This entry was posted on January 17, 2014 at 12:17 AM and is filed under the bad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
90 Responses to “Miss Lovely, the rest of the box office”
First Week: Yaariyan 25 crore Dedh Ishqiya 18 Crore
Friday 17th January 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Yaariyan grossed 25 crore nett in week one while Dedh Ishqiya grossed 18 crore nett in its first week. Yaariayan has done pretty well though collections have been on a downward trend with a partial holiday on Tuesday helping a bit.
Dedh Ishqiya maintained fairly well on the weekdays but overall its a poor performance as an 18 crore nett first week is low for the film. The week two figures should be closer for the two films with possibly Dedh Ishqiya edging ahead.
There are a few releases this week but none are really likely to do well and Yaariyan and Dedh Ishqiya will have another week to add to their business until the arrival of Salman Khan’s Jai Ho next week.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 2h
#Dhoom3 language-wise total so far: Hindi ₹ 270.03 cr. Tamil + Telugu ₹ 12.77 cr. Grand total: ₹ 282.80 cr nett. India biz only.
A few thoughts on the last batch of films I’ve seen over the past couple of months:
Garam Hawa
For many years I’ve wanted to see this, Balraj Sahni’s swansong, set just after partition, about a Muslim family, that is forced to leave Agra due to the political circumstances, but Balraj Sahni refuses to run away from his homeland. Sensitive and well made, though perhaps not the best choice for the festive period (I watched it on Boxing Day!).
Bol Bachchan
I’m rather embarassed to admit I actually really enjoyed this! Harmless fun and certainly far better than all those Salman/Akshay comedies.
Chennai Express
I had zero intention of watching this, but after seeing BB I decided to check it out. Strange seeing SRK in this kinda movie, but it was harmless fun. Deepika made it watchable.
A Casual Vacancy (book)
Really enjoyed this JK Rowling book – it reminded me in many ways of my favourite novel, George Eliot’s Middlemarch – they are both set in English towns, spanning across communities, are character rather than plot driven, and they insightfully explore human character. I did of course miss the magical world of Potter. A Casual Vacancy is grittier/gloomier than Middlemarch, and doesn’t have the noble Dorothea to bring radiance to the world, but nevertheless I very much recommend it.
Prisoners
Awesome! Really gripping suspense-thriller. Saw it in the cinema and was hooked from start to finish. Basically about two young girls who get kidnapped…
Rangeen Raatein
Weird film – Geeta Bali plays a boy! Not quite sure why but apparently maybe cos her and Shammi Kapoor, the hero of the film, were into each other at the time, and got married shortly after. Anyways, Mala Sinha is the heroine. Shammi is part of some villainous troupe, kidnapping innocent girls, and of course the love of a good girls reforms him. Bla bla bla. But a truly magnificent soundtrack by Roshan Saab makes it all worthwhile.
Bahu Beti
Mala Sinha plays a girl who gets married to an army guy who gets called to duty straight after the wedding and is then killed. Rather than go back to her parents, she stays with her in-laws, Ashok Kumar and Achla Sachdev. Ashok treats her as his own daughter, gets her educated and married again 🙂 Amitabh’s Baabul was basically an exact copy of this, but Bahu Beti works much better. Mala excels in these roles and this is no exception. And Ashok Kumar is superb. But Achla Sachdev has the most interesting role – grey shades galore!
Django Unchained
I admit this isn’t usually my favourite ‘type’ of film. But I loved it. Thoroughly.
Besharam
I watched this purely out of curiosity given the scathing reviews. Although I can’t ‘recommend’ this film, I did actually have fun watching it. Certainly not as awful as it was made out to be. But the toilet humour was disgusting and unnecessary.
Kai Po Che
Continuing the tradition of male-bonding movies after DCH, Rock On and 3 Idiots, this one is set against the background of sport and Gujarati politics. Good film and all three of the leads, as well as the actress (Amrita Puri) were very good. This Sushant dude was particularly impressive. And it was nice hearing lots of Gujarati onscreen!
Memories in March
Deepti Naval plays a woman who travels to Calcutta, after her only son suddenly dies. She meets his colleagues, Raima Sen (who loved her son) and Rituparno Ghosh (who her son was in a relationship with). Naval is fantastic as always – the film is decent.
Chand Aur Suraj
Started as a frothy romance, with a very good looking pairing of Dharmendra-Tanuja, and fun family stuff with Ashok Kumar and Nirupa Roy. It also has the great Asha song “Baag Mein Kali Kali”. Then the film gets melodramatic and boring. But once Tarun Bose starts lusting after Nirupa Roy I got intrigued again! Then it gets ridiculous.
Dhoom 3
I said enough about this one earlier. Crap film. Shocked that people are managing to see good in it.
Dhoom 2
Watched this again, with family at Xmas time. I wasn’t paying much attention as I’d seen it before, but still prefer it to Dhoom 3.
Khelenge Hum Jee Jaan Se
Not a bad film, but not in the league of Lagaan or Swades or Jodha Akbar. So the reviews all thought the first half was slow but that the second half was much better. But personally I preferred the first half – the endless ‘implementation’ of the plans just bored me in the second half. Abhishek was decent, but nothing spectacular. Deepika was decent too.
Insaan Jaag Utha
This Madhubala-Sunil Dutt starrer had an interesting premise, about a guy who comes out of jail having committed a misdemeanour in the past and now reforming his life. But I was really irritated cos they made Madhubala wear this huge nose-ring – yuck! Songs by SDB were kinda boring which was a shame. Not really a film I can recommend.
Dil Chahta Hai
Saw this again after a long time. Just as much fun as ever.
Panchavati
Quite enjoyed this Suresh Oberoi-Deepti Naval starrer. He is in a loveless marriage, arranged for business reasons. She is younger, from Nepal and an artist who he meets at an exhibition and somehow arranges for her to marry his younger brother. The brother is rather selfish, chauvinistic and immature and things don’t work out…but there’s chemistry elsewhere. A sensitive marital drama. Deepti is such an awesome actress – perhaps the most under appreciated actress of Hindi cinema.
Gaban
I was super excited to see this Sunil Dutt – Sadhana starrer, directed partially by Hrishikesh Mukherjee (after the original director’s death). It is based on a Munshi Premchand novel, about a young man who gets married to a lady who is rather materialistic, particularly about jewellery. The movie is set during independence fighting. I was pretty disappointed. It looked like it had been in the making for ages and the music was average too.
Rishte Naate
I was recommended this family drama starring Nutan and Raajkumar, and for some reason expected a frothy rom-com but was overall disappointed. Set in a village, a landowner has a good-for-nothing son so he hands over the keys to his son-in-law, and then gets him remarried after his daughter dies. Music was not as good as Madan Mohan’s usual standard.
Salim, I thought you were taking a break from movies. Regardless , an enjoyable read as always.
I have come to realise Bol Bachchan is terribly under rated. It is a little gem in its genre and IMO, Shetty’s best
lol, i usually write a line or two soon after i see a film, so these were all from before January. Since the new year I was on a marathon of Californication (which I just finished this week) so over that time I didn’t see a single film. Watching Lunchbox now :=)
I don’t recall how BB fared in the reviews but it was a hit so can’t be too underrated…unless you mean on Satyamshot but I’m sure Abhi is relatively safe here :p
good list apart from bol Bachchan which was i thought was trash riding on various mannerism of many amitabh’s movie nothing different from various recyled spoof of srk’s movie in chennai express
What’s worse is the fact that the makers resort to gay jokes by making Abbas play an effeminate dance teacher who turns on an army of wrestlers. Stay classy, guys.
And thus, the classic comedy about generation gap becomes approximated to… well, people blowing up cars while making off-colour jokes about race and homosexuality because there are puns waiting to be milked.
Yes, you will laugh a couple of times mostly because the actors manage to salvage a bad joke here and there.
But most of it does not even make sense. Sample Ajay Devgn translating “You make my heart swell in pride to” to “My chest has become blouse.”
That’s pretty much how funny Rohit Shetty’s translation of Golmaal is.
and put it more precisely even after 13 years dialogue delivery of mr abhishek bachchan left lot to be desired as it appears he learns very little and continues to be average
garam hawa is on list as they say it was the best of balraj sahini (one of the most underrated actor)slightly better than waqt and now with demise of faruq sheikh its on list on one of his early films though his role was miniscule
agree on the ending but liked it a lot otherwise. Don’t remember the Silence all that well at this point.
saw the Lone Ranger. There’s definitely some interesting stuff going on here in terms of how they frame the story and the whole ironic, deconstructive take on the myth. There are some great visuals here as well (though in what is otherwise a great sequence the bison look a bit animated!) but ultimately it’s a rather boring movie, specially for that length. Also the leads are inert to put it mildly. The Lone Ranger is a total lightweight and Tonto is simply buried under the getup! I still think it’s worth checking out with ample use of fast forward!
‘Bang Bang’ gets back on track
Bipasha Basu In Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif Starrer Bang Bang
By IndiaTimes | January 15, 2014, 11:11 am IST
It can now be confirmed that Bipasha Basu will indeed be a part of Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif’s much-awaited action flick Bang Bang. The rumours were doing the rounds for a while but an official release by the studio, prominently features Bipasha Basu’s name in the cast credits.
Bipasha has earlier worked with Siddharth in the Ranbir Kapoor starrer Bachna Ae Haseeno, while she was also a part of Hrithik Roshan’s Dhoom 2. Here’s a look at a set of teaser posters released by the team of Bang Bang, to celebrate Makar Sankranti.
Directed by Siddharth Anand, Bang Bang is the official Hindi remake of the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz starrer Knight And Day.
The first schedule of the film was completed in June 2013, but owing to Hrithik Roshan’s surgery last year, the makers decided to wait for the actor to be fully fit, before resuming the remaining parts of the film.
Bang Bang has music by Vishal-Shekhar, and also stars Javed Jaffrey and Danny Denzongpa. The film is being produced by Vijay Singh under fox Star Studios and is slated for release on October 2014.
Hrithik Roshan, who is back from an extensive training session in LA is totally geared up for the film and is pushing hard to give it his best for the film’s heavy-duty, action sequences.
This link is not playing for me–maybe plays at your ‘end’ folks.
Somehow I came across this episode elsewhere (unexpectedly)
check out the ‘nuns’ who have never dated !!
Actually can’t say about ‘dating’ (!) but they do come across inadvertently as very ‘NORMAL’ girls underneath all the ‘glamour’ & ‘hype’…
One can see thru all this ‘pretence’ (atleast I could –I think so..)
Girls with ‘normal’ yearnings & ‘insecurities’ (@ the end of the day)—
In a way–this interview has laid them bare (no pun intended)
Remind one of any other girl next door under the glitz n glamour…
Ps: deepika She does sound ‘confused’ herself
She has gained weight –I wonder why …
Something tells me–
I can EASILY ‘own’ them both 🙂
Saw today Akshay on Koffee with karan. Among all KWK episodes sofar, most entertaining has been Ranveer-Arjun Singh. Saw that twice in a row and again after couple of days later.
Now, it is becoming boring with every episode, i think akshay alone in one episode also didnt work that much for me. Vidya-Farhan episode was boring too.
I loved the Ranveer-Arjun episode – I watched it again with a friend recently and it’s a blast. Ranveer is totally crazy, but in a very endearing way. Impossible to dislike him as I used to.
I loved the first 5 minutes of the Akshay episode where he’s brutally firing Karan.
Agree with you. I had loved the trailer of akshay episode. I was so excited. But, it turned out to be uni dimensional one sided brutal. There was nothing else. It would have been interesting if Twinkle was there.
Saturday 18th January 2013 14.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Dedh Ishqiya edged past Yaariyan on day eight. The figures were getting close every day over the weekdays but it was the 8th day that Dedh Ishqiya finally managed to garner better all India collections than Yaariyan.
Dedh Ishqiya grossed around 85-90 lakhs nett on day eight while Yaariyan grossed around 70-75 lakhs nett.
The second week of Dedh Ishqiya will be better than Yaariyan but overall it will stay lower as it won’t be able to make up the gap in the business of both films in week one.
Overall the second week business of both films is on the lower side.
Over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, Kevin Hart/Ice Cube comedy Ride Along drew huge crowds and set a new January opening record. Meanwhile, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit missed the mark and Devil’s Due bombed.
Playing at 2,663 locations, Ride Along scored a fantastic $41.2 million over the three-day weekend. That’s a tad higher than Cloverfield, which had previously held the January record with $40.1 million. Among original comedies, Ride Along had the highest opening since Ted ($54.4 million) back in June 2012.
Ride Along’s stunning debut can be attributed to a number of factors. First and foremost, the movie had a strong, broadly-appealing premise that was put front-and-center in all of the marketing material. That would be worthless, though, if the movie looked like a dud: fortunately, the Ride Along previews were packed with solid laughs, including a very memorable shotgun bit. All of this was brought to life by stars Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, both of whom have strong brands that aligned nicely with the Ride Along material.
The Wolf of Wall Street eased 15 percent to $7.5 million. In the process, it passed $90 million. Meanwhile, Her (2013) dipped 24 percent to $4.1 million (new total of $15 million).
To take advantage of its 10 Oscar nominations, Gravity was re-released in to 944 theaters this weekend. The movie added $1.95 million for a new total of $258.4 million; with an IMAX re-release scheduled for January 31st, look for this to continue making money for at least the next month. 12 Years a Slave also received a nationwide re-release, and in the process passed $40 million.
tried again–The PC-deepika youtube link is NOT working at my end! I Saw most bits earlier elsewhere on telly -does anybody have an internet link that works?
However while looking for that PC-deepika link–I found this one– that works–FULL song
I’m checking the d3 songs now and must say that the music album is quite good (I rate it better than other dhooms music wise)
Dedicated to all those aamir and dhoom 3 fans who bore my brunt…
Relax folks–it can be devastating indeed when I go for it !!
but check this out
Specially for the likes of aamir fangirls like sanju & LS lol
Also Oldgold –Look @ the ‘effort’ by the 50 year old aamir…creditable lol
The most expensive song in Bollywood history …
Ishq labon pe
Ishq duaa mein
Jism mein, rooh mein
Ishq rava, rava rawa ravaa
Ishq nazar mein
Ishq bashar mein
Aks mein, raks mein
Ishqe nishaan
Nishan nishan nishan
“Is Ranbir Kapoor to Ayan Mukerji what Leonardo DiCaprio is to Martin Scorsese?”
For those of you who live in Mumbai and desperately want to know the answer to this burning question, you can now ask Ayan yourself! (This event description was too ridiculous not to share! :P)
Thanx Amy for that interesting link…
Actually hilarious it may initially seem, but it’s sort of true…
Ranbir IS indias Leonardo diCaprio on current evidence, so is his relation to ayan
(Though ayan is certainly not scorcese!)
time for oscars to redeem themselves and the old grumpy oscar panel needs to grow up & award him !
As for the other ‘Oscar contenders’–have nothing against them and they do have their place in style/charisma stakes but…
In the letter, Scorsese says, “I thoroughly enjoyed Dev D and Gangs Of Wasseypur and found them exciting and inspiring.” If that wasn’t enough, Scorsese also expressed his desire to meet Kashyap. Tweeting his delight Anurag posted, “My biggest award yet”.
The action thriller won maximum awards at the recently held award ceremony
ETC Bollywood Business Awards 2013 is the only awards show in the country that recognises talent based on the economic success of their films. The past year has been a fruitful one especially because it was a
record-breaking one for Bollywood at the box office, with three major films grossing over 200 crore and five films in the 100 crore club. The award which is in its fourth year, recognises people who made a mark in 2013.
Dhoom:3 walked away with the maximum number of awards at the ETC Bollywood Business Awards 2013. The only awards show in the country which recognises talent on the basis on business of the films, saw the top grosser of the year bagging the Box Office Record Breaker of 2013 and all times. The other awards won on the awards night were:
Highest grossing Actor Male – Aamir Khan for Dhoom:3
Highest grossing Actor Female – Deepika Padukone
Highest single day collection – Dhoom:3
Top grosser of the year – Dhoom:3
Highest grossing director of the year – Vijay K Acharya for Dhoom:3
Top grossing producer of the year – Aditya Chopra for Dhoom:3
Excellence in international distribution – Yash Raj Films
Most popular trailer – Dhoom:3
Social King of 2013 – Salman Khan
Social Queen of 2013 – Deepika Padukone
Highest grossing debut Female – Pallavi Sharda for Besharam
Highest grossing debut Male – Dhanush for Raanjhanaa
Highest grossing debut director – Kannan Iyer for Ek Thi Daayan
Box office surprise of the year – Aashiqui 2 and Grand Masti
Most successful small budget movie of the year – BA Pass
Music director of the year – Pritam
Song of the year – Tum hi ho from Aashiqui 2
Music company of the year – T-Series
200 crore club award – Chennai Express, Krrish 3 and Dhoom:3
BOI has ‘once again’ come up with new verdicts for all the movies over the years that contradict with what they have peddled them to be over the years.
SRK now has no ATBB, Salman has one (HAHK) and Aamir has two (3I and Dhoom 3).
Saw Dedh Ishqiya, Miss Lovely and Srijit Mukherjee’s Jatiswar at stretch in one theater last night. Thought Dedh Ishqia was an absolute classic…the most perfect caper film since Delhi Belly.The writing is razor sharp and the humour is of the highest order that you will find in Hindi films and it comes in both formats, verbal as well as situational. I can watch it n number of times just to enjoy the banter in Urdu..an absolute first in Hindi films. It is this genre-bending in Vishal Bharadwaj and Anurag Kshayp’s films that make them such refreshing experience. Though inspired by the works of Tarantino and the like, it also ttanscends the genre, going some place altogether new. The timbre of exchange between Naseer and Madhuri in the film is something Tarantino cannot dream of. The seven stages of love…the ghazal that Naseer sings for Madhuri..aah what an exquisite world Chaubey creates here! And to contrast that with the grossness of Vijay raaz and Arshad… where the grossness itself has a certain delicacy and quaintness…like demanding twenty ghazals to be written in a few hours.. pehle hraf, phir baraf..aah, that is genius. I am also touched by the wistful love story that nestles among all this crazy caper, and the sense of loss and incurable loneliness that inhabits the characters of Nasser and Madhuri. That lifts the film to another level. And I am glad Chaubey does not belabour this aspect , playing it as some serious romance. The lightness of touch and the ironic strokes makes the sadness more poignant, as do so many scenes in Gangs of wasseypur. Frankly, you can keep the Othellos and Macbeths. Give me the expressionistic works that permit full play to the Indian style storytelling and is creatively more challenging. It is the Saat Khon Maafs, the Kamineys, the Matru Ka Mandolas and the Dedh ishqias that excite me more than the Maqbools and the Omkars, which are beautiful and powerful, yes, but also are to some extent predictable , burdened as the are by the demands to be ‘ good’ cinema. Dedh Ishqia was magically enchanting. and wickedly funny at the same time. If that is not original, what is?
Jaatiswar , even while being the third film of the evening, held me in its grip from the first frame. Yet another high-minded crowd pleaser from Srijit Mukherjee, it is about Hensman Anthony, better known as Anthony Firingee, the Portuguese who lived in nineteen century Bengal, married a widower, learnt the language and composed songs in the Kabiyal tradition , taking part in poetry duels prevalent in those days.
But it is nota straight forward biographical narrative. Very smartly written and staged, it is a wonderful love song to the process of song making. Combining the best practices from films as diverse as Rang De Basanti, Rock On and Bhag Milkha Bhag…and with dollops of Srijit’s own quirks of contemporizing any narrative with loads of pop culture references, smart word play, meaningful namedropping and constant invocation of Bangaliana with a welcome lightness of touch, the film is a master class in how to tell a story of a historical character , and in the process, more tan tell a story. The most impressive aspect of the film for me is how it captures the whole ethos of great song writing , unobtrusively, very cleverly, touching upon not just Antony Firingee, Ram Basu and Bhola Moira of the Kabigaan tradition but also Lalan Fakir, Kabir Suman, Anupam Roy and the contemporary Bangla bands. Srijit even manages to drop the names of Dylan and Joan Baez. Of course the other great insight into the world of songwriting… . whether one admits or not, one is always trying to score over one’s peers, and the biggest motivation for writing a good song..is to impress a girl. To make the film so racy without losing the essential truth is a tough act and Srijit pulls it off magically.
It was especially interesting for me as long back I had envisaged someone doing something similar with Kabir. Managed to dig out the old notebook in which I had noted a sketchy single page seed of the film. The film is called ‘ Kabir Rocks’.
“ Kabir is an IITian working in a software company in Bangalore , a big fan of The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Plays the guitar and tries to write songs, performs at the alumni functions. But he knows what he is doing is shit..nowhere close to the authentic voices of his icons. He eats often at a small eatery serving Punjabi home cooked food run by an old man called Tilak Singh. Tilak holds a mushaira there first Sunday of every month, where auto-driver types from Shivajinagar surprise Kabir with the quality of their poetry. ( Sample: Na siyasat ke liye zinda hoon, Na baghabat ke liye zinda hoon, Mujhe kya pata kaun kis ke liye zinda hai, Main toh shaayar hoon, mohabbat ke liye zinda hoon’) Of course apart from the tasty home cooked food at the home-dhaba, the other attraction of the place for Kabir was Tilak’s daughter , Nagma, a singer herself., who performs on the special sessions of the mushaira. Kabir shares with her the problem he is facing with his songwriting. He has a sort of a band now, and wants to take part in the upcoming rock competition . Nagma says why doesn’t he take help from his namesake, the poet Kabir. She introduces him to the life and work of Kabir, of whom she is great fan. We see the band practicing different Kabir songs. Kabir joins the competition under the name ‘ Kabir Rocks’. His version of a Kabir classic, with a stanza of his own addition, is a roaring hit and he wins. She comes to congratulate him, accompanied by her childhood boyfriend from her village in Punjab, about whom she never mentioned to Kabir. “ Why didn’t you tell me?’ Kabir asks. ‘How would you have written such a great song then ?’ she replies. ‘ Now that you have found your song, you will find the girl too’, she teases him, as she kisses him on the cheek.
Quite sketchy, as I said. But basically I wanted to see a film on the process of song-making, a film that captures a musical era, and encapsulates a musical history. . And I was glad to see Jaatiswar. It was so satisfying on so many levels.
Aamir Khan’s ‘P.K.’ may create domino effect on a lot of movies
Meena Iyer,TNN | Jan 21, 2014, 12.00 AM IST
In a business where insecurity is the only constant, several Bollywood superstars and A-list filmmakers are running helter-skelter in their bid to salvage their release date in the last quarter of 2014.
What has caused this pandemonium? Hmm. One reported move. It is being alleged that Aamir Khan, who is now becoming superstitious about Christmas being the period when he can strike platinum at the box office, is contemplating moving his Rajkumar Hirani film P.K. from June 6 to December 25.
Where is the threat, is the next question? Well, if Raju Hirani, the big daddy of cinema moves his film, then this will have a domino effect on a lot of movies bunched together between the period of October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti) and December 25 (Christmas).
Here’s how things will play out…
As of now, Hrithik Roshan is sitting on the October 2 slot for Bang Bang. Incidentally, this is the best period for a movie to release this year. October 2 (Thursday) is a national holiday. October 3 is Dassera. So, the film that comes on this day will get a four-day week with two big holidays thrown in.
Saif Ali Khan is supposedly trying to come on this date with Phantom. Will he manage? For that matter, Hrithik, too, has a lot of ground to cover, if he wants this coveted weekend.
Next, SRK has chosen to come on Diwali with Happy New Year. Post the carpet bombing of Chennai Express during Ramzan Eid last year, no one wants to come alongside him. Sensible.
Maneesh Sharma’s Fan with SRK has chosen December 19. This may not be such a bad release if, six days later, Anurag Kashyap and Ranbir Kapoor arrived with Bombay Velvet. However, if, as we said, Big Daddy (Raju) with Aamir also decides to come on Christmas, then Fan will get just six days at the box office before it plunges headlong into P.K. and Bombay Velvet. And that’s not so good!
currently HNY is on Diwali, All is Well is on Dec 5 (according to taran), PK is Christmas (which probably means Bombay Velvet will have to be moved). Bang Bang doesn’t have a date yet but its apparently in Oct at some point. But of all these it’s safe to say that HNY is pretty set in stone and now that they’ve delayed it to Christmas the same could be said for PK.
Phantom also stars Katrina Kaif and I seriously doubt she would want her two films clashing on the same day LOL!
Clearly P.K moving to Xmas will really screw up a lot of releases in Dec14. I did not even know Fan was supposed to come this year, if it is I doubt it is if P.K is arriving in Xmas. And would doubt Bombay Velvet too. It would be a fruitless clash as now P.K is primed to be the favourite film this year at the box office with the added edge of Xmas date. Plus Bombay Velvet has Anushka Sharma too, so the chances of a clash are as slim as Deepika’s legs!
So all the big stars have landed a coveted holiday – Salmans Kick comes on Eid (Jai Ho on Republic Day), Hrithik’s Bang Bang on Dussehra/Eid, SRK’s HNY on Diwali and Aamir’s P.K on Xmas.
Jai Ho – coming on Friday 24th Jan and having NH on 26th (Sunday) is not really going to help the film much. This is a technical advantage even if that!
Kick – coming on 27th Jul this is an odd day as it is a Sunday! Eid falling on 29th? the Tuesday will probably mean a rather topsy turvy initial. A big start guaranteed, Monday could fall but Tuesday will be big again.
Bang Bang – coming on 2nd October this film has a stellar holiday period from Thursday through to Monday. Definitely the plum date this year for the biggest initial.
HNY – likely to come on 23rd October, think this is a good release date. Might struggle a tad on 23rd but could be the “hype film of the year” and as D3 showed it could overcome it , but Friday-Sun will be bountiful.
P.K – As D3 arrived on Fri 20th, 19th is a Friday and more likely. Or the film could arrive on Xmas day itself on a Thursday. The latter is better for the initial but as D3 proved the former might be better for total business.
P.K has moved up now from being 2nd fav. (behind HNY) as the odds on favourite for biggest film of the year (not biggest grosser but biggest film). Landing Xmas has sealed that.
Current predictions happy with but would probably bump up Bang Bang based on how the dates are falling…it’s got to go north of 150 crore. The biggest mover now though would be P.K. I’m definitely sure this is 300 crore at a minimum now. Films releasing on 4000+ today, and maybe in Jun 2014 that would have been 4,500+. By the time Xmas comes, the numbers going to be bigger. Add Xmas and > 250 crores is a likely 10 day haul. It’s the only film this year which oozes the confidence of getting to 300 crore. Possibly HNY has a shot. It would need to a superior film to anything Farah has conjured up so far and much better than CE. It’s possible. But you’d bank on Hirani doing something special *more* than Farah doing something *good*. The pedigree and history suggests this.
At the moment I’d go with P.K>HNY>Kick>Bang Bang>Jai Ho. Bang Bang and Kick could go the other way round. I’m not particularly optimistic on Salman Khan. Jai Ho is an interesting one. How it goes will shape how Kick goes. His career is marked with strings and Dabangg 2 was a little dip. Bang Bang is the most multiplex film on the list IMO so will lose some business that way and will probably be crowded, but it could be the “surprise” pick out of these 5 also. You know what to expect with Salman, Farah/SRK, Aamir/Hirani…Hrithik/Katrina though they’ve done ZNMD but they hardly *sizzled*. But here there is a good chance they will explore it onscreen more. Plenty of skin show to be expected! Who knows it could blast past 150 crore in 7 days even. So unsure on it.
P.K was my top pick before, but now it’s gone from warm favourite to bang on odds on. As D3 was a the clear front runner in 2013, P.K now is for 2014…only with a Jun14 date, it was based on content and strong opening, now with Xmas it’s based on content and huge opening. The move to Xmas might disappoint some, but I’d take this as a positive move. A big film moving to a big slot could be termed as a “safety” option. Grab a big initial or a smash and grab job. Hirani though is a sincere fella, I’d think this is probably legitimate delay with the film shaping up well but getting “things right”.
PK is definitely THE film of the year – as the repeat value likely to be guaranteed and with 3i deal at the back of mind – everyone and their brothers and sisters and dogs and cats will be booking for 3rd viewing after the first 2 viewings are done 🙂
didn’t know Katrina was in Phantom. Don’t know anything about the film anyway. Is this a superhero kind of deal or simply a vigilante thing? I’m assuming this is not about the iconic Phantom..
Dedh Ishqiya Scores Over Yaariyan In Second Weekend
Monday 20 January 2014 11.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
The second weekend for Yaariyan and Dedh Ishqiya turned out to be different than the first as Dedh Ishqiya had better collections where as it was Yaariyan which had scored over the first weeeknd.
Dedh Ishqiya grossed around 4 crore nett in its second weekend while Yaariyan collected around 2.75 crore nett. The collections of both films are low with Dedh Ishqiya managing steady but low collections in metro multiplexes.
The gap in the first week was 5 crore nett in the favour of Yaariyan so its unlikely that Dedh Ishqiya can catch up to Yaariyan in the long run though it could make up around 2 crore of that 5 crore deficit in week two. But with Jai Ho releasing this week its likely that both films will be out of most theatres.
The final lifetime business looks set to be 28 crore nett for Yaariyan and 25 crore nett for Dedh Ishqiya which is just about fair for the former and poor for the latter.
Recently there was the story that Ratnam was doing a Tamil-Telugu bilingual (with Mahesh Babu in the latter. Now there’s word of a movie with Asihwarya:
Saw both American Hustle and WOWS over the weekend.
Must say I was more gung ho for American Hustle than WOWS but I much preferred WOWS.
American Hustle had some nice characters and performances but felt a little boring at times. The first 30mins was a little slow especially showing how the whole thing was put together from the past. Jennifer Lawrence was worth the price of the ticket though, she hits all the right notes. Amy Adams is good too. Of the males, just found it a bit overdone…more props than fine acting. Liked the story but missed a bit of zing to it and needed an injection of pace after a while.
WOWS is all Di Caprio from start to finish and he is in full form. Contrary to some, as overdone and explicit as the film is, it’s just a thoroughly fun film from start to finish. It’s a little lengthy, but just some scenes linger so well. The whole theatre was in skits when Di Caprio is trying to get to his car when he is off his head. He is so good in the film and he’s done a lot of scenes in this film that are ridiculous but he pulls it off. Scorcese is on form again and this is a great role for Di Caprio.
For me definitely WOWS>American Hustle.
On the other hand it is also true that it will need all the Oscar nominations it can get and perhaps a win to get to Shutter Island’s 130m. One can make some allowance for length of course and overall I’d consider a 100m total significant here but still it could be doing more than this.
Not been following its BO collections but it’s at $89mm…got to think it will be very stable until Oscar weekend. Should be at $95mm at end of this week. $105mm by the time Oscars roll around.
I haven’t seen Shutter Island but that was surely a much more “serious” film. In that sense, WOWS is quite a fun film even if long, so surprised it’s not done more.
Found WOWS very entertaining, but also sort of pointless in that Scorsese has done this kind of breathless thing several times before in Goodfellas and Casino. That it’s still one of the better films of the year is a testament to how good of a director he is.
I would be surprised if WOWS does well at Oscars. If MM was not a lock for Dallas Buyers Club for best actor, may be DeCaprio had a shot. But, for best movie or director, it hasnt any chance. May be Jonas Hill for supporting actor but there are too many other candidates.
BTW,anyone see Dallas Buyers Club?
Plan to see 12 years a slave on Thursday and may be Dallas next week.
I saw last month, and commented here Jared Leto and MM are sureshot swiping all awards. Leo or anyone else doesnt stand chance. Movie and subject was too dark for my taste , i loved cinematography aswell. Moving doesn’t go that far in terms of story, still you can feel for each character. Jennifer garner was good too.
Actually, i am planning to watch it again because i was disturbed due to subject in first one hour and just dissed for initial part.
By the end, i found it is marvelous.
wows is disturbing as it glorifies crime and talks pretty less about the victim but symbolically scorsese making it at 70+ age and despite being his weakest is somewhat better among the most mediocre oscar list in recent time and thats not me but general hollywood media which is saying this
goodfellas and casino bright something new to table and was pretty fresh at there time
just a personal opinion:
on to shutter island dark ya but cinematically with restoration of films gaining groung his association with ben kingsley was more fruitful in hugo
and ya this biasism for ben kingsley will always be there for his indian connection(gujrati precisely)..can’t believe something like in bollywood with talents like amitabh , ben and even madhvan came up with teen patti
This is one of those tracks where EVERYTHING falls in place–
Well done in all facets…
Now people compare k3 with d3. K3 was mostly an average/below average fare taken so far BARRING ONE man –Hritik Roshan!
I rate that perfomance so high also Bcos it was a ONE-MAN show..
In D3, all the other facets were well worked upon (for its genre!)
Imagine what would have happened if HR in k3 had got such ‘support’ from kamli/ malang etc
Anyhow —
In D3–aamir has given TWO outstanding scenes–the FIRST I will mention in detail elsewhere in detail (if @ all)
The SECOND is AAMIRS perfomance in ‘kamli’–Brilliant
Only an actor of Aamirs ‘maturity’ could bring this out–
This was like a ‘tightrope’ expressions and aamir gets it just right…
Btw this maybe BEYOND most of the so/called ‘aamir fans’ …
So will try to resist elaborating
As for katrina here
I’m inspired to write a few ‘original’ words—
Jheel dil ko kar gaya tu
Dariya dariya mere yaara…
Though I dont believe the numbers Roshans thrown at us, I happened to catch Krrish 3 finally and was actually quite surprised that I liked it. I thought the FX were decent and looked good. The movie had good plot moments and action was quite good. The Old Hritik who grates on the nerves didnt grate as much in the movie maybe because I was prepared for the ‘poor’ acting to be thrown at me. But Hritik in the other role is quite cool. And Kangana and Oberoi and even Ms Chopra were competent. All in all I will say Krrish 3 is miles better than CE or D3. Also after seeing the movie I did feel that critics went in too seriously for this flick. This was much better than any other superhero movie and more importantly delivered what it promised and even the cheesiness which is always part of any RR flick didnt bother me that much…
& Satyam –THIS is the way to view/enjoy such films…
There are other ‘types’ of films-and if one has not that taste-y bother with these
And ‘intelligence’ has its own place.
Suggest u rise above ‘fandom’ and ‘groupism’ & all this bull crap!
Some day I may explain what was gr8 about k3 & hritik in it–since u totally missed it…big time …
Anyhow folks –enjoy the song
(like aamir), I too shall start an ongoing ‘audition’ for this track ….
🙂
Jai Ho Heading For Srong Start But Expectations Huge
Wednesday 22 January 2014 09.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Jai Ho is looking at a strong start at the box office all over but the expectations have also changed after the release of Dhoom 3. Dhoom 3 managed to set a record opening day on a non holiday so where as earlier a 20 crore nett figure was regarded excellent for a non holiday the stakes have gone up for Dhoom 3.
Dhoom 3 had production values which have never been seen before in India and the huge cost was evident in the promos which is not the case with Jai Ho which is a very costly film for the distributors but not in terms of it showing on screen which is important today as consumers are paying high ticket rates so come for the gloss.
So a grand looking film does add to the box office opening which was also proved by Ram – Leela which opened much better than the cast warranted and a lot was to with the fact that the product looked big. Jai Ho has the presence of Salman Khan who is the biggest crowd puller but the market expectations of a 25 crore nett number may be bit too high as the market is basing it on Dhoom 3 collecting nearly 32 crore nett so this should do 25 approx but these things sometimes don’t materialise. The advance at many single screens is actually better than Dhoom 3 and Chennai Express which were top openers of 2013 but multiplexes are less almost all over where advance is open.
The music not being a huge hit does not matter for big stars like Salman Khan but a grand look may be a problem in terms of putting up a very big number (25 crore plus). A superstar, grand look and holiday probably means 37-38 crore nett opening day business today but with Jai Ho it is banking totally on the superstar. The year has started on a slow note with only Yaariyan just about covering costs and being an average fare so it is down to Jai Ho to get the box office going again.
But truth be told the movie looks like a dud from the trailors..Even BodyGuard etc looked better…I would be surprised if this makes anything more than 70 crores over 3 days…
Irrespective of the movie’s quality it is this kind of crude commentary that destroys all credibility. Even the greatest stars are still greater in bigger films (however one defines these). This doesn’t argue against the star because there’s a reason why a certain star is chosen for a Dhoom sequel and not another! Leaving this aside when it comes to Salman there are many who engage in this fallacy. It is not the case that he’s the strongest because he does nothing films whereas other stars do better stuff. This is true in a literal sense. however Salman depends on this kind of nothing film. He wouldn’t really do better in more meaningful stuff. Much as Akshay Kumar when he was doing best for a time did so in trashy comedies. When he did something half-meaningful no one turned up! A brand-name is connected to the product. You remove the product and the brand-name dissipates. even Aamir who gets the best results in a variety of genres still opens certain kinds of films better than others even when all of these are hits. All of this is pretty obvious. But Taran or BOI or whoever these partisan sources are try to make it only about the star. So Taran will say something typical like CE proves SRK’s star power. The problem then is: what happened to all those other films he did between OSO and CE that didn’t open like those two? It’s not like Salman where everything he touches opens big. It’s not like Aamir where relative to the genre he gets the best results. They all go for overkill and beyond a point being partisans they’re not concerned about the ‘evidence’. You see people do this on blogs all the time. Unfortunately in India those supposed to be trade experts or this pretending to run box office sites are also partisan in the same way.
getting back to Jai Ho I personally expect it to be better than usual Salman fare. This is because though Stalin was a mediocre film it was still way better than most of the stuff Salman does and for which I have almost no taste. Now it’s another matter that this might not be what the multiplexes signed up for.
It’s this myth of rewarding a major star who does “well” in a lowbrow/bad/crapfest/shoddy/weakly “packaged” film and penalising a star who does “well” in a more equipped product/well scripted/well put together or thought out film. The very thing that is “attempting” to do something different or progressive is shot down. And of course that star is a success because the script was “good” or the director is “good”. I did not realise stars in Bollywood have an embargo on seeking “good” films”!
A Di Caprio moves on from his poster boy image of Titanic and instead embraces the Scorcese’s of the world! The equivalent in Bollywood would be SRK befriending Vishal Baradwaj after DDLJ…instead he opted for Karan Johar!
yes Di Caprio is a great example. He does well with most of his films but doesn’t get the biggest grossers because of course Shutter Island or even Inception are hardly going to give competition to the Avengers! And you’re right in that he’s acquired greater prestige this way. He’s still a major star. Even a lesser figure like Affleck has gained so much prestige turning director for films like the Town and Argo (and of course acting in them). earlier he was doing rom-coms or the Clancy thriller once in a while and no one cared. Brad Pitt too tries to do the meaningful more often than not. In fact he’s even been doing a lot of experimental stuff for many years now. Of course no one said in the 90s that RH or Ishq mean more than DDLJ or KKHH or something! If Hollywood were like Bollywood Vin Diesel would be spoken of in the same breath as Di Caprio! Anyone can do Scorsese and Nolan but how many can be convincing in Riddick?!
On Jai Ho I think it will take a 23-25crore opening. And first weekend should be close to 80crore. I can’t see it doubling that though on the total. To me the BOI report is all wrong. Or the industry is viewing this one wrong. I don’t think they should be expecting a big box office performer ala D3 or giving hope to that kind of expectation, firstly with the film attempting to be more meaningful…the target should be a making a decent film here. The box office will most likely follow. This is as risky as Salman gets nowadays! This film comes with different expectations than say Bodyguard which had zero storyline. But with the brother directing, I guess even those expectations are pretty low.
the other absurd thing these days is that people expect records to be broken with every release of a major star. No matter how big you are that’s not going to happen. Of course they then invent fake stuff and say records were broken. But there’s this general hysteria surrounding every major release where just being successful or putting up some big numbers isn’t enough. it has to be ‘record-breaking’, ‘earth-shattering’ and what not!
Ofcourse,DiCaprio has an advantage in that they dont have idiots who can argue that just because WOWS has sex scenes, it shoild outgross Avengers to be cobsidered successful. Like we heard for Talaash!
As far as Jai Ho is concerned, I am not too hopeful based on what we have seen so far. Whatever it does will be largely due to Salman’s appeal. Would be happy to ne proven wrong, tho.
As per the latest buzz, the Dhoom:3 actor will be producing his own film soon
A little birdie tells us that Amit Sharma will be directing Abhishek Bachchan on the big screen. In the past, the ad filmmaker has directed Abhi in several commercials for a mobile operator and this will be his first time where he will be directing Abhishek on the big screen. Anyways, here’s the story. Reportedly, Amit Sharma narrated an action-packed story to Jr Bachchan. And Abhishek loved the script so much that he told Amit that he wants to produce the film under his own banner.
Earlier, the Dhoom:3 actor has produced Paa under his banner AB Corp. Ltd. Abhishek has been starring in multi-star films lately. In fact, even his next film Happy New Year is a multi-starrer. So we wonder if he is producing his own films so that he doesn’t have to share the film’s success with other male leads. Also, considering that his ads with Amit were so successful, we hope Amit and Abhi deliver a good film together too… Watch this space for more goss on Abhi’s next production.
NRI’s device stirs legal fight with TV giants in US
Chidanand Rajghatta,TNN | Jan 21, 2014, 04.03 AM IST
WASHINGTON: It is the size of a postage stamp, but is being described as an invention that could topple titans. Indeed, the titans have all ganged up together to stamp out the little guy who has challenged them, dragging him all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which will hear the case this coming April. Little guy is unfazed.
Having fended them off and won in lower courts, Chaitanya (“Chet”) Kanojia is looking forward to the day the US Apex Court will hear case no 13-461 involving the Goliaths, ABC, NBC, Fox et al. v Aereo Inc, his nifty two-year old company that he sees as the David in this battle. He says can’t imagine the court won’t be on the side of such a consumer-friendly innovation he’s provided.
Even accounting for the constant flow of disruptive technologies that is the life-blood of innovation, what Bhopal-native Kanojia has done has shaken the American broadcast industry to its nearly century-old roots. Simply put, the stamp-sized antenna from his company Aereo lets you watch regular TV on any device – such as a phone or tablet or laptop – without lugging around an antenna or set-top box or any of the wire and cables that comes with the current system. For a few bucks a month, it even lets you record shows for later viewing with cloud-based DVR.
For long suffering victims of broadcast monopolies who are saddled with scores of useless channels and bills running up to $100 a month, what’s not to love in this cord-cutting, TV-on-the-go exercise, where Aereo’s antennas just pick up signals off the air?
Well, for one, there’s a small matter of copyright infringement, argued the consortium of 17 broadcasting giants ranging from Disney’s ABC to Comcast NBC to 21st Century Fox. They maintained that Aereo was a threat both to their business model, by undermining the cable re-transmission fees, and the size of their audience. While copyright law lets individuals watch anything they pick up by antennas as long as it is for their private use, broadcasters maintained that Aereo’s transmissions constitute a “public performance” that requires Aereo to pay for retransmitting them.
But the courts, including a federal appeals court have ruled that Aereo’s streams to subscribers were not “public performances,” and thus did not constitute copyright infringement. The ruling shook the broadcast industry that has enjoyed a stranglehold on the transmission business even with the advent of the Internet. Many of them are now considering taking themselves off the air and converting themselves to a cable-only channel, saying they can’t sit by and have their signals stolen. For Kanodia’s cheerleaders, it is a sign of pique by Big Broadcast, which like Big Pharma, finds the big profits it has long enjoyed as a powerful monopoly challenged by the little guy.
The story goes that two years ago when Kanojia first started his company, he visited the offices of the four big broadcast television networks to tell them about his plan to upend their business and strike a deal. Their response: We’ll see you in court. Now, with victories in the lower courts, the 43-year old Indian disrupter is ready to topple a legacy business which he sees as predatory and having feasted on the system since the 1970s.
None of this was remotely on the cards for the Bhopal native who lived through the Union Carbide disaster in 1984 (He was lucky to live “upwind” he said in one interview) before getting an engineering degree from the National Institute of Technology and coming to the US, where he graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in mechanical engineering – not exactly the IIT-Stanford pedigree that is the hallmark of many Indian successes in the US But academic lineage hardly seems to matter to a man who holds more than 14 patents in fields ranging from robotics to data, whose very first company, Navic Networks, an industry leader in advanced television advertising, was acquired by Microsoft in 2008 for a reported $250 million.
But all that pales before the epic nature of the upcoming Supreme Court battle – a face-off that will have such profound consequences on the broadcast industry in the US that organizations, from the Consumer Electronics Association to the National Football League, have filed amicus briefs. For Kanojia, who says success to him is not money or fame but creating something that is distinct and meaningful, April, when the case will come up before the Supreme Court, could yet be the kindest month.
SATYAMSHOT 
January 17, 2014 at 6:20 AM
First Week: Yaariyan 25 crore Dedh Ishqiya 18 Crore
Friday 17th January 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Yaariyan grossed 25 crore nett in week one while Dedh Ishqiya grossed 18 crore nett in its first week. Yaariayan has done pretty well though collections have been on a downward trend with a partial holiday on Tuesday helping a bit.
Dedh Ishqiya maintained fairly well on the weekdays but overall its a poor performance as an 18 crore nett first week is low for the film. The week two figures should be closer for the two films with possibly Dedh Ishqiya edging ahead.
There are a few releases this week but none are really likely to do well and Yaariyan and Dedh Ishqiya will have another week to add to their business until the arrival of Salman Khan’s Jai Ho next week.
LikeLike
January 17, 2014 at 6:20 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 2h
#Dhoom3 language-wise total so far: Hindi ₹ 270.03 cr. Tamil + Telugu ₹ 12.77 cr. Grand total: ₹ 282.80 cr nett. India biz only.
LikeLike
January 17, 2014 at 12:26 PM
A few thoughts on the last batch of films I’ve seen over the past couple of months:
Garam Hawa
For many years I’ve wanted to see this, Balraj Sahni’s swansong, set just after partition, about a Muslim family, that is forced to leave Agra due to the political circumstances, but Balraj Sahni refuses to run away from his homeland. Sensitive and well made, though perhaps not the best choice for the festive period (I watched it on Boxing Day!).
Bol Bachchan
I’m rather embarassed to admit I actually really enjoyed this! Harmless fun and certainly far better than all those Salman/Akshay comedies.
Chennai Express
I had zero intention of watching this, but after seeing BB I decided to check it out. Strange seeing SRK in this kinda movie, but it was harmless fun. Deepika made it watchable.
A Casual Vacancy (book)
Really enjoyed this JK Rowling book – it reminded me in many ways of my favourite novel, George Eliot’s Middlemarch – they are both set in English towns, spanning across communities, are character rather than plot driven, and they insightfully explore human character. I did of course miss the magical world of Potter. A Casual Vacancy is grittier/gloomier than Middlemarch, and doesn’t have the noble Dorothea to bring radiance to the world, but nevertheless I very much recommend it.
Prisoners
Awesome! Really gripping suspense-thriller. Saw it in the cinema and was hooked from start to finish. Basically about two young girls who get kidnapped…
Rangeen Raatein
Weird film – Geeta Bali plays a boy! Not quite sure why but apparently maybe cos her and Shammi Kapoor, the hero of the film, were into each other at the time, and got married shortly after. Anyways, Mala Sinha is the heroine. Shammi is part of some villainous troupe, kidnapping innocent girls, and of course the love of a good girls reforms him. Bla bla bla. But a truly magnificent soundtrack by Roshan Saab makes it all worthwhile.
Bahu Beti
Mala Sinha plays a girl who gets married to an army guy who gets called to duty straight after the wedding and is then killed. Rather than go back to her parents, she stays with her in-laws, Ashok Kumar and Achla Sachdev. Ashok treats her as his own daughter, gets her educated and married again 🙂 Amitabh’s Baabul was basically an exact copy of this, but Bahu Beti works much better. Mala excels in these roles and this is no exception. And Ashok Kumar is superb. But Achla Sachdev has the most interesting role – grey shades galore!
Django Unchained
I admit this isn’t usually my favourite ‘type’ of film. But I loved it. Thoroughly.
Besharam
I watched this purely out of curiosity given the scathing reviews. Although I can’t ‘recommend’ this film, I did actually have fun watching it. Certainly not as awful as it was made out to be. But the toilet humour was disgusting and unnecessary.
Kai Po Che
Continuing the tradition of male-bonding movies after DCH, Rock On and 3 Idiots, this one is set against the background of sport and Gujarati politics. Good film and all three of the leads, as well as the actress (Amrita Puri) were very good. This Sushant dude was particularly impressive. And it was nice hearing lots of Gujarati onscreen!
Memories in March
Deepti Naval plays a woman who travels to Calcutta, after her only son suddenly dies. She meets his colleagues, Raima Sen (who loved her son) and Rituparno Ghosh (who her son was in a relationship with). Naval is fantastic as always – the film is decent.
Chand Aur Suraj
Started as a frothy romance, with a very good looking pairing of Dharmendra-Tanuja, and fun family stuff with Ashok Kumar and Nirupa Roy. It also has the great Asha song “Baag Mein Kali Kali”. Then the film gets melodramatic and boring. But once Tarun Bose starts lusting after Nirupa Roy I got intrigued again! Then it gets ridiculous.
Dhoom 3
I said enough about this one earlier. Crap film. Shocked that people are managing to see good in it.
Dhoom 2
Watched this again, with family at Xmas time. I wasn’t paying much attention as I’d seen it before, but still prefer it to Dhoom 3.
Khelenge Hum Jee Jaan Se
Not a bad film, but not in the league of Lagaan or Swades or Jodha Akbar. So the reviews all thought the first half was slow but that the second half was much better. But personally I preferred the first half – the endless ‘implementation’ of the plans just bored me in the second half. Abhishek was decent, but nothing spectacular. Deepika was decent too.
Insaan Jaag Utha
This Madhubala-Sunil Dutt starrer had an interesting premise, about a guy who comes out of jail having committed a misdemeanour in the past and now reforming his life. But I was really irritated cos they made Madhubala wear this huge nose-ring – yuck! Songs by SDB were kinda boring which was a shame. Not really a film I can recommend.
Dil Chahta Hai
Saw this again after a long time. Just as much fun as ever.
Panchavati
Quite enjoyed this Suresh Oberoi-Deepti Naval starrer. He is in a loveless marriage, arranged for business reasons. She is younger, from Nepal and an artist who he meets at an exhibition and somehow arranges for her to marry his younger brother. The brother is rather selfish, chauvinistic and immature and things don’t work out…but there’s chemistry elsewhere. A sensitive marital drama. Deepti is such an awesome actress – perhaps the most under appreciated actress of Hindi cinema.
Gaban
I was super excited to see this Sunil Dutt – Sadhana starrer, directed partially by Hrishikesh Mukherjee (after the original director’s death). It is based on a Munshi Premchand novel, about a young man who gets married to a lady who is rather materialistic, particularly about jewellery. The movie is set during independence fighting. I was pretty disappointed. It looked like it had been in the making for ages and the music was average too.
Rishte Naate
I was recommended this family drama starring Nutan and Raajkumar, and for some reason expected a frothy rom-com but was overall disappointed. Set in a village, a landowner has a good-for-nothing son so he hands over the keys to his son-in-law, and then gets him remarried after his daughter dies. Music was not as good as Madan Mohan’s usual standard.
LikeLike
January 17, 2014 at 1:07 PM
remarkable mix as always!
LikeLike
January 17, 2014 at 8:36 PM
Salim, I thought you were taking a break from movies. Regardless , an enjoyable read as always.
I have come to realise Bol Bachchan is terribly under rated. It is a little gem in its genre and IMO, Shetty’s best
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 8:33 AM
Lol,
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 6:43 PM
lol, i usually write a line or two soon after i see a film, so these were all from before January. Since the new year I was on a marathon of Californication (which I just finished this week) so over that time I didn’t see a single film. Watching Lunchbox now :=)
I don’t recall how BB fared in the reviews but it was a hit so can’t be too underrated…unless you mean on Satyamshot but I’m sure Abhi is relatively safe here :p
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 8:26 AM
Gotta keep mixing it up 😉
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 10:44 PM
good list apart from bol Bachchan which was i thought was trash riding on various mannerism of many amitabh’s movie nothing different from various recyled spoof of srk’s movie in chennai express
http://sudhishkamath.com/2012/07/08/bol-bachchan-bad-stunt/
What’s worse is the fact that the makers resort to gay jokes by making Abbas play an effeminate dance teacher who turns on an army of wrestlers. Stay classy, guys.
And thus, the classic comedy about generation gap becomes approximated to… well, people blowing up cars while making off-colour jokes about race and homosexuality because there are puns waiting to be milked.
Yes, you will laugh a couple of times mostly because the actors manage to salvage a bad joke here and there.
But most of it does not even make sense. Sample Ajay Devgn translating “You make my heart swell in pride to” to “My chest has become blouse.”
That’s pretty much how funny Rohit Shetty’s translation of Golmaal is.
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 10:55 PM
and put it more precisely even after 13 years dialogue delivery of mr abhishek bachchan left lot to be desired as it appears he learns very little and continues to be average
garam hawa is on list as they say it was the best of balraj sahini (one of the most underrated actor)slightly better than waqt and now with demise of faruq sheikh its on list on one of his early films though his role was miniscule
LikeLike
January 17, 2014 at 1:40 PM
Liked Prisoners but I think there are just many movies along this line. Masala treatment towards the end was not required.
ps – In similar genre I liked a German movie “The Silence”.
LikeLike
January 17, 2014 at 2:06 PM
agree on the ending but liked it a lot otherwise. Don’t remember the Silence all that well at this point.
saw the Lone Ranger. There’s definitely some interesting stuff going on here in terms of how they frame the story and the whole ironic, deconstructive take on the myth. There are some great visuals here as well (though in what is otherwise a great sequence the bison look a bit animated!) but ultimately it’s a rather boring movie, specially for that length. Also the leads are inert to put it mildly. The Lone Ranger is a total lightweight and Tonto is simply buried under the getup! I still think it’s worth checking out with ample use of fast forward!
LikeLike
January 17, 2014 at 4:14 PM
Saw it last night and probably took some naps and I didn’t miss much 🙂 It is long.
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 8:28 AM
Ha, for me it was something different seeing as I generally avoid these kinda movies. I’ll look out for the German flick and try to check it out.
LikeLike
January 17, 2014 at 12:35 PM
off-topic: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sunanda-Pushkar-wife-of-Union-minister-Shashi-Tharoor-found-dead-in-Delhi-hotel/articleshow/28965573.cms?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 2:24 PM
I think she was udavod before she opened her mouth. what is it called in Mumbai language…someone gave supari…the AIIMs docs said as much. RIP
LikeLike
January 18, 2014 at 9:34 PM
first amitabh/jaya and rekha ‘patch up’ and now…SRK and sallu!
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 7:16 AM
the guy must be desperate….
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 11:07 AM
SHIP OF THESEUS is now available free, legally – for streaming and downloading here:
http://cineoo.com/sot
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 2:19 PM
not available in usa 😦
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 3:43 PM
i am definitely avoiding S2 now, bad times ahead for AD.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 14h
It’s official! Kareena Kapoor Khan to star opposite Ajay Devgn in Rohit Shetty’s #Singham2… pic.twitter.com/yuWr8RPd8G
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 4:14 PM
Salman defends Modi for Gujarat riots, says he shouldn’t say sorry
Modi given clean chit by courts, can’t slam him
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/video/salman-khan-narendra-modi-godhra-riot-clean-chit/1/338671.html
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 4:35 PM
‘Bang Bang’ gets back on track
Bipasha Basu In Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif Starrer Bang Bang
By IndiaTimes | January 15, 2014, 11:11 am IST
It can now be confirmed that Bipasha Basu will indeed be a part of Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif’s much-awaited action flick Bang Bang. The rumours were doing the rounds for a while but an official release by the studio, prominently features Bipasha Basu’s name in the cast credits.
Bipasha has earlier worked with Siddharth in the Ranbir Kapoor starrer Bachna Ae Haseeno, while she was also a part of Hrithik Roshan’s Dhoom 2. Here’s a look at a set of teaser posters released by the team of Bang Bang, to celebrate Makar Sankranti.
Directed by Siddharth Anand, Bang Bang is the official Hindi remake of the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz starrer Knight And Day.
The first schedule of the film was completed in June 2013, but owing to Hrithik Roshan’s surgery last year, the makers decided to wait for the actor to be fully fit, before resuming the remaining parts of the film.
Bang Bang has music by Vishal-Shekhar, and also stars Javed Jaffrey and Danny Denzongpa. The film is being produced by Vijay Singh under fox Star Studios and is slated for release on October 2014.
Hrithik Roshan, who is back from an extensive training session in LA is totally geared up for the film and is pushing hard to give it his best for the film’s heavy-duty, action sequences.
http://www.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/bipasha-basu-in-hrithik-roshan-katrina-kaif-starrer-bang-bang-122894.html
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 4:53 PM
KOFFEE with deepika & PC !
This link is not playing for me–maybe plays at your ‘end’ folks.
Somehow I came across this episode elsewhere (unexpectedly)
check out the ‘nuns’ who have never dated !!
Actually can’t say about ‘dating’ (!) but they do come across inadvertently as very ‘NORMAL’ girls underneath all the ‘glamour’ & ‘hype’…
One can see thru all this ‘pretence’ (atleast I could –I think so..)
Girls with ‘normal’ yearnings & ‘insecurities’ (@ the end of the day)—
In a way–this interview has laid them bare (no pun intended)
Remind one of any other girl next door under the glitz n glamour…
Ps: deepika She does sound ‘confused’ herself
She has gained weight –I wonder why …
Something tells me–
I can EASILY ‘own’ them both 🙂
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 5:21 PM
these videos cannot be seen outside India.
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 6:09 PM
Saw today Akshay on Koffee with karan. Among all KWK episodes sofar, most entertaining has been Ranveer-Arjun Singh. Saw that twice in a row and again after couple of days later.
Now, it is becoming boring with every episode, i think akshay alone in one episode also didnt work that much for me. Vidya-Farhan episode was boring too.
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 6:34 PM
Yeah..after couple of episodes it has been boring with same format…It seems the goal of KWK is to get salacious tidbits …
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 6:48 PM
I loved the Ranveer-Arjun episode – I watched it again with a friend recently and it’s a blast. Ranveer is totally crazy, but in a very endearing way. Impossible to dislike him as I used to.
I loved the first 5 minutes of the Akshay episode where he’s brutally firing Karan.
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 12:42 AM
Agree with you. I had loved the trailer of akshay episode. I was so excited. But, it turned out to be uni dimensional one sided brutal. There was nothing else. It would have been interesting if Twinkle was there.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 6:09 AM
I’ve no interest in Twinkle – would much rather see her mother;-)
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 5:26 PM
Dedh Ishqiya Goes Ahead Of Yaariyan On Day Eight
Saturday 18th January 2013 14.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Dedh Ishqiya edged past Yaariyan on day eight. The figures were getting close every day over the weekdays but it was the 8th day that Dedh Ishqiya finally managed to garner better all India collections than Yaariyan.
Dedh Ishqiya grossed around 85-90 lakhs nett on day eight while Yaariyan grossed around 70-75 lakhs nett.
The second week of Dedh Ishqiya will be better than Yaariyan but overall it will stay lower as it won’t be able to make up the gap in the business of both films in week one.
Overall the second week business of both films is on the lower side.
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 5:26 PM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh Jan 17
#DedhIshqiya Fri 2.72 cr, Sat 3.74 cr, Sun 4.90 cr, Mon 1.94 cr, Tue 2.84 cr, Wed 1.88 cr, Thu 1.62 cr. Total: ₹ 19.64 cr nett. India biz.
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 5:28 PM
Over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, Kevin Hart/Ice Cube comedy Ride Along drew huge crowds and set a new January opening record. Meanwhile, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit missed the mark and Devil’s Due bombed.
Playing at 2,663 locations, Ride Along scored a fantastic $41.2 million over the three-day weekend. That’s a tad higher than Cloverfield, which had previously held the January record with $40.1 million. Among original comedies, Ride Along had the highest opening since Ted ($54.4 million) back in June 2012.
Ride Along’s stunning debut can be attributed to a number of factors. First and foremost, the movie had a strong, broadly-appealing premise that was put front-and-center in all of the marketing material. That would be worthless, though, if the movie looked like a dud: fortunately, the Ride Along previews were packed with solid laughs, including a very memorable shotgun bit. All of this was brought to life by stars Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, both of whom have strong brands that aligned nicely with the Ride Along material.
http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3774&p=.htm
The Wolf of Wall Street eased 15 percent to $7.5 million. In the process, it passed $90 million. Meanwhile, Her (2013) dipped 24 percent to $4.1 million (new total of $15 million).
To take advantage of its 10 Oscar nominations, Gravity was re-released in to 944 theaters this weekend. The movie added $1.95 million for a new total of $258.4 million; with an IMAX re-release scheduled for January 31st, look for this to continue making money for at least the next month. 12 Years a Slave also received a nationwide re-release, and in the process passed $40 million.
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 5:53 PM
tried again–The PC-deepika youtube link is NOT working at my end! I Saw most bits earlier elsewhere on telly -does anybody have an internet link that works?
However while looking for that PC-deepika link–I found this one– that works–FULL song
I’m checking the d3 songs now and must say that the music album is quite good (I rate it better than other dhooms music wise)
Dedicated to all those aamir and dhoom 3 fans who bore my brunt…
Relax folks–it can be devastating indeed when I go for it !!
but check this out
Specially for the likes of aamir fangirls like sanju & LS lol
Also Oldgold –Look @ the ‘effort’ by the 50 year old aamir…creditable lol
The most expensive song in Bollywood history …
Ishq labon pe
Ishq duaa mein
Jism mein, rooh mein
Ishq rava, rava rawa ravaa
Ishq nazar mein
Ishq bashar mein
Aks mein, raks mein
Ishqe nishaan
Nishan nishan nishan
Dum malang malang …… 🙂
LikeLike
January 19, 2014 at 6:17 PM
Just heard the track properly now–it’s better than I expected!
Was sedated/distracted when I saw it earlier on screen..
Must add–It’s REALLLY A SHAME INDEED (!!) that even with such a product–d3 & aamir coudnt breach 300 (forget 350!!)
Anyhow—
Main yahaan wahaan jaaun
jahaan darbadar badar
Tere liye rehti hoon besabar sabar
Teri beqarariyon mein
Ishq ishq hai malang mera
Katrina, well…superb stuff. she ‘elevates’…
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 3:24 AM
“Is Ranbir Kapoor to Ayan Mukerji what Leonardo DiCaprio is to Martin Scorsese?”
For those of you who live in Mumbai and desperately want to know the answer to this burning question, you can now ask Ayan yourself! (This event description was too ridiculous not to share! :P)
http://mumbaiboss.com/2014/01/09/catch-ayan-mukerji-in-conversation-at-the-boss-dialogues/
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 5:36 PM
Thanx Amy for that interesting link…
Actually hilarious it may initially seem, but it’s sort of true…
Ranbir IS indias Leonardo diCaprio on current evidence, so is his relation to ayan
(Though ayan is certainly not scorcese!)
time for oscars to redeem themselves and the old grumpy oscar panel needs to grow up & award him !
As for the other ‘Oscar contenders’–have nothing against them and they do have their place in style/charisma stakes but…
Btw check out the PC-deepika koffee link I’ve put above –this ‘link’ is not playing at my end–it may work at yours…
“PK has been moved to Christmas. This sucks…”–yo cooldudette–haha saw it coming
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 1:26 AM
who is ayan these …..
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/martin-scorsese–anurag-kashyap/1/257421.html
In the letter, Scorsese says, “I thoroughly enjoyed Dev D and Gangs Of Wasseypur and found them exciting and inspiring.” If that wasn’t enough, Scorsese also expressed his desire to meet Kashyap. Tweeting his delight Anurag posted, “My biggest award yet”.
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 1:27 AM
http://www.missmalini.com/2013/12/27/anurag-kashyap-touched-martin-scorseses-feet/
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 5:47 AM
PK has been moved to Christmas. This sucks…
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 6:30 AM
The action thriller won maximum awards at the recently held award ceremony
ETC Bollywood Business Awards 2013 is the only awards show in the country that recognises talent based on the economic success of their films. The past year has been a fruitful one especially because it was a
record-breaking one for Bollywood at the box office, with three major films grossing over 200 crore and five films in the 100 crore club. The award which is in its fourth year, recognises people who made a mark in 2013.
Dhoom:3 walked away with the maximum number of awards at the ETC Bollywood Business Awards 2013. The only awards show in the country which recognises talent on the basis on business of the films, saw the top grosser of the year bagging the Box Office Record Breaker of 2013 and all times. The other awards won on the awards night were:
Highest grossing Actor Male – Aamir Khan for Dhoom:3
Highest grossing Actor Female – Deepika Padukone
Highest single day collection – Dhoom:3
Top grosser of the year – Dhoom:3
Highest grossing director of the year – Vijay K Acharya for Dhoom:3
Top grossing producer of the year – Aditya Chopra for Dhoom:3
Excellence in international distribution – Yash Raj Films
Most popular trailer – Dhoom:3
Social King of 2013 – Salman Khan
Social Queen of 2013 – Deepika Padukone
Highest grossing debut Female – Pallavi Sharda for Besharam
Highest grossing debut Male – Dhanush for Raanjhanaa
Highest grossing debut director – Kannan Iyer for Ek Thi Daayan
Box office surprise of the year – Aashiqui 2 and Grand Masti
Most successful small budget movie of the year – BA Pass
Music director of the year – Pritam
Song of the year – Tum hi ho from Aashiqui 2
Music company of the year – T-Series
200 crore club award – Chennai Express, Krrish 3 and Dhoom:3
Best marketed film – Chennai Express
Best cinema chain of the year – PVR Cinemas
http://www.bollywoodlife.com/news-gossip/dhoom3-dominates-etc-bollywood-business-awards-2013-view-pics/#!1/dhoom-3motion-poster-2/
Most successful foreign film of 2013 – Iron Man 3
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 9:23 AM
BOI has ‘once again’ come up with new verdicts for all the movies over the years that contradict with what they have peddled them to be over the years.
SRK now has no ATBB, Salman has one (HAHK) and Aamir has two (3I and Dhoom 3).
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 1:58 PM
Saw Dedh Ishqiya, Miss Lovely and Srijit Mukherjee’s Jatiswar at stretch in one theater last night. Thought Dedh Ishqia was an absolute classic…the most perfect caper film since Delhi Belly.The writing is razor sharp and the humour is of the highest order that you will find in Hindi films and it comes in both formats, verbal as well as situational. I can watch it n number of times just to enjoy the banter in Urdu..an absolute first in Hindi films. It is this genre-bending in Vishal Bharadwaj and Anurag Kshayp’s films that make them such refreshing experience. Though inspired by the works of Tarantino and the like, it also ttanscends the genre, going some place altogether new. The timbre of exchange between Naseer and Madhuri in the film is something Tarantino cannot dream of. The seven stages of love…the ghazal that Naseer sings for Madhuri..aah what an exquisite world Chaubey creates here! And to contrast that with the grossness of Vijay raaz and Arshad… where the grossness itself has a certain delicacy and quaintness…like demanding twenty ghazals to be written in a few hours.. pehle hraf, phir baraf..aah, that is genius. I am also touched by the wistful love story that nestles among all this crazy caper, and the sense of loss and incurable loneliness that inhabits the characters of Nasser and Madhuri. That lifts the film to another level. And I am glad Chaubey does not belabour this aspect , playing it as some serious romance. The lightness of touch and the ironic strokes makes the sadness more poignant, as do so many scenes in Gangs of wasseypur. Frankly, you can keep the Othellos and Macbeths. Give me the expressionistic works that permit full play to the Indian style storytelling and is creatively more challenging. It is the Saat Khon Maafs, the Kamineys, the Matru Ka Mandolas and the Dedh ishqias that excite me more than the Maqbools and the Omkars, which are beautiful and powerful, yes, but also are to some extent predictable , burdened as the are by the demands to be ‘ good’ cinema. Dedh Ishqia was magically enchanting. and wickedly funny at the same time. If that is not original, what is?
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 2:16 PM
Jaatiswar , even while being the third film of the evening, held me in its grip from the first frame. Yet another high-minded crowd pleaser from Srijit Mukherjee, it is about Hensman Anthony, better known as Anthony Firingee, the Portuguese who lived in nineteen century Bengal, married a widower, learnt the language and composed songs in the Kabiyal tradition , taking part in poetry duels prevalent in those days.
But it is nota straight forward biographical narrative. Very smartly written and staged, it is a wonderful love song to the process of song making. Combining the best practices from films as diverse as Rang De Basanti, Rock On and Bhag Milkha Bhag…and with dollops of Srijit’s own quirks of contemporizing any narrative with loads of pop culture references, smart word play, meaningful namedropping and constant invocation of Bangaliana with a welcome lightness of touch, the film is a master class in how to tell a story of a historical character , and in the process, more tan tell a story. The most impressive aspect of the film for me is how it captures the whole ethos of great song writing , unobtrusively, very cleverly, touching upon not just Antony Firingee, Ram Basu and Bhola Moira of the Kabigaan tradition but also Lalan Fakir, Kabir Suman, Anupam Roy and the contemporary Bangla bands. Srijit even manages to drop the names of Dylan and Joan Baez. Of course the other great insight into the world of songwriting… . whether one admits or not, one is always trying to score over one’s peers, and the biggest motivation for writing a good song..is to impress a girl. To make the film so racy without losing the essential truth is a tough act and Srijit pulls it off magically.
It was especially interesting for me as long back I had envisaged someone doing something similar with Kabir. Managed to dig out the old notebook in which I had noted a sketchy single page seed of the film. The film is called ‘ Kabir Rocks’.
“ Kabir is an IITian working in a software company in Bangalore , a big fan of The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Plays the guitar and tries to write songs, performs at the alumni functions. But he knows what he is doing is shit..nowhere close to the authentic voices of his icons. He eats often at a small eatery serving Punjabi home cooked food run by an old man called Tilak Singh. Tilak holds a mushaira there first Sunday of every month, where auto-driver types from Shivajinagar surprise Kabir with the quality of their poetry. ( Sample: Na siyasat ke liye zinda hoon, Na baghabat ke liye zinda hoon, Mujhe kya pata kaun kis ke liye zinda hai, Main toh shaayar hoon, mohabbat ke liye zinda hoon’) Of course apart from the tasty home cooked food at the home-dhaba, the other attraction of the place for Kabir was Tilak’s daughter , Nagma, a singer herself., who performs on the special sessions of the mushaira. Kabir shares with her the problem he is facing with his songwriting. He has a sort of a band now, and wants to take part in the upcoming rock competition . Nagma says why doesn’t he take help from his namesake, the poet Kabir. She introduces him to the life and work of Kabir, of whom she is great fan. We see the band practicing different Kabir songs. Kabir joins the competition under the name ‘ Kabir Rocks’. His version of a Kabir classic, with a stanza of his own addition, is a roaring hit and he wins. She comes to congratulate him, accompanied by her childhood boyfriend from her village in Punjab, about whom she never mentioned to Kabir. “ Why didn’t you tell me?’ Kabir asks. ‘How would you have written such a great song then ?’ she replies. ‘ Now that you have found your song, you will find the girl too’, she teases him, as she kisses him on the cheek.
Quite sketchy, as I said. But basically I wanted to see a film on the process of song-making, a film that captures a musical era, and encapsulates a musical history. . And I was glad to see Jaatiswar. It was so satisfying on so many levels.
LikeLike
January 20, 2014 at 2:41 PM
Aamir Khan’s ‘P.K.’ may create domino effect on a lot of movies
Meena Iyer,TNN | Jan 21, 2014, 12.00 AM IST
In a business where insecurity is the only constant, several Bollywood superstars and A-list filmmakers are running helter-skelter in their bid to salvage their release date in the last quarter of 2014.
What has caused this pandemonium? Hmm. One reported move. It is being alleged that Aamir Khan, who is now becoming superstitious about Christmas being the period when he can strike platinum at the box office, is contemplating moving his Rajkumar Hirani film P.K. from June 6 to December 25.
Where is the threat, is the next question? Well, if Raju Hirani, the big daddy of cinema moves his film, then this will have a domino effect on a lot of movies bunched together between the period of October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti) and December 25 (Christmas).
Here’s how things will play out…
As of now, Hrithik Roshan is sitting on the October 2 slot for Bang Bang. Incidentally, this is the best period for a movie to release this year. October 2 (Thursday) is a national holiday. October 3 is Dassera. So, the film that comes on this day will get a four-day week with two big holidays thrown in.
Saif Ali Khan is supposedly trying to come on this date with Phantom. Will he manage? For that matter, Hrithik, too, has a lot of ground to cover, if he wants this coveted weekend.
Next, SRK has chosen to come on Diwali with Happy New Year. Post the carpet bombing of Chennai Express during Ramzan Eid last year, no one wants to come alongside him. Sensible.
Maneesh Sharma’s Fan with SRK has chosen December 19. This may not be such a bad release if, six days later, Anurag Kashyap and Ranbir Kapoor arrived with Bombay Velvet. However, if, as we said, Big Daddy (Raju) with Aamir also decides to come on Christmas, then Fan will get just six days at the box office before it plunges headlong into P.K. and Bombay Velvet. And that’s not so good!
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 9:36 AM
if PK is releasing on xmas – no one – NO ONE – srk/sallu/HR or any goddamit Indian star can have his film score 🙂 it wud be a disastrous result
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 10:07 AM
currently HNY is on Diwali, All is Well is on Dec 5 (according to taran), PK is Christmas (which probably means Bombay Velvet will have to be moved). Bang Bang doesn’t have a date yet but its apparently in Oct at some point. But of all these it’s safe to say that HNY is pretty set in stone and now that they’ve delayed it to Christmas the same could be said for PK.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 10:15 AM
Phantom also stars Katrina Kaif and I seriously doubt she would want her two films clashing on the same day LOL!
Clearly P.K moving to Xmas will really screw up a lot of releases in Dec14. I did not even know Fan was supposed to come this year, if it is I doubt it is if P.K is arriving in Xmas. And would doubt Bombay Velvet too. It would be a fruitless clash as now P.K is primed to be the favourite film this year at the box office with the added edge of Xmas date. Plus Bombay Velvet has Anushka Sharma too, so the chances of a clash are as slim as Deepika’s legs!
So all the big stars have landed a coveted holiday – Salmans Kick comes on Eid (Jai Ho on Republic Day), Hrithik’s Bang Bang on Dussehra/Eid, SRK’s HNY on Diwali and Aamir’s P.K on Xmas.
Jai Ho – coming on Friday 24th Jan and having NH on 26th (Sunday) is not really going to help the film much. This is a technical advantage even if that!
Kick – coming on 27th Jul this is an odd day as it is a Sunday! Eid falling on 29th? the Tuesday will probably mean a rather topsy turvy initial. A big start guaranteed, Monday could fall but Tuesday will be big again.
Bang Bang – coming on 2nd October this film has a stellar holiday period from Thursday through to Monday. Definitely the plum date this year for the biggest initial.
HNY – likely to come on 23rd October, think this is a good release date. Might struggle a tad on 23rd but could be the “hype film of the year” and as D3 showed it could overcome it , but Friday-Sun will be bountiful.
P.K – As D3 arrived on Fri 20th, 19th is a Friday and more likely. Or the film could arrive on Xmas day itself on a Thursday. The latter is better for the initial but as D3 proved the former might be better for total business.
P.K has moved up now from being 2nd fav. (behind HNY) as the odds on favourite for biggest film of the year (not biggest grosser but biggest film). Landing Xmas has sealed that.
Current predictions happy with but would probably bump up Bang Bang based on how the dates are falling…it’s got to go north of 150 crore. The biggest mover now though would be P.K. I’m definitely sure this is 300 crore at a minimum now. Films releasing on 4000+ today, and maybe in Jun 2014 that would have been 4,500+. By the time Xmas comes, the numbers going to be bigger. Add Xmas and > 250 crores is a likely 10 day haul. It’s the only film this year which oozes the confidence of getting to 300 crore. Possibly HNY has a shot. It would need to a superior film to anything Farah has conjured up so far and much better than CE. It’s possible. But you’d bank on Hirani doing something special *more* than Farah doing something *good*. The pedigree and history suggests this.
At the moment I’d go with P.K>HNY>Kick>Bang Bang>Jai Ho. Bang Bang and Kick could go the other way round. I’m not particularly optimistic on Salman Khan. Jai Ho is an interesting one. How it goes will shape how Kick goes. His career is marked with strings and Dabangg 2 was a little dip. Bang Bang is the most multiplex film on the list IMO so will lose some business that way and will probably be crowded, but it could be the “surprise” pick out of these 5 also. You know what to expect with Salman, Farah/SRK, Aamir/Hirani…Hrithik/Katrina though they’ve done ZNMD but they hardly *sizzled*. But here there is a good chance they will explore it onscreen more. Plenty of skin show to be expected! Who knows it could blast past 150 crore in 7 days even. So unsure on it.
P.K was my top pick before, but now it’s gone from warm favourite to bang on odds on. As D3 was a the clear front runner in 2013, P.K now is for 2014…only with a Jun14 date, it was based on content and strong opening, now with Xmas it’s based on content and huge opening. The move to Xmas might disappoint some, but I’d take this as a positive move. A big film moving to a big slot could be termed as a “safety” option. Grab a big initial or a smash and grab job. Hirani though is a sincere fella, I’d think this is probably legitimate delay with the film shaping up well but getting “things right”.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 11:05 AM
PK is definitely THE film of the year – as the repeat value likely to be guaranteed and with 3i deal at the back of mind – everyone and their brothers and sisters and dogs and cats will be booking for 3rd viewing after the first 2 viewings are done 🙂
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 11:14 AM
great analysis all round..
didn’t know Katrina was in Phantom. Don’t know anything about the film anyway. Is this a superhero kind of deal or simply a vigilante thing? I’m assuming this is not about the iconic Phantom..
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 11:20 AM
Its a terrorism related film I think
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 5:41 AM
Dedh Ishqiya Scores Over Yaariyan In Second Weekend
Monday 20 January 2014 11.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
The second weekend for Yaariyan and Dedh Ishqiya turned out to be different than the first as Dedh Ishqiya had better collections where as it was Yaariyan which had scored over the first weeeknd.
Dedh Ishqiya grossed around 4 crore nett in its second weekend while Yaariyan collected around 2.75 crore nett. The collections of both films are low with Dedh Ishqiya managing steady but low collections in metro multiplexes.
The gap in the first week was 5 crore nett in the favour of Yaariyan so its unlikely that Dedh Ishqiya can catch up to Yaariyan in the long run though it could make up around 2 crore of that 5 crore deficit in week two. But with Jai Ho releasing this week its likely that both films will be out of most theatres.
The final lifetime business looks set to be 28 crore nett for Yaariyan and 25 crore nett for Dedh Ishqiya which is just about fair for the former and poor for the latter.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 5:46 AM
Recently there was the story that Ratnam was doing a Tamil-Telugu bilingual (with Mahesh Babu in the latter. Now there’s word of a movie with Asihwarya:
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/2378534/Aishwarya-to-make-a-comeback-with-Mani-Ratnam
this too is a story that has cropped up before.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 1:42 PM
ratnam is a spent force as both raavan and kadal as indicated both cinamatically and commercially so chances of having a disaster is more
kamal hasan may come up with him to save( aakhir family ka sawal hai to give nayakan movement) …
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 7:41 AM
Saw both American Hustle and WOWS over the weekend.
Must say I was more gung ho for American Hustle than WOWS but I much preferred WOWS.
American Hustle had some nice characters and performances but felt a little boring at times. The first 30mins was a little slow especially showing how the whole thing was put together from the past. Jennifer Lawrence was worth the price of the ticket though, she hits all the right notes. Amy Adams is good too. Of the males, just found it a bit overdone…more props than fine acting. Liked the story but missed a bit of zing to it and needed an injection of pace after a while.
WOWS is all Di Caprio from start to finish and he is in full form. Contrary to some, as overdone and explicit as the film is, it’s just a thoroughly fun film from start to finish. It’s a little lengthy, but just some scenes linger so well. The whole theatre was in skits when Di Caprio is trying to get to his car when he is off his head. He is so good in the film and he’s done a lot of scenes in this film that are ridiculous but he pulls it off. Scorcese is on form again and this is a great role for Di Caprio.
For me definitely WOWS>American Hustle.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 8:14 AM
WOWS seems to be carrying some strong Oscar buzz at this point. I do agree with your characterization of the film.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 11:03 AM
Yep – I was surprised by that exit poll on WOWS. I can only say that the audience where I was loved the film and the film is funny throughout.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 11:12 AM
On the other hand it is also true that it will need all the Oscar nominations it can get and perhaps a win to get to Shutter Island’s 130m. One can make some allowance for length of course and overall I’d consider a 100m total significant here but still it could be doing more than this.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 11:28 AM
Not been following its BO collections but it’s at $89mm…got to think it will be very stable until Oscar weekend. Should be at $95mm at end of this week. $105mm by the time Oscars roll around.
I haven’t seen Shutter Island but that was surely a much more “serious” film. In that sense, WOWS is quite a fun film even if long, so surprised it’s not done more.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 12:03 PM
Yes Shutter Island was a rather dark film.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 11:38 AM
Found WOWS very entertaining, but also sort of pointless in that Scorsese has done this kind of breathless thing several times before in Goodfellas and Casino. That it’s still one of the better films of the year is a testament to how good of a director he is.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 11:43 AM
I would be surprised if WOWS does well at Oscars. If MM was not a lock for Dallas Buyers Club for best actor, may be DeCaprio had a shot. But, for best movie or director, it hasnt any chance. May be Jonas Hill for supporting actor but there are too many other candidates.
BTW,anyone see Dallas Buyers Club?
Plan to see 12 years a slave on Thursday and may be Dallas next week.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 1:42 PM
I saw last month, and commented here Jared Leto and MM are sureshot swiping all awards. Leo or anyone else doesnt stand chance. Movie and subject was too dark for my taste , i loved cinematography aswell. Moving doesn’t go that far in terms of story, still you can feel for each character. Jennifer garner was good too.
Actually, i am planning to watch it again because i was disturbed due to subject in first one hour and just dissed for initial part.
By the end, i found it is marvelous.
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 2:08 PM
wows is disturbing as it glorifies crime and talks pretty less about the victim but symbolically scorsese making it at 70+ age and despite being his weakest is somewhat better among the most mediocre oscar list in recent time and thats not me but general hollywood media which is saying this
goodfellas and casino bright something new to table and was pretty fresh at there time
just a personal opinion:
on to shutter island dark ya but cinematically with restoration of films gaining groung his association with ben kingsley was more fruitful in hugo
american hustle to is hardly an oscar material
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 2:51 PM
and ya this biasism for ben kingsley will always be there for his indian connection(gujrati precisely)..can’t believe something like in bollywood with talents like amitabh , ben and even madhvan came up with teen patti
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 6:06 PM
Ok, just continuing my exploration of the dhoom3 music score—
Found this FULL VIDEO–needs updating in the d3 thread wherever it was..
As I mentioned earlier—Katrina has hit the ball out of the park here…
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 6:21 PM
This is one of those tracks where EVERYTHING falls in place–
Well done in all facets…
Now people compare k3 with d3. K3 was mostly an average/below average fare taken so far BARRING ONE man –Hritik Roshan!
I rate that perfomance so high also Bcos it was a ONE-MAN show..
In D3, all the other facets were well worked upon (for its genre!)
Imagine what would have happened if HR in k3 had got such ‘support’ from kamli/ malang etc
Anyhow —
In D3–aamir has given TWO outstanding scenes–the FIRST I will mention in detail elsewhere in detail (if @ all)
The SECOND is AAMIRS perfomance in ‘kamli’–Brilliant
Only an actor of Aamirs ‘maturity’ could bring this out–
This was like a ‘tightrope’ expressions and aamir gets it just right…
Btw this maybe BEYOND most of the so/called ‘aamir fans’ …
So will try to resist elaborating
As for katrina here
I’m inspired to write a few ‘original’ words—
Jheel dil ko kar gaya tu
Dariya dariya mere yaara…
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 10:19 AM
Though I dont believe the numbers Roshans thrown at us, I happened to catch Krrish 3 finally and was actually quite surprised that I liked it. I thought the FX were decent and looked good. The movie had good plot moments and action was quite good. The Old Hritik who grates on the nerves didnt grate as much in the movie maybe because I was prepared for the ‘poor’ acting to be thrown at me. But Hritik in the other role is quite cool. And Kangana and Oberoi and even Ms Chopra were competent. All in all I will say Krrish 3 is miles better than CE or D3. Also after seeing the movie I did feel that critics went in too seriously for this flick. This was much better than any other superhero movie and more importantly delivered what it promised and even the cheesiness which is always part of any RR flick didnt bother me that much…
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 6:50 PM
& Satyam –THIS is the way to view/enjoy such films…
There are other ‘types’ of films-and if one has not that taste-y bother with these
And ‘intelligence’ has its own place.
Suggest u rise above ‘fandom’ and ‘groupism’ & all this bull crap!
Some day I may explain what was gr8 about k3 & hritik in it–since u totally missed it…big time …
Anyhow folks –enjoy the song
(like aamir), I too shall start an ongoing ‘audition’ for this track ….
🙂
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 6:52 PM
I suggest you not start multiplying these comments again..
LikeLike
January 21, 2014 at 7:13 PM
katrina NAILS it @ 3.05-3.25—
the ‘bar of fitness’ amongst Bollywood heroines has been’ raised’
Ps:Ha Satyam–don’t disturb my audition–this is by invitation only 🙂
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 6:04 AM
Overall Review of Miss Lovely http://bit.ly/ReviewofMissLovely
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 6:41 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 2h
#JaiHo advance booking is fantastic. Expect a thunderous start at the BO.
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 6:43 AM
Jai Ho Heading For Srong Start But Expectations Huge
Wednesday 22 January 2014 09.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Jai Ho is looking at a strong start at the box office all over but the expectations have also changed after the release of Dhoom 3. Dhoom 3 managed to set a record opening day on a non holiday so where as earlier a 20 crore nett figure was regarded excellent for a non holiday the stakes have gone up for Dhoom 3.
Dhoom 3 had production values which have never been seen before in India and the huge cost was evident in the promos which is not the case with Jai Ho which is a very costly film for the distributors but not in terms of it showing on screen which is important today as consumers are paying high ticket rates so come for the gloss.
So a grand looking film does add to the box office opening which was also proved by Ram – Leela which opened much better than the cast warranted and a lot was to with the fact that the product looked big. Jai Ho has the presence of Salman Khan who is the biggest crowd puller but the market expectations of a 25 crore nett number may be bit too high as the market is basing it on Dhoom 3 collecting nearly 32 crore nett so this should do 25 approx but these things sometimes don’t materialise. The advance at many single screens is actually better than Dhoom 3 and Chennai Express which were top openers of 2013 but multiplexes are less almost all over where advance is open.
The music not being a huge hit does not matter for big stars like Salman Khan but a grand look may be a problem in terms of putting up a very big number (25 crore plus). A superstar, grand look and holiday probably means 37-38 crore nett opening day business today but with Jai Ho it is banking totally on the superstar. The year has started on a slow note with only Yaariyan just about covering costs and being an average fare so it is down to Jai Ho to get the box office going again.
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 6:45 AM
LOL, how many caveats can they possibly provide to say ‘don’t blame Salman if opening is less than D3’!
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 9:25 AM
But truth be told the movie looks like a dud from the trailors..Even BodyGuard etc looked better…I would be surprised if this makes anything more than 70 crores over 3 days…
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 9:53 AM
Irrespective of the movie’s quality it is this kind of crude commentary that destroys all credibility. Even the greatest stars are still greater in bigger films (however one defines these). This doesn’t argue against the star because there’s a reason why a certain star is chosen for a Dhoom sequel and not another! Leaving this aside when it comes to Salman there are many who engage in this fallacy. It is not the case that he’s the strongest because he does nothing films whereas other stars do better stuff. This is true in a literal sense. however Salman depends on this kind of nothing film. He wouldn’t really do better in more meaningful stuff. Much as Akshay Kumar when he was doing best for a time did so in trashy comedies. When he did something half-meaningful no one turned up! A brand-name is connected to the product. You remove the product and the brand-name dissipates. even Aamir who gets the best results in a variety of genres still opens certain kinds of films better than others even when all of these are hits. All of this is pretty obvious. But Taran or BOI or whoever these partisan sources are try to make it only about the star. So Taran will say something typical like CE proves SRK’s star power. The problem then is: what happened to all those other films he did between OSO and CE that didn’t open like those two? It’s not like Salman where everything he touches opens big. It’s not like Aamir where relative to the genre he gets the best results. They all go for overkill and beyond a point being partisans they’re not concerned about the ‘evidence’. You see people do this on blogs all the time. Unfortunately in India those supposed to be trade experts or this pretending to run box office sites are also partisan in the same way.
getting back to Jai Ho I personally expect it to be better than usual Salman fare. This is because though Stalin was a mediocre film it was still way better than most of the stuff Salman does and for which I have almost no taste. Now it’s another matter that this might not be what the multiplexes signed up for.
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 10:15 AM
It’s this myth of rewarding a major star who does “well” in a lowbrow/bad/crapfest/shoddy/weakly “packaged” film and penalising a star who does “well” in a more equipped product/well scripted/well put together or thought out film. The very thing that is “attempting” to do something different or progressive is shot down. And of course that star is a success because the script was “good” or the director is “good”. I did not realise stars in Bollywood have an embargo on seeking “good” films”!
A Di Caprio moves on from his poster boy image of Titanic and instead embraces the Scorcese’s of the world! The equivalent in Bollywood would be SRK befriending Vishal Baradwaj after DDLJ…instead he opted for Karan Johar!
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 10:26 AM
yes Di Caprio is a great example. He does well with most of his films but doesn’t get the biggest grossers because of course Shutter Island or even Inception are hardly going to give competition to the Avengers! And you’re right in that he’s acquired greater prestige this way. He’s still a major star. Even a lesser figure like Affleck has gained so much prestige turning director for films like the Town and Argo (and of course acting in them). earlier he was doing rom-coms or the Clancy thriller once in a while and no one cared. Brad Pitt too tries to do the meaningful more often than not. In fact he’s even been doing a lot of experimental stuff for many years now. Of course no one said in the 90s that RH or Ishq mean more than DDLJ or KKHH or something! If Hollywood were like Bollywood Vin Diesel would be spoken of in the same breath as Di Caprio! Anyone can do Scorsese and Nolan but how many can be convincing in Riddick?!
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 10:56 AM
On Jai Ho I think it will take a 23-25crore opening. And first weekend should be close to 80crore. I can’t see it doubling that though on the total. To me the BOI report is all wrong. Or the industry is viewing this one wrong. I don’t think they should be expecting a big box office performer ala D3 or giving hope to that kind of expectation, firstly with the film attempting to be more meaningful…the target should be a making a decent film here. The box office will most likely follow. This is as risky as Salman gets nowadays! This film comes with different expectations than say Bodyguard which had zero storyline. But with the brother directing, I guess even those expectations are pretty low.
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 11:10 AM
the other absurd thing these days is that people expect records to be broken with every release of a major star. No matter how big you are that’s not going to happen. Of course they then invent fake stuff and say records were broken. But there’s this general hysteria surrounding every major release where just being successful or putting up some big numbers isn’t enough. it has to be ‘record-breaking’, ‘earth-shattering’ and what not!
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 10:11 AM
Speaking of masala films, did anyone catch Escape Plan with Stallone and Arnold? I thought it was a lot of fun.
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 10:13 AM
not yet but eager to..
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 10:13 AM
Actually I thought ‘The Last Stand’ was lot of fun. Its come in NetFlix now if anyone wants to catch it…
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 5:09 PM
Ofcourse,DiCaprio has an advantage in that they dont have idiots who can argue that just because WOWS has sex scenes, it shoild outgross Avengers to be cobsidered successful. Like we heard for Talaash!
As far as Jai Ho is concerned, I am not too hopeful based on what we have seen so far. Whatever it does will be largely due to Salman’s appeal. Would be happy to ne proven wrong, tho.
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 9:02 AM
dhoom is a big franchise but carrying dead and lame looking movies like k3 and jai ho requires starpower not packaging
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 11:08 AM
Will Abhishek Bachchan produce films for himself?
As per the latest buzz, the Dhoom:3 actor will be producing his own film soon
A little birdie tells us that Amit Sharma will be directing Abhishek Bachchan on the big screen. In the past, the ad filmmaker has directed Abhi in several commercials for a mobile operator and this will be his first time where he will be directing Abhishek on the big screen. Anyways, here’s the story. Reportedly, Amit Sharma narrated an action-packed story to Jr Bachchan. And Abhishek loved the script so much that he told Amit that he wants to produce the film under his own banner.
Earlier, the Dhoom:3 actor has produced Paa under his banner AB Corp. Ltd. Abhishek has been starring in multi-star films lately. In fact, even his next film Happy New Year is a multi-starrer. So we wonder if he is producing his own films so that he doesn’t have to share the film’s success with other male leads. Also, considering that his ads with Amit were so successful, we hope Amit and Abhi deliver a good film together too… Watch this space for more goss on Abhi’s next production.
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 11:12 AM
this project has been talked about for a number of months, perhaps longer. Most recently here:
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/ab-junior-in-talks-with-amit-sharma-for-a-film/1211176
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 3:40 PM
NRI’s device stirs legal fight with TV giants in US
Chidanand Rajghatta,TNN | Jan 21, 2014, 04.03 AM IST
WASHINGTON: It is the size of a postage stamp, but is being described as an invention that could topple titans. Indeed, the titans have all ganged up together to stamp out the little guy who has challenged them, dragging him all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which will hear the case this coming April. Little guy is unfazed.
Having fended them off and won in lower courts, Chaitanya (“Chet”) Kanojia is looking forward to the day the US Apex Court will hear case no 13-461 involving the Goliaths, ABC, NBC, Fox et al. v Aereo Inc, his nifty two-year old company that he sees as the David in this battle. He says can’t imagine the court won’t be on the side of such a consumer-friendly innovation he’s provided.
Even accounting for the constant flow of disruptive technologies that is the life-blood of innovation, what Bhopal-native Kanojia has done has shaken the American broadcast industry to its nearly century-old roots. Simply put, the stamp-sized antenna from his company Aereo lets you watch regular TV on any device – such as a phone or tablet or laptop – without lugging around an antenna or set-top box or any of the wire and cables that comes with the current system. For a few bucks a month, it even lets you record shows for later viewing with cloud-based DVR.
For long suffering victims of broadcast monopolies who are saddled with scores of useless channels and bills running up to $100 a month, what’s not to love in this cord-cutting, TV-on-the-go exercise, where Aereo’s antennas just pick up signals off the air?
Well, for one, there’s a small matter of copyright infringement, argued the consortium of 17 broadcasting giants ranging from Disney’s ABC to Comcast NBC to 21st Century Fox. They maintained that Aereo was a threat both to their business model, by undermining the cable re-transmission fees, and the size of their audience. While copyright law lets individuals watch anything they pick up by antennas as long as it is for their private use, broadcasters maintained that Aereo’s transmissions constitute a “public performance” that requires Aereo to pay for retransmitting them.
But the courts, including a federal appeals court have ruled that Aereo’s streams to subscribers were not “public performances,” and thus did not constitute copyright infringement. The ruling shook the broadcast industry that has enjoyed a stranglehold on the transmission business even with the advent of the Internet. Many of them are now considering taking themselves off the air and converting themselves to a cable-only channel, saying they can’t sit by and have their signals stolen. For Kanodia’s cheerleaders, it is a sign of pique by Big Broadcast, which like Big Pharma, finds the big profits it has long enjoyed as a powerful monopoly challenged by the little guy.
The story goes that two years ago when Kanojia first started his company, he visited the offices of the four big broadcast television networks to tell them about his plan to upend their business and strike a deal. Their response: We’ll see you in court. Now, with victories in the lower courts, the 43-year old Indian disrupter is ready to topple a legacy business which he sees as predatory and having feasted on the system since the 1970s.
None of this was remotely on the cards for the Bhopal native who lived through the Union Carbide disaster in 1984 (He was lucky to live “upwind” he said in one interview) before getting an engineering degree from the National Institute of Technology and coming to the US, where he graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in mechanical engineering – not exactly the IIT-Stanford pedigree that is the hallmark of many Indian successes in the US But academic lineage hardly seems to matter to a man who holds more than 14 patents in fields ranging from robotics to data, whose very first company, Navic Networks, an industry leader in advanced television advertising, was acquired by Microsoft in 2008 for a reported $250 million.
But all that pales before the epic nature of the upcoming Supreme Court battle – a face-off that will have such profound consequences on the broadcast industry in the US that organizations, from the Consumer Electronics Association to the National Football League, have filed amicus briefs. For Kanojia, who says success to him is not money or fame but creating something that is distinct and meaningful, April, when the case will come up before the Supreme Court, could yet be the kindest month.
LikeLike
January 22, 2014 at 5:11 PM
Will ne interesting to see how this pans out.
LikeLike