails at the box office. Rangan says this about a lot of other films that work in the same sense.
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October 6, 2013 at 2:11 AM
Man oh man — Rangan’s are usually among the more GENEROUS reviews, so it speaks volumes that he can barely find anything good to say about this one…
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October 5, 2013 at 2:37 PM
looks like the Khan media machine got to Ranbir…now that he has entered the big league, he has to tread carefully. even though he has the Kapoor last name and backing, he will also be pulled down ruthlessly just like Hrithik was after KNPH.
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October 5, 2013 at 3:32 PM
Ten Questions for Abhinav Kashyap after Besharam:
http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/10-questions-for-abhinav-kashyap-after-watching-besharam-1149799.html?utm_source=editorpick&utm_medium=story
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October 5, 2013 at 3:55 PM
Not sure if this is already posted .. Actor Kedarnath Sahab passed away on 29th Sept .. He acted in AAA, Sholay and Deewar ..
http://www.bollywoodlife.com/news-gossip-buzz/sholay-actor-kedarnath-sahab-passes-away/
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October 5, 2013 at 9:04 PM
BoC have somewhat lower numbers for Besharam:
http://businessofcinema.com/boxoffice/box-office-besharam-crashes/107877
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October 6, 2013 at 12:18 AM
I don’t understand this constant pillorying of the ‘ multiplex generation’. Like it or not we are the youth of today, and it is to us that you are pitching your movies. So get used to who we are. We have our own sensibilities and our own sense of aesthetics. So don’t try to force your stale 70’s stuff down our throats. We like all kinds of stuff. We like the sensitive treatment of gender relations among today’s youth, rendered with a lightness of touch ( YJHD). We like stories of raw, unbridled passion in small towen India ( Raanjhana). WE like sweet love stories ( Aashiqui). We like human stories of struggle, success ..and failure ( Bhag Milkha Bhag). We like minimalistic stories of human yearning among Indian middle class ( The Lunchbox). Welike films that are irreverent, smart and funny ( Delhi Belly). We like films that are irreverent, not-so-smart and funny ( Grand Masti). We like films that tell a suspenseful tale ( Khaani). We like films that tell different, quirky stories of middle India ( Vicky donor, Shudh Desi Romance, Kai Po Che). WE like films that experiment boldly with form and content ( Dvd D, Gangs of Wasseypur, Love, Sex aur Dhoka, Barfi, Rockstar). We like films that make us think ( Ship of Theseus). We like films that take up a relevant theme and treat it with insight and humour ( 3 Idiots) using larger than laife imagery. We like fun fables that take us on a charming joy ride ( Chennai Express). Once in a while we like a bit of song and dance and harmless fun ( Dabangg, Bodygyard, ETT). And what we don’t like are lazy, vacuous, unintelligent, stale fare that take us for granted ( Himmatwala, Teri Meri Kahani, Besharam). And as I said, we are what we are. We read les books. But we surf the Net. We see more films. We are better exposed to the world, are less protected. We have a mind of our won. So, better get used to us.
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October 6, 2013 at 7:13 AM
@Utkal,
No, youth can’t have their own opinion. Your opinion don’t count. You can’t have an opinion. You have to believe that all actors are worthless except bachhan and only the movie that a delusional person likes matters. Otherwise you’re dishonest.
All the movies you’ve listed above and many more can be used any time against one another to bring certain actors down and can be flip/flopped based on if the argument is about boxoffice or quality of a film.
I’m just joking on what i said above.
But I agree 100% with you and that’s what i’ve been trying to say on this blog. Why can’t we just enjoy movies???
Why must some people always spend their time on bringing certain actors and movies down.
Everybody has their own opinion and choice. If I like vanilla ice cream and you like chocolate, who am i to say my flavor is better then yours? specially if there are 2 people who likes vanilla and 2000 that likes chocolate.
By the way, I’ve been watching movies since early 70’s, I hope you don’t feel all people from that era are delusional and forcing stuff on others. My father who grew up on 50’s/60’s movies thought that most of the movies in 70’s were garbage. Person who grew up with 70s movies will think that of 80’s/90/s movies and so on.
We just have to be mature and respect the paying audience. Let’s not be delusional and act like all movies are good and makes 100 crore.
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October 6, 2013 at 7:27 AM
“We just have to be mature and respect the paying audience. Let’s not be delusional and act like all movies are good and makes 100 crore.”
What I’m trying to say with above comment is let’s not assume every movie makes 100 crore like it’s being portrayed by some. The fact is less then 9% of movies make 100 crore or more. And when a movie does make that, let’s celebrate it and not spend time on degrading makers, fans, paying audience, etc., if it doesn’t star your fav actor.
Take Grand Masti for an example. There is something in that movie that clicked with audience hence the movie is hit. How do you explain Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum not making 100 crore if all movies like GM are to be hit???
Respect the generation and paying audience…
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October 6, 2013 at 8:23 AM
“We are better exposed to the world, are less protected.”
and here I thought no one knew the difference between Italy and Budapest..!
Now on the rest not sure who the ‘we’ is because you lump together films that have an audience of 2 with those that have an audience of 2000 and attribute it to this imaginary ‘we’ that likes all kinds of films.
On the rest I won’t repeat everything I’ve said in the past beyond two central points. Firstly on every index of political and social registers the dominant cinema of this age whether in a very commercial sense or in the more popular multiplex sense (which is to say smaller films that are nonetheless popular with a smaller cross-section or are at least critically more acclaimed than others) is actually more ‘regressive’ than the very same combination of genres in the 70s (or even the 50s). There is a certain error on your part (deliberate or otherwise) in using the old bogeyman of masala cinema to represent the 70s when there was in fact a lot else going on from the middle cinema of that period to experimental stuff like Basu Bahattacharya’s to the art movement of the age. The 70s simply cannot be beaten on these scores but here my more precise point is that cinema today is simply not as edgy, as interesting, as entertaining, as fulfilling for want of a better word than the best cinema of an earlier age (I would locate this in the 70s and the 50s).
The second more polemical drift in your response involves if you’ll excuse my saying this a cheap populist appeal (surprisingly so for someone invested in today’s cinema!). I wonder if Lata should be forced down the throats of Alka Yagnik fans. They might object in the same ways!
And this of course gets me to my largest point in these and most other contexts. Again will try and be brief because I’ve expanded on this stuff before. There is a kind of easy nostalgia which is foolish but more often than not it is superseded by an unthinking in the present and ‘this-is-the-best-of-all-possible-worlds’ syndrome. One can define artistic or entertainment currents through the prism of an ‘age’ or a constellation of concerns that define any age but this cannot be one’s only framework. Let me provide an example:
1) Deewar is a great film and one of those fine efforts that defines the 70s.
2) Deewar is a great film because it was made in the 70s.
The two statements are very different. In the first instance the point would be to elevate an important work and index it to larger cross-currents of its period. The second statement however suggests a kind of causality. The latter is the kind of logic common to all nostalgias and all forms of ‘presentism’. In each case one views everything through the prism of a set of choices that one is invested in for ‘natural’ reasons of experience. Such a perspective does allow for the celebration of works from different ages but only those that are completely canonized and exist almost a museum pieces.
All of this is very different from ‘thinking’ a work or a series of films or a body of work of any kind through its age. One cannot really transport oneself to another period but one can think from within the work as best as one can and then correlate it with a larger set of historical, political contexts or whatever. This doesn’t mean that such a reception is only about an ‘intellectual’ response. Absolutely not! Because the other side of this coin, and possibly the more important one, is about being open enough to a very different tradition or a different series within the same tradition to be able to value it in the true sense. Which involves (to get a bit philosophical about it) a kind of ‘unhinging’. Because what is most obviously familiar to one in the form of one’s own films (the films of one’s age) must be de-familiarized and at the same time one must become more intimate with traditions far removed from one’s time and space. This is partly about enough experience with different stuff but it is more crucially about the right mental ‘openness’ in these matters.
The moment one strikes a false note like ‘we’ who are ‘today’s youth’ or whatever one is on the wrong path. Even as a simple logical matter this could be illustrated. Because the youth of every age thinks the very same thing. Clearly they can’t all be right! Otherwise the movies of the 80s ought to be considered as worthwhile as the movies of the 50s (in Hindi)! If they were all right then Arthur Miller must also be as great a playwright as Shakespeare! If they were all correct then Shaan must be as good a singer as Kishore Kumar. So there is this logical problem and then there is that larger theoretical one where aesthetic choices are simply framed by ‘political’ ones (‘we’).
Notice how this is different from an ideological perspective such as mine or a set of political readings that do not necessarily privilege one age but any age and any work which bears those ‘codes’. So I might be dismissive about most of contemporary Bollywood but not when it’s about MP or Talaash or Raavan or Dil Se or Khakee or Dev and similarly some other examples. In the same sense when I privilege contemporary Tamil cinema it is because I find here the same set of political choices that I like. This clearly shows it’s not about the present or the past for me. If it’s about Hindi cinema I’d take the 70s and then the 50s over anything else. If it’s about the 80s I’d take Malayalam cinema and aspects of Tamil cinema over anything else. Over the last twenty years or so I’d take Tamil as a commercial industry over the alternatives (even if I am unable to keep up with this cinema as much as I would like to). From the mid-50s to the early-70s the Bengali commercial industry might well be the strongest Indian one. One might disagree with all my judgments but they’re not ‘chauvinistically’ attached to any given age or industry. It might seem like that sometimes over here because the contexts are mostly about Hindi cinema. I often talk about Hollywood films and even though here too I don’t think we’ve been going through any great renaissance (the last great Hollywood age was the 70s.. most critics would agree about this) I am very happy to recognize important works as an when they occur. In fact I often risk overstatement in these matters. I just saw Gravity and at least on 3D and on the right kind of screen it’s probably the most wondrous film experience I can think of in a theater. I wasn’t around to watch 2001 in a theater or the Searchers or whatever so I can’t universalize it more than this. But I found what I saw stunning for more reasons than one.
Once again it’s not about today or yesterday, about India or the US.. we are all invested in certain immediate experiences and that’s absolutely fine. I can watch certain kinds of guilty pleasures far more easily than others for these reasons. But I try and not to confuse what I am very personally invested in with that which is truly important. I loved Avatar but I had a much more mixed sense of what this film meant or represented versus what I feel in both contexts on Gravity. When I revisit Kamalahaasan’s Guru I am not under the illusion that this is some fine piece of commercial cinema! Nor the same when I watch Bachchan’s Yaarana!
I have broken a brevity promise once more (!) but again if you want to get into the ‘we’ of ‘today’ your argument is certainly not with me because that’s not a format I endorse in this or any other matter.
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October 6, 2013 at 8:41 AM
on Gravity incidentally I’ve put up these links before but if one can this film should be seen on an authentic IMAX theater (most IMAX screens are not authentic ones..). Here’s a list of theaters outside the US which have authentic IMAX screens (look for theaters with the 1570 format code):
http://www.lfexaminer.com/theaIntl.htm#UNITED%20KINGDOM
In India for instance the only 3 such theaters are in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Hyderabad. In London one should watch it at the BFI.
Here is a similar list for the US:
http://www.lfexaminer.com/theaUSA.htm
So in NY City for example the only option is the Loews at Broadway and 68th.
I can’t stress this point enough though. It’s pointless not watching this film on a big screen. So if you don’t have authentic IMAX located near you find the biggest screen you can!
By the way the difference between real IMAX and the rest isn’t just one of size but also one of format. Nolan to counter this problem released Dark Knight only in proper IMAX theaters.
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October 6, 2013 at 9:18 AM
CA is the best state in the US for authentic IMAX screens. 12 in the state! Of course there’s also a question of space here. for instance some of the Southern or Southwestern states seem overrepresented in this sense. But whichever way one cuts it one screen for the five boroughs of NY is shockingly low! The science or natural history museums don’t count as they don’t screen this stuff.
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October 6, 2013 at 8:48 PM
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=202716790624888865459.000469b6c5915161c3667
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October 6, 2013 at 11:53 AM
how many of them are remembered as such and has shelf life ..you are seriously mixing indie cinema(the new genre as they say) with some 2 or 3 commercial stuff…
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October 6, 2013 at 12:46 AM
Happy New year is a long pending project which got delayed due to many factors.Z is right by saying that HNY was planned way before CE release.Laugh worthy thing in above comment is Srk needs help from Abhishek,Boman Irani etc for keeping up the momentum.
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October 6, 2013 at 3:47 AM
In my experience people who laugh too hard are usually ‘trying’ to laugh that hard when the truth pierces some of their defenses and releases their anxieties! Having said that the statement you’ve made is a caricature of a more serious claim. On the rest no one is unaware that HNY has been on again off again at least since after MHN. Bachchan was once supposed to be part of this. There is a silly literalism in these matters that often misses the larger picture (or point being made).
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October 6, 2013 at 6:57 AM
Samar, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
SRK is able to pull all the actors, techincians, director, get the shooting approval from dubai gvmt, as well as get shooting planned and approval from all the different location in dubai, and many other factors involved with shooting the film, specially in foreign location. All these stuff in couple weeks.
I hope you go tmy sarcasm.
Some people who are delusional for more then a decade now will say anything.
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October 6, 2013 at 3:50 AM
Besharam Saturday Business
Sunday 6th October 2013 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam had little jump in collections on Saturday of aroundd 6% but it makes little difference. The approx daily totals for the film are as follows.
Wednesday – 19.25 crore
Thursday – 6.50 crore
Friday – 5.50 crore
Saturday – 5.75 crore
The five day total stands at around 37 crore nett and it is likely that film will stay below 45 crore nett or if Sunday does better than expected at best it will be 45 crore nett.
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October 6, 2013 at 3:51 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 13m
#Besharam shows no signs of pick on Sat. Collects ₹ 5.94 cr
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October 6, 2013 at 7:20 AM
Something seriously went wrong with Besharam, it was supposed to easily do 100 crore business. what I understand from this is that 100 crore is not easy even for a top star after a blockbuster. The film has to be liked by the audience.
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October 6, 2013 at 11:33 AM
tees mar khan , besharam and himmatwala all panned heavily and did over 50 cr with attrocious word of mouth…shows more how much the bar is low with 100 cr scam penetrated and advertised as such especially when multiplexes has engulfed the interior of the country and new base emerging
delhi belly and grand masti has shown the market for cheap stuff but atleast they should be packaged with non veg stuff while comparatively besharam had touch of 70’s and looked stale …a half baked seriousness followed by silliness which was neither here nor there
dabang had masala and heavy involvement of salim khan (part of salim javed) and anurag while besharam showed where abhinav stands now on his own
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October 6, 2013 at 11:48 AM
besharam and kapoor clan
when shammi kappor played an orpan who looked after orphanage in brahamachari he had class and originality..
when bachchan did the same in lawaris it had class and message ….the banter in apni to jaisi taisi kat jayegi that to in time when crtical structure was operated by elite upper class
when in bunty and bubli father , son and family had shared it had authenticity of small town india(u.p) while in besharam again location of delhi and haryani with there vesrion of lower middle class is fake both of haryana and delhi and so are characters with no consistency
father the cop and son the thief (not in reel life) had chemistry but surprisingly real family didn’t exhibit those..
besharam is the mismatch of some genuine old classic infact a heavy mixed along with a modern one rip off but its bad one a real bad one
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October 6, 2013 at 9:19 AM
Madonna reveals she was raped in New York -at knifepoint!!!
http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/434567/Madonna-reveals-that-she-was-raped-at-knifepoint-in-New-York
Have always felt that NYC has a dark(er) (than other metropolis) cities …
Apparently lots of stuff in NYC goes unreported as well (not only in India)
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October 6, 2013 at 9:28 AM
Australian news media piece on pallavi sharda
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-02/pallavi-sharda-on-the-brink-of-bollywood-mega-stardom/4994584
Interesting stuff–hope she does well inspite of besharams failure…
Btw check out pallavis changing accents 🙂
Her accents are changing depending on whether the interview is in India, NYC or in Australia hoho
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October 6, 2013 at 2:32 PM
Spare a thought for Dravid guys. What a player! Boria Majumadar once said it rightly that had Tendulkar never played for India, Dravid would have been this nation’s best ever batsman.
Whether one was a fan of him is immaterial. If one was ever a fan of Indian cricket, or cricket in general, you had to love Jammy
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October 6, 2013 at 3:42 PM
Not sure if Dravid is greater than Gavaskar. All things considered I’d pick the latter.
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October 6, 2013 at 2:34 PM
Scott Bowles, USA TODAY 12:35 p.m. EDT October 6, 2013
Dazzling effects propel the sci-fi thriller to a surprisingly convincing win at theaters, while “Runner Runner” stumbles at the starting gate.
Fueled by the strongest reviews of the year, Gravity hit the stratosphere at the box office this weekend, running rings around the latest thriller from Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake.
The Sandra Bullock outer space saga collected $55.6 million, a record in October, according to studio estimates.
The haul easily eclipsed analysts’ projections of $35 million, and its near-unanimous positive reviews, analysts say, make it an early frontrunner in the awards race.
Propelling sales: IMAX theaters, which accounted for $11.2 million, the biggest October opening for any film in the colossal format. Company CEO Greg Foster says that the bulk of the nation’s 425 IMAX theaters have booked Gravity for the next month.
“We have a special relationship with space films, beginning with our documentaries, and this is the kind of quality movie our audience expects,” he says.
3-D acquitted itself well, too, as it accounted for 80% of ticket sales, according to distributing studio Warner Bros. Gravity eclipsed the October debut record of Paranormal Activity 3, which opened to $52.5 million in 2011.
The film earned an astounding thumbs-up from 98% of the nation’s critics, according to survey site Rottentomatoes.com.
Fans were nearly as over the moon: 91% of moviegoers said they enjoyed the movie, directed by Alfonso Cuaron and co-starring George Clooney. Nearly 60% of the audience was 35 and over, and the movie scored an A- with moviegoers, according to pollsters CinemaScore.
Tim Briody of Boxofficeprophets.com says that Gravity had no trouble hitting the box office stratosphere despite the unpredictable nature of science fiction films — particularly original ones.
But the $100 million picture managed to combine “incredible effects, horror movie-style vibe (seriously, try and watch any scene from it without wanting to hold your breath), an A-list cast and ridiculously positive word-of-mouth to set everything up properly for the largest opening in months.”
And it gives the fall season, which often sees sluggish ticket sales until Thanksgiving, critical momentum as studios try to catch last year’s ticket sales pace.
“The real question at this point is how high it can go,” says Ray Subers of Box Office Mojo.
Gitesh Pandya of Boxofficeguru.com says that Gravity drew non-sci-fi fans in part with its high-powered stars, particularly Bullock, who has discovered 2013 is her lucky number. Earlier this year, her comedy The Heat opened to $39 million on its way to $159 million. Both Bullock and Clooney scored the highest debuts of their career this weekend.
“Bullock remains a major star, very likable, and very bankable,” Pandya says.
Affleck and Timberlake couldn’t find their way to the bank this weekend as their crime thriller Runner Runner fell well below expectations. The only other newcomer of the weekend — which scored a miserable 8% approval rating among critics, Rottentomatoes.com says — mustered only $7.6 million, good for third place.
The animated comedy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 took second place with $21.5 million, while the drama Prisoners took fourth with $5.7 million.
The Ron Howard racing film Rush rounded out the top five with $4.4 million. Final figures are due Monday.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/10/06/gravity-runner-runner-box-office/2930591/
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October 6, 2013 at 2:40 PM
saw Gravity last night. Very good film. Reminded me of a time, a decade ago. when Castaway came out with the same premise, just that was on an island.
The visuals on this were mesmerizing to say the least. It should get every technical and visual award unless The Hobbit raises the bar.
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October 6, 2013 at 3:43 PM
great to hear!
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October 6, 2013 at 5:04 PM
Gravity is incredible. Completely deserving of its praise and this box office result. Glad for Cuaron.
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October 6, 2013 at 7:00 PM
People clapped at the end where I saw it. This deserves repeat viewing. And I think it will get it from a number of viewers.
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October 6, 2013 at 7:24 PM
Yesterday we had chance to see Gravity morning show (as daughter had play date). The choice was between catching up with sleep and movie. We chose former 🙂
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October 6, 2013 at 8:12 PM
Depressing!
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October 6, 2013 at 8:20 PM
Ah, so you opted for Besharam.
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October 6, 2013 at 9:03 PM
Haha..Weekend sleep trumps anything 🙂
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October 6, 2013 at 11:37 PM
LOL Munna , I saw it in IMAX 3-D today. great visuals , but found it a bit slow . also same thing, aag hee aag but nothing happens to Sandra from lake Zurich, IL LOL
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October 7, 2013 at 5:58 AM
Besharam Has 44 Crore Extended Five Day Weekend
Monday 6th October 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam had that normal Sunday jump with collections remaining low. A 6.75-7 crore nett wouldhave been a just about decent figure for Monday but that is what Besharam collected on Sunday. The daily collections for the first five days are as follows
Wednesday – 19.25 crore
Thursday – 6.50 crore
Friday – 5.50 crore
Saturday – 5.75 crore
Sunday – 7 crore approx
TOTAL – 44 crore
The film has awful 10% occupancies in early shows of Monday morning and it looks like the lifetime toalof the film will be around the 60 crore nett mark which is lower than the expected extended weekend of the film
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October 7, 2013 at 6:04 AM
‘Besharam’ is an epic disappointment!
By Taran Adarsh, October 7, 2013 – 11:17 IST
By now everyone who’s a fan of masala films must’ve realized that BESHARAM has turned out to be an epic disappointment, a colossal waste of fine talent and resources. Ranbir Kapoor [after BARFI! and YEH JAWAANI HAI DEEWANI] + Abhinav Kashyap [after DABANGG] + masala genre [the flavor of the season] + timing its release on a national holiday [2 October; 5-day weekend] + super promotion and release strategy by Reliance should’ve translated into a groundbreaking start at the BO. But BESHARAM has botched up all chances of setting new benchmarks. The film has failed to deliver. Not Ranbir Kapoor…
Thanks to his superstardom, Ranbir drew the audience to the plexes and single screens on the day of release. But, ultimately, the content has to do the talking and BESHARAM is an absolute letdown on that front. The business continued to dwindle with each passing day [escalating slightly on Sunday], clearly indicating that the audience has rejected the film. I dread to think what the figures will be on weekdays, given the fact that its biz over the weekend was shockingly low.
Star value coupled with hype and hoopla can assure an impressive start at the ticket window, but for any film to have long legs, it ought to be backed by strong content. The spectator is in a mood to lap up anything and everything, provided it appeals to him/her. In this case, the negative word of mouth spread faster than wild fire and the cracks were visible on its opening day itself, towards the evening/night shows specifically.
There’s a lesson to be learnt here. A lesson we have learnt many a times in the past, but pay no heed to time and again. Never take the audience for granted. Your past laurels can help you momentarily, but when you’re out on the field, you’re judged by your current ability and skills. Hope we remember this the next time!
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October 8, 2013 at 4:55 PM
Wat a D*ck!
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October 7, 2013 at 6:05 AM
Midweek: ‘Besharam’ fails to deliver!
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October 7, 2013 at 8:17 PM
/* Life and times of an Amitabh Bachchan look-alike*/
Firoz watched his first Amitabh Bachchan movie, Khoon Pasina (1977), in his native town, Budaun, in Uttar Pradesh, at the age of 10. In Budaun, people would collect just to stare at the posters of a Bachchan movie, put up outside theatres, 15 days before its release. Inside, they would hoot every time Bachchan appeared, throw money at the screen, dance on their seats or in the aisles.
http://thebigindianpicture.com/2013/10/the-mirror-cracked/
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October 8, 2013 at 6:58 AM
Besharam Goes To Very Low Levels On Monday
Tuesday 8th October 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Besharam went to very low levels on Monday as it fell more than 50% from its Friday business. The collections on Monday are even lower than a low collecting rejected film like Phata Poster Nikhla Hero. The daily collections for the first six days are as follows
Wednesday – 19.25 crore
Thursday – 6.50 crore
Friday – 5.50 crore
Saturday – 5.75 crore
Sunday – 7 crore
Monday – 2.50 crore
TOTAL – 46.50 crore
The film has 46.50 crore nett in six days and will collect around 53 crore nett over its extended first week if it shows that normal 15% weekdays daily fall. The lifetime total is looking to be 60 crore nett on a best case scenario.
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October 8, 2013 at 10:30 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 6h
#Besharam Wed ₹ 21.56 cr, Thu ₹ 7.13 cr, Fri ₹ 5.68 cr, Sat ₹ 5.94 cr, Sun ₹ 7.38 cr, Mon [revised] ₹ 2.43 cr. Total: ₹ 50.12 cr nett.
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October 8, 2013 at 4:29 PM
Johar interview:
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-10-08/news-interviews/42795243_1_the-lunchbox-talkies-soty
” The image I have had of making the more family, bubble-gum, NRI kind of films, will take me a lot of time to deconstruct, but whether it was directing a film like ‘My Name Is Khan’ or being a part of ‘Bombay Talkies’ or associating with films like ‘The Lunchbox’, we do want to spread our wings. You could argue that why would I want to deconstruct at all, but that is because my sensibility adheres to all kinds of cinema. While I love the films that I have made in the past, I am also an audience that would clap in my seat watching ‘The Lunchbox’. I am a cinema child. I grew up watching parallel films as much as I watched potboilers.”
yeah right!
“Yes, I can’t wait to. Shah Rukh and I have the best director-actor chemistry anyone can have. He knows it, I know it, we know it. Every time we come together, we will make a magical movie. He knows my beats as a filmmaker and I know his, as an actor. The way we understand each other, I don’t think I will be able to have that tuning with any other actor. When I write a film with Shah Rukh in it, I will put in that pause I know he will take. Likewise, he knows the emotion I need. He will look at me and say, ‘You want it more teary, right?’ We have that understanding that comes from the amount of time we have spent together. I have spent 500 days of my life on set and 2000 days personally with him. So how will I not know him better than any other filmmaker? The connection we have can be rekindled any time and it will always be like it always was. We have the synergy that words cannot have. We have a silent understanding that from my end, is a lot more respect, and from his end, is a lot more love. We will work together when I write that script for him that not only warrants his superstardom, but also a film that he has not done before.”
Let’s hope the audience is in on the chemistry next time around unlike KANK and MNIK!
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October 8, 2013 at 4:38 PM
*I have spent 500 days of my life on set and 2000 days personally with him. *
That proves what everyone said all along: the affair is true!!
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October 8, 2013 at 4:38 PM
and I forgot this classic one:
“I have spent 2000 days personally with Shah Rukh: Karan Johar”
The man’s counting..! Let’s pass over this in silence..
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October 8, 2013 at 7:16 PM
“We have a silent understanding that from my end, is a lot more respect, and from his end, is a lot more love.”
Thanx, u left nothing to the imagination.
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October 9, 2013 at 9:41 AM
BTW, To each his own end.
Whatever makes them happy.. just saying.
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October 8, 2013 at 7:41 PM
“He will look at me and say, ‘You want it more teary, right?’ ”
LOL
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October 8, 2013 at 4:53 PM
Certain relationships are beyond a label / classification 🙂
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October 9, 2013 at 11:25 AM
LOL,K Jo!
Whats he trying to say?
Does he want SRK’s wife to ask for an account of the other 1500 days he spent with SRK (2000 – 500 on sets)!
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October 9, 2013 at 9:23 AM
Romantic longing has provided the cinema with some of its most glorious and idealistic movies: Casablanca and Brief Encounter are films with an unabashed, unironic passionate flame at their centre.
Movies such as Gone With the Wind and Doctor Zhivago lent something grand and epic to romantic love, but it was perhaps the much-loved weepie An Affair to Remember that did the most to introduce us to the more domestic idea of the chick flick or the date movie – the romantic film adored by women and tolerated by their husbands and boyfriends.
The romantic comedy was a further refinement, almost invented in its modern sense by Woody Allen and revived by Rob Reiner with his smash-hit, When Harry Met Sally, a success that has spawned a thousand sucrose imitations. Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood For Love is probably the most potent, old-fashioned romance of recent times. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung have that seductively heartbreaking self-sacrifice shown by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman or Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. Love will never go out of fashion.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/oct/07/top-10-romantic-movies
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October 9, 2013 at 3:57 PM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 9h
#Besharam Wed ₹ 21.56 cr, Thu ₹ 7.13 cr, Fri ₹ 5.68 cr, Sat ₹ 5.94 cr, Sun ₹ 7.38 cr, Mon ₹ 2.43 cr, Tue ₹ 1.98 cr. Total: ₹ 52.10 cr nett.
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October 9, 2013 at 4:49 PM
In connection with the IMAX 3D discussion here check this out:
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/differences-between-imax-reald-3d-dolby-digital-3d-003500819.html
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October 9, 2013 at 4:53 PM
the ideal combination would be that of IMAX and RealD 3D but no such thing exists! IMAX is hard to beat but there is something to be said for the depth and ’roundedness’ (for want of a better word) of Real 3D.
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October 9, 2013 at 4:54 PM
So Satyam the one that says D in the lifeexaminer link is a fake one? Only the 1570 one is genuine?
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October 9, 2013 at 5:15 PM
yes.
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October 9, 2013 at 5:08 PM
In Bombay for example Cinepolis, currently screening Gravity, has RealD 3D.
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October 9, 2013 at 5:27 PM
My next viewing will be on a Real D screen but it’s going to be hard after having seen it on the biggest screen in the city. But in general I think this film is more of a 3D movie than it is an IMAX film. Mainly because I think Cuaron seems more interested in opening up and illuminating planes of depth and movement and space that exist outside of the ones the IMAX format has already broken past. Not to mention Curaon did not shoot the film using IMAX cameras, at least as far as I know.
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October 10, 2013 at 2:54 PM
Finally caught up with GRAVITY on IMAX 3D – had to make-do with non-1570 one. Worth every cent of the expensive $17.50 price-tag. A truly, truly wonderful achievement that lingers on even after is brought down to the 1-D of life and its rigmarole. The first 20 minutes till the astronauts come into real view are spell-binding. Terrifically captures how unimportant the human is to the overall cosmic scheme – however evolved one might be technologically. A must, must watch for a fantastic effect on the senses.
Glad to see the actor playing Sharif (Phaldut Sharma) singing MERA JOOTA HAIN JAPANI in space! Equally glad to see SHANKAR JAIKISHAN’s names in the end-credits!!
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October 10, 2013 at 3:24 PM
“Equally glad to see SHANKAR JAIKISHAN’s names in the end-credits!!”
Heard SRK has a different perspective on this..
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October 10, 2013 at 10:08 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 6h
#Besharam Wed 21.56 cr, Thu 7.13 cr, Fri 5.68 cr, Sat 5.94 cr, Sun 7.38 cr, Mon 2.43 cr, Tue 1.98 cr, Wed 1.72 cr. Total: ₹ 53.82 cr
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October 10, 2013 at 10:08 AM
meanwhile BOI just stopped reporting on this after Mon.
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October 10, 2013 at 11:05 AM
As Amitabh Bachchan turns 71 on October 11, his filmi colleagues pick their favourite AB song. Subhash K Jha listens in.
http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-preity-zinta-i-am-intimidated-and-awed-by-amitabh-bachchan/20131010.htm
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October 10, 2013 at 12:25 PM
Quite liked Dhanush’s response here:
” I was in Africa shooting for a film. A local asked me where I was from. When I said India he said he knows 3 things about India…the Taj Mahal, spicy food and Amitabh Bachchan. That is the kind of legend he is.”
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