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171 Responses to “Bullet Raja, the rest of the box office”
From Taran’s figures, it seems that GTPM first week figures will be around 12.5cr. Disastrous really. The audience have indeed shown the finger to KJo, Imran and Kareena. And I sincerely hope they’ve now learnt the lesson and spare us from this kind of shit in the future.
After all the stress and tension posed by Krrish 3 figures, here’s something to cheer Apex up. Found this video of KJo, Imran and Kareena during the promotions of EMAET. This is for Apex mainly but it’s typical KJo, Kareena and Imran here:
Thanx ‘Rahul’ -but I’m not into Kareena (or her legs) lol
As for saif –had mentioned it before..
B4 commenting on krrish3 and his many crores north of 200 crores it has earned, it is more prudent he worries about his bullet raja …
And learn to live without DP (who supported his box office in cock tail, race2, LAK)
As for Krish3– there was NO a Katrina /bipasha /diana panty to help out aamir in dhoom3
Instead there was PC (@ her worst box office phase)
& an IMPREGNATED PC @ that 🙂
Friday 29th November 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The low initials continue with Bullet Raja after the poor starts last week of Singh Saab The Great and Gori Tere Pyaar Mein. Bullet Raja has opened to around 25-30% collections, both multiplexes and single screens are in the same range.
The film has a better release than last week’s two releases with more shows at multiplexes but will have to depend on word of mouth.
The opening in places like Lucknow and Kanpur where it has potential to do better due to local content was also not up to the mark. The film probably has better chances in UP but even there will have to show a quick jump in collections.
at this point it might just be about too many films for the audience in a short period of time. Over the last few months there have been a number of major releases and at some point those multiplex tickets start catching up! The initial on Gori here pyar main was unbelievably low even accounting for everything. And here Bullet Raja which certainly looked like a lot of fun hasn’t go a stronger start. Hopefully it picks up, would be a pity if it lost out because of the release schedule. But looks like the audience isn’t really going to show up for any film in a big way before Dhoom.
I always thought a movie about UP politics will take a lesser opening than a commercial Prabhu Deva movies with nice catchy songs…Even I am more interested in that movie…
BO update: Mixed start for ‘Bullett Raja’
By Taran Adarsh, November 29, 2013 – 13:33 IST
The Saif Ali Khan – Sonakshi Sinha starrer BULLETT RAJA, which is set in North India, was expected to open well in North circuits, especially in centres of U.P. While the opening shows of the film were quite good in certain parts of U.P., the general opening ranged from average to below average in several circuits. The occupancy was lower in Mumbai, but, of late, the opening shows of several films, including last week releases, were below the mark, but picked up during the course of the day, depending on the merits of the film.
BULLETT RAJA was never expected to start with a bang thanks to the lack of popular soundtrack. However, the film has the potential to strike a chord and like most Tigmanshu Dhulia movies, it is expected to gather momentum by late noon/evening shows.
Meanwhile, last week’s releases, GORI TERE PYAAR MEIN! and SINGH SAAB THE GREAT, have been sidelined at major plexes, but GOLIYON KI RAASLEELA RAM-LEELA continues to perform well and is expected to be the second choice of moviegoers this weekend, after BULLETT RAJA.
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram – Leela Grosses 97 Crore In Two Weeks
Friday 29th November 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram – Leela grossed around 97 crore nett in two weeks. The second week collections were around 23 crore nett and film will cross 100 crore nett by the end of its third weekend.
The collections in Mumbai circuit are 42 crore nett in two weeks which is better than films like Ra.One, Barfi and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. Eventually the filmcould cross the business of films like Bodyguard and Dabangg which did 46 crore nett in Mumbai.
The film has also done very well overseas and will do a Worldwide distributor share of around 75 crore with India giving 55 crore and Overseas 20 crore.
This is absolutely fantastic: three films in the same year, Chennai Express, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and now Ram Leela, all starring Deepika, cross 100 crores; what is more commendable is that she had a very significant role to play in the success of each of these films, unlike many of the 100 crore hits of a Kareena or a Katrina.
True. Actually make it 4 films in a row since there was Race 2 as well in the beginning of the year. And while it did not do 100 crores, there was Cocktail as well where she was pretty much the best thing about the film
And her fan following has grown by leaps and bounds. Most of my male friends checked out Ram Leela only for her (Katrina still remains their favourite, but Deepika is slowly catching up). And especially among the younger females, she is the clear favourite.
And she has Kochadaiiyaan and Happy New Year lined up for next year- both of them should do 100 cr pretty easily. That would mean 7 straight solid hits- stunning stuff
absolutely. she’s got equal or more credit in many of these films. But there’s more, she also had Race 2 which touched a 100. CE did 200, YJHD was a 185 grosser, prior to all this she had Coctail. So she’s been on an incredible roll. But certainly these last three films (Ram Leela, CE, YJHD) have been stupendous for her. On the other hand she’s also deconstructed some of her male peers. Specially Ranbir who had an enormous tank in Besharam right after. Katrina works in her films like a glorified item girl which is to say people show up for her but only for certain kinds of reasons. Either way Deepika has stolen up on her in a big way though it must be said that Deepika still doesn’t have Katrina’s extraordinary (and to my mind mystifying) appeal across many cross-sections of the audience in terms of having that very direct connection.
While we are at it, let’s spare a thought for Rajamouli- the guy has made 9 films and ALL of them superhits (folks like Jr. NTR, Ram Charan Teja and Prabhas have had their biggest success with him)- especially Eega and Magadheera were massive grossers. I am pretty sure that Taran and Nahata (and the rest of Bollywood) must be blissfully unaware of this guy’s existence while they sing hosannas in praises of Sajid Khan and Rohit Shetty’s B.O. track record. I might be missing something, but I think his streak is second only to Manmohan Desai’s.
yes Rajamouli has had an incredible run. Shankar is the other guy who has that kind of record. There was Boys in between but even that was profitable. The Tamil media was merciless on the film. Otherwise he has an incredible string of successes. Having said that he’s often had top stars in his films. The Rajamouli track record is even more remarkable.
On Desai leaving aside the streak there is one achievement he has which I am pretty confident is unequaled in any cinema. He was doing AAA, Dharam Veer, Chacha Bhatija simultaneously, at one point there was some overlap with Parvarish as well. Each film had a massive star cast, each film went on to become minimally a super hit, AAA was of course the most massive one. Just the villains in all of these films could populate a multistarrer on their own and remarkably he justified each character. Some of our contemporary filmmakers could learn something from this. But really this is a feat. even otherwise for about roughly 20 years, maybe more, he didn’t have any failure as such.
in any case – DP is miles ahead of KK and even VB – kareena is slowly but surely rushing towards the exit-route (she is no more bankable – and i don’t know when she was a bankable solo-heroine!! it was all hype so far) – now DP’s super-success exposes those hype-driven-female stars…
This thing has spread like wildfire and out in the open. People openly talking 60-70 cr tweak here.
The initial hype also works in generating curiosity and the buzz and tilts the scales for swing moviegoers and the undecided which in turn helps the business overall.
Paap se dharti phati, adharm se aasmaan, atyachaar se kaanpi insaaniyat, raj kar rahe haivaan … jinki hogi taqat apoorv, jinka hoga nishana abhed, joh karenge inka sarvanaash … woh kehlayenge Tridev!
for the uninitiated here is copy and paste translation
The earth is torn by sin, the heavens are cleaved by wrong, atrocities leave humanity trembling, the satans are ruling … those who will have infinite strength, those who will target the evil unflinchingly, those who will destroy the wrong-doers … they will
– Daboo Ratnani/DNA
I looked up Scorpios on the net and found that they are the cars Rohit Shetty gleefully sends flying into the air. On further research I arrived at Scorpio the sun sign. I found that being a Scorpio implies the following list of qualities: determination, fearlessness, sensuality, poise, loyalty, ambition, intuitiveness, a jealous and controlling nature, secretiveness, resentfulness, ruthlessness and a tendency towards mystery!
Much as I would like to pontificate on all these wonderful (or not so wonderful) traits, I (as a true blooded Scorpio) am supposed to possess, I think ‘mystery’ is the one that lends itself most to fifteen hundred words on a good November morning.
As a kid, I was an observer of people. I remember observing that a legendary uncle of mine would assume a morose, pondering posture now and then and stare deeply into the universe as if it held a great secret only he could decipher. “Interesting,” I thought, “it gives him an air of mystery, I wouldn’t mind being mysterious too” so I began to stare deeply into space and pretend I was morose now and then as well.
It worked wonders!
The grown ups began thinking that I was a deeply philosophical little boy. This gained me some positive attention while I was actually just contemplating sibling strategy (like how to overhear the girlie talk my sister shared with her friends in her room).
I learnt two important life lessons very early
1. Mystery is a clever psychological device; an excellent camouflage for all sorts of idiosyncrasies. It is most useful if wanting to fend off annoying conversation. Better still, if attempting to acquire an enigmatic aura or generally throwing your weight around.
2. If life were revelatory and bare, it would be deathly boring. So a little mystery is essential to a compelling life.
Thereon I decided that device or not, looking at life in terms of mysteries was a far better approach to it than taking it merely for what it appeared to be saying to me on the surface. I began to search for stories in everything and in doing so I began also, to understand the magical world of story telling that I later came to inhabit professionally.
Mystery has a knack of building upon itself. It begins with wonder and intrigue. The human mind is impatient with intrigue. It’s need to resolve, understand and simplify arises.
Hypotheses are developed, and theories thought up in an attempt to explain the inexplicable. But explanations have a curious twist. Invariably they read the myths of life at particular levels leaving other depths unresolved. This allows for new stories to come forth and lend themselves to exploration. Mysteries abound where we most seek answers and answers lead to new questions in a cyclical process. You figure one thing out and another pops up on top of it. Let me explain this revelation with a few of the mysteries that confound my intellect.
Hotel Californication
Like for example: Who designs the hyper space age hydraulic weapons masquerading as benign shower jets in glitzy hotel loos? The bathroom environs are enticing. Veined marbles, great smelling lotions in miniscule bottles, all lead the unsuspecting fellow craving a bath into their evil fold. As he strips and gingerly enters the shower cubicle he is confronted by a shower system that looks like, Mangal Yaan (the satellite being shot into Mars’ orbit, by India). All the knobs, handles, function keys, delete and escape command buttons, confound the simple man looking for a simple bath. He can’t figure out, which one is to be pulled, pushed, turned or pressed. He approaches the most friendly looking switch with caution and looks up in anticipation (because that’s where a shower normally begins its downward journey). Instead a murderous assault of water missiles is unleashed onto him from deviously placed nozzles that aim at odd places all over his body.
Before he knows it he is playing a paint-less version of Paintball with sneaky little water jets firing at him from all sides. If he is of a more agile disposition (like me) then he ends up doing the hitherto unknown Kathakali Rain dance.
There is an old quote stating something to the effect that… Marriage is like getting the mix of hot and cold water right in the shower. These space age showers might just give matrimony a whole new meaning!
And while we’re on mysteries I want to know why my whole body shouldn’t be immersed in the bathtub for a nice hot soak. If I push my chest inside, why do my knees stick out and vice versa. Is that too much to wonder? Should I shut up before Apple comes out with a user friendly version.
“Slide to immerse knees at the same time as chest.”
Having Kathakali danced his way through his shower, our valiant hotel guest may now turn his attention to the mystery of those infernal panels they affix on the bedside with little symbols indicating which button controls what light. One minute it’s Diwali, the next a throbbing nightclub, the third plunges him into abject darkness and the curtains will have suddenly splayed so that the entire universe might envelope him in its mysteriously morose stare.
I will not even venture into describing the furry shoeshine contraption they have lying in wait innocently beside the cupboard. It reminds me of a little grey monster from Monsters Inc. waiting to gobble you up feet first. All that will be left of the guest, is a shiny burp. Shudder.
And are you all with me on this one. The tightness with which they tuck the duvet into the grooves on the side of hotel beds. Snuggling into them is like getting into a pair of jeans two sizes too small. If you haven’t asphyxiated by morning, chances are you will end up having a massive case of ‘Toelio’, bent toes!
It’s a mystery why they can’t allow you to get into bed without warring with the Duvet Bin Laden.This is one reason you will never find me asking the house keeping in a hotel, to help me knot a tie around my neck!
Textesterone
Textually speaking, another modern mystery confronts us all today.
The ‘short hand’ typing for short messaging service and social media. Internet language or Netlingo as it is lovingly addressed.
It’s the language of the 21st century, they say. For 20 centuries, we barbaric humans have developed languages that will civilise us. Dictionaries that will enlighten us. Shakespeare’s sonnets that will make us fall in love (if we understood them, that is).
So I would like to know who had the brilliant idea that we need to condense and distort them into Netlingo? I’m not arguing about languages like Basic and Cobol that enhance the usage of machines in our lives and modernise us? I’m talking about the stuff that regresses us to our barbaric, grunting days.
So now we communicate in abbreviations. Short form. Text speak. Txt spk. They claim it facilitates communication.
I heard Martha Stewart analyse the current human posture in her programme, something like this.
Bent over a device, with no way of hearing any other sound except the skrillix music in our ears.
What is to become of us? Instead of speaking to each other, we will write using a nonsensical array of letters. Texting will become our only form of communication and if we do speak, will we speak as we read?
But what we will read, will be gibberish. BYBO…CYA..OMG…JSU…LOL…ROFL. When you read it, it will sound surprisingly like grunting and heaving sounds. The ones we made when we were apes. Will our highly developed senses then embark upon the discovery of language once again? But we already have more than the languages we need!!!
Doesn’t this make everyone wonder? Everyone except the rappers, I guess. They are ok with whatever abbreviation you use as long as you prefix or suffix it with F@#*.
But what’s even more mysterious to me is that people are now ‘Sexting’. Which means sending naked pictures on phones and the net and making out on the virtual plane instead of plain old Kashmiri rugs. Cyber6 it’s called. Cyber Sex to the uninitiated.
Does anybody understand the enormity of this?? Soon we’ll all be cyber6ing and we’ll forget how to procreate. We are slowly destroying mankind…one message at a time. Don Altman said, “The digital frontier is a nurturing place where verbs and nouns are not only born, but in fact bear off-springs.”
Yeah that’s very cool, but picture a world overrun with little verbs and nouns in pretty prams instead of the Farex babies we have sort of become so accustomed to.
A wonderful author who goes by the name of Josh Gondelman, has done an exercise on the net, of converting famous movie quotes into text speak. Some of the results will bear testimony to my outcry of disbelief at what is happening to us:
GONE WITH THE WIND
“Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn.”
Becomes….
Seriously my dear, WTF!!
FIGHT CLUB
First rule: “You do not talk about Fight Club”
Becomes…
1st rule: STFU
JERRY MCGUIRE
“You had me at hello”
Becomes..
You had me @ ’sup
I rest my case. There can’t be no great debate about it. Or should that be…no gr8 db8 abt tis.
Which brings me to the abiding mystery of why human beings need to complicate the simplest things in their endless endeavour to uncomplicate their own lives.
This also works in reverse: people get confounded by the camouflage of mysteriousness in a way that even the most mundane things become mystifying to them given the right context. Being a so-called superstar you end up surrounded by people who contextualise the silliest things into justifications for their own ideas of you.
If anyone else were to declare they never used soap to bathe with, it would create an insufferable stink, as a superstar, it just adds to the repertoire of legends being woven around you. “And he doesn’t even use soap” they’ll whisper in a revelatory tone (I don’t by the way, but I’ve been told I smell fantastic, and there is no mystery here, I just use a lot of cologne.)
I’ve seen people use mystery to make themselves look truly superior and far more interesting than they actually are. It works like a charm. Especially when they fall for it themselves!
There are those who begin to refer to themselves in the third person “He cannot wear these clothes in public” they’ll say, as you look around wondering which exhibitionist flasher exactly they’re referring to. Or then they’ll allude to their own body parts as if they belonged to a mysterious collective of body parts, “The arms were aching after like two hours of exercise bro.”
There’s another one they fancy, the one in which they mysteriously dissolve their own agency into public will, “The people want me to do this” they’ll proclaim expecting to be taken seriously. What people?! I wonder. I also wonder that if they took their head out their own caboose long enough, will they realise there is no one telling them to do anything.
It’s a mystery to me why it’s never enough to be human or ordinary or just plain strange. Why do we have to cloak ourselves in the farce of extraordinariness just because we (mystically?) succeeded where others failed before us.
But then everything is a mystery to me and I like it that way. That’s the way I have been brought up. It’s my uncle’s fault. All of it
Like which armrest of my seat in a theater belongs to me?
Ownership is a mystery.
Why must we pluck flowers instead of admiring their beauty?
Why set luminous gems into jewels?
Why trap birds in cages instead of watching them soar into the sky?
Why show off river fish in your tacky little aquarium when they could be swimming currents downstream?
Why try to change people we love and then fall out of love with them because they changed?
I believe that we spend too much of our lives trying to know and find explanations for things. Why do we have trouble accepting the unknown in our world? It might be nice to let things be sometimes. Relationships. Love. Nature. People.
Whether we know something or not, it actually does not make a difference in the larger scheme of things because however deep our knowledge might be, it is still immensely limited.
Someone has said, “Knowing, is often just a cover up. Ideas, concepts, theories or mere facts are delusion or disguises we use to hide our fear of the inexplicable. When something is accepted in its entireity as a mystery, it actually means we know it deeper and more intuitively. Somewhere within our souls we are in a mode of ‘the accepting form of knowledge’. It encompasses our being as a whole.”
It’s like magic. If you understand the way it is done, it gets reduced to a trick. Its important to let the magic be magical to enjoy it to its fullest.
Letting mystery be, requires courage and the security to live it without being afraid of the unknown.
Acceptance of mystery leads to faith in life itself without fear. Mystery allows us to have Faith and ‘feel’ our way through life instead of deconstructing it.
Like the Faith most of us have in God.
Ken Kesey puts this most aptly: “I am for mystery, not interpretive answers. The answer is never the answer. What’s really interesting is the mystery. If you seek mystery instead of the answer, you will always be seeking. I have never seen nobody really find the answer, but they think they have.
So they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.”
Or as Arthur Stanley explains it, “We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two. We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about ‘and’.”
Though I am a Scorpio, I still believe that it is better to go through this life without finding an answer. Because the answer as Douglas Adams told us, could possibly be 42. And if 42 is the answer, wouldn’t that leave us a tad disappointed, to say the least.
Seemabadha
I’ve not seen too many Satyajit Ray films yet (so far only Nayak, Abhijaan, Charulata, Shatranj Ke Khiladi), so I’m trying to get through a few more. I really enjoyed this one – Sharmila Tagore (who looks incredibly beautiful here) plays a young lady who goes to visit her sister and brother-in-law in the city. He works for a company and is slowly climbing the ladder. She looks up to him a lot, and when he makes a rather immoral decision, to further his career, it changes their relationship. Sharmila said she plays the role of ‘Conscience’ in this film – oh, and her dimples!!!
Bewaqoof
Loved this Kishore Kumare comedy. Mala Sinha was also excellent in one if her non-weepy roles. Pran keeps them company in one of the most zaniest films I’ve seen in ages. Def worth watching if u feel like a laugh.
Daal Mein Kaala
Yet more mistaken identities as unemployed Kishore Kumar is accidentally thought to be a professor. Nimmi is pleasant to watch here (unusually?). Shammi is utterly crazy. And Kishore is brilliant as always.
Silver Linings Playbook
Good film – in particular I liked the way it explores the relationship between psychiatric patients, and also the toll it can take on the family. The performances were all splendid.
Humkadam
Really liked this small-budget family/marital drama, with Raakhee and Parikshit Sahni. They play a middle-class couple, who feel the pinch when the in-laws movei n, and so he convinces her to get a job but then struggles to cope with her success. I’d recommend it (it’s on youtube).
Gravity
Visually spectacular but oh so so boring. After 30 minutes the novelty had worn off and I spent the next hour on whatsapp.
China Town
This Shammi Kapoor double-roler seems the inspiration for Don, and is actually an enjoyable ride, with Helen and Shakila joining the fun. Has Rafi’s famous Baar Baar Dekho.
Dhai Akshar Prem Ke
Can’t believe I actually watched this! Randomly came across it on youtube…it’s a dreadful film but kinda inexplicably watchable. Starring Abhishek and Aishwariya in their first film together, it’s hard to pick who’s acting is worse (I liked them in all the subsequent films they did together) – let’s say they’re both equally terrible here. The film copies DDLJ in so many ways, but Aish lacks Kajol’s spontaneity and Abhishek lacks SRK’s charisma (he improved massively by KNK) . Anupam Kher is the best from the huge supporting cast (Sushma Seth, Shakti Kapoor, Tanvi Azmi, Dilip Tahil and Amrish Puri, who plays exactly the same character as in DDLJ).
Filth
Ha, I saw this with a Canadian, who couldn’t understand most of the Scottish phrases. It starts of as a messy comedy, but has a dark interior, with a core of mental ilness. Not sure how I rate it.
Meena Kumari
For so many years I had wanted to get hold of this biography, written by Vinod Mehta months after her death in 1972. However it has been out of print so I was ecstatic when it was republished this year. I ordered my copy from Amazon, and at the same time my uncle also ordered me a copy as a surprise, so now I’ve got two! Anyways, it was an interesting read, even if I found the author’s style a bit annoying at times. The frustrating thing is that at so many points in the book it is hard to tell what is actually true, but then that all makes Meena Kumari even more fascinating. Towards the end, when Mehta is documentating Meena’s final days in hospital it is quite hard to read – a tragic end to an incredibly sad life.
Pakeezah
Had to revisit this after reading the book :=)
Phukrey
This never really rises above being mildly watchable. About a group of losers who wanna make money so they can get into college and bang some girls.
Aashiq
One of the very few Hrishikesh Mukherjee film I hadn’t seen yet. Starring Raj Kapoor, Padmini and Nanda. Not really a fan of any of them. The highlight are the awesome songs by Shankar Jaikishen, sung by Lata and Mukesh – ‘O Shama Mujhe Phoonk De’, ‘Tum Jo Hamaare Meet Na Hote’, ‘Mahtaab Tera Chehra’. The film itself is decent, not extraordinary. It has shades of Silsila, but here the relationship begins after marriage, and also touches on the idea of soulmates, in this case connected by music.
Garam Masala
Ha, I dunno how I ended up watching this dumb comedy with Akshay/John.
Dekh Kabira Roya
Ah Madan Mohan! This crazy comedy is jam-packed with incredible melodies including Kaun Aaya Mere Man Je Dwaare (Manna De), Humse Aaya Na Gayaa Tumse Bulaaya Na Gaya (Talat), Tu Pyar Kare Ya Thukraaye and Meri Veena Tum Bin Roye (Lata) and Hum Panchi Mastaane (Lata/Geeta). The plot is about three guys, a painter, a singer and a writer. Each has a female admirer who is mixed up about his profession. And there’s lots of comedy that cones out of the mistaken identities. Fun film.
Phata Poster Nikla Hero
I switched this on because I vaguely remember Rangan being positive about it. But I lost patience within 10 mins and switched it off.
Boyfriend
Shammi Kapoor plays the long-lost-son-of-a-rich-family-who-becomes-a-crook-with-a-golden-heart in this rather dull film. Some nice songs though and a beautiful as always Madhubala.
Shikar
Quite a fun suspense film with Dharmendra, Asha Parekh, Sanjeev Kumar (looking really young!), Rehman and Helen in one of her most attractive, effervescent roles. Some awesome songs too, including Asha’s Parde Mein Rehne Do. And Johnny Walker is fun here too.
Anjuman
Tried really hard to watch this Shabana Azmi starrer of Muzzafar Ali, but I just got so bored. Gave up after half hour. She’s the eldest of many siblings, raised by a single mother, without much money. She writes poetry.
Imaan
Sanjeev Kumar (double role) and Leena star is this pretty crap movie about the difficulty of leading an honest life in this bad world 😉 Johnny Walker is here too!
As always these lists continue to be incredibly eclectic and interesting to read! I still have to create posts here. Oddly I am always in between stuff when I come across them..!
Satyam: Don’t you have a premika/ardhaangini/saheli who forces you to accompany her to the theatres to watch Hindi films?! 🙂 . Anyhow, hope you will check out Bullet Raja ASAP- I saw it today and it was super fun (nothing truly special, but far better than anything in the genre since Ghajini). Very interested in knowing your (and GF’s and Q’s) views on it.
And it baffles me that this got a lower opening than some of the other trash in the genre considering that this was streets ahead of Ready and all the likes (I am not including DMD and OUATIM since they were not straight-Masala) including Rowdy Rathore (which I found enjoyable)- now this might be because unlike the other films it does not have ANY low-brow/crass element (except a rather insipid item number) or because the music is horrendous. Or probably Saif (who is in superb form here. I will watching it for the second time in the theatre just for him) just can’t open a film by himself these days (I am pretty sure Cocktail wouldn’t have done more than 40 crores without Deepika)
BB was pretty enjoyable. However this film could have been way better than it was on the socio-political codes it offers. Then again it would have required Shetty to suddenly metamorphose into Hirani! But yeah it’s one of his best films (low bar though that is!). Think the maa sequence here along with the DDLJ spoof at the beginning of CE is the best stuff Shetty’s ever done and it’s a pity he doesn’t do more of this in his films. In many ways his single best film is the rather restrained (if stagey) All the Best. He knows how to keep the show going but almost everywhere goes for the lowest hanging fruit.
I think this is probably the first Rohit Shetty film I’ve watched – so my very low opinion of his movies is really just based on trailers/reviews. Maybe I’ll check out ATB…but if I end up a Rohit Shetty fan I’m gonna sue you (and your blog) 😉
You should definitely watch ATB. Even CE is passable. Actually it’s really a lot of fun in the first 20 min or more but it goes downhill after this. But still watchable. I’ve never seen the Golmaal films. The segments I saw seemed pretty unbearable but someone told me Gomaal 3 was quite ok. On the suing bit… LOL!
Saturdday 30th November 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bullet Raja could not make much impact on day one as it grossed around 6.50 crore nett. The film had fair collections in UP and Rajasthan but could not do much elsewhere. Mumbai circuit was dull with collections just a little higher than Delhi/UP when normally it should be 50% higher.
The film did not perform at multiplexes as the collections were not upto the mark for its release, single screens were also below par apart from some cities in UP and Rajasthan.
The film will find it tough going over the weekend and with normal trending weekend trending it may just go a little over 20 crore nett. To have a respectable weekend figure the film needs good growth on Saturday and Sunday.
Just 6.5? This is disastrous. It was big film much bigger than other disaster GTPM , in news for so long with all big names in it.
I expected 8-9 cr at least and 60 cr total at worst. It might wrap around 35 cr.
again I think there’s an audience fatigue at the moment. Part of it is probably just the very real problem of having so many films in a row. Even for regular multiplex goers it is a crunch to watch so many over a period of a few months. It’s not like the US where you could really go on a binge and for the most part it wouldn’t be a very big deal. As I said earlier I suspect they’ll just wait it out till Dhoom. This is the only thing that explains the poor initials. Even GTPM had an abysmally low number which even accounting for everything is unexpected and to my mind is only explained by what I’ve just said. The only other significant release between now and Dhoom is R…Rajkumar. Will be interesting to see what this gets. I still wouldn’t expect much of an initial here but if it opens better than Bullet Raja (which by the way looks like a lot of fun and it would be a pity if this lost out only because of bad scheduling) it might have a chance to be a moderate success because Pradbhudevaa does tap into the audience. The larger point still is Bollywood’s craziness in planning this stuff. You can’t keep releasing big or significant films over a period of a few months and expect people to keep showing up. At least at those multiplex rates. And it’s a pity because at least from the trailers Bullet Raja deserved a better start. The same might be true of R..Rajkumar.
The heavy load between Diwali and xmas is always been an issue. Yesterday Ram Leela was fully booked and every other film had plenty of seats! People get into picking and choosing mode and sometimes the odd film expected to do well doesn’t! Feb-May – they have to release some more films.
I will rephrase it and say “Prabhudeva serves people the crassy, absolutely low brow Masala which Hindi film audiences want and deserve”. That he is better in serving this shit than folks like Sajid Khan (Himmatwala) and the likes is not saying much. It irritates me no end that when someone like Dhulia decides to give these ‘masses’ something more sensible in the genre, they just reject it. Poor Dhulia’s fault was that he completely discarded the crass stuff, had a proper plot and narrative, did away with the terrible South-styled action (Not looking down upon this kind of action. They look fine in Tamil/Telugu films because there is a ‘history’ to the overstylized stunts, but they look completely out of place in a Hindi film unless they are contextualised to the scene like in Ghajini) and replaced it with properly choreographed action (Just the 2 sequences involving Vidyut Jamwal are better anything I have seen of late) and decides to embellish the narrative with memorable supporting parts. And his biggest sin was that his film rests on a proper ‘cathartic element’. Sadly I have a feeling that Dhulia will never make a Masala film again after seeing the fate of this film.
“The heavy load between Diwali and xmas is always been an issue.”
“again I think there’s an audience fatigue at the moment”
“Just 6.5? This is disastrous. ”
ROFL I mean these are hilarious
Enjoying these comments —
Btw what happened to the limitless market which could be extrapolated (as in Hollywood) beyond 200,250, 350, 500 crores net.
Guess the audiences suddenly became miserly and spent too much this Diwali !!! Or guess they have to save for the hiked prices for d3 designed to beat the 240 crores k3 target? Lol
As for bullett raja –it looks like a v good film from promos
Have always liked saif but this one isn’t showing v nearby..
As for commenting on k3 200 crores plus earning and questioning it, guess saif will learn a lesson…
Play amongst your likes, win there and then talk about the bigger boys …
Ps: may check out bullett raja if find it playing somewhere tho doubt it…
I think that Prabhudevaa’s abilities might be debated one way or the other but to call him a better version of Sajid Khan is an insult. Yes it’s often lowbrow but fun. I liked Rowdy Rathore a lot.
As much I enjoyed Rowdy Rathore (I saw this in the theatre), I don’t believe for a second that this was quality entertainment (Had OUATIM released after Singham when Devgn was hot, it would have easily outgrossed Rowdy. It is a film which has been far more liked than RR). And what has Prabhudeva done apart of any worth apart from RR- All he does is do shot-by-shot remakes of Telugu starrers Wanted was mildly enjoyable but a much inferior version of Pokkiri. The lesser said the better about his Ramaiya Vastavaiya (The Trisha-Siddharth original was itself a poor copy of Maine Pyar Kiya). And while I haven’t seen it, I can assume how his Lage Raho Munna Bhai remake with Chiranjeevi would have been. All this guy has done in his life is remakes. And even when it comes to Masala, in South itself I will take Gunasekhar (who is not exactly lowbrow but you get my point- Pokkiri), Dharani (Dhool), Hari (Saamy), Linguswamy (Run, Sandhakozhi), Balaji Sakthivel (Samurai), K. V. Anand (Ayan), Ravikumar (Aadhavan, Padayappa. Have not seen most of his films though), Susi Ganeshan (Kanthaswamy) to name a few (and let’s not even go to Shankar, Murugadoss and Rajamouli etc). his only film of some worth has been Rowdy Rathore (which itself was a remake. A better remake in this case, but that’s not saying much when the original has Ravi Teja).
And Sajid Khan comparison was probably misplaced, but I will call him a better version of Rohit Shetty. Actually wait, Shetty’s All The Best was better than every Prabhu Deva film. So there…
I think multiple release is just an excuse. Didn’t they know this release schedule? There is no reason for such low business when small films like ABCD, Fukrey make respectable big total of around 40 cr. Even non star cast films like Aashiqui 2 , Ranjhnaa, Grand Masti make huge business during congensted release time.
Not going far, just In last 2 years, we saw Rockstar, Dirty Picture, Khiladi 786, Talaash making respectable totals. All of these movies were released between Diwali and christmas period. Business has only increased year each year.
No one gives credit to those who release during congested release time. Cocktail was released just one week after bol bachchan and many hollywood releases including TDKR were released in same week.
In any case, 15 cr of GTPM and expected 35 cr of BR just restates Saifeena have been lucky recently. No deepika to save saif, no khan to save save kareena. AS for one expression Imran, he is not even a star imo. Not much questions raise on imran though he is probably worst actor with Godfather. He already got more than deserve. He was worst thing about every flop film of his inclusind recent OUTIMD too and just survived in his most successful ones.
True. The fact is Saif can’t open a film on his own (even when he is top form as a star like he is in Bullet Raja). I think the tanking of Agent Vinod ended up damaging his B.O. position a lot. The other fact is that Dhulia’s film has absolutely terrible music which didn’t really help in the publicity. And not having over-the-top elements hardly helped matters
.
Agent vinod and bullet raja looked winner before promos were released. Saif had two good opportunities to make good films but he rather went to make them big films. Both directors are strong with their thriller/drama genres. He interfered in their work by adding comic elements and glorification of his star status.
Everyone is not Aamir khan who knows when to give inputs and when he should stop.
I agree somewhat on Agent Vinod, but disagree completely on Bullet Raja. Yes it’s a Masala film, but is alsi an out-and-out Tigmanshu Dhulia film (i.e. it is not Singham, Ready or Himmatwala). Dhulia made a very good film here. Just that for this genre you need an actor who can give you a big opening. The other thing is that apart from Salman no one can keep give these openings consistently- we just saw happened to Bullet Raja. Akshay, a top star, failed miserably with Boss as well as K786 (this after having a solid success in the genre with RR). Himmatwala with Devgn tanked (after he was on a very good run with Singham, BB and SoS behind him). The point is that these ‘nothing masala-films’ by the likes of Shetty and Sajid Khan have harmed the genre badly. These bad masala films have fatigued the audience and not stuff like poor release schedule. In turn some of the truly good stuff in the genre like Bullet Raja suffers as well as part of collateral damage
You are comparing it with BOSS, himmatwala and other masala films. This is not masala and that s my point. Tigmanshu has not made any masala film yet. They were hardcore drama/thriller. I haven’t seen film yet, but as per reviews they have mixed dabangg in Saib biwi aur gangster. Promos suggest forced comic element which falls flat. Unnecessary Love angle with sonakshi adds nothing to story.
Many reviews also say saif’s character has been gloried like Chulbul pandey rather than well sketched. They tried to achieve so much in one film. Opening was never an issue, i expected good film which trend well. But, public is also confused with confuse film now, look at the reactions of people ob BMS FDFS. http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/more/videos/view/showing/first-day-first-show/sort/What%27s%20New/id/2253158
Man, this has Masala written all over it. Right from involving the central trope of the ‘Masala buddies’ to the countless references to Sholay. this is as Masala as its gets.
SPOILER-
The central twist involves Jimmy being killed right before interval and Saif plotting the revenge is right out of a masala film
You are right that it has thriller elements. But who said Masala films didn’t have thriller elements- Don is the best example here of a Masala-thriller.
You haven’t read it right. I knew it is masala. But , they haven’t stuffed thriller in masala, they tried to create masala film out of a thriller which is only genre tigmanshu has worked very successfully on.
‘The heavy load between Diwali and xmas is always been an issue.’ Then why producers release film during such period. And a good film has always found his audience in this period too inspite of multiple release. Remember Vivah, Dirty Picture, Talaash(In multiplexes, it was never supposed to work in plexes), Khiladi 786 (Did well in Single screens, plex audience already rejected it due to atrocious promos).
Even SSTG had found audience in single screens as stated by BOI while sunny is no star these days. 12.5 cr total and 35 cr total are just ridiculous for such big films. These are half day and one day total for big films. Ramleela opened 15 cr+ just after krrish3.
It is more of failure of films and rejection of stars to some extent.
“The only other significant release between now and Dhoom is R…Rajkumar” – here is a litmus test for PrabhuDeva – shahit kapoor has become shaflop kapoor off-late and whatever he touches flops at the b.o. – so lets c who wins here?
i am going out on the limb and predicting a nice healthy opening day/weekend/week and total for r…raj kumar. ‘gandi baat’ is a rage and the promos are good.
itll be a 12cr opening day and 60-65cr opening week would be good. think itll end up around 105-110cr. Shahid Kapoor gets his first 100cr film with prabhudeva!
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela Third Friday Business
Saturday 30th November 2013 15.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela collected 1.25 crore nett on its third Friday which takes the total to around 98.25 crore nett. The film will hit the 100 crore nett today (Saturday). It will have reached the mark in seventeen days.
The weekend should go to a little over 5 crore nett and the film is sure to cross the 105 crore nett mark.
It remains to be seen if the film becomes the fourth or fifth biggest grosser of of the year. At the moment Bhaag Milkha Bhaag at 109 crore nett is in fourth place.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 29 Nov
2013 has been a remarkable year for Deepika Padukone. Four films in ₹ 100 cr Club – #Race2, #YJHD, #ChennaiExpress and now #RamLeela.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 29 Nov
Four back to back ₹ 100 cr films in a single year by Deepika Padukone – it’s the FIRST for any actress here. A milestone indeed!
KRRISH3 BOX OFFICE COLLECTIONS TOP 500 CRORES; DISMANTLES KHAN TRIUMVIRATE’S REPUTATION
FE Online | New Delhi | Updated: Nov 29
Krrish 3 has ensured the future looks dim for the Khan’s box office collections.
SUMMARY
Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish 3 taunts Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan with box office collections that are simply massive.
Box office collections: Krrish 3 highest grosser of all time, prediction Rs 500 cr, SRK’s Chennai Express derailled
Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish 3, after taking Bollywood by storm, with the content provided, performances and most of all with box office collections, has thrown down the gauntlet to the Khan brigade which had been coasting on the back of some superlative successes like Salman Khan’s Dabangg series and of course Shah Rukh Khan’s Chennai Express and Aamir Khan with 3 Idiots or more recently with Talaash.
While the Khan brigade has already shot its arrows in the recent past, it is up to Aamir Khan to bring the long-standing equilibrium back in Bollywood with Dhoom 3, expected in 2013, or Peekay which is set to hit screens in 2014.
However, Krrish 3 has already set the bar way too high with box office collections of Rs 242 crore, having bagged a whopping Rs 25.50 cr on opening day and followed it up with Rs 72.8 cr in opening weekend and Rs 166.52 cr at end of week one to make a final count of Rs 242.53 crore. Since the movie is still running in many theatres it expects to add to the lifetime collections tally.
But more than that is the widespread belief among the cognoscenti that Krrish 3 has been able to notch up box office collections plus other revenues of over Rs 500 cr! The figure was floated by Rakesh Roshan in a newspaper article that was contested by critics, but the filmmaker is standing by his figures.
Now, to beat that, the Khan brigade will need, not just an extraordinary strategy, but also content that is markedly different than what they have been offering. From the expected, Krrish 3 has offered content and strategies that are outstandingly different and these have paid off.
The Khan’s could copy that, but that is not going to get that a mammoth super-hit to beat the Roshan family. After all, they have created memorably macabre and sexy characters for Vivek Oberoi, Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut and of course Naseerudin Shah. That requires a lot of hard work, enterprise, and above all courage to take the attention away from the super-hero Hrithik himself.
Can the Khan’s do it?
audience fatigue is the right word. But if had deepika instead of Sonakshi or Kareena, the fatigue would not have been there.
Bollywood needs to clone deepika to survive. audience will swallow anything with deepika starring in it.
“audience will swallow anything with deepika starring in it.”– haha sanju–& it’s the other way around as well
that’s a good ‘deep’ comment–keep it up 🙂
So might be checking a film today
Options gravity 3D (that can be checked later as well)–bulletin raja not playing nearby
but theres another screening–Jeune et jolie…(young and beautiful!)
Guess I may want to support such ‘small indie films’ first..Whatsay sat yam…hav u seen it -kwik…thanx
LOL. It might fail , Saree ke fall and gandi baat caters to god know which audience. We have seen BOSS and himmatwalla fail. BOSS looked even good with promos and songs with decent reviews. This genre is goner, shahid is too late. Stubble could alienate his female audience mostly.
Only Dhoom3 will score now with little fireworks win Catching fire and Hobbit. Hopefully 3 small movies releasing on 13th Dec will provide some comic relief meanwhile.
“There are many ways to make masala movies. You can serve them straight up, the way Prabhu Dheva does. Or you can distance yourself and refract the whole thing through a po-mo prism, the way Anurag Kashyap did in his Gangs of Wasseypur diptych. But in Bullett Raja, Tigmanshu Dhulia is after something else altogether. He wants to make a “realistic” masala movie. This put-everything-in-a-blender genre of cinema derives from our myths, and is, therefore, inevitably the stuff of far-out fantasy – but here, Dhulia asks: “What if I rooted my story in the real world, in the midst of real issues? What if I want to stage, say, Haasil, with masala flourishes, making the everyman hero something of a superman?” This is not a bad idea. The masala movie is about the only kind of commercial Hindi cinema that acknowledges the world beyond the cities, and if you can invest that kind of story with the texture, the layers that a director like Dhulia brought to Paan Singh Tomar, then we could have the best of both worlds, a movie that appeals to the audience member who wants only to be entertained as well as the audience member who wants to be entertained sensibly.”
“With so much that’s so fascinating at a conceptual level, it’s surprising how dull Bullett Raja is – and that’s because Dhulia, in his attempts to imbue his material with layers and texture, forgets what made those masala movies work in the first place. Those films had a moment-to-moment vitality. The characters, scenes, lines had punch. Maybe those films erred too much in that direction, and maybe they forgot to be anything outside the moment, but this was a realisation we had only later, when we thought about the film as we walked out. Inside the theatre, though, we were too entertained to notice that this wasn’t adding up or that wasn’t “realistic” or reflective of how India really was. Sholay doesn’t work because it is real but because it feels real, because the characters and their motivations are worked out in ways that draw us in – and without that emotional investment, what good is a masala movie?”
Sunday 1st December 2013 13.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bullet Raja failed to improve its business on Saturday as collections were in the same range as Friday. The collections improved slightly in Mumbai and Delhi/UP but most other circuits were down.
The film has now collected around 13 crore nett in two days with both Friday and Saturday contributing 6.50 crore nett each. The film had to show a 20-30% jump on Saturday if it was to have a chance at the box office.
Sunday will show an improvement in collections but the fate of the film is already sealed as it has under performed over the first two days.
Komal Nahta @KomalNahta 29 Nov
Hrithik Roshan off to London tonight for medical opinion. His headaches, unfortunately, have not stopped after his brain surgery too.
“Hrithik is not undergoing any surgery” – Rakesh Roshan
By Subhash K. Jha, Nov 28, 2013 – 09:52 hrs IST
The media has been abuzz with Hrithik Roshan’s plans to go abroad for medical treatment. There are also reports that he would require another surgery for his headaches.
Hrithik had undergone a brain surgery in July in Mumbai.
However, Hrithik’s father Rakesh Roshan completely rubbishes reports of a second surgery.
Speaking exclusively to this writer Rakesh Roshan said, “Hrithik is going abroad only for a medical check-up, not a surgery. He gets these occasional headaches, and he wants to get to the bottom of them once and for all.”
When prodded as to where and how reports of his surgery came from, Rakesh Roshan responded, “You must ask those well-wishers who spread such rumours. I repeat, there is no surgery happening. Just a check-up.”
Apparently, reports suggesting that Hrithik would need a long layoff from work are not only misplaced but also premature.
Says the concerned father, “Hrithik will be gone abroad for a week or at the most, two weeks. There is no need to spread alarming reports.”
“His headaches, unfortunately, have not stopped after his brain surgery too”–
Because there are other personal/family reasons for this ‘headache’ –wishing HR all the best with all causes of headache !!
He needs to really take it easy till this problem is resolved. He’s already had a blood clot removed from his brain. Also he should also be very careful at this point about the stuff he does and ‘ingests’ to keep his body that way. There might well be a connection.
Wow that will be great–bit we won’t go without the following contingent —
Ms Kat Kaif, Ms Marine Vacht & (ideas favourite) Ileana Dacruz!
These three will help us out with some Antarctic ‘experiments’ , ‘play’ with us besides keeping us warm & in good ‘spirits’
(While idea watches from the side!) 🙂
I watched this flick as what seems to be a companion piece to ‘Blue is the warmest color’. You can’t beat the French in certain things and this is one of them!
Jeune et Jolie depicts the story of a 17-year-old French girl Isabelle (Marine Vacht) who is a seemingly normal teenager (though one with modelesque features), following her life over four seasons. Despite being from a loving and wealthy family, inexplicably begins working as a prostitute.
Director François Ozon makes beautiful use of the passing seasons in the depiction of Isabelle’s sexual awakening through her loss of virginity in the summer to a German vacationer to her gritty, dirty encounters with various clients throughout winter. Ozon’s use of the seasons tactfully and delicately separates the film into bite-size sections, each providing the essential character and plot development needed to avoid the film stagnating.
Another new French star actress is born here -Marine Vacth (just like Adele Exarchopoulos in Blue). I haven’t seen any film of hers but had seen the face before -couldn’t recall. Now I remember that Marine has apparently done ad-campaigns for Yves St Laurent & Louis Vutton, adorning billboards earlier. Marine does have a star presence reminding one of icons like Brigitte Bardot and Marion Cotillard, though clearly she has miles to go interms of acting credentials but she has time on her side. She possesses a certain poise besides the ability to use those deep, saucery, smoldering expressive eyes to poignant effect where needed & alluring elsewhere.
While the Parisian aesthetics add some sparkle and beauty to her life, the prostitution situation scenes are gritty and even crude. Isabelle herself seems tainted by that, obsessed with showering, all the time, evolving with sensuality. She is emotionally immune and indifferent. Her rapport eliciting tenderness comes from her relationship with her younger brother and one of her older clients .
I personally found her ‘minor brother’ quite interesting who empathised with her, shared her secrets, even helped her out in her perversions whilst also spying over her with his binoculars!! There were some subtle comedic elements involving the minor brother and also with her stepdad. Isabelle’s mothers inability to understand or help her daughter is brought out well. Her brief interactions with her step dad is interestingly wierd though.
In another adeptly handled scene, she actually ‘watches herself’ from a distance while she loses her virginity! Charlotte Rampling’s emotional appearance at the end of the movie is superb and acts as the cheery on the cake. Perhaps the intention is to show that being young and beautiful can actually last a lifetime indeed!
The common qualm against this film will be that it lacks in substance & depth– the audience never discovers why Isabelle chose to be a prostitute; the most we are given is that she was bored and wanted to try something new. There are portions where Isabelle comes across as an emotionally-dead vacuous spoilt persona who becomes non-communicative, and increasingly moody.
Ozon loves women, and he certainly knows how to capture their complexities. However, I feel that perhaps, Ozon doesn’t WANT to explain the situation, and constructs a barrier around the possible reasons for his muse’s behaviour. Through the year’s varying seasons, his camera follows this little girl becoming an adult in her own way – the way she wants to. She doesn’t seem to know how to grow up, physically or emotionally, and the director has no intention of judging her. To play down the tragedy of the characters’ circumstances, touches of humour and old-fashioned corny songs are scattered throughout, further enhancing an already alluring subtle piece of work.
There’s a somewhat moving scene wherein the ‘minor brother’ points to her cycling German lover from the car whilst the family is returning home from the holiday. Isabelle doesn’t look back (literally!)
But what remains intact throughout -there is a certain enigmatic & inexplicably poignant streak she started with- even after the movie ends there’s a certain ‘je ne se quoi’ about her !!
Disclaimer 1: the above movie is only for 18+ and not for minors/prudes/easily offended. Any glamorisation of sex/prostitution can’t be ruled out but seems unintentional.
2: the above writeup is not meant for/aiming to elicit multiple replies /comments. These are just random musings & a ‘commentary’ on responses for a niche audience /readership of small/ indie films, who treat this stuff as a work of art rather than vehicles of commerce or of their own fetishes/biases.
& Satyam–plz don’t do what u r doing now–I’m watching u!!
Let’s maintain some ‘decorum’..
Ps: Marine needs rest now…good nite folks
that’s enuf for 2nite guys–Suggest u move back to DP now..
Deepika is slated to perform at the Temptation Reloaded show in Dubai Sunday with stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit.
On the Bollywood front, she has completed Homi Adajania’s English language film ‘Finding Fanny’.
“It should be ready to release soon.
“I am also doing ‘Happy New Year’ with Abhishek Bachchan and Shah Rukh, all fun boys to work with. I am also looking forward to start Imtiaz’s film with Ranbir,” said Deepika, who has been on a roll with her box office successes this year.
DP is definately on a roll here – all the films she is doing look already BB stuff………when was the last time we had a heroine delivering BB stuff consistently?
Great line by Salim in KWK-
When Amitabh holds a gun, it looks like he means business. When others hold it, you feel like saying- kya karte ho? Chal jayegi yaar!
Imran Khan’s is currently shooting a film with Motwane titled ‘Bhavesh Joshi’ for which he is currently shooting for. I wonder how Imran keeps getting these prestige projects- first Matru with Bharadwaj, now this one with Motwane.
Kareena and Farhan are coming together for Dev Benegal’s (“English, August”, “Road, Movie”) “Bombay Samurai” (what a zany title). It’s an ensemble one.
Farhan also mentions that that there is a film by Bejoy Nambiar (Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s production) which will also have Bachchan-
TOI-
“Reportedly, you were to play Sahir Ludhianvi in an upcoming biopic. Is that happening?
I’m not sure where these reports come from, I’m not acting in any biopic after Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
What about the film with Amitabh Bachchan which Bejoy Nambiar is directing?
That will happen, but only in the latter half of 2014. Vidhu Vinod Chopra is producing it and he has told me that Mr Bachchan will be a part of it. But for now, it is Shaadi ke Side Effects. After that, I will move on to Dev Benegal’s film with Kareena Kapoor and then, there is my sister Zoya’s film.”
Zoya’s Akhtar next (on sibling relationship. This time the ZNMDesque ‘holiday trip’ is in South Afroca) will have Priyanka and Ranveer playing siblings (Farhan and Anushka might also be there in the film apparently as their respective romantic interests). PeeCee is supposed to have confirmed this.
Ayan Mukherjee (man, he should be the last guy to attempt this genre) is going to do a superhero film with Ranbir next. Here is Ranbir on the film-
“It is not like ‘Krrish 3;’ it is something very different. It is going to be a fantasy film — a trilogy which Ayan has just started writing. We share a great personal and professional relation,” said Kapoor.
“As of now we are in the developing stage. He is going abroad for a post-production course. Hopefully, we will try and make something path-breaking,” said the actor.
Ranbir’s upcoming films don’t look like major grossers (though one shouldn’t forget that he had a superhit with Barfi. Apart from Bombay Velvet, Ranbir has Anurag Basu’s “Jagga Jasoos” (a detective film where he plays a 19 year old guy and Govinda plays his dad. He is co-producing this one with Basu) and Imtiaz’s next with Deepika.
And I had no clue but Johar is playing the main antagonist (a suave media mogul. Whatever!) opposite Ranbir in Bombay Velvet. Talk about anti-casting.
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram – Leela Week Two Territorial Breakdown
Monday 2nd December 2013 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram – Leela grossed 23.25 crore nett approx in week two. The two week distributor share is 41.50 crore approx. Below is the second territorial breakdown of the film.
Monday 2nd December 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bullet Raja had a low first weekend as it collected around 20.50 crore nett. The film started slowly and failed to show any growth on Saturday which is a must for a film that does not open.
The business on Sunday was op around 15% from Saturday but the damage had been done. The film has done best in UP and Rajasthan but collections in Delhi city and Mumbai city was well below the mark. Mumbai circuit also underperformed but that was expected as it was a film based on crime in UP which has few few takers in Mumbai just like film on the Mumbai underworld have few takers in the North. The weekend breakdown was as follows.
Biz Talk: This ‘Bullett’ misses the mark!
By Taran Adarsh, December 2, 2013 – 10:22 IST
You’re as good or bad as your last Friday… A statement echoed within the corridors of the film industry since decades. Since the stakes are extremely high these days, every film starring an A-lister is awaited with bated breath. And scrutinized very, very minutely. Your ranking and remuneration is correlated to the business of the film. The opening day, opening weekend and opening week numbers are of paramount significance.
For Saif Ali Khan, who has had an erratic and inconsistent career of late [AARAKSHAN – flop, AGENT VINOD – flop, COCKTAIL – Hit, RACE-2 – Hit, GO GOA GONE – flop], the super start and success of BULLETT RAJA was most crucial. Enacting the title role, teaming up with an accomplished director [Tigmanshu Dhulia] and a well-established leading lady [Sonakshi Sinha] for the first time and a genre [masala] that continues to dominate the BO for decades, BULLETT RAJA had everything going in its favour. But the film never took off.
What went wrong? Sure, the lack of popular soundtrack proved a roadblock. Agree, there has been an overdose of masala films this year. But the combo of Saif and Tigmanshu should’ve ensured a decent start at least. The tepid start at the ticket window sent shock waves and makes you realize, yet again, how unpredictable this business is.
The BO collections of BULLETT RAJA did escalate over the weekend, but not to the optimum capacity. After a rather lackluster start, the film should’ve witnessed a massive jump on Saturday and Sunday, but the growth was clearly missing. It clearly indicates that the audience mandate is lacking for this biggie.
As we step into the final month of 2013, one only hopes that the scenario improves and the year ends on an ecstatic and euphoric note. R… RAJKUMAR, directed by the king of masala entertainers, Prabhu Dheva and DHOOM-3, one of the most-awaited films of 2013 should enliven and rejuvenate the industry, besides attracting footfalls in hordes. Fingers crossed!
On D3 this too was a point I’d made earlier. If one producer decides not to inflate things too much because the film is a genuine goldmine and there’s no anxiety about it what you still have is a bogus list where say Krrish might be at 235 or 250 or whatever and D3 is at 320 (just throwing out this number). The difference between the two then wouldn’t be 70 crores but working off the 175-185 crore number (which seems most likely for Krrish) 130-140.
In any case the good thing here is that a lot of this stuff is being exposed for what it is — a scam. The whole Bollywood system of reporting, producer totals, trade numbers and so forth. It is true though that with Krrish 3 Roshan went too far. I have never seen as many quotes [from Saif to this guy, or pieces with hints directed at Krrish, etc] where it’s obvious that people are not buying the K3 numbers and are willing to call them out for it. Of course I don’t have sympathy for many of these folks too. While the Roshans might have been stupid the fact is that once you start inflating numbers by 10-20% or whatever yourself you lose the right to complain about anything else. Which doesn’t mean degree doesn’t matter but even inflating things by a smaller significant amount isn’t acceptable.
Yes K3 numbers inflated and this is not the first time happened. SRK movies like Devdas,Don,KANK,MNIK,DOn2 and recent Ra one never did good business at box office,but all these movies declared hits by trade guys. KJo,SRK ,Aditya chopra etc manipulated box office numbers many times and projected their movies as hits with the help of corrupted trade guys like Taran ,Komal and BOI. But no one from the industry raised voice against them like they did against Rakesh roshan.
Irrespective of how much more krrish3 has earned compared to Chennai express, that’s a different debate
But LOL @ the type of uneducated crass hoodlums like this krk guy who are being quoted as ‘good standard’ here
Now googled who this crap guy is —
Check out some of his crass tweets on ‘virginity’ etc
Won’t like to paste them here
But since Satyam himself seems to be suddenly quoting krk as an authority here–
Check out this tweet from krk
“Paul An actor of car racing movie dies in a car accident so now I really wonder how will Sunny Leone die?
5:58pm – 2 Dec 13”
Now that’s not only obscene but also in bad taste wrt someone who has died (Paul of fast n furious fame!) and someone whose still alive –sunny leone !!
And god forbid when this krk is the authority /final word ….
That’s a moronic tweet from guess what….. a moron.
However, it’s blatantly evident that Rakesh Roshan (Hrithik maybe) have fudged the nos for Krrish 3. I would elaborate further but I don’t see the point as Dhoom 3 will comfortably/fairly cross 200 and then Salman’s next release Jai Ho releases a few weeks later which I as a Salman fan expect to also cross 200.
There was this full story about fake collections on Zoom TV which claims to be No1 bollywood channel and gets top stars for interviews etc and is also part of Times Group.
Someone can search and put up the youtube link of that full episode BollywoodBig story of fake collections which was telecast last Friday. It had a lot of industry big wigs commenting on fake collections and how this has hit new low.
In that there is also talk of forming a uniform body declaring the box-office figure for all movies. As expected the extreme reporting has led to something good and hopefully box office will be streamlined one way or the other for better data….
Well I don’t believe this and somehow on the big box-office numbers – things not working out for any movie at this point of time. Most of them are fizzling out after the 150-180 cr mark.
On D3, to be frank Aamir is a big minus for this franchise, though he will compensate this with his immaculate script and screenplay and most important ‘sense of humor’.
In promos, aamir just does not gel and this is more of a John Abraham/ Hrithik kind of deal. Aamir did surprise us with a ghajini but for that all our inhibitions went out of the window when aamir’s look was revealed and the first promo came out. Rahman too played his part well with that soothing soundtrack.
Coming back to big numbers, I sincerely felt Krish 3 will break big barriers –
firstly because HR is mostly a neutral star in terms of fan following so he cuts across all sections and as Satyam said earlier in the blog that ‘everyone will show up’.
Secondly it was a Diwali solo release and lastly this was a known franchise of a blockbuster. But somehow the movie stagnated and though performed better than RA1 but nowhere near a universal hit or liked movie.
This also brings us to a big question – what is the real potential of a big movie. Is 300cr and 400 cr as easy to get as it is been made out to be here and reason is simply the movies are not good enough? or is it that the Indian pocket is not ready yet for that big jump. I believe we are seeing this 100cr/150c cr more regularly due to a jump in living standards of upper middle class with disposable incomes but none able to take that extra leap like a 3Idiots in 2009.
In my opinion the ultra rich with better disposable income don’t watch hindi movies so deep pockets there make no difference. But disposable income of an avg Indian family will not permit Rs 5,000 or so more than 2/3 times in a year. Diwali and Eid make a bit of difference because of traditions of getting money as gift and generally a bonus time for all. But for movies to do 300cr – 400cr it will require a repeat audience (similar to 3I level ). Point to be noted is at that time ticket prices were much less and repeat viewing could be afforded but at this time money/disposal income is still at a similar stage and ticket prices have risen a lot thereby negating the repeat viewing audience. So lets see when will this 300cr movie arrive?
On a parting note – saw some picks of Salman in army uniform for his next release Jai Ho. If presented well this would be a killer deal and opening will leave ETT kind of hysteria much behind…!! Just the opening… rest is content.
Just watched bits of the start of this interview
brilliant interview by Salman 🙂
ROFLOL typical kjo stuff
After a while -Will watch this whole interview now ….
enjoyed this interview–agree with a lot of what Salman says..
seminal stuff –imo Salman has had a long career but it’s only now that he is in the best of form after all those years of indifferent mediocrity…
Secret being ‘virginity’ 🙂
Ps: kjo is a ‘naughty dog’ lapping up stuff, blushing like a girl..
Check out kjos expressions when he milks out secrets in the rapid-fire….
Tuesday 3rd December 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bullet Raja dropped on Monday as it collected around 3.25 crore nett taking its total to 24.50 crore nett. The film held up best in Delhi/UP with collections around 85-90 lakhs. It was the only circuit to drop less than 50% and collections in Delhi/UP were higher than Mumbai.
The first week should finish in the 31 crore nett range and not likely to add much more. The domination of Goiyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela in the Gujarat area has affected Bullet Raja as Goiyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela had better collections in Gujarat on Sunday and Monday despite being in its third week.
Bullet Raja will probably wrap up in the 35 crore nett region for lifetime collections.
I don’t think Saif has much of an audience outside the multiplexes and beyond his rom-coms.
It’s also notable that movies like Boss, Singh Saab and Bullett Raja have failed to attract the multiplexes audience. Boss ended up with around 55cr despite a very wide release. Singh Saab ended up with slightly over 30cr and now Bullett Raja seems to be headed for something in the same range. Bullett Raja had a wide release as well. It’s quite obvious that single screens aren’t going to be enough to make a movie work these days.
I do feel that R. Rajkumar may end up being Prabhu Devaa’s first flop as a director. I would be surprised to see it work.
Wonder whwre were all these voices were when the god Mani Rathnam was shouting in all press conferences his own numbers for Yuva and declaring the movie a big hit ? Or when dibankar was batting for Shanghai?
RR is an easy (Single screen) target, har koi thinks it is Cool to bajao his ass..
Actually Ratnam didn’t have his own numbers for Yuva. He just felt that the Bombay media was too critical on the film and its box office and misrepresenting the truth. And guess what? He was right! Yuva made a bit more than Company. Devgan was common to both. RGV in those days had a lot of hype. Let’s concede Yuva was nonetheless the bigger deal. Nonetheless there’s a difference between calling it an underperformer (which is fair) and calling it a failure and then in turn calling Company a big success (which it wasn’t by any stretch, it was nowhere close to Satya’s Bombay numbers accounting for inflation, let alone anything else). Even if one wanted to call Yuva a failure which too was justified to a degree the first week numbers were more than ok. This was the MP paradigm. Certain films are clearly on a bit of a downward slope but they’re not absolutely rejected and hence negative stuff makes such films a lot more vulnerable. Aamir complained about the media treatment on MP. He was right too.
Will agree with some of your other examples. Dibakar though made one correct point when he said that the terms of the debate were faulty. And we see this all over the place. Whether it’s Krrish or Barfi, it’s the same 100 crore/200 crore club. That’s absurd. With Shanghai the expectations game got a bit away from everyone and the very positive media reviews only added to this. if you look at Shanghai’s final gross (21-23 crores) that’s exactly how one would expect a Dibakar Bannerjee film to behave on that sort of subject! Hrithik/Ash/Bhansali in Guzaarish didn’t gross more than this!
But once again I think your ‘nationalistic’ instincts are rather unfortunately placed when it comes to K3. There is just no defending this film’s numbers. The real ones are not that great, the made-up ones are still hardly fantastic but in any case they’re not plausible. It’s a very poor film compared to just the previous installment (it’s not just me saying this, the box office graph shows this, even if you believe the highest numbers), finally it’s completely derivative. Except for some New Age schmaltz Rakesh Roshan’s better ‘Indianization’ instincts are not even on display here. It’s quite simply a bad film and it’s not as if the earlier installment offered some Nolan-like bar to live upto!
Then again perhaps one can be in the Rakesh Roshan camp and believe Krrish is giving Peter Jackson a run for his money!
I am neither defending the film or its numbers, I am defending The choice if Indian Paying Public. I still have not forgotten Hrtik’s stupid comment about the Pond vs. Ocean.
I do however do not like this constant comparison to Hollywood and a few Lallus who have watched Hollywood movies and think they own the world deciding for The Indian Public – what is good or bad for them.
As for Peter Jackson- RR is giving him a run for his money in Single Screens.LOL!!
P.S.- I remember Mani Rathnam was citing numbers to prove a point kee bhaiyya pichhar hit hai !!
Mani karey toh Fit hai, RR karey toh Khit-Phit hai !!!
..and I have not even seen the damn Film yet !!
Munna- Saw Besharam- was not that bad, but it proved how much contribution must have been from Salman and Salim Khan in Dabang1.
Also saw Madras Café and really liked it minus John.
Knew you wouldn’t mind Besharam. I like “Hum lut gaye aake..” song.
I didn’t mind John in Madras Café and for me probably it is at top from Bollywood offerings this year.
I lost John when he told Nargis at her Hotel room- This is not a game ..LOL!! he was just so unconvincing. But everything else looked so authentic.
Besharam- again Ranbir’s side kick was so annoying ( as in GhanChakkar) and over the top, and the phone- vibrator sequence was the only really offensive thing that I found in the movie.
For sidekicks IMO Zeeshan Ayyub did a great job in Raanjhna
yes but the whole problem is that unless you believe that very inflated total the film hasn’t really done anything very special relative to expectations. It’s basically in the range of a multiplex-only deal like YJHD. Hardly the most impressive result.. Even on single screens let’s not exaggerate its performance. Often the single screen becomes an abstraction to explain away things. The last Krrish did extremely well in these centers, had remarkable trending in the same. The current one did better in smaller centers but it’s not as if something extraordinary happened here. It’s not a Ghajini or something which truly rocked those markets.
On Hollywood just because every frame seems to be inspired from or directly lifted from Hollywood doesn’t mean we should keep comparing!
Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, at her candid best in a book inspired from the events of her life, Drama Queen.
The singer-actress-painter, who starred in one of Bollywood’s best-loved movies, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, writes about her fame, divorce from filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, and the crippling effects of a condition that she suffers from, Aphallatosis (a rare mental disorder arising from lack of sex).
An excerpt from the book:
I was going to be in the movies and be a star. That would be my revenge.
But my battleship on the journey to stardom was fragile and the ride so choppy I often feared it would capsize and I would go down with it. Struggling to counter the I-told-you-so, finger-wagging warnings of my parents with the shady cloak-and-dagger shenanigans of the film world was doubly confounding for me.
‘Suchitra, you want to be an actress, you must do…’
‘Do? Do what?’
I could never figure out the code of conduct that newbies in showbiz were bound to follow by some unwritten law. It was the ‘they’ syndrome all over again.
‘Do. All actress – they do. They must do. Where are your parents? You phone them just now. I’ll explain it to them.’
Oh no! Had he guessed my runaway status, the fact that I was living on my own?
‘Erm…my parents will be in office now…I can’t disturb them…’
‘Okay, no problem. Phone them later. Who are you more close to – your mother or father?’
‘My father. Amma is a little strict but Nana is very kind…’
‘So will you phone your Nana in the evening and tell him to pick you up from my hotel tomorrow morning?
Tomorrow morning? What was I supposed to do till then? The old geezer was stodgy as hell. Had body odour, too. He was boring me already.
‘Where are you running away, child? I told you to be an actress you must do. Now relax…’
suddenly india has awakened to this lets-talk-sex-in public syndrom or what? sallu to suchitra – having and not having sex and bla bla bla…what the sex! 🙂
Its good if sex is discussed openly in India. Even better if age-old taboos are discarded for some healthy pre-marital relationships. Too much traditional suppression of sexuality has resulted in all the issues. Removing these taboos is the only way the Indian epidemic of rape will reduce.
On to fudging BO numbers, I thnk the first guy who really did it was Sanjay Leela Bhansali at the time Devdas released.
Devdas was being quoted (by it’s producer and by SLB) as having been made on a record breaking 50cr budget back then.
When the movie released, SLB and producer Bharat Bhai Shah probably realised they won’t be able to con the audience easily on its performance at the BO. For decades, audiences easily read into a movie’s success or failure by simply looking at the percentage occupancy at the theatres. It’s was then very easy to discern from a movie that has worked to one that has not.
The week Devdas released, there co-incidentally started a complete ban on releasing percentage occupancies. So, there was a complete black-out on the film’s performance at the BO for the average viewers. For decades, they merely had to look at the %occupancy to gauge whether a film is doing well or not and they suddenly had to interprete figures at different theatres.
And then SLB started proclaimng on every media outlet around that the movie was making profits merely 7 days after its release. I think everyone knows today that the movie never ever reached the 50cr mark. A couple of media outlets back then pointed out the truth that the movie wouldn’t recover its costs in India. BOI had it’s total at below 30cr and claimed that the movie was a ‘media-hit’ rather than a ‘trade hit’.
I have some BO figures from that time and you can easily see SLB’s hoax there. Devdas’s first week total at Mumbai territory for e.g. was at 1.2cr. Big figures for that time but compare to Kaante and The Hero, these comfortably did over 1.3cr there in their respective first week. And they were big budget movies but average grossers for that time.
But most of the media were going by SLB’s rhetoric that Devdas has surpassed 50cr within 7 days and they were calling the movie a blockbuster. The sad thing about it all is many people still perceive Devdas as some kind of blockbuster while the truth is that it hasn’t even recovered it’s costs in India.
For me SLB is right up there as the worst of the lot when it comes to BO fudging and it was good to see his ass getting kicked when the BO totals of Saawarya and Guzaarish were being revealed.
Hmm thanx– didn’t know about that …
Actually Bo figure manipulation isn’t new –it’s old hat
Perhos bit more with k3–but let’s face it
Others are not babes in the wood here
What’s historic isn’t that it’s new or the amount of inflation (it can’t be proved/disproved!!)
What’s new is the way certain strong lobbies went out of their way to ‘discredit’ k3 numbers…the agenda and motive for this moves are clear…
But doesnr change anything…
A large section of media Includigj taran, Komal, amid Mehra, financial express, bo capsule still report k3 has long broken CE…
Right or wrong –unfortunately for certain biased ones
Till that is concusivelt disproved, like all the other doubtful numbers, they chose to believe when it was convenient to them.
They will have to live with the fact that k3 has beaten 3i and CE to become the biggest blockbuster ever–period…
& kev– the reason for inflated numbers in devdas wasn’t poor bhansali I think…
But the involvement of the guy who ‘owns’ /has a lot of influence on the media outlets aka srk–I give him credit actually for turning media manipulation into a fine art…
Even aamir wasn’t bad…
Infact had ETT starred srk or aamir, it won’t have fell precariously short of 200 but would has received some ‘help’ lol
Yes there has always been inflation (as in k3)
The cries of ‘rape rape’ at seeing krrish3 ‘inflated’ numbers is emanating from some such ‘influences’ /strong lobbies 🙂
This reminds me of what Satyam said on the CE Boxoffice thread-the reason SRK appeals to Pakistan like this is because he knows a large portion of his Overseas audience (Mainly the UK) is Pakistani. Or there may be a genuine interest in Pakistan from his part because he’s been there as a child and it’s where his relatives live/his father’s house is still there. Personally I can’t relate to this because as and Indian I have no family ties to Pakistan but maybe people who still have family there feel the same way as SRK? Regardless, SRK knows saying stuff like this will create unnecessary controversy which is stupid because he doesn’t have any film coming out in the near future.
as a Pakistani whose parents are Indian/Pakistani and who is married to an Indian wife…I don’t have any problem with what SRK has stated here. Don’t get why some Indians have this fear of having good ties with Pakistan. This comment isn’t controversial…it’s the people (on both sides) who make it that way.
Speaking for myself my problem with SRK’s statements is opportunism. I am willing to be believe he might not have anything against Pakistan. However he’s become suspicious very vocal about this in recent years when his films haven’t been performing as they used to by and large but his foreign market numbers continue to be huge and here he really does rely on the Pakistani contingent. Now one could of course argue that even if so he’s feeding what’s part of his base in certain ways. The only problem here is that this happens within certain political contexts. This is not neutral terrain. There are any number of Indians who have the view that the countries should live peacefully and that the politicians create the problems, so on and so forth. Whether one agrees or disagrees with this view one can understand it. But SRK plays a certain pro-Pakistan card. It’s a series of dog whistles. And the reason I don’t like it is because in the context of India-Pakistan politics it means something when the Muslim does this sort of thing. So at the very least it shouldn’t be opportunistic. He never said these things for years but suddenly started doing so beyond a point. Now I am hardly nationalistic in any sense whatsoever but in the landline of Indian politics (in the loose sense) I think we could do without such statements when their sincerity is in question. And I’m not overreacting because SRK does this repeatedly. He’s not naive about how his statements will be perceived in many quarters but he does it anyway. Put differently if there were absolutely no benefit for him in the foreign markets he wouldn’t be saying all of this! How do we know this? Because he didn’t when DDLJ released or KKHH released or DTPH released.. etc etc! He still had the Pakistani audience rooting for him but he was strong enough on his own not to have to absolutely depend on the overseas. As you know I am a hard critic of the Indian Right in many matters, I criticize stars on all kinds of ideological grounds, so this isn’t a one-off for me or some sort of easy anti-Pakistan thing (though I certainly do have my ideological ‘objections’), it’s consistent with things I say in these other contexts. I just think that certain subjects, fairly or unfairly, are delicate ones and if this is the only kind of political utterance one is going to be associated with, which is the case with SRK, he can certainly be called out for it, specially so if he exhibits opportunism doing so. To find the remark non-controversial one would have to believe that there’s no history between the two countries or indeed no history in either country between the majority and the minority. In the UK for instance until relatively recently ‘Ireland’ wasn’t a neutral word. This didn’t mean that everyone was anti-Irish or something but conversations specially in the public arena were always a bit dicey when it came to this subject.
Hypothetical question: If SRK has all the time in world, And he is offered Sarfarosh with one of the best directors and there are no hurdles to climb, Is he going to do it?
I am not sure he would. In fact I’m quite confident he wouldn’t do anything to alienate his overseas Pakistani base. Because there is a bit of an anti-Pakistan message in Sarfarosh. Not because of the usual, obvious reasons. The film is more problematic because it connects even a ghazal singer to that sort of terrorist activity who in turn comes up with his sob story of how he lost his ancestral privilege. The usual ruse in such films is to then present the Pakistani establishment guy as the worst kind of paymaster who lets the Muslim ‘informant’ down at a crucial point. Who even calls the latter a ‘traitor’. So forget the Indian, even the Pakistani calls him a traitor! So this entire thread is one that is muddled in certain ways but also objectionable because it confirms a certain paranoid view in these matters where the Muslim is always minimally suspect as being potentially pro-Pakistani.
But this brings me to SRK’s other choice in as many years, the strategic deployment of his religion. So the pro-Pakistani pitch is twinned with the ‘hey, I’m a Muslim victim’ line (again it’s done through dog-whistles). It’s particularly galling to see someone who’s had more establishment support than any Bombay star, Hindu or Muslim, over the last twenty years to suddenly become this ‘victimized’ guy. It plays to the worst stereotypes and in the context of Sarfarosh I shall risk saying that SRK’s choices feed into that kind of representation. This is part of what I meant when I said earlier that these issues are too charged in the context of subcontinental politics for public figures to play games with them. It is certainly possible that SRK has become more religious over the years. He’s had anxious career moments as an aging star, he’s had serious back issues, wouldn’t be the first time that vulnerability made someone more religious! But he deploys this in strategic fashion much like the Pakistan thing. And again you have this twinning which feeds into a certain narrative. At least in these matters I expect people like him to be more responsible. It’s like being a public figure in Israel or Palestine and pretending one is just saying things that shouldn’t mean anything in the context of the larger politics!
Hypothetical answer – No is a possibility
According to this link he has rejected Kaho Na Pyar Hai, Lagaan, Jodha Akbar, Munnabhai MBBS, Rang De Basanti, 3 Idiots and Robot. http://www.indicine.com/movies/bollywood/films-that-shahrukh-khan-rejected/
Maybe some of these he was not offered and maybe some of these are not first choices, or he did not have all the time in the world etc…but it is possible to say No for other reasons.
I’d say opportunism is the best word, not just for him but for many celebrities in general. Possibly he is more and others do it more.
But the reality is a celebrity tends to sit on the fence, tends to pander to most people, tends not to have a contrarian view not because they want to but because they probably feel like they need to. Brands, franchises, sponsorships, money dominates image – tarnishing image with direct, aggressive beliefs in today’s media environment is career suicide.
Not to defend celebrities but they will in general have a tendency to be straight and narrow, more so than the average person.
Opportunism / or boxed in is a fine line. Whether one is doing it to gain something (pretty much the label here) vs. whether one is doing it to NOT lose something is a fine line. You’d hope most celebrities are protecting themselves as let’s face it, the media craves stuff like this and would have a field day.
Following the media story in UK about a well know TV chef, she is in court as her husband manhandled her in public.
You tell me what is right and wrong here.
The man handled her as she was on drugs and wasting his millions, her PAs were spending his money
She claims, his behaviour has led her to depression and hence drugs
The media one day has a headline – Nigella admits to taking drugs (painting a bad picture)
Next day it is sympathy – She admits to drugs because of depression (painting sympathy)
The media has a licence to print anything, and will affect the sane celebrities behaviour…unless you’re a Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus and you do whatever the f*ck you want and don’t give a damn at all.
Actually i was watching Law Abiding Citizen yesterday – pretty apt. Without evidence, you can’t do anything! But knowing the opponent needs evidence, you can use it against him!
Some very interesting points have been brought up. On Sarfarosh- it depends who was directing it. If it was Yash Chopra (let’s say Jab Tak Hai Jaan was Sarfarosh) then I think he would have done it because recall Veer-Zaara. Pakistani’s are portrayed as narrow-minded in that movie, using women only for political gains. Both Boman Irani and Manoj Bajpaye are the “bad guys”. On the other hand, Big B-Hema are the secular, accepting Indian parents who are approve of Veer-Zaara. In the climax when SRK is in court, the judge says “On behalf of Pakistan, we apologize to you Veer Pratap Singh”
On the opposite spectrum he has a Main Hoon Na, where the villain is a terrorist, an Indian ex-army officer named Raghavan!
Interestingly enough both movies released the same year; MHN in April 2004, V-Z on Diwali 2004.
Munna- Akhshay Kumar had also refused to mouth anti Pakistan lines in ATHWS.
so in that sense can not blame SRK.
Aamir is off course class apart.
also SRK responded to a question asked by Pakistan Foreign Minister, so I think his response was pretty appropriate here.
Can’t believe I am defending SRK here ..LOL!!
Don’t think there is anything controversial about what he has said. As a Hindu whose grandparents migrated from that side of the border, I have always wanted to go see the place where my ancestors lived for centuries. In fact, I know many Pakistanis whose ancestors migrated from India, who feel the same way about visiting India.
One has to be in those shoes to understand the emotions. The Indo-Pak problem cannot be solved with extremist viewpoints. Unfortunately, as long as extremist voices dominate (which has been the case at least in Pak since the very beginning), it will only keep getting worse.
Nykavi, there’s nothing odd about what you’ve said. The Kapoors have always talked about their ancestral homeland in the same sense. Aamir has talked about Pakistani relatives and wishing to visit (think he’s been there too though I could be wrong). All of this isn’t an issue. But SRK engages in these dog whistles which within the context of this larger subject seem like pro-Pakistan ones when one has to choose. Having a soft spot for Pakistan for other reasons is not the issue here though note what you’re saying or what the Kapoors or Aamir say is the very opposite of what SRK says. In the first case it’s about geography, attachment to a place one or one’s parents might have belonged to. That’s totally natural. SRK doesn’t talk about all this. He is always referring to the political label of the nation-state. And once again here too it would be fine (whether one agreed or disagreed, liked this or not) if he just said something like ‘I have nothing against Pakistan, I think people in both countries are essentially the same, it’s unfortunate there has been this bad blood, we should move on’. But I think he does something different from this as well. In most case his statements are not universal ones but indicate a kind of choice which is problematic on certain grounds (and not for reasons of simple nationalism) and worse opportunistic. Again I can’t prove a lot of this stuff. But it’s like a lot of the stuff Republicans say about Obama. They certainly have every right to oppose him on ideological grounds but within what they say there are embedded a number of dog whistles which get to him in racial ways and so forth. The only analogy I am drawing here is that the reason these are called dog whistles is that it’s hard to prove things completely one way or the other. But a pattern is certain discernible.
But again I am the least nationalistic person imaginable but I am still sensitive to how the political terrain works in different contexts.
You can’t, because you use this as a weapon to try and destroy him by colouring him as a sort of anti nationalist harbouring unethical feelings for Pakistan.
Very dangerous game.
Thankfully it hasn’t caught on, except perhaps by some sickindu party people who’d just love this.
Satyam is the last person on earth to be labelled as ‘sickindu’!! If you have followed any of our debates, we are ideologically opposite.
The reaction to this news just shows how nuanced everyone’s views are. I am not a pro-Pakistani, in fact, I often feel that the partition was a big mistake. This view is also reflected by many so called ‘mohajirs’, ie if they happen to express their views freely, without the fear of being called anti-nationalistic from the extremists over in Pakistan. SImilarly, my views can brand me as a anti-nationalist by the Right, but I happen to side with them on many other issues, so I guess I am spared.
And I totally empathize with those Muslims who could not migrate to Jinnah’s cherished state, mostly due to economic reasons. It was foolish to expect someone sitting in central India to make a journey all the way to the west. The Mohajirs were the brave ones, but the experience of partition left permanent scars on their psyche. I should be the last person to empathize with Mohajirs, given that Hindu Sindhis pretty much were forced out due to the Mohajir threat, as soon as they were diverted by the Punjabis into Sindh. The Hindus Sindhis were permanently scarred with that experience as well.
Off course, a 4th gen Indian (eg my kids) will never understand all this. So for them Pakistan will always be an aggressor nation. Similarly, for an avg Pakistani, Indian will be an aggressor. The extremists on both sides will never cease to fuel this fire.
I could go on and on, in a nutshell, the pooch was royally screwed by all the “Great Leaders” who we all (ie Indians and Pakistanis) are supposed to pay obeisance to.
satyam, read my comment again.
I never said you were a sickindu, but that you give them readymade ammunition to attack SRK.
Actually I remember there used to be a site where they gave some sort of BO and they used to write similar stuff (it could be you – so suspiciously similar it is), and a lot of the clique here joined in on this blog to come up with the same stuff. This seems like an organised effort to harm SRK.
My dislike of Amir is like nothing compared to this very organized seeming attack on grounds of personal feelings which even you confess to not be able to prove.
yes because I have no life I spend my waking (and sleeping) hours trying to figure out how to run a political campaign to destroy SRK. I must say though it’s a heady feeling to have such extraordinary power..
Satyam…I think you are over blowing this SRK – Pakistan thing. Even Aamir and Salman have said positive things about Pakistan. Maybe not as much as SRK but I don’t see how SRK gains anything here (It sure didn’t help when MNIK was releasing).
“but that you give them readymade ammunition to attack SRK.”
As I stated earlier, there is nothing wrong in the statements he made in the above event.
However, in various previous statements, SRK himself provided the ammunition, by constantly portraying the “victim” card. Whether it is at US immigration, or in previous statements in the media claiming that as a Muslim his rights in India are trampled. The latter statement is even more hypocritical given that SRK is the richest of all bwood celebrities, and he did so as a rank outsider to an extremely closeted industry where hardly 6-7 families wield all the power. His being Muslim did not stop the ascent to the pinnacle of entertainment and sports in India. Right wing groups do not need any reason to attack anyone who climbs the ladder to success by sheer hardwork and dedication. SRK is a shining example of India’s success in nurturing its diversity. So the last thing he ought to do is to play down that very freedom which brought him that success.
@NyKavi
I’m talking ONLY of satyam’s ammunition. That SRK provides his own does not change what I’m saying, nor does it give license to all and sundry to do the same.
Don’t try to change the topic.
And I was addressing satyam directly about what he said. I don’t understand why you want to be his mouthpiece.
This is again, NOT a discussion, like the tap-dancing of Amir.
SRK is not loyal to anyone except to himself. He is an opportunist. He makes use of his religion to win overseas audience. At the same time he is friends with Thackerays. Mamata Banerjee likes him and made him even the brand ambassador of her state.What he actually feels maybe something different. Even Bachchan, Shatru, aamir, Salman show this trait but in a much subdued way. Shatru gets away easily because he belongs to a hindutva party.
I find almost all Bollywood movie stars (not named Aamir Khan) opportunists and extremely money-hungry. Dancing at weddings, indulging in votebank politics as rightly mentioned, inflating movie grosses, hosting disgusting shows like Bigg Boss, where the worst kind of human behavior is put on display etc.
They will pretty much do anything for money. SRK may be the worst, but even others are hardly far behind.
I find Aamir to be an exception because he could have easily made a lot more money if he wanted to in his post-Lagaan phase, but focused instead on building a reputable brand for himself.
Wah rey Commies Wah !!
pseudo Secular- Sickular ( NO mention of religion)
but
Hindu= Sickindu ( naming by religion)
Only Commies and Bimbos like Paglika Ghose can do that !!
I should have used Indians= Sickindu instead of Hindus above.
Satyam/ Munna- can you please make that correction.
and yes, till the mid nineties most of the Indian Muslims that I knew of openly preferred Pakistan over India.
Kadwa hai lekin sach hai and first hand experience hai !!
and this is the mindset of the Commies- ( some would probably add -and the middle class loves Krish-3, LOL!!)
khil wagle @waglenikhil
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I am surprised by the low IQ of middle class in this country.Their understanding of politics is so dismal that they support bjp. God save!
Aamir, SRK share a cab
By Mehul S Thakkar, Mumbai Mirror | Dec 6, 2013, 01.26 AM IST
The two superstars shared a flight and then bonded on a cab ride during a recent visit to the capital.
Their rivalry was the stuff headlines were made of but Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan displayed rare bonhomie.
Not only did they travel to Delhi on the same flight on Wednesday, the two stars then shared a cab after arriving at the airport in the capital.
A source close to Aamir told Mirror that the actor only travels by the Sakha Cabs, a car rental service which trains underprivileged women as chauffeurs and convinced his fellow star to share a ride with him.
“When they reached the exit with their respective entourages Aamir invited SRK to share his cab as they were both on the way to the same hotel,” says the source.
It was a rare sight for the onlookers as the two Khans are rarely spotted together and once they reached the hotel, they posed for a picture with the lady cab drivers.
The two continued chatting post their ride too.
The last time, they shared the podium was at the music launch of Yamla Pagla Deewana 2. So, will a Mumbai cabbie get lucky next?
BTW is anyone excited about R..Rajkumar? I want Shahid to finally have a hit film, it’s a shame he only has 3 hit films in his decade long career. Plus I’ve enjoyed Prabhu Deva’s movies thus far. And Saree Ke Fall and Gandi Baat seem to be chartbusters.
Found Bullett raja showing nearby & noted this was the last day before it will be taken off. Was hesitant checking it out (after readin qalanders review) but got talked into watchin it ….(by some here and another bloke I watched this with & who had to hear a mouthful from me later!!)
Primarily because there were some positive reviews here and most importantly, I have watched all saif films recently (!) & didn’t wanna ditch poor saif at this difficult time–expected a decent film (@ least!)
Am a bit tired but let this serve as a warning to those (like Satyam!) still wanting to check it out somehow (!!)
BR is a crap film, period.
Total mish mash
Trying to mix GoW with dabang with paan Singh Tomar with sbag (haven’t seen the last two!)
Not everyone can make a commercially successful potboiler masala or no masala …
And dhulia is an example
SHODDY work by dhulia
Shoddy editing
Shoddy screenplay
I’m actually a bit angry !!
As for saif –I’ve always found somethign good in his performances (post DCH!) but
I’m NOT a ‘fan of anyone’ (as seen here usually)
Saif was like a fish out of water in this setting !!
A girl used to saris suddenly made to wear a mini skirt !!
Have been hearing a lot about Vidyut Jamwal…
Yeah the guy has a nice physique and is ace in acting scenes and can do well in action roles & as an action director
But his dialogue delivery is subpar
!!
The only relative saving grace of this ‘film’ was the title song (that I liked!)
And
Jimmy shergill ( who was killed off before interval !! Presumably to add weight to Saifs role!)
Unfortunately, unconnected people like jimmy sheet ill & body it jamwal can’t do well in this industry unless they are akshay Kumar or the one and only srk (which they are not quite)
Finally as for saif—
Disappointing stuff buddy…
Better luck next time (if there’s one!)
Alvida yaara alvida ….
Ho rahe yaara hum judas
Khush rahe yaara tu sadaa…
Looks like Shahid kapoor has sunk like no one else, he makes jr b, Vivek oberoi looks gloriously successful. All the reviews are very bad so far. Bookings on BMS indicate totally non starter.
JrB looking really dashing in that salwar-kameez. Its the best he has ever looked in years. Seems to have turned a corner in his physicality, almost up there with a young BigB.
If your are referring to magic touch at BO. i can agree. Even RR got mixed reviews. But, still it managed Huge BO numbers.
Otherwise, all the critics are dissing him like anything, instead they are showing some sympathy with Shahid for his energy.
SATYAMSHOT 
November 29, 2013 at 3:18 AM
Satyam is trailer ki ek alag thread bana lijiye. Neeraj pandey writer hai iska. Badi romanchak lag rahi hai ye. Badibhasi aayi dekhkar
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November 29, 2013 at 7:16 AM
what trailer are you referring to?
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November 29, 2013 at 5:55 AM
From Taran’s figures, it seems that GTPM first week figures will be around 12.5cr. Disastrous really. The audience have indeed shown the finger to KJo, Imran and Kareena. And I sincerely hope they’ve now learnt the lesson and spare us from this kind of shit in the future.
After all the stress and tension posed by Krrish 3 figures, here’s something to cheer Apex up. Found this video of KJo, Imran and Kareena during the promotions of EMAET. This is for Apex mainly but it’s typical KJo, Kareena and Imran here:
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November 29, 2013 at 3:31 PM
Thanx ‘Rahul’ -but I’m not into Kareena (or her legs) lol
As for saif –had mentioned it before..
B4 commenting on krrish3 and his many crores north of 200 crores it has earned, it is more prudent he worries about his bullet raja …
And learn to live without DP (who supported his box office in cock tail, race2, LAK)
As for Krish3– there was NO a Katrina /bipasha /diana panty to help out aamir in dhoom3
Instead there was PC (@ her worst box office phase)
& an IMPREGNATED PC @ that 🙂
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November 29, 2013 at 7:17 AM
Bullet Raja Has Low Opening
Friday 29th November 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The low initials continue with Bullet Raja after the poor starts last week of Singh Saab The Great and Gori Tere Pyaar Mein. Bullet Raja has opened to around 25-30% collections, both multiplexes and single screens are in the same range.
The film has a better release than last week’s two releases with more shows at multiplexes but will have to depend on word of mouth.
The opening in places like Lucknow and Kanpur where it has potential to do better due to local content was also not up to the mark. The film probably has better chances in UP but even there will have to show a quick jump in collections.
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November 29, 2013 at 7:20 AM
at this point it might just be about too many films for the audience in a short period of time. Over the last few months there have been a number of major releases and at some point those multiplex tickets start catching up! The initial on Gori here pyar main was unbelievably low even accounting for everything. And here Bullet Raja which certainly looked like a lot of fun hasn’t go a stronger start. Hopefully it picks up, would be a pity if it lost out because of the release schedule. But looks like the audience isn’t really going to show up for any film in a big way before Dhoom.
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November 29, 2013 at 9:26 AM
Actually, everyone is saving up for the D3 high ticket prices! They can surely miss BulletR/GTPM etc etc for a shot at D3?
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November 29, 2013 at 11:28 AM
R rajkumar will take a good opening next week.
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November 29, 2013 at 12:11 PM
will be a blow for Saif if this takes a better opening than Bullet Raja.
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November 29, 2013 at 12:42 PM
I always thought a movie about UP politics will take a lesser opening than a commercial Prabhu Deva movies with nice catchy songs…Even I am more interested in that movie…
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November 29, 2013 at 7:21 AM
BO update: Mixed start for ‘Bullett Raja’
By Taran Adarsh, November 29, 2013 – 13:33 IST
The Saif Ali Khan – Sonakshi Sinha starrer BULLETT RAJA, which is set in North India, was expected to open well in North circuits, especially in centres of U.P. While the opening shows of the film were quite good in certain parts of U.P., the general opening ranged from average to below average in several circuits. The occupancy was lower in Mumbai, but, of late, the opening shows of several films, including last week releases, were below the mark, but picked up during the course of the day, depending on the merits of the film.
BULLETT RAJA was never expected to start with a bang thanks to the lack of popular soundtrack. However, the film has the potential to strike a chord and like most Tigmanshu Dhulia movies, it is expected to gather momentum by late noon/evening shows.
Meanwhile, last week’s releases, GORI TERE PYAAR MEIN! and SINGH SAAB THE GREAT, have been sidelined at major plexes, but GOLIYON KI RAASLEELA RAM-LEELA continues to perform well and is expected to be the second choice of moviegoers this weekend, after BULLETT RAJA.
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November 29, 2013 at 7:17 AM
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram – Leela Grosses 97 Crore In Two Weeks
Friday 29th November 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram – Leela grossed around 97 crore nett in two weeks. The second week collections were around 23 crore nett and film will cross 100 crore nett by the end of its third weekend.
The collections in Mumbai circuit are 42 crore nett in two weeks which is better than films like Ra.One, Barfi and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. Eventually the filmcould cross the business of films like Bodyguard and Dabangg which did 46 crore nett in Mumbai.
The film has also done very well overseas and will do a Worldwide distributor share of around 75 crore with India giving 55 crore and Overseas 20 crore.
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November 29, 2013 at 8:23 AM
This is absolutely fantastic: three films in the same year, Chennai Express, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and now Ram Leela, all starring Deepika, cross 100 crores; what is more commendable is that she had a very significant role to play in the success of each of these films, unlike many of the 100 crore hits of a Kareena or a Katrina.
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November 29, 2013 at 8:42 AM
True. Actually make it 4 films in a row since there was Race 2 as well in the beginning of the year. And while it did not do 100 crores, there was Cocktail as well where she was pretty much the best thing about the film
And her fan following has grown by leaps and bounds. Most of my male friends checked out Ram Leela only for her (Katrina still remains their favourite, but Deepika is slowly catching up). And especially among the younger females, she is the clear favourite.
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November 29, 2013 at 8:48 AM
And she has Kochadaiiyaan and Happy New Year lined up for next year- both of them should do 100 cr pretty easily. That would mean 7 straight solid hits- stunning stuff
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November 29, 2013 at 3:45 PM
Race2 never crossed 100 cr, just 92 cr. But, if you are talking about Producers total then Krrish3 is 250 cr. LOL
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November 29, 2013 at 4:08 PM
fair enough..
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November 29, 2013 at 8:49 AM
absolutely. she’s got equal or more credit in many of these films. But there’s more, she also had Race 2 which touched a 100. CE did 200, YJHD was a 185 grosser, prior to all this she had Coctail. So she’s been on an incredible roll. But certainly these last three films (Ram Leela, CE, YJHD) have been stupendous for her. On the other hand she’s also deconstructed some of her male peers. Specially Ranbir who had an enormous tank in Besharam right after. Katrina works in her films like a glorified item girl which is to say people show up for her but only for certain kinds of reasons. Either way Deepika has stolen up on her in a big way though it must be said that Deepika still doesn’t have Katrina’s extraordinary (and to my mind mystifying) appeal across many cross-sections of the audience in terms of having that very direct connection.
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November 29, 2013 at 9:05 AM
While we are at it, let’s spare a thought for Rajamouli- the guy has made 9 films and ALL of them superhits (folks like Jr. NTR, Ram Charan Teja and Prabhas have had their biggest success with him)- especially Eega and Magadheera were massive grossers. I am pretty sure that Taran and Nahata (and the rest of Bollywood) must be blissfully unaware of this guy’s existence while they sing hosannas in praises of Sajid Khan and Rohit Shetty’s B.O. track record. I might be missing something, but I think his streak is second only to Manmohan Desai’s.
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November 29, 2013 at 9:28 AM
yes Rajamouli has had an incredible run. Shankar is the other guy who has that kind of record. There was Boys in between but even that was profitable. The Tamil media was merciless on the film. Otherwise he has an incredible string of successes. Having said that he’s often had top stars in his films. The Rajamouli track record is even more remarkable.
On Desai leaving aside the streak there is one achievement he has which I am pretty confident is unequaled in any cinema. He was doing AAA, Dharam Veer, Chacha Bhatija simultaneously, at one point there was some overlap with Parvarish as well. Each film had a massive star cast, each film went on to become minimally a super hit, AAA was of course the most massive one. Just the villains in all of these films could populate a multistarrer on their own and remarkably he justified each character. Some of our contemporary filmmakers could learn something from this. But really this is a feat. even otherwise for about roughly 20 years, maybe more, he didn’t have any failure as such.
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November 29, 2013 at 9:47 AM
in any case – DP is miles ahead of KK and even VB – kareena is slowly but surely rushing towards the exit-route (she is no more bankable – and i don’t know when she was a bankable solo-heroine!! it was all hype so far) – now DP’s super-success exposes those hype-driven-female stars…
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November 29, 2013 at 1:18 PM
DP is a craze now. No more and no less. She is just lucky that average films of hers clicked in a big way. Let us see how long can she hold on.
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November 29, 2013 at 10:25 AM
Fudge Box office
This thing has spread like wildfire and out in the open. People openly talking 60-70 cr tweak here.
The initial hype also works in generating curiosity and the buzz and tilts the scales for swing moviegoers and the undecided which in turn helps the business overall.
Pretty sad overall….
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November 29, 2013 at 10:41 AM
Paap se dharti phati, adharm se aasmaan, atyachaar se kaanpi insaaniyat, raj kar rahe haivaan … jinki hogi taqat apoorv, jinka hoga nishana abhed, joh karenge inka sarvanaash … woh kehlayenge Tridev!
for the uninitiated here is copy and paste translation
The earth is torn by sin, the heavens are cleaved by wrong, atrocities leave humanity trembling, the satans are ruling … those who will have infinite strength, those who will target the evil unflinchingly, those who will destroy the wrong-doers … they will
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November 29, 2013 at 10:50 AM
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November 29, 2013 at 3:45 PM
SRK— soon we all will be cuber6ing !!!
(So true srk–a nice piece, the bits I’ve read)
– Daboo Ratnani/DNA
I looked up Scorpios on the net and found that they are the cars Rohit Shetty gleefully sends flying into the air. On further research I arrived at Scorpio the sun sign. I found that being a Scorpio implies the following list of qualities: determination, fearlessness, sensuality, poise, loyalty, ambition, intuitiveness, a jealous and controlling nature, secretiveness, resentfulness, ruthlessness and a tendency towards mystery!
Much as I would like to pontificate on all these wonderful (or not so wonderful) traits, I (as a true blooded Scorpio) am supposed to possess, I think ‘mystery’ is the one that lends itself most to fifteen hundred words on a good November morning.
As a kid, I was an observer of people. I remember observing that a legendary uncle of mine would assume a morose, pondering posture now and then and stare deeply into the universe as if it held a great secret only he could decipher. “Interesting,” I thought, “it gives him an air of mystery, I wouldn’t mind being mysterious too” so I began to stare deeply into space and pretend I was morose now and then as well.
It worked wonders!
The grown ups began thinking that I was a deeply philosophical little boy. This gained me some positive attention while I was actually just contemplating sibling strategy (like how to overhear the girlie talk my sister shared with her friends in her room).
I learnt two important life lessons very early
1. Mystery is a clever psychological device; an excellent camouflage for all sorts of idiosyncrasies. It is most useful if wanting to fend off annoying conversation. Better still, if attempting to acquire an enigmatic aura or generally throwing your weight around.
2. If life were revelatory and bare, it would be deathly boring. So a little mystery is essential to a compelling life.
Thereon I decided that device or not, looking at life in terms of mysteries was a far better approach to it than taking it merely for what it appeared to be saying to me on the surface. I began to search for stories in everything and in doing so I began also, to understand the magical world of story telling that I later came to inhabit professionally.
Mystery has a knack of building upon itself. It begins with wonder and intrigue. The human mind is impatient with intrigue. It’s need to resolve, understand and simplify arises.
Hypotheses are developed, and theories thought up in an attempt to explain the inexplicable. But explanations have a curious twist. Invariably they read the myths of life at particular levels leaving other depths unresolved. This allows for new stories to come forth and lend themselves to exploration. Mysteries abound where we most seek answers and answers lead to new questions in a cyclical process. You figure one thing out and another pops up on top of it. Let me explain this revelation with a few of the mysteries that confound my intellect.
Hotel Californication
Like for example: Who designs the hyper space age hydraulic weapons masquerading as benign shower jets in glitzy hotel loos? The bathroom environs are enticing. Veined marbles, great smelling lotions in miniscule bottles, all lead the unsuspecting fellow craving a bath into their evil fold. As he strips and gingerly enters the shower cubicle he is confronted by a shower system that looks like, Mangal Yaan (the satellite being shot into Mars’ orbit, by India). All the knobs, handles, function keys, delete and escape command buttons, confound the simple man looking for a simple bath. He can’t figure out, which one is to be pulled, pushed, turned or pressed. He approaches the most friendly looking switch with caution and looks up in anticipation (because that’s where a shower normally begins its downward journey). Instead a murderous assault of water missiles is unleashed onto him from deviously placed nozzles that aim at odd places all over his body.
Before he knows it he is playing a paint-less version of Paintball with sneaky little water jets firing at him from all sides. If he is of a more agile disposition (like me) then he ends up doing the hitherto unknown Kathakali Rain dance.
There is an old quote stating something to the effect that… Marriage is like getting the mix of hot and cold water right in the shower. These space age showers might just give matrimony a whole new meaning!
And while we’re on mysteries I want to know why my whole body shouldn’t be immersed in the bathtub for a nice hot soak. If I push my chest inside, why do my knees stick out and vice versa. Is that too much to wonder? Should I shut up before Apple comes out with a user friendly version.
“Slide to immerse knees at the same time as chest.”
Having Kathakali danced his way through his shower, our valiant hotel guest may now turn his attention to the mystery of those infernal panels they affix on the bedside with little symbols indicating which button controls what light. One minute it’s Diwali, the next a throbbing nightclub, the third plunges him into abject darkness and the curtains will have suddenly splayed so that the entire universe might envelope him in its mysteriously morose stare.
I will not even venture into describing the furry shoeshine contraption they have lying in wait innocently beside the cupboard. It reminds me of a little grey monster from Monsters Inc. waiting to gobble you up feet first. All that will be left of the guest, is a shiny burp. Shudder.
And are you all with me on this one. The tightness with which they tuck the duvet into the grooves on the side of hotel beds. Snuggling into them is like getting into a pair of jeans two sizes too small. If you haven’t asphyxiated by morning, chances are you will end up having a massive case of ‘Toelio’, bent toes!
It’s a mystery why they can’t allow you to get into bed without warring with the Duvet Bin Laden.This is one reason you will never find me asking the house keeping in a hotel, to help me knot a tie around my neck!
Textesterone
Textually speaking, another modern mystery confronts us all today.
The ‘short hand’ typing for short messaging service and social media. Internet language or Netlingo as it is lovingly addressed.
It’s the language of the 21st century, they say. For 20 centuries, we barbaric humans have developed languages that will civilise us. Dictionaries that will enlighten us. Shakespeare’s sonnets that will make us fall in love (if we understood them, that is).
So I would like to know who had the brilliant idea that we need to condense and distort them into Netlingo? I’m not arguing about languages like Basic and Cobol that enhance the usage of machines in our lives and modernise us? I’m talking about the stuff that regresses us to our barbaric, grunting days.
So now we communicate in abbreviations. Short form. Text speak. Txt spk. They claim it facilitates communication.
I heard Martha Stewart analyse the current human posture in her programme, something like this.
Bent over a device, with no way of hearing any other sound except the skrillix music in our ears.
What is to become of us? Instead of speaking to each other, we will write using a nonsensical array of letters. Texting will become our only form of communication and if we do speak, will we speak as we read?
But what we will read, will be gibberish. BYBO…CYA..OMG…JSU…LOL…ROFL. When you read it, it will sound surprisingly like grunting and heaving sounds. The ones we made when we were apes. Will our highly developed senses then embark upon the discovery of language once again? But we already have more than the languages we need!!!
Doesn’t this make everyone wonder? Everyone except the rappers, I guess. They are ok with whatever abbreviation you use as long as you prefix or suffix it with F@#*.
But what’s even more mysterious to me is that people are now ‘Sexting’. Which means sending naked pictures on phones and the net and making out on the virtual plane instead of plain old Kashmiri rugs. Cyber6 it’s called. Cyber Sex to the uninitiated.
Does anybody understand the enormity of this?? Soon we’ll all be cyber6ing and we’ll forget how to procreate. We are slowly destroying mankind…one message at a time. Don Altman said, “The digital frontier is a nurturing place where verbs and nouns are not only born, but in fact bear off-springs.”
Yeah that’s very cool, but picture a world overrun with little verbs and nouns in pretty prams instead of the Farex babies we have sort of become so accustomed to.
A wonderful author who goes by the name of Josh Gondelman, has done an exercise on the net, of converting famous movie quotes into text speak. Some of the results will bear testimony to my outcry of disbelief at what is happening to us:
GONE WITH THE WIND
“Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn.”
Becomes….
Seriously my dear, WTF!!
FIGHT CLUB
First rule: “You do not talk about Fight Club”
Becomes…
1st rule: STFU
JERRY MCGUIRE
“You had me at hello”
Becomes..
You had me @ ’sup
I rest my case. There can’t be no great debate about it. Or should that be…no gr8 db8 abt tis.
Which brings me to the abiding mystery of why human beings need to complicate the simplest things in their endless endeavour to uncomplicate their own lives.
This also works in reverse: people get confounded by the camouflage of mysteriousness in a way that even the most mundane things become mystifying to them given the right context. Being a so-called superstar you end up surrounded by people who contextualise the silliest things into justifications for their own ideas of you.
If anyone else were to declare they never used soap to bathe with, it would create an insufferable stink, as a superstar, it just adds to the repertoire of legends being woven around you. “And he doesn’t even use soap” they’ll whisper in a revelatory tone (I don’t by the way, but I’ve been told I smell fantastic, and there is no mystery here, I just use a lot of cologne.)
I’ve seen people use mystery to make themselves look truly superior and far more interesting than they actually are. It works like a charm. Especially when they fall for it themselves!
There are those who begin to refer to themselves in the third person “He cannot wear these clothes in public” they’ll say, as you look around wondering which exhibitionist flasher exactly they’re referring to. Or then they’ll allude to their own body parts as if they belonged to a mysterious collective of body parts, “The arms were aching after like two hours of exercise bro.”
There’s another one they fancy, the one in which they mysteriously dissolve their own agency into public will, “The people want me to do this” they’ll proclaim expecting to be taken seriously. What people?! I wonder. I also wonder that if they took their head out their own caboose long enough, will they realise there is no one telling them to do anything.
It’s a mystery to me why it’s never enough to be human or ordinary or just plain strange. Why do we have to cloak ourselves in the farce of extraordinariness just because we (mystically?) succeeded where others failed before us.
But then everything is a mystery to me and I like it that way. That’s the way I have been brought up. It’s my uncle’s fault. All of it
Like which armrest of my seat in a theater belongs to me?
Ownership is a mystery.
Why must we pluck flowers instead of admiring their beauty?
Why set luminous gems into jewels?
Why trap birds in cages instead of watching them soar into the sky?
Why show off river fish in your tacky little aquarium when they could be swimming currents downstream?
Why try to change people we love and then fall out of love with them because they changed?
I believe that we spend too much of our lives trying to know and find explanations for things. Why do we have trouble accepting the unknown in our world? It might be nice to let things be sometimes. Relationships. Love. Nature. People.
Whether we know something or not, it actually does not make a difference in the larger scheme of things because however deep our knowledge might be, it is still immensely limited.
Someone has said, “Knowing, is often just a cover up. Ideas, concepts, theories or mere facts are delusion or disguises we use to hide our fear of the inexplicable. When something is accepted in its entireity as a mystery, it actually means we know it deeper and more intuitively. Somewhere within our souls we are in a mode of ‘the accepting form of knowledge’. It encompasses our being as a whole.”
It’s like magic. If you understand the way it is done, it gets reduced to a trick. Its important to let the magic be magical to enjoy it to its fullest.
Letting mystery be, requires courage and the security to live it without being afraid of the unknown.
Acceptance of mystery leads to faith in life itself without fear. Mystery allows us to have Faith and ‘feel’ our way through life instead of deconstructing it.
Like the Faith most of us have in God.
Ken Kesey puts this most aptly: “I am for mystery, not interpretive answers. The answer is never the answer. What’s really interesting is the mystery. If you seek mystery instead of the answer, you will always be seeking. I have never seen nobody really find the answer, but they think they have.
So they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.”
Or as Arthur Stanley explains it, “We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two. We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about ‘and’.”
Though I am a Scorpio, I still believe that it is better to go through this life without finding an answer. Because the answer as Douglas Adams told us, could possibly be 42. And if 42 is the answer, wouldn’t that leave us a tad disappointed, to say the least.
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November 29, 2013 at 3:48 PM
Typo–it’s ‘CYBER6ing’ !!
Nice concept actually, srk –that’s given me a few ideas (as if ‘spoofs’ weren’t enough!) 🙂
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November 29, 2013 at 6:42 PM
A bunch of films I saw over the past month:
Seemabadha
I’ve not seen too many Satyajit Ray films yet (so far only Nayak, Abhijaan, Charulata, Shatranj Ke Khiladi), so I’m trying to get through a few more. I really enjoyed this one – Sharmila Tagore (who looks incredibly beautiful here) plays a young lady who goes to visit her sister and brother-in-law in the city. He works for a company and is slowly climbing the ladder. She looks up to him a lot, and when he makes a rather immoral decision, to further his career, it changes their relationship. Sharmila said she plays the role of ‘Conscience’ in this film – oh, and her dimples!!!
Bewaqoof
Loved this Kishore Kumare comedy. Mala Sinha was also excellent in one if her non-weepy roles. Pran keeps them company in one of the most zaniest films I’ve seen in ages. Def worth watching if u feel like a laugh.
Daal Mein Kaala
Yet more mistaken identities as unemployed Kishore Kumar is accidentally thought to be a professor. Nimmi is pleasant to watch here (unusually?). Shammi is utterly crazy. And Kishore is brilliant as always.
Silver Linings Playbook
Good film – in particular I liked the way it explores the relationship between psychiatric patients, and also the toll it can take on the family. The performances were all splendid.
Humkadam
Really liked this small-budget family/marital drama, with Raakhee and Parikshit Sahni. They play a middle-class couple, who feel the pinch when the in-laws movei n, and so he convinces her to get a job but then struggles to cope with her success. I’d recommend it (it’s on youtube).
Gravity
Visually spectacular but oh so so boring. After 30 minutes the novelty had worn off and I spent the next hour on whatsapp.
China Town
This Shammi Kapoor double-roler seems the inspiration for Don, and is actually an enjoyable ride, with Helen and Shakila joining the fun. Has Rafi’s famous Baar Baar Dekho.
Dhai Akshar Prem Ke
Can’t believe I actually watched this! Randomly came across it on youtube…it’s a dreadful film but kinda inexplicably watchable. Starring Abhishek and Aishwariya in their first film together, it’s hard to pick who’s acting is worse (I liked them in all the subsequent films they did together) – let’s say they’re both equally terrible here. The film copies DDLJ in so many ways, but Aish lacks Kajol’s spontaneity and Abhishek lacks SRK’s charisma (he improved massively by KNK) . Anupam Kher is the best from the huge supporting cast (Sushma Seth, Shakti Kapoor, Tanvi Azmi, Dilip Tahil and Amrish Puri, who plays exactly the same character as in DDLJ).
Filth
Ha, I saw this with a Canadian, who couldn’t understand most of the Scottish phrases. It starts of as a messy comedy, but has a dark interior, with a core of mental ilness. Not sure how I rate it.
Meena Kumari
For so many years I had wanted to get hold of this biography, written by Vinod Mehta months after her death in 1972. However it has been out of print so I was ecstatic when it was republished this year. I ordered my copy from Amazon, and at the same time my uncle also ordered me a copy as a surprise, so now I’ve got two! Anyways, it was an interesting read, even if I found the author’s style a bit annoying at times. The frustrating thing is that at so many points in the book it is hard to tell what is actually true, but then that all makes Meena Kumari even more fascinating. Towards the end, when Mehta is documentating Meena’s final days in hospital it is quite hard to read – a tragic end to an incredibly sad life.
Pakeezah
Had to revisit this after reading the book :=)
Phukrey
This never really rises above being mildly watchable. About a group of losers who wanna make money so they can get into college and bang some girls.
Aashiq
One of the very few Hrishikesh Mukherjee film I hadn’t seen yet. Starring Raj Kapoor, Padmini and Nanda. Not really a fan of any of them. The highlight are the awesome songs by Shankar Jaikishen, sung by Lata and Mukesh – ‘O Shama Mujhe Phoonk De’, ‘Tum Jo Hamaare Meet Na Hote’, ‘Mahtaab Tera Chehra’. The film itself is decent, not extraordinary. It has shades of Silsila, but here the relationship begins after marriage, and also touches on the idea of soulmates, in this case connected by music.
Garam Masala
Ha, I dunno how I ended up watching this dumb comedy with Akshay/John.
Dekh Kabira Roya
Ah Madan Mohan! This crazy comedy is jam-packed with incredible melodies including Kaun Aaya Mere Man Je Dwaare (Manna De), Humse Aaya Na Gayaa Tumse Bulaaya Na Gaya (Talat), Tu Pyar Kare Ya Thukraaye and Meri Veena Tum Bin Roye (Lata) and Hum Panchi Mastaane (Lata/Geeta). The plot is about three guys, a painter, a singer and a writer. Each has a female admirer who is mixed up about his profession. And there’s lots of comedy that cones out of the mistaken identities. Fun film.
Phata Poster Nikla Hero
I switched this on because I vaguely remember Rangan being positive about it. But I lost patience within 10 mins and switched it off.
Boyfriend
Shammi Kapoor plays the long-lost-son-of-a-rich-family-who-becomes-a-crook-with-a-golden-heart in this rather dull film. Some nice songs though and a beautiful as always Madhubala.
Shikar
Quite a fun suspense film with Dharmendra, Asha Parekh, Sanjeev Kumar (looking really young!), Rehman and Helen in one of her most attractive, effervescent roles. Some awesome songs too, including Asha’s Parde Mein Rehne Do. And Johnny Walker is fun here too.
Anjuman
Tried really hard to watch this Shabana Azmi starrer of Muzzafar Ali, but I just got so bored. Gave up after half hour. She’s the eldest of many siblings, raised by a single mother, without much money. She writes poetry.
Imaan
Sanjeev Kumar (double role) and Leena star is this pretty crap movie about the difficulty of leading an honest life in this bad world 😉 Johnny Walker is here too!
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November 29, 2013 at 7:28 PM
As always these lists continue to be incredibly eclectic and interesting to read! I still have to create posts here. Oddly I am always in between stuff when I come across them..!
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November 30, 2013 at 7:17 AM
Satyam: Don’t you have a premika/ardhaangini/saheli who forces you to accompany her to the theatres to watch Hindi films?! 🙂 . Anyhow, hope you will check out Bullet Raja ASAP- I saw it today and it was super fun (nothing truly special, but far better than anything in the genre since Ghajini). Very interested in knowing your (and GF’s and Q’s) views on it.
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November 30, 2013 at 7:32 AM
And it baffles me that this got a lower opening than some of the other trash in the genre considering that this was streets ahead of Ready and all the likes (I am not including DMD and OUATIM since they were not straight-Masala) including Rowdy Rathore (which I found enjoyable)- now this might be because unlike the other films it does not have ANY low-brow/crass element (except a rather insipid item number) or because the music is horrendous. Or probably Saif (who is in superb form here. I will watching it for the second time in the theatre just for him) just can’t open a film by himself these days (I am pretty sure Cocktail wouldn’t have done more than 40 crores without Deepika)
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November 30, 2013 at 7:44 AM
thanks.. do want to check it out..
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December 1, 2013 at 7:49 PM
Hehe, movies are probably the only thing where my taste might be called eclectic 😉
I’m currently watching Bol Bachchan…and slightly embarassed to admit I’m having a blast!
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December 1, 2013 at 8:30 PM
BB was pretty enjoyable. However this film could have been way better than it was on the socio-political codes it offers. Then again it would have required Shetty to suddenly metamorphose into Hirani! But yeah it’s one of his best films (low bar though that is!). Think the maa sequence here along with the DDLJ spoof at the beginning of CE is the best stuff Shetty’s ever done and it’s a pity he doesn’t do more of this in his films. In many ways his single best film is the rather restrained (if stagey) All the Best. He knows how to keep the show going but almost everywhere goes for the lowest hanging fruit.
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December 1, 2013 at 8:36 PM
I think this is probably the first Rohit Shetty film I’ve watched – so my very low opinion of his movies is really just based on trailers/reviews. Maybe I’ll check out ATB…but if I end up a Rohit Shetty fan I’m gonna sue you (and your blog) 😉
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December 1, 2013 at 10:37 PM
You should definitely watch ATB. Even CE is passable. Actually it’s really a lot of fun in the first 20 min or more but it goes downhill after this. But still watchable. I’ve never seen the Golmaal films. The segments I saw seemed pretty unbearable but someone told me Gomaal 3 was quite ok. On the suing bit… LOL!
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November 30, 2013 at 5:52 AM
Both husband and wife are giving duds. Kareena and Saif.
This year is one of the worst years in terms of quality.
Forgettable trash.
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November 30, 2013 at 7:42 AM
Bullet Raja First Day Business
Saturdday 30th November 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bullet Raja could not make much impact on day one as it grossed around 6.50 crore nett. The film had fair collections in UP and Rajasthan but could not do much elsewhere. Mumbai circuit was dull with collections just a little higher than Delhi/UP when normally it should be 50% higher.
The film did not perform at multiplexes as the collections were not upto the mark for its release, single screens were also below par apart from some cities in UP and Rajasthan.
The film will find it tough going over the weekend and with normal trending weekend trending it may just go a little over 20 crore nett. To have a respectable weekend figure the film needs good growth on Saturday and Sunday.
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November 30, 2013 at 8:41 AM
Just 6.5? This is disastrous. It was big film much bigger than other disaster GTPM , in news for so long with all big names in it.
I expected 8-9 cr at least and 60 cr total at worst. It might wrap around 35 cr.
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November 30, 2013 at 9:06 AM
again I think there’s an audience fatigue at the moment. Part of it is probably just the very real problem of having so many films in a row. Even for regular multiplex goers it is a crunch to watch so many over a period of a few months. It’s not like the US where you could really go on a binge and for the most part it wouldn’t be a very big deal. As I said earlier I suspect they’ll just wait it out till Dhoom. This is the only thing that explains the poor initials. Even GTPM had an abysmally low number which even accounting for everything is unexpected and to my mind is only explained by what I’ve just said. The only other significant release between now and Dhoom is R…Rajkumar. Will be interesting to see what this gets. I still wouldn’t expect much of an initial here but if it opens better than Bullet Raja (which by the way looks like a lot of fun and it would be a pity if this lost out only because of bad scheduling) it might have a chance to be a moderate success because Pradbhudevaa does tap into the audience. The larger point still is Bollywood’s craziness in planning this stuff. You can’t keep releasing big or significant films over a period of a few months and expect people to keep showing up. At least at those multiplex rates. And it’s a pity because at least from the trailers Bullet Raja deserved a better start. The same might be true of R..Rajkumar.
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November 30, 2013 at 9:16 AM
The heavy load between Diwali and xmas is always been an issue. Yesterday Ram Leela was fully booked and every other film had plenty of seats! People get into picking and choosing mode and sometimes the odd film expected to do well doesn’t! Feb-May – they have to release some more films.
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November 30, 2013 at 9:46 AM
“Pradbhudevaa does tap into the audience”-
I will rephrase it and say “Prabhudeva serves people the crassy, absolutely low brow Masala which Hindi film audiences want and deserve”. That he is better in serving this shit than folks like Sajid Khan (Himmatwala) and the likes is not saying much. It irritates me no end that when someone like Dhulia decides to give these ‘masses’ something more sensible in the genre, they just reject it. Poor Dhulia’s fault was that he completely discarded the crass stuff, had a proper plot and narrative, did away with the terrible South-styled action (Not looking down upon this kind of action. They look fine in Tamil/Telugu films because there is a ‘history’ to the overstylized stunts, but they look completely out of place in a Hindi film unless they are contextualised to the scene like in Ghajini) and replaced it with properly choreographed action (Just the 2 sequences involving Vidyut Jamwal are better anything I have seen of late) and decides to embellish the narrative with memorable supporting parts. And his biggest sin was that his film rests on a proper ‘cathartic element’. Sadly I have a feeling that Dhulia will never make a Masala film again after seeing the fate of this film.
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November 30, 2013 at 10:29 AM
“The heavy load between Diwali and xmas is always been an issue.”
“again I think there’s an audience fatigue at the moment”
“Just 6.5? This is disastrous. ”
ROFL I mean these are hilarious
Enjoying these comments —
Btw what happened to the limitless market which could be extrapolated (as in Hollywood) beyond 200,250, 350, 500 crores net.
Guess the audiences suddenly became miserly and spent too much this Diwali !!! Or guess they have to save for the hiked prices for d3 designed to beat the 240 crores k3 target? Lol
As for bullett raja –it looks like a v good film from promos
Have always liked saif but this one isn’t showing v nearby..
As for commenting on k3 200 crores plus earning and questioning it, guess saif will learn a lesson…
Play amongst your likes, win there and then talk about the bigger boys …
Ps: may check out bullett raja if find it playing somewhere tho doubt it…
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November 30, 2013 at 10:33 AM
I think that Prabhudevaa’s abilities might be debated one way or the other but to call him a better version of Sajid Khan is an insult. Yes it’s often lowbrow but fun. I liked Rowdy Rathore a lot.
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November 30, 2013 at 11:14 AM
As much I enjoyed Rowdy Rathore (I saw this in the theatre), I don’t believe for a second that this was quality entertainment (Had OUATIM released after Singham when Devgn was hot, it would have easily outgrossed Rowdy. It is a film which has been far more liked than RR). And what has Prabhudeva done apart of any worth apart from RR- All he does is do shot-by-shot remakes of Telugu starrers Wanted was mildly enjoyable but a much inferior version of Pokkiri. The lesser said the better about his Ramaiya Vastavaiya (The Trisha-Siddharth original was itself a poor copy of Maine Pyar Kiya). And while I haven’t seen it, I can assume how his Lage Raho Munna Bhai remake with Chiranjeevi would have been. All this guy has done in his life is remakes. And even when it comes to Masala, in South itself I will take Gunasekhar (who is not exactly lowbrow but you get my point- Pokkiri), Dharani (Dhool), Hari (Saamy), Linguswamy (Run, Sandhakozhi), Balaji Sakthivel (Samurai), K. V. Anand (Ayan), Ravikumar (Aadhavan, Padayappa. Have not seen most of his films though), Susi Ganeshan (Kanthaswamy) to name a few (and let’s not even go to Shankar, Murugadoss and Rajamouli etc). his only film of some worth has been Rowdy Rathore (which itself was a remake. A better remake in this case, but that’s not saying much when the original has Ravi Teja).
And Sajid Khan comparison was probably misplaced, but I will call him a better version of Rohit Shetty. Actually wait, Shetty’s All The Best was better than every Prabhu Deva film. So there…
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November 30, 2013 at 11:27 AM
I think multiple release is just an excuse. Didn’t they know this release schedule? There is no reason for such low business when small films like ABCD, Fukrey make respectable big total of around 40 cr. Even non star cast films like Aashiqui 2 , Ranjhnaa, Grand Masti make huge business during congensted release time.
Not going far, just In last 2 years, we saw Rockstar, Dirty Picture, Khiladi 786, Talaash making respectable totals. All of these movies were released between Diwali and christmas period. Business has only increased year each year.
No one gives credit to those who release during congested release time. Cocktail was released just one week after bol bachchan and many hollywood releases including TDKR were released in same week.
In any case, 15 cr of GTPM and expected 35 cr of BR just restates Saifeena have been lucky recently. No deepika to save saif, no khan to save save kareena. AS for one expression Imran, he is not even a star imo. Not much questions raise on imran though he is probably worst actor with Godfather. He already got more than deserve. He was worst thing about every flop film of his inclusind recent OUTIMD too and just survived in his most successful ones.
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November 30, 2013 at 11:34 AM
True. The fact is Saif can’t open a film on his own (even when he is top form as a star like he is in Bullet Raja). I think the tanking of Agent Vinod ended up damaging his B.O. position a lot. The other fact is that Dhulia’s film has absolutely terrible music which didn’t really help in the publicity. And not having over-the-top elements hardly helped matters
.
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November 30, 2013 at 11:53 AM
Agent vinod and bullet raja looked winner before promos were released. Saif had two good opportunities to make good films but he rather went to make them big films. Both directors are strong with their thriller/drama genres. He interfered in their work by adding comic elements and glorification of his star status.
Everyone is not Aamir khan who knows when to give inputs and when he should stop.
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November 30, 2013 at 12:07 PM
I agree somewhat on Agent Vinod, but disagree completely on Bullet Raja. Yes it’s a Masala film, but is alsi an out-and-out Tigmanshu Dhulia film (i.e. it is not Singham, Ready or Himmatwala). Dhulia made a very good film here. Just that for this genre you need an actor who can give you a big opening. The other thing is that apart from Salman no one can keep give these openings consistently- we just saw happened to Bullet Raja. Akshay, a top star, failed miserably with Boss as well as K786 (this after having a solid success in the genre with RR). Himmatwala with Devgn tanked (after he was on a very good run with Singham, BB and SoS behind him). The point is that these ‘nothing masala-films’ by the likes of Shetty and Sajid Khan have harmed the genre badly. These bad masala films have fatigued the audience and not stuff like poor release schedule. In turn some of the truly good stuff in the genre like Bullet Raja suffers as well as part of collateral damage
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November 30, 2013 at 12:21 PM
You are comparing it with BOSS, himmatwala and other masala films. This is not masala and that s my point. Tigmanshu has not made any masala film yet. They were hardcore drama/thriller. I haven’t seen film yet, but as per reviews they have mixed dabangg in Saib biwi aur gangster. Promos suggest forced comic element which falls flat. Unnecessary Love angle with sonakshi adds nothing to story.
Many reviews also say saif’s character has been gloried like Chulbul pandey rather than well sketched. They tried to achieve so much in one film. Opening was never an issue, i expected good film which trend well. But, public is also confused with confuse film now, look at the reactions of people ob BMS FDFS.
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/more/videos/view/showing/first-day-first-show/sort/What%27s%20New/id/2253158
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November 30, 2013 at 12:29 PM
Man, this has Masala written all over it. Right from involving the central trope of the ‘Masala buddies’ to the countless references to Sholay. this is as Masala as its gets.
SPOILER-
The central twist involves Jimmy being killed right before interval and Saif plotting the revenge is right out of a masala film
You are right that it has thriller elements. But who said Masala films didn’t have thriller elements- Don is the best example here of a Masala-thriller.
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November 30, 2013 at 12:57 PM
You haven’t read it right. I knew it is masala. But , they haven’t stuffed thriller in masala, they tried to create masala film out of a thriller which is only genre tigmanshu has worked very successfully on.
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November 30, 2013 at 11:35 AM
‘The heavy load between Diwali and xmas is always been an issue.’ Then why producers release film during such period. And a good film has always found his audience in this period too inspite of multiple release. Remember Vivah, Dirty Picture, Talaash(In multiplexes, it was never supposed to work in plexes), Khiladi 786 (Did well in Single screens, plex audience already rejected it due to atrocious promos).
Even SSTG had found audience in single screens as stated by BOI while sunny is no star these days. 12.5 cr total and 35 cr total are just ridiculous for such big films. These are half day and one day total for big films. Ramleela opened 15 cr+ just after krrish3.
It is more of failure of films and rejection of stars to some extent.
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November 30, 2013 at 9:27 PM
“The only other significant release between now and Dhoom is R…Rajkumar” – here is a litmus test for PrabhuDeva – shahit kapoor has become shaflop kapoor off-late and whatever he touches flops at the b.o. – so lets c who wins here?
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December 1, 2013 at 5:06 AM
i am going out on the limb and predicting a nice healthy opening day/weekend/week and total for r…raj kumar. ‘gandi baat’ is a rage and the promos are good.
itll be a 12cr opening day and 60-65cr opening week would be good. think itll end up around 105-110cr. Shahid Kapoor gets his first 100cr film with prabhudeva!
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November 30, 2013 at 7:42 AM
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela Third Friday Business
Saturday 30th November 2013 15.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela collected 1.25 crore nett on its third Friday which takes the total to around 98.25 crore nett. The film will hit the 100 crore nett today (Saturday). It will have reached the mark in seventeen days.
The weekend should go to a little over 5 crore nett and the film is sure to cross the 105 crore nett mark.
It remains to be seen if the film becomes the fourth or fifth biggest grosser of of the year. At the moment Bhaag Milkha Bhaag at 109 crore nett is in fourth place.
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November 30, 2013 at 7:44 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 29 Nov
2013 has been a remarkable year for Deepika Padukone. Four films in ₹ 100 cr Club – #Race2, #YJHD, #ChennaiExpress and now #RamLeela.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 29 Nov
Four back to back ₹ 100 cr films in a single year by Deepika Padukone – it’s the FIRST for any actress here. A milestone indeed!
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November 30, 2013 at 10:22 AM
KRRISH3 BOX OFFICE COLLECTIONS TOP 500 CRORES; DISMANTLES KHAN TRIUMVIRATE’S REPUTATION
FE Online | New Delhi | Updated: Nov 29
Krrish 3 has ensured the future looks dim for the Khan’s box office collections.
SUMMARY
Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish 3 taunts Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan with box office collections that are simply massive.
Box office collections: Krrish 3 highest grosser of all time, prediction Rs 500 cr, SRK’s Chennai Express derailled
Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish 3, after taking Bollywood by storm, with the content provided, performances and most of all with box office collections, has thrown down the gauntlet to the Khan brigade which had been coasting on the back of some superlative successes like Salman Khan’s Dabangg series and of course Shah Rukh Khan’s Chennai Express and Aamir Khan with 3 Idiots or more recently with Talaash.
While the Khan brigade has already shot its arrows in the recent past, it is up to Aamir Khan to bring the long-standing equilibrium back in Bollywood with Dhoom 3, expected in 2013, or Peekay which is set to hit screens in 2014.
However, Krrish 3 has already set the bar way too high with box office collections of Rs 242 crore, having bagged a whopping Rs 25.50 cr on opening day and followed it up with Rs 72.8 cr in opening weekend and Rs 166.52 cr at end of week one to make a final count of Rs 242.53 crore. Since the movie is still running in many theatres it expects to add to the lifetime collections tally.
But more than that is the widespread belief among the cognoscenti that Krrish 3 has been able to notch up box office collections plus other revenues of over Rs 500 cr! The figure was floated by Rakesh Roshan in a newspaper article that was contested by critics, but the filmmaker is standing by his figures.
Now, to beat that, the Khan brigade will need, not just an extraordinary strategy, but also content that is markedly different than what they have been offering. From the expected, Krrish 3 has offered content and strategies that are outstandingly different and these have paid off.
The Khan’s could copy that, but that is not going to get that a mammoth super-hit to beat the Roshan family. After all, they have created memorably macabre and sexy characters for Vivek Oberoi, Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut and of course Naseerudin Shah. That requires a lot of hard work, enterprise, and above all courage to take the attention away from the super-hero Hrithik himself.
Can the Khan’s do it?
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/krrish-3-box-office-collections-top-rs-500-cr-dismantles-khan-triumvirate-reputation/1200157
Haha -enjoying it esp the headline 🙂
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November 30, 2013 at 10:46 AM
audience fatigue is the right word. But if had deepika instead of Sonakshi or Kareena, the fatigue would not have been there.
Bollywood needs to clone deepika to survive. audience will swallow anything with deepika starring in it.
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November 30, 2013 at 10:48 AM
“audience will swallow anything with deepika starring in it.”– haha sanju–& it’s the other way around as well
that’s a good ‘deep’ comment–keep it up 🙂
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November 30, 2013 at 10:46 AM
So might be checking a film today
Options gravity 3D (that can be checked later as well)–bulletin raja not playing nearby
but theres another screening–Jeune et jolie…(young and beautiful!)
Guess I may want to support such ‘small indie films’ first..Whatsay sat yam…hav u seen it -kwik…thanx
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November 30, 2013 at 12:39 PM
While Deepika has 4 hits in a row, Sonakshi has 4 duds in a row. If her film with Shahid also fails.
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November 30, 2013 at 12:52 PM
LOL. It might fail , Saree ke fall and gandi baat caters to god know which audience. We have seen BOSS and himmatwalla fail. BOSS looked even good with promos and songs with decent reviews. This genre is goner, shahid is too late. Stubble could alienate his female audience mostly.
Only Dhoom3 will score now with little fireworks win Catching fire and Hobbit. Hopefully 3 small movies releasing on 13th Dec will provide some comic relief meanwhile.
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December 1, 2013 at 6:12 AM
Rangan on Bullet Raja-
“There are many ways to make masala movies. You can serve them straight up, the way Prabhu Dheva does. Or you can distance yourself and refract the whole thing through a po-mo prism, the way Anurag Kashyap did in his Gangs of Wasseypur diptych. But in Bullett Raja, Tigmanshu Dhulia is after something else altogether. He wants to make a “realistic” masala movie. This put-everything-in-a-blender genre of cinema derives from our myths, and is, therefore, inevitably the stuff of far-out fantasy – but here, Dhulia asks: “What if I rooted my story in the real world, in the midst of real issues? What if I want to stage, say, Haasil, with masala flourishes, making the everyman hero something of a superman?” This is not a bad idea. The masala movie is about the only kind of commercial Hindi cinema that acknowledges the world beyond the cities, and if you can invest that kind of story with the texture, the layers that a director like Dhulia brought to Paan Singh Tomar, then we could have the best of both worlds, a movie that appeals to the audience member who wants only to be entertained as well as the audience member who wants to be entertained sensibly.”
“With so much that’s so fascinating at a conceptual level, it’s surprising how dull Bullett Raja is – and that’s because Dhulia, in his attempts to imbue his material with layers and texture, forgets what made those masala movies work in the first place. Those films had a moment-to-moment vitality. The characters, scenes, lines had punch. Maybe those films erred too much in that direction, and maybe they forgot to be anything outside the moment, but this was a realisation we had only later, when we thought about the film as we walked out. Inside the theatre, though, we were too entertained to notice that this wasn’t adding up or that wasn’t “realistic” or reflective of how India really was. Sholay doesn’t work because it is real but because it feels real, because the characters and their motivations are worked out in ways that draw us in – and without that emotional investment, what good is a masala movie?”
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December 1, 2013 at 8:33 AM
This is an excellent read and not least for Rangan’s musings on the masala difference.
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December 1, 2013 at 8:50 AM
Bullet Raja Saturday Business
Sunday 1st December 2013 13.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bullet Raja failed to improve its business on Saturday as collections were in the same range as Friday. The collections improved slightly in Mumbai and Delhi/UP but most other circuits were down.
The film has now collected around 13 crore nett in two days with both Friday and Saturday contributing 6.50 crore nett each. The film had to show a 20-30% jump on Saturday if it was to have a chance at the box office.
Sunday will show an improvement in collections but the fate of the film is already sealed as it has under performed over the first two days.
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December 1, 2013 at 8:51 AM
once again Taran hasn’t provided either Fri or Sat numbers. Looks like this might be the new norm for him!
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December 1, 2013 at 8:51 AM
Komal Nahta @KomalNahta 29 Nov
Hrithik Roshan off to London tonight for medical opinion. His headaches, unfortunately, have not stopped after his brain surgery too.
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December 1, 2013 at 8:52 AM
“Hrithik is not undergoing any surgery” – Rakesh Roshan
By Subhash K. Jha, Nov 28, 2013 – 09:52 hrs IST
The media has been abuzz with Hrithik Roshan’s plans to go abroad for medical treatment. There are also reports that he would require another surgery for his headaches.
Hrithik had undergone a brain surgery in July in Mumbai.
However, Hrithik’s father Rakesh Roshan completely rubbishes reports of a second surgery.
Speaking exclusively to this writer Rakesh Roshan said, “Hrithik is going abroad only for a medical check-up, not a surgery. He gets these occasional headaches, and he wants to get to the bottom of them once and for all.”
When prodded as to where and how reports of his surgery came from, Rakesh Roshan responded, “You must ask those well-wishers who spread such rumours. I repeat, there is no surgery happening. Just a check-up.”
Apparently, reports suggesting that Hrithik would need a long layoff from work are not only misplaced but also premature.
Says the concerned father, “Hrithik will be gone abroad for a week or at the most, two weeks. There is no need to spread alarming reports.”
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December 1, 2013 at 8:55 AM
“His headaches, unfortunately, have not stopped after his brain surgery too”–
Because there are other personal/family reasons for this ‘headache’ –wishing HR all the best with all causes of headache !!
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December 1, 2013 at 8:59 AM
He needs to really take it easy till this problem is resolved. He’s already had a blood clot removed from his brain. Also he should also be very careful at this point about the stuff he does and ‘ingests’ to keep his body that way. There might well be a connection.
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December 1, 2013 at 9:38 AM
he needs to be dispatched to antarctica with only apex as the company..
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December 1, 2013 at 6:05 PM
Wow that will be great–bit we won’t go without the following contingent —
Ms Kat Kaif, Ms Marine Vacht & (ideas favourite) Ileana Dacruz!
These three will help us out with some Antarctic ‘experiments’ , ‘play’ with us besides keeping us warm & in good ‘spirits’
(While idea watches from the side!) 🙂
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December 1, 2013 at 9:04 AM
Don’t think it’s much about his ‘ingesting’ much actually –being surrounded by a ‘coke addict’ doesn’t help!!
But yeah, he should take it easy —
Postpone ‘bang bang’ (an awaited film for me)
And ditch ‘shuddhi’ till Kareena is replaced !!
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December 1, 2013 at 9:09 AM
Heavy steroid use can cause all kinds of issues.. of course this might be unrelated..
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December 1, 2013 at 9:14 AM
JEUNE ET JOLIE (French)
My tagline-There’s a ‘je ne se quoi’ about Vacht!
I watched this flick as what seems to be a companion piece to ‘Blue is the warmest color’. You can’t beat the French in certain things and this is one of them!
Jeune et Jolie depicts the story of a 17-year-old French girl Isabelle (Marine Vacht) who is a seemingly normal teenager (though one with modelesque features), following her life over four seasons. Despite being from a loving and wealthy family, inexplicably begins working as a prostitute.
Director François Ozon makes beautiful use of the passing seasons in the depiction of Isabelle’s sexual awakening through her loss of virginity in the summer to a German vacationer to her gritty, dirty encounters with various clients throughout winter. Ozon’s use of the seasons tactfully and delicately separates the film into bite-size sections, each providing the essential character and plot development needed to avoid the film stagnating.
Another new French star actress is born here -Marine Vacth (just like Adele Exarchopoulos in Blue). I haven’t seen any film of hers but had seen the face before -couldn’t recall. Now I remember that Marine has apparently done ad-campaigns for Yves St Laurent & Louis Vutton, adorning billboards earlier. Marine does have a star presence reminding one of icons like Brigitte Bardot and Marion Cotillard, though clearly she has miles to go interms of acting credentials but she has time on her side. She possesses a certain poise besides the ability to use those deep, saucery, smoldering expressive eyes to poignant effect where needed & alluring elsewhere.
While the Parisian aesthetics add some sparkle and beauty to her life, the prostitution situation scenes are gritty and even crude. Isabelle herself seems tainted by that, obsessed with showering, all the time, evolving with sensuality. She is emotionally immune and indifferent. Her rapport eliciting tenderness comes from her relationship with her younger brother and one of her older clients .
I personally found her ‘minor brother’ quite interesting who empathised with her, shared her secrets, even helped her out in her perversions whilst also spying over her with his binoculars!! There were some subtle comedic elements involving the minor brother and also with her stepdad. Isabelle’s mothers inability to understand or help her daughter is brought out well. Her brief interactions with her step dad is interestingly wierd though.
In another adeptly handled scene, she actually ‘watches herself’ from a distance while she loses her virginity! Charlotte Rampling’s emotional appearance at the end of the movie is superb and acts as the cheery on the cake. Perhaps the intention is to show that being young and beautiful can actually last a lifetime indeed!
The common qualm against this film will be that it lacks in substance & depth– the audience never discovers why Isabelle chose to be a prostitute; the most we are given is that she was bored and wanted to try something new. There are portions where Isabelle comes across as an emotionally-dead vacuous spoilt persona who becomes non-communicative, and increasingly moody.
Ozon loves women, and he certainly knows how to capture their complexities. However, I feel that perhaps, Ozon doesn’t WANT to explain the situation, and constructs a barrier around the possible reasons for his muse’s behaviour. Through the year’s varying seasons, his camera follows this little girl becoming an adult in her own way – the way she wants to. She doesn’t seem to know how to grow up, physically or emotionally, and the director has no intention of judging her. To play down the tragedy of the characters’ circumstances, touches of humour and old-fashioned corny songs are scattered throughout, further enhancing an already alluring subtle piece of work.
There’s a somewhat moving scene wherein the ‘minor brother’ points to her cycling German lover from the car whilst the family is returning home from the holiday. Isabelle doesn’t look back (literally!)
But what remains intact throughout -there is a certain enigmatic & inexplicably poignant streak she started with- even after the movie ends there’s a certain ‘je ne se quoi’ about her !!
Disclaimer 1: the above movie is only for 18+ and not for minors/prudes/easily offended. Any glamorisation of sex/prostitution can’t be ruled out but seems unintentional.
2: the above writeup is not meant for/aiming to elicit multiple replies /comments. These are just random musings & a ‘commentary’ on responses for a niche audience /readership of small/ indie films, who treat this stuff as a work of art rather than vehicles of commerce or of their own fetishes/biases.
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December 1, 2013 at 6:16 PM
Contd from my ‘Jeute et Jolie’ post above—
Satyam–try this soundtrack–doubt u will have seen this film…
All guys –small n large, tall n short
Switch off the light …
And listen to(& watch) this soundtrack….
(& no dodgy stuff plz!!)
My humble tribute to —
Introducing to the general public —
Ms Marine Vacht …
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December 1, 2013 at 7:10 PM
& Satyam–plz don’t do what u r doing now–I’m watching u!!
Let’s maintain some ‘decorum’..
Ps: Marine needs rest now…good nite folks
that’s enuf for 2nite guys–Suggest u move back to DP now..
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December 1, 2013 at 1:10 PM
Deepika is slated to perform at the Temptation Reloaded show in Dubai Sunday with stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit.
On the Bollywood front, she has completed Homi Adajania’s English language film ‘Finding Fanny’.
“It should be ready to release soon.
“I am also doing ‘Happy New Year’ with Abhishek Bachchan and Shah Rukh, all fun boys to work with. I am also looking forward to start Imtiaz’s film with Ranbir,” said Deepika, who has been on a roll with her box office successes this year.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/shah-rukh-abhishek-are-fun-boys-to-work-with-deepika/437065-8-66.html
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December 1, 2013 at 5:42 PM
DP is definately on a roll here – all the films she is doing look already BB stuff………when was the last time we had a heroine delivering BB stuff consistently?
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December 1, 2013 at 2:31 PM
Great line by Salim in KWK-
When Amitabh holds a gun, it looks like he means business. When others hold it, you feel like saying- kya karte ho? Chal jayegi yaar!
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December 1, 2013 at 2:42 PM
LOL, fantastic!
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December 2, 2013 at 2:55 AM
Alright! Some interesting casting news-
Imran Khan’s is currently shooting a film with Motwane titled ‘Bhavesh Joshi’ for which he is currently shooting for. I wonder how Imran keeps getting these prestige projects- first Matru with Bharadwaj, now this one with Motwane.
Kareena and Farhan are coming together for Dev Benegal’s (“English, August”, “Road, Movie”) “Bombay Samurai” (what a zany title). It’s an ensemble one.
Farhan also mentions that that there is a film by Bejoy Nambiar (Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s production) which will also have Bachchan-
TOI-
“Reportedly, you were to play Sahir Ludhianvi in an upcoming biopic. Is that happening?
I’m not sure where these reports come from, I’m not acting in any biopic after Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
What about the film with Amitabh Bachchan which Bejoy Nambiar is directing?
That will happen, but only in the latter half of 2014. Vidhu Vinod Chopra is producing it and he has told me that Mr Bachchan will be a part of it. But for now, it is Shaadi ke Side Effects. After that, I will move on to Dev Benegal’s film with Kareena Kapoor and then, there is my sister Zoya’s film.”
Zoya’s Akhtar next (on sibling relationship. This time the ZNMDesque ‘holiday trip’ is in South Afroca) will have Priyanka and Ranveer playing siblings (Farhan and Anushka might also be there in the film apparently as their respective romantic interests). PeeCee is supposed to have confirmed this.
Ayan Mukherjee (man, he should be the last guy to attempt this genre) is going to do a superhero film with Ranbir next. Here is Ranbir on the film-
“It is not like ‘Krrish 3;’ it is something very different. It is going to be a fantasy film — a trilogy which Ayan has just started writing. We share a great personal and professional relation,” said Kapoor.
“As of now we are in the developing stage. He is going abroad for a post-production course. Hopefully, we will try and make something path-breaking,” said the actor.
http://www.indiawest.com/news/15008-my-superhero-film-is-not-like-krrish-3–ranbir-kapoor.html#YtFEKtDMukKbTfzE.99
Ranbir’s upcoming films don’t look like major grossers (though one shouldn’t forget that he had a superhit with Barfi. Apart from Bombay Velvet, Ranbir has Anurag Basu’s “Jagga Jasoos” (a detective film where he plays a 19 year old guy and Govinda plays his dad. He is co-producing this one with Basu) and Imtiaz’s next with Deepika.
And I had no clue but Johar is playing the main antagonist (a suave media mogul. Whatever!) opposite Ranbir in Bombay Velvet. Talk about anti-casting.
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December 2, 2013 at 4:48 AM
Xhobdo:
Bobby Jasoos
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December 2, 2013 at 4:51 AM
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram – Leela Week Two Territorial Breakdown
Monday 2nd December 2013 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram – Leela grossed 23.25 crore nett approx in week two. The two week distributor share is 41.50 crore approx. Below is the second territorial breakdown of the film.
Mumbai Circuit – 10.73 crore
Delhi/UP – 3.24 crore
East Punjab – 1.61 crore
West Bengal – 87 lakhs
Bihar – 34 lakhs
CP Berar – 1.16 crore
CI – 90 lakhs
Rajasthan – 1.28 crore
Nizam/Andhra – 1.12 crore
Mysore – 1.35 crore
Others – 59 lakhs
TOTAL – 23.19 crore
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December 2, 2013 at 4:52 AM
Bullet Raja Has Low First Weekend
Monday 2nd December 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bullet Raja had a low first weekend as it collected around 20.50 crore nett. The film started slowly and failed to show any growth on Saturday which is a must for a film that does not open.
The business on Sunday was op around 15% from Saturday but the damage had been done. The film has done best in UP and Rajasthan but collections in Delhi city and Mumbai city was well below the mark. Mumbai circuit also underperformed but that was expected as it was a film based on crime in UP which has few few takers in Mumbai just like film on the Mumbai underworld have few takers in the North. The weekend breakdown was as follows.
Friday – 6.50 crore nett
Saturday – 6.50 crore nett
Sunday – 7.50 crore nett
TOTAL – 20.50 crore nett
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December 2, 2013 at 5:17 AM
23 crores at NBOC:
http://www.boxofficeindia.co.in/bullett-raja-weekend-all-india-nboc/
21 at BoC:
http://businessofcinema.com/boxoffice/box-office-bullett-raja-gun-without-bullets/123038
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December 2, 2013 at 4:55 AM
Biz Talk: This ‘Bullett’ misses the mark!
By Taran Adarsh, December 2, 2013 – 10:22 IST
You’re as good or bad as your last Friday… A statement echoed within the corridors of the film industry since decades. Since the stakes are extremely high these days, every film starring an A-lister is awaited with bated breath. And scrutinized very, very minutely. Your ranking and remuneration is correlated to the business of the film. The opening day, opening weekend and opening week numbers are of paramount significance.
For Saif Ali Khan, who has had an erratic and inconsistent career of late [AARAKSHAN – flop, AGENT VINOD – flop, COCKTAIL – Hit, RACE-2 – Hit, GO GOA GONE – flop], the super start and success of BULLETT RAJA was most crucial. Enacting the title role, teaming up with an accomplished director [Tigmanshu Dhulia] and a well-established leading lady [Sonakshi Sinha] for the first time and a genre [masala] that continues to dominate the BO for decades, BULLETT RAJA had everything going in its favour. But the film never took off.
What went wrong? Sure, the lack of popular soundtrack proved a roadblock. Agree, there has been an overdose of masala films this year. But the combo of Saif and Tigmanshu should’ve ensured a decent start at least. The tepid start at the ticket window sent shock waves and makes you realize, yet again, how unpredictable this business is.
The BO collections of BULLETT RAJA did escalate over the weekend, but not to the optimum capacity. After a rather lackluster start, the film should’ve witnessed a massive jump on Saturday and Sunday, but the growth was clearly missing. It clearly indicates that the audience mandate is lacking for this biggie.
As we step into the final month of 2013, one only hopes that the scenario improves and the year ends on an ecstatic and euphoric note. R… RAJKUMAR, directed by the king of masala entertainers, Prabhu Dheva and DHOOM-3, one of the most-awaited films of 2013 should enliven and rejuvenate the industry, besides attracting footfalls in hordes. Fingers crossed!
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December 2, 2013 at 2:43 PM
Kamaal Rashid Khan Blasts Filmmakers Who Fudge Box Office Collections
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December 2, 2013 at 3:22 PM
LOL, on the Krrish bit vs YJHD/ETT/CE!
On D3 this too was a point I’d made earlier. If one producer decides not to inflate things too much because the film is a genuine goldmine and there’s no anxiety about it what you still have is a bogus list where say Krrish might be at 235 or 250 or whatever and D3 is at 320 (just throwing out this number). The difference between the two then wouldn’t be 70 crores but working off the 175-185 crore number (which seems most likely for Krrish) 130-140.
In any case the good thing here is that a lot of this stuff is being exposed for what it is — a scam. The whole Bollywood system of reporting, producer totals, trade numbers and so forth. It is true though that with Krrish 3 Roshan went too far. I have never seen as many quotes [from Saif to this guy, or pieces with hints directed at Krrish, etc] where it’s obvious that people are not buying the K3 numbers and are willing to call them out for it. Of course I don’t have sympathy for many of these folks too. While the Roshans might have been stupid the fact is that once you start inflating numbers by 10-20% or whatever yourself you lose the right to complain about anything else. Which doesn’t mean degree doesn’t matter but even inflating things by a smaller significant amount isn’t acceptable.
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December 2, 2013 at 10:18 PM
Yes K3 numbers inflated and this is not the first time happened. SRK movies like Devdas,Don,KANK,MNIK,DOn2 and recent Ra one never did good business at box office,but all these movies declared hits by trade guys. KJo,SRK ,Aditya chopra etc manipulated box office numbers many times and projected their movies as hits with the help of corrupted trade guys like Taran ,Komal and BOI. But no one from the industry raised voice against them like they did against Rakesh roshan.
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December 2, 2013 at 11:43 PM
I agree, include JTHJ as well. This fake number’s trend was all started by YRF and SRK camp, now srk’s close associate like HR are just following.
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December 2, 2013 at 7:08 PM
Irrespective of how much more krrish3 has earned compared to Chennai express, that’s a different debate
But LOL @ the type of uneducated crass hoodlums like this krk guy who are being quoted as ‘good standard’ here
Now googled who this crap guy is —
Check out some of his crass tweets on ‘virginity’ etc
Won’t like to paste them here
But since Satyam himself seems to be suddenly quoting krk as an authority here–
Check out this tweet from krk
“Paul An actor of car racing movie dies in a car accident so now I really wonder how will Sunny Leone die?
5:58pm – 2 Dec 13”
Now that’s not only obscene but also in bad taste wrt someone who has died (Paul of fast n furious fame!) and someone whose still alive –sunny leone !!
And god forbid when this krk is the authority /final word ….
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December 2, 2013 at 9:57 PM
That’s a moronic tweet from guess what….. a moron.
However, it’s blatantly evident that Rakesh Roshan (Hrithik maybe) have fudged the nos for Krrish 3. I would elaborate further but I don’t see the point as Dhoom 3 will comfortably/fairly cross 200 and then Salman’s next release Jai Ho releases a few weeks later which I as a Salman fan expect to also cross 200.
In the meantime it’s back to the snooker…. 🙂
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December 2, 2013 at 11:40 PM
@Satyam
What is moronic tweet?
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December 3, 2013 at 1:49 PM
There was this full story about fake collections on Zoom TV which claims to be No1 bollywood channel and gets top stars for interviews etc and is also part of Times Group.
BollywoodBigstory
Someone can search and put up the youtube link of that full episode BollywoodBig story of fake collections which was telecast last Friday. It had a lot of industry big wigs commenting on fake collections and how this has hit new low.
In that there is also talk of forming a uniform body declaring the box-office figure for all movies. As expected the extreme reporting has led to something good and hopefully box office will be streamlined one way or the other for better data….
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December 3, 2013 at 3:00 PM
Dhoom 3 to create Rs.300 crore club
Well I don’t believe this and somehow on the big box-office numbers – things not working out for any movie at this point of time. Most of them are fizzling out after the 150-180 cr mark.
On D3, to be frank Aamir is a big minus for this franchise, though he will compensate this with his immaculate script and screenplay and most important ‘sense of humor’.
In promos, aamir just does not gel and this is more of a John Abraham/ Hrithik kind of deal. Aamir did surprise us with a ghajini but for that all our inhibitions went out of the window when aamir’s look was revealed and the first promo came out. Rahman too played his part well with that soothing soundtrack.
Coming back to big numbers, I sincerely felt Krish 3 will break big barriers –
firstly because HR is mostly a neutral star in terms of fan following so he cuts across all sections and as Satyam said earlier in the blog that ‘everyone will show up’.
Secondly it was a Diwali solo release and lastly this was a known franchise of a blockbuster. But somehow the movie stagnated and though performed better than RA1 but nowhere near a universal hit or liked movie.
This also brings us to a big question – what is the real potential of a big movie. Is 300cr and 400 cr as easy to get as it is been made out to be here and reason is simply the movies are not good enough? or is it that the Indian pocket is not ready yet for that big jump. I believe we are seeing this 100cr/150c cr more regularly due to a jump in living standards of upper middle class with disposable incomes but none able to take that extra leap like a 3Idiots in 2009.
In my opinion the ultra rich with better disposable income don’t watch hindi movies so deep pockets there make no difference. But disposable income of an avg Indian family will not permit Rs 5,000 or so more than 2/3 times in a year. Diwali and Eid make a bit of difference because of traditions of getting money as gift and generally a bonus time for all. But for movies to do 300cr – 400cr it will require a repeat audience (similar to 3I level ). Point to be noted is at that time ticket prices were much less and repeat viewing could be afforded but at this time money/disposal income is still at a similar stage and ticket prices have risen a lot thereby negating the repeat viewing audience. So lets see when will this 300cr movie arrive?
On a parting note – saw some picks of Salman in army uniform for his next release Jai Ho. If presented well this would be a killer deal and opening will leave ETT kind of hysteria much behind…!! Just the opening… rest is content.
I
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December 3, 2013 at 1:40 AM
damn you kjo…this turned out to be an entertaining interview. should’ve had more salim khan in it though.
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December 3, 2013 at 2:33 AM
ha ha – satyam this deserves a separate post
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December 3, 2013 at 3:23 PM
Smashing Sallu !! – a real mard ko dard nahin kind of deal here!
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December 3, 2013 at 5:29 PM
Just watched bits of the start of this interview
brilliant interview by Salman 🙂
ROFLOL typical kjo stuff
After a while -Will watch this whole interview now ….
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December 3, 2013 at 6:52 PM
enjoyed this interview–agree with a lot of what Salman says..
seminal stuff –imo Salman has had a long career but it’s only now that he is in the best of form after all those years of indifferent mediocrity…
Secret being ‘virginity’ 🙂
Ps: kjo is a ‘naughty dog’ lapping up stuff, blushing like a girl..
Check out kjos expressions when he milks out secrets in the rapid-fire….
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December 3, 2013 at 3:35 AM
Bullet Raja Monday Collections
Tuesday 3rd December 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Bullet Raja dropped on Monday as it collected around 3.25 crore nett taking its total to 24.50 crore nett. The film held up best in Delhi/UP with collections around 85-90 lakhs. It was the only circuit to drop less than 50% and collections in Delhi/UP were higher than Mumbai.
The first week should finish in the 31 crore nett range and not likely to add much more. The domination of Goiyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela in the Gujarat area has affected Bullet Raja as Goiyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela had better collections in Gujarat on Sunday and Monday despite being in its third week.
Bullet Raja will probably wrap up in the 35 crore nett region for lifetime collections.
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December 3, 2013 at 5:35 AM
I don’t think Saif has much of an audience outside the multiplexes and beyond his rom-coms.
It’s also notable that movies like Boss, Singh Saab and Bullett Raja have failed to attract the multiplexes audience. Boss ended up with around 55cr despite a very wide release. Singh Saab ended up with slightly over 30cr and now Bullett Raja seems to be headed for something in the same range. Bullett Raja had a wide release as well. It’s quite obvious that single screens aren’t going to be enough to make a movie work these days.
I do feel that R. Rajkumar may end up being Prabhu Devaa’s first flop as a director. I would be surprised to see it work.
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December 3, 2013 at 7:33 AM
Wonder whwre were all these voices were when the god Mani Rathnam was shouting in all press conferences his own numbers for Yuva and declaring the movie a big hit ? Or when dibankar was batting for Shanghai?
RR is an easy (Single screen) target, har koi thinks it is Cool to bajao his ass..
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December 3, 2013 at 8:41 AM
Actually Ratnam didn’t have his own numbers for Yuva. He just felt that the Bombay media was too critical on the film and its box office and misrepresenting the truth. And guess what? He was right! Yuva made a bit more than Company. Devgan was common to both. RGV in those days had a lot of hype. Let’s concede Yuva was nonetheless the bigger deal. Nonetheless there’s a difference between calling it an underperformer (which is fair) and calling it a failure and then in turn calling Company a big success (which it wasn’t by any stretch, it was nowhere close to Satya’s Bombay numbers accounting for inflation, let alone anything else). Even if one wanted to call Yuva a failure which too was justified to a degree the first week numbers were more than ok. This was the MP paradigm. Certain films are clearly on a bit of a downward slope but they’re not absolutely rejected and hence negative stuff makes such films a lot more vulnerable. Aamir complained about the media treatment on MP. He was right too.
Will agree with some of your other examples. Dibakar though made one correct point when he said that the terms of the debate were faulty. And we see this all over the place. Whether it’s Krrish or Barfi, it’s the same 100 crore/200 crore club. That’s absurd. With Shanghai the expectations game got a bit away from everyone and the very positive media reviews only added to this. if you look at Shanghai’s final gross (21-23 crores) that’s exactly how one would expect a Dibakar Bannerjee film to behave on that sort of subject! Hrithik/Ash/Bhansali in Guzaarish didn’t gross more than this!
But once again I think your ‘nationalistic’ instincts are rather unfortunately placed when it comes to K3. There is just no defending this film’s numbers. The real ones are not that great, the made-up ones are still hardly fantastic but in any case they’re not plausible. It’s a very poor film compared to just the previous installment (it’s not just me saying this, the box office graph shows this, even if you believe the highest numbers), finally it’s completely derivative. Except for some New Age schmaltz Rakesh Roshan’s better ‘Indianization’ instincts are not even on display here. It’s quite simply a bad film and it’s not as if the earlier installment offered some Nolan-like bar to live upto!
Then again perhaps one can be in the Rakesh Roshan camp and believe Krrish is giving Peter Jackson a run for his money!
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December 3, 2013 at 10:50 AM
I am neither defending the film or its numbers, I am defending The choice if Indian Paying Public. I still have not forgotten Hrtik’s stupid comment about the Pond vs. Ocean.
I do however do not like this constant comparison to Hollywood and a few Lallus who have watched Hollywood movies and think they own the world deciding for The Indian Public – what is good or bad for them.
As for Peter Jackson- RR is giving him a run for his money in Single Screens.LOL!!
P.S.- I remember Mani Rathnam was citing numbers to prove a point kee bhaiyya pichhar hit hai !!
Mani karey toh Fit hai, RR karey toh Khit-Phit hai !!!
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December 3, 2013 at 10:54 AM
..and I have not even seen the damn Film yet !!
Munna- Saw Besharam- was not that bad, but it proved how much contribution must have been from Salman and Salim Khan in Dabang1.
Also saw Madras Café and really liked it minus John.
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December 4, 2013 at 12:49 PM
Knew you wouldn’t mind Besharam. I like “Hum lut gaye aake..” song.
I didn’t mind John in Madras Café and for me probably it is at top from Bollywood offerings this year.
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December 4, 2013 at 12:59 PM
I lost John when he told Nargis at her Hotel room- This is not a game ..LOL!! he was just so unconvincing. But everything else looked so authentic.
Besharam- again Ranbir’s side kick was so annoying ( as in GhanChakkar) and over the top, and the phone- vibrator sequence was the only really offensive thing that I found in the movie.
For sidekicks IMO Zeeshan Ayyub did a great job in Raanjhna
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December 3, 2013 at 11:05 AM
yes but the whole problem is that unless you believe that very inflated total the film hasn’t really done anything very special relative to expectations. It’s basically in the range of a multiplex-only deal like YJHD. Hardly the most impressive result.. Even on single screens let’s not exaggerate its performance. Often the single screen becomes an abstraction to explain away things. The last Krrish did extremely well in these centers, had remarkable trending in the same. The current one did better in smaller centers but it’s not as if something extraordinary happened here. It’s not a Ghajini or something which truly rocked those markets.
On Hollywood just because every frame seems to be inspired from or directly lifted from Hollywood doesn’t mean we should keep comparing!
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December 4, 2013 at 1:02 PM
Wohee Toh !!
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December 4, 2013 at 11:13 AM
Suchitra needs sex, and a lot of it..(Shobhaa De’s competition has arrived..)
http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-suchitra-i-want-to-marry-again-only-for-sex/20131203.htm
Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, at her candid best in a book inspired from the events of her life, Drama Queen.
The singer-actress-painter, who starred in one of Bollywood’s best-loved movies, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, writes about her fame, divorce from filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, and the crippling effects of a condition that she suffers from, Aphallatosis (a rare mental disorder arising from lack of sex).
An excerpt from the book:
I was going to be in the movies and be a star. That would be my revenge.
But my battleship on the journey to stardom was fragile and the ride so choppy I often feared it would capsize and I would go down with it. Struggling to counter the I-told-you-so, finger-wagging warnings of my parents with the shady cloak-and-dagger shenanigans of the film world was doubly confounding for me.
‘Suchitra, you want to be an actress, you must do…’
‘Do? Do what?’
I could never figure out the code of conduct that newbies in showbiz were bound to follow by some unwritten law. It was the ‘they’ syndrome all over again.
‘Do. All actress – they do. They must do. Where are your parents? You phone them just now. I’ll explain it to them.’
Oh no! Had he guessed my runaway status, the fact that I was living on my own?
‘Erm…my parents will be in office now…I can’t disturb them…’
‘Okay, no problem. Phone them later. Who are you more close to – your mother or father?’
‘My father. Amma is a little strict but Nana is very kind…’
‘So will you phone your Nana in the evening and tell him to pick you up from my hotel tomorrow morning?
Tomorrow morning? What was I supposed to do till then? The old geezer was stodgy as hell. Had body odour, too. He was boring me already.
‘Where are you running away, child? I told you to be an actress you must do. Now relax…’
Oh really? Do him? Boo Hoo.
Doobey doobey doo.
And f*** you!
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December 4, 2013 at 11:25 AM
that looks a very cheap PR talk to sell her book i guess……
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December 4, 2013 at 11:26 AM
suddenly india has awakened to this lets-talk-sex-in public syndrom or what? sallu to suchitra – having and not having sex and bla bla bla…what the sex! 🙂
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December 4, 2013 at 12:38 PM
Its good if sex is discussed openly in India. Even better if age-old taboos are discarded for some healthy pre-marital relationships. Too much traditional suppression of sexuality has resulted in all the issues. Removing these taboos is the only way the Indian epidemic of rape will reduce.
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December 4, 2013 at 4:23 PM
The opening shot looked like chennai (in chennai express!)–but seems shot in the Scottish highlands ..
May catch this one–good lead actors…
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December 5, 2013 at 1:40 AM
On to fudging BO numbers, I thnk the first guy who really did it was Sanjay Leela Bhansali at the time Devdas released.
Devdas was being quoted (by it’s producer and by SLB) as having been made on a record breaking 50cr budget back then.
When the movie released, SLB and producer Bharat Bhai Shah probably realised they won’t be able to con the audience easily on its performance at the BO. For decades, audiences easily read into a movie’s success or failure by simply looking at the percentage occupancy at the theatres. It’s was then very easy to discern from a movie that has worked to one that has not.
The week Devdas released, there co-incidentally started a complete ban on releasing percentage occupancies. So, there was a complete black-out on the film’s performance at the BO for the average viewers. For decades, they merely had to look at the %occupancy to gauge whether a film is doing well or not and they suddenly had to interprete figures at different theatres.
And then SLB started proclaimng on every media outlet around that the movie was making profits merely 7 days after its release. I think everyone knows today that the movie never ever reached the 50cr mark. A couple of media outlets back then pointed out the truth that the movie wouldn’t recover its costs in India. BOI had it’s total at below 30cr and claimed that the movie was a ‘media-hit’ rather than a ‘trade hit’.
I have some BO figures from that time and you can easily see SLB’s hoax there. Devdas’s first week total at Mumbai territory for e.g. was at 1.2cr. Big figures for that time but compare to Kaante and The Hero, these comfortably did over 1.3cr there in their respective first week. And they were big budget movies but average grossers for that time.
But most of the media were going by SLB’s rhetoric that Devdas has surpassed 50cr within 7 days and they were calling the movie a blockbuster. The sad thing about it all is many people still perceive Devdas as some kind of blockbuster while the truth is that it hasn’t even recovered it’s costs in India.
For me SLB is right up there as the worst of the lot when it comes to BO fudging and it was good to see his ass getting kicked when the BO totals of Saawarya and Guzaarish were being revealed.
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December 5, 2013 at 1:49 AM
Hmm thanx– didn’t know about that …
Actually Bo figure manipulation isn’t new –it’s old hat
Perhos bit more with k3–but let’s face it
Others are not babes in the wood here
What’s historic isn’t that it’s new or the amount of inflation (it can’t be proved/disproved!!)
What’s new is the way certain strong lobbies went out of their way to ‘discredit’ k3 numbers…the agenda and motive for this moves are clear…
But doesnr change anything…
A large section of media Includigj taran, Komal, amid Mehra, financial express, bo capsule still report k3 has long broken CE…
Right or wrong –unfortunately for certain biased ones
Till that is concusivelt disproved, like all the other doubtful numbers, they chose to believe when it was convenient to them.
They will have to live with the fact that k3 has beaten 3i and CE to become the biggest blockbuster ever–period…
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December 5, 2013 at 2:11 AM
& kev– the reason for inflated numbers in devdas wasn’t poor bhansali I think…
But the involvement of the guy who ‘owns’ /has a lot of influence on the media outlets aka srk–I give him credit actually for turning media manipulation into a fine art…
Even aamir wasn’t bad…
Infact had ETT starred srk or aamir, it won’t have fell precariously short of 200 but would has received some ‘help’ lol
Yes there has always been inflation (as in k3)
The cries of ‘rape rape’ at seeing krrish3 ‘inflated’ numbers is emanating from some such ‘influences’ /strong lobbies 🙂
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December 5, 2013 at 7:40 AM
Raj 5:
I’m a SRK fan but I hate when he does stuff like this:
http://www.indicine.com/movies/bollywood/would-love-to-visit-pakistan-want-to-take-my-kids-there-srk/
This reminds me of what Satyam said on the CE Boxoffice thread-the reason SRK appeals to Pakistan like this is because he knows a large portion of his Overseas audience (Mainly the UK) is Pakistani. Or there may be a genuine interest in Pakistan from his part because he’s been there as a child and it’s where his relatives live/his father’s house is still there. Personally I can’t relate to this because as and Indian I have no family ties to Pakistan but maybe people who still have family there feel the same way as SRK? Regardless, SRK knows saying stuff like this will create unnecessary controversy which is stupid because he doesn’t have any film coming out in the near future.
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December 5, 2013 at 7:41 AM
Aamirsfan:
as a Pakistani whose parents are Indian/Pakistani and who is married to an Indian wife…I don’t have any problem with what SRK has stated here. Don’t get why some Indians have this fear of having good ties with Pakistan. This comment isn’t controversial…it’s the people (on both sides) who make it that way.
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December 5, 2013 at 7:59 AM
Speaking for myself my problem with SRK’s statements is opportunism. I am willing to be believe he might not have anything against Pakistan. However he’s become suspicious very vocal about this in recent years when his films haven’t been performing as they used to by and large but his foreign market numbers continue to be huge and here he really does rely on the Pakistani contingent. Now one could of course argue that even if so he’s feeding what’s part of his base in certain ways. The only problem here is that this happens within certain political contexts. This is not neutral terrain. There are any number of Indians who have the view that the countries should live peacefully and that the politicians create the problems, so on and so forth. Whether one agrees or disagrees with this view one can understand it. But SRK plays a certain pro-Pakistan card. It’s a series of dog whistles. And the reason I don’t like it is because in the context of India-Pakistan politics it means something when the Muslim does this sort of thing. So at the very least it shouldn’t be opportunistic. He never said these things for years but suddenly started doing so beyond a point. Now I am hardly nationalistic in any sense whatsoever but in the landline of Indian politics (in the loose sense) I think we could do without such statements when their sincerity is in question. And I’m not overreacting because SRK does this repeatedly. He’s not naive about how his statements will be perceived in many quarters but he does it anyway. Put differently if there were absolutely no benefit for him in the foreign markets he wouldn’t be saying all of this! How do we know this? Because he didn’t when DDLJ released or KKHH released or DTPH released.. etc etc! He still had the Pakistani audience rooting for him but he was strong enough on his own not to have to absolutely depend on the overseas. As you know I am a hard critic of the Indian Right in many matters, I criticize stars on all kinds of ideological grounds, so this isn’t a one-off for me or some sort of easy anti-Pakistan thing (though I certainly do have my ideological ‘objections’), it’s consistent with things I say in these other contexts. I just think that certain subjects, fairly or unfairly, are delicate ones and if this is the only kind of political utterance one is going to be associated with, which is the case with SRK, he can certainly be called out for it, specially so if he exhibits opportunism doing so. To find the remark non-controversial one would have to believe that there’s no history between the two countries or indeed no history in either country between the majority and the minority. In the UK for instance until relatively recently ‘Ireland’ wasn’t a neutral word. This didn’t mean that everyone was anti-Irish or something but conversations specially in the public arena were always a bit dicey when it came to this subject.
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December 5, 2013 at 8:03 AM
Agree completely Satyam. This sort of issue needs, at a minimum, sincerity!
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December 5, 2013 at 12:41 PM
Hypothetical question: If SRK has all the time in world, And he is offered Sarfarosh with one of the best directors and there are no hurdles to climb, Is he going to do it?
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December 5, 2013 at 12:56 PM
I am not sure he would. In fact I’m quite confident he wouldn’t do anything to alienate his overseas Pakistani base. Because there is a bit of an anti-Pakistan message in Sarfarosh. Not because of the usual, obvious reasons. The film is more problematic because it connects even a ghazal singer to that sort of terrorist activity who in turn comes up with his sob story of how he lost his ancestral privilege. The usual ruse in such films is to then present the Pakistani establishment guy as the worst kind of paymaster who lets the Muslim ‘informant’ down at a crucial point. Who even calls the latter a ‘traitor’. So forget the Indian, even the Pakistani calls him a traitor! So this entire thread is one that is muddled in certain ways but also objectionable because it confirms a certain paranoid view in these matters where the Muslim is always minimally suspect as being potentially pro-Pakistani.
But this brings me to SRK’s other choice in as many years, the strategic deployment of his religion. So the pro-Pakistani pitch is twinned with the ‘hey, I’m a Muslim victim’ line (again it’s done through dog-whistles). It’s particularly galling to see someone who’s had more establishment support than any Bombay star, Hindu or Muslim, over the last twenty years to suddenly become this ‘victimized’ guy. It plays to the worst stereotypes and in the context of Sarfarosh I shall risk saying that SRK’s choices feed into that kind of representation. This is part of what I meant when I said earlier that these issues are too charged in the context of subcontinental politics for public figures to play games with them. It is certainly possible that SRK has become more religious over the years. He’s had anxious career moments as an aging star, he’s had serious back issues, wouldn’t be the first time that vulnerability made someone more religious! But he deploys this in strategic fashion much like the Pakistan thing. And again you have this twinning which feeds into a certain narrative. At least in these matters I expect people like him to be more responsible. It’s like being a public figure in Israel or Palestine and pretending one is just saying things that shouldn’t mean anything in the context of the larger politics!
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December 5, 2013 at 12:58 PM
Hypothetical answer – No is a possibility
According to this link he has rejected Kaho Na Pyar Hai, Lagaan, Jodha Akbar, Munnabhai MBBS, Rang De Basanti, 3 Idiots and Robot. http://www.indicine.com/movies/bollywood/films-that-shahrukh-khan-rejected/
Maybe some of these he was not offered and maybe some of these are not first choices, or he did not have all the time in the world etc…but it is possible to say No for other reasons.
I’d say opportunism is the best word, not just for him but for many celebrities in general. Possibly he is more and others do it more.
But the reality is a celebrity tends to sit on the fence, tends to pander to most people, tends not to have a contrarian view not because they want to but because they probably feel like they need to. Brands, franchises, sponsorships, money dominates image – tarnishing image with direct, aggressive beliefs in today’s media environment is career suicide.
Not to defend celebrities but they will in general have a tendency to be straight and narrow, more so than the average person.
Opportunism / or boxed in is a fine line. Whether one is doing it to gain something (pretty much the label here) vs. whether one is doing it to NOT lose something is a fine line. You’d hope most celebrities are protecting themselves as let’s face it, the media craves stuff like this and would have a field day.
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December 5, 2013 at 1:12 PM
Following the media story in UK about a well know TV chef, she is in court as her husband manhandled her in public.
You tell me what is right and wrong here.
The man handled her as she was on drugs and wasting his millions, her PAs were spending his money
She claims, his behaviour has led her to depression and hence drugs
The media one day has a headline – Nigella admits to taking drugs (painting a bad picture)
Next day it is sympathy – She admits to drugs because of depression (painting sympathy)
The media has a licence to print anything, and will affect the sane celebrities behaviour…unless you’re a Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus and you do whatever the f*ck you want and don’t give a damn at all.
Actually i was watching Law Abiding Citizen yesterday – pretty apt. Without evidence, you can’t do anything! But knowing the opponent needs evidence, you can use it against him!
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December 5, 2013 at 3:06 PM
Some very interesting points have been brought up. On Sarfarosh- it depends who was directing it. If it was Yash Chopra (let’s say Jab Tak Hai Jaan was Sarfarosh) then I think he would have done it because recall Veer-Zaara. Pakistani’s are portrayed as narrow-minded in that movie, using women only for political gains. Both Boman Irani and Manoj Bajpaye are the “bad guys”. On the other hand, Big B-Hema are the secular, accepting Indian parents who are approve of Veer-Zaara. In the climax when SRK is in court, the judge says “On behalf of Pakistan, we apologize to you Veer Pratap Singh”
On the opposite spectrum he has a Main Hoon Na, where the villain is a terrorist, an Indian ex-army officer named Raghavan!
Interestingly enough both movies released the same year; MHN in April 2004, V-Z on Diwali 2004.
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December 5, 2013 at 4:11 PM
Munna- Akhshay Kumar had also refused to mouth anti Pakistan lines in ATHWS.
so in that sense can not blame SRK.
Aamir is off course class apart.
also SRK responded to a question asked by Pakistan Foreign Minister, so I think his response was pretty appropriate here.
Can’t believe I am defending SRK here ..LOL!!
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December 5, 2013 at 7:42 AM
Oldgold:
What a narrow view.
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December 5, 2013 at 8:02 AM
Nykavi:
Don’t think there is anything controversial about what he has said. As a Hindu whose grandparents migrated from that side of the border, I have always wanted to go see the place where my ancestors lived for centuries. In fact, I know many Pakistanis whose ancestors migrated from India, who feel the same way about visiting India.
One has to be in those shoes to understand the emotions. The Indo-Pak problem cannot be solved with extremist viewpoints. Unfortunately, as long as extremist voices dominate (which has been the case at least in Pak since the very beginning), it will only keep getting worse.
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December 5, 2013 at 8:11 AM
Nykavi, there’s nothing odd about what you’ve said. The Kapoors have always talked about their ancestral homeland in the same sense. Aamir has talked about Pakistani relatives and wishing to visit (think he’s been there too though I could be wrong). All of this isn’t an issue. But SRK engages in these dog whistles which within the context of this larger subject seem like pro-Pakistan ones when one has to choose. Having a soft spot for Pakistan for other reasons is not the issue here though note what you’re saying or what the Kapoors or Aamir say is the very opposite of what SRK says. In the first case it’s about geography, attachment to a place one or one’s parents might have belonged to. That’s totally natural. SRK doesn’t talk about all this. He is always referring to the political label of the nation-state. And once again here too it would be fine (whether one agreed or disagreed, liked this or not) if he just said something like ‘I have nothing against Pakistan, I think people in both countries are essentially the same, it’s unfortunate there has been this bad blood, we should move on’. But I think he does something different from this as well. In most case his statements are not universal ones but indicate a kind of choice which is problematic on certain grounds (and not for reasons of simple nationalism) and worse opportunistic. Again I can’t prove a lot of this stuff. But it’s like a lot of the stuff Republicans say about Obama. They certainly have every right to oppose him on ideological grounds but within what they say there are embedded a number of dog whistles which get to him in racial ways and so forth. The only analogy I am drawing here is that the reason these are called dog whistles is that it’s hard to prove things completely one way or the other. But a pattern is certain discernible.
But again I am the least nationalistic person imaginable but I am still sensitive to how the political terrain works in different contexts.
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December 5, 2013 at 10:09 AM
>Again I can’t prove a lot of this stuff.
You can’t, because you use this as a weapon to try and destroy him by colouring him as a sort of anti nationalist harbouring unethical feelings for Pakistan.
Very dangerous game.
Thankfully it hasn’t caught on, except perhaps by some sickindu party people who’d just love this.
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December 5, 2013 at 10:57 AM
What you’re saying is frankly utter nonsense on all grounds.. and even in bad faith given the debates I have with Indian nationalists most days..
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December 5, 2013 at 11:25 AM
Satyam is the last person on earth to be labelled as ‘sickindu’!! If you have followed any of our debates, we are ideologically opposite.
The reaction to this news just shows how nuanced everyone’s views are. I am not a pro-Pakistani, in fact, I often feel that the partition was a big mistake. This view is also reflected by many so called ‘mohajirs’, ie if they happen to express their views freely, without the fear of being called anti-nationalistic from the extremists over in Pakistan. SImilarly, my views can brand me as a anti-nationalist by the Right, but I happen to side with them on many other issues, so I guess I am spared.
And I totally empathize with those Muslims who could not migrate to Jinnah’s cherished state, mostly due to economic reasons. It was foolish to expect someone sitting in central India to make a journey all the way to the west. The Mohajirs were the brave ones, but the experience of partition left permanent scars on their psyche. I should be the last person to empathize with Mohajirs, given that Hindu Sindhis pretty much were forced out due to the Mohajir threat, as soon as they were diverted by the Punjabis into Sindh. The Hindus Sindhis were permanently scarred with that experience as well.
Off course, a 4th gen Indian (eg my kids) will never understand all this. So for them Pakistan will always be an aggressor nation. Similarly, for an avg Pakistani, Indian will be an aggressor. The extremists on both sides will never cease to fuel this fire.
I could go on and on, in a nutshell, the pooch was royally screwed by all the “Great Leaders” who we all (ie Indians and Pakistanis) are supposed to pay obeisance to.
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December 5, 2013 at 2:00 PM
satyam, read my comment again.
I never said you were a sickindu, but that you give them readymade ammunition to attack SRK.
Actually I remember there used to be a site where they gave some sort of BO and they used to write similar stuff (it could be you – so suspiciously similar it is), and a lot of the clique here joined in on this blog to come up with the same stuff. This seems like an organised effort to harm SRK.
My dislike of Amir is like nothing compared to this very organized seeming attack on grounds of personal feelings which even you confess to not be able to prove.
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December 5, 2013 at 2:12 PM
yes because I have no life I spend my waking (and sleeping) hours trying to figure out how to run a political campaign to destroy SRK. I must say though it’s a heady feeling to have such extraordinary power..
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December 5, 2013 at 10:11 AM
I believe Aamir went to Karachi sometime after QSQT to attend a relative’s wedding.
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December 5, 2013 at 10:14 AM
Satyam…I think you are over blowing this SRK – Pakistan thing. Even Aamir and Salman have said positive things about Pakistan. Maybe not as much as SRK but I don’t see how SRK gains anything here (It sure didn’t help when MNIK was releasing).
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December 5, 2013 at 10:56 AM
It actually did.. MNIK had a huge audience overseas.. that’s precisely the point!
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December 5, 2013 at 10:57 AM
Read my comments closely.. I am not talking about saying positive things about Pakistan..
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December 5, 2013 at 3:09 PM
Whatever Business MNIK lost in India due to the bannings, it gained overseas.
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December 5, 2013 at 2:37 PM
> I must say though it’s a heady feeling to have such extraordinary power..
You’re trying but haven’t succeeded, so the heady feeling is as false as your claims.
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December 5, 2013 at 3:43 PM
“but that you give them readymade ammunition to attack SRK.”
As I stated earlier, there is nothing wrong in the statements he made in the above event.
However, in various previous statements, SRK himself provided the ammunition, by constantly portraying the “victim” card. Whether it is at US immigration, or in previous statements in the media claiming that as a Muslim his rights in India are trampled. The latter statement is even more hypocritical given that SRK is the richest of all bwood celebrities, and he did so as a rank outsider to an extremely closeted industry where hardly 6-7 families wield all the power. His being Muslim did not stop the ascent to the pinnacle of entertainment and sports in India. Right wing groups do not need any reason to attack anyone who climbs the ladder to success by sheer hardwork and dedication. SRK is a shining example of India’s success in nurturing its diversity. So the last thing he ought to do is to play down that very freedom which brought him that success.
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December 5, 2013 at 4:47 PM
@NyKavi
I’m talking ONLY of satyam’s ammunition. That SRK provides his own does not change what I’m saying, nor does it give license to all and sundry to do the same.
Don’t try to change the topic.
And I was addressing satyam directly about what he said. I don’t understand why you want to be his mouthpiece.
This is again, NOT a discussion, like the tap-dancing of Amir.
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December 5, 2013 at 7:17 PM
I guess I should have put a ‘sarcasm’ alert there..
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December 5, 2013 at 8:19 PM
Thats a first for Satyamshot. A BJP Mouthpiece for a Cong Supporter!
Btw, Kejriwal may beat Dikshit. Hip Hip Hooray.
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December 5, 2013 at 11:25 AM
SRK is not loyal to anyone except to himself. He is an opportunist. He makes use of his religion to win overseas audience. At the same time he is friends with Thackerays. Mamata Banerjee likes him and made him even the brand ambassador of her state.What he actually feels maybe something different. Even Bachchan, Shatru, aamir, Salman show this trait but in a much subdued way. Shatru gets away easily because he belongs to a hindutva party.
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December 5, 2013 at 11:27 AM
It is like votebank politics played by our netas.
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December 5, 2013 at 4:06 PM
Re.-Shatru gets away easily because he belongs to a hindutva party.
here we go again……
SRK had the entire GOI with him at the time of MNIK clash with SS.
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December 5, 2013 at 3:34 PM
I find almost all Bollywood movie stars (not named Aamir Khan) opportunists and extremely money-hungry. Dancing at weddings, indulging in votebank politics as rightly mentioned, inflating movie grosses, hosting disgusting shows like Bigg Boss, where the worst kind of human behavior is put on display etc.
They will pretty much do anything for money. SRK may be the worst, but even others are hardly far behind.
I find Aamir to be an exception because he could have easily made a lot more money if he wanted to in his post-Lagaan phase, but focused instead on building a reputable brand for himself.
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December 5, 2013 at 4:04 PM
I think you are combing the audience bank and making money issues.
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December 5, 2013 at 3:56 PM
Wah rey Commies Wah !!
pseudo Secular- Sickular ( NO mention of religion)
but
Hindu= Sickindu ( naming by religion)
Only Commies and Bimbos like Paglika Ghose can do that !!
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December 5, 2013 at 3:59 PM
I should have used Indians= Sickindu instead of Hindus above.
Satyam/ Munna- can you please make that correction.
and yes, till the mid nineties most of the Indian Muslims that I knew of openly preferred Pakistan over India.
Kadwa hai lekin sach hai and first hand experience hai !!
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December 5, 2013 at 4:25 PM
and this is the mindset of the Commies- ( some would probably add -and the middle class loves Krish-3, LOL!!)
khil wagle @waglenikhil
Follow
I am surprised by the low IQ of middle class in this country.Their understanding of politics is so dismal that they support bjp. God save!
12:15 PM – 4 Mar 2012
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December 5, 2013 at 4:32 PM
Aamir, SRK share a cab
By Mehul S Thakkar, Mumbai Mirror | Dec 6, 2013, 01.26 AM IST
The two superstars shared a flight and then bonded on a cab ride during a recent visit to the capital.
Their rivalry was the stuff headlines were made of but Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan displayed rare bonhomie.
Not only did they travel to Delhi on the same flight on Wednesday, the two stars then shared a cab after arriving at the airport in the capital.
A source close to Aamir told Mirror that the actor only travels by the Sakha Cabs, a car rental service which trains underprivileged women as chauffeurs and convinced his fellow star to share a ride with him.
“When they reached the exit with their respective entourages Aamir invited SRK to share his cab as they were both on the way to the same hotel,” says the source.
It was a rare sight for the onlookers as the two Khans are rarely spotted together and once they reached the hotel, they posed for a picture with the lady cab drivers.
The two continued chatting post their ride too.
The last time, they shared the podium was at the music launch of Yamla Pagla Deewana 2. So, will a Mumbai cabbie get lucky next?
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/Entertainment/Bollywood/Aamir-SRK-share-a-cab/articleshow/26923837.cms
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December 5, 2013 at 4:33 PM
Haha this is pretty random
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December 6, 2013 at 6:03 AM
Wish to see both of together more frequently.
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December 5, 2013 at 4:34 PM
BTW is anyone excited about R..Rajkumar? I want Shahid to finally have a hit film, it’s a shame he only has 3 hit films in his decade long career. Plus I’ve enjoyed Prabhu Deva’s movies thus far. And Saree Ke Fall and Gandi Baat seem to be chartbusters.
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December 5, 2013 at 5:06 PM
Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid icon and father of modern South Africa, dies
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/05/world/africa/nelson-mandela/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
one of the greatest leaders in history. RIP.
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December 5, 2013 at 7:10 PM
BULL(SHI)T RAJA
Found Bullett raja showing nearby & noted this was the last day before it will be taken off. Was hesitant checking it out (after readin qalanders review) but got talked into watchin it ….(by some here and another bloke I watched this with & who had to hear a mouthful from me later!!)
Primarily because there were some positive reviews here and most importantly, I have watched all saif films recently (!) & didn’t wanna ditch poor saif at this difficult time–expected a decent film (@ least!)
Am a bit tired but let this serve as a warning to those (like Satyam!) still wanting to check it out somehow (!!)
BR is a crap film, period.
Total mish mash
Trying to mix GoW with dabang with paan Singh Tomar with sbag (haven’t seen the last two!)
Not everyone can make a commercially successful potboiler masala or no masala …
And dhulia is an example
SHODDY work by dhulia
Shoddy editing
Shoddy screenplay
I’m actually a bit angry !!
As for saif –I’ve always found somethign good in his performances (post DCH!) but
I’m NOT a ‘fan of anyone’ (as seen here usually)
Crap gets dissed (it maybe anybody) –no questions asked
That’s my DICTUM!
Saif was like a fish out of water in this setting !!
A girl used to saris suddenly made to wear a mini skirt !!
Have been hearing a lot about Vidyut Jamwal…
Yeah the guy has a nice physique and is ace in acting scenes and can do well in action roles & as an action director
But his dialogue delivery is subpar
!!
The only relative saving grace of this ‘film’ was the title song (that I liked!)
And
Jimmy shergill ( who was killed off before interval !! Presumably to add weight to Saifs role!)
Unfortunately, unconnected people like jimmy sheet ill & body it jamwal can’t do well in this industry unless they are akshay Kumar or the one and only srk (which they are not quite)
Finally as for saif—
Disappointing stuff buddy…
Better luck next time (if there’s one!)
Alvida yaara alvida ….
Ho rahe yaara hum judas
Khush rahe yaara tu sadaa…
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December 5, 2013 at 7:29 PM
Hall of shame -bullet raja
Somehow ‘bias’ doesn’t stick on me for too long.
It’s evident that I’ve liked most of Saifs recent work (infact some more than other khans!)
But I don’t mince words when somebody goes wrong –be it anyone!
Saif in bullett raja was disappointing, infact pathetic !! Period !!
The only thing I can draw out is one of the tracks from saif…that I like personally…
imo the best film from the careers of saif & deepika …
“Tumse bhi zyada hongi
Ab yaadein pyaariyan
Hum dono ki hain apni apni lachariyaan…”
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December 5, 2013 at 10:19 PM
Looks like Shahid kapoor has sunk like no one else, he makes jr b, Vivek oberoi looks gloriously successful. All the reviews are very bad so far. Bookings on BMS indicate totally non starter.
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December 5, 2013 at 10:47 PM
Here i am referring to NCR(Noida, Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad) BO region. It might be better in Mumbai.
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December 5, 2013 at 10:24 PM
excellent images of father-son at various places http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/
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December 5, 2013 at 10:51 PM
JrB looking really dashing in that salwar-kameez. Its the best he has ever looked in years. Seems to have turned a corner in his physicality, almost up there with a young BigB.
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December 5, 2013 at 10:26 PM
remember it is a litmus test for Prabhu deva today
1) Either his magic touch will give a hit to Shahid
2) Or Shahid’s bad-patch will result in a dud
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December 5, 2013 at 10:41 PM
If your are referring to magic touch at BO. i can agree. Even RR got mixed reviews. But, still it managed Huge BO numbers.
Otherwise, all the critics are dissing him like anything, instead they are showing some sympathy with Shahid for his energy.
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December 6, 2013 at 5:23 AM
Well – the first para of this review says it all: PD has also lost his touch now……http://aajtak.intoday.in/story/film-review-r…rajkumar-1-748879.html
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December 6, 2013 at 6:00 AM
let the ‘Jai Ho’ promotions begin…
first poster via sallu’s twitter account!
Salman Khan @BeingSalmanKhan
Yeh lo ban gaya apna Jai Ho ka poster
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