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324 Responses to “Ugly, PK (ongoing), the rest of the box office”
Ugly Very Dull Opening PK Dominates
Friday 26 December 2014 13.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Ugly opened to very poor collections all over of around 5% and faces an uphill struggle at the box office. The film will probably add to the huge list of these similar type of films aimed at the metro multiplex crowd but the audience does just not come, The opening of Lingaa which is dubbed from a Tamil film was better than Ugly
PK will dominate the box office this next and next week. The film is behaving like a new release with 35-40% collections in the morning shows of its 8th day. The film will do record business in the second week.
The second week record stands at 64.50 crore nett set by Dhoom 3 last year and the question will be how much can PK beat that figure by.
Ghajini was the turning point for Aamir even in this sense. That year the film made more than RNBDJ in the US. Given the genres of the two films, given SRK’s long history, especially in the US, it was quite an achievement. The rest is once again history. But I’ll add yet again here that even as early as 2006 with the RDB/Fanaa double things were fairly clearly as to how well he was doing.
In Indian meanwhile depending on how strong week 2 is it could be doing a lot more than 300.
Satyam: When are you gong to be doing that much-promised piece on “pk”? And in case they release Ugly” at your end, please do try and catch it, it’s worth it.
I agree with Saurabh. But for god’s sake (pun intended) do not ignore the influence of OMG which some of the hard core fans like Jayshah attempted. I mean ignoring OMG (esp in PK’s 2nd half and thats where the film slides in many aspects) is same as talking about Ghajini without mentioning how great Suryaa was (in terms of breaking free and not holding back key emotions) in the original.
Busy with some stuff at my end but will definitely do it.. Ugly won’t be playing anywhere near me! On a different note I finally caught up with Grand Budapest Hotel and found it brilliant. Magnificently shot too.
Saw PK yesterday. Good film. Could have been better though. Aamir was brilliant till the last scene when Ranbir actually showed better way to play alien and made Aamir look really old.
However plusses of PK are many. So found it to be a good one time watch.
I had similar feeling when i watched Hrithik’s Agneepath. While i had liked the new one, it reminded me how good Amitabh’s Agneepath was.
Ditto with PK. It just showed how well and complete in its storytelling Oh My God was. Good PK. Great OMG.
Really? I thought Ranbir was clearly not in the skin of the role yet. Naturally, since Aamir had ‘lived’ the character for far too long. To me at least Ranbir looked only adequate. About Aamir looking old, he maybe a senior alien. The film doesn’t make a reference to his age.
1. it’s good, but not as good as OMG. (no one’s telling that the film made a fraction of what PK has made, and even its critical reception was far from satisfactory)
2. OMG didn’t get any 3 star reviews because it was an Akshay Kumar film. (Well, no offence to Akki, but considering how low the bar is for his movies, I think critics would have instantly spotted it, had the film been a classic.)
Personally, I didn’t see any similarity between the movies apart from their basic theme of religion. I think the treatment for both films are completely different. PK is more funny and satirical. OMG – more stagey and direct (not my preference).
3. It’s the weakest of Hirani films (really? I heard this for Lago Raho and 3 Idiots. Each is supposedly weaker than the earlier. But each keeps becoming a bigger hit. Hirani should probably continue to make weaker films. Jokes aside, I agree Munnabhai MBBS was clearly the best film of the four, but I think a case can be made for the other 3 films being better than the others.
4. And now this takes the cake. Aamir’s performance was good, until Ranbir showed up and showed how how to play the part. Now if that is not ingenuous, I don’t know what is.
LOL you took the words out of mouth. Naveens review reeks of sour grapes. The man proclaimed on day 1 and day 2 the film is a flop. And this review is more ‘I was wrong’…’but I cannot submit myself to praising this film because it’s an admission of liking it…so let’s say a couple of nice things and then say Ranbir in a 20 second shot exceeded everything Aamir did’ Lol. Disingenous is about right.
The box office is hardly the parameter, but critically the film has been loved. If anything, it’s breathed life into OMG! It’s given visibility to it. And it’s found many more fans for that film in this week than ever before!!!
I don’t understand the need for downplaying another film just because you are a fan of this.
I have seen PK..its a very good film and a class act by Aamir. I admire that Hirani made a film on this topic and was able to make it so entertaining…But I find your hypocrisy shameful that just because people found OMG better than PK- you are trying to count reasons for your star’s product is superior.
Hypocrisy # 1) ” (no one’s telling that the film made a fraction of what PK has made, and even its critical reception was far from satisfactory)” — where’s this reasoning about collections when a Bodyguard or a Kick makes money but a Talaash doesn’t- NO no no– at that time the judgement is made about public that – they like trashy cinema and that the rickshawalas made it a hit…and critical acclaim ..really? From The Masands that gave a OMG a 2 on 5 and then goes on to say that PK has what OMG already covered??? Critics who give a drag tale JTHJ a 3 or 4 on 5. Which critical acclaim are you actually talking about?
Hypocrisy # 2) “OMG didn’t get any 3 star reviews because it was an Akshay Kumar film. (Well, no offence to Akki, but considering how low the bar is for his movies, I think critics would have instantly spotted it, had the film been a classic.)”
Just like Critics spotted Sholay when it released to be a classic? Just like critics spotted Lagaan? and just like the critics who claim DDLJ is actually a classic?
Why are these critics so important- just because they write gobly goop non sense reviews for some lame newspaper or blog?
FYI OMG did win a national award for its screenplay.
Again- I have nothing against PK. Its a very good film and much more entertaining than OMG. But I find the hypocrisy of you and other fanboys/girls despicable.
Are we downplaying another film? Or PK is being downplayed using dumb excuses? Ranbir better than Aamir in PK? That’s the level of absurdity this has reached. And pray who decides that OMG is better than PK? On what count? Because it doesn’t hold on any parameter. That’s why I cited box-office and critical reception. No one’s talking Dhoom 3 here. That would be hypocrisy. As for national award, that counts for something, but didn’t Chillar Party win something similar too?
As for national award, wait and watch, PK will win a national award and every other one too. Now, if I ask you how many awards OMG won in total and whether we should compare it with what PK will end up winning, you will say I am being a hypocrite.
It’s a no win situation. I’m questioning your basis for comparing PK with another film and calling that one superior. Ok, so apparently it was a bolder, all-out-there film. But what makes that better for those who enjoy more subtle, refined humour?
Yes Its definitely relative, as to who enjoys what. I said it too, that PK is a more entertaining film than OMG (the first half mainly) but with respect to subject matter , I find OMG a much more superior film. My point is not to debate which one’s a better film (because that’ll be relative to different audience) but to the point- that just because this film stars aamir and you are a fan, so you are trying to downplay OMG to show this one better- this is exactly what you were against in the beginning of the discussion where you stated that PK was being downplayed using dumb excuses…Aren’t you making dumb excuses now?
P.S. Chillar party did win the national award for Best children’s film and deservedly so.
Sandhyai, i think Paapas echoed my sentiments in his reply. Sometimes Jayshah and you should learn to take feedback. I mean Jayshah is a guy who will paint an opinion on someone as quickly as a crow shits. Problem with him is that he thereby loses his balance to analyze unbiasedly.
I hope you are the more Aamir than him.
My take on PK Volume II :
The best thing about PK was Aamir speaking in Bhojpuri. I was in split when Aamir gave his first dialog. I am sure none expected Aamir to speak Bhojpuri so convincingly. IMO, this was the “Turup ka Ekka” of the movie. Such was the charm of the language that after a point i was wondering why Hindi or Punjabi or Rajasthani, uttered by other actors in the film don’t match the panache of Bhojpuri.
Just like Deepika’s Tamil hindi in Chennai Express, Aamir’s Hindiised Bhojpuri simply bowled me over. Bhojpuri has an amazing touch of innocence and sometime during the movie I thought Anushka might actually fall for him later because Bhojpuri innocence by Aamir was superior to Urdu charms of Sushant. Well Done Aamir for bringing Bhojpuri back to mainstream cinema and that too with élan.
@ Naveen.Aamir nailed the alien character and he should be credited for that even if one is not his fan. An alien need not look unearthly, just slightly different in some way, so PK is an unblinking alien who doesn’t speak initially, and then learns to, in his fashion. Then through the film he simply becomes more human though he mostly maintains his unblinking gaze. Eyes are needed to express emotions and it is a tough job to do so with an unblinking look. In many scenes. I found Aamir hilarious and wacky, getting it just right. Take the scene where he is spotted by Anushka on a metro platform, looking absolutely goofy and a bit of a weirdo. No wonder reporter Anushka considers him a possible story.
And there was that scene outside a temple, when PK opens his briefcase and takes out a lock for his chappals. The quiet matter of fact manner in which he did it– sidesplittingly funny. And Aamir scored in the emotional scenes too , especially in his search for God. His Bhojpuri was pretty good too. I’ ve lived in Bihar and come across a bit of bhojpuri, amongst vegetable – sellers and the like.
And as for that epilogue — Ranbir Kapoor was a pleasant dishy surprise, but once again, Aamir’s four point explanation about earthlings — it was seriously funny, truths delivered deadpan….we were laughing about this as we left the theatre.
Aamir as an older alien; so bloody what? What sort of an ageist society is this where anybody above 40 years is considered persona non- grata? In fact Hirani took care of the age angle, gave Anushka a young handsome boyfriend. Aamir with his short height and stick out ears( made to stick out even more) — he has played his negatives to his advantage. As an Aamir supporter, I am proud of his performance in PK. Anybody interested should read his interview given to India Today, where he talks about mentally conditioning himself to feel like an alien, without any idea about the world. Thumbs up Aamir.
Well said LS. I liked that line aamir playing his disadvantages. Anushka towered over him and his ears stood out in all its glory and it looked cute. I would have preferred Kareena over anushka.
I guess beating SRK and Salman at their own game has become a cakewalk for Aamir. He does a film, and people show up.
SRK can self-proclaim and continue raising his arms and live in a bubble.
Salman can flex his mucles and continue making illogical, unfunny and ridiculous comments to media.
so just when these jokers started celebrating when their films inched past 3 idiots’ total 5 years in the running, Aamir does a Dhoom 3 (a bad film though) and beats the 250 cr mark
Now with PK, the 300 crore bar seems to be broken.
How hard is it to come up with half-decent plots? I mean, for all its inadequacies and flaws, PK is still better than all SRK films made in the same period. And lets not even talk about Salman in that respect
It is time to gloat when one’s prediction are correct. Recall due to spate of flops in the last several weeks everybody was down on PK. It was I who predicted big things for PK with the biggest one 100 crore second still to come. I was chided by many delusional SRK and SK fans. To be honest SRK has given a great movie but that was 7 years ago. Can not recall when did SK gave a good movie.
I have watched several hundred Hindi movies and PK is in top 5. People who are comparing to past movies do not have a grasp of time. Imagine watching a movie like sholay this day for first time and imagine watching it for first time in 1975. The magnitude of likeness would be tenfold. I can guarantee to you if you watched 3idiots and PK were release in consecutive weeks most people will like PK more and find 3 idiots a little dated. Think of this movie phenomenon as viewer inflation. So if you account for that PK and 3 idiots are about as good.
so true – i can not sit through 3i any more but i loved it when it got released – i watched twice in theatre but third time – i walked out in the interval………….having said that – aamir khan is the king of BO – no if and no but – and no one in near future has the capacity to break these records except ranbir after 5 or 10 year….
Adding to the concept of the previous post. Consider all the biggies of last two years: D3 K3 HNY Kick BB CE YJHD etc
Now take the delta entertainment of this movies vs PK
Now go back to 2009 and take the delta entertainment of those movies vs 3 idiots
The result is about the the same Q.E.D.
Movies and the viewership evolve with time. Our experience and expectation in movie trajectory change with time.
Therefore it becomes harder and harder to exceed our absolute expectations thus we should appreciate a movie relative to its contemporaries.
My take on PK Volume II :
The best thing about PK was Aamir speaking in Bhojpuri. I was in split when Aamir gives his first dialog. I am sure none expected Aamir to speak Bhojpuri so convincingly. IMO, this was the “Turup ka Ekka” of the movie. Such was the charm of the language that after a point i was wondering why Hindi or Punjabi or Rajasthani, uttered by other actors in the film don’t match the panache of Bhojpuri.
Just like Deepika’s Tamil hindi in Chennai Express, Aamir’s Hindiised Bhojpuri simply bowled me over. Bhojpuri has an amazing touch of innocence that I thought Anushka might actually fall for him later.
Well Done Aamir for bringing Bhojpuri back to mainstream cinema.
Munnabhai MBBS was Ikka .. Lage Raho was Again Ikka .. Three Idiots was fir se Ikka .. But PK ?? No .. Its a good movie, one of best of 2014 along with Holiday .. that’s it.
Three things i can give on writing .. 1. PK is Hiran’s weakest movie 2. OMG was brilliant movie in comparison 3. Hirani exhausted his ideas .. he is on repetitive mode.
100% Agreed.
PK was good movie, that’s about it. It was good because of its good intention. So, one can never say anything else than calling good. From artistic point of view, it was pretty ordinary or even below average cinema. Those who have been watching Hirani’s work, they will find it formulaic and predictable if being honest.
Since the comments are by Yakuza.. the usuals like rajen1 and similar ilk are quiet. If same comments made by someone else.. everyone will start their boring, redundant comments which doesn’t make any sense.
OMG also did not touch many important things other than Godmen. Frankly what is the difference between god and Godmen? Nobody has guts to question why huge Ganpati and Durga are immersed polluting waters? Why animals are sacrificed in the name of god? Godmen are only part of the problem and they are just like politicians exploiting the weaknesses of people. I am bored by godmen portrayals.
This is where PK’s brilliance lies. It is mainly about an alien, not about godmen. Godmen are not treated like terrorists in PK but they are treated like politicans. Hirani could have repeated Kareena and his taking anushka as heroine is a bad decision. Ranbir Kapoor was unnecessary and he remained me of towel dropping fellow from his first movie. Paresh Rawal was offensive while PK was gentle but sharp. Hirani’s weakest movie is liked and appreciated. That speaks volumes.
Talaash was castigated because of Kahaani. Dhoom 3 was castigated because of earlier versions. Now its PK’s turn to take unfair criticism. Dhoom 3 was brilliant but Nolan took the credit for it.
PK is the best 100 crore+ movie post 3 idiots period. Those who are denigrating this movie will have mud on there face as it scales the 300/100/600 mountain. It will swipe the awards season inspite of the Lead Protogonist not attending any.
It is even better than a Hollywood movie of similar underlyings made by the genius Nolan himself: Interstellar
Hiranii is anything but not innovative.
Pani ka Pani hoga when it collects 10 crore on third Friday.
This is really funny.. supporting blindly PK without even seeing it.. and now when the movie is huge hit.. posts something as..went in with “average expectations” Just to justify that it surpassed the expecations… LMAO
PK Set To Breach Important Benchmark
Friday 26 December 2014 23.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
PK is set to breach an important benchmark and it is this benchmark which makes 300 crore nett possible. There has always been talk of the 300 crore nett grosser over the last 2-3 years but despite the talk by midweek you knew it was not possible as the trend meant this benchmark will not be achieved.
The key benchmark is a 100 crore nett plus total after the first week. We have not reached the stage where a 200 crore nett first week is achievable (average of 28.50 crore nett per day) so you know that a 300 crore nett is not going to happen unless it can go well over 100 crore nett after the first week.
The only film to achieve 100 crore nett after the first week was 3 Idiots but it was at a time when the releases were not as wide and sustaining power was a bit longer. After that teh closest to a 100 crore nett total after week one has been Dhoom 3 with 87 crore nett but that’s not enough for a 300 crore nett finish.
Now for the first time since 3 Idiots a film is about to go above 100 crore nett after week one which means the 300 crore nett figure a possibility. In fact PK is likely to do more than what 3 Idiots did after week one meaning the film should easily go over 300 crore nett. As just two films have (will) achieved this benchmark and that too from the same director it means that the 300 crore nett figure is out of range unless most until we get to the stage where we can average 30 crore nett plus a day in the first week and get 210 crore nett plus total on the board.
This should be regular possibility for the event films in a couple of years but of course with the help of holidays.
PK Chances Of 50 Crore Second Weekend – Day Eight Rock Steady
Saturday 27 December 2014 05.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
PK may set a new benchmark of a 50 crore nett second weekend which would be a first and to put this number into perspective is that only two films have crossed 50 crore nett in the whole second week.
The film has grossed a huge 13 crore nett as per early estimates on its eight day and this gives it a shot of getting 50 crore nett in its second weekend. The film did not have that huge start with only South India being up to expectations on day one but from Sunday when the family audiences came the film has broken records everywhere.The fall from day one is likely to be around 50%.
The film is on a dream run now and on course to set records in most circuits including Mumbai where 3 Idiots still holds the all time record. A few of the smaller circuits do not look like hitting record levels at the moment but if it goes on a run into week four and week five then record totals could happen everywhere.
seems like 300cr is a lock…im totally making a guess that it will end up around 320cr which just would be…to quote nahta and adarsh…mind boggling…spectacular..stupendous…supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!!
This will reach 325 crores for sure. The movie has been accepted big time. It didn’t start off greatly but the content was excellent. There is no stopping this one till Tevar releases. This is firstly a major triumph for Hirani and secondly for Aamir as his acting has been appreciated all around big time. It also goes to show that content has been lacking in almost all our big star driven films. Almost every star driven film can clock big numbers if they pay minimum attention to the script. Hirani keeps the script on a pedestal that’s why he is able to do a 3 Idiots all over again.
Been saying this for ages. The market has always been, the ‘trending’ was always possible but all we were hearing was market capacity, front loaded business is how it is today etc. PK second weekend will drop less than 50% vs first weekend. A good film does this. The audiences have been hypnotized into believing the big films in the last few years were doing something credible. And loads of fan boy bbloggers too.
Also watching a film in a full theatre is a welcome experience. Imagine football stadiums that were made too big and eventually half capacity. The wide releases are cashing in but that is partly due to knowing the kind of product one has made.
The race to have the widest release is a dumb one and worse is having empty theatres. A tighter release and packed theatres is far more efficient and creates a better experience. Less is always more.
absolutely.. these things keep happening and yet the other side also keeps saying the same thing. Aamir or Hirani aren’t using magic wands. They’re (I suppose shockingly) trying to make good films! 300 ought to be possible for a lot more films. And again it isn’t rocket science. Given the films that are made in most cases one would be shocked if these films actually did more than an initial or sustained in any serious way.
Saw PK this morning. Perfectly diverting, sometimes more than this, but to be honest I found it to be the least memorable or least immediately lovable of Hirani’s films. I don’t think he’s made a bad film or anything (don’t think he’s got one in him) but I probably agree with Rangan more than anyone else here. Speaking for myself Haider is probably going to keep its place as my favorite Hindi film of the year. And I don’t bring that movie up simply because it’s one of the very few titles I’ve seen in addition to this one this year but because some of the controversy surrounding that film is the kind of thing that PK never really risks falling into because it engages with its subject matter in such a whimsical and careful manner. That sounds like I’m criticizing Hirani for not being more insensitive of course but what I really mean is that I think where Haider represented a more coherent and rare critique of an establishment and an audience that makes up the same, PK seems only interested in repackaging harmless accepted wisdom(s) we’ve heard everywhere ad nauseum in the garb of subversive satire. This is entertaining, sure, but it’s nowhere near profound. I suppose Hirani has been somewhat guilty of this elsewhere but this film seems least sly in how it goes about balancing things out. More of a narrative arc here would have helped, I think, not to mention a bit more sci-fi in a film that’s about an alien! I’ll admit that this last bit is more of a personal quibble – I get it – the alien is the ultimate outsider, that’s why he’ s being used here – but for a big budget mainstream film, why not use a fantastical conceit to one’s advantage in more interesting, cinematic ways? Sans this what we often have is comedy that’s hit or miss and always, for this viewer, cast under the shadow of the old sitcom “3rd Rock From the Sun.”
“PK seems only interested in repackaging harmless accepted wisdom(s) we’ve heard everywhere ad nauseum in the garb of subversive satire”
very well put GF – however this is precisely RH wanted to do instead of offering some serious-talk-solution – just throw the question in the air in a satirical form mixed with lot of entertainment quotience – and he has succeeded in doing that big time – though the film needed more sequence involving PK and his faculty of knowing about people holding their hands……
Something matching.. Haider is my fav film of the year too… and PK most disappointing as far as the expectations. To make it clear, I had very high expectations from Haider as well and went in FDFS for that movie and came out so much with newer Shahid and Vishal’s picturesque capture of the movie besides the depth and all of the Hamlet.
So, Master, Gox, Sanjana, Yakuza, GF.. all saw something in PK which doesn’t scream masterpiece. Also we didn’t cry at scenes where Idea couldn’t control his tears. Maybe, we are from PK’s planet as well 🙂
One cannot paint all who don’t find PK to be as good as they wanted it to be with the same brush.
The sincerity and honesty of views and the lack of both is
Very apparent.
Here in lies the root of the issue .
It is not about liking or disliking the movie but I guess it’s a concept that is hard for you to grasp .
When that so called whimsical and careful manner succeed to convey and make think to all (except U, Rangan and few others..there is always some exceptions) then it’s time to change the definition of those words and time to not rely on so called experts.
“Repackaged harmless accepted wisdom” surely a creative word or words but words are not the thing.
This is an excellent comment GF.. haven’t seen Haider yet.. on PK I will have some thoughts in a post eventually.. don’t disagree with what you’re saying though I probably enjoyed it more than you.
Saw Ugly, what a film! Anurag doesn’t disappoint..such a simple plot and then it turns into such a taut thriller where you can’t blink for a second and 2 hours just fly. Its a great film to showcase a director’s talent to narrate the film in such a complicated manner in believable characters. Every character is well defined and everyone is gray and you wouldn’t know whom to trust by the end. But its a must watch film. Now I’m supreme confident of Bombay Velvet if Anurag is in the same form of GOW1&2 and Ugly.
Q)Why do we go to the movies:
A) to be entertained
Q) why do we see a movie again
A) to make it non-causal i.e. To enjoy something we did not notice the first time due to lack of what happens later.
Q) What makes a movie memorable
A) scene we remember for life and sometimes reenact in our dreams.
PK is 3/3 in these questions. The pseudo intellectualls will go ga over boring affairs such as Haider and Lunchbox. But thankfully the majority will rule in and gem like PK will rise to the top.
PK is a very good movie, no doubt about that. That is why it is being Iiked so much and all across. Aamir is in terrific form & Hirani is a brilliant story teller.
But in my opinion the comparisons with Haider do not hold. PK is an honest effort to make an entertaining movie with a strong mesage.
Haider is a modern classic. It is a ruthlessly dark endeavor to bring to life an age old classic in the modern times. It stays true to itself & at no point deviates from the core premise to make the movie entertaining.
The cinematic liberties taken and pulled of with elan in haider are noteworthy.
From a message perspective, PK is the anti-Haider. PK undoes whatever premise Bashar Peer and Bharadwaj had while making Haider. PK proves that India is indeed secular, where a Muslim actor gets to star in a movie largely critiquing the Hindu religion, and said movie goes on to become the biggest blockbuster ever. So Haider shud indeed scratch his head and wonder why he chose to separate from India. Especially, precisely at the moment when the Head Maulvi of Lal Masjid in Islamabad, situated steps away from the official govt infrastructure, justifies the massacre of 130 schoolkids by calling it the wrath of God on their Govt.
PK proves to Kashmiris that HIndus are indeed tolerant, and they ought to step away from the paranoia of the Hindu-bogeyman out to destroy the Kashmiriyat from their valley.
Just watch this 5 mins of ‘Gandhigiri Get Well Soon’ concept and compare the similar 5 mins of ‘Wrong Number’ concept to know what is entertaining and what is not!
To add, even Baradwaj mentioned this time the script and situations looks to be following a pattern and appears as formula. In LRM – Get Well Soon concept, here it is Wrong number. In LRM, leading lady is RJ and Munna uses Radio to spread his word. In PK, leading lady is TV journo and PK uses TV to spread his word. The whole manglik scene in LRM and same Saurabh Shukla is much easier to watch, here the whole ‘wrong number’ scenes and situations are so unfunny.
both are entertaining to me and why not? it is the kind of specs u wear – the world will shot that color – PK is a great film and could have been greater but thats it!
Well, if you get entertained, good for you. I’ve seen some people who get highly entertained by Sajid Khan’s movies as well(he had hatrick of hits). Its just personal choice.
But in regards to PK, if you do it for the first time, its called master work.. if you repeat it as formula, it might be entertaining but it won’t be the same master work.
Most directors rehash their tropes, nothing surprising about that fact. It is the situations/performances that create the impact.
However mediocre the script might be, you cannot ignore the performance of Aamir Khan. Most viewers came back with the feeling of having watched the performance of a lifetime. The combination of such a performance with the script is what has made PK a great movie, and a repeat watch. While you continually try to weed out the demerits of this movie (which you have every right to do), people are being goaded to go watch this movie in the cinema before the run ends. People want paisa-vasooli at the theatre, and generally tend to disregard such minor irritants. The BO #s are testament to the positive holistic experience felt by the audience.
Anurag Kashyap lights a cigarette as we sit down for the interview.
Taking quick drags, he is engrossed in checking the response to Ugly’s trailer on his iPad.
“Achha response hai (the response is good),” he says, looking up.
The cigarette, so ordinary otherwise, makes a statement in this setting.
After all here is the filmmaker who delayed the release of his film Ugly by almost a year because he didn’t want to carry the mandatory disclaimer during the smoking scenes in his film.
Kashyap is still fighting that war in court, but he has decided to concede this one battle.
As Ugly hits the screens, he tells Sonil Dedhia/Rediff.com why.
Ugly releases a week after PK. Is this the right time to release the film?
We are under no illusion that we are going to have a houseful audience for our film.
Even if five to ten per cent of people from every screening of PK come to watch Ugly, the film will make a profit. And if three to four per cent come, we will break even.
The law of nature is such that small fish that want to survive in dangerous waters, stick around a massive blue whale thereby saving themselves from shark attacks.
PK is the blue whale and we are the small fish (smiles).
A review about Ugly in the Hollywood Reporter said that your previous film, Gangs Of Wasseypur, set the bar very high and it will be difficult to match it. Do you feel the pressure?
The Hollywood Reporter review of Ugly came out after the screening of the film at the Cannes Film Festival, which had very bad subtitles because of which they got the film wrong.
The film couldn’t communicate its real story, but barring that review and a couple more, reviews about Ugly have been favourable.
I don’t feel the pressure to deliver. It is because of Gangs Of Wasseypur that I was able to make Ugly and my next film Bombay Velvet.
You fought against carrying an anti-smoking disclaimer in in Ugly. Hollywood director Woody Allen refused to release Blue Jasmine on similar grounds…
(Interrupts) More power to him (smiles).
My question is, isn’t it more important that your film reaches the audience rather than protesting against one disclaimer which says ‘Smoking is injurious to health’?
No, I think that one disclaimer kills the entire film.
I will not watch Ugly on the big screen because of that disclaimer. I feel insulted and cheated. In fact I feel insulted when I see any films in theatres.
I don’t know why filmmakers don’t love their films so much that they don’t come together and fight the battle that I am fighting.
It is so unreasonable and unfair. The government, which wants these disclaimers to be put up in our films, should ban the alcohol and tobacco making companies. Waha se paisa milta hai… revenue aata hai toh who ban nahi karenge (That’s where the money comes from, where the revenue comes from, so they won’t ban the product).
The government is impotent against the tobacco lobby and they don’t have any power to take action against them. So why do filmmakers carry the pain of everything?
Nowhere in the world will you see such disclaimers in films. I haven’t lost the battle. After the court case was deferred, a pending case in the Supreme Court filed by Mahesh Bhatt took longer than we thought.
My fight will continue but my movie will release because there is a producer who has put in his hard earned money. I can’t be so indulgent that I make him suffer because of my beliefs.
I don’t say smoking is good for health; it’s terrible. But at the same time, why should Anurag Kashyap bear the brunt, when it is not his responsibility.
Do you see a solution to this?
Kucch cheezon ka solution nahin hota (there is no solution for some things). If some influential people come together, we can still fight the battle.
But they will never get together. In Bollywood, we have three movie associations that already have lots of issues within themselves.
I feel we should let the health ministry, I&B ministry and the film industry sit together and acknowledge the problem.
Bombay Velvet is your first commercial film…
(Interrupts) I think Ugly is a commercial film too.
It’s the kind of a thriller that people in India are yet to see. I have always maintained that my films are not niche.
When I cast Ranbir (Kapoor) in Bombay Velvet it just helps me is expand its reach and scope. But I still maintain that the story should be the star.
There have been lots of reports regarding the delay of your next film Bombay Velvet.
My answer will come on May 15, 2015 (the day Bombay Velvet releases). I don’t need to waste time giving clarifications on why my film is delayed.
I am very confident of Bombay Velvet. And so is everyone associated with it.
Rishi Kapoor hasn’t seen the film and according to the reports, he is miffed that the film hasn’t turned out well.
Ranbir said he really enjoyed working on Bombay Velvet, which came in only one newspaper and no one read it.
The point is, negative stories make good copy.
There was a report in a daily newspaper that Kalki and I separated because of Huma (Qureshi). Immediately after the report came out, Kalki and I wrote a letter saying that Huma has nothing to do with our separation, but the newspaper refused to publish it because it would make their story look false.
We had to call the head of the newspaper and say that if you are not going to publish our letter we will give it to other publications. They got scared and published it.
Do you think people are questioning you because Bombay Velvet is your first big budget film with big actors like Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma?
Can you please tell me where all the negative stories are coming from?
Anushka, while promoting PK, has said good things about our film. As I said earlier, trade ko mere se bada problem hai (trade has a big problem with me).
The trade mentality is that if the film has a big star, it will make the so called Rs 100 crore at the box office.
The last big release (Action Jackson) didn’t work but the trade did not blame the filmmaker or the actors; instead, they said that audience ke mood swing ke wajah se movie nahi chali (laughs) (The movie didn’t do well because of the audience’s mood swings).
Aisa kabhi hota hai kya? (Does it really happen?) Trade is an unnecessary thing. Their whole survival depends on prediction.
The trade is wary of me.
They don’t like me (laughs). They think that a producer giving me money is a waste of time because I am a filmmaker whose films have never done well at the box office.
They don’t think giving big money to all these films that are bombing is a waste because wo film main stars hote hai (those films have big stars). All my films are content and non-star driven.
I had a lot of difficulty in convincing the producers that I wanted to make a film worth Rs 90 crore.
Earlier I had cast Ranveer Singh but the producers were ready to give me only Rs 60 crore. Later I decided to cast Ranbir as he is more saleable.
But did you not foresee this delay once you started making the film?
We didn’t foresee this delay as there a lot of firsts with Bombay Velvet. We are recreating an entire city from a bygone era in a very realistic way.
My film is not shot in a studio. We have actually recreated the entire city and are painstakingly working on every small detail.
We have finished only 60 per cent of the film. Whoever has seen it so far is in awe of it. They are telling me to release the film.
Aamir Khan in a recent interview said that the Rs 100 crore trend is very unfortunate.
He is correct. I totally agree with him.
Filmmakers nowadays take a star and forget the script.
Let me tell you something. No one in this industry could have made Bombay Velvet in less than Rs 300 crore. I made it possible in Rs 90 crore and I want the film to do business of at least Rs 150 crore. I am sure that Ranbir and Anushka will bring in the audience on the first weekend.
But it is the first Monday that will be crucial. People will go to watch the film only if the content is good.
But did you not foresee this delay once you started making the film?
We didn’t foresee this delay as there a lot of firsts with Bombay Velvet. We are recreating an entire city from a bygone era in a very realistic way.
My film is not shot in a studio. We have actually recreated the entire city and are painstakingly working on every small detail.
We have finished only 60 per cent of the film. Whoever has seen it so far is in awe of it. They are telling me to release the film.
Aamir Khan in a recent interview said that the Rs 100 crore trend is very unfortunate.
He is correct. I totally agree with him.
Filmmakers nowadays take a star and forget the script.
Let me tell you something. No one in this industry could have made Bombay Velvet in less than Rs 300 crore. I made it possible in Rs 90 crore and I want the film to do business of at least Rs 150 crore. I am sure that Ranbir and Anushka will bring in the audience on the first weekend.
But it is the first Monday that will be crucial. People will go to watch the film only if the content is good.
I met Kalki Koechlin and she said that her relationship with you cannot be summarised in one quote.
She is absolutely right. The media and this country can’t comprehend the relationship we shared. A woman like Kalki will never be understood.
I would like to preserve the sanctity of our relationship. I stayed with her for six years and not once did she ask me how much I earn.
Will you two work together in the future?
Yes, we will work together again. Kalki is the most amazing person I have ever met.
Ugly is the story about a missing daughter. Will you show the film to your daughter?
My daughter has just seen 10 minutes of the film. Beyond that I cannot show her. So she isn’t going to see the film unless she sees it without my knowledge (smiles).
Two years after its release, OMG! Oh My God is in news again. Reason? Rajkumar Hirani’s PK was said to be too similar to Umesh Shukla’s OMG in terms of its core plotline. We reached out to the director himself and asked him if too found similarities between his OMG and Aamir’s PK. “I saw the film on Monday and really liked it. The whole premise is so interesting. Every performance is so good. The people involved with the film are such that I respect them and their work. I vouch for what they have to offer each time around. Jab inki film aati hai toh mann karta hai ki dekhenge, mazaa aayega,” says Umesh. When further prodded to share his views around both the films carrying the same premise surrounding God and religion, Umesh opened up further. “Aap mujhe ek baat batao, if you are making a love story then ‘I Love You’ toh bolenge hi naa! It has been said in thousands of films. When you pick the subject of God then similarities do come. Usse uski creativity ko challenge mat karo yaar. Bina baat ke hauwa mat banao,” says the mild mannered director, “If there is a film about smugglers then hero will kill them eventually. Agar do-teen film mein aisa hota hai toh uska issue thode hi bana doge aap?” – See more at: http://www.movietalkies.com/news/27049/omg-director-umesh-shukla—'don't-create-unnecessary-controversies-around-pk'#.VJvphQRSYmI.twitter
Anurag Kashyap
@anuragkashyap72 they told me no one will watch this film.. you proved them wrong.. thank you..
WTF ????? seriously !!!
LOL!! but hey no one will say anything here, you see it is very cool to hurl abuses at Rakesh Roshan because he is Hindi Medium type film maker. But Kashyap oh he is Korean/ Iranian kind of film maker man….he is God !!!
Bhak saala !!
omrocky786, relax, Ugly won’t eat away any PK audience, whats there to comment on such a small film’s box office? The movie is great but it won’t do any theatrical business in India, will get some satellite rights based on the critics appreciation and recover its investment.
How to be successful in business? How ‘age’ is just a number in terms of success? How can one inspire and set examples for others to emulate? Expect to find the answers on CEO if on CNN-IBN’s upcoming series ‘CEO of Life’. CNN-IBN’s Business Editor Karma Paljor speaks to Walt Disney Company India Managing Director Siddharth Roy Kapur http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/520139/ceo-of-life-in-conversation-with-siddharth-roy-kapur.html
PK Set To Be First Film To Cross 10 Million In North America
Sunday 28 December 2014 10.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
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PK will become the first Hindi film to cross $10 million in US/Canada. It will be the first time that the $10 million marked is crossed in any overseas market. 3 Idiots was the first film to cross $5 million in US/Canada in 2010.
Last year Dhoom 3 set a record in US/Canada by grossing a little over $8 million and it looks like that PK may well beat that and become the highest grossing Hilm in US/Canada in just ten days. The collections for PK in week one are $6.2 million approx with Christmas Day showing a good spike in collections..
The final business of PK is US/Canada will go over $10 million and could even go to $12 million.
$12 million is absolutely extraordinary. The South Asian population in the US is about 1% of the total population or about 3 million people. If it makes $12 million, that’s about 1.2 million tickets sold. About a third of the entire South Asian population will then watch the movie in theaters which is amazing. And this isn’t like 3 Idiots where half the people I knew that watched the movie in theaters were non-south Asian and of the south Asians, almost everyone saw it multiple times in theaters. Watching PK tomorrow but from what I’ve heard, it doesn’t have anything that would appeal to non-south Asians unlike a 3 Idiots/Dhoom 3/Don 2.
If I have to pick one mindboggling thing about PK, it will be the USA collection. Unlike India which started slow, it started huge in USA which clearly shows Aamir is the clear number 1 in USA by miles. And he did it with a mediocre D3 too…
Queen is the best movie of the year for me. Without getting preachy it delivers quite a few message.
Haider-I am against its ideology. It is one sided movie but put that. side into forth quite effectvely
Agree on Haider. Repeating my comment from above: From a message perspective, PK is the anti-Haider. PK undoes whatever premise Bashar Peer and Bharadwaj had while making Haider. PK proves that India is indeed secular, where a Muslim actor gets to star in a movie largely critiquing the Hindu religion, and said movie goes on to become the biggest blockbuster ever. So Haider shud indeed scratch his head and wonder why he chose to separate from India. Especially, precisely at the moment when the Head Maulvi of Lal Masjid in Islamabad, situated steps away from the official govt infrastructure, justifies the massacre of 130 schoolkids by calling it the wrath of God on their Govt.
PK proves to Kashmiris that HIndus are indeed tolerant, and they ought to step away from the paranoia of the Hindu-bogeyman out to destroy the Kashmiriyat from their valley.
I’ll get to this in a note on the film but I don’t believe PK is critiquing ‘the Hindu religion’. It’s critiquing a certain brand of religiosity for which ‘Hinduism’ is the best example in India inasmuch as it is the majority faith. This doesn’t mean that other forms of religiosity are not as problematic (the film gets into some of this) but the majority/minority split changes everything. Much as in the US it’s Christian evangelical religiosity that is critiqued most often. But whether it’s about religion or politics one always has to keep in mind that majority-minority equation. The effects or results are not the same in each instance. In other words both might be equally unacceptable for certain reasons but pragmatically one matters more. Now it’s always a fantasy of the Right (in every culture, every country) to present the minority AS the majority. Or in the driver’s seat. Jews in germany, Communists in germany, Muslims in India, etc etc. There is an encyclopedic list of such examples. You have the minority group that is supposed running the show as a fifth column and in bed with the forces of Communism or the left. This is a very old right-wing narrative. Again unless one subscribes to this fantasy or really a narrative that should be rejected on grounds of common sense it should be easy to see how (and pragmatically) what the distinctions are. Just because a society or its political parties pander to certain minorities as part of vote bank politics (which is no different from other parties doing the same with other castes, regions et al.. do we ever ask in India what kind of politics enabled lower castes to not find adequate representation for so long? Do we ask today why is it that the same lower caste parties are constantly demonized in India as ‘heart of darkness’ manifestations or signs of an old, regressive Indian and what not?) doesn’t mean that the minority is in control. As an even larger matter democracy isn’t about majoritarianism. If one follows this logic one more or less kills democracy. In an imperfect world there should be neat balance everywhere but since we don’t live in such a world and are never likely to a democracy must always err in favor of a minority (a religious, ethnic, regional, linguistic one or what have you). The alternative is the Pakistan model where ‘anything goes’ when it comes to Hindu or Christian minorities and now even Shiite minorities. Even if one doesn’t go to that extreme we know even in the US how the entire justice system massively disadvantages blacks. Just because there’s a strong democracy doesn’t mean that such institutional violence cannot occur.
Getting back to the films in question I still haven’t seen Haider but the question that must be asked is: why is everyone going so crazy over a film’s perspective (even accepting completely that it’s biased or something) in a country where people call Nathuram Godse a patriot and others wonder why he didn’t shoot Nehru instead? All of this is somehow less worthy of attention than film Vishal Bhardwaj makes? Also less worthy of attention than the current govt.’s embrace of Sajjad lone and walking it back on 370? Also less important than the PM not even saying ‘vande mataram’ in the one Srinagar appearance he made? So even on this very Kashmir subject how does one forget all this? Or miss all this? What right does one have to criticize Bhardwaj when all of this is happening and at a level which is far more hypocritical and even worse given the most ‘nationalist’ positions in this regard?
So even before we get to specific examples like Haider or PK or whatever shouldn’t we be a bit more ethical in terms of the examples we select? or do we do so only when the loonies on the left come out? Statements are now made twice a week, there are crazy things done once a week, all of this is somehow not very important. But the future of Indian nationalism depends on haider! I still haven’t seen the film but my debate isn’t about this. It is about these selective examples. And for years I’ve wondered what prevents anyone from being universal in one’s condemnation? Why can’t one criticize every side equally if one is being honest about one’s politics? Today the BJP trying to team up with the very same ‘separatist’ parties is somehow less objectionable than Haider?! Yes those Kashmiri parties are as cynical, as opportunistic and as revolting. This is precisely the point. One can be universal about these things. I wrote a piece on Firaaaq because I found the politics of the film completely unacceptable but somehow this didn’t become the burning issue of Indian democracy for me!
There is also a media environment that is conducive to the fringe. It simply requires some 50 individuals, a controversial cause and a few TV cameras to give otherwise irrelevant people notoriety, publicity and even secure political impact. The Hindu Mahasabha, for example, is today merely a letterhead that can be used or misused by anyone. Yet, an outrageous demand by one of its more obscure functionaries to instal a bust of Nathuram Godse made the front pages of many newspapers and was the subject of TV talk shows. http://www.ndtv.com/article/opinion/some-in-rss-have-profound-distaste-for-pm-638118
To a modest extent, the furore in Parliament over Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti’s utterances at a public meeting, the ghar vyapasi programme planned by Hindu groups in Aligarh and the non-holiday for Kendriya Vidyalayas over Christmas was a result of media activism. The BJP cannot be entirely faulted for nurturing a conspiracy theory that the traditionally hostile and loosely Left-liberal leaning English language media will do its utmost to show the government in a poor light. Yet, while over-playing the utterances of loose cannons does distort the big picture, the government has to be mindful that there are tensions within the wider ‘parivar’ over what constitutes the primary agenda of the Modi government http://www.swapan55.com/2014/12/turbulence-ahead-narendra-modi-must.html
It may be dishonest, but IMHO, not really frightening. The leftist media has been blowing everything out of proportion since the day Modi took the oath. Somehow every statement made by any Ram, Nathu or Hari is made to directly connect with Modi. And then they expect him to give an explanation in the Lok Sabha about every such ridiculous statement made by the fringe. The opposition already derailed much needed reforms with their churlish antics in parliament.
What is really frightening is the abject silence of the media wrt the shenanigans of the ‘other’ rightist elements. eg the statements of the MIM Owaisi brothers.
If I had to choose one film from 2014 it had to be Haider. It works at so many levels : as pure cinema, as a well-told story, as a fascinating study of characters and relationships , as a political document and as a great adaptation of a timeless literary classic. I can imagine revisiting it 5 years hence, ten years hence. If I had o choose three , it would be Haider, Queen and PK . And if I was allowed five it would be Haider, Queen , PK, Ugly and Dedh Ishqiya.
I don’t know about the best film of the year, but the ones I loved are Ankhon Dekhi, Haider, Ugly (can’t really pick between the 3 of these though Ankhon Dekhi is the one which has stayed with me) followed by Highway and Filmistaan. PK and Dedh Ishqiya would rank just below these. I also quite enjoyed Queen and Mardaani.
I am surprised at the charge that PK is not a bold film as Haider was.
What makes Haider bold ? Mutilating or misrepresenting the truth? Taking on a majority based on half truths selectively represented and in isolation with an absolute disregard to the whole picture?
And , what makes PK a safe film? Just because it did not question religion or notion of an almighty power in control of our lives? Did it really have to?
Speaking for myself, it’s not a question of piety that makes PK’s critique less resonant than Haider’s. I’m not going to talk further about Haider, (such a conversation, at least a productive one, is kind of impossible, I feel) it’s that the critique in PK itself isn’t terribly interesting or addressing something (the godmen issue) that’s even a little bit ambiguous in its dubiousness at best and outright corruption at worst. It’s safe because it doesn’t engage with anything anyone (without a serious and seriously flawed agenda of some sort – the idea that it critiques Hinduism as someone above mentioned is ridiculous) would be rankled by. I’d say this is the case even when the film is compared to Hirani’s own critiques of other societal issues from his own previous films. This is just my reading of the movie, of course, it’s not gospel. I’m open to reading something different on the matter but I haven’t come across a piece that’s really convinced me there’s something particularly unique here. Leaving everything else aside I also found the comedy here far less sharp than in other Hirani works. I just wasn’t as entertained by the filmmaking.
I am clearly in the minority, though. As always I should add the caveat that Aamir and Hirani are the good guys and I’d rather see them walk away with accolades and receipts than otherwise. Happy the film is doing so well.
Haider took a position but it didn’t offer any solution to the issue (same as PK) . And the position was that army should be out of Kashmir( there is no need of middlemen between God and its subject). WRT to Haider, What will happen in Kashmir the day army is out? All the remaining minorities will be killed or thrown out. The situation will be similar to Iraq where people got rid of Saddam to have ISIS or ISIS like organization at helm dictating the narrative.
Haider has more serious tone than PK but as a movie it is nothing great except the subject it picked. The screenplay was slow and needed some good trimming (PK also needed in second half).
To release UGLY just a week after PK when the whole country is engulfed by this PK wave is a very dumb move by AK. I am not sure what prompted them to take this suicidal decision. This one could have worked better if it were released when there was some quite intermittent period between biggies. This is COMPLETELY a WOM movie and should have been carefully strategised and released.
B Velvet got postponed coz of PK. Now UGLY will suffer coz of PK. It looks like one AK is the bane of another AK.
The release strategy is so pathetic that there is not a SINGLE show in the UNITED STATES – makes sense since PK is running to packed houses even in the 2nd week here. I had been waiting very eagerly for this but looks like again, I have to catch it via torrents.
There is a huge possibility that Ugly could have failed even if it was released before PK wave or post PK wave. Now atleast he can say that Ugly failed because of PK. Ship Of Theseus was released cleverly but could not find takers. Ankhon Dekhi just vanished. Queen could make it because it was sort of masala.
PK wave reminds me of CE wave.
they have the total at 236.5cr. BOI probably have it lower. Still going strong. now just waiting for when it will hit 300cr and when we will get to read Satyam’s complete thoughts on PK!!
PK again showed huge growth on Sunday like the first week as it grossed an outstanding 24 crore apprx as per early estimates. The film has grossed around 55 crore nett in its second weekend. The second weekend business of PK is as follows.
Friday – 14,25,00,000
Saturday – 17,00,00,000
Sunday – 23,75,00,000 (early estimate)
Total – 55,00,00,000
This 55 crore nett figure has smashed all records for the second weekend by a distance. Dhoom 3 held the record and had grossed 37 crore nett for the second weekend. Kick which was the highest grosser this year before PK had grossed 46 crore nett week two. Only Dhoom 3 and 3 Idiots have collected more in week two than what PK has grossed in second weekend.
For the first time my three South Indian ( One Mallu and two from Andhra), went to watch PK… that was huge for me.
Otherwise forget Hindi, they don’t even go for Telgu movies to the theatre .
I am fortunate that whatever films I’ve made have had a little ‘off the road’ stories, like Munnabhai MBBS (2003) or Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006). When such films work, it gives you the confidence that whatever is liked by your heart will be loved by the audience. Abhijat (Joshi; co-writer) and I have made certain rules for ourselves. One of them is to always hunt for a unique story. That’s difficult, because, through 100 years of Indian cinema, whatever you want to try, you feel that it has happened before. Most importantly, when people believe that ‘this’ works, it’s the most unsafe thing. Their belief comes from seeing it in some other film, but that worked because it was unique in nature then. The second time, it isn’t new anymore. I tread the safe path because I don’t follow what has already succeed
I think, we have an ingrained habit of not giving the most natural and casual performers their due, and people seem to sing glory songs about labored performances. The other day someone said the same thing about Govinda as to how is he so popular.
Sanjay Mishra was so natural to a point of being flawless. It was the most natural portrayal of the character he was playing and mind it- it was a difficult character. I would go ahead and say that the only other performance that comes close to Sanjay Mishra’s performance in Aankhon Dekhi was Sohum Shah’s performance in Ship of Theseus.
Now All India Muslim Personal Law Board also joins protest against PK!! So now I agree with you Satyam, PK has become an equal opportunity religious offender:
BJP is seriously mistaken if they think that this is going to somehow create an issue to harness for the Delhi elections. The backlash from ‘right to speech’ lovers (which is almost everyone who supported Modi on social media) will be humongous. These bozos are messing with the fav pastime of people, ie movies. Especially, with a movie with a proven audience feedback, one which is marching onto its place in history. I really hope some guy in BJP reads/heeds this warning. They need to stop this stupidity ASAP, or kaput goes Delhi State.
Where was most despicable cast-est Journo when Church scene was removed from malamaal weekly, Kamal’s movie, Azad maidan incident, 5 Lac coming to support Jamaat in Kolkatta? Has he written on Satanic book, Indira, sonia’s book banned by His congress govt … or Gandhi play banned by Congress after vandalism by Congressmen?
In India secularism means Hinduphobe. Period.
If Ravish becomes best, thn you know its just another LWs under garb of neutrality..
Agar Ravish ka chale woh babies ko b pakkad kay pehla uestion karega, “Bolo kaun c jaati”
There is nothing offensive in PK. Nothing except one dialogue, few can take offense.
Just beoz of some fringe elements ( who do supari job, same Togadia was on payroll of congress in 2012 Guj election to defeat Modi) Hinduism can’t follow Abrahmic faiths.. Greatest beauty of Santan Dharma is ‘Fearlessness’ and freedom to question anything under sun, even Gods or God.
We don’t know 5 school of thoughts which along with advaita has agnostic Sankhya and materialistic ‘Charvakha’ .
Such loonies should be behind bars, of either side.
He is right. But what was he doing when there were protests against Gadar, Jo Bole Nihaal, and so many other movies which faced protests from other groups? Selective Amnesia kyun hai bhai?
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson, Ms. Leela Samson conveyed to the community groups that the film was shown to a Catholic review member and necessary action had been taken. http://www.kemmannu.com/index.php?action=flashnews&type=269
Ha! And so the hypocricy continues. Ms Samson seemed to think that there was nothing in PK that hurt sentiments.
Even though I personally have no objections, but let me point out one simple instance: PK mocks the pouring of milk on Shivlings and statues. From a practical standpoint, for a non-believer of idols such as me, this sure is a wastage ( i hate it when the Ganesh Temple in Queens pours like 50 gallons of milk on all their idols every evening). But to people heavily invested in idolatory, criticism of this ritual is sheer blasphemy. Hirani mustve thought that highlighting such wastage is practical. However, he does end up hurting sensitive people.
The question to ask is: Was the CBFC willing to ignore this, especially because Ms Samson probably does not understand the sensitivities involved?
The Loonies whowant PK to be banned are actually doing Hindus a great disservice , I am usually pretty sensitive but I did not find anything objectionable, yes Hindus have been made more fun but that is a given since it is a movie about Hindustan.
But people like Ravish, Anna Vetticad and commies selective outrage just pisses me off !!!
“PK mocks the pouring of milk on Shivlings and statues.”
Undue credit, its like a passing shot in PK. Did you watch OMG? There is full 2-3 min scene with real footage how the milk offered is going to gutters and gods really don’t drink it and instead it is better to feed some poor hungy person. It was most clear and message oriented scene.
If you have Netflix, watch it online or try to search on youtube and then compare the scene with PK.
So, in retrospect OMG scene was more objectionable but credit must be given for the way it was shown in the movie.
I saw OMG in bits in pieces and missed that one. But now that you raise the point, interestingly, it also proves Ms Leela Samson’s hypocricy. OMG was releasd on Sep 28, 2012. There were protests against that movie as well, but nothing was censored. In the link provided above by OmRocky, it clearly shows the date (Sep 27, 2012!!) of the news of censoring Kamaal Dhamaal Malaamal after the protests against it.
So it was fine for Ms Samson to allow OMG to release uncensored, but she had KDM censor out objectionable scenes. Is it bcoz Congress as in power (with a certain Ms Sonia Gandhi at the helm??) What was Ravish Kumar saying then?? Band baj gayi??
Just saying what I have been saying all along: The Tolerance limits of the majority religion in India is very very high as compared to the others.
The more people are protesting and creating controversy, is actually drawing more publicity to the movie. No Religion can get affected by expressions of certain films, its just too big for such things.
Aamir seems to have pulled another Ghajini-3 Idiots combo with D3 and PK. Ghajini was the biggest hit ever and about 30 crores more than the the second highest grosser ever, RNBDJ. Then 3 Idiots just destroyed everything. D3 was about the same percentage ahead of CE/KICK. And once again PK has come and destroyed everything. Next year only Salman has some hope to come close to PK with the Sooraj Bharatiya film, if it clicks well. SRK has no hope. Maybe in 2016 if Rohit Shetty can pull another CE for him.
Yes, among Salman’s films – only Sooraj’s movie has that kind of possibility to do huge business (touching 300cr). I don’t expect it to open big but almost everyone likes Sooraj to some extent and then if he makes a good movie, then WOM will turn its business. Similarly, I don’t think Rohit Shetty can deliver big hit but he don’t have the kind of following where the movie can touch 300cr. Some people, however big it is, would not watch a Rohit Shetty film in theaters. Salman’s Bajrani Bhaijaan can do similar to Kick, SRK’s Fan, Raees will be lucky to even go near 200 cr.
But all said, PK’s final total is safe for longtime, even Aamir’s other movies can’t touch it business for next 2-3 yrs.
My prediction: I’m sensing a repeat of the last 4 years- SRK’s next two films, Fan and Raees, will struggle to hit 200 crore (aka the new 100 crore mark), BB and Shuddhi will open huge but not sustain like BG/Ready/D2, PRDP will be like ETT and get around 300 (if PK hits 350), and then 2-3 years later when SRK does the movie with RS again, PK’s lifetime is broken however with a 50crore opening day and average trending unlike PK. Then Aamir comes with the 3 Idiots or PK sequel and repeat. In the meantime, Hrithik, Ranbir and all of them still remain in a league below the 3 Khans. Ranbir is making the Hrithik Roshan mistake of 2006 (Krrish and D2) of not capitalizing on his success. I think a completely new star (probably someone born in the mid-late 1990’s comes in from out of nowhere and overtakes everyone.
I will talk about the film PK after the second viewing. ( Haven’t been able to write on Haider still even after three viewings in the theatre.) But I want to make a few quick points about the protests against PK by groups like Bajrang Dal and VHP, and many on sites like Twitter and Facebook.
1. Everyone who has seen both Oh My God and PK agree that both tackle the same theme, and speak against the superstitions and rituals of Hindu faith. Many have pointed out that OMG was more hard-hitting. Then how come there was no protest whatsoever against OMG?
2. Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi are the writers, Rajkumar Hirani, the director and Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Hirani , the producer of the film. They are the creators and owners of the film in all respects. Aamir Khan is just the actor in the film, portraying a role written for him, in a manner suggested by the director. Then why is he being targeted by the protestors?
3. Now let’s take a look at what is being protested against. Many have agreed that the things the film has shown are the degraded practices and are worth pointing out. But they question, why practices of other religions are not shown when there are many blind spots in other religions too. When pointed out that a few anomalies of Islam and Christianity too are shown, they say but that’s so little! Now think of this: when an alien lands in an Indian city and spends a few days there, which religious rituals he is likely to encounter on the streets? When you open a coffee table book on India by a photographer, whether Indian or foreigner, which religion’s images are you likely to see most? And to start with, which religion has most imagery and most rituals in everyday life?
4. Second, both Hirani and Joshi being Hindus have certainly better first-hand knowledge of Hindu religious rituals and practices than those of other religion, and they may feel an urge to write and talk about Hindu religiosity than about other faiths. Do you ask Martin Scorsese why he made ‘ The Last Temptations Of Jesus Christ’ and not ‘ The Constant Temptations of Krishna’? Or do you ask Umesh Shukla why he did not have a Muslim protagonist in his film by the side of Kanji Lal Mehta ( Maybe Paresh Rawal playing a double role. LOL. ?) ? Art is not about balancing the offence given to various groups, but about expressing what you connect to.
5. Purely from the scriptwriting logistics where do you stop? And how do you determine what percentage to bad practices of which religion? How much of Hinduism, how much of Islam, how much of Christianity, how much of Sikhism, how much of Buddhism, how much of Judaism, how much of Jainism…and so on? At the end of it, will it look like a film, or a government commission report? Aren’t people from other religions smart enough to take the lesson from here and apply it to their own religious practices?
6. Some have implied that the makers have not shown the evils of Islamic practices because they are scared.
7. Now whichever maybe the reason for which the film shows more of irrational and ridiculous practices of Hinduism rather than those of other religions, it could be even a combination of all or many, what do the Hindus have to complain about? If some undesirable practices of Hinduism have been shown, it can only lead to their eradication and at the least discussions on them. The followers of other religions are being deprived of this. If anything, it is the common people from other religions who should be complaining, right? Or are you saying they are too dumb to know what is good for them? And VHP and Bajrang Dal want us to compete with them in those aspects?
Neither HIrani nor Umesh Shukla ( the director of OMG) are the first to critique the ritualistic practices of Hinduism. Centuries earlier a man called Gautam or Siddhrtha did that. We gave him the name Buddha and even made him one of the ten avatars of Vishnu. It is this constant critiquing, introspection and evolution that has made Hinduism such a robust religion and respected worldwide. ( Refer to this piece on influence of Hinduism on Hollywood auteurs. )
Let us who are proud of being Hindus not allow narrow-minded, bigoted groups like VHP and Bajarang Dal turn Hindus into a mirror image of fundamentalist Muslims like the ISIS.
8. There has also been talk of ‘insult’ to Lord Shiva because of the episode involving the actor playing Shiva. They have asked , Could they have shown a similar scene featuring Jesus or Mohammad. Really? First of all, there is no depiction of Muhammad ever done by any actor, so the question doesn’t arise. Even any dramatic depiction of Jesus’s life is not done as an entertainment like Ramlila or our mythological plays are done. A Ramlila actor playing Ram would be smoking beedi one moment and then getting up on stage as ram the next. In the opera ( geeti-natya) on Shiva written by the most popular Baishnaba pani performed in my village has Ganga and Parvati fighting like street soutans, Parvati accusing Ganga of being a Ugara-Chandi ( a tomboy) who dances on her husband’s head and so on. The contexts and what is allowed are totally different.
The same protesters have pointed out that Hindus do not worship idols, they worship the ideal behind the ideals. Fair enough. The film does not attack the ideal behind Shiva, in fact it does not get to that stage…may be in the next film. But the point is just as the idol is not equivalent to the ideal , the man playing Shiva is NOT Shiva. And making fun of the man playing Shiva is NOT making fun of Shiva. ( Though it is another matter that making fun of Shiva is perfectly alright in Hindu mythological dramatic tradition. Unfortunately, most of the cyber-Hindus are so ignorant of their own tradition that mischief-makers like VHP and Bajrang Dal find it easy to take them for a ride.)
9. We as a society, as Indians should be proud and glad that we have a committed and accomplished filmmaker like Hirani with a solid social consciousness who gives us films like Munnabhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munnabhai, 3 Idiots and now, PK, to stimulate our thought and arouse our conscience instead of serving garbage like the 90% of Bollywood does. If we can’t, then God ( be he Shiva, Allah, Jesus or Jehovah ) help us.
Re.-But I want to make a few quick points
Sir if the above are “quick” and “few” points, then thank you Shiv jee that you “declared “not to make too many and too large points!!!
All of your points are fair, except #1: There were many protests against OMG as well. Just go research.
However, here I categorically state that protests against art are absolutely regressive. My only complaint is that the media castigates protests by majority right wing groups, but totally ignores protests by minority right wingers.
Utkal, I usually like your points.. but you are totally off on this one. Almost all of your points are weak and mostly incorrect/unimportant in the scheme of things. Will reply later after work.
Utkal, Some quick replies.. replied according to your bullet points.
1)As NyKavi mentioned there were protests for OMG as well. Moreover it was same made from the same play from super successful play.
2)I don’t think you are aware how much Shabana Azmi had to go through after the relelase of Deepa Mehta’s Fire. She was in real security threat. Also, usually actors are the front facing the visual part of the objectionable content and they are protested as well. Writer/ producer/ director can be tagged along but the actor is always the prime focus. You can’t say you are an employee and just continue doing anything objectionable. Even writer would say the same.. I’m employee of the producer and wrote this script for him. Funnily, there was long 10-12 yrs case against Srk for saying something against lawyers and court system in Ram Jaane’s climax scene. Only Srk was summoned for court, neither the film producer nor writer of that dialogues and the case dragged for 10-12 yrs.
3)You are mixing the protest from various sources and clubbing them with twitter feedback. Not everyone is mentioning the same points. Overall consensus is that some dialogues and scenes are objectionable and they ought to be removed from the movie.
4)If you are making a movie about sensitive topic, there is no way out. Didn’t Karan Johar make My Name is Khan? Also, the script offered opportunity to talk about other religions. Hirani introduces other religions and then quits in between and just moves on with Hinduism and its dogma practice
5)Aren’t people from other religions smart enough – If people were really smart enough then there was no need for this movie. 🙂
6)No need to imply, many clearly saying they couldn’t dare to show other religions as they are scared.
7)“the film shows more of irrational and ridiculous practices of Hinduism” Lot of young folks do understand this point but that doesn’t mean we need to follow religion as per what Hirani and Aamir has taught us from the movie PK. Too many big celebrities are huge followers of Babas(I mentioned Sachin earlier) and its their life and their belief system. Why does anyone need to worry how they want to live their life by criticizing their actions?
Also, you directly jumping from Hirani and Umesh Shukla you to Buddha, lol. Which movie did he make? Just kidding.
1 more point. OMG is about a atheist who doesn’t believe in god and makes fun and then eventually encounters god and becomes a believer sans dogma practices.
Whereas PK comes on earth, makes fun of these religious practices and proves Babas are farce and then goes back to his planet 🙂
One of the main reasons for taking Aamir on board for this film was to cash Aamir’s image for making it more palatable for general public. Any other actor could have caused an immediate controversy. Aamir will somehow mould majority public opinion in his favour due to a repeat and prestige he has gathered over the years. Similarly any reaction towards the film will be directed towards Aamir not the writers or the director. Win Win for the producers.
Gox: Watch headlines today interview. Hirani said, I wanted Aamir for the reason that he doesn’t have any strong religious image and can’t cast an actor with strong religious beliefs in this movie, it will look fake.The main pillars of the movie are all believers in the same message and hence we could colloborate easily.
Ali Peter John witnessed Khanna repeatedly insulting Bachchan when the actor used to visit Jaya Bhaduri on the sets of Bawarchi. Ali recalls how Bachchan, who wasn’t hot property yet, would usually hang out with then girlfriend Jaya and other friends like Asrani at their shoots. On one occasion he saw Khanna taunt Bachchan — who maintained his distance as well as his calm — endlessly. It was when Khanna called him manhoos or ill-fated that Jaya decided that she had had enough.
I agree with Utkal uncle points, well written. That’s what amazes me that OMG being so hard hitting and took almost a serious tone by its lead didnt cause this much ruckus.
And since adding the word ‘Hindu’ before anything immediately guarantees front page salsa dance these days, they came up with this hit formula. ‘Hindu’ plus Bollywood — who can stop them from popping up on Arnab’s show? You know those crank callers who love bomb hoaxes? These chaps are exactly like them. View at Medium.com
But the state govt.s need to put stop to this non-sense. If anyone has issue with movie either you protest in front of censor board or file a petition in high/Supreme Court.
As Nykavi suggested people who seat in fence and voted for development wouldn’t mind changing loyalties. The lunatic fringe who probably have voted for BJP are not the mainstream; but they needed to be tackled otherwise they think it is their Sarkar and they are free to do whatever they like.
Agree Munna , however this Godsey crap has been going on since past deveral years. No One noticed, but now the Media gets a stick to beat with BJP with….arrey BJP/Modi ka lena ek naa dena do iss baat par !
Aamir Khan Races Ahead Salman; May Overtake SRK To Become No. 1 In Koimoi Office Power Index
The year has been full of hits and misses and while the last month seemed really dull with major flops, Aamir Khan’s PK swept off this gloom with its smashing performance in the last week. Many big films released and while some were disappointing, films such as Kick and Happy New Year shined through. But, with the release of PK, there has been a change in the power index. As we had expected, Aamir’s PK has shown a brilliant performance so far and since the film has entered the 200 crore club, Aamir Khan has now jumped to the second position, second to Shah Rukh Khan.
While Salman Khan and Aamir Khan hold the same points, since Aamir holds more films, he is placed second. Shah Rukh Khan post his film Happy New Year made it to the 200 crore club, has been on the top position. Aamir Khan is currently 100 points away from SRK and may overtake him to become the contender.
EXCLUSIVE: The New York Times reviews Aamir Khan’s PK
HILARIOUS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
An alien dubbed Pk (played by secular actor Aamir Khan) lands on Earth on a research mission, but is stranded in Rajasthan, currently ruled by India’s communal Hindu party – BJP, when his spaceship’s remote control is stolen by a Hindu militant
A common tenet of Hinduism is “Sarva Dharma Sambhava”, which literally means that all Dharmas (truths) are equal to or harmonious with each other. One can only objectively interpret that as being call to oppress all religions other than Hinduism
In Delhi, Pk discovers that a Hindu Militant Godman, Tapasvi Maharaj (Saurabh Shukla), who has his remote claims to have obtained it from the God. Bewildered, PK concludes that Tapasvi and other Hindu militants must be calling a “wrong number” to God and, as a result, spreading misunderstandings and meaningless rituals. As the recent episode of Baba Rampal in the Indian state of Haryana has showed, majority of the Hindus are narrow minded and easily enslaved by these so called Godmen who conjure up some magic to trick their followers. Hinduism, not being a religion of Book, is easily subject to manipulation by these Godmen. This, along with the immoral caste system of placing people into perpetual hierarchies, cause many people convert to the religions of Christianity and Islam.
The fact that #BoycottPK was trending in India a day after the movie’s release points out the rising levels of intolerance ever since India’s ultra-nationalist regressively-conservative party BJP came to power at the centre. Only India’s strong federalism with secular parties in power in some states is preventing a secular India from coming under the stranglehold of Hinduism. This may not last for long as BJP is wiping out other parties in state after state. We can only hope that the international ecosystem stays awake and alert to the horrifying transformation happening in this once secular and inclusive nation http://www.theunrealtimes.com/2014/12/28/exclusive-the-new-york-times-reviews-aamir-khans-pk/
Yes as I said above if one has a very flawed agenda one can protest even this film. You don’t have to try very hard to rankle opportunistic nut jobs who enjoy soft targets.
Rajen sir jee thoda attention pay kiya karo, this is Unreal times..a satire site..and this piece is totally in response to the ridiculous and outrageous piece in NYT calling hindus all kinds of names..
Saala dimag ka dahee kar diya..
Master: “Also, you directly jumping from Hirani and Umesh Shukla you to Buddha, lol. Which movie did he make? Just kidding.” There was no movies at the time of Buddha, or else he would have made a film to get his message across for sure. and I am not kidding.
Master: And when you mention Shabana, SRK and Aamir being targetted, you establish the point I was trying to make, even more strongly. They were and are targetted because they are MUSLIMS. Of course the whole world knows it. But I am glad you amplified it with your examples.
Arrey Utkal Uncle- I had heard that Targeting, Terror, Vandalism etc. has NO religion. ab kya hua ??????Tum logo ka saala Chit bhee mera, Patt bhee merey baap ka !!!
zara thoda Cocktail PK, PK dekho aur dimaag saaf karo apna..
As expected, Ugly couldn’t really fetch much of an audience at the box office from the opening perspective. One place where it did go right though was fetching some fantastic reviews from all over. This was the kind of push that Anurag Kashyap indeed hoped for as without it, the film would have been off the screens on Monday itself. However, good critical acclaim has given fillip to the fortunes of this film which has collected less than 2 crore over the weekend.
The film benefits from the fact that it has been released at a very less number of prints. This means there won’t be much reduction in print count in the next couple of weeks. One hopes that exhibitors keep their trust in the film and allow it to run as it has in it to gain further from word of mouth. Since Tevar releases on 9th January and PK is the only other biggie in the running, this small film by Anurag needs just a little space to survive and make its presence felt. For those who always complain that Bollywood doesn’t come up with new subjects on screen, Ugly is an answer to that ugly truth and deserves to be applauded.
Meanwhile, PK continued with its super successful run and accumulated close to 50 crore again. As a result, the film now stands at 236.50 crores and has edged past Kick [233 crore] to be the biggest grosser of 2014. Blockbuster, and on its way to be an All Time Blockbuster.
Anjo, this seems like a completely planted article by the Ugly gang…
Ab numbers forge nahee kar saktey toh yahee sahee.
Aside- tuteja is known to write these kind of stories as favors.
Omrocky786: “Arrey Utkal Uncle- I had heard that Targeting, Terror, Vandalism etc. has NO religion. ab kya hua ??????T” Obviously you have heard wrong. Isn’t that what PK taught you? All the things you mentioned go in the name of religion.
PK At 244 Crore Nett After Eleven Days
Tuesday 30 December 2014
Box Office India Trade Network
PK continued hitting record numbers as it grossed around 9.75 crore nett on its 11th day. the film has taken its second week business to 63 crore nett while the lifetime business is around 244 crore nett The four day collection of the second week is as follows.
Sorry, 3I first Monday was around 10cr. And Now PK 3rd Monday is similar.
3I first week was 80cr+, and PK second week will easily beat that record. Does that mean PK with similar trending as 3I can collect 200crs from second week onwards? First week 180 + 200cr = Upwards of 350crs seems to be a possibility! Humongous.
A stiff target will be 350 crore IMO. I don’t think it will get there, more likely to be 340 crore max. Third week should be a record as it should comfortably beat 3 idiots 30 crore. But after that it will be tough to hang with 3 Idiots.
In any case the film has banished any myth around a wide release with record breaking first week not being able to trend well. I hope that debate is now firmly one of the past. Though I suspect the usual suspects are already preparing some excuses! The second week drop here will be less than 50%. Since 3 idiots all the big films have fallen 70-80% and the usual suspects have suggested this to be par the course. Off course it will hurt those people even more it’s an Aamir film that has done them up all over again.
I am just going off the second week drop of less than 50%. Applying approximate 50% drops for the rest of the run:
185+95+45+23+11+5+3+1= 368cr
So even if 3rd week onwards are 60%+ drops, it could still reach 350. Anyhow, a figure more than 330-340 itself would be insane. Plus the humongous international totals truely place this movie out of reach for a few years.
Just remember, it took 4 yrs after 3I to nominally (ie non inflation adjusted) break the 200cr barrier. If we apply standard 10% inflation adjustment for india, the inflation adjusted 3I is at approx 325crs for now, a figure that PK will most probably achieve. Further, in two years, the inflation adjusted PK total wud be 400crs+.
Khans will all cross 50 and become proverbial Golden Budhaus next year. None of their current engagements scheduled to release over the next 2 yrs, seem to have the legs to go this distance. After that, they will be even older (52+). They would need some amazing unusual scripts with central roles to break these figures. I seriously doubt any of the younger lot have the pull to match these figures in the near term.
Even the much-touted Ranbir doesn’t look like a huge star in the making imo. It will be tough for the newer lot to reach the level of the Khan trio in terms of stardom. Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna are out of the question.
The one thing that’s becoming quite clear is that only sensible films with great entertainment can set these kind of records. I hope other so-called blockbuster directors and actors (Salman, SRK etc.) take notice of that.
agreed on the numbers.. and yeah Salman is more or less prevented at the very outset from getting this sort of number. The Barjatya film is his one shot. On the one hand I’d argue that it’s too late for that paradigm and Salman himself has moved dramatically away from that image. On the other hand given all the TV shows that still do well in this format perhaps one is just looking at a very different sort of audience here. I’d still bet against it but leaving this aside I don’t see him having another shot. With SRK similarly the next two films are not major enough but even when he does the big stuff he’s always much more likely to go in for the HNY initial-oriented splash, again films that by definition can’t last. Now CE certainly did way better than expected and he might work with Shetty again but for all this Shetty too isn’t the sort of filmmaker who can get you those highest benchmarks even on his best day. The films just don’t have enough of a script. Unless he picks up a blockbuster Southern script or something and then goes in for SRK. At any rate these guys are just not going to get it done 99% of the time nor is Hrithik (as we’ve seen just recently with both Krrish and Bang Bang). So yeah Aamir seems pretty safe in this sense and he’s done it so many times already. The others in any case haven’t set up true benchmark numbers in a very long time. In other words numbers that are one way or the other well ahead of every kind of opposition and not just huge splashes that are par for the course for certain kinds of stars and/or certain kinds of projects.
Damn, Aamir. He revives the trending theory when most morons had given up on it.
Henry is right on target re what kind of movies can have this kind of success.
Agree with NyKavi and Henry about the new generation, they seem to be going nowhere- Ranbir included. Ranbir’s last hit was May 2013 and his next film is releasing May 2015. In that time the Khans have released 4-5 blockbusters. Bombay Velvet does not seem like a big grosser nor does Jagga Jasoos. Tamasha could be another YJHD. I have lost faith in KJO and his new film sounds like a KANK meets KKHH. And Ayan’s film has been delayed to 2017. Also there’s the fact that he has no single screen pull at all nor does it seem like he ever will and Besharam was a disaster.
Ranveer’s DDD could put up YJHD numbers at the max. The SLB film he doing- SLB has given no indication in the last 15-20 years that he is capable of making a film that sustains at the BO.
It’s not worth talking about any of the other youngsters i.e. Varun, Sid, Arjun etc.
Hrithik is a completely lost case. Doing another periodical drama that won’t release until 2016. Then he’s doing another film with Papa Roshan which could hit 600 crores domestic adjusting for Roshan inflation. Honestly Ranbir seems to be turning into another
SRK’s FAN seems to be a commercial film but every progressive film of Maneesh Sharma after BBB has been worse. And barring Mardaani, the last YRF film I actually enjoyed was MBKD 4 years ago and the last liked film was probably BBB. Raees seems to be completely off-beat. Using that in a BO discussion would be as stupid as using Talaash to say something dumb like “Aamir only has success on Xmas”.
Salman’s Bajrangi Bhaijan sounds like another ETT to the core. And Kabir Khan said that it is a complete Salman masala film. But Sooraj’s film is the big one. The whole virginal family drama type of film hasn’t been made in a long time and Salman has a double role- so I think Sooraj is using both the Prem image and his new masala image. If done successfully, he’d have the new salman audience and the HAHK audience and then even 500 crores domestic wouldn’t be an absurd prediction.
Dhoni’s contribution to Indian cricket is unmeasurable. Goes beyond runs scored or matches won. Just like Ganguly. Dhoni made the Indian team intimidating. In terms of cricketing prowess, ability to adapt and innovate and the demeanor on and off the field.
Rajen: I agree when it comes to ODIs, he is one of the greats (as captain and player); but in test matches, I’m afraid I saw no ability to innovate, adapt, or intimidate…
Q,
He still has 27 wins / most for an Indian captain. He has the best winning percentage as a captain in tests. Yes, more losses than draws and poor record outside India. One thing that stands out is his own performance with the bat in the losses. He may not be the best captain in tests for India but is no slouch in overall record.
Shastri is a joke: I saw this interview on TV, and thought the post-match debate with Gavaskar, Manjrekar and Aakash Chopra (not alluded to in this article at all) was great; for once someone honestly called bull!@#$# on Shastri’s twaddle. His insinuation that earlier Indian teams were simply marking time/attendance on foreign tours is not only offensive, it is just wrong: for all of the “new India” bravado embodied by Virat’s swagger and sledging, the fact is that India’s best overseas results were in the late 1960s and 1970s (won in WI and England); a period in the early-to-mid-1980s (tied 1-1 in Australia; won in England; won the ’83 World Cup); and in the first decade of this century (tied 1-1 in Australia; won 1-0 in England in 2007; and tied 1-1 in SA in 2010-2011). Since then we have barely looked like winning a test, much less squaring a series or winning it. And that won’t change as long as the bowlers are so toothless: Shastri’s is a limited overs mindset, with aggression defined in terms of batting with bravado and (the contemporary buzzwords of) “attitude” and “mindset”. But ODIs are, despite the boundaries and runs, a more defensive form of the game — it is test matches that reward aggression (you don’t take wickets relatively soon, you won’t win), best illustrated by India’s 3-4 batting greats: had one or two of those talents been bowlers, India would have won a lot more matches abroad, but since all of them were batsmen, the most you could hope for was a drawn match and the occasional win. That isn’t because they failed, that is mostly because of the structure of test cricket.
( I am kicking myself for having missed Ankhon Dekhi and Filmistan. But judging from those who have seen it, this list of 6 is absolutely bang on. And 2014 doesn’t look that bad for Bollywood at all.)
Rajkumar Hirani: The man with the golden touch. With ‘PK’ earning Rs 200 crores in two weeks, Hirani has become the most successful filmmaker of our times with each of his directorial ventures becoming blockbuster hits. But Hirani doesn’t feature on this list for his commercial success but for the though provoking films that he makes. His recent, ‘PK’ questions our notion of religion which has already sparked off a debate but if we keep aside our sentiments and beliefs and concentrate on the message that the film tries to convey, one can see how there is no one like Hirani who can make a simple tale so endearing.
Anurag Kashyap: The man who bridged the gap between art cinema and commercial cinema with his films has always made hard hitting, realistic films in his career. His film ‘Ugly’ released at the fag end of 2014 and was one of the most dark, disturbing film of recent years. The film would make you uncomfortable and yet keep you hooked till the end and that’s why Kashyap, the ‘dark lord’ scores.Always.
Rajat Kapoor: Rajat Kapoor has, in the past few years, carved a niche in Bollywood, with his unique cinema- which doesn’t fall in the blockbuster category yet strike the right chord with the audience. Kapoor’s film always score high in the story and performance department and his film ‘Aankhon Dekhi’ had that right blend. The film revolved around a single dilemma faced by an old man: How reliable is second-hand knowledge or experience? And actor Sanjay Mishra delivered a remarkable performance as the lead protagonist.
Vishal Bhardwaj: Vishal Bhardwaj’s film’s are twisted and very dark and they play havoc in the viewers head. Yet, they have a certain appeal. His adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ had Shahid Kapoor playing ‘Haider’ in a terror stricken, snowy Kashmir. From the detailed screenplay to the marvelous performances by the actors, Bhardwaj scored in almost all departments. We just hope that Shahid Kapoor and Vishal Bhardwaj team up more, because no other director taps Kapoor’s actual talent the way Bhardwaj does.
Vikas Behl: How can a film with no hero work so well? Ask Vikas Bahl and he will show you ‘Queen’. The brilliant little film made Kangana Ranaut the pin-up girl for all middle class women throughout the country. Bahl had earlier co-directed the endearing ‘Chillar Party’ but he went solo with ‘Queen’ and what a remarkable film it was. From getting the nuances of a middle-class west delhi to perfection to showing the night life of Paris to Rani(Ranaut) re-discovering herself in Amsterdam, Bahl made the film a fun ride throughout. And yes, Mr Bahl, we couldn’t have wished for a better ending where
Nitin Kakkar: Debutant director Nitin Kakkar made ‘Filmistaan’ with a bunch of new, unknown actors which may have got the National Award for the Best Hindi film in 2013, but failed to get a distributor till UTV lapped it up and we can’t thank the production house enough for making this brilliant film available to the audience. Kakkar infused humour into the narrative and focused on the fact that love for Bollywood is above all the hatred. The film had no big star, no special song, no big banner attached to it, yet it told the most heart warming story this year 2014. We are dying to watch what Kakkar’s has up his sleeves, next.
Good article but two points-
Kashyap has to go a long way to bridge the gap between art and commercial cinema as Ugly proves. Bombay Velvet will be the test.
Queen was a watchable film- nothing more or less. A very good performance from Kangna and good to see a woman taking on life on her terms but as a film IMO is highly overrated. Would love to see Aankhon Dekhi as premise sounds interesting. Wouldn’t touch Haider as I have absolutely no patience or time for such trash.
I found Queen quite overrated. Enjoyable for its genre, sends some of the right signals but nothing special otherwise. Also agree on Kashyap. The reshooting here doesn’t surprise me. He has the best shot of his career to deliver a Barfi-like deal here but nonetheless this is an expensive project (even if he says he’s doing for 90 crores what others would for 300.. even here he’s cynical.. he says he got Ranveer Singh first but was only getting 60 crores for it and then when he opted for Ranbir he got his 90! On a big project such as this one one likes directors like him to have a little more conviction!) and even accounting from GOW he’s very far from a proper commercial hit. Yes this is a love story and he has Ranbir and he has the Bombay period thing and so on but still the result remains to be seen though certainly he won’t have a better intro than GoW in terms of key multiplex groups. We’ve seen for instance that even Vishal Bhardwaj on some very well-publicized films just doesn’t have much to show at the box office. Even Kaminey which had a good start relatively-speaking came down later. Depending on the initial though I think that even something as low as 80 crores would be a good result for Bombay Velvet (not getting into budget here).
Rajen- you need to watch Haider. Otherwise there is no difference between you and Swamy. He is commenting on movie without watching.
Ankhon dekhi is on Netflix. It just shows that you don’t need PK or Haider to make a good movie.
Subramanian SwamyVerified account
@Swamy39
A complaint will go soon to initiate action under PMLA on Aamir Khan & co for laundering terrorist finance. I hope MoF does not block it.
Subramanian Swamy @Swamy39 · 14h 14 hours ago
ARY thrown out of London Bullion Market and from UK in 2006 for money laundering drug trafficking and terror financing. Aamir Khan answer!!
It seemed like a routine announcement. Last August 30, the London Bullion Market Association issued a statement revoking the status of an associate member, ARY of Dubai, one of the wealthiest of the United Arab Emirates.
But in fact, it was the first overt outcome of a long investigation into money-laundering, drug-trafficking and possible terrorism-financing. Since the August announcement, ARY has had several of its British bank accounts closed and the revenue authorities are investigating its finances. This could be the end of the road for one of the hitherto best-respected – and most well-connected – jewelers and gold dealers in the Persian Gulf region, Abdul
Razzak Yacoub Ghandi, whose initials form the name of the group of companies he owns.
Apart from controlling a large share of Dubai’s lucrative gold wholesale business, he runs a satellite TV company, ARY Digital, which he claims transmits into 107 countries, manages a gold refinery called ARY Aurum Plus, and has interests in local real-estate development. He also allegedly used to manage the ill-gotten gains of Abdul Qadeer Khan, “father” of Pakistan’s nuclear-weapons program.
Only connection between OK and ARY is that ARY has funded the Dubai leg of its promotion. What a ridiculous stance bySwamy! Do something useful than clutching at straws .
ary the movie fianancer of pk whose media conferennce mr aamir khan was busy attending in dubai
somewhile back the secular where busy making fun of swamy but it seems he is onto something by opening up sunanda pushkar case, sending jaylalita to jail and getting sonia onto strict monitoring in national herald
his foray in bollywood will be nothing less importance compared to how he exposed 2g, coal gate etc
Agree BW financing is murky. Too murky
But that is across the board. PK and Aamir are being singled out because of a witch hunt. Doesn’t do anything for BJP’s image.
Modi should reign in these fringe elements.
Comments like these piss me off, how is it Modi’s responsibilty or place to reign in these nuts?
Clearly the left leaning media is succeeding in establishing a link to Modi.
s far right Hindu activists escalated their protests across India against actor Aamir Khan’s latest film ‘PK’, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday made an unusual allegation—that the film was financed by shadowy money and Khan should be investigated for “laundering terrorist finance”.
The producers of the film are three companies—Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Raj Kumar Hirani (also the director) and Sidharth Roy Kapur of UTV Motion Pictures. All well known names behind some of Bollywood’s biggest hits.
So what is the basis of Swamy’s accusation that Khan was “terror compliant”?
PK, a breezy film that takes a moralistic stand against godmen and frauds committed in the name of religion, has predictably angered right wing activists, who accuse the film of hurting Hindu sentiments. Khan, who plays an alien stranded on Earth, provoked his audience into questioning the roles of middlemen in Hinduism.
In a series of tweets since Monday, Swamy claimed the film was funded by Pakistani conglomerate ARY, which he accused of financing terror. He retweeted a photo of Khan, PK’s director Rajkumar Hirani, actress Anushka Sharma and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra sitting on a stage with a advertisement for ARY Digital in the background to bolster his point.
“Who financed the PK film? According to my sources, it is traceable to Dubai and ISI. DRI must investigate,” he said. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence is responsible for investigating economic offences.
ARY’s known links with PK seem to end with its involvement in a promotional event for PK. But what do we know about ARY’s links with terror or money laundering?
An old Washington Post report quotes a customs official as saying that “as part of efforts to investigate terrorist financing, the agency was scrutinizing movements of gold by several companies, including ARY Gold, one of Dubai’s largest and most prestigious gold bullion and jewellery dealers”.
The WP story from 2002 also quoted ARY’s Pakistani CEO Abdul Razzak as denying knowingly doing business with the Taliban or al Qaeda.
Swamy claimed that ARY was thrown out of the London Bullion Market for money laundering, drug trafficking and terror financing and accused Khan of being “terror compliant”.
This LBMA press release from August 2005 stated that ARY, Dubai’s membership status was revoked. But nowhere does the release mention money laundering was the cause, as Swamy has indicated.
The LBMA release simply said ARY of Dubai, failed to provide sponsorship required by the LBMA constitution and therefore its Associate status has been revoked with effect from August 30, 2005.
“Aamir Khan’s goose is cooked. He better do prayaaschit before Lord Shiva to escape severe indictment,” one of Swamy’s dramatic tweets said. ARY Group is a Dubai-based holding company with interests in digital among others.
A representative for Vidhu Vinod Chopra said he was out of the country and unavailable for comments. A mail sent to him remained unanswered as of 4 PM.
A Newscrunch report said sources close to the PK team has dismissed Swamy’s charge as baseless. “The photo with ARY flex on stage was taken during one of the countless promotional events for the movie”, the report said. The sources told Newscrunch that ARY Digital, one of the group companies, is popular with South Asian expats in the Gulf and beams to over 100 countries.
actually when liberal idea and wisdom was about to be cursed way back in back by censorship in democracy by indira somebody did this:
It was Emergency time then, arguably the lowest that Indian democracy has ever hit. An arrest warrant was issued in Delhi against Dr.Swamy, a resident of Delhi then. To escape ‘political’ imprisonment, Swamy disguised himself as a Sikh, escaped out of Delhi, came down to Chennai, escaped to Sri Lanka & then on to the US and stayed there for 6 months!
Oh wait, this is where it really gets interesting. He was a MP when he escaped out of India and was to face dis-qualification by law, if he failed to show up in the parliament for 6 months. On one hand parliament seat, on the other, imminent arrest if he shows up in India. What does he do?
Swamy came back from the US and cooly walked into the Indian parliament and sat for the 1st session. In line with tradition, the 1st session started off with obituaries to the dead MPs. Our man abruptly stood up and demanded to include ‘Indian Democracy’ in the obituary list! (democracy having been battered to death by Emergency). In the hue & cry that instantly followed, he quietly slipped out of the parliament knowing well that he had very visibly registered his ‘attendance’ but cannot stay any longer! He slipped out of Delhi to Nepal and back to the US again!
There are only a few people who practice what they preach
Aamir Khan and presumably Vidhu Vinod Chopra will spend all the mony they want on religious practices after preaching the opposite through PK..
On the other side, Consider this from the producer of OMG Oh My God!
“Ab main kya karta hoon ki agar mujhe mann hua Vaishno Devi jaane ka – soch leta hoon dimaag mein ki jaana hai. Phir dhai lakh nikalta hoon. Tata Memorial Cancer ya yahaan-wahaan ja ke kisi ko bhi de deta hoon. Vaishno Devi ke darshan ho jaate hain. Kahin jaane ki zaroorat hi nahi hai. Woh mere ghar mein hi hain. Yeh baat meri der mein samajh aayi ki mandir ka matlab hai man andar”
Akshay like many Dilliwaley, is a Vaishnodevi bhakt.Good, but why bring him in here? Aamir , as per his friend Prasoon Joshi, seems to have flirted with atheism. Some 5 years back Prasoon had said in an interview that ‘Aamir is a true atheiest’. But he did accompany his mom to Haj, so…and Hirani is said to be an agnostic who doesn’t believe stuff like numerology.
The loonies r really helping PK. I came to watch the 6:15 show in DC & it is sold out!!!! The lady at the counter smiled at my I CAN’t FREAKING BELIEVE IT face & said she had seen 15 such desi expressions in the last 15 mns!!
This is turning out to be big..I just can’t remember the last time anything so big for a desi movie here….
According to a post on fb’s Chennai Shoping page (which covers any Chennai related practical issue beyond shopping), a group of 16 plans to watch PK today — and wants more tickets! Luckily, the loon-goon brigade has so far kept away from my city and its peaceful sensible citizens. Touvh wood.
Mind you, most people here are quite religious — but there is little visible opposition to PK. But Tamil films have taken swipes, and people have laughed along. I remember this film where a road milestonne marker is turned into a shrine thay starts collecting visitors and money. And of course nobody makes fun of the other two religions.It’s Hindus who dare to laugh at themselves.People here are in fact now remembering how badly Kamal was treated just before Vishwaroopam release. A few scene had to be cut, much money lost… And a few are saying Kamal suffered, let Bollywood suffer; my point, why should any movie maker need to go through such trauma? How csn one produce any woryhwhile film or book in such an atmosphere?
And as for that Harvard educated character– have never liked him and dislike him even more now. Twitter was always a trashy place and mischief making muck rakers like this guy are one reason. PK has the financial backing of UTV and Disney, Chopra and Hirani are the joint producers for a film written by two Hindus and directed by one — but it is lead player Aamir who is being attacked by SSwamy. The idea– throw enough mud, so some of it sticks.
Top Opening Days 2014 Real Value – Kick Tops
Tuesday 30 December 2014 11.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Kick is the biggest opener of 2014 if real values are taken for opening day collections. There are many factors that affect the opening collections like a holiday (national holiday, restricted holiday, regional holiday) and festivities like pre Diwali or Eid. Below are the top ten openers of 2014 if all things are equal and were released on a normal Friday.
Some films opened on big holidays while others were hit by festivities. The performances of the days after release and how the trends in different circuits should be if it was a normal release are taken into account to arrive at the values
Below are the opening day value is all films have had opened on normal Fridays. Some of the films have their actual values as they released on normal Friday while others have been adjusted.
1. Kick – 30.5 crore
2. Happy New Year – 27.50 crore
3. PK – 25.68 crore
4. Singham Returns – 23 crore
5. Bang Bang – 18.50 crore
6. Jai Ho – 17.06 crore
7. Ek Villain – 16.43 crore
8. Gunday – 12.25 crore
9. Holiday – A Soldier Is Never Off Duty – 11.92 crore
BOI are so incredibly shameless it can certainly be said that they always beat their own earlier records of shamelessness. For the first time ever and just when PK is guaranteed to get to 300 they suddenly discover this bogus criterion. Of course on PK though they’ve pointed out the obvious at all points given the kind of breathless commentary they’ve offered for so many other films, certainly Salman’s, the reports on PK have been completely restrained by comparison. But even leaving aside the utter shamelessness of this criterion it’s even false. Hollywood looks at every possible factor but Hollywood has no such listing of ‘normal’ weekends. It’s as if Dark Knight or whatever were taken off these lists or placed much lower down for releasing on Memorial Day or Christmas or something. Such utter bull. Of course one even feels pity for them. Somehow Aamir after Ghajini/3I and now D3/PK might not be ahead of Salman is a fantasy only BOI can subscribe to. As always what offends me much more than plain dishonesty is the sheer idiocy behind it. If you want to have an agenda you should at least be a little more sophisticated about it. Unless one is a total moron it’s not too hard to spot where all of this is coming from!
PK controversy slightly dents the box office collections
After watching “PK”, Hindutva groups Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad were so livid that they went on a rampage in Ahmedabad and Bhopal, smashing theatres screening the film. Also, members of the Bajrang Dal allegedly vandalised theatres in Ahmedabad and demanded a ban on the screening of the Aamir Khan starrer.
In Agra, a “PK” screening was disrupted by protesters who accused Aamir Khan of double standards and allegedly even asked him to move to Pakistan.
The film has also been affected in a few pockets elsewhere in the country.
Rajesh Thadani said: “Yes, the film has been affected in a few pockets like Gujarat, but as we rightly say controversies have added extra publicity to the film. So, it’s only going to help the film in coming days.”
I read the The Innovators by Walter Isaacson. Reviewed it for a paper. Informative and readable history of the Digital Age, from Babbage& Ada Lovelace up to present times. There is quite a bit about Alan Turing , the subject of The Imitation Game. Need to watch it when it releases here, mid-late Jan.
lol. i saw some reviews which suggests it is designed for award season i.e. quite formula based. Also, production values are poor, which makes it look like a TV movie.
72-73 crores depending on source. If today goes 10 crore it has an outside chance of 100 crores for the second week. Would need a monster New year’s day but the way the film is going on holidays it could do it.
Third week should be 40 crores so long as Friday starts greater than 5 crore.
Rajen1 : i don’t know why you are telling 9cr tuesday to me. I had already much before this BO number on BOI. Actually, i had estimated 1 AM IST itself based on girish johar’s tweets. Based on Kanpur numbers he gave early morning, it looked like tuesday could be more than monday. Anyways. It is set to cross 300 cr now.
Though, i would still say it was nothing more than just good experience for me. may be average or so. This movie had no surprising element for me as such. Also, watching online on first day itself with no great sound didn’t work for some part. Anyways, I enjoyed OMG much more , i watched that movie also online only. Still, OMG has repeat value for me. I can still watch it, i can’t say i am intended to watch PK again any time soon. I found PK unfunny and stretched for many scenes, and those scenes not even thrilled me like OMG does.
Still, PK is one of rare bollywood films in recent years i could complete in one go while watching online.
*** i saw some reviews which suggests it is designed for award season i.e. quite formula based. Also, production values are poor, which makes it look like a TV movie.***
Right – I don’t from which planet the reviewers you are talking of came from. But with 89% tomatometer, I think pretty much ‘everyone’ is a sucker for ‘designed’ movies and can be easily manipulated..
Have heard only good things about the movie. Was shocking to learn how they dealt with gays in 40s and 50s.
Has adopted a release strategy similar to The King’s Speech and seems to be working.
Here you go, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y8L1PfTU9M
There are 4 critics and hear from them. RT and imdb is full of pseduo intellect , i think It is a formula based safe movie just like PK which people love as they get just what they expect though premise and story is interesting again just like PK. But, overall movie is highly overrated, still i will also be catching it this week.
Wishing everyone a good new year.
Sad that the year ended with a terrible air disaster, ferry disaster and needless controversies.
Tomorrow is another day.
With a heavy heart, hoping for some normalcy.
Happy New Year Sanjana and everyone here including Satyam . Yes, December has been a terrible month. So many tragedies. Hopefully 2015 will bring cheer.
On the PK front– the film has been granted tax exemption by U P; and examimed then declared fit to run smoothly, in Maharashtra.
PK is a harmless film. Hope the furore dies down and filmgoers and theatre owners are not harassed.
Thanks for the wishes Lalita, and wish you the same.
The film is looking at a huge 95 crore nett total in week two which will take it to 276 crore nett in two weeks. The third weekend drop will determine its lifetime total.
absolutely.. for every one screening or two, one theater or two they disrupt they generate a lot more news for it. of course there’s some cynicism here too. They’ve not targeted any of the heavyweight chains!
As usual negativity spreads faster and highlighted and some positivity (Maharashtra CM’s decision to provide all security for screening and not to conduct a probe into the movie’s contents) gets no attention. Doesn’t he belong to BJP and RSS??
“Amitabh Bachchan has been roped in for an ad film that stresses the need to rise above religion and caste for inclusive development. The film is a brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who personally called up Bachchan”.
My fav Heroes are Gunday’s (Ranveer and Arjun) and i know it is almost unrealistic to expect that they will reach even remoteley close to Khan’s Stardom so as a neutral (As far as Khan’s are concerned) i have few random thoughts on PK’s success and on Aamir Bhakts.
1- Like what Julius caesar said to Brutus….. “Brutus you too”…SRK and Salman’s Bhakts can also say same about Aamir Bhakts that “You too are like us”. Earlier Aamir Bhakts used to make this grand Announcement that We don’t care about box office and they belive in quality not in quantity but ‘PK’ showed thier double standerd. On initial 2 days when ‘PK’ failed to put expected number they went into shell despite film getting rave rivewes and they came out from shell from Sunday (21 dec) onwards when film got momentum and started its record breaking spree.
2- Earlier they used to say that BOI is Pro SRK site but when BOI decreased HNY first day collection and announced that PK’s 37+ cr is the single biggest day collection Aamir Bhakts didn’t said anything.
3- ‘PK’ is doing record breaking buisness, getting rave reviews still Aamir Bhakts are not satisfied now they are complaing why BOI and other filmi sites are not doing OTT commentry and why they are not using superlative adjectives to praise film BO performence to the sky. Typicall SRK bhakts behaviour.
Now coming to ‘PK’ BO performence. I don’t how much water this logic holds but still just Random thoughts.
Dhoom 3 grossed 261 cr as per BOI now if you take 20% inflated ticket rates of ‘PK’ it should do 313 cr to match Dhoom 3 BOI collection. (200 cr 20 % is 40 cr and 61 cr is 12 cr). Now As per Aamir Bhakts Dhoom 3 is not a good film and ‘PK’ is masterpiece. Now if an Aamir’s masterpiece (‘PK’) matching Aamir Trash (Dhoom 3) is it so much a big deal.
PK grossed 181.56 crore nett in week one and has grossed 81.25 crore nett apprx in six days of its second week. The film will cross 275 crore nett in two weeks.
Nope, it wasn’t. It was around 267 cr when BOI stopped givimg numbers as it was no not big number thereafter. BOI closed their commentary with the expectation of 270 cr final total. Now, they have lowered numbers, but the difference is not more than 5-6 cr..
It was BH which made it cross 280 cr in 5 weeks.
For your information BH are giving a total of all languages which is around 12 to 14. So Dhoom 3 all versions made around 280 crores as BOI don’t count other language in their final total.
The perceived anti-Hindu slight as proposed by this article is questionable. But the crystal clear hypocrisy of Leela Samson as reflected in her actions vis-a-vis KMD, Entertainment and PK has been firmly established.
Enough has been written on SM about the hypocrisy of this anti-Hindu Samson. She is another of those residual evils left over from the last evil govt. Count one more! All establishments with such Sickulars need to be revamped with fair and reasonable people. PK is an out and out commercial film yet only a Sicko like Akhilesh Yadav can consider it “educational” and make it tax-free. Nobody demanded a tax-exemption – not the movie makers, not the public, not the anti-Hindu gang in the media. Yet, this “Baap ka raj” type CM announces this as if the state treasury is his personal property. Typical Sicko-Commie, eh? It is not as if UP is rolling in the basement with tons of cash. Then this Sicko will whine about not getting enough funds from the Centre. If you’re anti-Hindu the Sickulars will not only support you but will offer financial benefits. Count another residual evil!
they need to understand times have changed just like what doval and modi did with foreign affairs and army a lot of cleansing required on bollywood funding…frankly awareness is gaining ground to and its good such incident are happening to increase awareness
Top Actor Actress Director Producer Studio 2014
Thursday 01 January 2015 12.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Below is a look at the top actor, actress, director, producer and distributor of 2014. There are five elements which have the biggest contribution to the success or failure of a film.
Actor – Salman Khan
The actor is in a league of his as far the domestic market is concerned. Kick which had no star support be it from the heroine or supporting actors and a first time director took a phenomenal start for the period. The content of the film was also driven by stars image and and went on to become a big grosser.
Actress – Alia Bhatt
The actress become a top ranker as films like 2 States and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania emerged major hits and the performances of Alia Bhatt were appreciated tremendously. The credit of the success of these is as much if not more than the heroes for the actress
Director – Rajkumar Hirani
There was only one director in the race as PK broke records in most of the circuits and the film was not steam-rolled by the main lead through initial business but took a couple of days to get going as the content found huge appreciation especially amongst the family audiences.
Producer – Sajid Nadiadwala
Kick, 2 States and Heropanti the producer had a dream run in 2014. In this time of corporate studios ruling the roost its very rare that an independent producer has such a run. Even a film like Highway put up an okay number which was too the producers credit as it had no star power but managed to do okay business in week one possibly due to marketing but crashed thereafter due to content. Heropanti was probably the biggest surprise hit of the year as it hit 50 crore nett.
Distributor / Studio – UTV
It was a bad time for distributors but UTV who was the dominant force in 2013 managed to come out on top again but not with the sort of advantage they had in 2013. The two biggest hits of the year PK and Kick were distributed by UTV as well as other hit films like 2 States and Heropanti while Haider and Highway also managed to keep away from the flop list but only just.
Have BOI changed Jai Ho’s release date to 2013? Also it depends on how one measures star power- the star is responsible for the opening weekend, after that it’s up to the movie’s merits.
BOI can keep living in their fantasy universe..! LOL they never expected PK to do this much. Even after release they said 3I was the standard and what not. Now they’re coming up with all sorts of criteria (including that ‘adjusted initial’ thing the other day) to make the case against Aamir. As always it’s not the agenda that bothers me as much as the sheer idiocy. One should do these things with a little more intelligence.
“..There was only one director in the race as PK broke records in most of the circuits and the film was not steam-rolled by the main lead through initial business but took a couple of days…”
As I had mentioned last week, the excuses to deny Aamir Khan will start once the success of PK is confirmed. Ridiculous is too small a word for such blatant bias.
This sorta commentary ties with their assumption that Aamir can be replaced by anyone else in every movie of his. They could “perhaps” have made a case for any other movie, but for PK this is just pure nonsense. Aamir is PK, period. It would be sheer delusion for them to expect Sallu to match this level of acting. And SRK just would not have taken the pain to master this role. This is sheer idiocy on the part of BOI. Peekay ho gaya hai BOI.
3rd week records:
Ghajini, 3 Idiots and PK expected
4th and 5th week records:
3 Idiots
The only competition has been opening day or opening weekend or opening week. No other stars films has done anything noteworthy beyond week 2. CE held some total record for a few months like RNBDJ only to be significantly beaten.
BOI can say what they want, but numbers are overwhelming in favour of Aamir. Add to that that his films this side of the decade are way ahead of his competition I think it’s a silly a and desperate stance.
He announces his films on Xmas and people delay there films. Shahid releases his film against Hrithik or Ajay against SRK. The only competition is Salman…And possibly Salman in a significant film like a Barjatya can challenge, but that’s a once in a decade event. Otherwise numbers are pretty Crystal clear.
thought PK was still the 2nd biggest non holiday opener after D3 never expected a D3 kind of start here since PK was more of a multiplex film also Kick didn’t have any extraordinary start and even that sunday jump wasnt big and i see how they ignored jai ho opening numbers incredibly shameless from BOI .
More than the film, it is the controversy that is making more news. Pro and anti. Akhilesh Yadav and Nitish Kumar are filling the vacuum and now it has become a full fledged war between seculars and their antagonists. The irony is the unwanted politicisation.
Down south, there are so many films which caricature our gods and goddesses without rising any protests.
Both BOI and Indicine have said that SRK-Rohit Shetty’s film may release Xmas 2015. If so this has to be a direct effect of PK, as SRK knows neither FAN nor Raees would get him big numbers hence he’s pushing back Raees. But if SLB doesn’t move BM from Xmas then it’s useless to have the Rohit Shetty film release then. Might as well have Raees release
Without good content, any holiday date is inconsequential. So instead of the Diwali Puja excuse, we will get to hear the Xmas Eve Chuch celebrations excuse. SK/SRK keep scratching their heads, but are never able to catch up to Aamir precisely because they do not invest the time/energy/effort in the script or the character.
BOI number is 276cr. I love how consistently close the numbers have been for PK. Maybe the box office transparency is finally a turning the tide… or maybe not. BOI are suggesting it may hit 300cr by Monday with an outside chance on Sunday. They are saying 3rd Friday has seen a strong start. This is great for a middle of the pack actor like Aamir Khan! Think I’ll have to revise my 320cr prediction I made a week ago.
SATYAMSHOT 
December 26, 2014 at 6:02 AM
Ugly Very Dull Opening PK Dominates
Friday 26 December 2014 13.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Ugly opened to very poor collections all over of around 5% and faces an uphill struggle at the box office. The film will probably add to the huge list of these similar type of films aimed at the metro multiplex crowd but the audience does just not come, The opening of Lingaa which is dubbed from a Tamil film was better than Ugly
PK will dominate the box office this next and next week. The film is behaving like a new release with 35-40% collections in the morning shows of its 8th day. The film will do record business in the second week.
The second week record stands at 64.50 crore nett set by Dhoom 3 last year and the question will be how much can PK beat that figure by.
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December 26, 2014 at 6:55 AM
the timing of ugly couldn’t have been more suicidal!
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December 26, 2014 at 11:44 AM
Golf Clap, ab shayad Kashyap ( and his snobbish fans )kee bloated sense of self Importance neechey aa jaaye…bhak saala !!
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December 26, 2014 at 8:32 AM
USA + Canada Reported Screens – #PK day 7- $1037K and Total is $6.14million
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December 26, 2014 at 8:36 AM
Ghajini was the turning point for Aamir even in this sense. That year the film made more than RNBDJ in the US. Given the genres of the two films, given SRK’s long history, especially in the US, it was quite an achievement. The rest is once again history. But I’ll add yet again here that even as early as 2006 with the RDB/Fanaa double things were fairly clearly as to how well he was doing.
In Indian meanwhile depending on how strong week 2 is it could be doing a lot more than 300.
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December 26, 2014 at 9:09 AM
Satyam: When are you gong to be doing that much-promised piece on “pk”? And in case they release Ugly” at your end, please do try and catch it, it’s worth it.
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December 26, 2014 at 10:08 AM
I agree with Saurabh. But for god’s sake (pun intended) do not ignore the influence of OMG which some of the hard core fans like Jayshah attempted. I mean ignoring OMG (esp in PK’s 2nd half and thats where the film slides in many aspects) is same as talking about Ghajini without mentioning how great Suryaa was (in terms of breaking free and not holding back key emotions) in the original.
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December 26, 2014 at 11:54 AM
Busy with some stuff at my end but will definitely do it.. Ugly won’t be playing anywhere near me! On a different note I finally caught up with Grand Budapest Hotel and found it brilliant. Magnificently shot too.
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December 26, 2014 at 8:34 AM
Maharashtra to Investigate Why Actor Sanjay Dutt Keeps Leaving Jail
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December 26, 2014 at 10:23 AM
with due respect and love for sanju – this investigation is fair enough – why should he be left loose like this???
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December 26, 2014 at 11:30 AM
I am taken aback.
Sanjay Dutt in Yerwada jail can be the title of next Hirani film.
Kabhi jail, kabhi ghar wapas.
Kabhi gam, Kabhi Khushi.
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December 26, 2014 at 10:00 AM
Saw PK yesterday. Good film. Could have been better though. Aamir was brilliant till the last scene when Ranbir actually showed better way to play alien and made Aamir look really old.
However plusses of PK are many. So found it to be a good one time watch.
I had similar feeling when i watched Hrithik’s Agneepath. While i had liked the new one, it reminded me how good Amitabh’s Agneepath was.
Ditto with PK. It just showed how well and complete in its storytelling Oh My God was. Good PK. Great OMG.
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December 26, 2014 at 10:12 AM
Really? I thought Ranbir was clearly not in the skin of the role yet. Naturally, since Aamir had ‘lived’ the character for far too long. To me at least Ranbir looked only adequate. About Aamir looking old, he maybe a senior alien. The film doesn’t make a reference to his age.
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December 26, 2014 at 10:35 AM
here’s a list of absurd excuses to downplay PK
1. it’s good, but not as good as OMG. (no one’s telling that the film made a fraction of what PK has made, and even its critical reception was far from satisfactory)
2. OMG didn’t get any 3 star reviews because it was an Akshay Kumar film. (Well, no offence to Akki, but considering how low the bar is for his movies, I think critics would have instantly spotted it, had the film been a classic.)
Personally, I didn’t see any similarity between the movies apart from their basic theme of religion. I think the treatment for both films are completely different. PK is more funny and satirical. OMG – more stagey and direct (not my preference).
3. It’s the weakest of Hirani films (really? I heard this for Lago Raho and 3 Idiots. Each is supposedly weaker than the earlier. But each keeps becoming a bigger hit. Hirani should probably continue to make weaker films. Jokes aside, I agree Munnabhai MBBS was clearly the best film of the four, but I think a case can be made for the other 3 films being better than the others.
4. And now this takes the cake. Aamir’s performance was good, until Ranbir showed up and showed how how to play the part. Now if that is not ingenuous, I don’t know what is.
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December 26, 2014 at 10:44 AM
LOL you took the words out of mouth. Naveens review reeks of sour grapes. The man proclaimed on day 1 and day 2 the film is a flop. And this review is more ‘I was wrong’…’but I cannot submit myself to praising this film because it’s an admission of liking it…so let’s say a couple of nice things and then say Ranbir in a 20 second shot exceeded everything Aamir did’ Lol. Disingenous is about right.
The box office is hardly the parameter, but critically the film has been loved. If anything, it’s breathed life into OMG! It’s given visibility to it. And it’s found many more fans for that film in this week than ever before!!!
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December 26, 2014 at 11:00 AM
Yes, meant disingenuous there. Satyam how do I edit comments?
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December 26, 2014 at 11:41 AM
I don’t understand the need for downplaying another film just because you are a fan of this.
I have seen PK..its a very good film and a class act by Aamir. I admire that Hirani made a film on this topic and was able to make it so entertaining…But I find your hypocrisy shameful that just because people found OMG better than PK- you are trying to count reasons for your star’s product is superior.
Hypocrisy # 1) ” (no one’s telling that the film made a fraction of what PK has made, and even its critical reception was far from satisfactory)” — where’s this reasoning about collections when a Bodyguard or a Kick makes money but a Talaash doesn’t- NO no no– at that time the judgement is made about public that – they like trashy cinema and that the rickshawalas made it a hit…and critical acclaim ..really? From The Masands that gave a OMG a 2 on 5 and then goes on to say that PK has what OMG already covered??? Critics who give a drag tale JTHJ a 3 or 4 on 5. Which critical acclaim are you actually talking about?
Hypocrisy # 2) “OMG didn’t get any 3 star reviews because it was an Akshay Kumar film. (Well, no offence to Akki, but considering how low the bar is for his movies, I think critics would have instantly spotted it, had the film been a classic.)”
Just like Critics spotted Sholay when it released to be a classic? Just like critics spotted Lagaan? and just like the critics who claim DDLJ is actually a classic?
Why are these critics so important- just because they write gobly goop non sense reviews for some lame newspaper or blog?
FYI OMG did win a national award for its screenplay.
Again- I have nothing against PK. Its a very good film and much more entertaining than OMG. But I find the hypocrisy of you and other fanboys/girls despicable.
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December 26, 2014 at 12:04 PM
Are we downplaying another film? Or PK is being downplayed using dumb excuses? Ranbir better than Aamir in PK? That’s the level of absurdity this has reached. And pray who decides that OMG is better than PK? On what count? Because it doesn’t hold on any parameter. That’s why I cited box-office and critical reception. No one’s talking Dhoom 3 here. That would be hypocrisy. As for national award, that counts for something, but didn’t Chillar Party win something similar too?
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December 26, 2014 at 12:08 PM
As for national award, wait and watch, PK will win a national award and every other one too. Now, if I ask you how many awards OMG won in total and whether we should compare it with what PK will end up winning, you will say I am being a hypocrite.
It’s a no win situation. I’m questioning your basis for comparing PK with another film and calling that one superior. Ok, so apparently it was a bolder, all-out-there film. But what makes that better for those who enjoy more subtle, refined humour?
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December 26, 2014 at 12:16 PM
Yes Its definitely relative, as to who enjoys what. I said it too, that PK is a more entertaining film than OMG (the first half mainly) but with respect to subject matter , I find OMG a much more superior film. My point is not to debate which one’s a better film (because that’ll be relative to different audience) but to the point- that just because this film stars aamir and you are a fan, so you are trying to downplay OMG to show this one better- this is exactly what you were against in the beginning of the discussion where you stated that PK was being downplayed using dumb excuses…Aren’t you making dumb excuses now?
P.S. Chillar party did win the national award for Best children’s film and deservedly so.
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December 26, 2014 at 12:54 PM
Sandhyai, i think Paapas echoed my sentiments in his reply. Sometimes Jayshah and you should learn to take feedback. I mean Jayshah is a guy who will paint an opinion on someone as quickly as a crow shits. Problem with him is that he thereby loses his balance to analyze unbiasedly.
I hope you are the more Aamir than him.
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December 26, 2014 at 1:33 PM
Not someone…just characters like you. It is YOU who keeps calling my name…not ME calling yours.
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December 26, 2014 at 1:04 PM
My take on PK Volume II :
The best thing about PK was Aamir speaking in Bhojpuri. I was in split when Aamir gave his first dialog. I am sure none expected Aamir to speak Bhojpuri so convincingly. IMO, this was the “Turup ka Ekka” of the movie. Such was the charm of the language that after a point i was wondering why Hindi or Punjabi or Rajasthani, uttered by other actors in the film don’t match the panache of Bhojpuri.
Just like Deepika’s Tamil hindi in Chennai Express, Aamir’s Hindiised Bhojpuri simply bowled me over. Bhojpuri has an amazing touch of innocence and sometime during the movie I thought Anushka might actually fall for him later because Bhojpuri innocence by Aamir was superior to Urdu charms of Sushant. Well Done Aamir for bringing Bhojpuri back to mainstream cinema and that too with élan.
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December 26, 2014 at 1:26 PM
Ki turup ka ghulam – in 28!
If love is based on language then whole world would be speaking Bhijpuri!
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December 26, 2014 at 10:36 PM
@ Naveen.Aamir nailed the alien character and he should be credited for that even if one is not his fan. An alien need not look unearthly, just slightly different in some way, so PK is an unblinking alien who doesn’t speak initially, and then learns to, in his fashion. Then through the film he simply becomes more human though he mostly maintains his unblinking gaze. Eyes are needed to express emotions and it is a tough job to do so with an unblinking look. In many scenes. I found Aamir hilarious and wacky, getting it just right. Take the scene where he is spotted by Anushka on a metro platform, looking absolutely goofy and a bit of a weirdo. No wonder reporter Anushka considers him a possible story.
And there was that scene outside a temple, when PK opens his briefcase and takes out a lock for his chappals. The quiet matter of fact manner in which he did it– sidesplittingly funny. And Aamir scored in the emotional scenes too , especially in his search for God. His Bhojpuri was pretty good too. I’ ve lived in Bihar and come across a bit of bhojpuri, amongst vegetable – sellers and the like.
And as for that epilogue — Ranbir Kapoor was a pleasant dishy surprise, but once again, Aamir’s four point explanation about earthlings — it was seriously funny, truths delivered deadpan….we were laughing about this as we left the theatre.
Aamir as an older alien; so bloody what? What sort of an ageist society is this where anybody above 40 years is considered persona non- grata? In fact Hirani took care of the age angle, gave Anushka a young handsome boyfriend. Aamir with his short height and stick out ears( made to stick out even more) — he has played his negatives to his advantage. As an Aamir supporter, I am proud of his performance in PK. Anybody interested should read his interview given to India Today, where he talks about mentally conditioning himself to feel like an alien, without any idea about the world. Thumbs up Aamir.
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December 27, 2014 at 12:51 AM
Well said LS. I liked that line aamir playing his disadvantages. Anushka towered over him and his ears stood out in all its glory and it looked cute. I would have preferred Kareena over anushka.
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December 27, 2014 at 12:57 AM
vidya would have been better but anushka was live-wire….full credit to her
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December 26, 2014 at 10:14 AM
I guess beating SRK and Salman at their own game has become a cakewalk for Aamir. He does a film, and people show up.
SRK can self-proclaim and continue raising his arms and live in a bubble.
Salman can flex his mucles and continue making illogical, unfunny and ridiculous comments to media.
Aamir does quality and gets handsomely rewarded.
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December 26, 2014 at 10:17 AM
so just when these jokers started celebrating when their films inched past 3 idiots’ total 5 years in the running, Aamir does a Dhoom 3 (a bad film though) and beats the 250 cr mark
Now with PK, the 300 crore bar seems to be broken.
How hard is it to come up with half-decent plots? I mean, for all its inadequacies and flaws, PK is still better than all SRK films made in the same period. And lets not even talk about Salman in that respect
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December 26, 2014 at 11:34 AM
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/aamir-khan-pk-rajkumar-hirani-anti-hindu-sanjay-dutt-anushka-sharma-boman-irani/1/408910.html
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December 26, 2014 at 12:13 PM
It is time to gloat when one’s prediction are correct. Recall due to spate of flops in the last several weeks everybody was down on PK. It was I who predicted big things for PK with the biggest one 100 crore second still to come. I was chided by many delusional SRK and SK fans. To be honest SRK has given a great movie but that was 7 years ago. Can not recall when did SK gave a good movie.
I have watched several hundred Hindi movies and PK is in top 5. People who are comparing to past movies do not have a grasp of time. Imagine watching a movie like sholay this day for first time and imagine watching it for first time in 1975. The magnitude of likeness would be tenfold. I can guarantee to you if you watched 3idiots and PK were release in consecutive weeks most people will like PK more and find 3 idiots a little dated. Think of this movie phenomenon as viewer inflation. So if you account for that PK and 3 idiots are about as good.
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December 26, 2014 at 12:44 PM
so true – i can not sit through 3i any more but i loved it when it got released – i watched twice in theatre but third time – i walked out in the interval………….having said that – aamir khan is the king of BO – no if and no but – and no one in near future has the capacity to break these records except ranbir after 5 or 10 year….
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December 26, 2014 at 12:46 PM
Adding to the concept of the previous post. Consider all the biggies of last two years: D3 K3 HNY Kick BB CE YJHD etc
Now take the delta entertainment of this movies vs PK
Now go back to 2009 and take the delta entertainment of those movies vs 3 idiots
The result is about the the same Q.E.D.
Movies and the viewership evolve with time. Our experience and expectation in movie trajectory change with time.
Therefore it becomes harder and harder to exceed our absolute expectations thus we should appreciate a movie relative to its contemporaries.
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December 26, 2014 at 12:51 PM
My take on PK Volume II :
The best thing about PK was Aamir speaking in Bhojpuri. I was in split when Aamir gives his first dialog. I am sure none expected Aamir to speak Bhojpuri so convincingly. IMO, this was the “Turup ka Ekka” of the movie. Such was the charm of the language that after a point i was wondering why Hindi or Punjabi or Rajasthani, uttered by other actors in the film don’t match the panache of Bhojpuri.
Just like Deepika’s Tamil hindi in Chennai Express, Aamir’s Hindiised Bhojpuri simply bowled me over. Bhojpuri has an amazing touch of innocence that I thought Anushka might actually fall for him later.
Well Done Aamir for bringing Bhojpuri back to mainstream cinema.
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December 26, 2014 at 1:53 PM
Munnabhai MBBS was Ikka .. Lage Raho was Again Ikka .. Three Idiots was fir se Ikka .. But PK ?? No .. Its a good movie, one of best of 2014 along with Holiday .. that’s it.
Three things i can give on writing .. 1. PK is Hiran’s weakest movie 2. OMG was brilliant movie in comparison 3. Hirani exhausted his ideas .. he is on repetitive mode.
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December 26, 2014 at 3:20 PM
100% Agreed.
PK was good movie, that’s about it. It was good because of its good intention. So, one can never say anything else than calling good. From artistic point of view, it was pretty ordinary or even below average cinema. Those who have been watching Hirani’s work, they will find it formulaic and predictable if being honest.
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December 26, 2014 at 5:44 PM
Since the comments are by Yakuza.. the usuals like rajen1 and similar ilk are quiet. If same comments made by someone else.. everyone will start their boring, redundant comments which doesn’t make any sense.
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December 26, 2014 at 8:52 PM
OMG also did not touch many important things other than Godmen. Frankly what is the difference between god and Godmen? Nobody has guts to question why huge Ganpati and Durga are immersed polluting waters? Why animals are sacrificed in the name of god? Godmen are only part of the problem and they are just like politicians exploiting the weaknesses of people. I am bored by godmen portrayals.
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December 26, 2014 at 9:00 PM
This is where PK’s brilliance lies. It is mainly about an alien, not about godmen. Godmen are not treated like terrorists in PK but they are treated like politicans. Hirani could have repeated Kareena and his taking anushka as heroine is a bad decision. Ranbir Kapoor was unnecessary and he remained me of towel dropping fellow from his first movie. Paresh Rawal was offensive while PK was gentle but sharp. Hirani’s weakest movie is liked and appreciated. That speaks volumes.
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December 26, 2014 at 9:59 PM
Talaash was castigated because of Kahaani. Dhoom 3 was castigated because of earlier versions. Now its PK’s turn to take unfair criticism. Dhoom 3 was brilliant but Nolan took the credit for it.
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December 26, 2014 at 6:06 PM
PK is the best 100 crore+ movie post 3 idiots period. Those who are denigrating this movie will have mud on there face as it scales the 300/100/600 mountain. It will swipe the awards season inspite of the Lead Protogonist not attending any.
It is even better than a Hollywood movie of similar underlyings made by the genius Nolan himself: Interstellar
Hiranii is anything but not innovative.
Pani ka Pani hoga when it collects 10 crore on third Friday.
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December 26, 2014 at 6:15 PM
I watched PK with average expectations.
But, was pleasantly surprised big time.
Hirani is a master of his craft
More later.
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December 26, 2014 at 7:26 PM
13 crore on second Fri as per BOI
And it talks of 50 crore second weekend.
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December 27, 2014 at 1:33 AM
“I watched PK with average expectations”
This is really funny.. supporting blindly PK without even seeing it.. and now when the movie is huge hit.. posts something as..went in with “average expectations” Just to justify that it surpassed the expecations… LMAO
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December 27, 2014 at 3:47 AM
Actually he is poking fun at you and others, but such humour is wasted on you.
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December 26, 2014 at 7:44 PM
PK Set To Breach Important Benchmark
Friday 26 December 2014 23.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
PK is set to breach an important benchmark and it is this benchmark which makes 300 crore nett possible. There has always been talk of the 300 crore nett grosser over the last 2-3 years but despite the talk by midweek you knew it was not possible as the trend meant this benchmark will not be achieved.
The key benchmark is a 100 crore nett plus total after the first week. We have not reached the stage where a 200 crore nett first week is achievable (average of 28.50 crore nett per day) so you know that a 300 crore nett is not going to happen unless it can go well over 100 crore nett after the first week.
The only film to achieve 100 crore nett after the first week was 3 Idiots but it was at a time when the releases were not as wide and sustaining power was a bit longer. After that teh closest to a 100 crore nett total after week one has been Dhoom 3 with 87 crore nett but that’s not enough for a 300 crore nett finish.
Now for the first time since 3 Idiots a film is about to go above 100 crore nett after week one which means the 300 crore nett figure a possibility. In fact PK is likely to do more than what 3 Idiots did after week one meaning the film should easily go over 300 crore nett. As just two films have (will) achieved this benchmark and that too from the same director it means that the 300 crore nett figure is out of range unless most until we get to the stage where we can average 30 crore nett plus a day in the first week and get 210 crore nett plus total on the board.
This should be regular possibility for the event films in a couple of years but of course with the help of holidays.
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December 26, 2014 at 7:46 PM
PK Chances Of 50 Crore Second Weekend – Day Eight Rock Steady
Saturday 27 December 2014 05.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
PK may set a new benchmark of a 50 crore nett second weekend which would be a first and to put this number into perspective is that only two films have crossed 50 crore nett in the whole second week.
The film has grossed a huge 13 crore nett as per early estimates on its eight day and this gives it a shot of getting 50 crore nett in its second weekend. The film did not have that huge start with only South India being up to expectations on day one but from Sunday when the family audiences came the film has broken records everywhere.The fall from day one is likely to be around 50%.
The film is on a dream run now and on course to set records in most circuits including Mumbai where 3 Idiots still holds the all time record. A few of the smaller circuits do not look like hitting record levels at the moment but if it goes on a run into week four and week five then record totals could happen everywhere.
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December 26, 2014 at 8:17 PM
seems like 300cr is a lock…im totally making a guess that it will end up around 320cr which just would be…to quote nahta and adarsh…mind boggling…spectacular..stupendous…supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!!
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December 26, 2014 at 8:35 PM
If you use Rajesh Roshan math (80 + 30 + 10 = 240) , it might even get to 400 crores.
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December 26, 2014 at 8:36 PM
Rakesh Roshan
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December 26, 2014 at 8:43 PM
ah.. that’s why Apex keeps talking about a 400 crore minimum…!
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December 27, 2014 at 5:49 AM
This will reach 325 crores for sure. The movie has been accepted big time. It didn’t start off greatly but the content was excellent. There is no stopping this one till Tevar releases. This is firstly a major triumph for Hirani and secondly for Aamir as his acting has been appreciated all around big time. It also goes to show that content has been lacking in almost all our big star driven films. Almost every star driven film can clock big numbers if they pay minimum attention to the script. Hirani keeps the script on a pedestal that’s why he is able to do a 3 Idiots all over again.
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December 27, 2014 at 6:18 AM
Been saying this for ages. The market has always been, the ‘trending’ was always possible but all we were hearing was market capacity, front loaded business is how it is today etc. PK second weekend will drop less than 50% vs first weekend. A good film does this. The audiences have been hypnotized into believing the big films in the last few years were doing something credible. And loads of fan boy bbloggers too.
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December 27, 2014 at 6:37 AM
Also watching a film in a full theatre is a welcome experience. Imagine football stadiums that were made too big and eventually half capacity. The wide releases are cashing in but that is partly due to knowing the kind of product one has made.
The race to have the widest release is a dumb one and worse is having empty theatres. A tighter release and packed theatres is far more efficient and creates a better experience. Less is always more.
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December 27, 2014 at 8:26 AM
absolutely.. these things keep happening and yet the other side also keeps saying the same thing. Aamir or Hirani aren’t using magic wands. They’re (I suppose shockingly) trying to make good films! 300 ought to be possible for a lot more films. And again it isn’t rocket science. Given the films that are made in most cases one would be shocked if these films actually did more than an initial or sustained in any serious way.
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December 26, 2014 at 8:49 PM
Saw PK this morning. Perfectly diverting, sometimes more than this, but to be honest I found it to be the least memorable or least immediately lovable of Hirani’s films. I don’t think he’s made a bad film or anything (don’t think he’s got one in him) but I probably agree with Rangan more than anyone else here. Speaking for myself Haider is probably going to keep its place as my favorite Hindi film of the year. And I don’t bring that movie up simply because it’s one of the very few titles I’ve seen in addition to this one this year but because some of the controversy surrounding that film is the kind of thing that PK never really risks falling into because it engages with its subject matter in such a whimsical and careful manner. That sounds like I’m criticizing Hirani for not being more insensitive of course but what I really mean is that I think where Haider represented a more coherent and rare critique of an establishment and an audience that makes up the same, PK seems only interested in repackaging harmless accepted wisdom(s) we’ve heard everywhere ad nauseum in the garb of subversive satire. This is entertaining, sure, but it’s nowhere near profound. I suppose Hirani has been somewhat guilty of this elsewhere but this film seems least sly in how it goes about balancing things out. More of a narrative arc here would have helped, I think, not to mention a bit more sci-fi in a film that’s about an alien! I’ll admit that this last bit is more of a personal quibble – I get it – the alien is the ultimate outsider, that’s why he’ s being used here – but for a big budget mainstream film, why not use a fantastical conceit to one’s advantage in more interesting, cinematic ways? Sans this what we often have is comedy that’s hit or miss and always, for this viewer, cast under the shadow of the old sitcom “3rd Rock From the Sun.”
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December 26, 2014 at 9:23 PM
“PK seems only interested in repackaging harmless accepted wisdom(s) we’ve heard everywhere ad nauseum in the garb of subversive satire”
very well put GF – however this is precisely RH wanted to do instead of offering some serious-talk-solution – just throw the question in the air in a satirical form mixed with lot of entertainment quotience – and he has succeeded in doing that big time – though the film needed more sequence involving PK and his faculty of knowing about people holding their hands……
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December 26, 2014 at 10:12 PM
Something matching.. Haider is my fav film of the year too… and PK most disappointing as far as the expectations. To make it clear, I had very high expectations from Haider as well and went in FDFS for that movie and came out so much with newer Shahid and Vishal’s picturesque capture of the movie besides the depth and all of the Hamlet.
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December 26, 2014 at 10:14 PM
So, Master, Gox, Sanjana, Yakuza, GF.. all saw something in PK which doesn’t scream masterpiece. Also we didn’t cry at scenes where Idea couldn’t control his tears. Maybe, we are from PK’s planet as well 🙂
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December 27, 2014 at 12:31 AM
One cannot paint all who don’t find PK to be as good as they wanted it to be with the same brush.
The sincerity and honesty of views and the lack of both is
Very apparent.
Here in lies the root of the issue .
It is not about liking or disliking the movie but I guess it’s a concept that is hard for you to grasp .
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December 27, 2014 at 1:07 AM
Lol, funny. Go back and read my reaction.. I wrote it before any reviews out anywhere.
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December 27, 2014 at 4:13 AM
The last bit is interesting point. You could have had PK ‘report’ back to his planet or show that planet. Could have easily been funny sequences.
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December 27, 2014 at 9:38 AM
When that so called whimsical and careful manner succeed to convey and make think to all (except U, Rangan and few others..there is always some exceptions) then it’s time to change the definition of those words and time to not rely on so called experts.
“Repackaged harmless accepted wisdom” surely a creative word or words but words are not the thing.
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December 27, 2014 at 11:07 AM
This is an excellent comment GF.. haven’t seen Haider yet.. on PK I will have some thoughts in a post eventually.. don’t disagree with what you’re saying though I probably enjoyed it more than you.
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December 26, 2014 at 10:02 PM
http://www.dawn.com/news/1152890/pk-the-most-important-film-to-watch-in-2014
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December 27, 2014 at 12:14 AM
Saw Ugly, what a film! Anurag doesn’t disappoint..such a simple plot and then it turns into such a taut thriller where you can’t blink for a second and 2 hours just fly. Its a great film to showcase a director’s talent to narrate the film in such a complicated manner in believable characters. Every character is well defined and everyone is gray and you wouldn’t know whom to trust by the end. But its a must watch film. Now I’m supreme confident of Bombay Velvet if Anurag is in the same form of GOW1&2 and Ugly.
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December 27, 2014 at 1:24 AM
Q)Why do we go to the movies:
A) to be entertained
Q) why do we see a movie again
A) to make it non-causal i.e. To enjoy something we did not notice the first time due to lack of what happens later.
Q) What makes a movie memorable
A) scene we remember for life and sometimes reenact in our dreams.
PK is 3/3 in these questions. The pseudo intellectualls will go ga over boring affairs such as Haider and Lunchbox. But thankfully the majority will rule in and gem like PK will rise to the top.
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December 27, 2014 at 1:29 AM
I think you copied that commandments from Salman’s fan club! 🙂
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December 27, 2014 at 10:35 AM
PK is a very good movie, no doubt about that. That is why it is being Iiked so much and all across. Aamir is in terrific form & Hirani is a brilliant story teller.
But in my opinion the comparisons with Haider do not hold. PK is an honest effort to make an entertaining movie with a strong mesage.
Haider is a modern classic. It is a ruthlessly dark endeavor to bring to life an age old classic in the modern times. It stays true to itself & at no point deviates from the core premise to make the movie entertaining.
The cinematic liberties taken and pulled of with elan in haider are noteworthy.
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December 27, 2014 at 3:18 PM
From a message perspective, PK is the anti-Haider. PK undoes whatever premise Bashar Peer and Bharadwaj had while making Haider. PK proves that India is indeed secular, where a Muslim actor gets to star in a movie largely critiquing the Hindu religion, and said movie goes on to become the biggest blockbuster ever. So Haider shud indeed scratch his head and wonder why he chose to separate from India. Especially, precisely at the moment when the Head Maulvi of Lal Masjid in Islamabad, situated steps away from the official govt infrastructure, justifies the massacre of 130 schoolkids by calling it the wrath of God on their Govt.
PK proves to Kashmiris that HIndus are indeed tolerant, and they ought to step away from the paranoia of the Hindu-bogeyman out to destroy the Kashmiriyat from their valley.
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December 27, 2014 at 1:30 AM
Several distributors expecting 300cr:
http://www.boxofficeindia.co.in/pk-enjoying-fabulous-run-all-set-to-open-300-cr-club/
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December 27, 2014 at 2:21 AM
Just watch this 5 mins of ‘Gandhigiri Get Well Soon’ concept and compare the similar 5 mins of ‘Wrong Number’ concept to know what is entertaining and what is not!
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December 27, 2014 at 2:26 AM
To add, even Baradwaj mentioned this time the script and situations looks to be following a pattern and appears as formula. In LRM – Get Well Soon concept, here it is Wrong number. In LRM, leading lady is RJ and Munna uses Radio to spread his word. In PK, leading lady is TV journo and PK uses TV to spread his word. The whole manglik scene in LRM and same Saurabh Shukla is much easier to watch, here the whole ‘wrong number’ scenes and situations are so unfunny.
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December 27, 2014 at 2:29 AM
both are entertaining to me and why not? it is the kind of specs u wear – the world will shot that color – PK is a great film and could have been greater but thats it!
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December 27, 2014 at 2:43 AM
Well, if you get entertained, good for you. I’ve seen some people who get highly entertained by Sajid Khan’s movies as well(he had hatrick of hits). Its just personal choice.
But in regards to PK, if you do it for the first time, its called master work.. if you repeat it as formula, it might be entertaining but it won’t be the same master work.
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December 27, 2014 at 2:56 AM
Most directors rehash their tropes, nothing surprising about that fact. It is the situations/performances that create the impact.
However mediocre the script might be, you cannot ignore the performance of Aamir Khan. Most viewers came back with the feeling of having watched the performance of a lifetime. The combination of such a performance with the script is what has made PK a great movie, and a repeat watch. While you continually try to weed out the demerits of this movie (which you have every right to do), people are being goaded to go watch this movie in the cinema before the run ends. People want paisa-vasooli at the theatre, and generally tend to disregard such minor irritants. The BO #s are testament to the positive holistic experience felt by the audience.
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December 27, 2014 at 8:32 AM
http://www.koimoi.com/bollywood-popular/pk-yet-another-paisa-wasool-movie-by-aamir-khan/
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December 27, 2014 at 9:16 AM
Anurag Kashyap lights a cigarette as we sit down for the interview.
Taking quick drags, he is engrossed in checking the response to Ugly’s trailer on his iPad.
“Achha response hai (the response is good),” he says, looking up.
The cigarette, so ordinary otherwise, makes a statement in this setting.
After all here is the filmmaker who delayed the release of his film Ugly by almost a year because he didn’t want to carry the mandatory disclaimer during the smoking scenes in his film.
Kashyap is still fighting that war in court, but he has decided to concede this one battle.
As Ugly hits the screens, he tells Sonil Dedhia/Rediff.com why.
Ugly releases a week after PK. Is this the right time to release the film?
We are under no illusion that we are going to have a houseful audience for our film.
Even if five to ten per cent of people from every screening of PK come to watch Ugly, the film will make a profit. And if three to four per cent come, we will break even.
The law of nature is such that small fish that want to survive in dangerous waters, stick around a massive blue whale thereby saving themselves from shark attacks.
PK is the blue whale and we are the small fish (smiles).
A review about Ugly in the Hollywood Reporter said that your previous film, Gangs Of Wasseypur, set the bar very high and it will be difficult to match it. Do you feel the pressure?
The Hollywood Reporter review of Ugly came out after the screening of the film at the Cannes Film Festival, which had very bad subtitles because of which they got the film wrong.
The film couldn’t communicate its real story, but barring that review and a couple more, reviews about Ugly have been favourable.
I don’t feel the pressure to deliver. It is because of Gangs Of Wasseypur that I was able to make Ugly and my next film Bombay Velvet.
You fought against carrying an anti-smoking disclaimer in in Ugly. Hollywood director Woody Allen refused to release Blue Jasmine on similar grounds…
(Interrupts) More power to him (smiles).
My question is, isn’t it more important that your film reaches the audience rather than protesting against one disclaimer which says ‘Smoking is injurious to health’?
No, I think that one disclaimer kills the entire film.
I will not watch Ugly on the big screen because of that disclaimer. I feel insulted and cheated. In fact I feel insulted when I see any films in theatres.
I don’t know why filmmakers don’t love their films so much that they don’t come together and fight the battle that I am fighting.
It is so unreasonable and unfair. The government, which wants these disclaimers to be put up in our films, should ban the alcohol and tobacco making companies. Waha se paisa milta hai… revenue aata hai toh who ban nahi karenge (That’s where the money comes from, where the revenue comes from, so they won’t ban the product).
The government is impotent against the tobacco lobby and they don’t have any power to take action against them. So why do filmmakers carry the pain of everything?
Nowhere in the world will you see such disclaimers in films. I haven’t lost the battle. After the court case was deferred, a pending case in the Supreme Court filed by Mahesh Bhatt took longer than we thought.
My fight will continue but my movie will release because there is a producer who has put in his hard earned money. I can’t be so indulgent that I make him suffer because of my beliefs.
I don’t say smoking is good for health; it’s terrible. But at the same time, why should Anurag Kashyap bear the brunt, when it is not his responsibility.
Do you see a solution to this?
Kucch cheezon ka solution nahin hota (there is no solution for some things). If some influential people come together, we can still fight the battle.
But they will never get together. In Bollywood, we have three movie associations that already have lots of issues within themselves.
I feel we should let the health ministry, I&B ministry and the film industry sit together and acknowledge the problem.
Bombay Velvet is your first commercial film…
(Interrupts) I think Ugly is a commercial film too.
It’s the kind of a thriller that people in India are yet to see. I have always maintained that my films are not niche.
When I cast Ranbir (Kapoor) in Bombay Velvet it just helps me is expand its reach and scope. But I still maintain that the story should be the star.
There have been lots of reports regarding the delay of your next film Bombay Velvet.
My answer will come on May 15, 2015 (the day Bombay Velvet releases). I don’t need to waste time giving clarifications on why my film is delayed.
I am very confident of Bombay Velvet. And so is everyone associated with it.
Rishi Kapoor hasn’t seen the film and according to the reports, he is miffed that the film hasn’t turned out well.
Ranbir said he really enjoyed working on Bombay Velvet, which came in only one newspaper and no one read it.
The point is, negative stories make good copy.
There was a report in a daily newspaper that Kalki and I separated because of Huma (Qureshi). Immediately after the report came out, Kalki and I wrote a letter saying that Huma has nothing to do with our separation, but the newspaper refused to publish it because it would make their story look false.
We had to call the head of the newspaper and say that if you are not going to publish our letter we will give it to other publications. They got scared and published it.
Do you think people are questioning you because Bombay Velvet is your first big budget film with big actors like Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma?
Can you please tell me where all the negative stories are coming from?
Anushka, while promoting PK, has said good things about our film. As I said earlier, trade ko mere se bada problem hai (trade has a big problem with me).
The trade mentality is that if the film has a big star, it will make the so called Rs 100 crore at the box office.
The last big release (Action Jackson) didn’t work but the trade did not blame the filmmaker or the actors; instead, they said that audience ke mood swing ke wajah se movie nahi chali (laughs) (The movie didn’t do well because of the audience’s mood swings).
Aisa kabhi hota hai kya? (Does it really happen?) Trade is an unnecessary thing. Their whole survival depends on prediction.
The trade is wary of me.
They don’t like me (laughs). They think that a producer giving me money is a waste of time because I am a filmmaker whose films have never done well at the box office.
They don’t think giving big money to all these films that are bombing is a waste because wo film main stars hote hai (those films have big stars). All my films are content and non-star driven.
I had a lot of difficulty in convincing the producers that I wanted to make a film worth Rs 90 crore.
Earlier I had cast Ranveer Singh but the producers were ready to give me only Rs 60 crore. Later I decided to cast Ranbir as he is more saleable.
But did you not foresee this delay once you started making the film?
We didn’t foresee this delay as there a lot of firsts with Bombay Velvet. We are recreating an entire city from a bygone era in a very realistic way.
My film is not shot in a studio. We have actually recreated the entire city and are painstakingly working on every small detail.
We have finished only 60 per cent of the film. Whoever has seen it so far is in awe of it. They are telling me to release the film.
Aamir Khan in a recent interview said that the Rs 100 crore trend is very unfortunate.
He is correct. I totally agree with him.
Filmmakers nowadays take a star and forget the script.
Let me tell you something. No one in this industry could have made Bombay Velvet in less than Rs 300 crore. I made it possible in Rs 90 crore and I want the film to do business of at least Rs 150 crore. I am sure that Ranbir and Anushka will bring in the audience on the first weekend.
But it is the first Monday that will be crucial. People will go to watch the film only if the content is good.
But did you not foresee this delay once you started making the film?
We didn’t foresee this delay as there a lot of firsts with Bombay Velvet. We are recreating an entire city from a bygone era in a very realistic way.
My film is not shot in a studio. We have actually recreated the entire city and are painstakingly working on every small detail.
We have finished only 60 per cent of the film. Whoever has seen it so far is in awe of it. They are telling me to release the film.
Aamir Khan in a recent interview said that the Rs 100 crore trend is very unfortunate.
He is correct. I totally agree with him.
Filmmakers nowadays take a star and forget the script.
Let me tell you something. No one in this industry could have made Bombay Velvet in less than Rs 300 crore. I made it possible in Rs 90 crore and I want the film to do business of at least Rs 150 crore. I am sure that Ranbir and Anushka will bring in the audience on the first weekend.
But it is the first Monday that will be crucial. People will go to watch the film only if the content is good.
I met Kalki Koechlin and she said that her relationship with you cannot be summarised in one quote.
She is absolutely right. The media and this country can’t comprehend the relationship we shared. A woman like Kalki will never be understood.
I would like to preserve the sanctity of our relationship. I stayed with her for six years and not once did she ask me how much I earn.
Will you two work together in the future?
Yes, we will work together again. Kalki is the most amazing person I have ever met.
Ugly is the story about a missing daughter. Will you show the film to your daughter?
My daughter has just seen 10 minutes of the film. Beyond that I cannot show her. So she isn’t going to see the film unless she sees it without my knowledge (smiles).
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December 27, 2014 at 10:49 AM
Girish Johar
@girishjohar #Ugly collects much under 50lacs, as its Day 1 at the BO
ROFLOL!!
but the baap of Rakesh Roshan in spin will say-
“Achha response hai (the response is good),” he says, looking up.
……..and his unglee par gin jayen itney bhakts will go crazy !!
P.S.- The dubbed Linga made 85 lacs
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December 27, 2014 at 2:03 PM
Hilarious Stuffffff!!!
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December 27, 2014 at 10:53 AM
Two years after its release, OMG! Oh My God is in news again. Reason? Rajkumar Hirani’s PK was said to be too similar to Umesh Shukla’s OMG in terms of its core plotline. We reached out to the director himself and asked him if too found similarities between his OMG and Aamir’s PK. “I saw the film on Monday and really liked it. The whole premise is so interesting. Every performance is so good. The people involved with the film are such that I respect them and their work. I vouch for what they have to offer each time around. Jab inki film aati hai toh mann karta hai ki dekhenge, mazaa aayega,” says Umesh. When further prodded to share his views around both the films carrying the same premise surrounding God and religion, Umesh opened up further. “Aap mujhe ek baat batao, if you are making a love story then ‘I Love You’ toh bolenge hi naa! It has been said in thousands of films. When you pick the subject of God then similarities do come. Usse uski creativity ko challenge mat karo yaar. Bina baat ke hauwa mat banao,” says the mild mannered director, “If there is a film about smugglers then hero will kill them eventually. Agar do-teen film mein aisa hota hai toh uska issue thode hi bana doge aap?” – See more at: http://www.movietalkies.com/news/27049/omg-director-umesh-shukla—'don't-create-unnecessary-controversies-around-pk'#.VJvphQRSYmI.twitter
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December 27, 2014 at 11:02 AM
Anurag Kashyap
@anuragkashyap72 they told me no one will watch this film.. you proved them wrong.. thank you..
WTF ????? seriously !!!
LOL!! but hey no one will say anything here, you see it is very cool to hurl abuses at Rakesh Roshan because he is Hindi Medium type film maker. But Kashyap oh he is Korean/ Iranian kind of film maker man….he is God !!!
Bhak saala !!
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December 27, 2014 at 11:26 AM
omrocky786, relax, Ugly won’t eat away any PK audience, whats there to comment on such a small film’s box office? The movie is great but it won’t do any theatrical business in India, will get some satellite rights based on the critics appreciation and recover its investment.
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December 27, 2014 at 11:33 AM
I am totally relaxed dude….
the movie was released in December to claim the losses in 2014,
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December 27, 2014 at 1:42 PM
How to be successful in business? How ‘age’ is just a number in terms of success? How can one inspire and set examples for others to emulate? Expect to find the answers on CEO if on CNN-IBN’s upcoming series ‘CEO of Life’. CNN-IBN’s Business Editor Karma Paljor speaks to Walt Disney Company India Managing Director Siddharth Roy Kapur
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/520139/ceo-of-life-in-conversation-with-siddharth-roy-kapur.html
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December 28, 2014 at 3:45 AM
not just the business – when one is getting married for the 3rd time and gets a wife like vidya balan – he is a hell ot of successful there too 🙂
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December 28, 2014 at 1:50 AM
PK Set To Be First Film To Cross 10 Million In North America
Sunday 28 December 2014 10.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
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PK will become the first Hindi film to cross $10 million in US/Canada. It will be the first time that the $10 million marked is crossed in any overseas market. 3 Idiots was the first film to cross $5 million in US/Canada in 2010.
Last year Dhoom 3 set a record in US/Canada by grossing a little over $8 million and it looks like that PK may well beat that and become the highest grossing Hilm in US/Canada in just ten days. The collections for PK in week one are $6.2 million approx with Christmas Day showing a good spike in collections..
The final business of PK is US/Canada will go over $10 million and could even go to $12 million.
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December 28, 2014 at 1:55 AM
$12 million is absolutely extraordinary. The South Asian population in the US is about 1% of the total population or about 3 million people. If it makes $12 million, that’s about 1.2 million tickets sold. About a third of the entire South Asian population will then watch the movie in theaters which is amazing. And this isn’t like 3 Idiots where half the people I knew that watched the movie in theaters were non-south Asian and of the south Asians, almost everyone saw it multiple times in theaters. Watching PK tomorrow but from what I’ve heard, it doesn’t have anything that would appeal to non-south Asians unlike a 3 Idiots/Dhoom 3/Don 2.
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December 28, 2014 at 3:10 AM
If I have to pick one mindboggling thing about PK, it will be the USA collection. Unlike India which started slow, it started huge in USA which clearly shows Aamir is the clear number 1 in USA by miles. And he did it with a mediocre D3 too…
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December 28, 2014 at 3:13 AM
Rajeev Masand picks best and worst movies of 2014
BEST
#5. PKBig smile
#4.HaiderStar
#3. UglyClap
#2. Aankhon dekhiConfused
#1.QueenHeart
WORST
#5 Bangbang
#4.one by two
#3. Entertainment
#2.Humshakals
#1.Action Jackson
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December 28, 2014 at 3:43 AM
Haider is the most overrated film of the year – take out Tabu from it and u have an utter crap of a film###
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December 28, 2014 at 5:12 AM
http://www.koimoi.com/box-office/pk-enjoys-the-highest-repeat-audience-ever-high-chances-to-become-biggest-bollywood-blockbuster/
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December 28, 2014 at 9:05 AM
Queen is the best movie of the year for me. Without getting preachy it delivers quite a few message.
Haider-I am against its ideology. It is one sided movie but put that. side into forth quite effectvely
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December 28, 2014 at 10:56 AM
Agree on Haider. Repeating my comment from above: From a message perspective, PK is the anti-Haider. PK undoes whatever premise Bashar Peer and Bharadwaj had while making Haider. PK proves that India is indeed secular, where a Muslim actor gets to star in a movie largely critiquing the Hindu religion, and said movie goes on to become the biggest blockbuster ever. So Haider shud indeed scratch his head and wonder why he chose to separate from India. Especially, precisely at the moment when the Head Maulvi of Lal Masjid in Islamabad, situated steps away from the official govt infrastructure, justifies the massacre of 130 schoolkids by calling it the wrath of God on their Govt.
PK proves to Kashmiris that HIndus are indeed tolerant, and they ought to step away from the paranoia of the Hindu-bogeyman out to destroy the Kashmiriyat from their valley.
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December 28, 2014 at 12:47 PM
I’ll get to this in a note on the film but I don’t believe PK is critiquing ‘the Hindu religion’. It’s critiquing a certain brand of religiosity for which ‘Hinduism’ is the best example in India inasmuch as it is the majority faith. This doesn’t mean that other forms of religiosity are not as problematic (the film gets into some of this) but the majority/minority split changes everything. Much as in the US it’s Christian evangelical religiosity that is critiqued most often. But whether it’s about religion or politics one always has to keep in mind that majority-minority equation. The effects or results are not the same in each instance. In other words both might be equally unacceptable for certain reasons but pragmatically one matters more. Now it’s always a fantasy of the Right (in every culture, every country) to present the minority AS the majority. Or in the driver’s seat. Jews in germany, Communists in germany, Muslims in India, etc etc. There is an encyclopedic list of such examples. You have the minority group that is supposed running the show as a fifth column and in bed with the forces of Communism or the left. This is a very old right-wing narrative. Again unless one subscribes to this fantasy or really a narrative that should be rejected on grounds of common sense it should be easy to see how (and pragmatically) what the distinctions are. Just because a society or its political parties pander to certain minorities as part of vote bank politics (which is no different from other parties doing the same with other castes, regions et al.. do we ever ask in India what kind of politics enabled lower castes to not find adequate representation for so long? Do we ask today why is it that the same lower caste parties are constantly demonized in India as ‘heart of darkness’ manifestations or signs of an old, regressive Indian and what not?) doesn’t mean that the minority is in control. As an even larger matter democracy isn’t about majoritarianism. If one follows this logic one more or less kills democracy. In an imperfect world there should be neat balance everywhere but since we don’t live in such a world and are never likely to a democracy must always err in favor of a minority (a religious, ethnic, regional, linguistic one or what have you). The alternative is the Pakistan model where ‘anything goes’ when it comes to Hindu or Christian minorities and now even Shiite minorities. Even if one doesn’t go to that extreme we know even in the US how the entire justice system massively disadvantages blacks. Just because there’s a strong democracy doesn’t mean that such institutional violence cannot occur.
Getting back to the films in question I still haven’t seen Haider but the question that must be asked is: why is everyone going so crazy over a film’s perspective (even accepting completely that it’s biased or something) in a country where people call Nathuram Godse a patriot and others wonder why he didn’t shoot Nehru instead? All of this is somehow less worthy of attention than film Vishal Bhardwaj makes? Also less worthy of attention than the current govt.’s embrace of Sajjad lone and walking it back on 370? Also less important than the PM not even saying ‘vande mataram’ in the one Srinagar appearance he made? So even on this very Kashmir subject how does one forget all this? Or miss all this? What right does one have to criticize Bhardwaj when all of this is happening and at a level which is far more hypocritical and even worse given the most ‘nationalist’ positions in this regard?
So even before we get to specific examples like Haider or PK or whatever shouldn’t we be a bit more ethical in terms of the examples we select? or do we do so only when the loonies on the left come out? Statements are now made twice a week, there are crazy things done once a week, all of this is somehow not very important. But the future of Indian nationalism depends on haider! I still haven’t seen the film but my debate isn’t about this. It is about these selective examples. And for years I’ve wondered what prevents anyone from being universal in one’s condemnation? Why can’t one criticize every side equally if one is being honest about one’s politics? Today the BJP trying to team up with the very same ‘separatist’ parties is somehow less objectionable than Haider?! Yes those Kashmiri parties are as cynical, as opportunistic and as revolting. This is precisely the point. One can be universal about these things. I wrote a piece on Firaaaq because I found the politics of the film completely unacceptable but somehow this didn’t become the burning issue of Indian democracy for me!
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December 28, 2014 at 4:33 PM
There is also a media environment that is conducive to the fringe. It simply requires some 50 individuals, a controversial cause and a few TV cameras to give otherwise irrelevant people notoriety, publicity and even secure political impact. The Hindu Mahasabha, for example, is today merely a letterhead that can be used or misused by anyone. Yet, an outrageous demand by one of its more obscure functionaries to instal a bust of Nathuram Godse made the front pages of many newspapers and was the subject of TV talk shows.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/opinion/some-in-rss-have-profound-distaste-for-pm-638118
To a modest extent, the furore in Parliament over Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti’s utterances at a public meeting, the ghar vyapasi programme planned by Hindu groups in Aligarh and the non-holiday for Kendriya Vidyalayas over Christmas was a result of media activism. The BJP cannot be entirely faulted for nurturing a conspiracy theory that the traditionally hostile and loosely Left-liberal leaning English language media will do its utmost to show the government in a poor light. Yet, while over-playing the utterances of loose cannons does distort the big picture, the government has to be mindful that there are tensions within the wider ‘parivar’ over what constitutes the primary agenda of the Modi government
http://www.swapan55.com/2014/12/turbulence-ahead-narendra-modi-must.html
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December 28, 2014 at 9:49 PM
this guy is a well-known BJP supporter. What do you expect?! The ‘nothing to see here’ explanation is rather too easy and frighteningly dishonest.
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December 29, 2014 at 6:09 AM
It may be dishonest, but IMHO, not really frightening. The leftist media has been blowing everything out of proportion since the day Modi took the oath. Somehow every statement made by any Ram, Nathu or Hari is made to directly connect with Modi. And then they expect him to give an explanation in the Lok Sabha about every such ridiculous statement made by the fringe. The opposition already derailed much needed reforms with their churlish antics in parliament.
What is really frightening is the abject silence of the media wrt the shenanigans of the ‘other’ rightist elements. eg the statements of the MIM Owaisi brothers.
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December 29, 2014 at 7:36 AM
The Owaisi brothers have been discussed to death in the media..
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December 29, 2014 at 10:49 AM
Satyam sir, zyada TOI-let paper mat padha karo….they keep retracting and apologizing ……
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December 28, 2014 at 9:38 AM
If I had to choose one film from 2014 it had to be Haider. It works at so many levels : as pure cinema, as a well-told story, as a fascinating study of characters and relationships , as a political document and as a great adaptation of a timeless literary classic. I can imagine revisiting it 5 years hence, ten years hence. If I had o choose three , it would be Haider, Queen and PK . And if I was allowed five it would be Haider, Queen , PK, Ugly and Dedh Ishqiya.
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December 28, 2014 at 10:18 AM
I don’t know about the best film of the year, but the ones I loved are Ankhon Dekhi, Haider, Ugly (can’t really pick between the 3 of these though Ankhon Dekhi is the one which has stayed with me) followed by Highway and Filmistaan. PK and Dedh Ishqiya would rank just below these. I also quite enjoyed Queen and Mardaani.
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December 28, 2014 at 12:39 PM
I must declare, from among films that feature in some people’s list, I haven’t yet seen Ankhon Dekhi and Filmistan.
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December 29, 2014 at 10:52 AM
arrey baba …”I musat declare”
yeh Utkal baba kaun des key raja hain kya !! whaat whaste !!
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December 28, 2014 at 2:31 PM
PK is at at almost 8 million in US after 2nd weekend.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2014&wknd=52&p=.htm&4
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December 28, 2014 at 5:25 PM
I am surprised at the charge that PK is not a bold film as Haider was.
What makes Haider bold ? Mutilating or misrepresenting the truth? Taking on a majority based on half truths selectively represented and in isolation with an absolute disregard to the whole picture?
And , what makes PK a safe film? Just because it did not question religion or notion of an almighty power in control of our lives? Did it really have to?
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December 28, 2014 at 7:59 PM
Speaking for myself, it’s not a question of piety that makes PK’s critique less resonant than Haider’s. I’m not going to talk further about Haider, (such a conversation, at least a productive one, is kind of impossible, I feel) it’s that the critique in PK itself isn’t terribly interesting or addressing something (the godmen issue) that’s even a little bit ambiguous in its dubiousness at best and outright corruption at worst. It’s safe because it doesn’t engage with anything anyone (without a serious and seriously flawed agenda of some sort – the idea that it critiques Hinduism as someone above mentioned is ridiculous) would be rankled by. I’d say this is the case even when the film is compared to Hirani’s own critiques of other societal issues from his own previous films. This is just my reading of the movie, of course, it’s not gospel. I’m open to reading something different on the matter but I haven’t come across a piece that’s really convinced me there’s something particularly unique here. Leaving everything else aside I also found the comedy here far less sharp than in other Hirani works. I just wasn’t as entertained by the filmmaking.
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December 28, 2014 at 8:01 PM
I am clearly in the minority, though. As always I should add the caveat that Aamir and Hirani are the good guys and I’d rather see them walk away with accolades and receipts than otherwise. Happy the film is doing so well.
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December 29, 2014 at 12:09 AM
Haider took a position but it didn’t offer any solution to the issue (same as PK) . And the position was that army should be out of Kashmir( there is no need of middlemen between God and its subject). WRT to Haider, What will happen in Kashmir the day army is out? All the remaining minorities will be killed or thrown out. The situation will be similar to Iraq where people got rid of Saddam to have ISIS or ISIS like organization at helm dictating the narrative.
Haider has more serious tone than PK but as a movie it is nothing great except the subject it picked. The screenplay was slow and needed some good trimming (PK also needed in second half).
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December 29, 2014 at 10:48 AM
Great points Rajen and Munna !! Maza aa gaya.
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December 28, 2014 at 3:41 PM
To release UGLY just a week after PK when the whole country is engulfed by this PK wave is a very dumb move by AK. I am not sure what prompted them to take this suicidal decision. This one could have worked better if it were released when there was some quite intermittent period between biggies. This is COMPLETELY a WOM movie and should have been carefully strategised and released.
B Velvet got postponed coz of PK. Now UGLY will suffer coz of PK. It looks like one AK is the bane of another AK.
The release strategy is so pathetic that there is not a SINGLE show in the UNITED STATES – makes sense since PK is running to packed houses even in the 2nd week here. I had been waiting very eagerly for this but looks like again, I have to catch it via torrents.
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December 28, 2014 at 7:09 PM
There is a huge possibility that Ugly could have failed even if it was released before PK wave or post PK wave. Now atleast he can say that Ugly failed because of PK. Ship Of Theseus was released cleverly but could not find takers. Ankhon Dekhi just vanished. Queen could make it because it was sort of masala.
PK wave reminds me of CE wave.
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December 29, 2014 at 12:09 AM
Day 8 (Fri) 14.44
Day 9 (Sat) 17.12
Day 10 (Sun) 21.85
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/box-office/special-features/id/411
they have the total at 236.5cr. BOI probably have it lower. Still going strong. now just waiting for when it will hit 300cr and when we will get to read Satyam’s complete thoughts on PK!!
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December 29, 2014 at 12:16 AM
55 crore as per BOI
24 crore Sunday
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December 29, 2014 at 12:25 AM
It’s possible to score a century in week two now…Monday will need to be close to 10 crores than the landmark is possible.
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December 29, 2014 at 12:27 AM
lol…this is ridiculous!!
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December 29, 2014 at 1:20 AM
How come BOI is having similar first week as BH and higher second weekend ?
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December 29, 2014 at 1:24 AM
If we take this figure, PK is already biggest grosser of year in 10 days with 233 cr. i think kick was around 225 cr.
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December 29, 2014 at 1:56 AM
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/Details/art_detail/pkagainhasoutstandingsunday#.VKD6-__BpA
PK again showed huge growth on Sunday like the first week as it grossed an outstanding 24 crore apprx as per early estimates. The film has grossed around 55 crore nett in its second weekend. The second weekend business of PK is as follows.
Friday – 14,25,00,000
Saturday – 17,00,00,000
Sunday – 23,75,00,000 (early estimate)
Total – 55,00,00,000
This 55 crore nett figure has smashed all records for the second weekend by a distance. Dhoom 3 held the record and had grossed 37 crore nett for the second weekend. Kick which was the highest grosser this year before PK had grossed 46 crore nett week two. Only Dhoom 3 and 3 Idiots have collected more in week two than what PK has grossed in second weekend.
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December 29, 2014 at 2:02 AM
Shud hit 300cr by next weekend at the least.
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December 29, 2014 at 7:35 AM
fantastic numbers.. the trending is incredibly strong here..
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December 29, 2014 at 7:40 AM
dikha diya aamir ne sabko who is no.1
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December 29, 2014 at 10:56 AM
For the first time my three South Indian ( One Mallu and two from Andhra), went to watch PK… that was huge for me.
Otherwise forget Hindi, they don’t even go for Telgu movies to the theatre .
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December 29, 2014 at 1:58 AM
I am fortunate that whatever films I’ve made have had a little ‘off the road’ stories, like Munnabhai MBBS (2003) or Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006). When such films work, it gives you the confidence that whatever is liked by your heart will be loved by the audience. Abhijat (Joshi; co-writer) and I have made certain rules for ourselves. One of them is to always hunt for a unique story. That’s difficult, because, through 100 years of Indian cinema, whatever you want to try, you feel that it has happened before. Most importantly, when people believe that ‘this’ works, it’s the most unsafe thing. Their belief comes from seeing it in some other film, but that worked because it was unique in nature then. The second time, it isn’t new anymore. I tread the safe path because I don’t follow what has already succeed
http://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/simplicity-requires-a-lot-of-effort-rajkumar-hirani/article1-1301110.aspx#sthash.myxXQRoj.dpufhttp://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/simplicity-requires-a-lot-of-effort-rajkumar-hirani/article1-1301110.aspx
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December 29, 2014 at 2:05 AM
Aankhon Dekhi is by far the best film of 2014 by a distance. Sanjay Mishra’s performance delivered landmark performance.
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December 29, 2014 at 2:06 AM
***Sanjay Mishra delivered a landmark performance
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December 29, 2014 at 2:57 AM
Landmark is not a word I will ever associate with either Sanjay Mishra or Ankhon Dekhi, but this was a mighty fine film.
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December 29, 2014 at 11:56 AM
I think, we have an ingrained habit of not giving the most natural and casual performers their due, and people seem to sing glory songs about labored performances. The other day someone said the same thing about Govinda as to how is he so popular.
Sanjay Mishra was so natural to a point of being flawless. It was the most natural portrayal of the character he was playing and mind it- it was a difficult character. I would go ahead and say that the only other performance that comes close to Sanjay Mishra’s performance in Aankhon Dekhi was Sohum Shah’s performance in Ship of Theseus.
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December 29, 2014 at 11:01 AM
I liked pretty much everything in Aankhon Dekhi except the ending.
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December 29, 2014 at 2:20 AM
Now All India Muslim Personal Law Board also joins protest against PK!! So now I agree with you Satyam, PK has become an equal opportunity religious offender:
http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/protests-over-pk-grow-removal-of-scenes-sought/article6733330.ece
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December 29, 2014 at 7:42 AM
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/Details/art_detail/pktargets100crorenettsecondweek
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December 29, 2014 at 7:46 AM
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/Details/art_detail/pkagainhasoutstandingsunday
historic nos.week 2 wld be atleast 90 cr.
270 cr in 2 weeks and 300cr before 3 weeks increadible
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December 29, 2014 at 7:52 AM
http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/preview/partner_id/1679921/uiconf_id/23400981/entry_id/0_t7nm9rz4/embed/dynamic
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December 29, 2014 at 7:53 AM
heard PK screening has been stopped in Ahmedabad and Bhopal at many cinemas and protests happening at other places too all this is very unforunate .
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December 29, 2014 at 8:19 AM
Did SRK pay them to halt PK?
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December 29, 2014 at 10:59 AM
NyKavi: we need such more insightful comments from you for this blog. Please continue..
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December 29, 2014 at 12:07 PM
Congratulations, the quality and importance of your comment has equalled that of Apex’s!
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December 29, 2014 at 12:09 PM
Chill dudes.. cant u guys take a bit of sarcasm.
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December 29, 2014 at 8:27 AM
SRK has been shown his place just like with 3i in 2009 when his biggest grosser(by then ) was 85 cr(rnbdj) compared to 202 cr of 3idiots.
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December 29, 2014 at 8:32 AM
Swamy39 @ DM FAV RT ? 3 hours ago
Who financed the PK film? According to my sources it is traceable to Dubai and ISI. DRI must investigate …. ROFL
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December 29, 2014 at 8:38 AM
it would be great if pk goes up to 354 cr ie double of srk crap HNY to show SRK who is the king.
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December 29, 2014 at 8:42 AM
http://www.iamin.in/en/gautam-buddha-nagar/news/pk-movie-posters-burnt-noida-traffic-thrown-out-gear-near-spice-mall-49336
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December 29, 2014 at 9:09 AM
BJP is seriously mistaken if they think that this is going to somehow create an issue to harness for the Delhi elections. The backlash from ‘right to speech’ lovers (which is almost everyone who supported Modi on social media) will be humongous. These bozos are messing with the fav pastime of people, ie movies. Especially, with a movie with a proven audience feedback, one which is marching onto its place in history. I really hope some guy in BJP reads/heeds this warning. They need to stop this stupidity ASAP, or kaput goes Delhi State.
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December 29, 2014 at 8:53 AM
can PK make 100 cr in week 2. i hope so
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December 29, 2014 at 10:21 AM
Protests Against Aamir Khan’s ‘PK’ Triggers Backlash Online
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December 29, 2014 at 10:22 AM
http://www.ndtv.com/article/blog/pk-protestors-shame-on-you-641375?pfrom=home-topstories
Ravish Kumar is for my money the best cable news anchor anywhere..
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December 29, 2014 at 10:59 AM
Great points by Ravish, but even he could not resist the urge to bring in Modi ….
Sab Miley huey hain, yahee toh ghotala hai !!
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December 30, 2014 at 3:13 AM
Where was most despicable cast-est Journo when Church scene was removed from malamaal weekly, Kamal’s movie, Azad maidan incident, 5 Lac coming to support Jamaat in Kolkatta? Has he written on Satanic book, Indira, sonia’s book banned by His congress govt … or Gandhi play banned by Congress after vandalism by Congressmen?
In India secularism means Hinduphobe. Period.
If Ravish becomes best, thn you know its just another LWs under garb of neutrality..
Agar Ravish ka chale woh babies ko b pakkad kay pehla uestion karega, “Bolo kaun c jaati”
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December 30, 2014 at 3:22 AM
There is nothing offensive in PK. Nothing except one dialogue, few can take offense.
Just beoz of some fringe elements ( who do supari job, same Togadia was on payroll of congress in 2012 Guj election to defeat Modi) Hinduism can’t follow Abrahmic faiths.. Greatest beauty of Santan Dharma is ‘Fearlessness’ and freedom to question anything under sun, even Gods or God.
We don’t know 5 school of thoughts which along with advaita has agnostic Sankhya and materialistic ‘Charvakha’ .
Such loonies should be behind bars, of either side.
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December 29, 2014 at 12:47 PM
He is right. But what was he doing when there were protests against Gadar, Jo Bole Nihaal, and so many other movies which faced protests from other groups? Selective Amnesia kyun hai bhai?
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December 29, 2014 at 12:53 PM
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson, Ms. Leela Samson conveyed to the community groups that the film was shown to a Catholic review member and necessary action had been taken.
http://www.kemmannu.com/index.php?action=flashnews&type=269
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December 29, 2014 at 1:06 PM
Ha! And so the hypocricy continues. Ms Samson seemed to think that there was nothing in PK that hurt sentiments.
Even though I personally have no objections, but let me point out one simple instance: PK mocks the pouring of milk on Shivlings and statues. From a practical standpoint, for a non-believer of idols such as me, this sure is a wastage ( i hate it when the Ganesh Temple in Queens pours like 50 gallons of milk on all their idols every evening). But to people heavily invested in idolatory, criticism of this ritual is sheer blasphemy. Hirani mustve thought that highlighting such wastage is practical. However, he does end up hurting sensitive people.
The question to ask is: Was the CBFC willing to ignore this, especially because Ms Samson probably does not understand the sensitivities involved?
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December 29, 2014 at 1:11 PM
The Loonies whowant PK to be banned are actually doing Hindus a great disservice , I am usually pretty sensitive but I did not find anything objectionable, yes Hindus have been made more fun but that is a given since it is a movie about Hindustan.
But people like Ravish, Anna Vetticad and commies selective outrage just pisses me off !!!
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December 29, 2014 at 1:05 PM
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December 29, 2014 at 1:53 PM
Someone shud tweet Ravish as well…
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December 29, 2014 at 1:21 PM
“PK mocks the pouring of milk on Shivlings and statues.”
Undue credit, its like a passing shot in PK. Did you watch OMG? There is full 2-3 min scene with real footage how the milk offered is going to gutters and gods really don’t drink it and instead it is better to feed some poor hungy person. It was most clear and message oriented scene.
If you have Netflix, watch it online or try to search on youtube and then compare the scene with PK.
So, in retrospect OMG scene was more objectionable but credit must be given for the way it was shown in the movie.
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December 29, 2014 at 1:31 PM
I saw OMG in bits in pieces and missed that one. But now that you raise the point, interestingly, it also proves Ms Leela Samson’s hypocricy. OMG was releasd on Sep 28, 2012. There were protests against that movie as well, but nothing was censored. In the link provided above by OmRocky, it clearly shows the date (Sep 27, 2012!!) of the news of censoring Kamaal Dhamaal Malaamal after the protests against it.
So it was fine for Ms Samson to allow OMG to release uncensored, but she had KDM censor out objectionable scenes. Is it bcoz Congress as in power (with a certain Ms Sonia Gandhi at the helm??) What was Ravish Kumar saying then?? Band baj gayi??
Just saying what I have been saying all along: The Tolerance limits of the majority religion in India is very very high as compared to the others.
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December 29, 2014 at 1:34 PM
And the silence of the Left Hypocrites (Ravish, Leela SAMSON, et al) when it comes to shenanigans of their own is absolutely deafening.
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December 29, 2014 at 1:17 PM
The more people are protesting and creating controversy, is actually drawing more publicity to the movie. No Religion can get affected by expressions of certain films, its just too big for such things.
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December 29, 2014 at 1:50 PM
Aamir seems to have pulled another Ghajini-3 Idiots combo with D3 and PK. Ghajini was the biggest hit ever and about 30 crores more than the the second highest grosser ever, RNBDJ. Then 3 Idiots just destroyed everything. D3 was about the same percentage ahead of CE/KICK. And once again PK has come and destroyed everything. Next year only Salman has some hope to come close to PK with the Sooraj Bharatiya film, if it clicks well. SRK has no hope. Maybe in 2016 if Rohit Shetty can pull another CE for him.
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December 29, 2014 at 3:00 PM
Yes, among Salman’s films – only Sooraj’s movie has that kind of possibility to do huge business (touching 300cr). I don’t expect it to open big but almost everyone likes Sooraj to some extent and then if he makes a good movie, then WOM will turn its business. Similarly, I don’t think Rohit Shetty can deliver big hit but he don’t have the kind of following where the movie can touch 300cr. Some people, however big it is, would not watch a Rohit Shetty film in theaters. Salman’s Bajrani Bhaijaan can do similar to Kick, SRK’s Fan, Raees will be lucky to even go near 200 cr.
But all said, PK’s final total is safe for longtime, even Aamir’s other movies can’t touch it business for next 2-3 yrs.
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December 29, 2014 at 8:25 PM
My prediction: I’m sensing a repeat of the last 4 years- SRK’s next two films, Fan and Raees, will struggle to hit 200 crore (aka the new 100 crore mark), BB and Shuddhi will open huge but not sustain like BG/Ready/D2, PRDP will be like ETT and get around 300 (if PK hits 350), and then 2-3 years later when SRK does the movie with RS again, PK’s lifetime is broken however with a 50crore opening day and average trending unlike PK. Then Aamir comes with the 3 Idiots or PK sequel and repeat. In the meantime, Hrithik, Ranbir and all of them still remain in a league below the 3 Khans. Ranbir is making the Hrithik Roshan mistake of 2006 (Krrish and D2) of not capitalizing on his success. I think a completely new star (probably someone born in the mid-late 1990’s comes in from out of nowhere and overtakes everyone.
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December 29, 2014 at 8:31 PM
*** I think a completely new star (probably someone born in the mid-late 1990’s comes in from out of nowhere and overtakes ***
Hrehaan Roshan/Aryan Khan
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December 29, 2014 at 8:41 PM
I really hope it isn’t a star kid! I want another nobody like Big B, SRK, or Akki.
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December 29, 2014 at 6:07 PM
The sensibilities have changed. I watch hum saath saath hain if I need good laughter. Barjatya Subjects are just too sweet.
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December 29, 2014 at 1:52 PM
I will talk about the film PK after the second viewing. ( Haven’t been able to write on Haider still even after three viewings in the theatre.) But I want to make a few quick points about the protests against PK by groups like Bajrang Dal and VHP, and many on sites like Twitter and Facebook.
1. Everyone who has seen both Oh My God and PK agree that both tackle the same theme, and speak against the superstitions and rituals of Hindu faith. Many have pointed out that OMG was more hard-hitting. Then how come there was no protest whatsoever against OMG?
2. Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi are the writers, Rajkumar Hirani, the director and Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Hirani , the producer of the film. They are the creators and owners of the film in all respects. Aamir Khan is just the actor in the film, portraying a role written for him, in a manner suggested by the director. Then why is he being targeted by the protestors?
3. Now let’s take a look at what is being protested against. Many have agreed that the things the film has shown are the degraded practices and are worth pointing out. But they question, why practices of other religions are not shown when there are many blind spots in other religions too. When pointed out that a few anomalies of Islam and Christianity too are shown, they say but that’s so little! Now think of this: when an alien lands in an Indian city and spends a few days there, which religious rituals he is likely to encounter on the streets? When you open a coffee table book on India by a photographer, whether Indian or foreigner, which religion’s images are you likely to see most? And to start with, which religion has most imagery and most rituals in everyday life?
4. Second, both Hirani and Joshi being Hindus have certainly better first-hand knowledge of Hindu religious rituals and practices than those of other religion, and they may feel an urge to write and talk about Hindu religiosity than about other faiths. Do you ask Martin Scorsese why he made ‘ The Last Temptations Of Jesus Christ’ and not ‘ The Constant Temptations of Krishna’? Or do you ask Umesh Shukla why he did not have a Muslim protagonist in his film by the side of Kanji Lal Mehta ( Maybe Paresh Rawal playing a double role. LOL. ?) ? Art is not about balancing the offence given to various groups, but about expressing what you connect to.
5. Purely from the scriptwriting logistics where do you stop? And how do you determine what percentage to bad practices of which religion? How much of Hinduism, how much of Islam, how much of Christianity, how much of Sikhism, how much of Buddhism, how much of Judaism, how much of Jainism…and so on? At the end of it, will it look like a film, or a government commission report? Aren’t people from other religions smart enough to take the lesson from here and apply it to their own religious practices?
6. Some have implied that the makers have not shown the evils of Islamic practices because they are scared.
7. Now whichever maybe the reason for which the film shows more of irrational and ridiculous practices of Hinduism rather than those of other religions, it could be even a combination of all or many, what do the Hindus have to complain about? If some undesirable practices of Hinduism have been shown, it can only lead to their eradication and at the least discussions on them. The followers of other religions are being deprived of this. If anything, it is the common people from other religions who should be complaining, right? Or are you saying they are too dumb to know what is good for them? And VHP and Bajrang Dal want us to compete with them in those aspects?
Neither HIrani nor Umesh Shukla ( the director of OMG) are the first to critique the ritualistic practices of Hinduism. Centuries earlier a man called Gautam or Siddhrtha did that. We gave him the name Buddha and even made him one of the ten avatars of Vishnu. It is this constant critiquing, introspection and evolution that has made Hinduism such a robust religion and respected worldwide. ( Refer to this piece on influence of Hinduism on Hollywood auteurs. )
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/dec/25/movies-embraced-hinduism
Let us who are proud of being Hindus not allow narrow-minded, bigoted groups like VHP and Bajarang Dal turn Hindus into a mirror image of fundamentalist Muslims like the ISIS.
8. There has also been talk of ‘insult’ to Lord Shiva because of the episode involving the actor playing Shiva. They have asked , Could they have shown a similar scene featuring Jesus or Mohammad. Really? First of all, there is no depiction of Muhammad ever done by any actor, so the question doesn’t arise. Even any dramatic depiction of Jesus’s life is not done as an entertainment like Ramlila or our mythological plays are done. A Ramlila actor playing Ram would be smoking beedi one moment and then getting up on stage as ram the next. In the opera ( geeti-natya) on Shiva written by the most popular Baishnaba pani performed in my village has Ganga and Parvati fighting like street soutans, Parvati accusing Ganga of being a Ugara-Chandi ( a tomboy) who dances on her husband’s head and so on. The contexts and what is allowed are totally different.
The same protesters have pointed out that Hindus do not worship idols, they worship the ideal behind the ideals. Fair enough. The film does not attack the ideal behind Shiva, in fact it does not get to that stage…may be in the next film. But the point is just as the idol is not equivalent to the ideal , the man playing Shiva is NOT Shiva. And making fun of the man playing Shiva is NOT making fun of Shiva. ( Though it is another matter that making fun of Shiva is perfectly alright in Hindu mythological dramatic tradition. Unfortunately, most of the cyber-Hindus are so ignorant of their own tradition that mischief-makers like VHP and Bajrang Dal find it easy to take them for a ride.)
9. We as a society, as Indians should be proud and glad that we have a committed and accomplished filmmaker like Hirani with a solid social consciousness who gives us films like Munnabhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munnabhai, 3 Idiots and now, PK, to stimulate our thought and arouse our conscience instead of serving garbage like the 90% of Bollywood does. If we can’t, then God ( be he Shiva, Allah, Jesus or Jehovah ) help us.
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December 29, 2014 at 1:58 PM
Re.-But I want to make a few quick points
Sir if the above are “quick” and “few” points, then thank you Shiv jee that you “declared “not to make too many and too large points!!!
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December 29, 2014 at 2:10 PM
All of your points are fair, except #1: There were many protests against OMG as well. Just go research.
However, here I categorically state that protests against art are absolutely regressive. My only complaint is that the media castigates protests by majority right wing groups, but totally ignores protests by minority right wingers.
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December 29, 2014 at 2:39 PM
Utkal, I usually like your points.. but you are totally off on this one. Almost all of your points are weak and mostly incorrect/unimportant in the scheme of things. Will reply later after work.
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December 29, 2014 at 3:50 PM
Utkal, Some quick replies.. replied according to your bullet points.
1)As NyKavi mentioned there were protests for OMG as well. Moreover it was same made from the same play from super successful play.
2)I don’t think you are aware how much Shabana Azmi had to go through after the relelase of Deepa Mehta’s Fire. She was in real security threat. Also, usually actors are the front facing the visual part of the objectionable content and they are protested as well. Writer/ producer/ director can be tagged along but the actor is always the prime focus. You can’t say you are an employee and just continue doing anything objectionable. Even writer would say the same.. I’m employee of the producer and wrote this script for him. Funnily, there was long 10-12 yrs case against Srk for saying something against lawyers and court system in Ram Jaane’s climax scene. Only Srk was summoned for court, neither the film producer nor writer of that dialogues and the case dragged for 10-12 yrs.
3)You are mixing the protest from various sources and clubbing them with twitter feedback. Not everyone is mentioning the same points. Overall consensus is that some dialogues and scenes are objectionable and they ought to be removed from the movie.
4)If you are making a movie about sensitive topic, there is no way out. Didn’t Karan Johar make My Name is Khan? Also, the script offered opportunity to talk about other religions. Hirani introduces other religions and then quits in between and just moves on with Hinduism and its dogma practice
5)Aren’t people from other religions smart enough – If people were really smart enough then there was no need for this movie. 🙂
6)No need to imply, many clearly saying they couldn’t dare to show other religions as they are scared.
7)“the film shows more of irrational and ridiculous practices of Hinduism” Lot of young folks do understand this point but that doesn’t mean we need to follow religion as per what Hirani and Aamir has taught us from the movie PK. Too many big celebrities are huge followers of Babas(I mentioned Sachin earlier) and its their life and their belief system. Why does anyone need to worry how they want to live their life by criticizing their actions?
Also, you directly jumping from Hirani and Umesh Shukla you to Buddha, lol. Which movie did he make? Just kidding.
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December 29, 2014 at 3:58 PM
1 more point. OMG is about a atheist who doesn’t believe in god and makes fun and then eventually encounters god and becomes a believer sans dogma practices.
Whereas PK comes on earth, makes fun of these religious practices and proves Babas are farce and then goes back to his planet 🙂
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December 29, 2014 at 3:59 PM
One of the main reasons for taking Aamir on board for this film was to cash Aamir’s image for making it more palatable for general public. Any other actor could have caused an immediate controversy. Aamir will somehow mould majority public opinion in his favour due to a repeat and prestige he has gathered over the years. Similarly any reaction towards the film will be directed towards Aamir not the writers or the director. Win Win for the producers.
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December 29, 2014 at 4:03 PM
Gox: Watch headlines today interview. Hirani said, I wanted Aamir for the reason that he doesn’t have any strong religious image and can’t cast an actor with strong religious beliefs in this movie, it will look fake.The main pillars of the movie are all believers in the same message and hence we could colloborate easily.
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December 29, 2014 at 2:08 PM
Ali Peter John witnessed Khanna repeatedly insulting Bachchan when the actor used to visit Jaya Bhaduri on the sets of Bawarchi. Ali recalls how Bachchan, who wasn’t hot property yet, would usually hang out with then girlfriend Jaya and other friends like Asrani at their shoots. On one occasion he saw Khanna taunt Bachchan — who maintained his distance as well as his calm — endlessly. It was when Khanna called him manhoos or ill-fated that Jaya decided that she had had enough.
She walked up within Khanna’s earshot and proclaimed that one day the world would see where this man (Bachchan) would be and where Khanna would be. Jaya Bhaduri’s prophetic words came true, thanks to the success of Salim-Javed and Bachchan becoming the mainstay of their scripts.
http://www.dailyo.in/art-and-culture/when-rajesh-khanna-insulted-amitabh-bachchan-and-made-jaya-bhaduri-angry/story/1/862.html
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December 29, 2014 at 2:09 PM
Yes, Omrocky786, I have a whole lot more to say on the subject, but it WILL take quite some time to think through and put across.
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December 29, 2014 at 2:38 PM
I agree with Utkal uncle points, well written. That’s what amazes me that OMG being so hard hitting and took almost a serious tone by its lead didnt cause this much ruckus.
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December 29, 2014 at 2:44 PM
Bajrang Dal, VHP Protests Against PK Escalate, Theatres Vandalised in Gujarat
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December 29, 2014 at 2:47 PM
And since adding the word ‘Hindu’ before anything immediately guarantees front page salsa dance these days, they came up with this hit formula. ‘Hindu’ plus Bollywood — who can stop them from popping up on Arnab’s show? You know those crank callers who love bomb hoaxes? These chaps are exactly like them.
View at Medium.com
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December 29, 2014 at 2:53 PM
View at Medium.com
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December 29, 2014 at 2:54 PM
Satyam, since the link is not working, can you please delete the entire comment. Thanks
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December 29, 2014 at 5:45 PM
But the state govt.s need to put stop to this non-sense. If anyone has issue with movie either you protest in front of censor board or file a petition in high/Supreme Court.
As Nykavi suggested people who seat in fence and voted for development wouldn’t mind changing loyalties. The lunatic fringe who probably have voted for BJP are not the mainstream; but they needed to be tackled otherwise they think it is their Sarkar and they are free to do whatever they like.
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December 29, 2014 at 6:27 PM
Agree Munna , however this Godsey crap has been going on since past deveral years. No One noticed, but now the Media gets a stick to beat with BJP with….arrey BJP/Modi ka lena ek naa dena do iss baat par !
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December 29, 2014 at 2:48 PM
Aamir Khan Races Ahead Salman; May Overtake SRK To Become No. 1 In Koimoi Office Power Index
The year has been full of hits and misses and while the last month seemed really dull with major flops, Aamir Khan’s PK swept off this gloom with its smashing performance in the last week. Many big films released and while some were disappointing, films such as Kick and Happy New Year shined through. But, with the release of PK, there has been a change in the power index. As we had expected, Aamir’s PK has shown a brilliant performance so far and since the film has entered the 200 crore club, Aamir Khan has now jumped to the second position, second to Shah Rukh Khan.
While Salman Khan and Aamir Khan hold the same points, since Aamir holds more films, he is placed second. Shah Rukh Khan post his film Happy New Year made it to the 200 crore club, has been on the top position. Aamir Khan is currently 100 points away from SRK and may overtake him to become the contender.
http://www.koimoi.com/box-office/aamir-khan-races-ahead-salman-may-overtake-srk-to-become-no-1-in-koimoi-office-power-index/
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December 29, 2014 at 3:09 PM
“..May Overtake SRK To Become No. 1 In Koimoi Office Power Index..”
Are these guys for real?? WTF is a Koimoi Office Power Index??
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December 29, 2014 at 2:51 PM
EXCLUSIVE: The New York Times reviews Aamir Khan’s PK
HILARIOUS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
An alien dubbed Pk (played by secular actor Aamir Khan) lands on Earth on a research mission, but is stranded in Rajasthan, currently ruled by India’s communal Hindu party – BJP, when his spaceship’s remote control is stolen by a Hindu militant
A common tenet of Hinduism is “Sarva Dharma Sambhava”, which literally means that all Dharmas (truths) are equal to or harmonious with each other. One can only objectively interpret that as being call to oppress all religions other than Hinduism
In Delhi, Pk discovers that a Hindu Militant Godman, Tapasvi Maharaj (Saurabh Shukla), who has his remote claims to have obtained it from the God. Bewildered, PK concludes that Tapasvi and other Hindu militants must be calling a “wrong number” to God and, as a result, spreading misunderstandings and meaningless rituals. As the recent episode of Baba Rampal in the Indian state of Haryana has showed, majority of the Hindus are narrow minded and easily enslaved by these so called Godmen who conjure up some magic to trick their followers. Hinduism, not being a religion of Book, is easily subject to manipulation by these Godmen. This, along with the immoral caste system of placing people into perpetual hierarchies, cause many people convert to the religions of Christianity and Islam.
The fact that #BoycottPK was trending in India a day after the movie’s release points out the rising levels of intolerance ever since India’s ultra-nationalist regressively-conservative party BJP came to power at the centre. Only India’s strong federalism with secular parties in power in some states is preventing a secular India from coming under the stranglehold of Hinduism. This may not last for long as BJP is wiping out other parties in state after state. We can only hope that the international ecosystem stays awake and alert to the horrifying transformation happening in this once secular and inclusive nation
http://www.theunrealtimes.com/2014/12/28/exclusive-the-new-york-times-reviews-aamir-khans-pk/
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December 29, 2014 at 3:14 PM
PK must be a really safe film to provoke such protests.
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December 29, 2014 at 8:32 PM
Yes as I said above if one has a very flawed agenda one can protest even this film. You don’t have to try very hard to rankle opportunistic nut jobs who enjoy soft targets.
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December 29, 2014 at 9:49 PM
Rajen sir jee thoda attention pay kiya karo, this is Unreal times..a satire site..and this piece is totally in response to the ridiculous and outrageous piece in NYT calling hindus all kinds of names..
Saala dimag ka dahee kar diya..
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December 29, 2014 at 4:15 PM
Master: “Also, you directly jumping from Hirani and Umesh Shukla you to Buddha, lol. Which movie did he make? Just kidding.” There was no movies at the time of Buddha, or else he would have made a film to get his message across for sure. and I am not kidding.
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December 29, 2014 at 4:20 PM
Master: And when you mention Shabana, SRK and Aamir being targetted, you establish the point I was trying to make, even more strongly. They were and are targetted because they are MUSLIMS. Of course the whole world knows it. But I am glad you amplified it with your examples.
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December 29, 2014 at 6:24 PM
Arrey Utkal Uncle- I had heard that Targeting, Terror, Vandalism etc. has NO religion. ab kya hua ??????Tum logo ka saala Chit bhee mera, Patt bhee merey baap ka !!!
zara thoda Cocktail PK, PK dekho aur dimaag saaf karo apna..
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December 29, 2014 at 7:22 PM
As expected, Ugly couldn’t really fetch much of an audience at the box office from the opening perspective. One place where it did go right though was fetching some fantastic reviews from all over. This was the kind of push that Anurag Kashyap indeed hoped for as without it, the film would have been off the screens on Monday itself. However, good critical acclaim has given fillip to the fortunes of this film which has collected less than 2 crore over the weekend.
The film benefits from the fact that it has been released at a very less number of prints. This means there won’t be much reduction in print count in the next couple of weeks. One hopes that exhibitors keep their trust in the film and allow it to run as it has in it to gain further from word of mouth. Since Tevar releases on 9th January and PK is the only other biggie in the running, this small film by Anurag needs just a little space to survive and make its presence felt. For those who always complain that Bollywood doesn’t come up with new subjects on screen, Ugly is an answer to that ugly truth and deserves to be applauded.
Meanwhile, PK continued with its super successful run and accumulated close to 50 crore again. As a result, the film now stands at 236.50 crores and has edged past Kick [233 crore] to be the biggest grosser of 2014. Blockbuster, and on its way to be an All Time Blockbuster.
— KOIMOI
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December 29, 2014 at 9:53 PM
Anjo, this seems like a completely planted article by the Ugly gang…
Ab numbers forge nahee kar saktey toh yahee sahee.
Aside- tuteja is known to write these kind of stories as favors.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:01 AM
Omrocky786: “Arrey Utkal Uncle- I had heard that Targeting, Terror, Vandalism etc. has NO religion. ab kya hua ??????T” Obviously you have heard wrong. Isn’t that what PK taught you? All the things you mentioned go in the name of religion.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:23 AM
PK At 244 Crore Nett After Eleven Days
Tuesday 30 December 2014
Box Office India Trade Network
PK continued hitting record numbers as it grossed around 9.75 crore nett on its 11th day. the film has taken its second week business to 63 crore nett while the lifetime business is around 244 crore nett The four day collection of the second week is as follows.
Friday – 14,25,00,000
Saturday – 17,00,00,000
Sunday – 22,00,00,000
Monday – 9,75,00,000 (early estimate)
Total – 63,00,00,000
The film may just fall a little short of 100 crore nett for the second week but should be able to gross 95 crore nett.
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December 30, 2014 at 3:16 AM
So PK third monday equals 3I second monday. At this pace, It will cross 325cr, perhaps reach 350 as well.
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December 30, 2014 at 3:20 AM
Sorry, 3I first Monday was around 10cr. And Now PK 3rd Monday is similar.
3I first week was 80cr+, and PK second week will easily beat that record. Does that mean PK with similar trending as 3I can collect 200crs from second week onwards? First week 180 + 200cr = Upwards of 350crs seems to be a possibility! Humongous.
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December 30, 2014 at 3:41 AM
It’s PK’s second Monday, not third
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December 30, 2014 at 9:43 AM
A stiff target will be 350 crore IMO. I don’t think it will get there, more likely to be 340 crore max. Third week should be a record as it should comfortably beat 3 idiots 30 crore. But after that it will be tough to hang with 3 Idiots.
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December 30, 2014 at 10:06 AM
agreed.. to keep up with 3I it would have to do 450. But it could surprise and stay more stable at the fag end.
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December 30, 2014 at 10:12 AM
In any case the film has banished any myth around a wide release with record breaking first week not being able to trend well. I hope that debate is now firmly one of the past. Though I suspect the usual suspects are already preparing some excuses! The second week drop here will be less than 50%. Since 3 idiots all the big films have fallen 70-80% and the usual suspects have suggested this to be par the course. Off course it will hurt those people even more it’s an Aamir film that has done them up all over again.
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December 30, 2014 at 10:12 AM
actually this film’s performance proves that SRK could do this!
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December 30, 2014 at 10:19 AM
Yeh even emraan hashmi…cos Aamir is replaceable and the film will still make that much
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December 30, 2014 at 10:59 AM
With a film this good, anyone can do it. DDLJ would have made the same amount of money with Chunkey Pandey.
I am kidding of course 🙂
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December 30, 2014 at 12:54 PM
yeah as I said in a longer comment recently Aamir wouldn’t have been as successful in the Yashraj world..
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December 30, 2014 at 12:17 PM
I am just going off the second week drop of less than 50%. Applying approximate 50% drops for the rest of the run:
185+95+45+23+11+5+3+1= 368cr
So even if 3rd week onwards are 60%+ drops, it could still reach 350. Anyhow, a figure more than 330-340 itself would be insane. Plus the humongous international totals truely place this movie out of reach for a few years.
Just remember, it took 4 yrs after 3I to nominally (ie non inflation adjusted) break the 200cr barrier. If we apply standard 10% inflation adjustment for india, the inflation adjusted 3I is at approx 325crs for now, a figure that PK will most probably achieve. Further, in two years, the inflation adjusted PK total wud be 400crs+.
Khans will all cross 50 and become proverbial Golden Budhaus next year. None of their current engagements scheduled to release over the next 2 yrs, seem to have the legs to go this distance. After that, they will be even older (52+). They would need some amazing unusual scripts with central roles to break these figures. I seriously doubt any of the younger lot have the pull to match these figures in the near term.
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December 30, 2014 at 12:42 PM
Even the much-touted Ranbir doesn’t look like a huge star in the making imo. It will be tough for the newer lot to reach the level of the Khan trio in terms of stardom. Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna are out of the question.
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December 30, 2014 at 12:49 PM
The one thing that’s becoming quite clear is that only sensible films with great entertainment can set these kind of records. I hope other so-called blockbuster directors and actors (Salman, SRK etc.) take notice of that.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:00 PM
agreed on the numbers.. and yeah Salman is more or less prevented at the very outset from getting this sort of number. The Barjatya film is his one shot. On the one hand I’d argue that it’s too late for that paradigm and Salman himself has moved dramatically away from that image. On the other hand given all the TV shows that still do well in this format perhaps one is just looking at a very different sort of audience here. I’d still bet against it but leaving this aside I don’t see him having another shot. With SRK similarly the next two films are not major enough but even when he does the big stuff he’s always much more likely to go in for the HNY initial-oriented splash, again films that by definition can’t last. Now CE certainly did way better than expected and he might work with Shetty again but for all this Shetty too isn’t the sort of filmmaker who can get you those highest benchmarks even on his best day. The films just don’t have enough of a script. Unless he picks up a blockbuster Southern script or something and then goes in for SRK. At any rate these guys are just not going to get it done 99% of the time nor is Hrithik (as we’ve seen just recently with both Krrish and Bang Bang). So yeah Aamir seems pretty safe in this sense and he’s done it so many times already. The others in any case haven’t set up true benchmark numbers in a very long time. In other words numbers that are one way or the other well ahead of every kind of opposition and not just huge splashes that are par for the course for certain kinds of stars and/or certain kinds of projects.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:02 PM
Damn, Aamir. He revives the trending theory when most morons had given up on it.
Henry is right on target re what kind of movies can have this kind of success.
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December 30, 2014 at 2:04 PM
Agree with NyKavi and Henry about the new generation, they seem to be going nowhere- Ranbir included. Ranbir’s last hit was May 2013 and his next film is releasing May 2015. In that time the Khans have released 4-5 blockbusters. Bombay Velvet does not seem like a big grosser nor does Jagga Jasoos. Tamasha could be another YJHD. I have lost faith in KJO and his new film sounds like a KANK meets KKHH. And Ayan’s film has been delayed to 2017. Also there’s the fact that he has no single screen pull at all nor does it seem like he ever will and Besharam was a disaster.
Ranveer’s DDD could put up YJHD numbers at the max. The SLB film he doing- SLB has given no indication in the last 15-20 years that he is capable of making a film that sustains at the BO.
It’s not worth talking about any of the other youngsters i.e. Varun, Sid, Arjun etc.
Hrithik is a completely lost case. Doing another periodical drama that won’t release until 2016. Then he’s doing another film with Papa Roshan which could hit 600 crores domestic adjusting for Roshan inflation. Honestly Ranbir seems to be turning into another
SRK’s FAN seems to be a commercial film but every progressive film of Maneesh Sharma after BBB has been worse. And barring Mardaani, the last YRF film I actually enjoyed was MBKD 4 years ago and the last liked film was probably BBB. Raees seems to be completely off-beat. Using that in a BO discussion would be as stupid as using Talaash to say something dumb like “Aamir only has success on Xmas”.
Salman’s Bajrangi Bhaijan sounds like another ETT to the core. And Kabir Khan said that it is a complete Salman masala film. But Sooraj’s film is the big one. The whole virginal family drama type of film hasn’t been made in a long time and Salman has a double role- so I think Sooraj is using both the Prem image and his new masala image. If done successfully, he’d have the new salman audience and the HAHK audience and then even 500 crores domestic wouldn’t be an absurd prediction.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:56 AM
history is being created everyday
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December 30, 2014 at 4:54 AM
OT,
Dhoni has retired from test cricket with immediate effect !!!
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December 30, 2014 at 5:09 AM
The best Test captain after Ganguly and Pataudi. Of course in ODI HE IS INDIAS BEST EVER CAPTAIN AND PLAYER.
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December 30, 2014 at 6:36 AM
He was a pretty mediocre test captain…very defensive.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:26 PM
Dhoni’s contribution to Indian cricket is unmeasurable. Goes beyond runs scored or matches won. Just like Ganguly. Dhoni made the Indian team intimidating. In terms of cricketing prowess, ability to adapt and innovate and the demeanor on and off the field.
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December 30, 2014 at 11:32 PM
Rajen: I agree when it comes to ODIs, he is one of the greats (as captain and player); but in test matches, I’m afraid I saw no ability to innovate, adapt, or intimidate…
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December 31, 2014 at 3:10 AM
Q,
He still has 27 wins / most for an Indian captain. He has the best winning percentage as a captain in tests. Yes, more losses than draws and poor record outside India. One thing that stands out is his own performance with the bat in the losses. He may not be the best captain in tests for India but is no slouch in overall record.
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December 31, 2014 at 4:34 AM
A good piece by Sambit Bal.
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January 1, 2015 at 4:39 AM
Shastri is a joke: I saw this interview on TV, and thought the post-match debate with Gavaskar, Manjrekar and Aakash Chopra (not alluded to in this article at all) was great; for once someone honestly called bull!@#$# on Shastri’s twaddle. His insinuation that earlier Indian teams were simply marking time/attendance on foreign tours is not only offensive, it is just wrong: for all of the “new India” bravado embodied by Virat’s swagger and sledging, the fact is that India’s best overseas results were in the late 1960s and 1970s (won in WI and England); a period in the early-to-mid-1980s (tied 1-1 in Australia; won in England; won the ’83 World Cup); and in the first decade of this century (tied 1-1 in Australia; won 1-0 in England in 2007; and tied 1-1 in SA in 2010-2011). Since then we have barely looked like winning a test, much less squaring a series or winning it. And that won’t change as long as the bowlers are so toothless: Shastri’s is a limited overs mindset, with aggression defined in terms of batting with bravado and (the contemporary buzzwords of) “attitude” and “mindset”. But ODIs are, despite the boundaries and runs, a more defensive form of the game — it is test matches that reward aggression (you don’t take wickets relatively soon, you won’t win), best illustrated by India’s 3-4 batting greats: had one or two of those talents been bowlers, India would have won a lot more matches abroad, but since all of them were batsmen, the most you could hope for was a drawn match and the occasional win. That isn’t because they failed, that is mostly because of the structure of test cricket.
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December 30, 2014 at 6:22 AM
So here is it, the top six directors of 2014.
( I am kicking myself for having missed Ankhon Dekhi and Filmistan. But judging from those who have seen it, this list of 6 is absolutely bang on. And 2014 doesn’t look that bad for Bollywood at all.)
Rajkumar Hirani: The man with the golden touch. With ‘PK’ earning Rs 200 crores in two weeks, Hirani has become the most successful filmmaker of our times with each of his directorial ventures becoming blockbuster hits. But Hirani doesn’t feature on this list for his commercial success but for the though provoking films that he makes. His recent, ‘PK’ questions our notion of religion which has already sparked off a debate but if we keep aside our sentiments and beliefs and concentrate on the message that the film tries to convey, one can see how there is no one like Hirani who can make a simple tale so endearing.
Anurag Kashyap: The man who bridged the gap between art cinema and commercial cinema with his films has always made hard hitting, realistic films in his career. His film ‘Ugly’ released at the fag end of 2014 and was one of the most dark, disturbing film of recent years. The film would make you uncomfortable and yet keep you hooked till the end and that’s why Kashyap, the ‘dark lord’ scores.Always.
Rajat Kapoor: Rajat Kapoor has, in the past few years, carved a niche in Bollywood, with his unique cinema- which doesn’t fall in the blockbuster category yet strike the right chord with the audience. Kapoor’s film always score high in the story and performance department and his film ‘Aankhon Dekhi’ had that right blend. The film revolved around a single dilemma faced by an old man: How reliable is second-hand knowledge or experience? And actor Sanjay Mishra delivered a remarkable performance as the lead protagonist.
Vishal Bhardwaj: Vishal Bhardwaj’s film’s are twisted and very dark and they play havoc in the viewers head. Yet, they have a certain appeal. His adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ had Shahid Kapoor playing ‘Haider’ in a terror stricken, snowy Kashmir. From the detailed screenplay to the marvelous performances by the actors, Bhardwaj scored in almost all departments. We just hope that Shahid Kapoor and Vishal Bhardwaj team up more, because no other director taps Kapoor’s actual talent the way Bhardwaj does.
Vikas Behl: How can a film with no hero work so well? Ask Vikas Bahl and he will show you ‘Queen’. The brilliant little film made Kangana Ranaut the pin-up girl for all middle class women throughout the country. Bahl had earlier co-directed the endearing ‘Chillar Party’ but he went solo with ‘Queen’ and what a remarkable film it was. From getting the nuances of a middle-class west delhi to perfection to showing the night life of Paris to Rani(Ranaut) re-discovering herself in Amsterdam, Bahl made the film a fun ride throughout. And yes, Mr Bahl, we couldn’t have wished for a better ending where
Nitin Kakkar: Debutant director Nitin Kakkar made ‘Filmistaan’ with a bunch of new, unknown actors which may have got the National Award for the Best Hindi film in 2013, but failed to get a distributor till UTV lapped it up and we can’t thank the production house enough for making this brilliant film available to the audience. Kakkar infused humour into the narrative and focused on the fact that love for Bollywood is above all the hatred. The film had no big star, no special song, no big banner attached to it, yet it told the most heart warming story this year 2014. We are dying to watch what Kakkar’s has up his sleeves, next.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/rajkumar-hirani-anurag-kashyap-vikas-bahl-the-6-master-filmmakers-of-2014/520493-8-66.html
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December 30, 2014 at 12:59 PM
Good article but two points-
Kashyap has to go a long way to bridge the gap between art and commercial cinema as Ugly proves. Bombay Velvet will be the test.
Queen was a watchable film- nothing more or less. A very good performance from Kangna and good to see a woman taking on life on her terms but as a film IMO is highly overrated. Would love to see Aankhon Dekhi as premise sounds interesting. Wouldn’t touch Haider as I have absolutely no patience or time for such trash.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:07 PM
I found Queen quite overrated. Enjoyable for its genre, sends some of the right signals but nothing special otherwise. Also agree on Kashyap. The reshooting here doesn’t surprise me. He has the best shot of his career to deliver a Barfi-like deal here but nonetheless this is an expensive project (even if he says he’s doing for 90 crores what others would for 300.. even here he’s cynical.. he says he got Ranveer Singh first but was only getting 60 crores for it and then when he opted for Ranbir he got his 90! On a big project such as this one one likes directors like him to have a little more conviction!) and even accounting from GOW he’s very far from a proper commercial hit. Yes this is a love story and he has Ranbir and he has the Bombay period thing and so on but still the result remains to be seen though certainly he won’t have a better intro than GoW in terms of key multiplex groups. We’ve seen for instance that even Vishal Bhardwaj on some very well-publicized films just doesn’t have much to show at the box office. Even Kaminey which had a good start relatively-speaking came down later. Depending on the initial though I think that even something as low as 80 crores would be a good result for Bombay Velvet (not getting into budget here).
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December 31, 2014 at 3:16 PM
Rajen- you need to watch Haider. Otherwise there is no difference between you and Swamy. He is commenting on movie without watching.
Ankhon dekhi is on Netflix. It just shows that you don’t need PK or Haider to make a good movie.
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December 31, 2014 at 3:27 PM
haven’t seen it yet myself. Couldn’t catch it in the theater. Waiting for a proper transfer now. Don’t think it’s out on DVD yet.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:07 PM
Subramanian SwamyVerified account
@Swamy39
A complaint will go soon to initiate action under PMLA on Aamir Khan & co for laundering terrorist finance. I hope MoF does not block it.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:08 PM
Subramanian Swamy @Swamy39 · 14h 14 hours ago
ARY thrown out of London Bullion Market and from UK in 2006 for money laundering drug trafficking and terror financing. Aamir Khan answer!!
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December 30, 2014 at 1:13 PM
Swami seems to have gone off his rocker!
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December 30, 2014 at 1:14 PM
he’s made a career out of such stuff..
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December 30, 2014 at 1:09 PM
https://archive.today/0tHi2#selection-1875.73-1875.141
An underworld paved with gold
By Bertil Lintner
It seemed like a routine announcement. Last August 30, the London Bullion Market Association issued a statement revoking the status of an associate member, ARY of Dubai, one of the wealthiest of the United Arab Emirates.
But in fact, it was the first overt outcome of a long investigation into money-laundering, drug-trafficking and possible terrorism-financing. Since the August announcement, ARY has had several of its British bank accounts closed and the revenue authorities are investigating its finances. This could be the end of the road for one of the hitherto best-respected – and most well-connected – jewelers and gold dealers in the Persian Gulf region, Abdul
Razzak Yacoub Ghandi, whose initials form the name of the group of companies he owns.
Apart from controlling a large share of Dubai’s lucrative gold wholesale business, he runs a satellite TV company, ARY Digital, which he claims transmits into 107 countries, manages a gold refinery called ARY Aurum Plus, and has interests in local real-estate development. He also allegedly used to manage the ill-gotten gains of Abdul Qadeer Khan, “father” of Pakistan’s nuclear-weapons program.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:17 PM
Only connection between OK and ARY is that ARY has funded the Dubai leg of its promotion. What a ridiculous stance bySwamy! Do something useful than clutching at straws .
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December 30, 2014 at 1:17 PM
http://www.dawn.com/news/22429/al-qaeda-used-hawala-system-to-send-money-to-gulf-says-us-paper
ary the movie fianancer of pk whose media conferennce mr aamir khan was busy attending in dubai
somewhile back the secular where busy making fun of swamy but it seems he is onto something by opening up sunanda pushkar case, sending jaylalita to jail and getting sonia onto strict monitoring in national herald
his foray in bollywood will be nothing less importance compared to how he exposed 2g, coal gate etc
funding of bollywood is way murkier
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December 30, 2014 at 1:21 PM
Agree BW financing is murky. Too murky
But that is across the board. PK and Aamir are being singled out because of a witch hunt. Doesn’t do anything for BJP’s image.
Modi should reign in these fringe elements.
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December 30, 2014 at 10:39 PM
Comments like these piss me off, how is it Modi’s responsibilty or place to reign in these nuts?
Clearly the left leaning media is succeeding in establishing a link to Modi.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:23 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2014/12/30/subramanian-swamy-pk_n_6394642.html
s far right Hindu activists escalated their protests across India against actor Aamir Khan’s latest film ‘PK’, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday made an unusual allegation—that the film was financed by shadowy money and Khan should be investigated for “laundering terrorist finance”.
The producers of the film are three companies—Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Raj Kumar Hirani (also the director) and Sidharth Roy Kapur of UTV Motion Pictures. All well known names behind some of Bollywood’s biggest hits.
So what is the basis of Swamy’s accusation that Khan was “terror compliant”?
PK, a breezy film that takes a moralistic stand against godmen and frauds committed in the name of religion, has predictably angered right wing activists, who accuse the film of hurting Hindu sentiments. Khan, who plays an alien stranded on Earth, provoked his audience into questioning the roles of middlemen in Hinduism.
In a series of tweets since Monday, Swamy claimed the film was funded by Pakistani conglomerate ARY, which he accused of financing terror. He retweeted a photo of Khan, PK’s director Rajkumar Hirani, actress Anushka Sharma and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra sitting on a stage with a advertisement for ARY Digital in the background to bolster his point.
“Who financed the PK film? According to my sources, it is traceable to Dubai and ISI. DRI must investigate,” he said. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence is responsible for investigating economic offences.
ARY’s known links with PK seem to end with its involvement in a promotional event for PK. But what do we know about ARY’s links with terror or money laundering?
An old Washington Post report quotes a customs official as saying that “as part of efforts to investigate terrorist financing, the agency was scrutinizing movements of gold by several companies, including ARY Gold, one of Dubai’s largest and most prestigious gold bullion and jewellery dealers”.
The WP story from 2002 also quoted ARY’s Pakistani CEO Abdul Razzak as denying knowingly doing business with the Taliban or al Qaeda.
Swamy claimed that ARY was thrown out of the London Bullion Market for money laundering, drug trafficking and terror financing and accused Khan of being “terror compliant”.
This LBMA press release from August 2005 stated that ARY, Dubai’s membership status was revoked. But nowhere does the release mention money laundering was the cause, as Swamy has indicated.
The LBMA release simply said ARY of Dubai, failed to provide sponsorship required by the LBMA constitution and therefore its Associate status has been revoked with effect from August 30, 2005.
“Aamir Khan’s goose is cooked. He better do prayaaschit before Lord Shiva to escape severe indictment,” one of Swamy’s dramatic tweets said. ARY Group is a Dubai-based holding company with interests in digital among others.
A representative for Vidhu Vinod Chopra said he was out of the country and unavailable for comments. A mail sent to him remained unanswered as of 4 PM.
A Newscrunch report said sources close to the PK team has dismissed Swamy’s charge as baseless. “The photo with ARY flex on stage was taken during one of the countless promotional events for the movie”, the report said. The sources told Newscrunch that ARY Digital, one of the group companies, is popular with South Asian expats in the Gulf and beams to over 100 countries.
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December 30, 2014 at 1:25 PM
https://twitter.com/mramit31/status/549786367153033217
amit agarwal
@mramit31
Dr.@Swamy39 SAMAA a Pakistani company is the media partner of PK…
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December 30, 2014 at 1:27 PM
chiefsanjay @ DM FAV RT ? 10:13
A certain Swamy with his comment on #PK proves that even a Harvard degree cant ensure liberal ideas & wisdom. LOL
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December 30, 2014 at 1:28 PM
amit agarwal
@mramit31
Dr.@Swamy39 SAMAA a Pakistani company is the media partner of PK…
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December 30, 2014 at 1:36 PM
actually when liberal idea and wisdom was about to be cursed way back in back by censorship in democracy by indira somebody did this:
It was Emergency time then, arguably the lowest that Indian democracy has ever hit. An arrest warrant was issued in Delhi against Dr.Swamy, a resident of Delhi then. To escape ‘political’ imprisonment, Swamy disguised himself as a Sikh, escaped out of Delhi, came down to Chennai, escaped to Sri Lanka & then on to the US and stayed there for 6 months!
Oh wait, this is where it really gets interesting. He was a MP when he escaped out of India and was to face dis-qualification by law, if he failed to show up in the parliament for 6 months. On one hand parliament seat, on the other, imminent arrest if he shows up in India. What does he do?
Swamy came back from the US and cooly walked into the Indian parliament and sat for the 1st session. In line with tradition, the 1st session started off with obituaries to the dead MPs. Our man abruptly stood up and demanded to include ‘Indian Democracy’ in the obituary list! (democracy having been battered to death by Emergency). In the hue & cry that instantly followed, he quietly slipped out of the parliament knowing well that he had very visibly registered his ‘attendance’ but cannot stay any longer! He slipped out of Delhi to Nepal and back to the US again!
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December 30, 2014 at 1:55 PM
and ya anybody is free to sue swamy(problem is still no one can won a defamation case against him and he has send many to jail)
enjoy
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December 30, 2014 at 2:43 PM
These guy are only pissed because of Aamir’s religion. OMG faced protests, but no one attacked Paresh/Akshay in this manner.
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January 1, 2015 at 9:09 AM
from a friend:
https://twitter.com/hashtag/PKdebate?src=hash
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December 30, 2014 at 2:49 PM
There are only a few people who practice what they preach
Aamir Khan and presumably Vidhu Vinod Chopra will spend all the mony they want on religious practices after preaching the opposite through PK..
On the other side, Consider this from the producer of OMG Oh My God!
“Ab main kya karta hoon ki agar mujhe mann hua Vaishno Devi jaane ka – soch leta hoon dimaag mein ki jaana hai. Phir dhai lakh nikalta hoon. Tata Memorial Cancer ya yahaan-wahaan ja ke kisi ko bhi de deta hoon. Vaishno Devi ke darshan ho jaate hain. Kahin jaane ki zaroorat hi nahi hai. Woh mere ghar mein hi hain. Yeh baat meri der mein samajh aayi ki mandir ka matlab hai man andar”
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Akshay-Kumar-I-dont-go-to-Vaishno-Devi-anymore/articleshow/44112384.cms
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December 30, 2014 at 10:30 PM
Akshay like many Dilliwaley, is a Vaishnodevi bhakt.Good, but why bring him in here? Aamir , as per his friend Prasoon Joshi, seems to have flirted with atheism. Some 5 years back Prasoon had said in an interview that ‘Aamir is a true atheiest’. But he did accompany his mom to Haj, so…and Hirani is said to be an agnostic who doesn’t believe stuff like numerology.
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December 30, 2014 at 3:53 PM
Wasn’t it PK preaching in movie and not Aamir??
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December 30, 2014 at 4:48 PM
So you are trying to say Aamir didn’t read the script and believe in it before signing it?
Oh Okay
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December 30, 2014 at 3:55 PM
PICKET 43:
Prithviraj, Javed Jaffrey, Renji Panicker, Sudheer Karamana, Hareesh Peradi..
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December 30, 2014 at 4:59 PM
http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/pk-row-muslim-aamir-khan-hurting-hindu-sentiments-does-it-make-sense/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=t.co
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December 30, 2014 at 6:36 PM
The loonies r really helping PK. I came to watch the 6:15 show in DC & it is sold out!!!! The lady at the counter smiled at my I CAN’t FREAKING BELIEVE IT face & said she had seen 15 such desi expressions in the last 15 mns!!
This is turning out to be big..I just can’t remember the last time anything so big for a desi movie here….
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December 30, 2014 at 8:18 PM
3 Idiots was like this.. I saw 3 idiots in its 3-4th week in Chicago and it was sold out.
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December 30, 2014 at 9:41 PM
According to a post on fb’s Chennai Shoping page (which covers any Chennai related practical issue beyond shopping), a group of 16 plans to watch PK today — and wants more tickets! Luckily, the loon-goon brigade has so far kept away from my city and its peaceful sensible citizens. Touvh wood.
Mind you, most people here are quite religious — but there is little visible opposition to PK. But Tamil films have taken swipes, and people have laughed along. I remember this film where a road milestonne marker is turned into a shrine thay starts collecting visitors and money. And of course nobody makes fun of the other two religions.It’s Hindus who dare to laugh at themselves.People here are in fact now remembering how badly Kamal was treated just before Vishwaroopam release. A few scene had to be cut, much money lost… And a few are saying Kamal suffered, let Bollywood suffer; my point, why should any movie maker need to go through such trauma? How csn one produce any woryhwhile film or book in such an atmosphere?
And as for that Harvard educated character– have never liked him and dislike him even more now. Twitter was always a trashy place and mischief making muck rakers like this guy are one reason. PK has the financial backing of UTV and Disney, Chopra and Hirani are the joint producers for a film written by two Hindus and directed by one — but it is lead player Aamir who is being attacked by SSwamy. The idea– throw enough mud, so some of it sticks.
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December 31, 2014 at 12:10 AM
Too many typos. Sorry.
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December 30, 2014 at 9:01 PM
Top Opening Days 2014 Real Value – Kick Tops
Tuesday 30 December 2014 11.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Kick is the biggest opener of 2014 if real values are taken for opening day collections. There are many factors that affect the opening collections like a holiday (national holiday, restricted holiday, regional holiday) and festivities like pre Diwali or Eid. Below are the top ten openers of 2014 if all things are equal and were released on a normal Friday.
Some films opened on big holidays while others were hit by festivities. The performances of the days after release and how the trends in different circuits should be if it was a normal release are taken into account to arrive at the values
Below are the opening day value is all films have had opened on normal Fridays. Some of the films have their actual values as they released on normal Friday while others have been adjusted.
1. Kick – 30.5 crore
2. Happy New Year – 27.50 crore
3. PK – 25.68 crore
4. Singham Returns – 23 crore
5. Bang Bang – 18.50 crore
6. Jai Ho – 17.06 crore
7. Ek Villain – 16.43 crore
8. Gunday – 12.25 crore
9. Holiday – A Soldier Is Never Off Duty – 11.92 crore
10. Humshakals – 10.74 crore
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December 30, 2014 at 9:03 PM
lol….what the hell does this even mean??? it totally looks like numbers pulled out of ones rear end…
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December 30, 2014 at 9:26 PM
BOI are so incredibly shameless it can certainly be said that they always beat their own earlier records of shamelessness. For the first time ever and just when PK is guaranteed to get to 300 they suddenly discover this bogus criterion. Of course on PK though they’ve pointed out the obvious at all points given the kind of breathless commentary they’ve offered for so many other films, certainly Salman’s, the reports on PK have been completely restrained by comparison. But even leaving aside the utter shamelessness of this criterion it’s even false. Hollywood looks at every possible factor but Hollywood has no such listing of ‘normal’ weekends. It’s as if Dark Knight or whatever were taken off these lists or placed much lower down for releasing on Memorial Day or Christmas or something. Such utter bull. Of course one even feels pity for them. Somehow Aamir after Ghajini/3I and now D3/PK might not be ahead of Salman is a fantasy only BOI can subscribe to. As always what offends me much more than plain dishonesty is the sheer idiocy behind it. If you want to have an agenda you should at least be a little more sophisticated about it. Unless one is a total moron it’s not too hard to spot where all of this is coming from!
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December 30, 2014 at 10:09 PM
Satyam, I seem to have put up two comments a while back, under my alternative id Lalitha S. They are not showing up. Pl do what’s reqd.
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December 30, 2014 at 9:07 PM
PK controversy slightly dents the box office collections
After watching “PK”, Hindutva groups Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad were so livid that they went on a rampage in Ahmedabad and Bhopal, smashing theatres screening the film. Also, members of the Bajrang Dal allegedly vandalised theatres in Ahmedabad and demanded a ban on the screening of the Aamir Khan starrer.
In Agra, a “PK” screening was disrupted by protesters who accused Aamir Khan of double standards and allegedly even asked him to move to Pakistan.
The film has also been affected in a few pockets elsewhere in the country.
Rajesh Thadani said: “Yes, the film has been affected in a few pockets like Gujarat, but as we rightly say controversies have added extra publicity to the film. So, it’s only going to help the film in coming days.”
Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/pk-controversy-slightly-dents-the-box-office-collections/1/410621.html
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December 30, 2014 at 9:17 PM
http://news.statetimes.in/maharashtra-government-asks-police-look-pks-content/
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December 30, 2014 at 9:38 PM
Caught up with THE IMITATION GAME. What a stupendous movie!
Superb, superb performances by both Benedict and Keira..Unmissable movie.Highly, highly recommended…
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December 30, 2014 at 9:55 PM
I read the The Innovators by Walter Isaacson. Reviewed it for a paper. Informative and readable history of the Digital Age, from Babbage& Ada Lovelace up to present times. There is quite a bit about Alan Turing , the subject of The Imitation Game. Need to watch it when it releases here, mid-late Jan.
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December 31, 2014 at 2:31 AM
lol. i saw some reviews which suggests it is designed for award season i.e. quite formula based. Also, production values are poor, which makes it look like a TV movie.
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December 31, 2014 at 2:59 AM
9 crores on Tue as per BOI
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December 31, 2014 at 8:40 AM
72-73 crores depending on source. If today goes 10 crore it has an outside chance of 100 crores for the second week. Would need a monster New year’s day but the way the film is going on holidays it could do it.
Third week should be 40 crores so long as Friday starts greater than 5 crore.
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December 31, 2014 at 4:22 AM
Rajen1 : i don’t know why you are telling 9cr tuesday to me. I had already much before this BO number on BOI. Actually, i had estimated 1 AM IST itself based on girish johar’s tweets. Based on Kanpur numbers he gave early morning, it looked like tuesday could be more than monday. Anyways. It is set to cross 300 cr now.
Though, i would still say it was nothing more than just good experience for me. may be average or so. This movie had no surprising element for me as such. Also, watching online on first day itself with no great sound didn’t work for some part. Anyways, I enjoyed OMG much more , i watched that movie also online only. Still, OMG has repeat value for me. I can still watch it, i can’t say i am intended to watch PK again any time soon. I found PK unfunny and stretched for many scenes, and those scenes not even thrilled me like OMG does.
Still, PK is one of rare bollywood films in recent years i could complete in one go while watching online.
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December 31, 2014 at 6:20 AM
Re: “…watching online on first day itself with no great sound …”
If you don’t mind my asking, where are you located?
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December 31, 2014 at 7:43 AM
USA watching online is not a problem Q.
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December 31, 2014 at 10:34 AM
Raghav- wasn’t responding to you
On these long threads , the comments have a mind of their own as to where they show up.
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December 31, 2014 at 11:56 AM
*** i saw some reviews which suggests it is designed for award season i.e. quite formula based. Also, production values are poor, which makes it look like a TV movie.***
Right – I don’t from which planet the reviewers you are talking of came from. But with 89% tomatometer, I think pretty much ‘everyone’ is a sucker for ‘designed’ movies and can be easily manipulated..
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_imitation_game/
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December 31, 2014 at 12:05 PM
Have heard only good things about the movie. Was shocking to learn how they dealt with gays in 40s and 50s.
Has adopted a release strategy similar to The King’s Speech and seems to be working.
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December 31, 2014 at 12:32 PM
Here you go, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y8L1PfTU9M
There are 4 critics and hear from them. RT and imdb is full of pseduo intellect , i think It is a formula based safe movie just like PK which people love as they get just what they expect though premise and story is interesting again just like PK. But, overall movie is highly overrated, still i will also be catching it this week.
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December 31, 2014 at 1:33 PM
this too….watch from 4:10
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December 31, 2014 at 3:47 AM
Wishing everyone a good new year.
Sad that the year ended with a terrible air disaster, ferry disaster and needless controversies.
Tomorrow is another day.
With a heavy heart, hoping for some normalcy.
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December 31, 2014 at 4:05 AM
Happy New Year Sanjana and everyone here including Satyam . Yes, December has been a terrible month. So many tragedies. Hopefully 2015 will bring cheer.
On the PK front– the film has been granted tax exemption by U P; and examimed then declared fit to run smoothly, in Maharashtra.
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December 31, 2014 at 4:09 AM
PK is a harmless film. Hope the furore dies down and filmgoers and theatre owners are not harassed.
Thanks for the wishes Lalita, and wish you the same.
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December 31, 2014 at 6:47 AM
Happy new year to all Satyamshot bloggers 🙂
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December 31, 2014 at 8:17 AM
Vijay:
Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan most active on Twitter; Aamir Khan the biggest gainer in 2014 – See more at:
http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/amitabh-bachchan-shah-rukh-khan-most-active-on-twitter-aamir-khan-the-biggest-gainer-in-2014/#sthash.3sdwQQOL.dpuf
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December 31, 2014 at 10:43 AM
Finally caught up with the Equalizer. Liked it quite a bit. A nice mood film for the genre and then Denzel truly raises this several notches.
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December 31, 2014 at 1:48 PM
Enjoyed Equaliser as well. Denzel is ace as usual.
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December 31, 2014 at 11:01 AM
PK Second Tuesday Total
Wednesday 31 December 2014 11.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
PK grossed 9 crore nett on its second Tuesday and took its total to 253 crore nett. The second week collection are as follows.
Friday – 14,25,00,000
Saturday – 17,00,00,000
Sunday – 22,00,00,000
Monday – 9,75,00,000
Tuesday – 9,00,00,000 (Early Estimate)
Total – 72,00,00,000
The film is looking at a huge 95 crore nett total in week two which will take it to 276 crore nett in two weeks. The third weekend drop will determine its lifetime total.
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December 31, 2014 at 11:08 AM
So PK is at 71 crore in 5 days i.e. still more than double digit average per day.
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December 31, 2014 at 1:05 PM
I think the protests may have affected business to a degree.
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December 31, 2014 at 1:08 PM
It’s counter productive, if anything it’s adding to collections. Bihar is now tax free too.
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December 31, 2014 at 1:17 PM
absolutely.. for every one screening or two, one theater or two they disrupt they generate a lot more news for it. of course there’s some cynicism here too. They’ve not targeted any of the heavyweight chains!
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December 31, 2014 at 1:38 PM
As usual negativity spreads faster and highlighted and some positivity (Maharashtra CM’s decision to provide all security for screening and not to conduct a probe into the movie’s contents) gets no attention. Doesn’t he belong to BJP and RSS??
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December 31, 2014 at 1:46 PM
Also no one noticing this, http://www.deccanchronicle.com/141230/nation-current-affairs/article/muslim-clerics-seek-removal-controversial-scenes-pk
People with their bias against Modi and his Govt will keep throwing stones with some or other excuse.
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December 31, 2014 at 2:42 PM
“faster” there is no such a word..quicker yes
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December 31, 2014 at 1:43 PM
“Amitabh Bachchan has been roped in for an ad film that stresses the need to rise above religion and caste for inclusive development. The film is a brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who personally called up Bachchan”.
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December 31, 2014 at 4:00 PM
AirAsia flight QZ8501: Radar data shows ‘unbelievably steep climb’ before crash
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/AirAsia-flight-QZ8501-Radar-data-shows-unbelievably-steep-climb-before-crash/articleshow/45706466.cms
Some interesting findings about how this crash might have happened which may explain how that Malaysian airlines flight might have disappeared.
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December 31, 2014 at 4:10 PM
Sounds similar to Air France crash. Stall happened because of steep climb.
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January 1, 2015 at 12:54 AM
My fav Heroes are Gunday’s (Ranveer and Arjun) and i know it is almost unrealistic to expect that they will reach even remoteley close to Khan’s Stardom so as a neutral (As far as Khan’s are concerned) i have few random thoughts on PK’s success and on Aamir Bhakts.
1- Like what Julius caesar said to Brutus….. “Brutus you too”…SRK and Salman’s Bhakts can also say same about Aamir Bhakts that “You too are like us”. Earlier Aamir Bhakts used to make this grand Announcement that We don’t care about box office and they belive in quality not in quantity but ‘PK’ showed thier double standerd. On initial 2 days when ‘PK’ failed to put expected number they went into shell despite film getting rave rivewes and they came out from shell from Sunday (21 dec) onwards when film got momentum and started its record breaking spree.
2- Earlier they used to say that BOI is Pro SRK site but when BOI decreased HNY first day collection and announced that PK’s 37+ cr is the single biggest day collection Aamir Bhakts didn’t said anything.
3- ‘PK’ is doing record breaking buisness, getting rave reviews still Aamir Bhakts are not satisfied now they are complaing why BOI and other filmi sites are not doing OTT commentry and why they are not using superlative adjectives to praise film BO performence to the sky. Typicall SRK bhakts behaviour.
Now coming to ‘PK’ BO performence. I don’t how much water this logic holds but still just Random thoughts.
Dhoom 3 grossed 261 cr as per BOI now if you take 20% inflated ticket rates of ‘PK’ it should do 313 cr to match Dhoom 3 BOI collection. (200 cr 20 % is 40 cr and 61 cr is 12 cr). Now As per Aamir Bhakts Dhoom 3 is not a good film and ‘PK’ is masterpiece. Now if an Aamir’s masterpiece (‘PK’) matching Aamir Trash (Dhoom 3) is it so much a big deal.
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January 1, 2015 at 2:29 AM
9.75 crore on wed as per BOI
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January 1, 2015 at 5:25 AM
PK Is Highest Grossing Film Of All Time
Thursday 01 January 2015 14.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
PK has now become the highest grossing film of all time in the domestic market in just 13 days. The top five all time grossers are as follows.
1. PK – 263 crore (13 days)
2. Dhoom 3 – 261 crore
3. Kick – 212 crore
4. Chennai Express – 208 crore
5. 3 idiots – 201 crore
Note – Hindi versions only
PK grossed 181.56 crore nett in week one and has grossed 81.25 crore nett apprx in six days of its second week. The film will cross 275 crore nett in two weeks.
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January 1, 2015 at 8:03 AM
Wasnt D3 at 280crs?
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January 1, 2015 at 10:51 AM
Nope, it wasn’t. It was around 267 cr when BOI stopped givimg numbers as it was no not big number thereafter. BOI closed their commentary with the expectation of 270 cr final total. Now, they have lowered numbers, but the difference is not more than 5-6 cr..
It was BH which made it cross 280 cr in 5 weeks.
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January 2, 2015 at 5:28 AM
For your information BH are giving a total of all languages which is around 12 to 14. So Dhoom 3 all versions made around 280 crores as BOI don’t count other language in their final total.
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January 1, 2015 at 5:59 AM
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/comment-how-protests-against-pk-have-unwittingly-validated-the-film-s-message-2048376
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January 1, 2015 at 6:01 AM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/PK-is-against-religious-fraudsVaidik/articleshow/45715085.cms
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January 1, 2015 at 9:06 AM
balls
http://indiafacts.co.in/leela-samson-allows-free-pass-to-pk-to-abuse-hindu-gods/#.VKVTi9LF9BC
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January 1, 2015 at 9:27 AM
The perceived anti-Hindu slight as proposed by this article is questionable. But the crystal clear hypocrisy of Leela Samson as reflected in her actions vis-a-vis KMD, Entertainment and PK has been firmly established.
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January 1, 2015 at 9:40 AM
and it will be established every way…article has facts
surprised ravinar has written on it and even madhu poornima kishwar….good
http://www.mediacrooks.com/
Enough has been written on SM about the hypocrisy of this anti-Hindu Samson. She is another of those residual evils left over from the last evil govt. Count one more! All establishments with such Sickulars need to be revamped with fair and reasonable people. PK is an out and out commercial film yet only a Sicko like Akhilesh Yadav can consider it “educational” and make it tax-free. Nobody demanded a tax-exemption – not the movie makers, not the public, not the anti-Hindu gang in the media. Yet, this “Baap ka raj” type CM announces this as if the state treasury is his personal property. Typical Sicko-Commie, eh? It is not as if UP is rolling in the basement with tons of cash. Then this Sicko will whine about not getting enough funds from the Centre. If you’re anti-Hindu the Sickulars will not only support you but will offer financial benefits. Count another residual evil!
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January 1, 2015 at 10:42 AM
‘Happy’ new year to you too Rockstar..!
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January 1, 2015 at 12:36 PM
happy to you as well
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/leela-samson-quits-kalakshetra-after-pil-questions-continuance/1/187348.html
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January 1, 2015 at 9:17 AM
they need to understand times have changed just like what doval and modi did with foreign affairs and army a lot of cleansing required on bollywood funding…frankly awareness is gaining ground to and its good such incident are happening to increase awareness
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January 1, 2015 at 9:28 AM
http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/kashmiri-pandits-seek-ban-on-film-haider-for-misrepresenting-ancient-temple/
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January 1, 2015 at 10:57 AM
Top Actor Actress Director Producer Studio 2014
Thursday 01 January 2015 12.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Below is a look at the top actor, actress, director, producer and distributor of 2014. There are five elements which have the biggest contribution to the success or failure of a film.
Actor – Salman Khan
The actor is in a league of his as far the domestic market is concerned. Kick which had no star support be it from the heroine or supporting actors and a first time director took a phenomenal start for the period. The content of the film was also driven by stars image and and went on to become a big grosser.
Actress – Alia Bhatt
The actress become a top ranker as films like 2 States and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania emerged major hits and the performances of Alia Bhatt were appreciated tremendously. The credit of the success of these is as much if not more than the heroes for the actress
Director – Rajkumar Hirani
There was only one director in the race as PK broke records in most of the circuits and the film was not steam-rolled by the main lead through initial business but took a couple of days to get going as the content found huge appreciation especially amongst the family audiences.
Producer – Sajid Nadiadwala
Kick, 2 States and Heropanti the producer had a dream run in 2014. In this time of corporate studios ruling the roost its very rare that an independent producer has such a run. Even a film like Highway put up an okay number which was too the producers credit as it had no star power but managed to do okay business in week one possibly due to marketing but crashed thereafter due to content. Heropanti was probably the biggest surprise hit of the year as it hit 50 crore nett.
Distributor / Studio – UTV
It was a bad time for distributors but UTV who was the dominant force in 2013 managed to come out on top again but not with the sort of advantage they had in 2013. The two biggest hits of the year PK and Kick were distributed by UTV as well as other hit films like 2 States and Heropanti while Haider and Highway also managed to keep away from the flop list but only just.
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January 1, 2015 at 4:08 PM
Have BOI changed Jai Ho’s release date to 2013? Also it depends on how one measures star power- the star is responsible for the opening weekend, after that it’s up to the movie’s merits.
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January 1, 2015 at 11:03 AM
Salman is in league of his own really ? but its Aamir who keep putting up these benchmarks Hirani gets credit for PK but Aamir doesnt ?
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January 1, 2015 at 11:31 AM
BOI can keep living in their fantasy universe..! LOL they never expected PK to do this much. Even after release they said 3I was the standard and what not. Now they’re coming up with all sorts of criteria (including that ‘adjusted initial’ thing the other day) to make the case against Aamir. As always it’s not the agenda that bothers me as much as the sheer idiocy. One should do these things with a little more intelligence.
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January 1, 2015 at 11:37 AM
“..There was only one director in the race as PK broke records in most of the circuits and the film was not steam-rolled by the main lead through initial business but took a couple of days…”
As I had mentioned last week, the excuses to deny Aamir Khan will start once the success of PK is confirmed. Ridiculous is too small a word for such blatant bias.
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January 1, 2015 at 11:43 AM
This sorta commentary ties with their assumption that Aamir can be replaced by anyone else in every movie of his. They could “perhaps” have made a case for any other movie, but for PK this is just pure nonsense. Aamir is PK, period. It would be sheer delusion for them to expect Sallu to match this level of acting. And SRK just would not have taken the pain to master this role. This is sheer idiocy on the part of BOI. Peekay ho gaya hai BOI.
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January 1, 2015 at 12:04 PM
In India first to:
100cr
150cr
200cr
250cr
300cr expected
Worldwide first to:
200cr
300cr
400cr
500cr
600cr expected
1st week records:
MP, RDB, Fanaa, Ghajini, 3 Idiots, D3, PK
1st day records since 2008:
Ghajini, 3 Idiots, D3
2nd week records:
Ghajini, 3 Idiots, D3, PK
3rd week records:
Ghajini, 3 Idiots and PK expected
4th and 5th week records:
3 Idiots
The only competition has been opening day or opening weekend or opening week. No other stars films has done anything noteworthy beyond week 2. CE held some total record for a few months like RNBDJ only to be significantly beaten.
BOI can say what they want, but numbers are overwhelming in favour of Aamir. Add to that that his films this side of the decade are way ahead of his competition I think it’s a silly a and desperate stance.
He announces his films on Xmas and people delay there films. Shahid releases his film against Hrithik or Ajay against SRK. The only competition is Salman…And possibly Salman in a significant film like a Barjatya can challenge, but that’s a once in a decade event. Otherwise numbers are pretty Crystal clear.
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January 1, 2015 at 5:14 PM
salman wil never clash with aamir – as two are good friends
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January 1, 2015 at 11:25 AM
thought PK was still the 2nd biggest non holiday opener after D3 never expected a D3 kind of start here since PK was more of a multiplex film also Kick didn’t have any extraordinary start and even that sunday jump wasnt big and i see how they ignored jai ho opening numbers incredibly shameless from BOI .
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January 1, 2015 at 11:25 AM
More than the film, it is the controversy that is making more news. Pro and anti. Akhilesh Yadav and Nitish Kumar are filling the vacuum and now it has become a full fledged war between seculars and their antagonists. The irony is the unwanted politicisation.
Down south, there are so many films which caricature our gods and goddesses without rising any protests.
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January 1, 2015 at 11:33 AM
given the kinds of films that have been given tax free status for all kinds of frivolous reasons it’s more than silly to start objecting to PK..
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January 1, 2015 at 12:24 PM
ya like kamal hasan to apologise for hurting sentiments very recently and to run down viswaroopam full hd pirated dvd release happens from mumbai
politics are mixed heavily in south with movie
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January 1, 2015 at 12:26 PM
“happened from dubai”
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January 1, 2015 at 10:37 PM
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-on-pk-movie-controversy/article6745645.ece
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January 1, 2015 at 11:30 PM
great read as always from him..
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January 2, 2015 at 2:08 AM
Both BOI and Indicine have said that SRK-Rohit Shetty’s film may release Xmas 2015. If so this has to be a direct effect of PK, as SRK knows neither FAN nor Raees would get him big numbers hence he’s pushing back Raees. But if SLB doesn’t move BM from Xmas then it’s useless to have the Rohit Shetty film release then. Might as well have Raees release
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January 2, 2015 at 2:53 AM
in a way it is good – it will show him exactly where he stands in front of aamir 🙂
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January 2, 2015 at 2:55 AM
Without good content, any holiday date is inconsequential. So instead of the Diwali Puja excuse, we will get to hear the Xmas Eve Chuch celebrations excuse. SK/SRK keep scratching their heads, but are never able to catch up to Aamir precisely because they do not invest the time/energy/effort in the script or the character.
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January 2, 2015 at 3:34 AM
Salman Khan’s ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ Runs Into Religious Trouble
http://www.koimoi.com/bollywood-popular/salman-khans-bajrangi-bhaijaan-runs-into-religious-trouble/
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January 2, 2015 at 5:12 AM
BH numbers:
Day 13 (Wed) 9.05
Day 14 (Thu) 14.05
TOTAL 278.87
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/box-office/special-features/id/411
BOI number is 276cr. I love how consistently close the numbers have been for PK. Maybe the box office transparency is finally a turning the tide… or maybe not. BOI are suggesting it may hit 300cr by Monday with an outside chance on Sunday. They are saying 3rd Friday has seen a strong start. This is great for a middle of the pack actor like Aamir Khan! Think I’ll have to revise my 320cr prediction I made a week ago.
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