ZIDDI
Ratan International’s Ziddi (UA) is an out-and-out action drama. A young boy is too practical to be true and cannot bear injustice of any kind; this quality of his often gets him into fights with people whom he interacts with. His simpleton father cannot tolerate the practical side of his son, and the conflict between the father and son takes a serious turn when the son is turned out of the house by his father, much to the sorrow of his mother, brother and sister. With the passage of time, the son becomes an underworld don but always helps the poor and needy, who dote on him and are ready to lay down their lives for him. A rival don and an old enemy of his (who poses to be his and the family’s best friend and well-wisher) exterminate his brother and sister one by one to teach the young man a lesson and to settle scores with him. How the young boy avenges all the wrongs forms the climax of the film. There is also an additional angle of the chief minister whose life is saved by the young man.
The story may be quite common but it keeps audience interest alive due to the fast-paced screenplay and some unusual twists and turns. The scene in which the true colours of the family friend are revealed comes as a veritable shock and is brilliantly canned. The climax is yet another high point of the film. Although lengthy, it has been executed with a rare brilliance and keeps the audience speechless for a while. The way in which the entire police force is overpowered by the hero’s men-in-hiding is truly enjoyable. The blasting scenes and destruction of cars and jeeps are breathtaking, to say the least.
But on the negative side is the excessive violence and gore, which will limit the film’s appeal for ladies. Emotions could have been better. Dialogues also needed to be more fiery. In the first half, several points are clarified through dialogues only and there are no scenes to establish the facts. Some scenes are predictable.
Sunny Deol excels in a role that’s tailor-made for him. He looks dashing, acts brilliantly and his expressions of anger are a treat to watch. His dance in the ‘Kammo’ song is superb and should have the audience, particularly in North India, go wild with excitement. Raveena Tandon has very little scope but does well all the same. Her ‘Kaale kaale baal’ dance is terrific. Anupam Kher is effective. Ashish Vidyarthi acts with effortless ease and carries off a difficult role with efficiency. Farida Jalal overacts in some comedy scenes but is spontaneous and entertaining in others. Raj Babbar deserved a better role. Sachin Khedekar leaves a mark. Beena, Sharat Saxena, Richa, Virendra Saxena, Suresh Chatwal, Harish Patel and Dulari lend the desired support.
Guddu Dhanoa’s direction is good. He, however, needs to take a little more care in emotional scenes and dramatic ones. Tinnu Verma’s action is the film’s mainstay. Sunny and Tinnu are actually the real heroes of the film. Not only has plenty of money been spent on the plenty of action scenes, but the results too are fantastic. Music (Dilip Sen Sameer Sen) is yet another major asset. The ‘Kammo’ and ‘Kaale kaale baal’ songs are hits and their picturisations are also remarkable. Editing should have been sharper. Camerawork (Shripad Natu) is of a high standard. Background music is very effective. DTS sound effects are very good in action scenes.
On the whole, Ziddi is a definite runner and earner with A class prospects. Business in North India will be the best.
Released on 11-4-’97 at Maratha Mandir (DTS) and 24 other cinemas of Bombay by Ratan International thru Mahalakshmi Film Distributors. Publicity: excellent. Opening: good. …….Also released all over. Opening in most other circuits was much better than in Bombay city and suburbs. In Delhi-U.P., East Punjab and C.P. Berar, it was mind-blowing.
LATEST POSITION
The extraordinary opening of ZIDDI this week has spread cheer in the industry… While HIMALAY PUTRA has been rejected, Vinod Khanna’s putra has been loved.
Himalay Putra started dropping from 2nd day onwards. 1st week Bombay 26,75,481 (71.75%) from 12 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 4,53,300 from 4 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Baroda 1,27,035, Padra 87,553, Rajkot 1,16,605, Jamnagar 78,105; Pune 5,92,385 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 1,69,088, Solapur 1,07,724 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 26,43,179 (62.66%) from 12 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,43,270 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 2,47,308, Agra 1,85,640, Allahabad 1,24,600, Bareilly 1,26,138 (70.45%), Dehradun 1,06,800 (58.98%), Gorakhpur 1,19,000 (65.40%); Amritsar 42,000; Calcutta 9,26,954 from 19 cinemas; Nagpur 3,66,421 from 4 cinemas, Amravati 80,308, Akola 70,009, Raipur 1,24,659 (55.48%), Jalgaon 86,919, Bilaspur 93,194; Bhopal 2,60,314 from 3 cinemas, Ujjain 63,180 (1 unrecd.); Jaipur 4,73,893 from 3 cinemas, Bikaner 1,96,120; Hyderabad 18,88,571 from 9 cinemas, share (including fixed hires) 11,35,250.
………
Judaai 6th week Bombay 12,97,424 (73.46%) from 5 cinemas (5 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 4,83,691 from 4 cinemas, Baroda 1,30,366, Rajkot 72,000, Jamnagar 84,641 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 2,39,561 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 83,000, Solapur 83,376; Hubli 64,939 from 2 cinemas (1 in noon), Belgaum 67,949; Delhi 9,36,805 from 5 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,11,639, Lucknow 96,287, theatre record, Agra 62,500, Allahabad 44,057, 5th week Bareilly 29,254 (16.04%), 6th week Dehradun 45,069, Gorakhpur 54,000; Nagpur 1,35,162 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur 61,495, total 4,36,168, 5th week Amravati 1,01,000, theatre record, 6th Akola 85,974, total 5,89,335, Raipur 77,731, Bhilai 50,217, total 4,73,856, 1st Wardha (6 days) 68,079, 3rd Yavatmal 48,048; 6th week Indore 1,03,390, theatre record, Bhopal 1,03,435, theatre record; Jaipur 1,05,385, 3rd Ajmer 78,298; 6th week Hyderabad 4,30,448 from 2 cinemas, 3rd Aurangabad 1,39,386, doing very well at Naaz, Parbhani.
………
Raja Hindustani 17th week Bombay 7,61,070 from 4 cinemas (2 on F.H.); 21st Ahmedabad 1,86,412 from 3 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Rajkot (matinee) 17,390; 18th week Pune 2,11,352, 16th week Kolhapur 56,588, 17th Solapur (7 shows) 54,345; 21st Delhi 4,26,085 from 3 cinemas (1 on F.H.); 22nd Kanpur 45,986, Lucknow 84,601, 21st Agra 65,781, Allahabad 52,200, Meerut 67,682, Bareilly 34,879 (18.73%), 22nd Gorakhpur 34,000; 19th week Nagpur 55,031, Jabalpur 86,031, total 30,72,149, 5th week Durg 39,735, 6th week Sagar about 46,000; 20th week Bhopal 54,349; 21st Hyderabad 2,16,731, completed 100 days at Naaz, Parbhani, all-time record.
……….
SHOW TAX IN RAIPUR TOO GOES UP
Close on the heels of the Aurangabad municipal corporation, show tax has been hiked by the Raipur municipal corporation too. The new show tax in Raipur is Rs. 25 per show or Rs. 100 per day (4 shows) with effect from 1st April. The tax prior to 1st April was Rs. 4 for matinee and noon shows and Rs. 7 for evening and night shows, totalling to Rs. 22 per day. This means, there has been a hike of more than 350%!
ILLEGAL PRINTS: A SERIOUS PROBLEM
Dr. Sunil Patil of V.N. Films, Miraj-Shrirampur, a sub-distributor of Judwaa in these two stations, conducted raids with the help of police at Satyam Talkies, Taharabad (dist. Nasik). An illegal print of Judwaa was seized and an FIR was filed.
The owner of the said Satyam Talkies, Subhash Motilal Kankaria, said that the print was supplied to him by one Usman Gani of Malegaon.
Dr. Sunil Patil told Film Information representative Vijay Deshmukh that the business of no. 2 prints was going on in full swing in Shrirampur-Malegaon area, due to which sub-distributors of Shrirampur were adversely affected. He also said that the no. 2 prints of films are obtained for as less as Rs. 200/- to 300/- per day. “This is a very, very serious problem we are facing,” concluded Patil.
EMPIRE AUDIO INAUGURATION
Empire Audio Centre, the recording studio of A.G. Nadiadwala and Yusuf M. Lakdawala, will be inaugurated on 13th April. The studio is located at 10, Shah Industrial Estate, Veera Desai Road, Andheri (W), Bombay. Phones: 633-0606/7/8. Fax: 633-0605.
SERVICE CHARGE DOUBLED IN GUJARAT
The tax-free service charge permitted to be levied by cinemas on every admission ticket has been doubled in the state of Gujarat with effect from 4th April, 1997. As against the Re. 1 service charge levied before April 4, cinemas are now collecting Rs. 2 by way of service charge. However, the rate of admission existing on 14th February cannot be reduced for this purpose.
HARISH PATEL ARRESTED
Actor Harish Patel was arrested by the Andheri (Bombay) police on 7th April alongwith two associates, Shakir Omar and Shabbir Patel of Oscar Builders, for allegedly assaulting a security supervisor. The supervisor complained to the police that the trio were under the influence of alcohol and had mercilessly beaten him up at a complex in Andheri (Bombay) on the night of 6th April and were planning to kill him.
The three arrested persons applied for bail on 9th April at the Andheri court but the application was rejected due to non-availability of the medical report of the supervisor who had been admitted to Cooper Hospital after the incident.
After the trio had a few pegs of alcohol, they had gone for a sauna bath and later for a swim in the pool. The three suspected that the security supervisor, Gopal Shukla, had stolen Rs. 55,000 from Shabbir’s clothes and beat him up with bamboos and iron pipes till he became unconscious. The police has not yet come to the conclusion that Shukla stole the money, as alleged.
MAVJIBHAI SHAH’S SON TO WED
Marriage of Bipin, son of Bombay distributor Mavjibhai Shah, with Heena will be solemnised on 13th April at Garware Sabhagruha, Worli, Bombay.
CENSOR NEWS
Film Kraft’s Koyla was given C.C. No. CIL/3/12/97 (A) dt. 7-4-’97; length 4661.76 metres in 17 reels (cuts: 82.33 metres).
ABCL’s Mrityudaata was given C.C. No. CIL/3/9/97 (A) dt. 31-3-’97; length 4547.95 metres in 18 reels (cuts: 82.39 metres).
Ratan International’s Ziddi was given C.C. (in Hyderabad) No. CIL/2/15/97 (UA) dt. 20-2-’97; length 4792 metres in 18 reels (cuts: 134.63 metres).
YOU ASKED IT
How important is pre-release publicity for a film?
– More important than the quantum of publicity is the kind of publicity. If the publicity is wrong, no amount of the same can help. Right publicity ensures a good opening.
What are the under-production reports of some of the forthcoming films?
– ITIHAAS and ISHQ are carrying very good reports.
Why do Bombay distributors these days prefer selling rights for Gujarat, Saurashtra, Thane district and Karnataka?
– Stakes are so high that it is prudent to cover the risk as much as possible.
Is it true that Pan Music made several crores of rupees from the sale of music cassettes of its own film, Maachis?
– It made hardly anything. It is the pirates who minted money out of the hit music score of MAACHIS.
DO YOU KNOW?
* Rakesh Roshan’s KOYLA has been booked at Janta Chitralaya, Itarsi, at an MG which is double that paid for his KARAN ARJUN. KOYLA will be released in Itarsi on 18th April (simultaneously with all India).
* MRITYUDAATA has been booked at Bharat, Itarsi, on an unheard of MG. The film is due at the cinema on 24th April.
* Although Chandra Talkies has the lowest seating capacity (566) in Muzaffarnagar (U.P.), it has paid the highest entertainment tax (Rs. 26,79,937/-) in the financial year 1996-97.
* Shashikant Chitra Mandir at Karanja (C.P. Berar) paid the highest entertainment tax (5,90,619/-) in the town in 1996-97. It collected a tax-free service charge of 4,56,096/- during the same period.
*ZIDDI has created a city record by collecting 48,433/- on first day at Prabhat, Raipur.
* JUDAAI has created a theatre record by collecting 96,287/- in 6th week at Leela, Lucknow.
* JUDAAI has created a theatre record by collecting 1,00,900/- in 5th week at Shyam, Amravati. This is more than the collection of the 4th week.
* JUDAAI has created a theatre record by collecting 1,03,435/- in 6th week at Lily, Bhopal.
*JUDAAI has created a theatre record by collecting 1,39,386/- in 3rd week at Abhinay, Aurangabad.
* HERO NO. 1 has created a theatre record by collecting 70,358/- in 7th week at Anand, Raipur.
* HERO NO. 1 has created a theatre record by collecting 28,122/- in 7th week at Laxmi, Bilaspur.
* HERO NO. 1 has created a theatre record by collecting 77,525/- in 7th week at Alka, Indore. 6th week was 54,902/-.
* HERO NO. 1 has created another record at Bhopal Talkies, Bhopal, by collecting 81,888/- in 7th week.
* HERO NO. 1 has created a record by collecting more in 7th week than in each of 4th, 5th and 6th weeks at Maheshwari, Hyderabad. The collections for 7th, 6th, 5th and 4th weeks respectively are: 3,33,000/-, 3,20,000/-, 3,14,000/- and 3,14,000/-.
* JUDWAA has created a shifting record by collecting 50,189/- in 4th week at Rangmahal, Bhopal.
* RAJA HINDUSTANI has created a new record at Bharatpur (Rajasthan) by being booked at B.P. Palace cinema on a fixed hire of 3.61 lakh!
* RAJA HINDUSTANI has broken all previous records at Parbhani (Nizam) by yielding the highest distributor’s share from Naaz cinema. It completed 100 days at the cinema.
* JAI MAHALAXMI MAA is doing well in several centres of Rajasthan and C.I., like Ajmer (7th week), Bayra (8th week), Agar (6th week) and Devdhar (6th week).
BABA RE BABA!
* Rajasthan distributor Baba Ramdeo has offered an unbelievable Rs. 1 crore for the distribution rights of Baba Films’ ISHQ for Rajasthan. And if the deal is really clinched, it will be the highest ever price for Rajasthan. Baba re baba!
MIX MASALA
WAH MIYAN!
Trust Chunkey Panday to come up with this joke:
On spotting David Dhawan at a party, he announced: “Have you heard of a film called Bade Miyan Chote Miyan Mote Miyan? The mote miyan bit was said pointing towards mota David Dhawan.
3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment
Quite Unsound
While many filmmakers are going in for DTS mixing, there is not a single cinema in Bihar, Assam and Orissa which is installed with DTS sound system. Leave alone DTS, there isn’t even one cinema in these three circuits with Dolby sound system. Perhaps, the low admission rates discourage exhibitors from investing lakhs of rupees in installing the sound systems of today. Rajasthan is another state where, surprisingly, no cinema has gone in for DTS sound.
Sound Sense
While on DTS, a total of 31 prints of Ziddi are with DTS mixing. This means, more than 10% of the total number of prints (254) are in DTS. For next week’s release — Koyla — out of a total of about 325 prints, 47 will be with DTS sound. There are chances of a couple of more being added to the DTS list as cinemas are even now contemplating installing the new sound system. A small circuit like Tamil Nadu takes the lead as far as percentage of DTS prints goes. Of the 7 prints being taken by the Tamil Nadu distributor, six are with DTS sound.
Incidentally, it involves an additional expenditure of about Rs. 4 lakh to install DTS sound system in cinemas which already have Dolby sound system fitted. For such cinemas, the changeover also takes just some hours. Like at Maratha Mandir in Bombay, which was fitted with Dolby sound, the installation work for DTS (for Ziddi) started on the midnight of 9th April and was complete before 12 noon on 10th.
Of Roshan Sr. And Jr.
Rakesh Roshan’s son, Hrithik Roshan, has made a 23-minute film — The Making Of ‘Koyla’ — which is on air on the various satellite channels. If Koyla took Roshan Sr. 18 months to complete, it took Roshan Jr. two months to make and edit The Making Of ‘Koyla’. The junior’s work is good and has already come before the public eye. In a week, it will be Roshan Senior’s Koyla which will be judged by the public.