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134 Responses to “Roy, the rest of the box office”
Yes, it is really very sad. I think when that old man put his hands in his pant pockets, the cops must have felt that he was taking out a gun and so they must have attacked him.
How can slow walking is considered as loitering?
Reminds me how Khobragade woman diplomat was treated sometime back.
Americans are very sensitive about their privacy. They dont like to be stared at. They dont like if somebody is curious. They dont like children to be touched even if the child itself wants comfort and reassurance. We go to America with Indian mindset and we are shocked at certain norms.
The said cop has lost his job as a punishment and if found guilty, will he be jailed
The blacks also complain about such incidents and being soft targets.
I don’t think Khobragade treatment was abnormal. What she went through in jail was regular; Anyone arrested has to go through the process. Yes we can argue why even she was arrested at first place.
Cant even argue on why she was arrested. She had been clearly violating labor laws by grossly underpaying her help. Similar cases of other Indians have put them in jail for 10+ yr terms in New York and other places. Khobragade was treated fairly, she just thought she cud get away due to her diplomatic status.
Grossly underpaying her help. And they stealthily shifted her family from India. From a sovereign country.
How about prosecuting US itself for interfering in other countries affairs like teaching us tolerance, and falsely accusing Iraq of storing WMD?
What about mexican helps who work dirt cheap?
What about foreign workers who are made to pay for social security the benefits of which they dont get in the beginning?
And some Indians are so enslaved by those roads, cars and pretty houses and the money that they remind me of raibahadurs, maharajas and maharanis of British Empire who saw nothing evil in their masters.
Sanjana – You have some wrong notions about US. In spite of above and some more incidences, I will say enforcement is far better. The level of corruption is low.
People just don’t come to US for car, roads..One of my wife’s complain is that we have to do all work. In India we will have four servants(sorry can’t use the term here, it should be help). Labor is expensive and for regular middle (even upper middle class) class, you have to do the things. Most of the CEOs drive their own car even if they are earning millions; Come to cafeteria and eat lunch with regular employees. There is certain respect even if you are doing janitorial job.
As for the Govt., I think they look after US interests. Laws are Law for most part. If you are caught, there is no scope of coming out scratch free. There is an anchor for nightly news and he exaggerated few things during Iraq war and this has come to light and his career is gone.
There is State department (Foreign affairs) and there is justice department. They are independent entities. What you said comes under different jurisdictions. The system of check and balances work for most part. Even Clinton was almost impeached by Independent counsel.
I am not suggesting there is no wrong but it is far better than many places.
We Indians in India give too much importance to anything related with US.
I know that there are many good things and a few bad things in US. I have stayed there for around 4 years. And with so many Indians, one feels at home. What I am referring to is the way they treated Devyani. Diplomats dont get huge salaries and they bring help from India and give them free boarding with salary. If that help has to stay in a rented accommodation, maintain a car, the cost will be much more. No one forced the help to accept those terms. And her family was stealthily brought to US. There are 2 sides to Devyani’s story.
As in other cases cited, the help was not tortured or underfed.
Nowadays even in India help is not that cheap. It is expensive, unpredictable and even risky.
I am willing to believe the help came into influence of people when she visited church. But providing free roof and food is not standard. The rule is that you just give $8/hour and you don’t have to give anything. But at salary no one would come because roof is expensive. Moreover there is fraud when filling the application for visa, which is major offense than anything you do.
There is a company in US they needed to pay fine because they called employees from India office for help when they were relocating, they provided employees with accommodation and conveyance plus they were getting regular salary and bonus in India but were fined by labor department because they were not paid minimum wage in bank while in US and working.
Here I have to mix micro and macro.
Rules are bent to accommodate.
Why should India allow US security forces to protect Obama?
How Modi became suddenly ok when he became Prime Minister?
US presidents are not allowed to be in open for 2 hours but he did seat through the parade. There are rules and there are guidelines to cover for grey areas. The guidelines are typically bent.
Nepali maids in NYC come for $500 Mon-Fri with free board, food, etc. So thats $100/day, plus they charge transportation to their homes if they go back on weekends. Generally they work 8-10 hrs daily, which is about 10-12/hour. This is what all of us pay for maids in NYC. I doubt Washington DC is any cheaper. Khobragade was getting away by paying 150/week, ie for 7 days. So about $2-3/hr. Egregious is not even the word to describe the crime of slavery. Which law says that she is more important than any of the other Indians who pay exorbitantly for maids in the US? One just should not defend her because she is Indian. She violated several labor laws, and her treatment was nothing different from what any suspect is subject to. She was just lucky to have gotten out of this mess without getting into jail.
Strip search and cavity search, handcuffs, dramatic arrest of a diplomat. If it is done to their countrymen, what will be their reaction? US has this big brother attitude of saving humanity and whatever they do is right. And the arrogance of being a super power makes them take arbitrary decisions.
Labour laws are violated in US more than in India. In India we have labour unions fighting. Have you heard how computer slaves are treated? They work 20 hours to finish projects which is never taken into consideration. The american school teachers wages are abysmally low compared to what Indian teachers are getting nowadays.
About US attitude to the labour class, read this view point
Low-wage labor in America
30 April 2014
This week, the National Employment Law Project issued a report showing that since the financial crash of 2008, 1.9 million high- and average-paying jobs in the private sector have been eliminated and replaced with some 1.8 million low-wage jobs.
The report reveals the real character of the so-called “economic recovery” proclaimed by President Barack Obama and the entire political establishment. The only recovery has been in corporate profits, financial assets and the wealth of the super-rich.
For the great majority of the people, the past six years have been marked by unemployment, stagnant or declining wages, and a growth of temporary and part-time employment. This has been linked to a sharp increase in poverty, hunger, homelessness and other forms of social distress.
Mass unemployment and falling wages have led to a transformation in the financial position of American households. Real median household income fell from $55,600 in 2007 to $51,017 in 2012—a decrease of nearly ten percent in just five years.
This is the outcome of an attack on the working class that, while ongoing since the 1970s, has escalated dramatically in the aftermath of the 2008 crash. The character of American society has been changed in the process. Three decades ago, an auto assembly worker would have received $30 per hour or more. Now, the starting wage for new auto workers is $15 per hour or less, barely above the wages that prevail in the retail and food service sectors.
The so-called “middle-class” blue-collar worker has become a thing of the past. Working people are being reduced to the type of penury that characterized the slums of the 19th century, before the advent of industrial unions and the revolutionary struggles of the 20th century.
You have not said anything about how the maid’s family was whisked off stealthily like in a bond film. As if the Indian government will take revenge .
I think all this must have been done to show India its inferior place.
Not sure which teachers you are referring to. The Teachers Unions are the most powerful in the US, and an envy of most wrt the benefits and salaries they receive. I highly doubt that teachers in any other country get paid the packages that these guys get in the US.
Slave coders? You mean the ones shipped from India by Indian companies? The ones who are hated by actual American coders that are laid off because of working only 40 hrs/week, because the fresh off the boat desi “slave” coder works 60+hrs. Again, that sounds like an Indian problem, not an American one.
As for her cavity search, it is a “he said-she said” issue. The police have repeatedly denied it, and she has no proof except for her verbal account. But handcuffing a criminal is standard operating procedure.
Again, you are getting carried away with patriotism. She did not receive too much support from Indians in the US, because most of us know the reality here. Everyone gets paid a full wage, which is at least at minimum wage levels (ie $7/hr). She paid much below that level, and that constitutes slavery. Most people in India think that $2 = 120Rs/hour is a great wage. They do not comprehend what is minimum wage, it simply does not exist in India.
Let us give benefit of doubt to both Devyani and US’s Preet Bharara. I am not that particularly fond of Devyani for that matter. It is not patriotism but it is about how to treat persons whose crimes are yet to be proved. I would support an american diplomat if India treats him or her in that manner.
extremely sad though frankly I wouldn’t let my parent walk around in Alabama with poor English. Just a fact of life in certain parts of the country.. of course if you’re black it’s a more universal condition. In any case no excuse for this barbaric behavior.
WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, delivered an unusually candid speech on Thursday about the difficult relationship between the police and African-Americans, saying that officers who work in neighborhoods where blacks commit crimes at a high rate develop a cynicism that shades their attitudes about race.
Citing the song “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” from the Broadway show “Avenue Q,” he said police officers of all races viewed black and white men differently. In an address to students at Georgetown University, Mr. Comey said that some officers scrutinize African-Americans more closely using a mental shortcut that “becomes almost irresistible and maybe even rational by some lights” because black men are arrested at much higher rates than white men.
There is a police office who is student of Thich Nhat Hanh and practicising Buddhist who uses non-violence in her job…par aisey news toh news worthy nahi hai na..
And also how 3 muslims from Saudi were shot at North Carolina university. I think the recent ISIS news must have some influence for that person to commit this type of crime.
Three fourths of this three and a half hour film are made up of Pitaji parading around in outrageous clothes and performing wondrous magic. He also constantly does things that make MSG a stoner’s paradise – like standing on a lion with flapping wings, or doing pushups between two buses that are draped in the national flag colors, or headrocking in a car named ‘We luv Sat Guru’, or shooting electric laser beams from his forehead. It’s like Sant Gurmeet sat down one night with his creative team with a kilo of the blue stuff from Breaking Bad.
How can one make a sword fight more awesome? By turning the incoming flying daggers into rose petals falling over a smiling Pitaji. How about doing something with bullets more awesome than The Matrix? Let’s convert the incoming bullets into a golden crown for King Pitaji and then make him whoop the gundas’ gonads. This is the kind of stuff Rajinikanth can only dream of, and Pitaji chews every ridiculous scene with the smile of a huggable teddy. Not to mention the truly epic song lyrics like:
Papa the Great, mere papa the great
Bas tum karte ho pyaar
Saari duniya karti hate.
FSoG Box office–
this is a difficult one
It’s difficult being an R-rated /17/18 rating flick!
Kids/families/minors/prudes straightaway go out of the deal!
To add– This is NOT summer blockbuster time
There’s NO KNOWN face
Forget big stars
First timer director (female!) with no prior ‘experience’ & credentials
Having said that, I think this should do OVER 30 million dollars in the first WEEKEND itself (& maybe more!)
It’s a BIG thing to say but there u go…
And though it’s been BANNED in some countries and has got R/17/18 rating—
INTERNATIONAL gross will EXCEED domestic …
Ps: I’m not really happy with the choice of actors and the overall setup–though the soundtrack is interesting…
having said that , my personal interest is neither the ‘STEAMY scenes’ nor the box office
but to see an underrated & mysterious but exquisite ‘character’ written with maturity and panache —come alive on screen
For general public to see…
CHRISTIAN GREY…
Roy has taken a good opening at multiplexes of around 40-45%. The initial at multiplexes is the best of the year so far as far as the morning shows are concerned. Although that does not mean much as the films released so far have not opened well. The opening is better than Baby although that film did better in the evening.
The presence of Ranbir Kapoor as well as the music has proved a big advantage for the film. The opening is pretty good in Mumbai and good in Delhi and East Punjab.
The single screen opening will probably not be as strong as multiplexes but if the film can show just the normal evening growth it should come out with the best opening day of the year. The opening of Roy is the first positive at the box office in 2014.
“The opening of Roy is the first positive at the box office in 2014.”
“The opening is better than Baby although that film did better in the evening.”
The above two statements by BOI is surprising because by all counts Roy had opened lower than Baby. They have got an escape route by saying that Baby had better collections in the evening. With Roy looking to open at 5-6 Cr nett on day 1, it is surprising why Baby is talked so negatively by this site (I like this site though…sigh).
With 92Cr nett after week 3, Baby has crossed the lifetime nett of Talaash on Tuesday itself and is set to cross 95 Cr nett lifetime probably falling short by couple of crores for 100 Cr nett. BOI figures are good 18-20 Cr behind this figure, which is another surprise.
Komal Nahta @KomalNahta · 6h 6 hours ago
#Roy opens to mixed houses. Opening good at some places, but dull at most places despite hit music. Public understood, Ranbir has short role
NEW DELHI: Less than a month in office Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani waded into controversy recently ordering that a list of 36 Hindi and English cuss words be banned from films. The list sent to officials from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) across the country also ordered deletion of “violence against women”, double-meaning words, ban on the use of word Bombay and ban on glorifying bloodshed. Filmmakers have acted adversely to the order with Censor Board member Ashoke Pandit leading the charge by calling the order “murder” of creativity.
Pandit told TOI that film industry representatives were planning to take the matter up with the I&B ministry.
The order says,”It has been noticed that some of the objectional/abusive words are not still deleted from the films…All regional officers are directed to allow such words in any category of the certificate. This is applicable to regional language films as well (sic).” Though the order says that such words or expressions will not be allowed in any category of certification, Nihalani himself has clarified that it depended on the context and the film could get an adult certificate too.
Predictably the move has not gone down well with the film industry. Not only does it act as interference in the creative process but filmmakers say that it could affect the film’s commercial success. A film denied a universal certificate cannot be shown on television with restrictions placed on its screenings.
Reacting against the decision Pandit said,”As a filmmaker & CBFC board member I do not endorse the list issued by the chairperson on words not to be used in films. I was not consulted. Does the CBFC chairperson endorse other bad words which are not in this list can be used in the films? This is against the freedom and creative liberty of a filmmaker. If I am portraying the character of Dawood in my film, he will use the language as per his character and not what a saint would use.”
Pandit said that he and other members planned to raise the issue in the Board’s meeting on February 23. “Film industry also plans to take up this issue with the I&B ministry…one person cannot dictate terms to the whole industry,” he said.
Roy Set For Biggest Opening Day Of 2015
Friday 13 February 2015 23.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy is set for the biggest opening day of the year with collections set to come in at around the 8.50 crore nett mark. The Akshay Kumar starrer Baby had grossed 7.75 crore nett approx. Roy has below par collections at single screens but multiplexes are good.
The film will struggle to hold these type of figures as its pretty clear that such a opening day figure has come due to the curiousity to see Ranbir Kapoor who has an extended guest role as an Arjun Rampal starrer which the film actually is would struggle to collect even half this figure.
Saturday is Valentines Day but its unlikely that it will give it a boost that has been seen over the past few years. Sunday is the India v Pak match will affect the collections hugely.
It’s amusing how every time they talk about this film they feel obliged to add ‘because of Ranbir Kapoor’. What’s the anxiety/agenda about?! Don’t think that anyone was otherwise confused that Arjun Rampal was drawing them in!
that’s obvious. Any movie that opens with a star, I assume that the opening is because of the star, leaving aside other factors like the banner, genre and so on.
How “The King Of Good Times” And Dan Snyder Brought India Cheerleading
Cricket in India is a big-time sport—big as the NFL, NBA, and MLB combined. But a group of Indian businessman wanted to make it bigger time. So Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, who has long kept up a sideline in cheerleader promotion, helped out by sending a team of cultural ambassadors to introduce Indian cricket to the art of dressing in scanty clothing to dance alongside sporting events..
The New World choreography and risque (by local standards) outfits caused a full-on clash of cultures and generations. While high-rolling cricket magnates were inspired to decorate their sidelines with copycat crews of imported dancers, editorials derided the Redskins women and their cheering IPL peers as “firangi,” a term that for centuries has been applied to unwelcome white foreigners. Government officials lumped the visiting cheerleaders in with “bar girls,” which throughout Asia is tantamount to “hooker.”
And the battle keeps roiling.
“Indians are still trying to figure out if it’s an invasion, or an exploitation of their culture,” says Mahanth Joishy, the India-reared, New York-based editor of United-States-India Monitor, and an entertained observer of the cheerleader wars.
The PM, with all due respect, is floating too high. Come back to earth. Don’t try to present an image of a global statesman. You have won an anti-incumbency election when Congress was weak, by increasing BJP’s vote share by a few percentage points. You have not transformed India yet. Don’t go to Fiji. (Sorry Fiji, just that we have more important issues here.)
Don’t just get claps from NRIs. If they love you so much, ask them to pay. If one lakh NRIs commit to paying BJP $1,000 a year, that is a hundred million dollars of clean money annually. Use that to clean up BJP’s funding. When are you going to do that anyway?
Get the Lokpal. Have a good, independent CBI and CVC office. Clean up corruption systemically. Don’t say if Modi is there, nobody can be corrupt. What if Modi isn’t there tomorrow?
Don’t bully the media or juniors in the party. Inspire respect, not fear. Don’t be smug. Don’t kill talent in the party because it could be a threat to you one day. It’s not in BJP’s DNA to be a one-man party.
Shut up regressive Hindutva fanatics. They talk. You ignore. They are your supporters. You have to tell them loud and clear this is not OK. The young generation doesn’t find it cool to support a leader who doesn’t believe in a free and equal society. Send some of your old-fashioned partymen abroad to learn about gender issues and minority rights. They will make you sink otherwise.
Don’t be overconfident in your speeches. Keep a circle of critics around you, not just those who keep singing ‘Modiji is awesome’. Everything you utter in public must be pre-checked. If you did that, the Naxal and Bazaru comments would have been edited out. A PM cannot be a rabble rouser.
Dress down. Charisma comes from integrity, competence and compassion. Not from expensive clothes.
Stay connected to and do something visible for the youth. They screamed for you in the Lok Sabha election, filled their twitter and FB walls in your praise. What have you done for them? You went to SRCC to give a speech before election. Have you visited any college after that? Why not? Is Fiji more important (sorry again Fiji)?
The party president may be really clever. But sometimes it isn’t about who is most clever but who genuinely cares. Chess moves don’t win elections all the time. A connect with people does. The party president, given his perceived persona (which may be at variance with who he really is), doesn’t inspire confidence. You
standing next to him is Amitabh Bachchan standing next to Amar Singh. Did it help Mr Bachchan?
Don’t talk down to people. Talk to people. Don’t address people if you never want to take questions. Don’t give monologues on radio. It reminds one of Indira Gandhi and North Korea. It’s not cool. Do you really think a kid in Delhi University will tell his friends, hey, can’t miss that Mann Ki Baat on radio?
Open more colleges. Open up tourism. Reduce taxes on high employment sectors. Give tax breaks for companies that move headquarters to smaller cities. Do anything to take skills and
jobs to the interiors. Fix the primary schools. They have to teach well. Half our school kids can’t read properly.
The cities need extensions with very low cost housing solutions, with good water, electricity and transport infrastructure. That is the only way the urban poor can live a life with dignity. Give them dignity. They didn’t vote for you in Delhi, remember? Win them back.
Be real. Have work life balance. Why can’t the PM catch a movie sometimes? Or eat chaat in Delhi somewhere? A humanised PM works better than a glorified PM.
No statues, please. School or statue? Hospital or statue? No need to explain further.
No personal attacks on opponents no matter how punchy the joke or the temptation to say it. Again, run it past those critical advisers first.
No hanging out with rich industrialists. Of course, you may need to officially. But that doesn’t have to be a media event. Hang out with the billion people, not billionaires.
Ultimately, all of the above comes down to the party listening and acting according to the wishes of the people.
How about a political class mukht Bharat? It is sickening to see the games played by politicians. Why cant we choose only administrators instead of politicians?
Roy Holds Well On Its Second Day
Saturday 14 February 2015 23.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy has held well on Saturday as it is likely to show growth as collections should go to 10 crore nett or maybe a little higher. The film has benefited from Valentines Day but not as much as it should have.
The last few years have seen that Valentines Day adds around 20-30% collections and here the growth will not be that much which means it would have been a different story had it not been Valentines Day. Still the film has grossed a very healthy 20 crore nett plus in two days and were it not for the big cricket match tomorrow the film would have easy closed at over 30 crore nett for the weekend
Delhi NCR and East Punjab have led again on as both areas have posted very good numbers on Saturday.
Roy Second Day Business
Sunday 15 February 2015 12.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy showed growth on Saturday but considering it was Valentines Day it should have been more. Still the two day business is good. The first two day business of Roy is as follows.
Friday – 9,25,00,000
Saturday 10,00,00,000
TOTAL – 19,25,00,000
The Sunday business will be hit by the match and that too the best shows on Sunday afternoon. The evening and night shows will be okay but they tend to be less anyway especially in the big cities.
Roy .. despite getting horrible feedback from one and all, collecting reasonably well. On other had .. Shamitabh, despite so well made movie and mostly positive world of mouth, flopped badly. Here comes youth into play .. Amitabh has fan following among all age groups, but his hard core fans are only above 35 … and this age group don’t watch movies in theatre. Amitabh is still huge crowd puller on live events .. or public appearances. But ironically, youth no longer interested in his movies on big screen. This is sad case .. such creative efforts which are getting applaud, but not translating to BO collections.
Fifty Shades of Grey Has Biggest Presidents Day Box Office Opening in History
TIME MAGAZINE
Charlotte Alter @charlottealter 11:12 AM ET
Fifty Shades of Grey Projected to earn over $90 million this weekend
Fifty Shades of Grey is breaking box office records faster than it’s breaking taboos. The much-anticipated movie version of E.L. James’s hit novel has raked in $81.67 million since it opened Friday, and Universal projects the movie will make over $90 million over the four day weekend, Deadline reports.
That makes Fifty Shades of Grey the record-holder for best Presidents Day opening weekend of all time.
Can three beautiful people on screen, shot against equally beautiful backdrops, with some foot-tapping and soulful songs in a totally vacuous plot hold your attention for some two hours and more? The answer on the evidence of Roy would have to be yes. The story of a film maker writing a script in which the real and real life gets mixed can be a complex and compelling narrative. But Roy doesn’t want to go there. The plot points are there: art theft, a film-maker meeting another glamorous woman film-maker and modelling his heroine on her and the compulsive womanizer finally getting bitten by the love bug; but the film doesn’t want to flesh things out , happy just to skim the surface. But to be honest there aren’t any false notes either. So the treatment can be mistaken as a conscious choice. The same is true for the performances as well – which si to say nobody acts. In the context of over-the-top acting style in all Bollywood films this kind of comes as a relief even, a deliberate choice or not. Almost all the lines are smart ( eg Baaten jhooth ho sakt hain kahani nahin.), though there is no dramatic tension of any kind for them to make any impact. But there are compensating pleasures. Arjun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor look like the gods of angst; and only Jacqueline Fernandes could get away pretending to be the globe-trotting film director Ayesha Aman to have helmed the award winning ‘ Malacca Times’. The fact that Kabir Grewal writes his script on a manual typewriter and his so adorable golden retriever comes to greet him when he come home after a long spell of shooting without any sign of a housekeeper have no logica to stand upon but are cute touches nevertheless. There is something going on with the father character played by the Anupam Kher character and the detective played by Rajit Kpaoor, but again the director Vikrmajit Singh doesn’t want to tell us. The songs especially Soorja Dooba are a treat, so is the fine background score. In the end, the film doesn’t go anywhere, or doesn’t take you anywhere, but it does so with style. So while it is quite possible you will be bored to death, you might still give the makers an indulgent smile and not feel any rancour or bitterness.
( Ps: With a similar concept Shabd dida much better job in terms of storytelling, though that one too faltered in execution.)
The movie is shot beautifully and very stylish. I am not a technical person but could see the camera angles. The movie is blank in some parts and I thought screenplay could have been improved to make audience engagement better. Still I will prefer this to regular stuff from Bollywood. For some reason I believe this is not an original idea.
That is only the poster. The movie feels like too non-bollywoodish. Probably that is why people are giving half star or 1 star. It is for most part self indulgent.
Distributors of Lingaa are planning to protest by begging in chennai after producers agreed to pay only 3.3 crores for 33 cr losses.Rajnikant is an overhyped star.Its the media which hypes him.He was a spent force long back.In the south telugu superstar krishna is bigger than him in overall acheivements.
Roy Has Decent Weekend But Trend Poor
Monday 16 February 2015 12.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy had a decent weekend grossing 24.75 crore nett if we take into account that it was hit badly on Sunday by the cricket match between India and Pakistan. The film grossed 9.25 crore nett on Friday, 10 crore nett on Saturday and 5.50 crore nett on Sunday.
But the trend is really not there for the film as real values for the film are 9.25, 8.50 and 10 for the first three days if we take out Valentines Day and match factor. If the film had a good trend over the weekend then it would have recovered most of the amount lost due to the match over the week but it may be difficult now.
The film fared best at multiplexes with singls screen business being below average and the film’s fate depends on Monday which should be recovering a good chunk of the collections lost due to the match but with the weekend trend showing limited appreciation that may not happen.
Abhishek Bachchan @juniorbachchan · 8h 8 hours ago
Today a childhood dream of mine came true. I met my idol. @MagicJohnson . Thank you for being such an inspiration!
“Distributors of Lingaa are planning to protest by begging in chennai after producers agreed to pay only 3.3 crores for 33 cr losses.”
Hahaha howlarious …
Producers (ex producers now!) of solo abhishrek starters over the years need to from a similar ‘begging club’
Anyhow watched BOTH FSoG & Roy this weekend
‘hectic’ weekend this…
Will opine soon (once I ‘recuperate’)…
Thanks folks/fans for patronising ‘quality stuff’ …a slap for all pseudointellectuals !!
FSoG seems to have whipped & dominated’ box office into submission.
Fifty Shades of Grey beats Avatar with $248m opening weekend box office!!
Fifty Shades of Grey made $248.7m at the worldwide box office at the weekend – the highest global debut of 2015 so far.
Sam Taylor-Johnson’s adaptation of the bestselling EL James knee-trembler about a kinky Seattle billionaire and his sceptical sex slave also took the biggest-ever US debut for the President’s Day long weekend, with $90.7m. In the UK and Ireland, its $21.5m haul was the highest for a film with an 18 certificate, with similar achievements pulled off in Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Philippines and New Zealand.
I saw Roy yesterday. It was the most pretentious piece of crap I’ve seen in a long long time. It sucks that it’s doing better than Shamitabh, which I loved.
honestly I did like Big B in shamitabh but it was a crap film – there was no real plot and lot of ad. film-maker kinda shots were there – sorry balki! u’ve tried to fool the audience and it showed at the BO that audience ain’t taking any of this shit……
Entertainment industry has lost a talented actor today as Ashraful Haque passed away this afternoon.
An NSD graduate, Haque hailed from Goalpara in Assam. His contribution to Hindi cinema was significant and he had been part of more than 30 Hindi films, TV shows and commercials. He breathed his last at Andheri, Mumbai. Sources say that he was suffering from a rare disease and was admitted to the hospital.
He proved his talent with films like Deewar, Paan Singh Tomar, Fukrey, Company and the recently released movie The Lost Beharupiya.May his soul rest in peace!
In the meanwhile, I had signed K Abbas’s film Saat Hindustani. He was a close family friend.
During my school and college holidays, I would go to Abbas saab and beg him to give me a passing shot in his films so he would give me small parts. But, in Saat Hindustani, he gave me one of the leading roles.
Abbas saab needed a heroine. He saw Neena Singh, a friend of mine from Delhi, at my house and wanted to know if she would act in a film. She agreed.
Neena asked me if I could give a picture of her friend who lived in Calcutta (as Kolkata was then known) and worked in Bird and Co, to Abbas saab. Her friend, she said, was interested in cinema and wanted to become an actor.
The photograph showed a very tall man standing outside Victoria Memorial.
Abbas saab said the man had to come to Mumbai at his own expense for the audition. He also said he did not know when the audition would take place so the aspiring actor would have to wait and would not be paid for it.
That is how Amitabh Bachchan landed up in Mumbai.
I was the one who took him to Abbas saab’s office.
In the evening, I was given the dirty job of offering Amitabh Rs 5,000 for the entire film, whether it took one year or five to make.
Bunty (Ajitabh) and Amitabh looked at each other. They were absolutely shocked!
Amitabh reluctantly agreed as he was desperate to act. He got the role of the poet’s friend in Saat Hindustani.
When my father got the letter from Satyajit Ray saying I could work with him, I had to give up Saat Hindustani. So I left for Calcutta and Amitabh got the role of the poet that I was supposed to play.
It was a very powerful role!
He made a tremendous impression on people in one sequence where his foot gets cut with a razor and he has to walk across the border from Goa to India.
Thanks An Jo…This was a great read..One of the best movies I liked in their combo was ‘Main Azaad Hoon’….This movie never made his mark or got due credits..But Amitji was superb..I had seen about 4 times in Theater :)..This Indian adaptation ‘Meet John Doe’ which I believe was aired in Doordarshan on the same week ‘Main Azaad Hoon’ was released or close to it….The plot and storyline is still current I feel..Maybe a good one for Raju Hirani/Aamir Khan to remake ? Or Hope not 🙂
Difficult for me to do a piece on FSoG (maybe later–deserves longer piece)
but a few words on Roy…
It’s an interesting phase in Bollywood and though a flawed, uneven and inconsistent project, but liked the ambition & the attempt –am too lazy to go more into this bcos will take time to explain
It goes without saying that this will go nowhere on box office at all!
Roy will struggle to reach 50 crores net ….
Jacqueline works hard and has some good tracks as somebody posted above (but something’s missing in her—unsure what)
Ranbir gives an eminently LAZY & FLACCID Performance reminiscent of abhishrek at his passive best…
(Don’t blame him –I know boning katrina kapoor all nite takes away from oneself…)
Even crap films have something worthwhile in it…
Even crap actors sometimes have it in them
To give that one fine scene
That one final push
That one final moment
I know nobody will agree with me but who cares. Amidst all this, what stuck my eye
Was a tour de force by arjun rampal
Till now his ‘acting’ career was a joke–but now he can call himself an ‘actor’ just on the basis of this ONE performance
Arjun rampals career best (well, the ONLY one really!)
A mood piece worthy of inclusion in my collection
And mind u, it’s not easy to make me write this
It’s NOT easy playing a self obsessed conflicted soul like that
I know there are some ‘hit’ songs in Roy but I liked this one –KK back in action
Ishare bhi chup hain
Zubaan khamosh hai
Sadaa gumsum si hai
Tanha aagosh hai
Yaara re, yaara re..
Kyun faaslon mein bhi tu yaara re …
I won’t rip apart this flop–worthy just for Kabir Grewal (just like Saifs happy ending!)
I don’t think arjun rampal will ever match this again
Good bye buddy
Roy Day Five Collections
Wednesday 18 February 2015 11.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy fell further on Tuesday although fall was not huge like Monday the film is now collecting at low levels. The first five day business of Roy is as follows.
Baby crosses RS 95 cr nett and might add a crore or two now. While it is making few distributors lose money, over the film is semi Hit. Though it deserved to be Blockbuster but may be a songless, heroine less, hard hitting realistic edge of the thriller needs more time in India to be universally acceptable.
What is remarkable to note is the extraordinary turnaround in Akshay Kumar’s body of work. From what initially looked like a career comprising mainly of a Khiladi series and comedy films, Akshay now has films like OMG, Special 26, Holiday and now Baby all classics in itself in a span of mere 2-3 years. While his core fans love him whenever he does a Hera Pheri, Garam Masala or Rowdy Rathore, he is winning over fans with his latest risks and experiments.
Really proud that he did Baby, Akshay is now probably a bigger star and actor than in 2008 when he tasted news heights in success.
A mini industry and now a respectable Make in India all by himself super star. More power to him and may he keep doing many more films like Baby. It is better than doing forgettable blockbusters
While it is true that Akshay has a few genuine stand out films, I would take his Special 26 and Baby over 99% of HR or SRK”s films and even his Namastey London or Patiala House over 90% of HR/SRK films. There is an endearing sincerity about him , no matter what kind of film he is doing. And, his off screen persona is far less jarring.
The industry could do with a few more like him.
apart from Baby, his next films is about the range- from Main Gabbar to Brothers to Airlift and then movies like Houseful 3 and Singh is Bling- Akshay is mixing it well and is doing more films than any other star. It deprives him the curiosity premium but makes it up by being evergreen.
Fifty Shades of Grey ‘set for $500m’ after breaking US February record
Sam Taylor-Johnson’s movie trumps February opening weekend takings for The Passion of the Christ 11 years ago
Fifty Shades of Grey is on course for a box office haul of at least $500m worldwide after final totals for the film’s opening weekend showed that Sam Taylor-Johnson’s erotic romance scored the highest February opening of all time in north America.
Initial estimates from studio Universal suggested the adaptation of EL James’s bestselling literary knee-trembler had made $81.7m over its first three days in the US and Canada. But according to Variety that figure has now been upgraded to $85m. The new total places it ahead of the previous February best, the $83.8m bow made by Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ in 2004.
Fifty Shades of Grey so dominates global box office it could whip Mamma Mia!
The final figure for the longer four-day Presidents’ Day weekend in the US was also up on previously reported estimates, from $90.7m to $93m, though the studio itself had estimated a $94.4m return.
Worldwide, Fifty Shades opened to $266.6m over its first four days in cinemas, some way ahead of previously reported estimates of $248.7m. That total places the movie 18th on the list of the biggest global bows of all time.
“This kind of performance is usually reserved for superhero movies and animation franchises,” BoxOffice.com’s Phil Contrino told Variety, predicting an eventual return of more than half a billion dollars. “[Fifty Shades of Grey] joins that club.”
A $500m box office take would be an unprecedented haul for an erotic movie.
In other Fifty Shades of Grey news, San Francisco television station KBCW reports that a drive-in cinema in nearby Concord is showing the erotic movie next to a screening of children’s adventure The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. Taylor-Johnson’s film, which features a number scenes of BDSM but avoids showing star Jamie Dornan’s penis, is reportedly visible from a shared parking lot.
Rather than any indication of the quality of the movie, it is a testament to the appeal of the salacious subject, marketed well and ubiquitous nature of purveyors of porn, soft or otherwise.
on a related note you might have heard of the new novel Girl on the Train that’s just hit # 1 on the NYT list. It’s supposed to be another Gone Girl kind of deal with an ‘unreliable’ narrator. I would expect a Hollywood film in fairly short order and it will probably open much bigger than Gone Girl too!
Meanwhile here’s an interesting piece on American Sniper which might explain why people on both sides of the divide can perhaps take to it:
I don’t care about ‘reputations’ & biases & fandoms etc
People will be suprised to see somebody praising arjun here…
Heck with it!
But there u r–even I don’t know how I will react
From the moment he appears on screen as Kabeer Grewal, he LIVES the character. The film Roy takes 4-5 years to make & there’s a ‘consistence’
it’s the TONE he adopts & maintains throughout the film.
Running like a vein through the circulation of the film
DWARFING the likes of ranbir and Jacqueline
Not ONE false note ….
Cheers Arjun
Xxxxxxxx
FAO the director of Roy (don’t know what’s his name)
Buddy I think uve lifted the Tarantino & that female Coppola( don’t remember her name) escapade here depicting
Kabir grewal (arjun)– ayesha aamir (Jacqueline!)
These chaps like the Roy director are talented –But tbh they need ‘grooming’ …
Man, before doing this copying /lifting, y don’t u get these ‘scripts’ checked by yours truly (me!)
Run them by me ..
Same offer for chaps like saifs happy ending duo ..(DK raj or something)
I would’ve polished it and made a ‘proper’ script out it …4 free—(if I had the time or inclination)…
Yaara re, yaara re..Kyun faaslon mein bhi tu yaara re …
Apex: Agree with you on Arjun Rampal in Roy. He was perfect . Jackie was good too. And they did hold my interest till the end in spite of a bland script with zero narrative traction. And the director has STYLE.But like so many Hindi films, this one would have benefited immensely had it gone through a script review committee and some script doctoring.
‘If Yash liked someone, he would like him for life and would do anything for that person. If he disliked someone, he would never talk to that person.’
‘Adi is a different person these days. He is so happy, always smiling. When he was younger, he would sing walking up the stairs; he has started doing that again. And he danced at his wedding! Rani is the perfect wife for him.’
They should replace it with Jai Santoshi Maa. Atleast every monday and every festival day there will be some crowds to watch it. And there wont be desperate lovers trying to get some private moments.
I wonder how moral police and real police did not notice what is happening inside that theatre.
Roy Has Another Huge Crash On Wednesday
Thursday 19 February 2015 12.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy crashed further on Wednesday as collections went a huge 30% lower than Tuesday. The film had crashed on Monday, Tuesday was okay and Wednesday saw another huge crash. The first six day business of Roy is as follows.
The film has seen the sort of weekday drops that very few films see. The first week will be around the 33 crore nett mark and lifetime may not even cross 35 crore nett.
Badlapur Hoping To Spring Surprise
Thursday 19 February 2015 10.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Badlapur will be hoping to spring a surprise at the box office and but odds are probably against it with the audience keeping away from theatres at the moment for anything that apart from the big film. This is probably due to high ticket prices.
Badlapur has a low budget compared to most of the other major releases but on the other side it will not get much revenue outside India theatrical due to content which is on the darker side so has to do that much better at the ticket counter.
The failure of Roy means that multiplexes are giving a lot of screen space to Badlapur as there is nothing else but this can be a plus and negative. The film will be getting 3 screens at some multiplexes which is a lot for this type of niche film.
It may have only been the Celebrity Game, but Bollywood superstar Abhishek Bachchan helped India make its presence felt at the All-Star Weekend this year. The West won the game and comedian Kevin Hart was voted MVP. Bachchan didn’t have a memorable performance on the court, but the lifelong Lakers’ fan got a chance to get a run at the Madison Square Garden and mingle with NBA legends like Magic Johnson, Dominique Wilkins, Shaq, and more.
SATYAMSHOT 
February 13, 2015 at 12:09 AM
Unrelated but very sad..
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February 13, 2015 at 12:23 AM
Yes, it is really very sad. I think when that old man put his hands in his pant pockets, the cops must have felt that he was taking out a gun and so they must have attacked him.
How can slow walking is considered as loitering?
Reminds me how Khobragade woman diplomat was treated sometime back.
Americans are very sensitive about their privacy. They dont like to be stared at. They dont like if somebody is curious. They dont like children to be touched even if the child itself wants comfort and reassurance. We go to America with Indian mindset and we are shocked at certain norms.
The said cop has lost his job as a punishment and if found guilty, will he be jailed
The blacks also complain about such incidents and being soft targets.
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February 13, 2015 at 12:35 AM
His hands are clearly on back just before he is grounded.
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February 13, 2015 at 12:39 AM
I don’t think Khobragade treatment was abnormal. What she went through in jail was regular; Anyone arrested has to go through the process. Yes we can argue why even she was arrested at first place.
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February 13, 2015 at 5:14 AM
Cant even argue on why she was arrested. She had been clearly violating labor laws by grossly underpaying her help. Similar cases of other Indians have put them in jail for 10+ yr terms in New York and other places. Khobragade was treated fairly, she just thought she cud get away due to her diplomatic status.
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February 13, 2015 at 5:26 AM
Grossly underpaying her help. And they stealthily shifted her family from India. From a sovereign country.
How about prosecuting US itself for interfering in other countries affairs like teaching us tolerance, and falsely accusing Iraq of storing WMD?
What about mexican helps who work dirt cheap?
What about foreign workers who are made to pay for social security the benefits of which they dont get in the beginning?
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February 13, 2015 at 5:28 AM
And they never open their mouths about fair compensation for Bhopal gas victims. Or prosecuting their own.
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February 13, 2015 at 5:31 AM
USA is one of the countries where many Indians live out of majboori than any real affection for it. I am speaking about the first generation..
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February 13, 2015 at 6:28 AM
And some Indians are so enslaved by those roads, cars and pretty houses and the money that they remind me of raibahadurs, maharajas and maharanis of British Empire who saw nothing evil in their masters.
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February 13, 2015 at 12:10 PM
Sanjana – You have some wrong notions about US. In spite of above and some more incidences, I will say enforcement is far better. The level of corruption is low.
People just don’t come to US for car, roads..One of my wife’s complain is that we have to do all work. In India we will have four servants(sorry can’t use the term here, it should be help). Labor is expensive and for regular middle (even upper middle class) class, you have to do the things. Most of the CEOs drive their own car even if they are earning millions; Come to cafeteria and eat lunch with regular employees. There is certain respect even if you are doing janitorial job.
As for the Govt., I think they look after US interests. Laws are Law for most part. If you are caught, there is no scope of coming out scratch free. There is an anchor for nightly news and he exaggerated few things during Iraq war and this has come to light and his career is gone.
There is State department (Foreign affairs) and there is justice department. They are independent entities. What you said comes under different jurisdictions. The system of check and balances work for most part. Even Clinton was almost impeached by Independent counsel.
I am not suggesting there is no wrong but it is far better than many places.
We Indians in India give too much importance to anything related with US.
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February 13, 2015 at 1:16 PM
I know that there are many good things and a few bad things in US. I have stayed there for around 4 years. And with so many Indians, one feels at home. What I am referring to is the way they treated Devyani. Diplomats dont get huge salaries and they bring help from India and give them free boarding with salary. If that help has to stay in a rented accommodation, maintain a car, the cost will be much more. No one forced the help to accept those terms. And her family was stealthily brought to US. There are 2 sides to Devyani’s story.
As in other cases cited, the help was not tortured or underfed.
Nowadays even in India help is not that cheap. It is expensive, unpredictable and even risky.
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February 13, 2015 at 1:39 PM
I am willing to believe the help came into influence of people when she visited church. But providing free roof and food is not standard. The rule is that you just give $8/hour and you don’t have to give anything. But at salary no one would come because roof is expensive. Moreover there is fraud when filling the application for visa, which is major offense than anything you do.
There is a company in US they needed to pay fine because they called employees from India office for help when they were relocating, they provided employees with accommodation and conveyance plus they were getting regular salary and bonus in India but were fined by labor department because they were not paid minimum wage in bank while in US and working.
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February 13, 2015 at 1:58 PM
Here I have to mix micro and macro.
Rules are bent to accommodate.
Why should India allow US security forces to protect Obama?
How Modi became suddenly ok when he became Prime Minister?
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February 13, 2015 at 2:08 PM
US presidents are not allowed to be in open for 2 hours but he did seat through the parade. There are rules and there are guidelines to cover for grey areas. The guidelines are typically bent.
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February 14, 2015 at 1:44 AM
Nepali maids in NYC come for $500 Mon-Fri with free board, food, etc. So thats $100/day, plus they charge transportation to their homes if they go back on weekends. Generally they work 8-10 hrs daily, which is about 10-12/hour. This is what all of us pay for maids in NYC. I doubt Washington DC is any cheaper. Khobragade was getting away by paying 150/week, ie for 7 days. So about $2-3/hr. Egregious is not even the word to describe the crime of slavery. Which law says that she is more important than any of the other Indians who pay exorbitantly for maids in the US? One just should not defend her because she is Indian. She violated several labor laws, and her treatment was nothing different from what any suspect is subject to. She was just lucky to have gotten out of this mess without getting into jail.
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February 14, 2015 at 2:48 AM
Strip search and cavity search, handcuffs, dramatic arrest of a diplomat. If it is done to their countrymen, what will be their reaction? US has this big brother attitude of saving humanity and whatever they do is right. And the arrogance of being a super power makes them take arbitrary decisions.
Labour laws are violated in US more than in India. In India we have labour unions fighting. Have you heard how computer slaves are treated? They work 20 hours to finish projects which is never taken into consideration. The american school teachers wages are abysmally low compared to what Indian teachers are getting nowadays.
About US attitude to the labour class, read this view point
Low-wage labor in America
30 April 2014
This week, the National Employment Law Project issued a report showing that since the financial crash of 2008, 1.9 million high- and average-paying jobs in the private sector have been eliminated and replaced with some 1.8 million low-wage jobs.
The report reveals the real character of the so-called “economic recovery” proclaimed by President Barack Obama and the entire political establishment. The only recovery has been in corporate profits, financial assets and the wealth of the super-rich.
For the great majority of the people, the past six years have been marked by unemployment, stagnant or declining wages, and a growth of temporary and part-time employment. This has been linked to a sharp increase in poverty, hunger, homelessness and other forms of social distress.
Mass unemployment and falling wages have led to a transformation in the financial position of American households. Real median household income fell from $55,600 in 2007 to $51,017 in 2012—a decrease of nearly ten percent in just five years.
This is the outcome of an attack on the working class that, while ongoing since the 1970s, has escalated dramatically in the aftermath of the 2008 crash. The character of American society has been changed in the process. Three decades ago, an auto assembly worker would have received $30 per hour or more. Now, the starting wage for new auto workers is $15 per hour or less, barely above the wages that prevail in the retail and food service sectors.
The so-called “middle-class” blue-collar worker has become a thing of the past. Working people are being reduced to the type of penury that characterized the slums of the 19th century, before the advent of industrial unions and the revolutionary struggles of the 20th century.
Andre Damon
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/04/30/pers-a30.html
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February 14, 2015 at 3:39 AM
You have not said anything about how the maid’s family was whisked off stealthily like in a bond film. As if the Indian government will take revenge .
I think all this must have been done to show India its inferior place.
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February 14, 2015 at 4:46 AM
Not sure which teachers you are referring to. The Teachers Unions are the most powerful in the US, and an envy of most wrt the benefits and salaries they receive. I highly doubt that teachers in any other country get paid the packages that these guys get in the US.
Slave coders? You mean the ones shipped from India by Indian companies? The ones who are hated by actual American coders that are laid off because of working only 40 hrs/week, because the fresh off the boat desi “slave” coder works 60+hrs. Again, that sounds like an Indian problem, not an American one.
As for her cavity search, it is a “he said-she said” issue. The police have repeatedly denied it, and she has no proof except for her verbal account. But handcuffing a criminal is standard operating procedure.
Again, you are getting carried away with patriotism. She did not receive too much support from Indians in the US, because most of us know the reality here. Everyone gets paid a full wage, which is at least at minimum wage levels (ie $7/hr). She paid much below that level, and that constitutes slavery. Most people in India think that $2 = 120Rs/hour is a great wage. They do not comprehend what is minimum wage, it simply does not exist in India.
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February 14, 2015 at 7:24 AM
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/why-are-private-school-teachers-paid-less-than-public-school-teachers/280829/
I cant specify the schools due to some reasons.
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February 14, 2015 at 7:32 AM
Let us give benefit of doubt to both Devyani and US’s Preet Bharara. I am not that particularly fond of Devyani for that matter. It is not patriotism but it is about how to treat persons whose crimes are yet to be proved. I would support an american diplomat if India treats him or her in that manner.
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February 13, 2015 at 9:09 AM
extremely sad though frankly I wouldn’t let my parent walk around in Alabama with poor English. Just a fact of life in certain parts of the country.. of course if you’re black it’s a more universal condition. In any case no excuse for this barbaric behavior.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/12/us/alabama-police-beating/
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February 13, 2015 at 4:43 PM
WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, delivered an unusually candid speech on Thursday about the difficult relationship between the police and African-Americans, saying that officers who work in neighborhoods where blacks commit crimes at a high rate develop a cynicism that shades their attitudes about race.
Citing the song “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” from the Broadway show “Avenue Q,” he said police officers of all races viewed black and white men differently. In an address to students at Georgetown University, Mr. Comey said that some officers scrutinize African-Americans more closely using a mental shortcut that “becomes almost irresistible and maybe even rational by some lights” because black men are arrested at much higher rates than white men.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/us/politics/fbi-director-comey-speaks-frankly-about-police-view-of-blacks.html?referrer=
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February 13, 2015 at 6:04 PM
There is a police office who is student of Thich Nhat Hanh and practicising Buddhist who uses non-violence in her job…par aisey news toh news worthy nahi hai na..
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February 13, 2015 at 12:26 AM
And also how 3 muslims from Saudi were shot at North Carolina university. I think the recent ISIS news must have some influence for that person to commit this type of crime.
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February 13, 2015 at 1:13 AM
http://www.rediff.com/movies/interview/i-was-bored-laughing-so-i-did-badlapur/20150212.htm
I was bored laughing, so I did Badlapur’
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February 13, 2015 at 1:58 AM
Mihir Fadnavis on Messenger of God
Three fourths of this three and a half hour film are made up of Pitaji parading around in outrageous clothes and performing wondrous magic. He also constantly does things that make MSG a stoner’s paradise – like standing on a lion with flapping wings, or doing pushups between two buses that are draped in the national flag colors, or headrocking in a car named ‘We luv Sat Guru’, or shooting electric laser beams from his forehead. It’s like Sant Gurmeet sat down one night with his creative team with a kilo of the blue stuff from Breaking Bad.
How can one make a sword fight more awesome? By turning the incoming flying daggers into rose petals falling over a smiling Pitaji. How about doing something with bullets more awesome than The Matrix? Let’s convert the incoming bullets into a golden crown for King Pitaji and then make him whoop the gundas’ gonads. This is the kind of stuff Rajinikanth can only dream of, and Pitaji chews every ridiculous scene with the smile of a huggable teddy. Not to mention the truly epic song lyrics like:
Papa the Great, mere papa the great
Bas tum karte ho pyaar
Saari duniya karti hate.
http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/msg-review-forget-the-censors-this-is-your-date-movie-for-valentines-day-2096551.html
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February 13, 2015 at 4:14 AM
Roy is getting mixed and negative reviews. It is unfortunate that a film which looks intriguing is not appealing to the reviewers.
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February 13, 2015 at 4:41 AM
A film looking appealing is not a pre-requisite for a positive set of reviews! My guess is the film actually being good is.
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February 13, 2015 at 5:25 AM
FSoG reviews contd
This should get ‘ripped apart’ by ‘intellectuals/critics’ et al
But the reviews have not been universally negative with some finding merit —
Another one : Telegraph
Fifty Shades of Grey, review: Oh my, it’s good
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/11404791/Fifty-Shades-of-Grey-review.html
FSoG Box office–
this is a difficult one
It’s difficult being an R-rated /17/18 rating flick!
Kids/families/minors/prudes straightaway go out of the deal!
To add– This is NOT summer blockbuster time
There’s NO KNOWN face
Forget big stars
First timer director (female!) with no prior ‘experience’ & credentials
Having said that, I think this should do OVER 30 million dollars in the first WEEKEND itself (& maybe more!)
It’s a BIG thing to say but there u go…
And though it’s been BANNED in some countries and has got R/17/18 rating—
INTERNATIONAL gross will EXCEED domestic …
Ps: I’m not really happy with the choice of actors and the overall setup–though the soundtrack is interesting…
having said that , my personal interest is neither the ‘STEAMY scenes’ nor the box office
but to see an underrated & mysterious but exquisite ‘character’ written with maturity and panache —come alive on screen
For general public to see…
CHRISTIAN GREY…
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February 13, 2015 at 9:57 AM
30M Weekend??? How about 30M just on Valentine’s day. This thing is going over 100M by end of monday.
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February 13, 2015 at 10:24 AM
Absolutely, this will start huge (no pun intended)
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February 13, 2015 at 6:29 AM
Roy Has Good Opening At Multiplexes
Roy has taken a good opening at multiplexes of around 40-45%. The initial at multiplexes is the best of the year so far as far as the morning shows are concerned. Although that does not mean much as the films released so far have not opened well. The opening is better than Baby although that film did better in the evening.
The presence of Ranbir Kapoor as well as the music has proved a big advantage for the film. The opening is pretty good in Mumbai and good in Delhi and East Punjab.
The single screen opening will probably not be as strong as multiplexes but if the film can show just the normal evening growth it should come out with the best opening day of the year. The opening of Roy is the first positive at the box office in 2014.
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/Details/art_detail/royhasgoodopeningatmultiplexes
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February 13, 2015 at 6:37 AM
“The opening of Roy is the first positive at the box office in 2014.”
“The opening is better than Baby although that film did better in the evening.”
The above two statements by BOI is surprising because by all counts Roy had opened lower than Baby. They have got an escape route by saying that Baby had better collections in the evening. With Roy looking to open at 5-6 Cr nett on day 1, it is surprising why Baby is talked so negatively by this site (I like this site though…sigh).
With 92Cr nett after week 3, Baby has crossed the lifetime nett of Talaash on Tuesday itself and is set to cross 95 Cr nett lifetime probably falling short by couple of crores for 100 Cr nett. BOI figures are good 18-20 Cr behind this figure, which is another surprise.
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February 13, 2015 at 8:39 AM
Komal Nahta @KomalNahta · 6h 6 hours ago
#Roy opens to mixed houses. Opening good at some places, but dull at most places despite hit music. Public understood, Ranbir has short role
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February 13, 2015 at 8:39 AM
his review negative on performances and box office outlook.
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February 13, 2015 at 10:55 AM
reviews for Roy are universally bad. looks a goner!
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February 13, 2015 at 1:01 PM
NEW DELHI: Less than a month in office Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani waded into controversy recently ordering that a list of 36 Hindi and English cuss words be banned from films. The list sent to officials from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) across the country also ordered deletion of “violence against women”, double-meaning words, ban on the use of word Bombay and ban on glorifying bloodshed. Filmmakers have acted adversely to the order with Censor Board member Ashoke Pandit leading the charge by calling the order “murder” of creativity.
Pandit told TOI that film industry representatives were planning to take the matter up with the I&B ministry.
The order says,”It has been noticed that some of the objectional/abusive words are not still deleted from the films…All regional officers are directed to allow such words in any category of the certificate. This is applicable to regional language films as well (sic).” Though the order says that such words or expressions will not be allowed in any category of certification, Nihalani himself has clarified that it depended on the context and the film could get an adult certificate too.
Predictably the move has not gone down well with the film industry. Not only does it act as interference in the creative process but filmmakers say that it could affect the film’s commercial success. A film denied a universal certificate cannot be shown on television with restrictions placed on its screenings.
Reacting against the decision Pandit said,”As a filmmaker & CBFC board member I do not endorse the list issued by the chairperson on words not to be used in films. I was not consulted. Does the CBFC chairperson endorse other bad words which are not in this list can be used in the films? This is against the freedom and creative liberty of a filmmaker. If I am portraying the character of Dawood in my film, he will use the language as per his character and not what a saint would use.”
Pandit said that he and other members planned to raise the issue in the Board’s meeting on February 23. “Film industry also plans to take up this issue with the I&B ministry…one person cannot dictate terms to the whole industry,” he said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Censor-board-chief-issues-list-of-banned-words/articleshow/46236369.cms
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February 13, 2015 at 7:14 PM
The list
http://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainmenttags/central-board-film-certification/these-are-words-you-re-going-miss-big-screen
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February 14, 2015 at 1:20 AM
if you’d presented this in a satirical skit no one would have believed it!
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February 14, 2015 at 1:32 AM
Anonymous
Based on this list, Gangs of Wasseypur would be a silent movie.
One of the comments.
The sanskari Aloknath is being replaced by our new Censor Board chief.
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February 13, 2015 at 3:08 PM
Roy Set For Biggest Opening Day Of 2015
Friday 13 February 2015 23.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy is set for the biggest opening day of the year with collections set to come in at around the 8.50 crore nett mark. The Akshay Kumar starrer Baby had grossed 7.75 crore nett approx. Roy has below par collections at single screens but multiplexes are good.
The film will struggle to hold these type of figures as its pretty clear that such a opening day figure has come due to the curiousity to see Ranbir Kapoor who has an extended guest role as an Arjun Rampal starrer which the film actually is would struggle to collect even half this figure.
Saturday is Valentines Day but its unlikely that it will give it a boost that has been seen over the past few years. Sunday is the India v Pak match will affect the collections hugely.
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February 13, 2015 at 4:17 PM
It’s amusing how every time they talk about this film they feel obliged to add ‘because of Ranbir Kapoor’. What’s the anxiety/agenda about?! Don’t think that anyone was otherwise confused that Arjun Rampal was drawing them in!
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February 13, 2015 at 4:42 PM
but they are right that the 8.5 CR figure is possible because of Ranbir..otherwise this is a 2 CR movie.
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February 13, 2015 at 5:16 PM
that’s obvious. Any movie that opens with a star, I assume that the opening is because of the star, leaving aside other factors like the banner, genre and so on.
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February 13, 2015 at 7:32 PM
Abhishek currently participating in the NBA celebrity All-Star game on ESPN. Anxious to see if he has game or he plays like Hrithik in Dhoom 2. lol.
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February 14, 2015 at 12:02 AM
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February 13, 2015 at 7:35 PM
Ranbir’s starpower is saving Roy which is such a big zero according to almost all the critics. Ranbir should be careful in selecting his movies.
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February 13, 2015 at 8:42 PM
How “The King Of Good Times” And Dan Snyder Brought India Cheerleading
Cricket in India is a big-time sport—big as the NFL, NBA, and MLB combined. But a group of Indian businessman wanted to make it bigger time. So Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, who has long kept up a sideline in cheerleader promotion, helped out by sending a team of cultural ambassadors to introduce Indian cricket to the art of dressing in scanty clothing to dance alongside sporting events..
The New World choreography and risque (by local standards) outfits caused a full-on clash of cultures and generations. While high-rolling cricket magnates were inspired to decorate their sidelines with copycat crews of imported dancers, editorials derided the Redskins women and their cheering IPL peers as “firangi,” a term that for centuries has been applied to unwelcome white foreigners. Government officials lumped the visiting cheerleaders in with “bar girls,” which throughout Asia is tantamount to “hooker.”
And the battle keeps roiling.
“Indians are still trying to figure out if it’s an invasion, or an exploitation of their culture,” says Mahanth Joishy, the India-reared, New York-based editor of United-States-India Monitor, and an entertained observer of the cheerleader wars.
Pretty long article but interesting
http://deadspin.com/how-the-king-of-good-times-and-dan-snyder-brought-ind-1685633849
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February 13, 2015 at 9:22 PM
Meekened Pakistan still waiting to prick India’s bubble
http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-cricket-world-cup-2015/content/current/story/830669.html
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February 13, 2015 at 10:23 PM
I think Censor Board chief has a point. I will add my own list of words to be banned.
Shehazada
Feku
Pagalika
Waitress
barmaid
kujliwala
Aaptard
Kongi and Khangress
Chaddis
Commie
Libtards
Teaseller
Chaiwallah
Puppet
Midget
Hakla
Gayrukh
And many more.
Please contribute.
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February 13, 2015 at 10:40 PM
Some more
Burkha
Rajdik
Pankha
Madrasi
Gulti
Plastic and Wood
Chamcha
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February 14, 2015 at 7:10 AM
Sicular
pseudo secular.
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February 14, 2015 at 7:25 AM
I forgot that.
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February 14, 2015 at 10:08 AM
naxalite
baazaru
bhagoda
pappu
love jihad
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February 14, 2015 at 11:18 AM
good collection.
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February 14, 2015 at 12:53 AM
17 commandments for Modi: The country has a stable mandate after a long time, BJP must not blow it
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/The-underage-optimist/17-commandments-for-modi-the-country-has-a-stable-mandate-after-a-long-time-bjp-must-not-blow-it/
The PM, with all due respect, is floating too high. Come back to earth. Don’t try to present an image of a global statesman. You have won an anti-incumbency election when Congress was weak, by increasing BJP’s vote share by a few percentage points. You have not transformed India yet. Don’t go to Fiji. (Sorry Fiji, just that we have more important issues here.)
Don’t just get claps from NRIs. If they love you so much, ask them to pay. If one lakh NRIs commit to paying BJP $1,000 a year, that is a hundred million dollars of clean money annually. Use that to clean up BJP’s funding. When are you going to do that anyway?
Get the Lokpal. Have a good, independent CBI and CVC office. Clean up corruption systemically. Don’t say if Modi is there, nobody can be corrupt. What if Modi isn’t there tomorrow?
Don’t bully the media or juniors in the party. Inspire respect, not fear. Don’t be smug. Don’t kill talent in the party because it could be a threat to you one day. It’s not in BJP’s DNA to be a one-man party.
Shut up regressive Hindutva fanatics. They talk. You ignore. They are your supporters. You have to tell them loud and clear this is not OK. The young generation doesn’t find it cool to support a leader who doesn’t believe in a free and equal society. Send some of your old-fashioned partymen abroad to learn about gender issues and minority rights. They will make you sink otherwise.
Don’t be overconfident in your speeches. Keep a circle of critics around you, not just those who keep singing ‘Modiji is awesome’. Everything you utter in public must be pre-checked. If you did that, the Naxal and Bazaru comments would have been edited out. A PM cannot be a rabble rouser.
Dress down. Charisma comes from integrity, competence and compassion. Not from expensive clothes.
Stay connected to and do something visible for the youth. They screamed for you in the Lok Sabha election, filled their twitter and FB walls in your praise. What have you done for them? You went to SRCC to give a speech before election. Have you visited any college after that? Why not? Is Fiji more important (sorry again Fiji)?
The party president may be really clever. But sometimes it isn’t about who is most clever but who genuinely cares. Chess moves don’t win elections all the time. A connect with people does. The party president, given his perceived persona (which may be at variance with who he really is), doesn’t inspire confidence. You
standing next to him is Amitabh Bachchan standing next to Amar Singh. Did it help Mr Bachchan?
Don’t talk down to people. Talk to people. Don’t address people if you never want to take questions. Don’t give monologues on radio. It reminds one of Indira Gandhi and North Korea. It’s not cool. Do you really think a kid in Delhi University will tell his friends, hey, can’t miss that Mann Ki Baat on radio?
Open more colleges. Open up tourism. Reduce taxes on high employment sectors. Give tax breaks for companies that move headquarters to smaller cities. Do anything to take skills and
jobs to the interiors. Fix the primary schools. They have to teach well. Half our school kids can’t read properly.
The cities need extensions with very low cost housing solutions, with good water, electricity and transport infrastructure. That is the only way the urban poor can live a life with dignity. Give them dignity. They didn’t vote for you in Delhi, remember? Win them back.
Be real. Have work life balance. Why can’t the PM catch a movie sometimes? Or eat chaat in Delhi somewhere? A humanised PM works better than a glorified PM.
No statues, please. School or statue? Hospital or statue? No need to explain further.
No personal attacks on opponents no matter how punchy the joke or the temptation to say it. Again, run it past those critical advisers first.
No hanging out with rich industrialists. Of course, you may need to officially. But that doesn’t have to be a media event. Hang out with the billion people, not billionaires.
Ultimately, all of the above comes down to the party listening and acting according to the wishes of the people.
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February 14, 2015 at 12:54 AM
From Chetan Bhagat.
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February 14, 2015 at 7:13 AM
Very well written article .
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February 14, 2015 at 7:34 AM
II am warming upto Modi and I wish he will prove himself an able prime minister.
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February 14, 2015 at 9:12 AM
Top Opening Days 2015 – Roy Tops
Saturday 14 February 2015 15.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy had the best opening day of 2015 and is the only film that has opened well in 2015. The top opening days of 2015 are as follows..
1. Roy – 9.25 cr apprx
2. Baby – 7.84 crore
3. Tevar – 6.82 crore
4. Shamitabh – 3.50 apprx
5. Alone – 3.38 crore
Roy had a below average start at single screens but multiplexes had good to very good collections.
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February 14, 2015 at 2:32 PM
Abhishek has posted some NBA related stuff here:
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February 14, 2015 at 6:47 PM
How about a political class mukht Bharat? It is sickening to see the games played by politicians. Why cant we choose only administrators instead of politicians?
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February 14, 2015 at 6:54 PM
AAP can do this magic. Less politics and more administration.
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February 15, 2015 at 8:01 AM
Roy Holds Well On Its Second Day
Saturday 14 February 2015 23.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy has held well on Saturday as it is likely to show growth as collections should go to 10 crore nett or maybe a little higher. The film has benefited from Valentines Day but not as much as it should have.
The last few years have seen that Valentines Day adds around 20-30% collections and here the growth will not be that much which means it would have been a different story had it not been Valentines Day. Still the film has grossed a very healthy 20 crore nett plus in two days and were it not for the big cricket match tomorrow the film would have easy closed at over 30 crore nett for the weekend
Delhi NCR and East Punjab have led again on as both areas have posted very good numbers on Saturday.
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February 15, 2015 at 8:01 AM
Roy Second Day Business
Sunday 15 February 2015 12.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy showed growth on Saturday but considering it was Valentines Day it should have been more. Still the two day business is good. The first two day business of Roy is as follows.
Friday – 9,25,00,000
Saturday 10,00,00,000
TOTAL – 19,25,00,000
The Sunday business will be hit by the match and that too the best shows on Sunday afternoon. The evening and night shows will be okay but they tend to be less anyway especially in the big cities.
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February 15, 2015 at 4:23 PM
Roy .. despite getting horrible feedback from one and all, collecting reasonably well. On other had .. Shamitabh, despite so well made movie and mostly positive world of mouth, flopped badly. Here comes youth into play .. Amitabh has fan following among all age groups, but his hard core fans are only above 35 … and this age group don’t watch movies in theatre. Amitabh is still huge crowd puller on live events .. or public appearances. But ironically, youth no longer interested in his movies on big screen. This is sad case .. such creative efforts which are getting applaud, but not translating to BO collections.
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February 15, 2015 at 12:27 PM
FSoG
Contd from
Fifty Shades of Grey Has Biggest Presidents Day Box Office Opening in History
TIME MAGAZINE
Charlotte Alter @charlottealter 11:12 AM ET
Fifty Shades of Grey Projected to earn over $90 million this weekend
Fifty Shades of Grey is breaking box office records faster than it’s breaking taboos. The much-anticipated movie version of E.L. James’s hit novel has raked in $81.67 million since it opened Friday, and Universal projects the movie will make over $90 million over the four day weekend, Deadline reports.
That makes Fifty Shades of Grey the record-holder for best Presidents Day opening weekend of all time.
http://time.com/3710416/fifty-shades-box-office-opening/
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February 15, 2015 at 2:47 PM
Can three beautiful people on screen, shot against equally beautiful backdrops, with some foot-tapping and soulful songs in a totally vacuous plot hold your attention for some two hours and more? The answer on the evidence of Roy would have to be yes. The story of a film maker writing a script in which the real and real life gets mixed can be a complex and compelling narrative. But Roy doesn’t want to go there. The plot points are there: art theft, a film-maker meeting another glamorous woman film-maker and modelling his heroine on her and the compulsive womanizer finally getting bitten by the love bug; but the film doesn’t want to flesh things out , happy just to skim the surface. But to be honest there aren’t any false notes either. So the treatment can be mistaken as a conscious choice. The same is true for the performances as well – which si to say nobody acts. In the context of over-the-top acting style in all Bollywood films this kind of comes as a relief even, a deliberate choice or not. Almost all the lines are smart ( eg Baaten jhooth ho sakt hain kahani nahin.), though there is no dramatic tension of any kind for them to make any impact. But there are compensating pleasures. Arjun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor look like the gods of angst; and only Jacqueline Fernandes could get away pretending to be the globe-trotting film director Ayesha Aman to have helmed the award winning ‘ Malacca Times’. The fact that Kabir Grewal writes his script on a manual typewriter and his so adorable golden retriever comes to greet him when he come home after a long spell of shooting without any sign of a housekeeper have no logica to stand upon but are cute touches nevertheless. There is something going on with the father character played by the Anupam Kher character and the detective played by Rajit Kpaoor, but again the director Vikrmajit Singh doesn’t want to tell us. The songs especially Soorja Dooba are a treat, so is the fine background score. In the end, the film doesn’t go anywhere, or doesn’t take you anywhere, but it does so with style. So while it is quite possible you will be bored to death, you might still give the makers an indulgent smile and not feel any rancour or bitterness.
( Ps: With a similar concept Shabd dida much better job in terms of storytelling, though that one too faltered in execution.)
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February 15, 2015 at 5:40 PM
The movie is shot beautifully and very stylish. I am not a technical person but could see the camera angles. The movie is blank in some parts and I thought screenplay could have been improved to make audience engagement better. Still I will prefer this to regular stuff from Bollywood. For some reason I believe this is not an original idea.
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February 15, 2015 at 6:45 PM
Why would you ever expect anything less than original out of Bollywood?
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February 15, 2015 at 9:03 PM
50 Shades of Grey?
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February 15, 2015 at 10:55 PM
That is only the poster. The movie feels like too non-bollywoodish. Probably that is why people are giving half star or 1 star. It is for most part self indulgent.
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October 18, 2021 at 1:10 PM
Original comment on Roy.
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February 16, 2015 at 1:19 AM
Distributors of Lingaa are planning to protest by begging in chennai after producers agreed to pay only 3.3 crores for 33 cr losses.Rajnikant is an overhyped star.Its the media which hypes him.He was a spent force long back.In the south telugu superstar krishna is bigger than him in overall acheivements.
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February 16, 2015 at 8:06 AM
Man, I never thought I would be hearing Kumar Sanu and Sadhana Sargam together again. But this looks fun –
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February 16, 2015 at 9:17 PM
ayushman khurana is there in every 1 of the 3 films releasing – what the …..
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February 16, 2015 at 8:12 AM
Roy Has Decent Weekend But Trend Poor
Monday 16 February 2015 12.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy had a decent weekend grossing 24.75 crore nett if we take into account that it was hit badly on Sunday by the cricket match between India and Pakistan. The film grossed 9.25 crore nett on Friday, 10 crore nett on Saturday and 5.50 crore nett on Sunday.
But the trend is really not there for the film as real values for the film are 9.25, 8.50 and 10 for the first three days if we take out Valentines Day and match factor. If the film had a good trend over the weekend then it would have recovered most of the amount lost due to the match over the week but it may be difficult now.
The film fared best at multiplexes with singls screen business being below average and the film’s fate depends on Monday which should be recovering a good chunk of the collections lost due to the match but with the weekend trend showing limited appreciation that may not happen.
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February 16, 2015 at 8:32 AM
Abhishek Bachchan @juniorbachchan · 8h 8 hours ago
Today a childhood dream of mine came true. I met my idol. @MagicJohnson . Thank you for being such an inspiration!
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February 16, 2015 at 8:34 AM
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/150214/entertainment-bollywood/article/abhishek-bachchan-participates-nba-all-star-celebrity-game
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February 16, 2015 at 10:34 AM
Abhishek Bachchan and Alia Bhatt on Farah Ki Daawat Photos on Colors channel.
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February 16, 2015 at 12:26 PM
http://www.india-forums.com/event/9754-abhishek-bachchan-and-alia-bhatt-on-farah-ki-daawat.htm
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February 16, 2015 at 12:27 PM
Don’t know about the film, but this song is nice and Jaqueline F looks quite elegant.
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February 16, 2015 at 2:20 PM
The best and worst of SNL’s 40-year victory lap
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/16/8046681/snl-40-saturday-night-live-40th-anniversary-best-worst
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February 16, 2015 at 2:37 PM
“Distributors of Lingaa are planning to protest by begging in chennai after producers agreed to pay only 3.3 crores for 33 cr losses.”
Hahaha howlarious …
Producers (ex producers now!) of solo abhishrek starters over the years need to from a similar ‘begging club’
Anyhow watched BOTH FSoG & Roy this weekend
‘hectic’ weekend this…
Will opine soon (once I ‘recuperate’)…
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February 16, 2015 at 3:29 PM
Thanks folks/fans for patronising ‘quality stuff’ …a slap for all pseudointellectuals !!
FSoG seems to have whipped & dominated’ box office into submission.
Fifty Shades of Grey beats Avatar with $248m opening weekend box office!!
Fifty Shades of Grey made $248.7m at the worldwide box office at the weekend – the highest global debut of 2015 so far.
Sam Taylor-Johnson’s adaptation of the bestselling EL James knee-trembler about a kinky Seattle billionaire and his sceptical sex slave also took the biggest-ever US debut for the President’s Day long weekend, with $90.7m. In the UK and Ireland, its $21.5m haul was the highest for a film with an 18 certificate, with similar achievements pulled off in Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Philippines and New Zealand.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/16/fifty-shades-of-grey-beats-avatar-with-248m-opening-weekend-box-office
Beyoncés charismatic track put to good use …
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February 16, 2015 at 7:14 PM
I saw Roy yesterday. It was the most pretentious piece of crap I’ve seen in a long long time. It sucks that it’s doing better than Shamitabh, which I loved.
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February 16, 2015 at 8:23 PM
Haha
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February 16, 2015 at 9:21 PM
honestly I did like Big B in shamitabh but it was a crap film – there was no real plot and lot of ad. film-maker kinda shots were there – sorry balki! u’ve tried to fool the audience and it showed at the BO that audience ain’t taking any of this shit……
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February 17, 2015 at 9:32 AM
Right! The Hi-Fi audience that prefers G!!!D MASTI to Shamitabh is very smart in filtering. I get that now..
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February 17, 2015 at 6:58 AM
Roy First Monday Business – Huge Crash
Tuesday 17 February 2015 12.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy crashed on Monday with collections of 2.75 crore nett. The drop is a huge 70% from Friday. The first four day business of Roy is as follows.
Friday – 9,25,00,000
Saturday – 10,00,00,000
Sunday – 5,50,00,000
Monday – 2,75,00,000
TOTAL – 27,50,00,000
The drop is the sort that is rarely seen and the first week business will be around 34 crore nett.
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February 17, 2015 at 8:06 AM
My Wheel-Chair and I, Excluded by India
http://www.ndtv.com/blog/my-wheel-chair-and-i-excluded-by-india-740208?pfrom=home-topstories
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February 17, 2015 at 9:33 AM
Entertainment industry has lost a talented actor today as Ashraful Haque passed away this afternoon.
An NSD graduate, Haque hailed from Goalpara in Assam. His contribution to Hindi cinema was significant and he had been part of more than 30 Hindi films, TV shows and commercials. He breathed his last at Andheri, Mumbai. Sources say that he was suffering from a rare disease and was admitted to the hospital.
He proved his talent with films like Deewar, Paan Singh Tomar, Fukrey, Company and the recently released movie The Lost Beharupiya.May his soul rest in peace!
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tv/Ashraful-Haque-passes-away/photostory/46275179.cms
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February 17, 2015 at 6:45 PM
RIP
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February 17, 2015 at 10:52 AM
In the meanwhile, I had signed K Abbas’s film Saat Hindustani. He was a close family friend.
During my school and college holidays, I would go to Abbas saab and beg him to give me a passing shot in his films so he would give me small parts. But, in Saat Hindustani, he gave me one of the leading roles.
Abbas saab needed a heroine. He saw Neena Singh, a friend of mine from Delhi, at my house and wanted to know if she would act in a film. She agreed.
Neena asked me if I could give a picture of her friend who lived in Calcutta (as Kolkata was then known) and worked in Bird and Co, to Abbas saab. Her friend, she said, was interested in cinema and wanted to become an actor.
The photograph showed a very tall man standing outside Victoria Memorial.
Abbas saab said the man had to come to Mumbai at his own expense for the audition. He also said he did not know when the audition would take place so the aspiring actor would have to wait and would not be paid for it.
That is how Amitabh Bachchan landed up in Mumbai.
I was the one who took him to Abbas saab’s office.
In the evening, I was given the dirty job of offering Amitabh Rs 5,000 for the entire film, whether it took one year or five to make.
Bunty (Ajitabh) and Amitabh looked at each other. They were absolutely shocked!
Amitabh reluctantly agreed as he was desperate to act. He got the role of the poet’s friend in Saat Hindustani.
When my father got the letter from Satyajit Ray saying I could work with him, I had to give up Saat Hindustani. So I left for Calcutta and Amitabh got the role of the poet that I was supposed to play.
It was a very powerful role!
He made a tremendous impression on people in one sequence where his foot gets cut with a razor and he has to walk across the border from Goa to India.
http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-interview-with-tinnu-anand/20130611.htm#1
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February 18, 2015 at 6:33 AM
Satyam/ All AB fans should read this. Fascinating insight in Tinnu’s relationship and his view on Amitabh…
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February 18, 2015 at 6:35 AM
did read it.. interesting stuff..
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February 18, 2015 at 4:49 PM
Thanks An Jo…This was a great read..One of the best movies I liked in their combo was ‘Main Azaad Hoon’….This movie never made his mark or got due credits..But Amitji was superb..I had seen about 4 times in Theater :)..This Indian adaptation ‘Meet John Doe’ which I believe was aired in Doordarshan on the same week ‘Main Azaad Hoon’ was released or close to it….The plot and storyline is still current I feel..Maybe a good one for Raju Hirani/Aamir Khan to remake ? Or Hope not 🙂
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February 17, 2015 at 4:47 PM
Plz somebody help this innocent girl…
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February 17, 2015 at 4:55 PM
Difficult for me to do a piece on FSoG (maybe later–deserves longer piece)
but a few words on Roy…
It’s an interesting phase in Bollywood and though a flawed, uneven and inconsistent project, but liked the ambition & the attempt –am too lazy to go more into this bcos will take time to explain
It goes without saying that this will go nowhere on box office at all!
Roy will struggle to reach 50 crores net ….
Jacqueline works hard and has some good tracks as somebody posted above (but something’s missing in her—unsure what)
Ranbir gives an eminently LAZY & FLACCID Performance reminiscent of abhishrek at his passive best…
(Don’t blame him –I know boning katrina kapoor all nite takes away from oneself…)
Even crap films have something worthwhile in it…
Even crap actors sometimes have it in them
To give that one fine scene
That one final push
That one final moment
I know nobody will agree with me but who cares. Amidst all this, what stuck my eye
Was a tour de force by arjun rampal
Till now his ‘acting’ career was a joke–but now he can call himself an ‘actor’ just on the basis of this ONE performance
Arjun rampals career best (well, the ONLY one really!)
A mood piece worthy of inclusion in my collection
And mind u, it’s not easy to make me write this
It’s NOT easy playing a self obsessed conflicted soul like that
I know there are some ‘hit’ songs in Roy but I liked this one –KK back in action
Ishare bhi chup hain
Zubaan khamosh hai
Sadaa gumsum si hai
Tanha aagosh hai
Yaara re, yaara re..
Kyun faaslon mein bhi tu yaara re …
I won’t rip apart this flop–worthy just for Kabir Grewal (just like Saifs happy ending!)
I don’t think arjun rampal will ever match this again
Good bye buddy
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February 17, 2015 at 5:29 PM
you could have said all this without that obscene comment..
I know.. I unfairly place the burden of ‘growing up’ on you..
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February 17, 2015 at 5:31 PM
Bachchan with Bloomberg:
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February 18, 2015 at 6:25 AM
Roy Day Five Collections
Wednesday 18 February 2015 11.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy fell further on Tuesday although fall was not huge like Monday the film is now collecting at low levels. The first five day business of Roy is as follows.
Friday – 9,25,00,000
Saturday – 10,00,00,000
Sunday – 5,50,00,000
Monday – 2,75,00,000
Tuesday – 2,50,00,000
TOTAL – 27,50,00,000
The film will lose around 15-20 crore nett despite a good start. These sort of loses are actually less than what is happening week in week out.
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February 18, 2015 at 8:57 AM
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February 18, 2015 at 10:40 AM
Satyam..is there video/audio link?
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February 18, 2015 at 11:32 AM
haven’t been able to find one so far..
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February 18, 2015 at 1:54 PM
Baby crosses RS 95 cr nett and might add a crore or two now. While it is making few distributors lose money, over the film is semi Hit. Though it deserved to be Blockbuster but may be a songless, heroine less, hard hitting realistic edge of the thriller needs more time in India to be universally acceptable.
What is remarkable to note is the extraordinary turnaround in Akshay Kumar’s body of work. From what initially looked like a career comprising mainly of a Khiladi series and comedy films, Akshay now has films like OMG, Special 26, Holiday and now Baby all classics in itself in a span of mere 2-3 years. While his core fans love him whenever he does a Hera Pheri, Garam Masala or Rowdy Rathore, he is winning over fans with his latest risks and experiments.
Really proud that he did Baby, Akshay is now probably a bigger star and actor than in 2008 when he tasted news heights in success.
A mini industry and now a respectable Make in India all by himself super star. More power to him and may he keep doing many more films like Baby. It is better than doing forgettable blockbusters
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February 18, 2015 at 4:58 PM
Akshay and ‘body’ of work in same sentence!!. Now thats a first time for me…
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February 18, 2015 at 6:24 PM
While it is true that Akshay has a few genuine stand out films, I would take his Special 26 and Baby over 99% of HR or SRK”s films and even his Namastey London or Patiala House over 90% of HR/SRK films. There is an endearing sincerity about him , no matter what kind of film he is doing. And, his off screen persona is far less jarring.
The industry could do with a few more like him.
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February 18, 2015 at 8:34 PM
apart from Baby, his next films is about the range- from Main Gabbar to Brothers to Airlift and then movies like Houseful 3 and Singh is Bling- Akshay is mixing it well and is doing more films than any other star. It deprives him the curiosity premium but makes it up by being evergreen.
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February 18, 2015 at 2:04 PM
http://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/hindi/Abhishek-Bachchan-Joins-NBA-All-Star-Celebrity-Game-in-New-York/2015/02/18/article2674543.ece
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February 19, 2015 at 1:04 AM
JACKY, AMY AND ELLI FILL UP THE HOUSE
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/entertainment/bollywood/Jacky-Amy-and-Elli-fill-up-the-house/articleshow/46291848.cms
Amy Jackson opposite Abhishek in Housefull 3. Now thats one pairing that will be interesting.
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February 18, 2015 at 5:18 PM
Fifty Shades of Grey ‘set for $500m’ after breaking US February record
Sam Taylor-Johnson’s movie trumps February opening weekend takings for The Passion of the Christ 11 years ago
Fifty Shades of Grey is on course for a box office haul of at least $500m worldwide after final totals for the film’s opening weekend showed that Sam Taylor-Johnson’s erotic romance scored the highest February opening of all time in north America.
Initial estimates from studio Universal suggested the adaptation of EL James’s bestselling literary knee-trembler had made $81.7m over its first three days in the US and Canada. But according to Variety that figure has now been upgraded to $85m. The new total places it ahead of the previous February best, the $83.8m bow made by Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ in 2004.
Fifty Shades of Grey so dominates global box office it could whip Mamma Mia!
The final figure for the longer four-day Presidents’ Day weekend in the US was also up on previously reported estimates, from $90.7m to $93m, though the studio itself had estimated a $94.4m return.
Worldwide, Fifty Shades opened to $266.6m over its first four days in cinemas, some way ahead of previously reported estimates of $248.7m. That total places the movie 18th on the list of the biggest global bows of all time.
“This kind of performance is usually reserved for superhero movies and animation franchises,” BoxOffice.com’s Phil Contrino told Variety, predicting an eventual return of more than half a billion dollars. “[Fifty Shades of Grey] joins that club.”
A $500m box office take would be an unprecedented haul for an erotic movie.
In other Fifty Shades of Grey news, San Francisco television station KBCW reports that a drive-in cinema in nearby Concord is showing the erotic movie next to a screening of children’s adventure The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. Taylor-Johnson’s film, which features a number scenes of BDSM but avoids showing star Jamie Dornan’s penis, is reportedly visible from a shared parking lot.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/18/fifty-shades-of-grey-set-for-500m-after-breaking-us-february-record
Ps: This kind of performance is usually reserved for superhero movies and animation franchises…
For an r-rated flick to achieve these numbers–well…
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February 18, 2015 at 5:23 PM
the book was huge. Not totally surprised with the numbers.
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February 18, 2015 at 6:13 PM
Rather than any indication of the quality of the movie, it is a testament to the appeal of the salacious subject, marketed well and ubiquitous nature of purveyors of porn, soft or otherwise.
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February 18, 2015 at 7:02 PM
haven’t read the book but it’s supposed to be miserable writing in terms of quality.
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February 18, 2015 at 7:18 PM
on a related note you might have heard of the new novel Girl on the Train that’s just hit # 1 on the NYT list. It’s supposed to be another Gone Girl kind of deal with an ‘unreliable’ narrator. I would expect a Hollywood film in fairly short order and it will probably open much bigger than Gone Girl too!
Meanwhile here’s an interesting piece on American Sniper which might explain why people on both sides of the divide can perhaps take to it:
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/feb/13/great-american-shooter/?insrc=wbll
and speaking of American Sniper another interesting somewhat connected piece on the recent Super bowl:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/mar/05/super-bowl-horror-glory/?insrc=hpss
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February 18, 2015 at 5:34 PM
The public has spoken ….
..I’ve always said this –People and so-called ‘critics’ and ‘intellectuals’ totally miss the point.
It’s not the ‘porn’ that’s worked here (or whatever their perceived idea is)–Both with the book and the movie…
A school kid accesses (& shares) ‘porn’ on his /her mobile nowadays
The numbers VINDICATE what I always felt bout this (& many other things)
Anyhow, I’m trying to hold myself back from writing on this…
But let’s see how long
When I read about ‘Christian Grey’ first, I was pleasantly surprised at what El James has achieved ..,anyhow
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February 18, 2015 at 8:41 PM
Re: Anyhow, I’m trying to hold myself back from writing on this…
But let’s see how long
Please spare us. The threat itself is enough!
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February 18, 2015 at 5:48 PM
Back to Roy (& staying away from FSoG as of now)
I don’t care about ‘reputations’ & biases & fandoms etc
People will be suprised to see somebody praising arjun here…
Heck with it!
But there u r–even I don’t know how I will react
From the moment he appears on screen as Kabeer Grewal, he LIVES the character. The film Roy takes 4-5 years to make & there’s a ‘consistence’
it’s the TONE he adopts & maintains throughout the film.
Running like a vein through the circulation of the film
DWARFING the likes of ranbir and Jacqueline
Not ONE false note ….
Cheers Arjun
Xxxxxxxx
FAO the director of Roy (don’t know what’s his name)
Buddy I think uve lifted the Tarantino & that female Coppola( don’t remember her name) escapade here depicting
Kabir grewal (arjun)– ayesha aamir (Jacqueline!)
These chaps like the Roy director are talented –But tbh they need ‘grooming’ …
Man, before doing this copying /lifting, y don’t u get these ‘scripts’ checked by yours truly (me!)
Run them by me ..
Same offer for chaps like saifs happy ending duo ..(DK raj or something)
I would’ve polished it and made a ‘proper’ script out it …4 free—(if I had the time or inclination)…
Yaara re, yaara re..Kyun faaslon mein bhi tu yaara re …
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February 18, 2015 at 7:18 PM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/TOI-Social-Impact-Awards-The-wise-gather-to-honour-the-good/articleshow/46293393.cms
TOI Social Impact Awards: The wise gather to honour the good
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February 19, 2015 at 12:22 AM
Will watch for Liam Neeson only…otherwise it looks horrific to be honest but I maybe in the minority.
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February 19, 2015 at 1:13 AM
Apex: Agree with you on Arjun Rampal in Roy. He was perfect . Jackie was good too. And they did hold my interest till the end in spite of a bland script with zero narrative traction. And the director has STYLE.But like so many Hindi films, this one would have benefited immensely had it gone through a script review committee and some script doctoring.
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February 19, 2015 at 4:15 AM
http://www.rediff.com/movies/report/pam-chopra-i-dont-like-the-new-films-from-yash-raj/20150219.htm
‘I don’t like the new films from Yash Raj’
‘If Yash liked someone, he would like him for life and would do anything for that person. If he disliked someone, he would never talk to that person.’
‘Adi is a different person these days. He is so happy, always smiling. When he was younger, he would sing walking up the stairs; he has started doing that again. And he danced at his wedding! Rani is the perfect wife for him.’
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February 19, 2015 at 6:18 AM
Maratha Mandir brings down curtains on DDLJ after 20 years
http://www.india-forums.com/bollywood/hot-n-happening/50096-maratha-mandir-brings-down-curtains-on-ddlj-after-20-years.htm
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February 19, 2015 at 6:55 AM
damn it didn’t do 2000 weeks!
Guess they got tired of the farce..
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February 19, 2015 at 9:43 PM
They should replace it with Jai Santoshi Maa. Atleast every monday and every festival day there will be some crowds to watch it. And there wont be desperate lovers trying to get some private moments.
I wonder how moral police and real police did not notice what is happening inside that theatre.
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February 19, 2015 at 12:16 PM
Looks like Maratha Mandir asked for raise 🙂
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February 19, 2015 at 2:23 PM
Ha!
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February 19, 2015 at 10:21 PM
Be ready for its re Release and the tag for longest running movie on rerelease.
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February 19, 2015 at 6:21 AM
Death of an ‘unknown’ actor: Directors remember Ashraful
http://www.india-forums.com/bollywood/hot-n-happening/50095-death-of-an-unknown-actor-directors-remember-ashraful.htm
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February 19, 2015 at 6:24 AM
Vidhu Vinod Chopra gives an Ode to Guru Dutt
http://www.india-forums.com/bollywood/hot-n-happening/50098-vidhu-vinod-chopra-gives-an-ode-to-guru-dutt.htm
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February 19, 2015 at 7:07 AM
Roy Has Another Huge Crash On Wednesday
Thursday 19 February 2015 12.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Roy crashed further on Wednesday as collections went a huge 30% lower than Tuesday. The film had crashed on Monday, Tuesday was okay and Wednesday saw another huge crash. The first six day business of Roy is as follows.
Friday – 9,25,00,000
Saturday – 10,00,00,000
Sunday – 5,50,00,000
Monday – 2,75,00,000
Tuesday – 2,50,00,000
Wenesday – 1,75,00,000
TOTAL – 31,75,00,000
The film has seen the sort of weekday drops that very few films see. The first week will be around the 33 crore nett mark and lifetime may not even cross 35 crore nett.
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February 19, 2015 at 7:07 AM
Badlapur Hoping To Spring Surprise
Thursday 19 February 2015 10.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Badlapur will be hoping to spring a surprise at the box office and but odds are probably against it with the audience keeping away from theatres at the moment for anything that apart from the big film. This is probably due to high ticket prices.
Badlapur has a low budget compared to most of the other major releases but on the other side it will not get much revenue outside India theatrical due to content which is on the darker side so has to do that much better at the ticket counter.
The failure of Roy means that multiplexes are giving a lot of screen space to Badlapur as there is nothing else but this can be a plus and negative. The film will be getting 3 screens at some multiplexes which is a lot for this type of niche film.
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February 19, 2015 at 9:01 AM
All Of The Lights: Biggest Winners Of The 2015 NBA All-Star Weekend
It may have only been the Celebrity Game, but Bollywood superstar Abhishek Bachchan helped India make its presence felt at the All-Star Weekend this year. The West won the game and comedian Kevin Hart was voted MVP. Bachchan didn’t have a memorable performance on the court, but the lifelong Lakers’ fan got a chance to get a run at the Madison Square Garden and mingle with NBA legends like Magic Johnson, Dominique Wilkins, Shaq, and more.
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