SHOOTING COVERAGE

‘BAS ITNA SA KHWAAB HAI…’
A Dream For Its Cast & Crew

A drive towards the dark lane of Sassoon Dock, way past 8 p.m., leads us to Mukesh Mills, Colaba in South Bombay, where the shooting of Rose Movies Combine’s Bas Itna Sa Khwaab Hai… is going on in full swing. Goldie Behl, son of late Ramesh Behl, makes his directorial debut with this film. He is the writer as well as one of the lyricists of the film. A multi-faceted personality, must say. He has roped in his childhood friend, Abhishek Bachchan, to play the lead role, along with Jackie Shroff, Rani Mukerji, Sushmita Sen, Raman Lamba, Anang Desai, Himani Shivpuri, Sanjay Narvekar and Gulshan Grover.

As we reach the location, action scenes of a hundred earlier films shot at Mukesh Mills come to mind, but art director Sabu Cyril seems to have different things in mind. Like, converting the dirty interior of the mill into an amazing blue-coloured dream set. It is taking him more than seven hours to give the finishing touches to the set, we are told. And the result is mind-blowing! It resembles a typical modern-day bar-cum-dancing floor. The floor will have smoke and fire alongside, to “make it look like hell,” informs Goldie Behl.

Goldie and choreographer Ahmed Khan are all set to picturise the pre-climax song of the film on this set. The dancers are dressed in attires of various cartoon figures. Abhishek is required to don the Batman costume. Goldie explains, “To shoot this particular song, I bought a cartoon book to further authenticate my concept.”

Jackie Shroff arrives at 11.30 p.m. to give his shot. As soon as he is on the set, it’s all work and no play. He is required to hold a champagne bottle and pretend to look drunk, standing at the entrance to the dance floor. As soon as the director gives instructions to play the music, Jackie gives his lip sync to Jhoome yeh zameen, jhoome aasman. There are retakes galore, as Jackie struggles with a dance step till finally Ahmed Khan exclaims, “Jaggu-da you’re perfect.” Soon thereafter, Goldie starts to dance. No, not with joy but to explain Jackie his next shot. Ahmed Khan informs, “Goldie, too, is an amazing dancer!”

Abhishek, who is also a part of the song picturisation, is not to be seen still as his shots are to come later. Ditto for Sushmita Sen.

As the clock strikes 12 midnight, it’s time for celebration. For, it’s Jackie’s birthday. Sushmita gives the birthday boy a warm hug and plants a cute kiss on his cheek. Someone on the set asks him his age. He quips, “Sweet sixteen” and adds, “I’m a year younger than Anil Kapoor! Now, keep guessing what Anil’s age is.” He slips down memory lane, recalling the strong bonds he shares with all his co-actors, especially Anil Kapoor, Govinda and Sanjay Dutt. He has always played their elder brother in most of the films and he addresses all of them as “mera bachcha” (as in Misison Kashmir), he adds.

Jackie sounds pretty excited when we ask him about his much-dalayed Grahan. “Most probably, it will be released on 9th or 16th of Feb.,” informs the actor-producer. At which, a smart Alec quips, “Like Sunny Deol’s outburst in Damini, it is tarikh pe tarikh, tarikh pe tarikh…! This grahan doesn’t seem to end!”

Most of the shooting of Bas Itna Sa Khwaab Hai… was done in Varanasi as Abhishek plays a character hailing from the holy town. He is a young and ambitious man who has a lot of aspirations to make it big some day. As nothing works out for him in Varanasi, he decides to come to Bombay, the city of dreams. While trying to settle down in the city, he meets a college girl, played by Rani Mukerji, and he soon falls in love with her. Falling in love proves lucky for him because career-wise, good things start happening. In the meantime, he meets Jackie, a successful media baron whose right-hand lady is Sushmita Sen. Sushmita plays the ideal, strong woman of today, who is ambitious and aggressive but kindhearted. Jackie informs, “Abhishek tries to follow my footsteps. I give him all that he wants — a bungalow, car and money. All this, to tempt him.”

The aftermath, in this particular shot, is a party scene where Abhishek, after getting everything he pines for, realises that wealth is not everything. There are other priorities in life too, he learns. It’s his turbulent state of mind and the transformation he goes through, after this particular song, that forms the climax of the story. Instead of staying with Jackie and Sushmita, he goes back to Rani and a more “peaceful life, away from plain materialistic happiness”. The story sounds familiar? Oh yes, the director seems to be inspired by Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. He accepts it albelt half-heartedly.

“All the stars of my film have pinned a lot of hope on this film,” says Goldie Behl who hopes to make a mark on debut. Abhishek, too, is looking for the elusive hit in this film. Ahmed Khan will soon be directing his own film, and so, he needs his name to be associated with success.

Goldie is the all-rounder of the film. He is the writer, director and lyricist, too. In which field will he prove a master? Goldie replies, “I want to master each one of them. Bas itna sa khwaab hai, for now!

– SUJATA CHANDA

CBFC TO HIRE PRIVATE DETECTIVES

The Central Board of Film Certification has decided to hire private detectives in the four metropolitan cities to ensure that cinemas there comply fully with the censor guidelines as well as the Cinematograph Act, 1952. The decision has been taken to strengthen the CBFC’s efforts as preventing violations like allowing minors entry for films passed for adults only, failure to prominently display the censor rating on posters outside cinema halls, and adding uncensored portions (‘bits’) in films. The decision has already been approved by the information & broadcasting ministry which has allocated Rs. 45 lakh for its implementation.

KUTCH TRADE IN DOLDRUMS
KEA WRITES TO CM

Film trade in the Gujarat and Saurashtra sub-territories of Bombay has been terribly affected by the earthquake. The situation in the Kutch region of Saurashtra, especially, is extremely grim. All twelve cinemas in the region have closed since 26th January — the day of the quake. Vishwajyoti cinema in Bhachau has been completely destroyed. Others — Vinay in Adipur; Laxmi and Vaishali in Anjar; Sur Mandir, Modern and Ravi in Bhuj; Laxmi in Mundra; Laxmi in Mandvi; Jasmine in Kandla; and Oslo and Shiv in Gandhidham — have also suffered major damage. Efforts are on by the trade to resume business activity in the region. However, the severe nature of the tragedy is making things worse. The Kutch Exhibitors Association has sought help from the state government in getting the cinemas back on their feet.

In a letter addressed to the Gujarat chief minister, the KEA has asked him to take a few relief measures while apprising him of the extent to which the cinemas are damaged. The relief measures sought are:-

i) Entertainment tax paid by the cinemas in the last two years be returned as cash aid to the cinemas;

ii) Exemption from payment of entertainment tax for the next 5 years;

iii) Removal of levies on all equipments for cinema halls; and

iv) Grant of interest-free loans by the government and banks, to cinema halls.

Even if the reliefs are given, it is not known when normalcy for the film trade will return in the forlorn region. The scars left by the quake have been so devastating that it is unlikely that people will have entertainment on their priority list for months to come.

BHARAT SHAH’S BAIL PLEA REJECTED

Film financier Bharat Shah’s bail application was rejected by the special court judge A.P. Bhangale on 7th February.

“Investigations are on and the investigating agencies have reasonable grounds to believe that the accused is a party to the offences charged against him,” the judge said. He also observed, “The accused is an influential person and he can demoralise the investigating agencies. Also, the voice tape confirms that the accused had indeed spoken to Chhota Shakeel, thus abetting the origanised crime syndicate. Hence, anticipatory or premature bail cannot be granted in such cases and I reject the bail application.”

The judge, however, added that Bharat Shah could apply for bail once the chargesheet was filed.

So far, the police has not filed a chargesheet against Shah as it is not mandatory to file one under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. The Act provides that the accused can be kept in custody for 90 days without a chargesheet being filed, which period can be further extended.

Bharat Shah, along with his family members, was present in the court when the order was passed. He was represented by his lawyers, including V.R. Manohar, Shiraz Rahimtoola, Vibhav Krishna and Amit Desai.

In a separate development, the Enforcement Directorate on 7th February grilled Shah in regard to his hawala deals. Shah was taken by the ED to its office soon after the MCOCA court rejected his bail plea. ED counsel Arun Gupte sought his custody for four days to allow uninterrupted interrogation. However, the judge directed the ED to question him daily between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. and produce him before court after the probe ends on each day.

‘CCCC’ RELEASE: NO CLEAR PICTURE AS YET

No concrete solution has still been arrived at by the special court with regard to the release of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke. The court on 8th February, continuing its hearing in the matter, said that it may be possible to release the tainted film through a receiver to be appointed by it (court), from the film industry.

The release plan of the film was thrown in jeopardy when its negatives were seized by the crime branch of the Bombay police soon after the arrest of its producer, Nazim Rizvi, for his alleged underworld nexus. Later, presenter Bharat Shah, too, was arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.

During the course of the hearing, when the counsels of Bharart Shah objected to the release of the film by the court, saying that the state did not have the necessary infrastructure to release it, judge A.P. Bhangale wondered aloud whether he could appoint anyone from among the famous personalities in the industry.

The public prosecutor, Rohini Salian, opposing the release tooth and nail, said it could be done only after the police investigations were completed. She also added that there were some doubts on the issue of Overseas territorial rights of CCCC.

Earlier, the court had sought to appoint the chief secretary as court receiver. Bharat Shah’s counsels argued that release of the film through a court receiver would cause prejudice since he would not have the necessary expertise. They also said that an expense of Rs. 2.5 crore needed to be made for the release and questioned who would bear the same. The judge thereupon asked for names of industry persons from among whom a receiver could be appointed.

The judge also heard the film’s Overseas distributors, Eros International, which urged him to have the film released as early as possible as its pirated video cassettes, according to them (Eros), were already in circulation. However, the public prosecutor said, the Overseas territory was under investigation and the conversations intercepted also mentioned the name of Overseas distributor Kishore Lulla of Eros.

Meanwhile, rumours were rife in the industry on 9th February that Mahesh Bhatt had been appointed receiver by the court.

HANIF KADAWALA SHOT DEAD

Producer and India video rights distributor Hanif Kadawala (of the Hanif-Samir duo) was shot dead on 7th February at Bandra, Bombay. Three armed men are reported to have fired at Hanif from point-blank range. He was rushed to the nearby Bhabha Hospital but he was declared dead on arrival. The shootout is believed by the police to be the handiwork of underworld don Chhota Rajan.

Hanif, along with Samir Hingora, had produced Baap Numbri Beta Dus Numbri, Dil Hi To Hai and Sanam. His Singer is yet to be released.

Hanif and Samir were accused in the 1993 Bombay bomb blasts case. Hanif was currently out on bail alongwith Samir.

EXHIBITOR-MEMBERS OF CCCA TO DONATE FOR GUJARAT QUAKE VICTIMS

The Central Circuit Cine Association (CCCA), at a meeting of its executive committee held on 3rd February in Indore under the presidentship of Santosh Singh Jain, passed a resolution advising its member-cinema houses to donate the net collections of 15th February to the chief minister’s relief fund in the respective state of the central circuit. The Central Circuit comprises Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and the Vidarbha and Khandesh regions of Maharashtra. The net collections of the day will go towards the relief and rehabilitation of victims of the earthquake in Gujarat.

The CCCA has advised its exhibitor-members to make the payment by bank draft in favour of the chief minister’s relief fund. The bank draft is to be submitted to the collector of the district with an intimation to the chief minister of the concerned state and the CCCA.

SEVEN ARRESTED IN RAIDS ON NAGPUR VIDEO PARLOURS

The crime branch of Nagpur police recently swooped on four video parlours in Nagpur and seized thousands of CDs and video cassettes of Hindi and English films, including cassettes of 16 hard-porn films, along with television sets and video cassette recorders. The properties seized are estimated to be worth Rs. 7 lakh. Seven persons were arrested. Cases were registered against them under sec. 292 read with sec. 63 of the Copyright Act. Those arrested include Radha Kishan Punyani, Ajay Punyani, Manoj Thakkar, Jugal Kumar Agrawal and Praveen Rattewar. The raids were carried out on a tip-off by K.K. Sawhney, convenor of Cine Exhibitors’ Association, Nagpur.

YOU ASKED IT

Many of the titles of forthcoming films are being used by makers of television serials. This robs a new film of its title value. These days, when finding a good and suitable title is so difficult, what is the way out to avoid this unethical ‘title piracy’?

– No way out, till film and TV producers sit on the issue together.

How can one determine good cinematography?

– The basic thing is that the visuals should be pleasing to the eyes.

Which was the first Hindi film to celebrate silver jubilee?

– AMRIT MANTHAN, which was released in 1934. It was produced by Prabhat Talkies and directed by V. Shantaram.

Slow Flow Deals A Bodyblow

So slow is the flow of forthcoming releases that even films, which would not have generated any excitement among exhibitors in the ordinary course, are today bringing smiles on their lips just and only just with the sealing of their release dates. One postponement, and cinemas across the nation are in a mourning mood. One confirmation of a star-cast release, and they heave sighs of relief.

A Delhi-U.P. distributor, who was recently in Bombay to attend a filmland wedding, returned to Delhi with ‘inside information’ that at least three films, which were scheduled for early release, had been postponed. That was enough to spread panic to last a couple of days in the trade in the capital city. Things have come to such a pass that release dates are now being ‘chased’ by exhibitors like mirages in a desert by the thirsty.

To add to the woes of the already suffering tribe of exhibitors is the poor quality of films released of late. No film, released in the last 15 weeks, has been able to sustain at the box-office. Resultantly, those who are benefitting from the present scenario are the distributors. They have been able to screen their films at terms which are clearly disproportionately advantageous to them as against the cinemas, the latter being forced to pay through their nose, because the only other option available to them is to remain closed. 

Which brings us to the point of weekend cinema, as it happens in Hollywood. Will the year 2001 be witness to cinemas in India, too, remaining shut on weekdays (maybe, for all shows or for the daytime shows) and conducting shows on weekends only? It is quite possible that some exhibitors may find it more cost-effective to keep cinemas closed for some days in the week than to run them every day, as at present.

Some people think, smaller films are the answer to this problem. Small films without big stars will be made faster, they argue, and there’ll be many more producers willing to risk limited amounts of money on such projects, they feel. But it hardly seems likely that smaller films will be able to ease the situation. For, will the small films be able to bear the burden of the prohibitively high admission rates? The answer is “no”. 

The question which then arises is: What is the solution?

Any answer? They’d be more than welcome from you.

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Small Producer, Big Music Company, Bigger Ghotala

The games some people play can leave you astounded. A leading music company is making a fortune by selling the music cassettes of a recently released regional language (non-Hindi) film, but it has not yet paid a single naya paisa to its small and new producer. The gullible producer signed the agreement with the music company, for sale of his music rights but the signed agreement was sent outstation by the company under the pretext of getting it signed by its managing director. It is more than three months now but the agreement still eludes the simpleton producer. So also the cheque which is equally elusive. So while the producer hasn’t got so much as a signing amount, the music company is filling its coffers because the film’s music has become a rage. It is also alleged that soon after the music became a craze, the company’s top officers hiked the price of the cassette and, simultaneously, flooded the market with pirated copies of the film’s audio cassettes. Resultantly, even the company is now losing money as its officers continue to earn by dubious means.

Celebrating A Flop!

We’ve heard of filmmakers celebrating the success of their film, but celebrating a flop?!? Well, that’s what the director of a recent debacle did — he threw a party. The director hosted a small party for close friends on the day his latest film hit the screens recently. Looking to the encouraging collections on the opening day, the over-enthusiastic director lost no time in arranging an impromptu party that very day to celebrate, what he thought was, the film’s success. But on the very next day, the collections came crashing down. It was then that realisation dawned upon the director that the good collections on the opening day had nothing to do with his film but everything to do with the public holiday on Friday.

So ultimately, it turned out to be the celebration of a flop.

A ‘Site’ To Behold!

Poonam Dhillon launched her personal website, <www.poonamdhillon.com> on 7th February in Bombay. The website highlights the early days — in Chandigarh — of Poonam who went on to win a beauty crown before being launched by Yash Chopra in Noorie; a quick look into her personal life; her family and friends; the Vanity make-up van which she pioneered in the Bombay film industry; and some unpublished photographs of herself. The website also offers an array of greeting cards, free medical helpline backed by Dr. Rishma Pai and Dr. Harishi Pai (Poonam’s sister and brother-in-law), a section for kids’ entertainment, recipes, fashion, charity, an Agony Aunt section etc. Poonam is also writing a book which she hopes to release online on her site.

The party to celebrate the foray of Poonam into the World Wide Web was a well-attended affair. The site was launched by none other than Yash Chopra, the man who also launched Poonam herself.

Tracinema: From TV To Cinema

Tracinema, one of the bigger television software production companies, has branched out into film production. Raman Kumar and Vinta Nanda, whose Tara on Zee TV was, for several years, the longest-running soap, launched their first film, Aur Phirr…., this week with a song recording at Spectral Harmony.

Raman, besides producing the film, is also directing it from a story by partner Vinta Nanda. Coming back to the song, it was Jaspinder Narula who lent her voice to it under the baton of music director Aadesh Shrivastava, with percussionist Sivamani on the drums. The cast of Aur Phirr…. is being finalised.

One Title, Two Claimants

Even before the debut film of hero-producer-director Sohail Khan (brother of Salman Khan) and heroine Sameera Reddy has gone before the cameras, it is shrouded in a controversy over its title. While producers Bunty Walia and Sohail Khan claim that Maine Dil Tujhko Diya is the title of the film, producer and Bengal distributor Sanjay Roy has the same title registered in his favour with the title registration committee of the IMPPA. “Maine title tujhko nahin diya,” seems to be Sanjay’s refrain to Walia and Sohail these days. Why, he has already taken up the matter with the IMPPA. On the other hand, the producer-duo seems to be quite unperturbed by the claim of Sanjay Roy. In the spirit of their previous films, they seem to be telling Roy, “Hello brother, title liya toh darna kya!”

Incidentally, Sohail-Walia’s film is to be launched on Valentine’s Day (February 14).

KASOOR

Vishesh Entertainment Ltd.’s Kasoor (A) is a murder mystery. A rich and famous newspaper editor’s wife is murdered and the police frames him for it. The police officer, who has an axe to grind with the editor, arrests him but he is released on bail. Rather than hiring the top lawyers of the country, the editor appoints a lady lawyer to argue his case in the court of law. This lady lawyer also hates the concerned police officer for having earlier fooled her with false evidence which had led her to win a case in her capacity as a public prosecutor but at the cost of getting an innocent man hanged to death.

The mystery deepens as the lawyer receives anonymous letters, guiding her to witnesses who would help save the editor from being convicted. Even while the case is going on, the lawyer is charmed by her client, the editor, and finds herself madly in love with him. They have physical relations too. After a long-drawn courtroom drama, she wins the case. But that’s not the end of the story. Rather, it is just the beginning of another gory story for the gullible lady lawyer.

The film moves at a slow pace in the first half and has several boring and even illogical moments. It is only after interval that the drama picks up but even then, the film doesn’t have universal appeal. Remake of the English film, Jagged Edge, it has more than a fair share of flaws in its screenplay (Mahesh Bhatt). A sample of the weak scripting: the lady lawyer, on being told by the journalist that he is innocent, chides him, saying that before taking up a case, she invariably satisfies herself about the innocence or otherwise of her client. A couple of scenes later, she is shown warning the journalist not to hide any facts from her, implying thereby that she has no option but to believe his claim of innocence. Some time later, she tells her boyfriend that, being a lawyer, it was her duty to protect her client even if he was guilty. But when she had set out to take up his case — after much reluctance — she had confided in her boyfriend that she was taking it up only because she hoped, she could save the innocent journalist and thereby repay for the terrible wrong she had done by getting an innocent guy hanged to death earlier. So, at one time, she is shown as being very conscientious and at another, downright self-centred and anything but conscientious. Again, much later, she decides to leave her client midway only because she feels, there was another girl in his life. In short, the lady lawyer’s character is that of a ridiculously imbalanced mind!

If there’s no exciting suspense built, it is because the film begins from the point of murder. The journalist and his wife’s relationship is not established beforehand but unfolds only as the drama progresses. Obviously, it has been done for the sake of convenience in building suspense and not pointing the needle of suspicion towards the real murderer. The climax looks too contrived from the moment the lady lawyer tries to rob the journalist’s car keys instead of plainly and simply running for dear life! The arguments in the courtroom because of which at least three witnesses crumble under pressure, are quite childish.

Aftab Shivdasani does an utterly average job and fails to evoke either sympathy or hatred for himself, all through the time it is not known who the murderer is. Lisa Ray is an expressionless beauty. She makes a terrific attempt to act but fails terribly. Except in the climax and a couple of courtroom scenes, she is wooden. Her voice has been effectively dubbed by Divya Dutta. Apoorva Agnihotri is fair. Ashutosh Rana is truly effective as the scheming police officer. Divya Dutta acts ably. Irfan Khan is alright. Vishwajeet Pradhan is natural. Sucheta Pawse, Prithvi Zutshi, Kurush Deboo and the others provide reasonable support.

Vikram Bhatt’s direction is quite immature. He tries to camouflage the weaknesses of the script by snazzy takings. Dialogues (Girish Dhamija) impress at a couple of places only. Nadeem Shravan’s music is very melodious but the impact of the lovely music is lost, to a large extent, because of ordinary song situations and owing to some of them being dream/background songs. Cinematography (Pravin Bhatt) is beautiful. Background score (Daboo Malik) is effective in dramatic scenes. Action is functional. Editing is anything but crisp. Whereas a murder mystery ought to be fast-paced, this film is too slow to be true.

On the whole, Kasoor is a weak fare with only a very low price as its salvaging point for circuits like Bombay and South. Opening in U.P. was also good.

Released on 2-2-2001 at Maratha Mandir, Metro (matinee) and 11 other cinemas of Bombay thru Ahuja Films. Publicity & opening: good. …….Also released all over. Opening was not upto the mark in East Punjab, Bengal and Rajasthan.

‘MOR CHHAINHA BHUINYA’ SCORES A TON

Puran Entertainments’ Mor Chhainha Bhuinya (Chhattisgarhi) has created history in the newly-formed Chhattisgarh state and surrounding regions by celebrating 100 days today (February 3) at Raipur, Durg and Bilaspur. Satish Jain, who makes his debut as director with this phenomenal hit, is also the film’s story, screenplay and dialogue-writer. Produced by Shivdayal Jain, it stars Shekhar Soni, Anuj, Poonam, Jagruti Rai, Nisha Gautam, Ashish Shendre and Manmohan Singh Thakur. Music, which is a big hit, is by Babla Bagchi and lyrics, by Laxman Masturiya and Vinay Bihari.

This is the third Chhattisgarhi film. The first two were made 35 years ago, in B & W. Mor Chhainha Bhuinya is the first colour Cinemascope Chhattisgarhi film. Having completed 100 days in Raipur, Durg and Bilaspur, it is now heading towards 100 days at Bhilai, Rajnandgaon, Korba, Dhamtari, Shakti and Ambikapur (which is not in Chhattisgarh).

NAGPUR CRIME BRANCH RAIDS TWO VIDEO PARLOURS

The crime branch of Nagpur police recently carried out raids on two local video parlours, under the supervision of DCP Kulwant Kumar and ACP Sunil Phulari. Pirated VCDs of films like Kurukshetra, Mohabbatein, Fiza, Dhadkan, Farz, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Zubeidaa, Taal, Josh, Champion, Astitva, Khiladi 420, Hera Pheri, Mission Kashmir, Saali Poori Gharwali and hundreds of VCDs of English films alongwith TV sets, VCRs and duplicators were seized. The property seized is estimated to be worth Rs. 2.50 lakh. The police arrested Vashishtha Mishra of Sharda Video Parlour and Prakash Waman Chafle of Mahalaxmi Video Parlour.

The raids were carried out at the instance of K.K. Sawhney who is the convenor of the Cine Exhibitors Association, Nagpur.

‘TERA JADOO CHAL GAYAA’ SILVER JUBILEE

Producer Vashu Bhagnani’s Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa entered 25th combined week on 2nd February at New Excelsior (matinee), Bombay. The film, starring Abhishek Bachchan, Keerthi Reddy, Sanjay Suri, Kader Khan, Paresh Rawal, Himani Shivpuri, Johny Lever and Farida Jalal, is directed and edited by A. Muthu. Writer: Ikram Akhtar. Music: Ismail Darbar. Lyrics: Sameer. Cinematography: Santosh Thundiyil.

‘MOHABBATEIN’ SCORES A CENTURY!

Yash Chopra’s Mohabbatein, written and directed by Aditya Chopra, entered 100th day today (3rd February) at Liberty, Bombay, and in Ahmedabad, Baroda, Solapur, Pune and other centres of Bombay circuit, in Delhi-U.P., West Bengal, C.P. Berar, C.I, and Nizam. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Uday Chopra, Shamita Shetty, Jugal Hansraj, Kim Sharma, Jimmy Shergill, Preeti Jhangiani and Anupam Kher with Amrish Puri and Shefali Chhaya in guest appearances. Music: Jatin Lalit. Lyrics: Anand Bakshi. Cinematography: Manmohan Singh. Choreography: Farah Khan. Art: Sharmishtha Roy.

‘MISSION KASHMIR’ 100 DAYS

Vinod Chopra Productions’ Mission Kashmir entered 100th day today (3rd February) at Novelty (matinee), Bombay. Produced and directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the film stars Sanjay Dutt, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, Jackie Shroff, Sonali Kulkarni and Puru Raaj Kumar in a guest appearance. Story-screenplay: Abhijat Joshi, Suketu Mehta, Vikram Chandra and Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Lyrics: Rahat Indori and Sameer. Cinematography: Binod Pradhan. Art: Nitin Desai. Editing: Rajkumar Hirani. Action: Allan Amin. Choreography: Saroj Khan and Rekha Chinni Prakash.

RELEASE OF ‘CCCC’
MCOCA Court Asks State To File Reply

The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on January 30 directed the government of Maharashtra to file its reply on film financier Bharat Shah’s claim on the seized negatives of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke. The police had seized the negatives of the film after the arrest of its producer, Nazim Rizvi, on 13th December. Shah had sought an injunction from the court, restraining the police from interfering with the release of the film and its negatives.

At the last hearing, judge A.P. Bhangale, satisfied that third party rights had been created, directed issue of notices to its 13 distributors, music company Universal and state chief secretary. The distributors of various territories were present in the court on 30th January. Under-secretary R.V. Nalawade’s request for a week’s time to file a para-wise reply was granted. The matter was posted to 2nd February.

The counsels for the distributors submitted that they had acquired the distribution rights through agreements entered into with Mega Bollywood Limited, a company in which Bharat Shah was a director.

The counsels for the distributors said that prejudice shall be caused by any further delay in the release of the film since the pirated copies of its video cassettes were already in circulation in Pakistan. These copies can also come to India and by the time the film is released, there will be less attendance in the cinemas, thus causing severe financial loss, the counsels for the distributors pointed out.

The counsels further said that if delay was caused due to the state seeking time, the state should be liable to compensate for the losses suffered. Special public prosecutor Rohini Salian said that the state had to ascertain certain facts. The counsels countered that the state government ought to be aware of the complete facts since it is the police which is investigating the matter.

Shah’s counsels reiterated that Mega Bollywood Limited are the world rights controllers who have paid approximately Rs. 12.50 crore to the producers through an agreement. His counsels opposed the state’s claim of attachment and the release of the film through the court receiver, saying that Mega Bollywood Limited was a separate legal entity from its members. They said that severe losses would occur if the film was released through the court receiver.

Universal Music, which had purchased the music rights of CCCC at Rs. 2.60 crore and has been selling its music, urged the court to not put an injunction on the music sales as that could cause losses and encourage music piracy.

HEARING BEGINS ON BHARAT SHAH’S BAIL PLEA

V.R. Manohar, senior counsel for film financier and diamond merchant Bharat Shah, told the special MCOCA court on 2nd February that the entire intercepted material against his client was obtained in “violation of the provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA)”. The senior counsel made this submission during the hearing on Shah’s bail application before the designated judge, A.P. Bhangale. Manohar said that the only incriminating evidence against Shah, which the police claimed to have, was an alleged telephonic conversation, dated 27th October, 2000, between him and Chhota Shakeel. The police had obtained authorisation to intercept calls on 23rd October under the Indian Telegraph Act and not as per provisions of the MCOCA, he added.

He further said that the first interception, out of the nine mentioned by the police in its FIR and subsequent remand applications, was dated 27th October. The senior counsel asked whether there was an interception dated 27th October and, if so, whether it was authorised by the ITA or whether it was a tape handed over by Nazim Rizvi (producer of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke) or whether the police had obtained it from somewhere else. There was no reference to Shah in any other telephonic conversation, as alleged by the police, except in the one dated 27th October, V.R. Manohar pointed out. He also said that there was no name of any applicant as mentioned in the FIR copy nor was there any reference made in its entire text nor was any panchnama made for any conversation dated 27th October in the FIR.

The senior counsel will continue with his arguments on 5th February.

BHARAT SHAH REMANDED TO JUDICIAL CUSTODY

Film financier and Bombay distributor Bharat Shah was on 1st February remanded to judicial custody by the special court in Bombay, until 14th February. He had been arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act on 8th January for his alleged underworld nexus in the financing of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke. The film’s producer, Nazim Rizvi, who was arrested a few days before Shah, was also remanded to judicial custody until 14th February.

Bharat Shah’s bail application, which was to be heard on 1st, was heard on 2nd instead, as his council, V.R. Manohar, was busy in another court on 1st. A bomb scare in the high court delayed the hearing.

…….

YOU ASKED IT

If banks do decide to finance a film, what things will the banks consider as security — producers’ assets or his film’s negative?

– Maybe, only the film’s negative. 

Why is script-doctoring not a success in India?

– Because producers lack vision, and writers and directors have fat egos.

In the Hindi film music market, what is the percentage share of non-film music, like pop songs, devotional songs, ghazals etc.

– About 15-20%.

How come, Adhikari Brothers have not thought of re-releasing their Bhookamp in the wake of the quake?

– Public has no bhookh for such gimmicks when the film in question is poor.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Quake Relief?

Looking to the havoc the earthquake of 26th January has created in the state of Gujarat, it will be months before business in the Gujarat and Saurashtra sub-territories of Bombay circuit returns to normalcy. Distributors of Bombay are expected to ask producers for price reductions in the case of forthcoming films. In the immediate future, of course, the losses to distributors and exhibitors of Bombay/Gujarat/Saurashtra are going to be very heavy.

Roshans Donate Rs. 21 lakh For Earthquake Victims

Hrithik Roshan accompanied his father, Rakesh Roshan, when he called on Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on 1st February to hand over a cheque of Rs. 21 lakh in aid of the earthquake victims in Gujarat. “Hrithik was to perform in a charity show for the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund on 3rd February in Delhi. Unfortunately, the show has been postponed due to unavoidable circumstances,” informs Rakesh Roshan. He adds, “In any case, we wanted to help the victims in our individual capacity, too. While we understand that money cannot wipe out the losses of so many lives, we hope and pray that our contribution helps remove at least some of the physical hardships faced by the victims.”

A Shower Of Melody

If one song of Lagaan (the Megha number) Information heard, is any indication, producer Aamir Khan has a winner in his music. The pre-monsoon song is beautifully tuned by A.R. Rahman and has a very exciting thing about it, heightened further by its immensely likeable picturisation (choreographed by Raju Khan). The magic on the viewer starts as soon as the song begins, such is the impact! Aamir will release the audio cassettes of his maiden production venture on 6th April. The film itself will hit the screens on 1st June even though its copy will be out as early as in April.

INFORMATION MEETS

‘LAGAAN’: Once upon a time in Bhuj….

– a devastated AAMIR KHAN on the
havoc created in the town which
was his home for 6 months in 2000

GAUTAM MUTHA & KOMAL NAHTA

Aamir Khan is a very sad man today. Having shot his entire Lagaan in Bhuj (in Gujarat), the charming-actor-turned-charismatic producer has taken the news of the devastation caused by the recent earthquake to the entire Bhuj town very personally.

“We’ve lived with the locals there for six months — from January to June 2000,” said Aamir with a deep sense of gratitude now mixed with sorrow. He added, “We worked like one big family. And today, I have no information about how they are, in what condition they are, what they need urgently. (After this interview was taken on 30th January, Aamir has learnt that almost all whom he knew in Bhuj are alive but their houses have been reduced to rubble.) My entire staff is just sitting in front of the television, watching the news about the tragedy. We are also constantly trying to contact our friends in Bhuj over telephone but since the lines are all down, we are still clueless about their well-being.”

Not the one to just sit helplessly, Aamir rushed his production guys to Bhuj on 30th January to enquire after those they were close to. He explained, “My guys will also contact the local organisation there, which is engaged in the work of disbursing money, food and clothing to the quake-affected. I could have sent a cheque to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, but the loss — of whatever magnitude if may be — has been like a personal loss to me.”

Aamir Khan plans to himself go to Bhuj as soon as his production people inform him that the necessary arrangements have been made for disbursement of goods and cash. Said Aamir, “I want to personally hand over whatever my friends and their families there need, with my own hands.”

The conscientious actor-producer has decided to personally donate Rs. 25 lakh for the cause. “Generous contributions are also coming in from all the unit members,” informed the affable actor. “Everyone in the unit wants to contribute his bit. Even the spot-boys have expressed a keen desire to help with whatever they can afford.”

Going in flashback mode, Aamir recalled how very co-operative and helpful the locals had been all through the six months of shooting and four months before that when the sets were being constructed. “I don’t recall having faced a single problem during our entire stay,” he said. “The people of Bhuj lead a very tough life, they have to often cope with drought situations, yet they are the softest people I’ve known.”

Talking of the contribution of the people of Bhuj and surrounding areas in front of the camera, Aamir said that of the 200 junior artistes in the film, only 50 had been taken to Bhuj from Bombay. “The remaining 150 were from the local theatre groups of Bhuj and the commoners there.” Elaborating further, Aamir added, “And the junior artistes are not junior artistes in my film. Each of them is a character. For instance, the role of Raj Zutshi’s wife is played by a local girl. She may not have a single dialogue in the film but she is there by Zutshi’s side all along in the film.

“We knew half the people by their first names. It is frightening to think in what state they might be.” Lagaan has several British actors too and they’ve been calling Aamir’s office from abroad to enquire after the well-being of the Bhuj people. The foreign actors have also very considerately volunteered to help financially.

So emotionally overcome was Aamir that he volunteered to show us a song from the film to drive home the point of the immense contributions of the people of Bhuj to his film. The Megha song is a joyous number in which the entire parched village (Lagaan has a village backdrop) dances on sighting the first clouds of the season, in the hope that it would rain soon. On his personal computer screen, Aamir paused the pictures at regular intervals and pointed out to the large number of locals dancing in the song.

That the song is an exceptional number composed by A.R. Rahman is beside the point. In normal circumstances, a producer would be thrilled when told that his song is a hit number. But the pain in Aamir’s heart was too palpable to make him appreciate our genuine fondness for the song.

Aamir’s cousin, director Mansoor Khan, too, was keen to donate his mite for the quake victims, together with the Lagaan team, but Aamir advised him to use one of the traditional channels. “I told Mansoor, we will not be able to give him the tax benefits which one derives from donating to charitable organisationas. I don’t mind paying the tax on my contribution, so we aren’t going to apply for exemption and all that,” explained the actor.

Talking of his stay in Bhuj for six months, Aamir rued, “Today, our guys, who’ve gone to Bhuj, called up to say that the apartment in which the entire unit was staying had been reduced to rubble.” Aamir had rented an entire building which had been newly constructed. In place of that building where Aamir, director Ashutosh Gowariker, art director Nitin Desai and the other cast and crew of Lagaan ate, drank and slept, is today just mounds of debris. “On the sets, we used to eat and chat with the locals like they were part of our family. I used to often smoke with them.”

About the film, Aamir informed that he was amused when a section of the press reported that he had gone in for heavy re-shooting. “I’ve not reshot for a single day,” he smiled. Nor had Aamir ever planned to release the film either on Diwali last year or Idd this year. Describing it as a film which deals with the problem of tax (lagaan) as it existed in British India, the actor stressed that it was a completely commercial film. Just because the story is based in drought-stricken Bhuj, Aamir dispelled fears that the film would turn out to be a dry fare. It is a love triangle with a lot of emotional content and humour thrown in. Gracy Singh and Rachel Shelly are his two love interests in the film.

Aamir discarded rumours that Lagaan was his baby. “It is totally Ashutosh’s baby, I’m only the producer and hero,” he emphasised, adding, “It’s the most exciting story I’ve heard, and I don’t say this because it is my film.” The actor had no problem whatsoever with his music director, A.R. Rahman, whose late-night working hours are known to have irked several filmmakers. “I too like working in the nights,” informed Aamir. “So there was no problem on that count. Otherwise also, I used to attend the music sittings only when the tunes were almost finalised. As I said, the film is only Ashutosh’s creatively.”

When asked what price he expected for the distribution rights, Aamir revealed that irrespective of the ratio, “For an honest distributor, I’m prepared to make concessions. As an actor, I used to feel bad if my film did not make money for the producer and distributors. I used to interpret that as my failure. The same principle applies even now that I have turned a producer. I want that every single distributor of mine should make money on the film, otherwise I will have failed them.” The actor-producer has started finalising deals only now, from last month. Although Jhamu Sughand is the presenter of the film, dealing with the distributors is Aamir’s domain. So far, Aamir has finalised his distributors for Bombay and Nizam.

Lagaan has been totally shot in sync-dubbing. Which means, the original sound, recorded whilst the film was shot, will be used in the final copy, obviating the necessity for dubbing all the dialogues after shooting. Lagaan should, perhaps, be the first commercial Hindi film to have been shot using the sync-dubbing technique which, according to Aamir, “is much more expensive than dubbing the dialogues later”. Aamir went in for sync-dubbing as it “captures the ambience of the scene and also brings in the right emotions”.

Talking of emotions, Aamir also emphasised that emotions were a very strong point of Lagaan. “No film can succeed unless there’s an underlying emotional point. The seed of Lagaan is very emotional.”

Little had Aamir known that the emotional tale called Lagaan would test his and his unit’s emotional strength even before the film was released, with a national calamity that has hit Bhuj so hard. Recounting the deal he had struck with the farmers on whose land he erected the set of an entire village, he explained, “I asked the farmers how much they earned every year from their agricultural produce and I gave them the entire amount before I started construction of the set on their land. I also employed them for the set construction and as junior artistes in my film — so they earned more than they would have in any year. And last year, too, was a year of drought, so they had what they earned from us, to tide over their bad times.”

But one wonders how many of them are alive today. It’s rather eerie but the catchline of Aamir Khan’s period film, Laagan, set in pre-Independence India, reads: ‘Once upon a time in India’. With a large part of Bhuj being buried by the quake, it almost appears like it was also meant to read: ‘Once upon a time in Bhuj…..’

AASHIQ

Shweta International’s Aashiq (A) is a romantic story. A rich girl falls head over heels in love with an advocate’s son. The shy son takes a while to reciprocate her romantic advances but when he does so, it is too late. For, the girl is kidnapped and sold to a brothel-keeper. The guy sets out in search of her and succeeds in rescuing her in the nick of time, but not before he overpowers an army of villains.

The film, which is all along light in the first half, changes tracks completely after interval. The second half reminds of Sadak. While the entertaining and light scenes are quite enjoyable, the tense drama post-interval does not hold the audience’s interest. For one, because it lacks novelty. Secondly, the concept of forcibly selling educated and modern girls in the flesh market looks contrived and dated. The track of the heroine’s forever-fighting parents is unwanted and even jarring. Also disturbing is the mother’s threat to her daughter (heroine) to be wary of her father’s ire and temper. Disturbing, because in a previous scene, the mother is shown slapping the father who does nothing in reaction! Then, what ire and what temper is the mother referring to?

At least two songs in the second half come at situations when one would least expect a song. The impact of those two songs is, therefore, diluted immensely, their melodious tunes notwithstanding. The hero helplessly roaming in search of the heroine for a good part of the second half will not go down well with the viewers. Some comedy scenes lack punch. A couple of emotional scenes, too, fall flat if only because they do not come after a proper build-up. An instance in point is the scene in which the boy wishes the girl a happy birthday in great style. The emotional impact of the scene is completely lost because the girl reveals her pain (at her parents not remembering to wish her) only after the guy wishes her. The better course would have been to build up her pain before the scene.

Bobby Deol tries hard to get into the skin of the character he plays, but fails. He grimaces more than he acts in the second half and is quite a letdown in the film. Karisma Kapoor puts in all the sincerity at her command and does a wonderful job. Whether in light or in dramatic scenes, she is simply superb. Anupam Kher gets limited scope and is average. Rahul Dev is effective as the flesh trader. Johny Lever’s comedy is enjoyable up to a limit. Dina Pathak is natural. Smita Jayakar and Anjan Srivastava are dull. Their patch-up, after major and frequent fights, looks hurried and manipulated to suit the need of the script. Ashok Saraf has not been well exploited. Mukesh Rishi is so-so. Nasir Khan does a reasonably good job. Vrajesh Hirjee is lovely. Mrinal Kulkarni, Kashmira Shah and the rest lend average support. The dog has been exploited quite well.

Director Indra Kumar is not in his element. He doesn’t seem to have had a grip on the subject which, in any case, suffers due to a weak screenplay (Rajiv Kaul and Praful Parekh). Even comedy, which is Indra Kumar’s forte, is not as hilarious as it should’ve been. Dialogues (Anwar Khan) are good at places. Music (Sanjeev Darshan) is melodious. ‘Aashiq mujhe aashiq’, ‘Tu hi aashiq’, ‘O mere dholna’, ‘Gore gore gaal’ and ‘Gori tera nakhra’ are appealing numbers, but it must be added that there is not a single hit tune. Some songs come at such inopportune time that they lose their beauty. Song picturisations should have been much better. Cinematography (Harmeet Singh) is eye-filling. Editing (Sanjay Sankla) is not sharp. Action scenes (Abbas Ali) provide thrill only at places. The set (Bijon Dasgupta) of Karisma Kapoor’s house is rich.

On the whole, Aashiq is a dull fare, with the holiday period in the first week and lack of releases in the forthcoming weeks as its best scoring points. Lacking in merits, it seems unlikely that its romance with the box-office will last very long and that any distributor will reap dividends from it.

Released on 26-1-2001 at Minerva and 17 other cinemas of Bombay by Shweta International thru Metro Films. Publicity & opening: very good. …….Also released all over. Opening was up to the mark due to Republic day holiday.

LATEST POSITION

Both the releases of last week fared badly at the box-office.

Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi left a sour taste in the mouth with shockingly poor collections in almost every centre. 1st week Bombay (6 days) 28,82,241 (72.13%) from 11 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Vapi 2,54,326; Pune 7,32,595 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Satara 42,243; Delhi 31,10,219 (43.84%) from 10 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Agra 1,75,000; Calcutta 3,34,138 from 2 cinemas (one for 6 days and the other for 3 days; others undisclosed); Nagpur 3,12,919 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 63,140, Amravati 1,05,495, Raipur (6 days) 72,767, Durg (6 days) 54,648, Jalgaon (6 days) 89,260, Wardha 51,331, Yavatmal 60,647, Bilaspur (6 days) 70,000; Indore 1,00,000 (3 on F.H.), Bhopal 1,11,824 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 2,86,365 (25.24%) from 2 cinemas; Hyderabad (gross) 14,05,406 from 9 cinemas (1 unrecd.).

Zubeidaa earns praises from the elite but that’s all; in money terms, it comes a big cropper. 1st week Bombay (6 days) 22,37,596 (63.32%) from 7 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Pune 4,54,925 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 24,73,057 (51.20%) from 8 cinemas; Agra 75,000, Bareilly 26,623; Calcutta (6 days) 3,56,438 from 4 cinemas (2 cinemas for 3 days each); Nagpur 1,90,625, Jabalpur (6 days) 39,510; Indore 94,000 (1 on F.H.); Jaipur 2,52,319 (48.75%); Hyderabad (gross) 4,98,732 from 4 cinemas (2 in noon).

Bhairav is disastrous. 1st week Bombay 4,71,455 (27.90%) from 4 cinemas (5 unrecd., 2 on F.H.); Delhi 2,62,801 (12.05%) from 5 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Nagpur 63,124 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 84,694, Amravati 40,848; Jaipur 46,343 (12.18%), Bikaner (gross) 66,597.

Farz falls further. 2nd week Bombay (6 days) 21,79,803 (57.35%) from 8 cinemas (8 on F.H.), total for 2 weeks 67,02,573; Vapi 1,39,109; Pune 3,40,446 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Satara 66,383 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 14,76,629 from 10 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Agra 2,28,000, Meerut 2,52,032 (1st 3,33,186), Bareilly (6 days) 81,217; Nagpur 91,156 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 84,694, Amravati 1,72,056, Raipur (6 days) 88,288, Jalgaon (6 days) 97,592, Gondia 50,989 (1st 1,30,132), Wardha (6 days) 46,112, Chandrapur 74,562, total 2,58,566; Bhopal 73,937 (1 unrecd.); Jaipur 2,31,924 (23.57%) from 2 cinemas, Bikaner (gross) 1,54,688; Hyderabad (gross) 4,94,858 from 2 cinemas.

Mohabbatein 13th week Bombay (6 days) 11,66,548 (57.51%) from 7 cinemas, total for 13 weeks 4,50,32,594; Pune 1,82,369 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 2,97,011; Agra 1,61,000; Calcutta (6 days) 1,83,954; Nagpur 83,706, Jabalpur (6 days) 78,612, 4th week Balaghat 48,403, total 2,64,643, 13th week Amravati 73,930 (12th 82,479), Jalgaon (6 days) 66,184; Indore (6 days) 45,735; Hyderabad (gross) 3,82,282 from 2 cinemas.

________

Chundadi Ni Laaj (Gujarati, TF) did poor in 1st week in Ahmedabad.

Mor Chhainha Bhuinya (Chhattisgarhi) 13th week Raipur (nett) 1,06,704, total 22,94,662, city record, 9th week Rajnandgaon 80,742.

BHARAT RATNA FOR LATA MANGESHKAR

Lata Mangeshkar will be awarded the nation’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna. Veteran shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan will also be conferred the Bharat Ratna. The Ustad’s strains of shehnai as interlude music in some of the songs of Goonj Uthi Shehnai and Sehra still ring in the ears of music lovers. Indian music — film and classical — has indeed been elevated to a new crescendo with these national honours.

Among the film celebrities who have been conferred with the second highest civilian award — the Padma Vibhushan — are Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who had also won the Dadasaheb Phalke award last year; Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma; and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, the sarod wizard.

The Padma Bhushan award-winners include actors Amitabh Bachchan, Dev Anand, Pran, South Indian film actress and filmmaker Bhanumathi, filmmaker B.R. Chopra and music director Bhupen Hazarika. Kavita Krishnamoorthy’s husband, L. Subramaniam, has also been conferred the Padma Bhushan.

In all, 109 prominent personalities were announced for Padma awards on the eve of the Republic Day.

CLASS APART!

The subject of Aamir Khan’s Lagaan may be rustic, but its publicity sure packs class in it. Calendars, designed to promote the film, stand out in the crowd of promotional calendars of other films. The large calendar depicts an impressive still of Aamir’s face alongwith a group still of 11 — yes, 11 — actors from the cast in their get-ups. The background has a map of British India and a coin of the British rupee to allude to the period the movie is set in. The calendar of 2001 highlights two important dates — 6th April, when the film’s audio will be released, and 1st June, when the film will be released. That is, if perfectionist Aamir doesn’t need to yet again postpone the release of his very first ‘baby’!

PUNJAB GOVERNMENT SETTLES DUES

The Punjab government disbursed Rs. 60 lakh by way of subsidy to Punjabi film producers earlier this month. Although more was payable, the cash-strapped state government could only disburse Rs. 60 lakh among the many producers whose patience had run out.

It may be recalled that the claimant-producers, under the aegis of the Chamber of Motion Picture Producers (CHAMPP), had decided to boycott all functions of the Punjab government if their dues of subsidies were not settled. They also threatened to go to court.

The subsidy committee met in Jalandhar earlier this month and decided to pay off all the producers from the Rs. 60 lakh available. Although subsidy is payable at the rate of Rs. 12 lakh, Rs. 8 lakh, and Rs. 4 lakh for ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ class films respectively, no producer was given Rs. 12 lakh due to shortage of funds.

K.D. Shorey was the industry representative in the subsidy committee meet.

HRITHIK IN THE CROSSFIRE OF SA POLITICS

Hrithik Roshan was again almost sucked into the labyrinth of controversy on distant shores of South Africa. In fact, he was drawn into the firing line in the political fight between South Africa’s ruling party, African National Congress (ANC), and the opposition party, Democratic Alliance (DA). It began with a poster circulated with the November 29 edition of Post, a popular weekly among the 1.5 million-strong Indian community in South Africa. The poster showed Hrithik in a dance pose and it carried the caption, ‘Vote DA for all the people’. This had its effect. The Indian community, by and large, voted for the DA.

The ANC contended that Hrithik appeared to be urging the Indian community, traditionally supporters of ANC, to vote for the opposition.

The ANC dashed off a letter to Hrithik Roshan, complaining that he was interfering in the domestic party political affairs of another country and thereby placing the future of the Indian community in great jeopardy.

Rakesh Roshan wrote a letter to the editor of Post, clarifying that Hrithik does not endorse any political party anywhere in the world. He asked the magazine to tender an apology, which the weekly did. And thus the ban, which was to be imposed by the ANC on all Hrithik Roshan starrers in South Africa, was averted

Bharat Shah Still In Judicial Custody

‘CCCC’ Release Matter To Come Up On 30th January

Financier and diamond merchant Bharat Shah was on 22nd January further remanded to judicial custody till 29th. The case came up for hearing on 22nd in the special court hearing MCOCA cases. Nazim Rizvi, the producer of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, who was also produced before the special court, was also remanded to judicial custody for one more week (till 29th January).

The police, in its application for Shah’s remand, said, he was “not co-operating” during the interrogation. Shah reacted, saying, “All the charges made against me are baseless.”

Special public prosecutor Rohini Salian made an application for Rizvi’s transfer from jail to police custody.

Shah’s counsels, led by V.R. Manohar, said that the police had given Shah the copy of the remand application of January 18 but had not handed over the first remand application (RA) copy of January 8. V.R. Manohar also complained that most of the FIR and remand copies given to them were blacked out. He said, “Not giving us access to the complete application is a mockery of the Bombay high court order and is interfering with Shah’s right to make a bail application.” It may be recalled that the Bombay high court last week ordered the police to give Shah copies of the FIR and remand application. Designated judge A.P. Bhangale directed the prosecution to provide Shah with FIR copies and remand papers of January 8 after concealing the identities of the witnesses.

V.R. Manohar sought a two-hour interview with Bharat Shah. This was objected to by the special public prosecutor. The judge also observed that a “team” of lawyers could not be permitted to meet Shah. He called Bharat Shah into the witness box to choose an advocate. Shah chose four of his lawyers, but when the judge told him that only one would be permitted, Bharatbhai consulted his son, Rashesh, and chose Shiraz Rahimtoola. Bharat Shah’s lawyers did not press for bail in the absence of the complete FIR and RA.

The judge read out from the earlier remand application in which it was mentioned that Shah allegedly had a telephonic conversation with Shakeel regarding extortion of money from a businessman.

‘CCCC’ RELEASE

In the meantime, the process for the release of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke is on. The all-India distributors of the film have been asked to appear in court on 30th January. The prosecution, it may be recalled, told the Bombay high court that it did not have any objection to the appointment of a court receiver for the purpose of releasing the film all over. While some of the distributors have arrived in Bombay, others are expected to reach the city in a day or two.

Major Fire At City Pulse Multiplex

One Screen Gutted, Foyer Ravaged

The first multiplex of Gujarat — City Pulse at Gandhinagar — was the scene of a devastating fire on the night of 24th January. The fire, believed to have been caused by short circuit, has completely destroyed one auditorium and the spacious foyer. Property in the other two auditoria of the 3-screen multiplex has also been destroyed. The total loss is estimated to be about Rs. 1 crore. A print of Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi was also completely destroyed.

City Pulse, owned by Ashok Purohit, had opened on 7th May ’99. As it was the first multiplex and a grand one at that, it soon became like a picnic-spot on weekends. Even the Rs. 100 admission rate did not deter families from thronging to the cineplex which has screened such blockbusters as Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai, Taal, Hum Saath-Saath Hain etc. The multiplex has had such filmland visitors as Subhash Ghai, Rakesh Roshan, Anil Kapoor, Boney Kapoor, Sridevi, Aishwarya Rai, Akshaye Khanna, Akshay Kumar, Karisma Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Shah Rukh Khan and Amrish Puri, among others.

By an uncanny coincidence, Ashok Purohit was scheduled to reduce the high admission rate from Friday (January 26) due to competing multiplexes having come up in nearby Ahmedabad and Adalaj. In place of the Rs. 100, the new rates were to be Rs. 60, Rs. 80 and, for English films, Rs. 50. Just two days before the reduction in rates, the devastating fire reduced part of the multiplex to ashes!

YOU ASKED IT

Our films are shot in London, New York, Paris, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Canada and even Russia and Africa. Which foreign location now remains to be exploited?

– Pakistan and the Sahara Desert! 

What do you think of this idea: making a Punjabi film, packing all popular Punjabi pop songs into it?

– This is not an idea — it is a gimmick!

When a producer and a director go on a location hunt, who all go with them?

– The cinematographer and, sometimes, the art director and writer, too. In fact, the producer often doesn’t accompany the team. 

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Royal Controversy Or Royal Flop?

The subject of Shyam Benegal’s Zubeidaa, written by film critic and writer-director Khalid Mohamed, has made Maharana Mahendra Singh Mewar of the erstwhile Udaipur state raise his royal eyebrows. He has shot off letters to the Rajasthan chief minister, union I & B minister Sushma Swaraj, the all-India Kshatriya Mahasabha and to the former rulers of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Bhavnagar, stating, “In the last 50 years, a bizarre and one-sided tirade in the media and films has become the order of the day to the accompaniment of debauchery and courtesans thrown in for good measure. This has ended up in vilifying one class as well as a handful of people making them appear as abject lessons of worthlessness. I wish to record my vehement disapproval of such repeatedly presented, intended and convoluted distortions where a whole class or section of our country’s citizens are maliciously derided.”

Though this part of the letter is general in content, the allusion is surely to the subject of Zubeidaa in which a Rajput maharaja is shown having an affair and ultimately marrying a divorced Muslim woman, Zubeidaa.

According to the Bombay edition of The Sunday Times dated 21st January, “…the seeds of controversy are sown by the fact that the scriptwriter Khalid Mohamed really did have a mother called Zubeidaa who died in a plane crash along with the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Hanuwant Singh.”

In a very brief interview in the same paper, director Shyam Benegal has said that the film is “inspired” by a true story. When asked by the paper whether he foresaw any controversy, Benegal replied, “No way. The characters in the story have no bearing on the Jodhpur royal family, either directed or indirectly.”

But the report says that Maharaja Gaj Singh of Jodhpur “is reportedly upset that the memory of his father has been treated with disrespect. And at the centre of it all, is his mother, the Rajmata of Jodhpur, Krishna Kumari, the dignified matriarch, in whose eyes you see an era lost and who is played (if indeed the film is about the Jodhpur house) by Rekha.”

But even while the controversy rages, the film itself has bombed at the box-office. As a smart Alec remarked, “The controversy is more exciting than the film!”

Not Rishi Ke Kabil!

Rishi Kapoor would do well not to ever again get ‘trapped’ by the Hindi remakes of Parent Trap. The first Parent Trap-inspired Rishi-starrer was Pyar Ke Kabil (1987) and the second one is Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi (2001). Needless to say, both of them bombed. A khatta experience for Rishi! But AVM’s Do Kaliyan, which was the first Hindi film to be inspired by the English original, proved a meetha experience for Rishi’s better-half, Neetu Singh. She was introduced as baby Sonia in a double role in Do Kaliyan which clicked.

Dream Merchant

The earthquake experienced in many parts of the country on the morning of 26th January was the topic of discussion all through the Republic Day. Obviously, therefore, I had to dream of tremors and quakes. This time, though, the dream was hazy, rather, shaky. Can’t help it! 

I dreamt that the next day’s morning papers had screaming headlines of the police in Bombay blaming the earthquake on Bharat Shah. “We have clinching evidence to prove that Shah and the underworld have a nexus, because of which the quake occurred,” a top crime branch official was quoted as having said. When I phoned the crime branch, another top official told me on condition of anonymity, “See, we had always maintained that we have earth-shattering evidence against Bharat Shah. It is our this evidence that’s making the earth shake.”

Govinda was ‘quick’ to issue a press release about the quake. Only thing, the release reached all the daily newspaper offices late — after they had packed the issues. Anyway, the press release blamed Siddharth Basu, Amitabh Bachchan, Sameer Nair and Star Plus for the earthquake. “You don’t need any lifelines to guess why they did this,” said Govinda’s press release. “Obviously, to divert people’s attention from my television game show, Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke which is to go on air today (January 26). Star and the Kaun Banega Crorepati team had started feeling the tremors of Chappar Phaad Ke ever since I agreed to host the show. By causing the all-India tremors, they’ve crossed all limits of decency. I was terribly lucky to escape unhurt as the chappar of my house really tore off and came crashing down beside my bed on which I was lying fast asleep, dreaming about my Chappar Phaad Ke celebrating silver jubilee — a genuine one.” The release concluded with the following lines:

“Chahe dharti hile ya chappar gire
Hogi jeet Chappar Phaad Ke ki.”

Another theory doing the rounds in film trade circles was pretty serious. “You know,” a familiar voice informed me on the telephone which came alive a full 15 hours after the earthquake. “The quake has been created by all those industry people who’ve gone underground after the Bombay crime branch got working last month. The rumblings are coming from under the ground.” As I said, the dream was hazy/shaky and so I don’t quite remember whose voice it was, but I do recollect, it was the voice of a dumb heroine. Did you say, it’s a difficult guessing game because there are so many of them?

Indra Kumar wore a dejected look when I bumped into him at Minerva where he had come to see the public reaction to his Aashiq which opened on Republic Day. Even before I could initiate a dialogue with the director, he complained, “Mera mann — sorry, sorry, mera dil kehta hai that the quake is a clear conspiracy to sabotage my film. And because I started my career as a comedian in Gujarati films, the conspirators made sure that the epicentre of the earthquake was Bhuj in Gujarat. I am terribly hurt by the cut-throat spirit in the industry.” When I asked Indra Kumar whom he suspected, he declined to name anybody and simply had this line in reply: “Hogi Aashiq ki jeet!“

The new corporate world within the industry had an emergency meeting in which it decided to issue the following press release: ‘The market forces were at play on Republic Day. Looking to the terrible times the film industry is passing through, the tremors in the industry had to be felt outside it, too, and could not be restricted to the dream factory alone. This is because the finance market and the common people, by virtue of investing in film companies which’ve gone public, must also realise what jhatkas the largest film industry of the world experiences. But we, the corporate community of the film world, are confident that things will come to the normal level soon and the public will once again start enjoying Aishwarya Rai and Karisma Kapoor’s matkas and jhatkas, which, in all probability, will go a long way in erasing the devastating effect of the quake-jhatkas from the public memory.’

I saw Star and Zee TV crews running to Mahesh Bhatt for his comment on behalf of the film industry, which he has so successfully come to represent in the last one month. Bhatt pouted, “Well, I can’t pinpoint whose kasoor it is but I must say, the film industry did not get shaken by the earthquake even one bit. Arre, hum to pehle se hi itne hile hue hain, ek mamuli earthquake humein kyan hilayega! All the same, now is the time for the industry to remain united in the face of police excesses and nature’s super-excesses. I had only recently said, let the industry be destroyed completely and let us build a new one all over again. Maybe, God heard my prayers, and the quake was the first step in this direction.” Before ending his interview, Bhatt made sure that he got mileage not just for his forthcoming Kasoor but also for his old film, Sadak. Concluded he, “I repeat, I don’t know whether the kasoor — blame — for the quake lies with the government, the police, the underworld or the film industry, but I do know, people in different parts of the country felt the tremors and came running out on the sadak!“

Salman Khan and Akshaye Khanna were partying when I bumped into them. The two heroes seemed to be sharing the same view on the earthquake. Said they in a chorus, “People say, the quake was a hair-raising experience. We don’t think so.” And they pointed to their heads and their receding hair-lines!

Amitabh Bachchan, sipping Limca on the sets of Kaun Banega Crorepati, was terse in his reply when I told him that Govinda had issued press releases, blaming the earthquake on the Kaun Banega Crorepati team’s fear. “Scared? And we?”, scoffed Bachchan. KBC is not scared of any competition. Because:

Zor ka jhatka dheere se lage.
But Crore ko jhatka kabhi na lage!”

– Komal Nahta

KUCH KHATTI KUCH MEETHI 

Saboo Films Pvt. Ltd. and Bharat Film Works’ Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi, inspired from Parent Trap (English) and Do Kaliyan (Hindi), is about two girls who are identical twins and whose parents were separated before they (twins) were born. While one girl stays with the father, the other lives with the mother. But neither the two girls nor the parents are aware of the existence of the other daughter/sister. The two girls meet by chance in Glasgow and decide to bring back their estranged parents together. For this, they trade places. After they do so, the film draws heavily from Ram Aur Shyam and Seeta Aur Geeta.

Not only is the subject an old and trite one, the screenplay writer (Raju Saigal) has also done a shoddy job. Nothing is established and scenes come and go in a jiffy, as a result of which they create little impact, especially in the first half. For instance, the break-up of the couple looks too hurried and the reasons given for the separation of the two kids, just too kiddish. It is because of the poorly scripted first half that the inherent emotional appeal of the drama doesn’t come through at all. The second half may not be without its glaring flaws but, nevertheless, its light scenes do entertain. A fair deal of credit for this would also go to the performers and the dialogue writers (Bholu Khan and Aman Jafri). An example of faulty scripting post-interval comes in the scene when the twins decide to trade places. The girl staying with her father confesses to her twin sister that it was their father’s step-sister who had ruined their father’s life. Pray! if she knew that, why had she, all her life, been rude and insulting to the father. Further, she tells her comparatively tamer sister to go to her father’s house in her place and teach her devilish aunt a lesson. Why couldn’t she have done it all these years?

While the comedy portions are good after interval, the climax is a letdown.

Kajol plays the double role very well despite being let down by a weak script. But she looks out of shape. Sunil Shetty impresses in comedy scenes, with a restrained performance. To his credit, it must be said that he doesn’t go overboard in a single comedy scene. Rishi Kapoor has no role in the first half except to gulp down liquor and fall asleep. In the first half, he looks too much of a drunkard — a sight not very pleasant. However, he is natural in the second half. Rati Agnihotri stages a successful comeback with a refreshing performance. Mita Vashisht is natural but a more glamorous aunt would have been more appropriate. Razzak Khan is very entertaining. Pramod Moutho and Mayur are alright. Dinesh Anand, Dinesh Hingoo, Guddi Maruti and Jaspal Sandhu are average. Parmeet Sethi impresses in a guest appearance. Pooja Batra is just too cute.

Rahul Rawail’s direction looks like a job hurriedly done. For instance, no care has been taken to clearly define the characters of the twin sisters so that they could appear different. Resultantly, there’s not much difference between the two — something which would’ve made the drama interesting. Nevertheless, the director has managed to make the second half light and a bit entertaining. Anu Malik’s music comprises four good songs (‘Saamne baith kar’, ‘Tumko sirf tumko’, ‘Aise na mujhe dekho’ and ‘Chup chup aankhen char karenge’) and a couple of really weak numbers. Background score (Anjan Biswas) is average. Cinematography (Nirmal Jani) is appreciable. Foreign locations are well-captured. Computer effects are of a good standard.

On the whole, Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi has some masala for circuits like Bombay, Maharashtra, Nizam and cities like Delhi. But its overall dull opening (except in Bombay where the opening was fair) will mar the box-office prospects because the pick-up will happen only on weekends. Despite a very reasonable price, the film will remain an average fare in some circuits and in the red in others.

Released on 19-1-2001 at Eros and 16 other cinemas of Bombay thru Anugraha Entertainment. Publicity: very good. Opening: fair. …….Also released all over. Opening all over was as cold as the cold wave in North India.

ZUBEIDAA

F.K.R. Productions’ Zubeidaa (UA) is the story of a pretty Muslim girl who dreams of becoming an actress but whose orthodox filmmaker father instead forces her to get married to a Muslim boy of his choice. The marriage is annulled on the day she delivers her first child, a baby boy. After a few years, a Hindu prince of Fatehpur falls in love with her and proposes marriage to her. This, even while her father decides to get her married off to a Muslim guy. Much against her father’s wishes, she marries the already-married Hindu prince but she has to leave back her little son in the care and custody of her mother as her strict father will hear nothing of letting her take away his grandchild. Once in Fatehpur, she realises over the years how lonely she is as her husband gets busy in his work and with his other wife. She has also to cope with sexual advances made towards her by her lecherous brother-in-law. Driven by dejection, jealousy and over-possessiveness, she encounters her husband one day and literally pushes out his other wife to be able to fly with him. The private plane, in which they are flying, crashes and the two are killed.

The entire story is told in flashback as the woman’s only son tries to unravel the mysterious life of his mother. His main source of information is his granny, with whom he lives, and the personal diaries his mother used to write and which have been in the grandmother’s possession.

The film has a dull start but becomes interesting as the drama unfolds in the first half. The latter part of the first half is quite interesting, especially when the girl’s budding career of a heroine is nipped by her father, she is married off, she delivers her child and then is divorced from the husband. The drama takes a dip thereafter and the second half becomes very boring and tedious. Several portions of the film’s screenplay have been written in a docu-drama style, which fail to keep the audience’s interest alive. The scenes after the dissolution of the princely states are too overtly historical for audience’s liking and the language of the dialogues is also difficult.

A major drawback of the film for the Indian audiences comes when the mother opts for her second marriage to the prince even at the cost of leaving her little son behind. So unmotherly is her choice that a good section of the audience will lose all sympathy and respect for her after this scene. This would be bad for the film because she is, after all, the heroine.

Zubeidaa, the character, is Karisma Kapoor and Zubeidaa, the film, is also Karisma Kapoor. The actress has never looked so gorgeous and the pains taken in giving her a Muslim look are worth their while because Karisma looks very inch a Muslim in the film. Her performance is outstanding and the wide gamut of emotions she portrays in the two-and-a-half hours is marvellous. Rekha, playing the prince’s other wife, is restrained and very natural but she looks a bit too old even in the earlier reels. Her role is not of much significance. Manoj Bajpai does not fit into the character of the prince. He acts fairly well. Surekha Sikri-Rege is natural to the core as Karisma’s mother. Rajit Kapur also acts well. Amrish Puri plays his part with the utmost sincerity. Lilette Dubey is effective. Farida Jalal, Shakti Kapoor, Parzaan Dastur, Ravi Jhankal, S.M. Zaheer, Smriti Mishra, Rahul Maharya and Vinod Sharawat lend able support.

Shyam Benegal’s direction is limited by the single-track story and documentarish screenplay (Khalid Mohammed and Shama Zaidi). His treatment of the subject will appeal only to the elite audience. Dialogues are appropriate to the mood of the film, but simpler words at places would have been in order. Music (A.R. Rahman) is very good. The ‘Piya’ song is the pick of the lot. Other melodious numbers are ‘Rangeeli ho’, ‘Mehndi hai rachne wali’ and ‘So gaye hain’. Camerawork (Rajen Kothari) is eye-filling. Technically, well made. Costumes (Pia Benegal) deserve special mention. Sets are realistic.

On the whole, Zubeidaa, a class film, has chances only in some cinemas of some big cities.

Released on 19-1-2001 at New Excelsior and 8 other cinemas of Bombay thru Yash Raj Film Distributors. Publicity: very good. Opening: fair. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.

HC UPHOLDS BHARAT SHAH’S PLEA FOR F.I.R. COPY

Film financier Bharat Shah’s plea for being given copies of the FIR and remand application was upheld by the Bombay high court on 18th January. This is the first time that an accused under the MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) will be given a copy of the FIR and of the remand application. Justice S.S. Parkar deemed this a constitutional right of a citizen. The judge also held that Bharat Shah was entitled to meet his lawyers while in police custody.

The main prayer in Shah’s application was for grant of bail. But Shah’s lawyers, headed by Ashok Desai, did not press for it as they contended that it would be “meaningless” to seek the bail without knowing the grounds of arrest and the details in the FIR against him. Justice Parkar, therefore, rejected the bail plea as “not pressed”.

The court directed that on receiving a copy of the documents, Shah was at liberty to plead for bail before the special court designated to hear MCOCA cases. It also clarified that Shah could apply for bail even before the police investigations were complete. The direction set aside the restriction clamped on Shah by special judge A.P. Bhangale who had said that bail could be applied for only after the investigation was complete.

The remand of Bharat Shah, in the meantime, was extended by the high court to January 22. The special court had, on January 8, remanded Shah to police custody till 18th January. The topmost film financier was arrested by the crime branch on 8th for his alleged links with the underworld. It is believed by the police that Shah used underworld funds to make Chori Chori Chupke Chupke and other films.

SHAH’S FILMS PROGRESSING

In the meantime, shootings of films presented by Bharat Shah are progressing at full speed. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas is being shot at Film City. Shootings of Rahul Gupta’s Hum Panchhi Ek Daal Ke and Bubby Kent’s untitled film, and post-production work of K.C. Bokadia’s Hum Aapke Hain Sanam are to begin shortly. Another Bharat Shah presentation, Kasoor, is being readied for release on February 2.

‘CCCC’ RELEASE

As regards Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, there now seems to be a possibility of its release. On 15th January, the prosecution told the high court that a court receiver may be appointed to release the film and the proceeds may be deposited in the government treasury. Until then, the police had maintained that it would not permit the release of CCCC. As producer Nazim Rizvi and presenter Bharat Shah on 15th January made counter-claims in the special court on the seized negatives of the film, the special public prosecutor urged the court not to accept their claims but to instead appoint a receiver so that the film could be released and the interest of innocent distributors and exhibitors was not jeopardised.

RAIDS CONTINUE

Earlier, on 13th and 14th January, the Enforcement Directorate raided offices and residential premises of Nazim Rizvi, Bharat Shah and the latter’s chartered accountant. The special court on 19th January further remanded Nazim Rizvi to judicial custody until 22nd January.

AKSHAY, TWINKLE TIE THE KNOT

Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna became man and wife on Wednesday (17th January) evening following a wedding ceremony held at Arya Samaj, Bombay. The wedding had been kept a closely-guarded secret. The marriage was held in the presence of family members and close friends.

While their engagement, held in December, was much publicised, their marriage had been kept a secret. Even Twinkle’s mother, Dimple Kapadia, was unaware of the plans and was surprised to learn at the last moment of the hurriedly-decided wedding date.

SHAKILA HOSPITALISED

Actress Shakila, who was suffering from a heart ailment, was admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Bombay last week. Dilip Kumar, Johnny Walker and other veteran artistes have been visiting the ailing heroine of such films as C.I.D., Raj Mahal, Alibaba & 40 Thieves, Halla Gulla, Post Box 999, Guest House, Kali Topi Lal Rumal, Reshmi Roomal, China Town, Tower House, Kahin Pyar Na Ho Jaye (1963) and Ustadon Ke Ustad. “She is now fine,” said Mrs. Johnny Walker to Information. It may be mentioned here that Mrs. Johnny Walker is close to the veteran actress of over 60 films.

S.K. KAPUR DEAD

Producer-director S.K. Kapur breathed his last at Hinduja Hospital in Bombay on Thursday (19th January) following failure of lungs. He was 72 and is survived by his wife, a son and daughter-law.

Siri Krishan Kapur, besides producing a number of films and directing a couple of them, also had distribution offices in Delhi-U.P. and East Punjab. Among the films he had produced were Night In London, Inspector, Dharma, Durga, Shankar Dada, Maan Gaye Ustad, Seetapur Ki Geeta and Sazaa. He had directed Heeron Ka Chor, besides producing it. In all, S.K. Kapur had produced 20 films under the banner of Kapur Films International. His distribution concern was called Kapur Film Distributors and its offices were in Delhi, Gorakhpur and Jalandhar. He had distributed about 100 films in the two circuits.

Kapur Sahab, as he was respectfully referred to, had been on the executive committee of the IMPPA for more than 25 years. He was the honorary treasurer of the Film Makers Combine at the time of his death. He used to be the hon. treasurer of the IMPPA too. The offices of IMPPA and FMC remained closed on 19th.

S.K. Kapur was cremated in the afternoon of 19th. His funeral was largely attended by industry veterans.

Chautha will be held this evening (20th January) at ISKCON, Juhu, Bombay, between 4.30 p.m. and 5.30 p.m.

HAT-TRICK OF SILVER JUBILEE FOR SAJID, SALMAN

Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment’s Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega entered combined silver jubilee week on 19th January at Alankar, Bombay. The film marks a silver jubilee hat-trick for its producer, Sajid Nadiadwala, and lead man, Salman Khan. The two earlier films of Sajid and Salman, which celebrated jubilees were Jeet and Judwaa. Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega stars Salman Khan, Rani Mukerji and Preity Zinta in the lead. Directed by Raj Kanwar, it is scripted by Rumi Jafri. Music: Anu Malik. Lyrics: Sameer. Cinematography: W.B. Rao. Choreography: Farah Khan.

YOU ASKED IT

I want to remake an updated version of a vintage Hindi film classic in Hindi. Do I need to buy the remaking rights of that old film?

– Yes, you do need to buy the remaking rights. 

Has any villain of a Hindi film been applauded by the audience for his cruel acts or for mouthing a dialogue challenging the hero?

– The audience generally does not applaud the villain for his cruel acts on the screen. It does applaud the villain for his challenging dialogues. A few instances: Amjad Khan in SHOLAY; Sanjay Dutt (as a negative hero) in KHAL-NAYAK; Sunil Dutt (as a negative character) in MOTHER INDIA; and Pran in most of his old films. 

In the event that the court appoints a receiver in the case of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, will any exhibitor screen the film knowing well that the box-office receipts will have to be deposited with the court?

– Why not? It doesn’t make a difference because not all exhibitors have the motive of withholding the box-office collections from distributors. 

DO YOU KNOW?

CENSOR HIGHLIGHTS: 2000

* A total of 855 feature films in 21 Indian languages and English were certified in the year 2000. Of these, 273 were certified with clear ‘U’ while 174 were given ‘U’ certificate, with cuts; 38 were issued clear ‘UA’ certificates and 73, ‘UA’, with cuts; among adult films, 75 were given clear ‘A’ while 222 were certified ‘A’, with cuts. In all, 386 films got clear certificates while the remaining 469 were subjected to cuts.

* 243 Hindi films were certified in 2000, which constituted 28.42% of the total number (855) of certified films. There were 157 Tamil films (18.36%), 143 Telugu films (16.73%), 87 Malayalam films (10.17%), 76 Kannada films (8.89%), 43 Bengali films (5.03%), 29 Gujarati films (3.39%), 23 Marathi films (2.69%), 11 English films (1.29%) and 10 Nepali films (1.17%). The number of films made in the other 12 languages/dialects is in single digits. 

The Underworld: A Nightmare For The Dream Merchants

(Following is an article, written by your editor and the abridged version of which appeared in The Economic Times in its issue dated 16th January, 2001 in the Debate section. Your editor was one among the three guest writers invited to write on the topic ‘Can we clean Bollywood?‘ The other two writers were Tanuja Chandra and Amit Khanna.)

The Bombay film industry is once again in the public eye but this time, for undesirable reasons. To assume that all of Bollywood is linked with the underworld is too cynical as also a simplistic view. As in other industries, there are some black sheep in the film industry too. Talking figures, of the 143 Hindi films (excluding those dubbed in Hindi from other languages) released in 2000, barely 5 to 7 producers of those films may be linked to the underworld — that, too, is for the police to investigate and ascertain. By no stretch of imagination can 4 or 5% be taken as representing the entire production sector.

Viewed differently, of the 143 Hindi films released, barely 17 managed to prove profitable. With a success ratio, therefore, of barely 15%, is the underworld foolish to invest money in as many films as being made out? The underworld looks for guaranteed returns but the highly speculative film industry offers no guarantee, thanks to the ever-changing preferences of cinegoers. On the other hand, let it be clarified here that big-budget and star-cast films generally assure huge under-production profits to their producers. But how many star-cast films are made in a year? And even out of those, some remain losing propositions for producers after all rights — distribution, music, satellite and Doordarshan — are sold!

The underworld’s earlier brushes with the industry have been hawala transactions for foreign shootings, star presence at foreign parties thrown by dons, and extortion. Perhaps, the glamour is too much to avoid.

In the recent cricket match-fixing scandal, the media didn’t drag the entire cricket team of India and the BCCI into it even though the percentage of the tainted names was far more than 5! Still, the same media, which, very rightly, kept the names of cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar out of the scam, lost no time in generalising when it came to the film industry. The Barjatyas, Chopras, Kapoors and Ghai are an integral part of the film industry but, with one stroke of the pen (in the case of the print media) and one click of the camera (in the case of the more potent electronic media), the image of the entire film industry took the severest beating in its 103-year history.

Black money in Bollywood is yet another black spot on its face. Having said this, it required neither the knowledge of a Chartered Accountant (which I happen to be, by qualification) nor the insight of a film trade analyst (which I am, by choice) to add that black money exists in every industry. As with the underworld nexus, so also with dealings in black money, only the transactions in the film industry get blown out of proportion because

(a) they make sensational reading or viewing material;

(b) Bollywood personalities are role models for millions and under constant public scrutiny; and

(c) there exist umpteen film gossip magazines and satellite chancels which thrive on films but don’t bat an eyelid before painting the very industry black.

Here, it must be added that the percentage of black money dealings in Bollywood, too, has now gone down tremendously because of the reduction in income-tax rates.

So, both, black money transactions and underworld nexus, do exist in the Bombay film industry. But not anywhere close to what is imagined! While lowering the income-tax rates a little more (the human species is never content, right?) and income-tax raids would go a long way in further reducing black money dealings, the issue of breaking the underworld involvement in films is a different ball game altogether. It would require concerted efforts by both, the film industry and the law and order machinery in the country. Of the people who are linked, there may be some who join hands because they fear for their lives. The state needs to be sure that such gullible people are not penalised at any cost. It is people like these whose confidence the police needs to win. If the industry feels secure with the police, at least these gullible people will not link themselves with dons. Then, the police would have to tackle only those who join forces for profit.

If the industry somewhere needs to shoulder part of the blame for succumbing to either pressure or profit motives and, in the process, falling prey to underworld advances, the police too can’t absolve itself of the responsibility for letting Bollywood land itself in the murky state of affairs. How the police now breaks the nexus is for it to decide. On its part, the industry must also set its house in order. It has embarked upon corporatisation which is a step in the right direction. This will enable filmmakers to obtain institutional finance — a sure way to free the industry from the stranglehold of the mafia, howsoever limited. Why, if the industry were to be cleansed, it would also attract foreign and NRI finance.

Finally, I think, the task before the film industry and the government may be difficult but it definitely isn’t impossible. Honest and sincere efforts to wipe out the underworld from the film world can never go in vain. As Sunny Deol, playing a patriotic and spirited Punjab police officer posted in Bombay (make that Bollywood), says, in last week’s release, Farz: Where there’s a will (pause), there is a way.

Yes, there is a way for the film industry and the police. There now seems to be a will too. Only thing, the pause between getting the will and the way to meet has been a bit too long. Consequently, those who sell dreams are today seeing a nightmare.

Let’s Celebrate The Success And His Steely Nerves

Now that Aditya Chopra’s Mohabbatein has clicked all over — beyond doubt — it would be interesting to recount how, once again, the public opinion has been at variance with the trade verdict. Almost everybody in the film trade had been quick in dismissing the second directorial venture of Aditya Chopra as a flop. Its length (running time of over 3½ hours) was considered the biggest drawback which, people in the trade felt, would spell its death-knell. But the public patronised the film and made it a hugely successful one too. Of course, not everyone in the audience felt, it was a great film but then, mixed reports are always there. What was important was that the majority voted in favour of Mohabbatein even if they may have found it a bit too lengthy. Several in the industry had opined that the love story sent wrong signals to the youth as it encouraged romancing in school premises. But what such industry people, perhaps, overlooked was the purpose behind the encouragement given to romancing. Shah Rukh Khan’s intentions were extremely noble and to achieve his aim, the audience didn’t mind even if he ‘used’ three young love pairs. It cannot be denied that Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan elevated their scenes to great heights but one cannot help lauding Aditya for his conviction. After all, how often do you come across a film in which the topmost heroine of the country (Aishwarya Rai) plays merely a ghost; in which one superstar (Amitabh Bachchan) has no heroine opposite him and another superstar (Shah Rukh Khan) has a ghost and mere memories as his co-star? And how often do you come across a director who throws economics to the wind and opts for screening his film in 3 shows daily while paying theatre rentals for 4 shows rather than sacrificing the length of the film by making a slight compromise in the story? While lauding the success of Mohabbatein, one must also praise young Aditya’s courage of conviction. 

– Komal Nahta

FARZ

Vishant International’s Farz (A) is a routine action thriller. A young and fearless Punjab police officer (Sunny Deol looking older than the youthful character he plays) is posted in Bombay and he believes in eliminating crime from its very roots. His partner (Om Puri), however, believes in taking no risks. The young police officer takes on the responsibility of nailing a dreaded underworld don (Jackie Shroff) and his brother (Mukesh Tiwari). His girlfriend (Preity Zinta) opts to become an eye-witness to the murder of her best friend by the don’s brother. While the brother is killed by the young police officer, the don is arrested. However, the scheming, revenge-seeking don hatches a conspiracy and escapes from the clutches of law even as the world thinks, he is killed in a road accident. He then tortures the young police officer whom his seniors don’t trust when he says that the don is alive. Ultimately, the officer succeeds in killing the don in a fight-to-finish battle.

The story is of the variety seen in umpteen films earlier. Screenplay (by Sutanu Gupta and Raj Kanwar) only serves to highlight the mediocrity of the selected subject. No attempt seems to have been made to infuse the drama with fresh or novel incidents. Resultantly, the fare becomes boring after a while. The only thing on which money and efforts seem to have been spent is action. But alas! exploding cars flying in the air is not what the audience likes to see today, having already witnessed similar sights in films of three and five years back. Furthermore, fist-fights, which cinegoers enjoy seeing Sunny Deol involved in, are few whereas gun-fights, which don’t really impress or inspire, are aplenty. Some dialogues (Kamlesh Pandey and Raj Kanwar) are definitely very appealing.

The second half is unduly stretched, what with the don torturing the police officer when he can easily kill him.

Sunny Deol is effective in the out-and-out action role. But he looks a bit old and extra-stocky. His wig (patch) is a little weird too. Preity Zinta is cute and acts ably in the limited role she has. Jackie Shroff makes an unexciting villain in the role of a don who is more intellectual than fiery. His attire (kurta and trousers as also spectacles and a stubble) adds to the intellectual look. Om Puri is impressive although he has not been used to his full potential. Mukesh Tiwari is average. Johny Lever entertains at places only. His take-off on Kaun Banega Crorepati game-show has no relevance to his comedy track and is irritating. Farida Jalal does a fine job. Rest of the cast supports well.

Raj Kanwar’s direction looks dated. Known generally for having a good feel of the public pulse, he seems to have become lackadaisical. Tinnu Verma’s action is getting too repetitive to be true! Although a fortune has been spent on stunts and action scenes, it almost appears like wasteful expenditure. Music (Uttam Singh) is uninspiring. A couple of songs are fair but one or two songs can be safely shortened. Camerawork (Ishwar Bidri) is of a good standard.

On the whole, Farz has action which may appeal to the audience in Punjab and U.P. but in the rest of India, it will find it difficult to lure the audience in and, thereafter, to sustain audience interest.

Released on 12-1-2001 at Novelty and 21 other cinemas of Bombay thru Vishant International. Publicity: very good. Opening: good. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull in Bengal, C.I. and Rajasthan.

LATEST POSITION

It is trying times for the industry in more ways than one.

Galiyon Ka Badshah is a disaster. 1st week Nagpur 45,109 from 2 cinemas; did very poor in Hyderabad, discontinued mid-week from 3 cinemas.

Bindiya Maange Bandook 1st week Bareilly 31,740.

Raju Chacha faces a disastrous drop at most places. 2nd week Bombay 40,69,854 (62.58%) from 12 cinemas (6 on F.H.), total 1,03,17,682; Ahmedabad 13,81,901 from 7 cinemas, Rajkot 1,19,000, Jamnagar 46,776 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 6,52,398 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 1,03,736; Delhi 27,00,272 from 10 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur (6 days) 1,71,237 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 3,26,118, Agra 1,58,000, Varanasi 1,06,430, Allahabad 74,142, Bareilly 55,900, Hardwar 35,000; Jabalpur 80,263, total 2,40,356, Amravati 1,06,352, Akola 69,528, Raipur (gross) 1,49,887, Bhilai 54,631; Indore 1,25,000 (1 on F.H.); Ajmer (gross) 1,16,408, Bikaner 1,02,704; Hyderabad (gross) 8,35,978 from 4 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Guntur (gross, 5 days) 53,236, 1st week Ongole (gross) 81,689.

Khiladi 420 loses the game. 2nd week Bombay 13,82,261 (26.78%) from 9 cinemas (9 on F.H), total 49,70,393; Jamnagar 60,419 from2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 1,92,124, Solapur 91,049 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 4,11,585 from 4 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur (6 days) 1,11,040 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 2,38,002, Agra 1,75,000, Allahabad 39,986, Bareilly 48,978, Hardwar 20,000; Calcutta 2,89,819 from 2 cinemas; Nagpur 85,969 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur 43,741, total 1,38,254, Amravati 84,577, Akola 52,816, Dhule 57,742, total 1,97,329, Raipur 65,709, Bhilai 22,830, Jalgaon 77,252, Bilaspur 27,586; Ajmer 1,19,297; Hyderabad (gross) 4,29,287 from 2 cinemas.

Hari Bhari (TF) 2nd week Bombay (14 shows) 94,860 (93.05%).

Champion is on its way out everywhere. 3rd week Bombay 5,33,358 from 4 cinemas (9 on F.H.), total 73,18,096; Ahmedabad 1,34,388 from 2 cinemas; Pune 2,57,410 from 3 cinemas, Solapur 1,15,465; Delhi 1,66,775 from 2 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Kanpur (6 days) 86,945 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,30,298, Agra 62,000, Varanasi 59,297, Allahabad 55,500, Bareilly (6 days) 28,729, Hardwar 20,000; Calcutta 1,14,644; Nagpur 52,289, Jabalpur 27,909, 1st week Kamptee 56,355, 3rd week Amravati 76,348, Akola 31,000, Raipur (6 days) 20,667, Bhilai (6 days) 16,303, Jalgaon 44,671, Yavatmal (nett) 1,16,130; Bhopal 36,342; Bikaner 51,336; Hyderabad (gross) 4,83,283 from 3 cinemas; 1st week Mangalore 1,57,865.

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (dubbed, TF) 4th week Bombay 9,79,112 from 4 cinemas (1 on F.H.), total 47,89,299; 2nd week Ahmedabad 90,812; 3rd week Pune 2,77,407; 4th week Nagpur 1,96,521 from 2 cinemas, Amravati 1,56,399, total 5,50,000, share 3,80,000, Akola 86,400, total 5,81,100, 1st week Jalgaon 87,954, 3rd week Chandrapur 73,400.

Mohabbatein 11th week Bombay 23,06,350 (64.67%) from 10 cinemas (5 on F.H.), total 4,23,30,269; Ahmedabad 2,56,020 from 4 cinemas (2 unrecd.); Pune 2,53,254 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur (matinee) 38,325; Delhi 8,87,483 from 6 cinemas; Kanpur (6 days) 1,22,887 from 3 cinemas, Lucknow 3,56,044, Agra 2,15,000, Allahabad 88,224, Bareilly (6 days) 17,093; Calcutta 3,65,025; Nagpur 1,44,913 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 76,607, total 16,92,782, 2nd week Balaghat 65,170, total 1,60,153, 11th week Amravati 1,06,525, total 19,94,880, 3rd week Kamptee 37,675, total 1,62,327, 11th week Akola 73,664, total 13,43,889, Dhule 47,214, total 11,19,251, Raipur (6 days, gross) 74,447, Bhilai 18,698, 6th week Durg 23,239, 11th week Jalgaon 90,139; Indore 86,433 from 2 cinemas; Ajmer (21 shows) 37,136; Hyderabad (gross) 5,89,304 from 2 cinemas (1 in noon).

______

Raju (Marathi, TF) 1 week Bombay (matinee) 35,459 (25.79%).

Mor Chhainha Bhuinya (Chhattisgarhi) 11th week Raipur (nett) 1,21,027, total 20,69,165, Chhattisgarh record, 7th week Rajnandgaon 93,476, total 10,09,694, 9th week Bhilai (6 days) 51,400.

CALCUTTA POLICE ARREST GULSHAN KUMAR’S ASSAILANT

The Calcutta police nabbed one Abdul Rauf Daud Merchant, a Dawood Ibrahim hitman, on 8th January in Calcutta where he was holed up with his wife. He confessed to having killed Gulshan Kumar in Bombay in 1998. The hit man and his wife, Minhaz, were produced before the court in Calcutta the following day. They have been remanded to police custody till January 20.

The Bombay police on 10th January obtained a warrant from the Esplanade court to seek custody of Abdul Rauf.

Known by different names to his acquaintances, he had obtained a passport in the name of Bimal Das about a month back.

The hitman confessed to having received Rs. 1 lakh as the first instalment after killing Gulshan Kumar.

The 29-year-old Abdul Rauf was to arrive in Bombay to execute another killing.

CALCUTTA CINEMAS TO CLOSE FOR 3 DAYS

Nearly 750 cinemas in Calcutta and other places in Bengal will remain closed for three days, from January 19 to 21, due to cinema employees’ strike for a revision in pay scales. The Bengal Motion Picture Employees’ Union has demanded a 70% hike in basic pay. The Union has threatened to go on an indefinite strike if the three-day strike fails to elicit any response to their demands. According to Swadhin Aloke Mukherjee, joint secretary of the Employees’ Union, the wages of the cinema employees have not been revised since 1996.

GURDAS MAAN INJURED

Leading Punjabi singer and film actor Gurdas Maan suffered head injuries when the car he was travelling in collided with a truck at Korali village (Ropar district) in Punjab on 9th January. He, alongwith his driver, Tejpal, 38, was admitted to Chandigarh Medical Institute where Tejpal succumbed to his injuries. Gurdas Mann is out of danger.

SHAKTI KAPOOR HURT IN ROAD ACCIDENT

Actor Shakti Kapoor was badly injured in a road accident on the morning of 7th January about 70 km. away from Nasik. He was returning after performing in a show in Nasik. The accident took place when the driver of Shakti Kapoor’s car swerved to avoid a truck coming from the opposite direction and rammed into a tree. The car was completely mangled due to the impact. While the driver and the spot boy (who was also travelling by the same Honda City car) escaped unhurt, four of Shakti Kapoor’s ribs were broken. He also complained of breathing problems. Fortunately, timely help from two passers-by saved his life. Shakti was rushed to a nearby hospital and treated immediately. The actor is recuperating at home.

PRODUCTION NEWS

‘Ajnabee’ On Cruise Liner

Directors Abbas-Mustan started an 11-day shooting spell of Film Folks’ Ajnabee aboard Ocean Majesty, a cruise liner, on Jan. 3. Some scenes and the climax are being picturised on Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Kareena Kapoor, Bipasha Basu and Sharat Saxena. Being produced by Vijay Galani, the film also stars Johny Lever, Narendra Bedi, Amita Nangia, Sheela Sharma, Dalip Tahhil and Mink (guest appearance). Music: Anu Malik. Lyrics: Sameer. Story: Shyam Goel, Neeraj Vora, Sanjeev Duggal and Robin Bhatt. Editor: Hussain Burmawala. Art: R. Varman. Action: Kaushal Moses. Sound: Jitendra Chaudhury. Cinematographer: Rajan Kinagi. Venus Records & Tapes presents the film.

Dharmendra Signed

Producer Nitin Mittal has signed Dharmendra to act in Parijat Films’ Shiva Ka Insaaf. A 15-day shooting schedule of the film commenced on Jan. 7 at Surve Farm, Nasik, Mahabaleshwar and Esel Studios. The film co-stars Shakti Kapoor, Mohan Joshi, Hemant Birje, Deepak Shirke, Raza Murad, Joginder, Shehzad Khan, Anil Nagrath, Sapna, Satnam Kaur, Saheba, Vijay Solanki and Rajesh Rajput. All the songs were recorded till Jan. 2 by music director Ghulam Ali at K.K. Studios. Director: Ramesh Lakhiani. S.C. Mittal presents the film.

‘Mastana’ Nears Completion

A 5-day shooting stint of United Films Combines’ Mastana will begin on Jan. 15 at various bungalows and locales of Bombay. Govinda, Jackie Shroff, Mahima Chaudhry, Arun Govil, Jaspal Bhatti, Anjan Srivastava, Tiku Talsania, Avtar Gill and Upasna Singh will participate in the picturisation of pre-climax scenes. Rambha makes a special appearance. The film, now 95% complete, is being produced by Vasant Doshi and directed by Parto Ghosh. Executive producer: Kamlesh Doshi. Story-screenplay: Ranbir Pushp. Dialogues: Anwar Khan. Lyrics: Maya Govind, Dev Kohli, Ibrahim Ashq and Nitin Raikwar. Music: Rajesh Roshan. Cinematographer: Sameer Reddy. Dances: Rekha Chinni Prakash and Ganesh Acharya. Art: Ajit Dandekar. Sound: Prakash Bhatia. Editor: Sanjay Verma.

YOU ASKED IT

When big producers already earn big money from sale of music rights, why do they allow the music companies to come up with remixed versions? Isn’t it unethical or an act of sacrilege?

– Technically speaking, remixed versions are unethical. But producers must be doing it after taking permission from music directors. 

In addition to announcing the ‘Bests of 2000’, why don’t you also give awards by organising a function?

– Awards functions are becoming a joke, wouldn’t you agree? And it’s always better to enjoy a joke than to become a part of it!

Is it true that producers shoot films in foreign countries so that they can sell them for higher prices for Overseas?

– For your information, neither HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN..! nor HUM SAATH-SAATH HAIN was shot abroad. Yet, they got the price they deserved for Overseas.

Industry Shaken By Bharat Shah’s Arrest

“Shocking!” “Unbelievable!” These are the only reactions that came from people in the Hindi film industry when news broke that the no. 1 film financier and diamond merchant, Bharat Shah, had been arrested by the crime branch of the Bombay police on the morning of 8th January. Disbelief was writ large on most faces even as details about the arrest trickled in. Bharat Shah was arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime (MCOC) Act — an Act generally used by the administration to deal with the underworld — for his alleged links with gangster Chhota Shakeel. The police believe that Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, produced by Nazim Rizvi and presented by Bharat Shah, has been, in fact, financed by Chhota Shakeel. Claiming to have “clinching” evidence against Shah, the police produced him in the sessions court, Bombay and secured a remand for him till 18th January. The police claimed that Rizvi, too, had confessed about Bharat Shah’s underworld connections. Shah’s lawyers, Shirish Gupte, Amit Desai, Shiraz Rahimtoola, M.L. Ranjit and Vibhav Krishna, applied for a bail which was denied by the court.

Speculations about Shah’s arrest had begun almost immediately after Nazim Rizvi, the producer of CCCC, was arrested on 13th December, 2000. The day after Rizvi’s arrest, the crime branch had interrogated Bharat Shah over the issue. Shah had denied having any links with the underworld. He had categorically said that he had financed Rizvi to the tune of Rs. 12.7 crore for the film. Several others involved with the film, including Salman Khan, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji, were also summoned for questioning. The artistes have since been given a clean chit by the police on the ground that they work for remuneration and are not involved with the film’s making. Shah was summoned for questioning one more time.

A week later, on 20th, the police seized the negatives of the film.

Later, on 8th January, 2001, the crime branch arrested Bharat Shah under the MCOC Act and took him to the crime branch office at Colaba. A tape of the conversation between Chhota Shakeel and Bharatbhai was played. The police claim that Bharatbhai admitted that the voice in the tape was his. Soon thereafter, Shah was produced before the sessions court where judge A.P. Bhangale issued an order remanding him to police custody till 18th January. He was taken to the crime branch office at Colaba in Bombay from where he was taken to J.J. Hospital on 8th at 8.30 p.m. after he complained of chest pain. The doctors there admitted him to the ICU. He was discharged the same night after treatment and taken back to the crime branch lock-up. Bharatbhai was once again admitted to hospital on 9th morning after he complained of uneasiness. He was discharged from hospital in the night. The crime branch also conducted searches at the residence and offices of Shah (offices of B4U, VIP Enterprises at Naaz, his office at Charni Road) and seized some documents. The offices have not been sealed, as rumoured. The crime branch has now solicited the cooperation of the customs department, the Enforcement Directorate, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and other central agencies to probe into his past dealings.

The diamond trade in Bombay was quick to react. All diamond and jewellery firms in Bombay, Gujarat and some parts of the world downed shutters on 10th in protest against Shah’s arrest. Bharatbhai’s diamond company, B. Vijaykumar & Co., has been the recipient of several awards for recording the highest export earnings for the country. Slow on the uptake, the Indian Motion Picture Distributors’ Association called for an industry closure on 12th, but later withdrew it, realising that the solidarity move would serve no practical purpose as the matter was in court. Soon after circulars calling for observation of a bandh were sent out on 11th, the IMPDA issued new circulars, calling off the closure. Still, several distribution offices observed a closure on 12th and Naaz building, which houses distribution and exhibition offices, wore a somewhat deserted look on Friday.

Shah’s lawyers, including senior counsel V.R. Manohar and Ramrao Adik, besides the abovementioned, moved the Bombay high court on 11th, challenging his arrest under the MCOC Act for using slush funds to finance Bollywood films. The petition was, however, adjourned to January 15 by Justice S.S. Parkar after public prosecutor Vidya Kapse-Tahilramani sought time to “seek instructions” in the matter. Shah pleaded for regular bail while keeping the option of interim bail on medical grounds open.

Shah’s lawyers also made an oral plea for medical examination of the accused by a team of doctors in view of his poor health.  The judge directed the prosecutor to consider the plea and inform the court so that it could pass suitable orders.

HEARING ON ‘CCCC’ NEGATIVES ADJOURNED TO JAN. 15

The hearing of an application filed by Bharat Shah, seeking the release of the negatives of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, has been adjourned to 15th January by a special court. The application was adjourned as special public prosecutor Rohini Salian sought time to file her say in the matter on the grounds that the police could not sufficiently interrogate Shah.

Bharat Shah claimed through his lawyers, Shiraz Rahimtoola and Vibhav Krishna, that his company Mega Bollywood P. Ltd., has financed the film by paying Rs. 12.7 crore by cheque alone. Shah’s application states that the monies have been pumped into the company from his personal account. He also said that by an agreement with producer Nazim Rizvi, his company Mega Bollywood held the world rights and perpetual copyrights of the film and the police had “no jurisdiction” to attach the negatives of the film. However, prosecutor Salian said that the police suspect the film to be financed by underworld and, therefore, the police was within its rights to seize the film’s negatives.

The financier said that if the film was not released, there would be a multiplicity of proceedings against him since third party rights of several distributors had already been created. He therefore prayed for an injunction restraining the police from interfering with the release of the film.

Clouds Of Confusion

Panic struck the industry on January 8 when topmost financier and diamond merchant Bharat Shah was arrested under the MCOC Act by the crime branch of Bombay police and charged with having underworld links. The industry continued to be in a state of panic and confusion all through the week.

Progress of films presented by Bharat Shah, like Devdas and Lajja, is bound to be stalled, at least for a while. There is also a question-mark on the commitments of B4U in which Bharatbhai is a major partner. For instance, B4U had acquired the satellite rights of Subhash Ghai’s released films and are yet to pay a good part of the committed price.

While the diamond industry, in a touching show of solidarity, observed a day’s closure on 10th January, the film industry did nothing to that effect. The reasons for the film industry (production sector) not observing a bandh were:

(a) it was felt that no practical purpose would be served by the bandh as law would now take its own course; and

(b) it was also felt that since it was the film industry which had requested the Maharashtra government to cleanse it of underworld elements, the bandh would send wrong signals to the police and may, perhaps, antagonise the police officials.

Therefore, even though the industry is by and large rallying around Bharatbhai and feels, he is innocent, there was no show of solidarity. Several people feel, his arrest is the result of brewing rivalry between NCP leader and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal and himself.

While what course the law will take, only time will tell, it is being increasingly felt in trade circles that Bharat Shah may now not like to continue in the film financing business after what happened to him on Monday.

Subhash Ghai’s Plea

It is really very unfortunate that film industry of creative people is in the grip of witch-hunting and is being maligned by certain sections of the media. We see it as a deliberate attempt to prevent the efforts we made for corporatising the industry and protecting it from outside pressures. We all filmmakers fully support this government action (albeit late) of cleaning up the dust prevailing in any industry, including film industry in Mumbai.

Police did give us physical protection but not the mental security. I can understand that a few might have succumbed to the outside power to save their own lives. But that’s not the whole industry, they are just a small section of it.

We at Mukta Arts have put all our sincere efforts to corporatise the entertainment industry for the last 21 years and have successfully gained the confidence of income-tax department, banks, insurance, financial institutions and, lastly, even the capital market including all the people who invested in our company. We have been doing our best to institutionalise the film and entertainment business as a whole.

I’m shocked and sad about Mr. Bharat Shah’s arrest and refuse to believe that a man who conducted his life and business with so much respect and dignity for the last 20 years came under pressure to deal with the underworld — as claimed by the police. Anyway, the court will be the best judge to decide the truth.

To clear up the rumours that Mukta Arts has been financed by Mr. Bharat Shah, I must state that Mr. Bharat Shah is a non-executive director on the Board of Mukta Arts Limited and has neither financed the company in any manner whatsoever nor taken part in the management and day-to-day working of the company. However, I may add that we have high regards and respect for him. I hope and pray that he comes out of the eclipse.

MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

* The media (print and electronic) has been generalising that Bollywood has an underworld nexus. Stories of the Bollywood-underworld links give the impression that almost every producer borrows finance from underworld dons. This is a fallacy as hardly 4 to 5% of the producers may be so linked.

* At least one satellite channel is giving the impression to people that it is more enthusiastic than even the crime branch to nail Bharat Shah. Long news bulletins on the arrest and its aftermath have been found to be too heavily slanted against the Bombay film industry in general and Shah in particular. Due to the channel’s wide reach, people are being misled into believing the worst about the film industry. And to think of it, the channel survives on films, film-based programmes and film artistes! Is the Bollywood-bashing because the channel did not succeed in getting satellite rights and music rights of the latest films, having been outsmarted by a rival channel?

* At least one producer, who is a veteran industry leader, made a childish comment in the press after Bharat Shah’s arrest. Said he: “Stars were asking for too much. Who else can give that much except the underworld?” The leader seems to be living in the 18th century! A star-cast project fetches such fabulous prices for Overseas, satellite and audio rights (besides Indian territorial distribution rights) that the producer’s margin is big, really big. Stars get paid hefty fees from out of these profits, Mr. Leader!

Observations.com

The arrest of noted financier Bharat Shah has put the entire film industry in jeopardy. Producers are panicking and distributors are in such a dismal state of mind that they are avoiding Bombay like the plague. Exhibitors, even otherwise, had been experiencing the worst because their business had been jeopardised much earlier. With no film sustaining at the box-office, with a small part of Bollywood under the underworld influence and the large part of it under police surveillance, things couldn’t have gotten worse.

*               *                *

On the one hand, the run of films is declining constantly. On the other, new cinemas are springing up all over. Result: cinemas are going abegging to the audience just as cinema owners and controllers are going abegging to distributors for playing programmes.

Gujarat’s R World, the swankiest and also the latest multiplex in India, has had to reduce its admission rates in the morning shows to just Rs. 30. City Gold, another multiplex, located in the heart of Ahmedabad city, has not just cut down its admission rate in the 12 noon shows to Rs. 70 in all its five screens, it has also suspended its 6 p.m. shows due to thin audience. City Pulse, the first multiplex of Gujarat, has had to cancel shows due to lack of audience. All this may be due to the severe cold wave sweeping Gujarat and the cold business in pre-Makar Sankranti days, but these are not the only causes.

With few films and too many cinemas, this will soon become the norm. More and more exhibitors will have to bring down their admission rates. Show cancellations will become the rule rather than the exception, at least in places where there is a surfeit of cinemas.

Not more than a year back, City Pulse at Gandhinagar used to be a distributor’s delight because it gave unheard of shares. But the scene has changed dramatically after R World and City Gold came up at Adalaj and Ahmedabad respectively.

Believe it or not, a full week’s collections of one of the above three multiplexes were a meagre Rs. 16 lakh against a capacity of Rs. 1.30 crore. Yes, less than even 15%! The condition of the other two multiplexes must be only a shade better.

The poor quality of films is to be blamed. While the exhibition sector has kept pace with technological advancements the world over and has brought the latest equipments to India, filmmakers are lagging behind. Scripts are stale, the narration is sub-standard. Writers are a demoralised lot. Little wonder then that the entertainment-hungry audience is turning to television. TRPs are rising, figures in the DCRs are declining.

Will the multiplexes turn out to be ‘multiple problems’ for their owners?

*               *                *

If distributors of some recent releases in some circuits have managed to sail safe, it is partly because they got good MGs and FHs from exhibitors who have no films to show. But those exhibitors lost in the process. A case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

*               *                *

The debacle of Raju Chacha is another pointer to the trend that emerged in the recent times. Actors, who turn producers, have been failing with alarming regularity. Shah Rukh Khan burnt his fingers rather badly in Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. Sunny Deol lost heavily in Dillagi which was also directed by him. Salman Khan’s experience with Hello Brother was disastrous. Kamal Haasan delivered a bomb in Hey! Ram. Jackie Shroff has not been able to release his Grahan even three years after it is complete and ready. Jackie, however, proved lucky with Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai because he managed to make money out of it. Rishi Kapoor had to return to acting after his directorial debut, Aa Ab Laut Chalen.

There’s a famous Hindi saying which goes thus: Jiska kaam, usiko saaje.

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

On The ‘KBC’ Bandwagon

The Hindi dubbed version of House On Haunted Hill has been titled Kaun Banega Crorepati Bhoot Bangle Ke Andar. One is apt to think that this is merely an attempt to use a phrase which has gained national popularity. But it is not so, if one goes by the film’s storyline. In brief, the story tells of five characters who are lured by a business tycoon to spend a night in a haunted house atop a hill. The one who succeeds in braving the unknown terrors in the haunted house would win Rs. 5 crore from the tycoon. Who ultimately wins the crores is what the film is all about. So, the title is more than justified in this case. It is a different matter that it is due to the popularity of KBC that the three magical words, Kaun Banega Crorepati, have been appended to the earlier title, Bhoot Bangle Ke Andar. Kaun Banega Crorepati, however, jells well with the title of the dubbed version.

The title of the Amitabh-hosted game show has also been cleverly used in the wall-posters of the repeat-run Amitabh starrer, Coolie. The wall-posters scream, ‘Kaun banega crorepati? Kal ka Coolie banega aaj ka crorepati!’

Another tribute to Kaun Banega Crorepati comes in the form of a song in O Meri Jaan (Bombay Girls). Even after the film was censored, its producers Thakur Bherwani and Kumar Manwani got an additional song picturised in the film. The song, Kaun banega crorepati, was recently picturised by choreographer Habiba Rehman.

But this most popular title has been done to death in Farz. Immediately after commencement of the second half of Farz is a scene showing Johny Lever hosting the Kaun Banega Crorepati show. The participants comprise a group of kids. This scene has no connection with the film’s story at all. It is forced on the audience, perhaps, as an excuse for in-film promotion of Pepsi. The scene has a backdrop of huge Pepsi banners.

FILM INFORMATION’S BESTS OF 2000

Best Film
KAHO NAA…PYAAR HAI

Best Producer
RAKESH ROSHAN
(KN…PH)

Best Director
RAKESH ROSHAN
(KN…PH)

Best Actor
SHAH RUKH KHAN
(Mohabbatein)

Best Actress
TABU
(Astitva)

Best Supporting Actor
AMITABH BACHCHAN
(Mohabbatein)

Best Supporting Actress
SONALI KULKARNI
(Mission Kashmir)

Best Villain
DANNY DENZONGPA
(Pukar)

Best Comedian
PARESH RAWAL
(Hera Pheri)

Best Story
HONEY IRANI
(Kya Kehna!)

Best Screenplay
HONEY IRANI & RAVI KAPOOR
(KN…PH)

Best Dialogues
O.P. DUTTA
(Refugee)

Best Music Director
RAJESH ROSHAN
(KN…PH)

Best Lyricist
JAVED AKHTAR
(Refugee – Panchhi nadiya)

Best Song
Ek pal ka jeena
(KN…PH)

Best Male Playback Singer
ABHIJEET
(Tum dil ki – Dhadkan)

Best Female Playback Singer
ALKA YAGNIK
(Na na karte – Dhadkan)

Best Background Score
SANDEEP CHOWTA
(Jungle)

Best Action Director
ABBAS ALI MOGHUL
(Aaghaaz)

Best Sound
DARAK WARRIER
(Jungle)

Best Cinematographer
KABIR LAAL
(KN…PH)

Best Choreographer
FARAH KHAN
(KN…PH)

Best Editor
CHANDAN ARORA
(Jungle)

Best Art Director
NITIN DESAI
(Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar)

Best Male Newcomer
HRITHIK ROSHAN
(KN…PH)

Best Female Newcomer
KAREENA KAPOOR
(Refugee)

Best Special Effects
RAJU CHACHA

Best Make-Up
VIKRAM GAIKWAD
(Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar)

Best Climax
KAHO NAA…PYAAR HAI

Best Promotion
VASHU BHAGNANI
(Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa)

LATEST POSITION

Both the major releases of last week have turned turkeys at the turnstiles.

Raju Chacha has been rejected except to some extent by the kids. 1st week Bombay 62,47,828 (83.23%) from 12 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 29,10,473 from 7 cinemas, Vapi 3,86,138, Rajkot 2,05,150, Jamnagar 1,22,570 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Adipur 1,82,086, Bhuj (23 shows) 1,51,340; Solapur 1,68,556; Bijapur 1,13,409 from 2 cinemas (1 in noon); Delhi 58,23,695 (61.43%) from 13 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Kanpur 3,51,217 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 4,89,956, Agra 3,28,000, Allahabad 1,66,872, Bareilly 1,15,000, Hardwar 50,000; Nagpur 4,71,406 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur 1,60,092, Amravati 1,58,014, Akola 1,05,167, Raipur (gross) 2,29,564, Bhilai 1,05,315, Jalgaon 1,25,320, Wardha 72,126, Bilaspur 1,00,485; Indore 1,50,000 (2 unrecd., 1 on F.H.); Jaipur 10,08,670 (78.06%) from 2 cinemas, Ajmer (gross) 1,96,569, Bikaner 2,43,080; Hyderabad (gross) 23,94,181 from 8 cinemas; Guntur (gross) 88,239.

Khiladi 420 is also not up to the mark. 1st week Bombay 35,88,132 (59.52%) from 11 cinemas (11 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 3,76,715 from 3 cinemas, Baroda 1,61,923, Vapi 3,56,842 from 2 cinemas, Jamnagar 1,92,829 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Bhuj 1,49,950, Anjar 79,365; Solapur 2,91,133 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Miraj 67,164; Delhi 31,93,511 (38.93%) from 13 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Kanpur 3,53,393 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 4,38,891, Agra 2,26,450, Allahabad 2,00,047, Bareilly 1,45,794, Hardwar 40,000; Nagpur 2,46,392 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur 94,513, Amravati 1,62,565, Akola 1,07,870, Dhule 1,39,587, Raipur 1,20,039, Bhilai 57,419, Jalgaon 1,54,780, Bilapur 46,127; Jaipur 4,54,388 (40.70%) from 3 cinemas, Ajmer (gross) 2,34,895; Hyderabad (gross) 28,96,925 from 13 cinemas.

……….

Champion gets knocked out dramatically. 2nd week Bombay 18,92,828 (36.70%) from 11 cinemas (5 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 4,24,588 from 2 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Solapur 1,91,257; 1st week Bijapur (32 shows) 1,39,328 (nett); 2nd week Delhi 6,60,949 from 5 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,29,739 from 3 cinemas, Lucknow 3,76,477 from 2 cinemas, Agra 1,70,000, Allahabad 1,42,500, Bareilly (6 days) 71,117, Hardwar 40,000; Nagpur 75,419, Jabalpur (6 days) 68,986, Amravati 1,25,359, Akola 49,522, Bhilai 27,213, Jalgaon about 70,000, Wardha 35,627; Indore 55,000 (1 unrecd.; 1 on F.H.), Bhopal 87,591; Bikaner 1,15,418 (1st 3,33,567); Hyderabad (gross) 6,39,770 from 2 cinemas.

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (dubbed, TF) continues to do well in C.P. Berar but is not good elsewhere. 3rd week Bombay 3,73,234 (26%) from 3 cinemas (2 on F.H.); 1st week Ahmedabad 76,000; 3rd week Nagpur 2,63,635 from 2 cinemas, Akola 86,977, total 4,94,742, 2nd week Amravati 1,90,547, 1st week Wardha 78,881, 3rd week Chandrapur 86,620, total 3,75,977.

Mohabbatein gets the advantage of poor oppositions. Is steady and also picked up at places. 10th week Bombay 25,87,343 (81.20%) from 9 cinemas (8 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 3,79,406 from 3 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Jamnagar (noon) 12,277; Solapur (matinee) 62,513; Delhi 13,23,125 from 5 cinemas; Kanpur 3,85,531 from 3 cinemas, Lucknow 4,86,234 (9th 3,72,520), Agra 2,46,000, Allahabad 1,38,223, Meerut 2,08,740, total 15,45,147, Bareilly (6 days) 53,409; Nagpur 2,09,200 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,20,884, 1st week Balaghat 94,983, 10th week Amravati 1,37,271, total 18,88,324, 2nd week Kamptee 62,659 (1st 61,993), 10th week Akola 98,535, total 12,70,225, Dhule 89,260, total 10,72,037, Raipur (6 days, gross) 1,04,039, Bhilai (6 days) 25,508, 5th week Durg 41,070, 10th week Chandrapur 44,198, total 10,68,244; Ajmer (21 shows) 57,217; Hyderabad (gross) 9,64,438 from 4 cinemas (1 in noon).

______

Dikri To Parki Thaapan Kahevay (Gujarati; TF) entered 2nd week at Bhavnagar and Rajkot with ordinary collections.

Mor Chhainha Bhuinya (Chhattisgarhi) 10th week Raipur (nett) 1,28,781, total 19,48,138, city record, 6th week Rajnandgaon 1,13,565, total 9,16,218, city record, 8th week Bhilai 57,480.

NEPAL LIFTS BAN ON HRITHIK-STARRERS

The government of Nepal has lifted the ban on Hrithik Roshan starrers in the country. The ban had to be imposed early last week, following Nepali students’ protest over the anti-Nepal and anti-Nepalese “utterances” alleged to have been made by the star in a recent TV interview.

The protestors, realising that Hrithik had not made any such statements, gave up their anti-Hrithik stance and agitation. Following this, the Nepal government on 4th January lifted the ban on the screening of Hrithik starrers in the country.

FILM CITY TO ISSUE RS. 20 CRORE BONDS

The Maharashtra Film, Stage & Cultural Development Corporation (Film City) will approach the debt market shortly with an issue of non-convertible bonds worth Rs. 20 crore. The issue is being lead-managed by Allianz Securities. It has been unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by the Maharashtra government. The rating for the 10-year bonds programme is based on a structured payment mechanism. Interest will be paid at 13% p.a. The repayment of principal amount of the bonds and the interest thereon have been secured by the guarantee enforced through a tripartite agreement signed between the state government, Film City and the trustees.

RS. 7 LAKH STOLEN FROM SHAKTI KAPOOR

Shakti Kapoor’s briefcase, containing Rs. 7 lakh, was stolen from his car on 3rd January in Bombay. Police are on the lookout for the culprit.

HARISH SUGHAND’S PREMISES RAIDED

Officers of the Criminal Intelligence Unit of Andheri, Bombay, raided the office and residential premises of Harish Sughand on 5th January. Harish was not present at the time of the raid but some important documents and a diary were seized by the raiding unit. Deputy commissioner of police (detection) Pradip Sawant said that Harish Sughand was being summoned for inquiry in connection with financing of a recent film. The raid comes close on the heels of the arrest of producer Nazim Rizvi and subsequent seizure of the negative of Chori Chori Chupke Chukpe.

ANUPAM KHER DRAGGED TO COURT IN CHEQUE DISHONOUR CASE

Anupam Kher appeared in an Indore court on 2nd January in a cheque bouncing case. Film financier Parmanand Tharani had filed a case against the actor under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. Anupam had allegedly taken a loan of Rs. 5 lakh from Tharani for his media entertainment company about two years back. He returned Rs. 2 lakh by a cheque which was dishonoured by the bank.

The next hearing has been fixed for 3rd February.

RUCKUS AT INDORE CINE CLUB MEETING

An extraordinary general meeting of the Cine Club of Indore was held on 2nd January in Indore to decide on the matter of buying new premises for the Club. The meeting took an unsavoury turn when some members started using unparliamentary language. The club’s president, Vedprakash Mendiratta, became so agitated that he withdrew the proposal of acquisition of new premises and declared the meeting as concluded. He subsequently also resigned in disgust from the Club’s presidentship.

Later, on 4th January, at the executive committee meeting of the Club, it was, however, unanimously decided to not accept the president’s resignation.

YOU ASKED IT

For a script to be known as a ‘bound script’, is a detailed screenplay enough or must the dialogues also be a part of it?

– Dialogues are necessarily part of a bound script. Without them, the script is incomplete.

Why do most mainstream filmmakers in India ignore the international film festivals?

– Because festivals have more academic value than business value. And mainstream filmmakers are hardcore businessmen too!

What should the new year resolution of the film industry be?

– For producers and directors: Make films with stories, not merely proposals with stars. For distributors: Don’t buy films merely on the ‘strength’ of star-names. For exhibitors: Give better service to patrons. For stars: Treat producers as annadaatas.

DO YOU KNOW?

* DDLJ (tax-free) finally equalled SHOLAY by entering into combined 269th week at Maratha Mandir, Bombay in matinee shows on 5th January. SHOLAY, in its first run at Minerva, Bombay, had run for a total of 269 combined (regular and matinee shows) weeks. Thus, DDLJ, which continues in matinee shows at Maratha Mandir, will prove to be the longest running film in the history of Indian cinema. DDLJ has, in 268 weeks, collected in Bombay city and suburbs (excluding Thane district and FH cinemas) an astounding 10,26,33,275/-! Just next to HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN..! which had collected over 12 crore!!

* A print of an English film, MODEL GIRL, reportedly supplied by Daylight Films, Jabalpur was seized at Shree Talkies, Gondia. The print, it is learnt, has been sent to the CBFC for verification. According to the CBFC, the film was never viewed by it! In another case, a print of BHOOT KA DAR was seized, alongwith interpolations, at New Radha Krishna Talkies, Sirajgaon (Amravati district). The print, allegedly supplied by Harnam Films, Amravati, has been sent for verification of the CBFC. Also, a print of RAAT KA DARINDA, alongwith ‘bits’ was seized at Jai Hind, Balaghat. It was supplied by Aabha Raj Films, Amravati, it is learnt. 

* Monica, who is being introduced as the leading lady in Balvinder Sandhu’s KAMA SUNDARI, is being ‘introduced’ as Devi Sri in Tahir Husain’s DIL DHOONDTA HAI.

CLASSIFICATION: 2000
(Total 217 films, including 74 dubbed films)

AAA (Super-Duper Hit)

KAHO NAA…PYAAR HAI

AA (Super-Hit)

–

A 1 (Hit)

–

A (Semi-Hit)

MOHABBATEIN (‘B1’ in Delhi-U.P., C.I., ‘B’ in Bihar)

BB (Overflow)

BADAL (‘A’ in Delhi-U.P. & East Punjab)

KYA KEHNA! (‘A’ in Bombay, ‘B1’ in East Punjab, Eastern Circuit, C.I. & Rajasthan)

SAALI POORI GHARWALI

MERI JUNG KA ELAAN

KAMESHWARI (dubbed)

B1 to BB (Commission-Earner to Overflow)

DHADKAN (‘A1’ in Bihar, losing/average in some circuits)

JUNGLE (losing in Delhi-U.P., ‘B’ in East Punjab & Bengal)

KURUKSHETRA

THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH (dubbed)

CHOTE MIYAN (dubbed)

DASI (dubbed)

B1 (Commission-Earner)

MISSION KASHMIR (‘BB’ in Bombay & West Bengal, losing in a couple of circuits)

FIZA (‘BB’ in Bombay, losing in a couple of circuits)

B to B1 (Coverage to Commission-Earner)

HAMARA DIL AAPKE PAAS HAI (‘A’ in Bombay, ‘BB’ in C.P. Berar, & losing in a couple of circuits)

KUNWARA (losing in a couple of circuits)

REFUGEE (‘BB’ in Bombay)

HADH KAR DI AAPNE (losing in a couple of circuits)

BICHHOO (‘BB’ in East Punjab & Rajasthan, losing in some circuits)

JIS DESH MEIN GANGA REHTA HAI (losing in a couple of circuits)

VIJETA THE GLADIATOR (dubbed)

X-MEN (dubbed)

ANHONEE (dubbed)

TRISHAKTI (dubbed)

JAI MAA DURGA (dubbed)

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-2 (dubbed)

B (Coverage)

KAALI NAGIN (dubbed)

DEVI (dubbed)

YEH KAISA PYAR (dubbed)

THE REST

…………..

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Happy New Calendar

Director Rajiv Rai, whose Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat, is complete, has brought out a 12-month calendar embellished with the pictures of the film’s artistes — Sunil Shetty, Aftab Shivdasani, Arjun Rampal, Kirti Reddy, Monica Bedi and Isha Koppikar — all caught in romantic moments. The calendar informs, ‘Coming to cinemas June 29, 2001’.

Another calendar, which is a table calendar of one month (January 2001), has, on its flip side, a sepia-toned reproduction of the still of the very first cinematographed film, made by Lumiere Brothers. The accompanying text informs that Lumiere Brothers held the first public show of their 2-minute feature film on 28th December, 1895. And that cinematography first came to India on 7th July, 1896 at Waton’s Hotel in Bombay. “The Lumiere brothers rightly called their invention, ‘The Marvel Of The Century’,” says the text. This unique uni-monthly calendar has been sent by Satyashwami Entertainment (P.) Ltd. But whose company is this? Mahesh Manjrekar’s!

2000: Nightmare For Most Stars

STAR POWER

The year 2000 belonged to Hrithik Roshan. It started with his debut in dad Rakesh Roshan’s Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai that catapulted him to superstardom overnight. The attempt on Rakesh Roshan’s life just a week after the film’s release, his hospitalisation and consequent bypass surgery of the heart kept the Roshans in general and Hrithik in particular in news. Every story about the Roshans was pegged around the new star on the horizon, Hrithik. His subsequent two films, Fiza and Mission Kashmir, whipped up more excitement because of Hrithik’s presence than for any other reason. Even their mediocre business was thanks only to Hrithik without whom they would’ve had to bite the dust. The star’s marriage to Sanjay Khan’s daughter, Sussane Khan, was grist for the media for a couple of months as the two families refused to divulge any information — the date, the venue, the honeymoon location, everything was speculation till the wedding happened on 20th December in Bangalore.

Even before the cute couple could fly off for their honeymoon and just before the curtains were drawn on the year 2000, Hrithik made headlines once again — this time without doing anything! That’s star power. The kingdom of Nepal was rocked by anti-Nepal and anti-Nepalese statements alleged to have been mouthed by Hrithik on a television interview. Innocent students, misled by vested interests (as yet, it is not known who the vested interests were), died in police firing, many were injured, the Koirala government was asked to step down for not being able to control the law and order situation and all this even though Hirithik had never uttered any statement concerning Nepal or the Nepalese — anti or pro! Thankfully, it’s all over now.

STAR-KIDS

Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor were the two other new faces of 2000 who attracted media and audience attention. Although their first film, Refugee, was an average fare at the box-office, it did bring the two debutants in the limelight. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that but for Amitabh’s son and Raj Kapoor’s grand-daughter, J.P. Dutta’s Refugee would not even have reached the average mark.

While Kareena Kapoor went on to sign big-banner films like Subhash Ghai’s Yaadein and Karan Johar’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Abhishek delivered two duds in Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa and Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke. The audience tore Bachchan Jr. apart, the media was even more inconsiderate. The silver lining came when Abhishek was signed by Sooraj Barjatya for his new film, Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon, never mind if Hrithik Roshan has a presumably meatier role in it. Kareena Kapoor is the common love angle of the two star-sons in the film that will launch in May 2001 and see release only in 2003.

TALE OF TWO BEAUTIES

Amisha Patel debuted in KN…PH but the Jaaneman jaaneman girl made up for the low media hype she got here in Bombay by following her ship song from KN…PH — Palat teri nazar. She looked Southwards and acted in a couple of Telugu films which did pretty well. The other debutante on the Hindi screen moved up from Andhra to Bombay, but Kirti Reddy, the heroine of the Telugu hit Tholi Prema, fared so badly in Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa that she had to pack her bags and rush back to Hyderabad. Well, almost.

PHIR BHI SHAH RUKH….

Shah Rukh Khan started the year as the producer of a flop, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. Hrithik’s emergence had SRK’s critics swearing that it was curtains down for the Khan superstar. Phir bhi, Shah Rukh kept going until Happy Diwali brought happier tidings for SRK. Not only did the Shah Rukh starrer Mohabbatein outscore Hrithik’s Mission Kashmir at the ticket-windows, it also brought in accolades for Shah Rukh’s performance as a music professor. The debacles of Gaja Gamini and Hey! Ram hardly made a difference to SRK’s star status as he played guest roles in both the films. Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega also saw Shah Rukh in a tiny guest appearance. His only other release, Josh, didn’t really shake the box-office anywhere, doing well only in major cities.

AB, KB, YEH BHI, WOH BHI

The most remarkable comeback of recent times was that of Amitabh Bachchan. The Big B, with his charisma and star power, made the small screen big enough to pose a serious threat to the big screen. His hosting of the game show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, on Star Plus, resulted in the following:

* Box-office collections on the days the game was aired took a beating in the first two months at least.

* TRPs of the game show soared to unbelievable heights.

* Film stars, who had all along thought, they were too big for television, found themselves signing contracts to host game shows, chat shows or to act in TV serials.

* Rival television channels launched game shows, at least one of which — Zee’s Sawaal Dus Crore Ka — fell flat on its face. Knockout was knocked out by DD when it was about to go on air. The reason, according to Doordarshan, was that it abetted gambling. So what did DD think all along — that host Kabir Bedi would sing bhajans on the game show or what?!

If television treated Amitabh so well, the big screen couldn’t be far behind. His solo release in 2000, Mohabbatein, won more praise for Bachchan (and Shah Rukh) than for the faces it launched/re-launched or for its director, Aditya Chopra.

BAD SCORE

For Salman Khan, the year 2000 was the worst as far as the box-office fate of his starrers was concerned. His last release — Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye — was also his biggest disaster of the year. David Dhawan’s Chal Mere Bhai was pretty bad and the director’s other Salman starrer, Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge, barely trudged along to the average mark in a couple of territories. Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega took the best start among all Salman starrers released in 2000 but even despite the extraordinary initial, all distributors didn’t make money on the expensive love triangle. Some of those who did make money, did it at the cost of exhibitors who stood to lose a part of their hefty MGs and FHs. Salman made a small guest appearance in the damp squib, Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke. He now needs to pull up his socks and not pull out his shirt. His crazy mannerisms in front of the camera have not only become repetitive but also extremely stale and irritating.

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Like Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgan, too, played a double role in 2000. But unlike Shah Rukh, he was plain unlucky in both the roles. As a producer, his ultra-expensive Raju Chacha, starring himself and wife Kajol, failed to excite the audiences despite the huge sets and slick computer graphics. Even the kids, at whom the film was targetted, seemed to want a more cohesive script! As a hero, Ajay Devgan’s Deewane bombed miserably. In this film too, Ajay played a double role — not of actor and producer, but of actor and actor.

TOTAL FAILURE, PARTIAL SUCCESS

Bulandi and Karobaar, the first and last release of Anil Kapoor during the year, were among the biggest disasters of 2000. The two films between the two debacles were his home productions. Pukar managed to remain afloat in some territories only, because of the tax exemption it got. Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai did very well in Bombay and Gujarat-Saurashtra but the response in other circuits was not as encouraging.

SO MUCH FOR THE NO. 1!

Hero no. 1 Govinda had six releases but none hit a sixer. Hadh Kar Di Aapne, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai and Kunwara were among his best starrers of 2000 but even they couldn’t do uniformly plus business in all the circuits. The poor ones were Beti No. 1, Shikari and Joru Ka Ghulam. His game show on Sony TV was the happiest news for him and his fans in 2000.

DUTT TERE KI!

Khauff, Baaghi, Chal Mere Bhai and Jung did nothing to further Sanjay Dutt’s career. Nidaan had a small guest appearance by the actor and so did Raju Chacha. Kurukshetra was a commission earner but what brought praise for the Dutt was his superlative performance in Mission Kashmir. Although the film wasn’t an all-round winner, Sanjay Dutt made his mark in it.

UNLUCKY KHILADI

For Akshay Kumar, the collections of last year’s last release — Jaanwar — was the most heartening news this year. It was this year that Jaanwar became the biggest ever blockbuster of Bihar. But Akshay didn’t deliver any hit in 2000. Hera Pheri scored in Bombay and Maharashtra but in most of the other circuits, it bombed. Dhadkan took a dull start outside of Bombay but its super-hit music saw the film do exciting business in Bombay, Bihar, C.P. Berar and C.I. In some circuits, it lost money. The year-end gave Akshay the biggest jhatka with the bombing of Khiladi 420 — even in Bihar.

MIXED FEELINGS

Sunil Shetty shared his fate with Akshay Kumar in Hera Pheri and Dhadkan. But he was luckier than the Khiladi Kumar as his character roles in Refugee and Jungle won him praises, and the films also did reasonable business. His solo starrer, Aaghaaz, didn’t do well in the cities but at smaller centres in Maharashtra and Bengal, the film managed decent shares. Elsewhere, it bombed. Sunil’s Krodh was a damp squib.

‘B’ FOR YOU

‘B’ for Bobby Deol. And ‘B’ for Badal and Bichhoo. Badal did wonders in Delhi-U.P., East Punjab, Rajasthan and the Eastern circuit. Bichhoo was an average fare (losing at places) but one which managed better in North, thanks only to its action. Bobby’s only other release, Hum To Mohabbat Karega, proved a highly forgettable disaster. That was B for you!

BREATHLESS IN BOLLYWOOD

Aamir Khan and Sunny Deol had just one release each. While Aamir’s Mela did badly in Bombay, it managed to scrape through in circuits like Delhi-U.P. Sunny’s Champion is just about average in circuits like U.P. and Rajasthan but elsewhere, its exciting start was followed by a steep drop in collections. The champion ran out of breath!

RAI — NO PAHAD — OF SUCCESS

Aishwarya Rai had three releases in 2000 and two more — one in which she made a ‘ghost’ appearance (Mohabbatein) and another in which she made a very tiny guest appearance (Mela). Mohabbatein clicked, Mela didn’t. Her Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai was a partial success. Josh was even lesser. Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke was a total failure.

JUST SOME FIZZ

Like for Aish, the year 2000 wasn’t too good for Karisma Kapoor either. Fiza was the only film which did above average business in some circuits. Chal Mere Bhai, Shikari and Hum To Mohabbat Karega were sad experiences for Karisma. Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge too couldn’t remain afloat in most circuits.

SEVEN WONDERS OR BLUNDERS?

The actress with the maximum number of releases in 2000 was, surprisingly, Tabu. Hers was a very consistent record — all seven flops! Hera Pheri was an exception in Bombay. The other disasters: Tarkieb, Shikari, Astitva, Ghaath, Biwi No. 2 (dubbed) and Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar. Dil Pe koi kaise nahin le, yaar! Especially when Tabu’s performance was first-rate in more than half the above!

RANI RULED… BUT NOT REALLY

Close on Tabu’s heels was Rani Mukerji with six releases. But while her Badal did pretty well in half the circuits of the country, Bichhoo was a fair fare in North India only. Hadh Kar Di Aapne managed a decent run in Bombay and U.P. Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega started like a rocket and thereafter, in some circuits, it plummetted like the Diwali rocket which comes down but goes God knows where! If Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye was a catastrophe, Hey! Ram was a calamity which had no cure whatsoever. That Hey! Ram is India’s entry to the Oscars may be the only consolation for Rani. Or is it?

TWO BAD BUT NOT TOO BAD

For Mahima Chaudhry, it was a very average year. A reasonable Dhadkan, a fairly good Kurukshetra and two miserable maladies — Khiladi 420 and deadly Deewane.

RAVEENA’S FRIGHTENING FIVE

Raveena Tandon was plain unlucky. Every release of hers misfired. In that sense, she posed stiff competition to Tabu. Only thing, while Tabu delivered seven croppers, Raveena’s score was five! Bulandi, Jung, Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye, Khauff (guest appearance) and Ghaath (guest appearance). Take your pick if you aren’t already sick!

ONE, TWO KA SCORE

Shilpa Shetty came to be recognised as an actress of substance with Dhadkan. But save this one, her two other releases — Jung and Tarkieb — must’ve reminded her of old times.

JUNGLE BEAUTY

Urmila Matondkar played the frightened captive of the jungle brigand in Jungle beautifully, but the box-office fate of her Deewane frightened the distributors even more. Her Kunwara was so-so in some circuits only.

PRETTY REASONABLE

Not a pretty good year but at least a pretty reasonable one for Preity Zinta. Kya Kehna! was the best small-cast film of 2000, which became a hit in Bombay and also did very well in other circuits. Mission Kashmir was not mission accomplished but all the same, it wasn’t mission unaccomplished either. Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega was her only other release.

SAWAAL MANISHA KA

Khauff wasn’t Manisha Koirala’s only khaufnaak delivery in 2000. Baaghi, too, bombed. Champion was her third release. The supreme disaster, of course, was Raja Ko Rani Se Pyar Ho Gaya. Manisha’s foray into television was worse than all the four releases put together. Sawaal Dus Core Ka, which she co-hosted with Anupam Kher on Zee TV, must’ve been the most khaufnaak experience, and not just for Manisha!

SONALI SPECIAL

Sonali Bendre made special appearances in three films — Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai, Chal Mere Bhai and Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke. Her only two other releases were Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai, which was dubbed a mediocre fare, and the dubbed Dil Hi Dil Mein, a disaster by any yardstick.

– Komal Nahta

INFORMATION MEETS

“In five years, I have completed 3 Sunny-starrers…
How did I do it? By simply being professional.”

– BABLOO PACHISIA

GAJAA

In an industry where hypocrisy is the norm and mollycoddling the stars is the rule, Babloo Pachisia stands out as one of the few exceptions. Honest and blunt to the core, this 38-year-old producer may seem a bit of a misfit in the industry. But having known him for years, you realise that despite no hypocrisy, the guy has survived — and survived wonderfully — in this dog-eat-dog industry. Starting with Apradhi (Anil Kapoor and Vijayashanti), Babloo has produced Khuddar (Govinda-Karisma), Haqeeqat (Ajay Devgan-Tabu), Ziddi (Sunny-Raveena), Arjun Pandit (Sunny-Juhi) and is now ready with his sixth production, Farz (Sunny-Preity). The release is just 10 days away (this interview is taken on 2nd January) and with Sunny Deol’s 50% dubbing remaining to be completed, you’d expect Babloo to be biting his nails and tearing his salt-and-pepper hair apart. But nothing of the vision you have conjured greets you in his tastefully done spacious cabin. Babloo is as cool as cool can be if only because he is used to Sunny’s ways. After all, this is his third film with the Deol and all the three have been completed in reasonable time.

Babloo is the son of one of the leading finance agents of the industry, Bhaiji, but it is to his credit that he has also made his own identity, besides being known as Bhaiji’s son.

Over to Babloo alias Navratan Pachisia:

The credits of FARZ mention Sunil Saini as its producer. What is your role in the project?

This project was actually Sunil Saini’s. He had signed Sunny Deol and director Raj Kanwar and was supposed to make it with a Delhi-based guy. But the project could not move ahead, beyond the signing stage. It is then that I stepped in.

Why did you take over the project? Was it because of Raj Kanwar, Sunny Deol or your production chief, Sunil Saini?

I did it only for Sunil Saini because he has been handling my films since years.

So, you became a partner….

Not a partner, I took over the entire project. Vishant International is my banner. Since Sunil had put the project together, he shares a percentage in the profit.

You must have made a good packet even before its release?

It is a loss on the table!

Loss?

Yes, so far, it is a loss because the satellite rights are yet to be sold.

Surprising, because it is a star cast film. 

Sunny is not so hot where the sale of satellite rights is concerned. Similarly, audio and Overseas rights of Sunny starrers don’t sell for the sky. And, as you know, satellite, audio and Overseas rights are where the money is today.

Is it your first film which has shown a loss on completion?

No, Ziddi was also in minus. Arjun Pandit was just about okay. As for Farz, I have still to earn from satellite and, of course, I hold the Bombay distribution rights. I am also hopeful of getting good overflow from East Punjab. It is extremely hot there. In fact, the film has become pretty hot all over. I think, about 350 prints will be released on the opening day.

This is my first big star cast film where even the villain (Jackie Shroff) is a star. Also, the filming of the action scenes cost me a whopping Rs. 2 crore plus.

Here, I must say that Pretty Zinta worked at her committed old price even though she became a sought-after star after signing my film. She never asked for a hike in her price even though she is in demand today. And never has she hassled us for anything. I really appreciate her professionalism.

Since director Raj Kanwar’s last film, his own DHAAI AKSHAR PREM KE, did not do well, did your distributors feel shaky or apprehensive?

No distributor ever said anything post-Dhaai Akshar…. They consider this project as a combination of me, Sunny Deol and Raj Kanwar.

What kind of relationship do you have with your distributors?

I have my own set of distributors who’ve distributed all my five films and will be distributing the sixth too. Except one or two, who backed out for their own reasons.

Music has become a vital force for a film’s opening, but your film’s music is not very hot. Are you not tense about it?

It’s true that music plays an important role in boosting a film. But Sunny Deol is an action hero and we have relied on action and grandeur. Music is not as important in an action film as, say, in a romantic or family film.

What is the subject of FARZ?

Sunny Deol is a top police officer, but not the usual uniformed cop. The action is stylised.

Is it an original subject or a remake of a foreign film?

It is slightly inspired from an English film.

Which one?

You will come to know when the film comes on the screen!

What, according to you, ails the film industry? What corrective steps should be taken?

To me, filmmaking is fun. In which trade do you find people meeting and greeting each other so cordially and with so much warmth? But I must say, some people have now become too money-minded. These people believe in grabbing things — just khincho khincho! One can’t do anything about it. To each his own.

But one must appreciate you for having made three Sunny-starrers consecutively without any production delays. How could you achieve that? How long did FARZ take in the making?

Farz has been completed in 15 months. In five years, I have made three Sunny-starrers. I started Ziddi on 11th February, 1996 and now, on 12th January, 2001, I will be releasing Farz. How did I do it? By simply being professional. Each one has to play his own game here.

Are you taking any steps to save your film from video piracy?

This video piracy business is killing. When my film gets released, I will inform the police and take help of anti-piracy agencies.

How do you manage your finances? Does your dad help you?

No, he has retired from his finance business. He does not need to help me in anything. His blessings are enough.

What have you learnt from this industry?

I have been a producer for the last 10 years and I have learnt one thing very clearly: to be recognised in the trade, you have got to be big.

Is that the reason why you sign stars — to become big?

If that was the case, I would have now made a film with Hrithik Roshan whom I had signed six months before the release of KN…PH. I was the first to sign him. But my turn will come by the end of 2002 or in the beginning of 2003.

What explains your happy-go-lucky demeanour in the midst of pre-release tensions?

There is no point in crying about anything. What we have to face, we have to face.

You seem to be a strong believer in destiny.

Yes, I do believe in destiny. And I also believe in sincerity of work. Sincerity pays much more than your honesty.

Can you explain the difference between the two?

You see, an honest worker is the one who goes to work on time and leaves on time. A sincere worker is the one who, even if he does not go to his work place on time, completes his work much to his superior’s satisfaction and goes home early or late. It’s the quality of work that counts.

RAJU CHACHA

Devgans Films’ Raju Chacha is an extravagant drama about three kids whose multi-millionaire father is killed by evil relatives to escape a jail sentence. Not just that, the relatives then get down to torturing the kids with the aim of usurping the property and wealth of the deceased. But a famed crook, who robs cars and banks for a living, comes to the rescue of the kids, posing as their long-lost uncle. This ‘uncle’ knows the kids because he had tried to get married to their pretty governess a while ago. The marriage had been stopped by the kids’ father when he learnt that the guy was a fraud. Even while the kids forgive the ‘uncle’, the governess views him with suspicion till she is convinced that the guy wants to turn over a new leaf. How the ‘uncle’, the governess, the kids and their loyal chef unitedly eliminate all the evil relatives, after learning that it was they who had killed the father, forms the climax.

Anees Bazmee’s story and Robin Bhatt’s screenplay are directed at children mainly. But the handling of the subject by debut-making director Anil Devgan is so insensitive that emotions are almost absent when that is what should have been the film’s mainstay. Grandeur and special effects are often used to make up for the lack of feeling in the drama but, unfortunately, they are poor substitutes for emotions. Yes, a couple of scenes do touch the viewers’ hearts but the continuous yearning for the children’s well-being — which is what should be the emotion experienced by the cinegoer in a film of this kind — just doesn’t happen. The physical and mental torture inflicted on the kids by the villains would rather hurt the sensibilities of kids and their parents — the target audience for the film. Except for a couple of dialogues, which are really sensitive, even Javed Siddiqi’s dialogues don’t really create any impact.

Ajay Devgan does a fair job but the chemistry between him and the kids, whose messiah he comes as, just doesn’t work, thanks to the incompetent handling by Anil Devgan. It is sad to see an extraordinary actress like Kajol being wasted in an insipid fare as this. There’s not a single scene which could justify the casting of Kajol in the role of the governess. Her costumes are quite sad and it is difficult to believe that they’ve been designed by ace costume designer Manish Malhotra. Rishi Kapoor acts with utmost sincerity and is very good. Of the three kids, it is baby Sakshi Sem who performs very well. Master Harsh Lunia and master Kinshuk Vaidya are fair. Johny Lever’s comedy is enjoyable, though not hilarious always. Sanjay Dutt’s guest appearance comes as a wonderful surprise and will excite the audience enough to break into an applause. The gang of villains is weak. Govind Namdev, Pramod Moutho and Mayur play the evil relatives of the kids and they are average. Shahbaaz Khan’s get-up is more menacing than him. Tiku Talsania does a fair job. The dog has been wasted. Smita Jayakar, Usha Bachani, master Kewalya Chheda, Adi Irani, Vikas Anand and the rest of the cast lend average support.

Anil Devgan’s direction is not what the script demanded. He has given the film a rich look but it looks like a case of body beautiful without a soul. Jatin Lalit’s music is quite weak. ‘Tune mujhe pehchana nahin’, ‘Kahin se aayee rani’ and the title song are fair but a couple of songs are boring. Showing the animation song in the rolling titles in the end is a colossal waste. Action scenes are good. Some thrilling scenes are exciting although none has novelty. Camerawork is very good. Sets (Nitin Desai) are grand. Computer graphics are very beautiful.

On the whole, Raju Chacha lacks in emotions and entertainment. Thanks to the dull music, it has taken a poor start; thanks to lack of entertainment, it has bleak chances of a pick-up. A dull show which will do well only in selected cinemas.

Released on 28-12-2000 at Metro and on 29-12-2000 at 17 other cinemas of Bombay thru Devgan Entertainment & Software Ltd. Publicity: very good. Opening: fair. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull in most other circuits. It was excellent in Bihar.

KHILADI 420

D.M.S. Films’ Khiladi 420 (UA) is an action film with a complex story which has very little novelty. The hero (Akshay Kumar) plays a double role — one, a negative character, and the other, his twin brother who is noble-hearted. Revealing the second hero (noble-hearted guy) only after the death of the first hero (negative character) looks like a very simplistic approach to the drama.

The daughter of a multi-millionaire is pursued by two men. She opts for the friend she met in Canada and rejects the proposal of the other man who is her childhood friend. To her dismay, she finds that the guy she has married is a murderer who only wants to usurp her property. On the wedding night, she kills her husband in self-defence. All along till then, she doesn’t even know that her father had not died due to natural causes but had actually been murdered by her husband-to-be. After the death of her husband, emerges his identical twin brother. Except for her, nobody knows that the new man is not her husband. This brother is nabbed by the police for the father’s murder. Being a noble soul, he agrees to the crime he has never committed so that he can save his sister-in-law who has murdered her husband. If he reveals his identity, the law will catch up with his sister-in-law for her criminal act. If he doesn’t, he will be hanged to death, something which the sister-in-law will not allow to happen as she is in love with him.

How the twin brother saves her as well as himself from the clutches of law, even as the villains get to know of his true identity, forms the climax.

If the story is confusing, the screenplay has several weak links. The dead body of the negative hero being stored safely by his girlfriend for days together for no obvious reason is one such weak link. The twin brother’s barrage of questions to his sister-in-law-turned-beloved in the courtroom does not impress at all and surely doesn’t have to result in her being silenced! A matter of convenience to further the drama! In short, Uttam Gada and Neeraj Vora’s screenplay is more a piece of convenient writing than convincing writing. Even their dialogues are commonplace.

Akshay Kumar does well in both the roles. But there’s little he can do to rise above the poor script. Mahima Chaudhry acts with a lot of conviction and is especially brilliant in dramatic and emotional scenes. Mukesh Rishi is good. Sudhanshu Pandey makes an average big-screen debut as Mahima’s childhood friend. Alok Nath does an able job. Baby Lekhinee is natural. Antra Mali leaves a mark with a spirited performance. Viju Khote, Dilip Joshi, Sudhir Joshi, Dolly Bindra, Sayaji Shinde, Razzak Khan, Gulshan Grover, Subbiraaj and the rest provide average support.

Neeraj Vora’s directorial debut is nothing to write home about and for this, his weak script is also to be blamed. An unintentionally hilarious scene — to give an example of Vora’s direction — is the one in which Mukesh Rishi is holding Mahima Chaudhry in air, thousands of feet above ground level while himself safely placed in a cabin in an air balloon. Rather than clinging on to Mukesh Rishi for dear life, Mahima is shown as struggling to be let free. The discerning audience realises that if she is really let free by Mukesh Rishi, she will fall to her death! What she should have been directed to do was to cling on to Mukesh Rishi rather than trying to get free from his clutches! In the climax, Akshay Kumar is surrounded by villains who can easily shoot him dead, but they don’t do so for no apparent reason.

Sanjeev Darshan’s music is rather poor. A couple of songs are just about tolerable. Camerawork (Prabhu and S. Pappu) is of standard. Editing (Mohammed Ashfaque) is loose, especially in the second half. Some action scenes are exciting but there’s too much of action post-interval. The entire sequence of Akshay atop a moving aeroplane is breathtaking. Production values are rich.

On the whole, Khiladi 420 is weak in merits and has only action to lure the masses in small centres. A reasonable price is a point in its favour, but a dull opening, unexciting content and a dragging second half are danger points. Below average.

Released on 29-12-2000 at Alankar, New Excelsior and 20 other cinemas of Bombay thru Raman Pictures. Publicity & opening: good. …….Also released all over. Opening was poor in most of the other circuits.

LATEST POSITION

The Idd festival did nothing to boost the sagging morale of the industry. Rather, the dull opening of the two big releases of this week served only to demoralise the industry further.

Champion, after a very good start, dropped rather badly from 4th day onwards. 1st week Bombay 48,91,910 (59.79%) from 14 cinemas (10 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 6,70,086 from 3 cinemas (3 unrecd.), Patan (gross) 2,63,370 (77.92%), Kalol (gross) 1,89,628 (61.57%), Vapi 5,62,697 from 2 cinemas, Rajkot 1,72,800 (2 unrecd.), Adipur 1,78,368, Bhuj 1,54,657; Pune 11,92,475 from 5 cinemas, Solapur 2,81,054; Delhi 40,90,675 (45.33%) from 14 cinemas (4 on F.H.); Kanpur (6 days) 3,56,278 from 3 cinemas, Lucknow 4,83,200 from 2 cinemas, Agra 3,35,650, Varanasi 2,61,270, Allahabad 2,30,000, Bareily (6 days) 1,38,455; Calcutta 18,48,818 from 10 cinemas; Nagpur 5,67,633 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,44,994, Amravati 2,05,334, Akola 1,93,347, Raipur (6 days, gross) 2,77,005 (1 unrecd.), Jalgaon 1,87,111, Katni (gross) 1,45,000, Wardha 1,01,860, Chandrapur 1,95,781; Indore 2,50,000 from 2 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Jaipur 8,06,408 (45.46%) from 4 cinemas, Ajmer (29 shows, gross) 2,76,002; Hyderabad (gross) 19,91,720 from 9 cinemas.

Raja Ko Rani Se Pyar Ho Gaya is a super-disaster. 1 week Bombay 3,86,042 (18.96%) from 4 cinemas (6 cinemas unrecd., 1 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 4,32,544 from 3 cinemas; Delhi 1,69,991 (9.44%) from 3 cinemas; discontinued from Bangalore after 3 days.

Jallad No. 1 is dismal. 1 week Bombay 1,35,862 (16.72%) from 2 cinemas; Jaipur (29 shows) 38,145 (10.24%).

Trishakti (dubbed) 1 week Bombay 1,86,078 (27.11%, 1 unrecd., 1 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 3,08,672 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 7,88,566 (23.64%) from 4 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur (6 days) 71,499 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 89,494, Agra 1,60,000, Varanasi 1,15,778, Allahabad 65,144; Calcutta 3,27,676 from 8 cinemas; Amravati 1,54,298, Akola 1,52,442, Jalgaon 91,583; Jaipur (29 shows) 1,76,555 (33.16%). Poor.

………..

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (dubbed, TF) is doing excellent in C.P. Berar. 2nd week Bombay 16,82,093 (52.46%) from 6 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Pune 3,42,327; Nagpur 4,51,120 from 2 cinemas, 1st week Amravati 2,02,447, 2nd week Akola 1,76,440, total 4,07,765.

Saali Poori Gharwali 1st week Nagpur 2,02,511 from 2 cinemas.

________

Mor Chhainha Bhuinya (Chhattisgarhi) 9th week Raipur (nett) 1,92,227, total 18,19,357, city record, 5th week Rajnandgaon 1,41,000, total 8,02,653, city record. Should do over 2 crore in Chhattisgarh.

U.A. THADANI NO MORE

“Firebrand leader”, “pillar of the film industry”, “an untiring worker”. These were only some of the ways in which leading Bombay exhibitor-distributor U.A. Thadani was described in the industry. Udharam Aildas Thadani breathed his last on 26th December at 10 a.m. at Breach Candy Hospital in Bombay, where he had been admitted about 20 days back for malfunctioning of the lungs. He was cremated the same afternoon. His funeral was well-attended by distributors, exhibitors and producers too. His chautha on 28th was attended very largely.

Thadani is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. His younger son, Rajesh, married Anjali just last week. The marriage took place at a simple ceremony in a temple because of U.A. Thadani’s critical condition.

Thadani had been the president of the Theatre Owners’ Association (TOA) for several terms. He was a selfless worker who served the industry for years. Not just in association meetings, U.A. Thadani was often seen in court rooms too, whether it was a case between the industry and the government or between an exhibitor and a distributor. A hot-tempered man, it wasn’t rare for Thadani to blow his top in matters concerning not just him or his business but the industry or association too. However, he used to cool down in a matter of minutes.

U.A. Thadani loved to socialise and, despite failing health in the last one year, he used to oblige people by attending their functions and parties. His son, Rajesh, who helped him and his (U.A. Thadani’s) brother, Kundan Thadani, in business, used to often escort his father, like a loving son would do, to parties as the doctors had advised him against going alone anywhere.

The Thadanis own New Era (Malad), Ganesh (Lalbaug) and Sona (Borivli) cinemas of Bombay, Deccan and New Excelsior cinemas of Pune, Alankar, Nadiad and Gopi, Amreli. All the cinemas owned by them remained closed on 26th. Gopi cinema, Amreli remained closed for 3 days. The Thadanis control Maratha Mandir, Gaiety, Galaxy, Gemini, Glamour, Gem and Shreyas (Ghatkopar) cinemas of Bombay, and Vijay and Mamta cinemas of Nasik. Thadani had distributed several films including Soldier and Kya Kehna! in recent times. He had also produced a film, Do Premee.

All distribution and exhibition offices at Naaz, Bombay remained closed on 26th as a mark of respect to the departed soul. Offices of the IMPDA, CEAI and TOA also observed a day’s closure.

IMPDA president N.N. Sippy was very sad on hearing the news of Thadani’s demise. Said he, “For me, his death is more than merely a professional loss. He was by my side, whether in personal matters, business matters or association matters. I will miss him very much. Just before he was hospitalised, I recall he telling me excitedly about how many whisky bottles he had arranged for his son’s wedding reception on 20th December. He was looking forward to the wedding.”

NOOR JEHAN BIDS ADIEU

Pakistan’s melody queen Noor Jehan struck the last note of her life and departed for the world beyond on 23rd December. The mallika-e-tarannum passed away following heart failure, in the port city of Karachi in Pakistan. She leaves behind two sons and five daughters, besides a number of fans in the two neighbouring countries, India and Pakistan. She was 75.

Noor Jehan started out as a singer and actress in undivided India when she was barely eight years old. K.D. Mehra, known as the father of Punjabi films, introduced her in a Punjabi film. Noor Jehan shot into prominence when Dalsukh Pancholi introduced her in Khandan in 1942, opposite Pran. To further her singing and acting career, she migrated from Lahore of the undivided India to Bombay. Mehboob cast her in his Anmol Ghadi (1946) in which she played the leading lady and rendered her career’s best songs under the baton of Naushad. This was the only film for which she sang under Naushad who gave evergreen tunes like Aawaz de kahan hai, Jawan hai mohabbat and Mere bachpan ke saathi mujhe bhool na jaana, which were a rage then and even now, a listener’s delight. Noor Jehan recorded hundreds of songs in Hindi and Punjabi.

Dilip Kumar, who acted opposite her in Jugnu (1947), said in his tribute, “She will remain immortal and, through modern technology, her voice will reverberate and echo…. May God be generous in his reward to Noor Jehan for the golden melodies with which she enriched generations in India and Pakistan.”

Lata Mangeshkar, who was mentioned as baby Lata when she acted in Badi Maa (1945) with Noor Jehan said, “She treated me as her younger sister and whenever we met, she used to hug me. Her death has created a vacuum in the world of music, which cannot be filled.” Suraiya, who co-starred with Noor Jehan in Anmol Ghadi, remembered how she (Noor Jehan) had prodded her (Suraiya) to sing. “The world is yet to see a singer like Noor Jehan,” she said.

“Mere geeton mein Noor Jehan apni noor bharke chali gayi,” said music director Naushad.

In its editorial tribute, The Times Of India has said, “Noor Jehan encapsulates the undying allure of the great Indo-Pak amity story. Decades of political acrimony, war and hate-mongering have failed to dim the charisma of this two-nation, one-human tale, for, Noor Jehan belongs to our virasat (heritage) as much as she belongs to their virasat.”

In a message sent to the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi, Guild president Surinder Kapoor has condoled the death of Noor Jehan. The message says that the singer “has made a special place in the hearts of millions of Indians. Her death has caused an irreparable loss to the film industry.”

SHAKTI SAMANTA ELECTED FFI PRESIDENT

Shakti Samanta was unanimously elected president of the Film Federation of India at the first meeting of its executive committee held on 29th December in Bombay. Santosh Singh Jain, Prabhat Bhushan, G.S. Mayawala and L. Suresh were elected vice presidents. Tilak Raj Magan and Surinder Kapoor were elected hon. general secretary and hon. treasurer respectively.

SANJEEV’S WEDDING RECEPTION

A large turnout of the industry bigwigs marked the grand reception held on 21st December at Juhu Centaur, Bombay, to celebrate the wedding of music director Sanjeev (of Sanjeev Darshan duo) with Ritika. Music director Shravan, father of Sanjeev, personally received the guests. His partner, Nadeem’s absence was made up by the presence of Nadeem’s parents.

NAZIM RIZVI’S REMAND EXTENDED

Citing police investigations being at a delicate stage, the special court in Bombay on 27th December further remanded Chori Chori Chupke Chupke producer Nazim Rizvi and his assistant Abdul Rahim Allah Baksh to police custody till January 8. The judge observed that the police had come across material evidence and valuable information during investigations.

Meanwhile, the prosecution questioned the locus standi of the film’s financier, Bharat Shah, in the matter. Shah had intervened in the case by filing a vakalatnama. However, he did not stake his claim on the negatives of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke which have been sealed by the police.

YOU ASKED IT

When the government of Uttar Pradesh grants 100% tax-exemption to films shot entirely in the state, why don’t our producers avail of the benefit?

– Uttar Pradesh does not have too many unexploited beautiful locales and also lacks in infrastructure facilities for shooting.

How come there was no satisfactory initial for star-cast films like Raju Chacha and Khiladi 420 which opened on Idd day?

– Mainly because of lack of hit music which is essential for a good opening. Besides, the musical promotion of KHILADI 420 was not up to the mark. 

It is indeed enlightening to note the total collections of films released in Bombay city and suburbs in your box-office section. Can you tell me the total collections of Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! and the number of weeks it ran for in Bombay city and suburbs?

– HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN..! ran for 150 weeks in Bombay city and suburbs in its first run and it collected a total of Rs. 12.12 crore (excluding FH cinemas and Thane district)!

CENSOR NEWS

D.M.S. Films’ Khiladi 420 (social) was given C.C. No. CIL/2/49/2000 (UA) dt. 22-12-2000; length 5119.69 metres in 17 reels (cuts: 28.04 metres).

Saboo Films P. Ltd. and Bharat Film Works’ Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi was seen on 26th.

Trust International’s Yeh Kaisi Chahat (dubbed; length 2402.07 metres in 5 reels) was applied on 21st.

F.K.R. Productions’ Zubeidaa (length 4100.20 metres in 15 reels), applied on 22nd, was seen on 27th.

NFDC Ltd.’s Daman (length 3466.49 metres in 14 reels), applied on 22nd, was seen on 27th.

Visuals P. Ltd.’s  Moksh  (length 4330.01 metres in 17 reels), was applied on 26th.

Vishant International’s Farz (length 4860.07 metres in 18 reels), applied on 26th, was seen on 27th.

CFSI’s Bhago Bhoot (length 2286.58 metres in 9 reels), was applied on 27th.

R.N. Films’ Hasina Dacait (length 2485.94 metres in 12 reels), was applied on 27th.

Hrithik Controversy In Nepal
THE TRUE STORY

So what sparked off the Hrithik controversy in Nepal? Now that it is established that Hrithik Roshan never uttered a single word against either Nepal or the Nepalese, in any TV or other interview, how did his name get dragged into the controversy which claimed four lives in Nepal on 26th December and is now threatening the very tenure of the ruling Koirala government?

Reportedly, it is the handiwork of a handful of Nepal distributors of Indian films, who are also producers of Nepalese films. It was their intention to disturb the smooth running of Hindi films in Nepal. This, in turn, would also help boost business of Nepali films, they thought.

The reason why the trouble-makers wanted to disrupt the screening of Hindi films in general is that they have not been successful in bagging the distribution rights of some coveted films of late, including the Hrithik-starrer Mission Kashmir. It may be mentioned here that it was recently decided by Nepal distributors — at the behest of vested interests, of course — that no Nepal distributor would pay more than Rs. 15 lakh for any Hindi film. Before some months, the Nepal Motion Picture Association had resolved that producers should sell distribution rights of their films for the Nepal territory directly to Nepal distributors instead of selling them to Bihar distributors who then either sell the same to Nepal distributors or release the films in Nepal themselves, which has been the practice for years. This, says a Bihar distributor wishing to remain anonymous, was done with a view to keep Indians out of Nepal territory.

The handful of people, it is learnt, instigated a group of gullible students to launch a tirade against Hrithik Roshan. It just happened to be Hrithik; it could have been anybody else. Another theory has it that Hrithik was targetted intentionally so that the screening of Mission Kashmir (which one of the miscreants had coveted but not succeeded in getting) could be disrupted.

In either case, this is how things seem to have transpired:

Simi Garewal’s interview of Hrithik Roshan is aired on Star Plus. Seeing this as a Godsent opportunity to create controversy over Hindi films in Nepal, the disgruntled local distributors instigate a group of rowdy college students of Chitwan. The youth march to a local newspaper (Chitwan Post) and demand that their condemnation of Hrithik’s anti-Nepal statements on the Simi Garewal show be published. The newspaper editor refuses, saying, he would rather wait and see if more people felt that way. The next day, the students set afire an effigy of Hrithik Roshan and send Chitwan Post a press release alongwith a picture. The paper publishes the news in its 15th December edition. On reading the news, the president of an all-Nepal students’ union issues a statement in Biratnagar, condemning Hrithik’s alleged remarks and he calls for a boycott of the actor’s movies. The situation precipitates when the secretary of the same union repeats the statement in Kathmandu. The statement is reported in all major newspapers on 25th December. On 26th, angry mobs take to the streets of Kathmandu and threaten to burn down the local Gopi Kishan cinema, owned by Udhab Paudwal, which is screening the Hrithik-starrer, Mission Kashmir. They heavily damage the cinema. In the police firing that follows the mob violence, four people are killed and 180 others, injured. The issue snowballs into a national crisis and refuses to die down even after the students’ union president admits to not having seen Hrithik’s interview. Hrithik’s denial fails to reach out to the angry masses as the only independent cable network in Nepal has by then stopped the telecast of Indian channels. Nepal’s newspapers, however, carry an apology attributed to Hrithik. The violence continues unabated on 27th as the protesters clash with the police and block streets with burning tyres and trees. The public ire turns on the Indian community, and the State Bank of India’s Kathmandu office sees its windows pelted with stones. The city of Kathmandu witnesses unprecedented violence. All work comes to a standstill as several political parties call for a strike on 28th. The prime minister’s chair is endangered as nearly half of the 113 ruling Nepalese Congress MPs move a no-confidence motion against Koirala.

Even those who master-minded the entire false drama had, perhaps, not dreamt that it would take such an ugly turn with such far-reaching consequences as to ultimately go on to shake the ruling government in the Himalayan kingdom.

An unrelated incident relates to Raju Chacha which could not be sold for Nepal as the powerful lobby of the same handful of distributors had spread the word a few weeks back that nobody should pay more than Rs. 10 lakh for its distribution rights! Khiladi 420, the other release of this week, opened in the Terrai region of Nepal yesterday (29th December) but not in Kathmandu. All Hindi film screenings in the capital city have been suspended following the horrendous riot that broke out there on 26th.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Lata, Rafi & Noor Jehan

Both, Lata Mangeshkar and Mohd. Rafi, had acted in films starring late Noor Jehan. Lata Mangeshkar had acted in a small role in Badi Maa, released in 1945. She was billed as baby Lata in the film’s credits. Mohd. Rafi had also acted in a small role in the Noor Jehan-starrer Jugnu, released in 1947. He also rendered for Jugnu that hit number, Yahan badla wafai ke siva kya bewafa kya hai with Noor Jehan. Jugnu was produced and directed by Shaukat Hussain Rizvi whom she married and migrated with to Pakistan after the Partition. The other actor-singers who acted with Noor Jehan were Surendra and Suraiya — in Mehboob’s Anmol Ghadi, released in 1946. Surendra played the lead opposite Noor Jehan while Suraiya was the other heroine of the film. The evergreen hit song of Anmol Ghadi, Awaaz de kahan hai, was rendered by Noor Jehan and Surendra.

Hrithik-Abhishek In Legal Battle

Hrithik and Abhishek are involved in a court battle. Only thing, Hrithik Roshan is not directly involved, and Abhishek is not Abhishek Bachchan but Abhishek Poddar! The latter has dragged S. Kumar’s to the Madras high court over the use of the brand name, Cinnamon, which is being endorsed by Hrithik Roshan. The court has restrained S. Kumar’s by an interim injunction from advertising their readymade menswear line under the brand name Cinnamon following the application by Abhishek’s Bangalore-based company, Sua Explosives & Accessories, which has claimed ownership over the name. The petitioners own a fashion store called Cinnamon in Bangalore, which sells clothes under that label. The store, which opened in 1999, has clothes designed by Italian fashion designer Andrea Anestasio. Abhishek plans to soon open similar stores in other cities too.

No Idd Celebration, This!

The dull opening of Raju Chacha and Khiladi 420 this week has sent shock waves in the industry. Not just because they both are star-cast and big-budget films, which are extensively publicised, but also because their releases coincided with Idd, a festival eagerly awaited by producers, distributors and exhibitors.

The Idd festival has traditionally been known for bountiful box-office collections as many Muslims, who abstain from frequenting cinemas during the preceding Ramzan month, throng cinema halls on the festive day. The following day (Baasi Idd) is also considered very good for the box-office. But this year, collections were generally dull on both, Idd and Baasi Idd days (December 28 and 29). In fact, several distributors released the films on Thursday (December 28) to take advantage of the festival, but were disappointed with the 40 and 50% collections!

Dull music of both the films contributed to the poor openings. Bombay city, of course, recorded good collections. In Bihar, collections of Raju Chacha were excellent.

Besides dull music, there are other reasons too. It appears that without music, Ajay Devgan and Akshay Kumar can’t pull in the crowds. Deewane, Ajay Devgan’s last release, too, had had a poor initial. Dhadkan (Akshay Kumar), despite super-hit music, had opened to ordinary houses. In the case of Ajay Devgan and Kajol, their first release together, after their marriage — Dil Kya Kare — was also a damp squib. Is the hit pair of Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha losing ground after marriage?

RAJA KO RANI SE PYAR HO GAYA

Shogun Films Ltd.’s Raja Ko Rani Se Pyar Ho Gaya is a fairy tale kind of a film. A child grows up with a dream to marry a princess. As a handsome adult, he befriends a pretty girl who, unknown to him, is a princess. He first meets her when he saves her life in his village. Unable to strike a rapport with her there, he sets out for the city where she lives, with the sole purpose of meeting her. His brother, nephew and nieces also stay in the same city. The pretty princess gifts the guy a baby elephant, having accidentally broken his elephant idol which is worshipped by his family as a deity. While the kids start loving the animal, it is found to be a nuisance by members of the housing society in which the guy lives with his brother’s family and the elephant. The silliest part is that the brother and his wife for many days don’t realise that an elephant is staying with them in their flat! When the brother does get to know about the presence of the elephant, he orders it to be thrown out. Ultimately, the elephant comes back to the house.

In the meantime, having lost his heart to the girl, the handsome guy one day proposes marriage to her. She declines his offer as she had been married off in her childhood to a boy who has grown up to be a menacing villain. On being prodded by his grandmother, the guy rescues the princess from her villain-‘husband’. He is aided in his climax fight by the baby elephant.

T.K. Rajeev Kumar’s screenplay is as pathetic as his story. A handful of scenes do appeal but the major part of the film is sickeningly dull. Dialogues are simple.

Arvind Swamy does well but a younger man was the need of the fairy tale. Manisha Koirala is good. Elephant Appu pleases at places. Dina Pathak, Goga Kapoor, Dilip Dhawan, Tanvi Azmi, Priya Tendulkar, Shahbaaz Khan, Kunika and the child artistes lend fair support.

T.K. Rajeev Kumar’s direction is too dull to be true. Music (Jatin Lalit) is average although a couple of songs have been beautifully picturised (Kala and Ahmed Khan). Ravi K. Chandran’s camerawork is splendid. Action (Thyagarajan) is just about tolerable.

On the whole, Raja Ko Rani Se Pyar Ho Gaya, which has taken years to be completed and reach the cinemas, is a disaster. Staleness apart, it is almost devoid of entertainment of the kind liked by today’s audience.

Released on 22-12-2000 at New Empire and 10 other cinemas of Bombay by Shogun Films Ltd. thru Shringar Films. Publicity: fair. Opening: poor. …….Also released in Delhi-U.P., West Bengal and Mysore.

U.A. THADANI CRITICAL

The condition of leading Bombay exhibitor-distributor and Theatre Owners’ Association president U.A. Thadani continues to be critical at the Breach Candy Hospital, Bombay. His condition is causing great anxiety not only to his family members and relatives but also to his friends in the Bombay film trade, particularly in Naaz building.

Thadani was hospitalised two weeks back and has been in the ICU of the hospital for lung malfunctioning and other complications.

HRITHIK-SUZANNE WEDDING CEREMONY A PRIVATE AFFAIR

All the guesswork and speculation came to an end on 20th December when Hrithik Roshan and Suzanne entered into matrimonial alliance in Bangalore following an engagement ceremony the previous day. The milni ceremony, prior to the wedding, had J. Om Prakash and politician Ghulam Nabi Azad representing respectively Hrithik’s dad, Rakesh Roshan, and Suzanne’s dad, Sanjay Khan.

The wedding was held at Sanjay Khan’s Golden Palms Resort & Spa in Bangalore. It was a private affair. Rishi Kapoor, Jeetendra, Prem Chopra and Sujit Kumar were among the few select guests who attended the wedding. The pressmen and photographers were kept at bay by the security guards.

The newly-married couple will arrive in Bombay on 24th December (Sunday) from where they will take off for a honeymoon (destination undisclosed).

MUSIC DIRECTOR SANJEEV WEDS

A reception to celebrate the wedding of music director Sanjeev (of Sanjeev Darshan), son of music director Shravan, with Ritika was held on 21st December at Hotel Centaur, Juhu, Bombay.

HC REJECTS ANUPAM KHER’S PLEA TO RESTRAIN ZEE

A plea by Anupam Kher to restrain Zee TV from removing him as the host of Sawaal Dus Crore Ka was rejected by Justice K.K. Baam of the Bombay high court on 20th December. Kher had claimed in his plea that Zee TV could not terminate his contract as it had promised that it would not conduct the game show without him as one of the hosts. The promise had, argued Kher, prompted him to sign away his copyrights as a performer on the show, especially since he was told by Zee TV that he would be one of the hosts for 156 episodes. Kher had been paid Rs. 1 crore initially and was being given Rs. 2.5 lakh per show. The total contract for 156 episodes was worth Rs. 3.9 crore.

While accepting Zee TV’s submission that the contract was of personal service and hence no injunction could be granted on Kher’s plea, the judge observed that the contract was not of an exclusive nature. He held that the contract did not prevent Anupam Kher from taking up other assignments in his acting career, but only stipulated that the actor set aside eight days every month exclusively for the show. He also added that Kher could claim damages from Zee TV if his removal from the show was held unlawful by an arbitrator.

Virag Tulzapurkar argued for Zee Telefilms. Janak Dwarkadas was Anupam Kher’s counsel.

In a related case, Zee on December 21 served a legal notice on Anupam Kher, asking him to tender an apology within 10 days for making allegedly defamatory statements against the company or face a Rs. 100 crore defamation suit. The notice states that Anupam had defamed the company in the press by saying that the show was bad and that it did not have proper lighting. Kher is also alleged to have said that there was no coordination between the organisers and the participants.

SALMAN, SATISH SHAH SUMMONED BY COURT

Salman Khan and Satish Shah have been summoned by a Jodhpur court to appear before it on January 27, 2001 in connection with the black buck poaching case. Salman had been arrested under various sections of the IPC, Wildlife Act and Arms Act in 1998 for hunting black bucks, but was released on bail. He was allowed permanent bail with a provision that he should appear before the court when summoned.

FIRE AT MEHBOOB STUDIOS

Two shooting floors at Mehboob Studios were gutted in a fire which broke out at 2 a.m. on 20th December. While stages 1 and 2 of the studio perished in the fire, the firemen managed to save the recording room, the make-up rooms and the studio owners’ residence after a three-hour battle to put out the fire. Since the studio was closed at the time, no one was injured.

The sets of Rohan Sippy’s Kuch Na Kaho and Meghna Gulzar’s Filhaal, which were erected on stages 1 and 2 respectively, were reduced to ashes. Reportedly, the cost of the Filhaal set, erected by art director Nitin Desai, was Rs. 32 lakh.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. The studio management does not suspect any foul play.

AMITABH UNVEILS STATUE OF SELF AT TUSSAUD’S

Amitabh Bachchan unveiled his wax statue at Madame Tussaud’s museum, London, on 20th December. Amitabh was immensely impressed with the quality of work of his wax version. He expressed his gratitude to Madame Tussaud and said that it was an honour not only for him but also for the people of India. He described the statue as “an incredible piece of art”.

NAZIM RIZVI’S MAN FRIDAY ARRESTED

Eight days after the arrest of producer Nazim Rizvi (Chori Chori Chupke Chupke), the crime branch of Bombay police arrested his personal assistant and close confidante, Abdul Rahim Khan, in connection with the controversy surrounding the financing of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke. Twenty-five-year-old Khan has been accused of having links with the underworld and has, like Rizvi, been booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime (MCOC) Act.

The crime branch had detained Khan for questioning since the day of Rizvi’s arrest (13th December) and had interrogated him for eight days prior to arresting him on 21st. He was remanded to police custody till 27th December by a metropolitan magistrate.

Meanwhile, the negative of CCCC continues to lie sealed by the police at Adlabs. The police, which had seized the negative under section 20 (2) of the Act, has now issued a notice, as per court’s order, asking any other “bonafide claimant of the negative to approach the court within 15 days”. Bharat Shah, the film’s financier and the negative rights holder, has so far neither staked his claim nor moved court as he had said, he would.

Earlier, on 16th December, the film’s directors, Abbas and Mustan, as also its lead man, Salman Khan, were interrogated in the case. Bharat Shah was questioned on 15th and 16th. He has submitted the source of funding of CCCC to the crime branch.

CINEMA CLOSURE IN MAHARASHTRA CALLED OFF

The one-day protest strike by cinemas of Maharashtra on 20th December was withdrawn on an assurance from the home secretary, government of Maharashtra, to the film industry that the government would take steps against illegal telecast of films on cable TV networks. Accordingly, cinemas all over Maharashtra functioned as usual on 20th.

The strike call was jointly given by the Indian Motion Picture Distributors’ Association (IMPDA), the Cinematograph Exhibitors’ Association of India (CEAI), the Theatre Owners’ Association (TOA) and the Central Circuit Cine Association (CCCA).

‘KAHO NAA…PYAAR HAI’ GOLDEN JUBILEE

Producer-director Rakesh Roshan’s Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai, the box-office wonder of the millennium year, entered 50th combined week at Novelty (matinee), Bombay and other centres of the country on 22nd December.

While Rakesh Roshan surpassed all his previous hits with this film, his brother, music director Rajesh Roshan, gave ample proof of his musical prowess. And what’s more, Rakesh’s son, Hrithik Roshan, was bestowed with instant stardom on its release. Amisha Patel also achieved stardom. The film co-stars Anupam Kher, Farida Jalal, Mohnish Bahl, Dalip Tahhil, Satish Shah, Ashish Vidyarthi, Tanaaz Currim, Vrajesh Hirjee and Johny Lever (in a guest appearance). Honey Irani and Ravi Kapoor’s script, Sagar Sarhadi’s dialogues, Kabir Lal’s cinematography, lyrics (penned by Saawan Kumar, Ibrahim Ashq and Vijay Akela), Tinnu Verma’s action, Farah Khan’s choreography, Sanjay Verma’s editing, and R. Varman’s art direction contributed in no small measure to the film’s super-success.

50-DAY CELEBRATIONS OF ‘MOR CHHAINHA BHUINYA’

The 50 days’ run of the trend-setting Chhattisgarhi film, Mor Chhainha Bhuinya, was celebrated with felicitations at cinemas screening the film.

At Babulal Talkies, Raipur, where the film is running in daily 5 shows, the cinema’s owners, D.K. Jain, M.K. Jain and Kamal Jain, honoured the film’s producer, Shivdayal Jain, writer-director Satish Jain, music director Babla Bagchi, lyricist Lakhman Masturiya and the film’s artistes. Lavanya Tiwari, secretary, Chhattisgarhi Cine Association, also felicitated the film’s writer-director.

The proprietors of Sharda Talkies, Durg, Anil Jadav and Ajay Jadav, also honoured the film-makers and the artistes while the owners of Manohar Talkies, Bilaspur organised a function to celebrate its 50 days. It was attended by Bilaspur mayor Uma Shankar Jaiswal. The film’s distributor, Pooran Entertainments, Bhilai distributed sweets among its staff.

In the meantime, Satyanarayan Sharma, minister for higher education, Chhattisgarh, saw the film on 16th December in Raipur and praised it for highlighting the Chhattisgarhi culture.

PREM PRAKASH, JAIPUR TO BE RENAMED GOLCHA

Surendra Golcha and Abhimanyu Golcha’s Prem Prakash cinema in Jaipur will be renamed The Golcha on the occasion of its golden jubilee.

Amitabh Bachchan will unveil the cinema’s new name at a function at the cinema on 26th December. Yash Chopra will be the guest of honour. The cinema is currently screening Mohabbatein.

NEW CINEMA IN BIJAPUR

Apsara Theatre 70mm, a new cinema in Bijapur, owned by Shravankumar B. Mahindrakar, was inaugurated on 21st December by Rakesh Singh, district magistrate of Bijapur. It has 572 seats. The air-conditioned cinema opened with a Kannada film, Nee Nanna Jeeva.

In accordance with the policy of the Karnataka government, the cinema will enjoy an entertainment tax holiday for the first three years.

NARESH KANODIA CELEBRATES HIS SONS’ WEDDINGS

Actor-producer and music director of Gujarati films, Naresh Kanodia, and his music director brother Mahesh Kanodia hosted a cocktail-dinner party for their friends from the press to celebrate the weddings of the former’s two sons — music director Sooraj and Gujarati film actor Hitu. The party was held on 20th December at Nandkrupa Hall, Andheri, Bombay. Mahesh Kanodia, elder brother of Naresh Kanodia, welcomed the invitees.

Earlier, on 12th December, a reception to celebrate the weddings was held at the Hare Krishna Temple Garden, Juhu. It was a grand affair and was attended by the bigwigs of the Gujarati film industry. Several Gujarat ministers, including Faqir Waghela, Raman Vora, Narayan Patel, Khodbhai Patel, Tulsi Dabhi, Jayanti Barot, Ishwar Makwana and Nalin Bhatt, also attended the reception, Ratilal Varma (MP) and MLA Shailesh Parmar were also present.

Incidentally, the venue of the marriage and reception was Hare Krishna Temple Garden because the grooms had expressed their desires to enter into matrimony in a temple.

CENSOR NEWS

Emaar Films International’s Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (social) was given C.C. No. CIL/2/47/2000 (UA) dt. 18-12-2000; length 4560.20 metres in 18 reels (cuts: 4.64 metres).

Devgans Films’ Raju Chacha (social) was given C.C. No. CIL/1/81/2000 (U) dt. 21-12-2000; length 5096.63 metres in 18 reels (cuts: 27.09 metres).

Shree Shiv Bhakti Films’ Champion (crime) was given C.C. No. CIL/3/130/2000 (A) dt. 18-12-2000; length 4180.08 metres in 16 reels (cuts: 20.37 metres).

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

B4U: Bharatbhai For You

Topmost film financier Bharat Shah’s interrogation by the crime branch of Bombay police in the sensational Chori Chori Chupke Chupke case is all fine, but the negative publicity being given to Shah on a couple of television channels gives the impression that it is now turning into a channel war.

Bharat Shah’s involvement in the B4U channel is too well-known. Zee and Star TV have been rather harsh on Shah in their news bulletins and other shows, feel top industry people. A top producer-director, wishing to remain anonymous, said, “The two channels seem to be capitalising on this case by dragging Bharatbhai’s name into it more than required. The channels seem to have made up their minds that Shah was guilty and had a nexus with the underworld even though the police haven’t drawn any such conclusions.”

More Multiplexes 

The Dainik Jagran group of newspapers, extremely popular in Northern India, is now set to get into the business of multiplexes. One 3-screen cineplex with other entertainment facilities, a huge shopping mall, parking space for 250 cars and the works will be open to the public in Kanpur in May 2001. Shailesh Gupta, the 29-year-old member of the 53-member joint Gupta family of Kanpur, is the man behind the multiplex called Rave. The name ‘Rave’ has been derived from Ravi and Vedant, the sons of Kothari (Gupta’s partner in the multiplex) and Shailesh Gupta respectively. Kanpur is only the beginning; the next city Shailesh is targetting for the multiplex is Lucknow.

A Valentine’s Launch

The debut film of Salman Khan’s younger brother, Sohail Khan, and Sameera Reddy will be a love story. Titled Maine Dil Tujhko Diya, it will — quite appropriately — go before the cameras on Valentine’s Day, 14th February, 2001.

Sohail himself will be directing the film which is produced by him jointly with partner Bunty Walia. Kabir Lal, who shot newcomers Hrithik Roshan and Amisha Patel in 2000’s biggest blockbuster, Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai, will be the cinematographer for this romantic story too.

On being asked if the choice of Valentine’s Day to start shooting was a conscious decision or a coincidence, Bunty Walia said, “It is deliberate. Why? Because the film is a love story and Valentine’s Day epitomises love. Let me also add that we will be releasing the film on Valentine’s Day 2002!”

In the meantime, songs of Maine Dil Tujhko Diya are being recorded currently by Anu Malik’s younger brother, Daboo Malik.

Only Meethi, Nothing Khatti

Rahul Rawail is a happy man even before the release of his Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi. For, Pritish Nandy Communications has entered into a deal with Rahul for all the territories for which his film was till now unsold. PNC has agreed to pick up all those territories at the market price of the film. B.L. Saboo, the first-time partner of Rahul Rawail in KKKM, can’t believe that film production is so easy! For, Saboo and Rawail have got more than their investment back with minimum efforts, thanks to PNC.

Baroda Exhibitors: Championing Their Cause

Baroda exhibitors have formed a syndicate like the one which exists in Surat. The syndicate has decided not to pay crazy prices to distributors for booking their films. Bookers have for quite some time now been doling out unheard of monies to distributors and, in the process, have often burnt their fingers. So it is hardly surprising that sanity should have been restored. The syndicate is now determined not to go by the bookers’ dictates. The first impact of the unity was felt in the release of this week’s Champion. Although a leading booker had committed a fancy price (Rs. 10 lakh) to the film’s distributor for a cinema of Baroda, the concerned cinema refused to honour the commitment. Resultantly, no cinema had been finalised in Baroda for Champion till the eleventh hour. Quite literally so! For, Champion was finalised at Sagar cinema of Baroda at 11 o’clock on the night of Thursday (21st December)! That too, at less than half the earlier price committed by the booker.

SHOWBIZ TODAY

R World:
It’s Our Whole New World!

You enter the long promenade after parking your vehicle and are flabbergasted by the sheer vastness of the multiplex that surrounds you. Are you in Hollywood? While you might just be as close in India as you can get to being in Hollywood, you realise that you are at R World, the multiplex marvel which has recently come up at Adalaj, near Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

As you pass the main entrance and stop to gaze at the high pillars, each displaying a backlit poster of forthcoming films, you may tend to miss out on the tiny neon lights fitted deep into the floor. If each pillar boasts of a backlit poster, the high walls of the cineplex can’t by any lesser, for, on them are mounted backlit close-ups of Hollywood stars in one row and our very own Bollywood stars in another. There’s a huge TV screen, too, in the grandiose foyer, just in case you don’t want to miss Kaun Banega Crorepati or …Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi! While you are still trying to grasp every picture and every bit of the eye-catching illumination, your attention is drawn to the bowling alley — ‘Future Bowl’. Yes, you can try your hand at bowling amidst some soulful music. And mind you, you’ll be provided special shoes for this sport, lest you slip on the smooth wooden floor.

A walk down the lobby takes you to the music shop, appropriately called ‘Listen’. Try out the numbers before buying an album.

Is it your best friend’s birthday tomorrow? Don’t worry, just pick up a card from the ‘Cards & Gifts’ shop.

Kids, too, have ample choice to have a whale of a time — from playing in the park (on the slides, see-saws and what have you) to striking cars (yet to be started) to watching their favourite cartoon films on the ‘Kid Screen’ to relaxing in the thoughtfully-conceptualised ‘Mother’s Room’. And if kids are net-savvy, you just might want to drop them at the Cyber Cafe for a while.

Oh dear, how did I forget the video parlour with its innumerable exciting video games and air hockey boards? What’s that now? Well, I can’t tell you everything: some games are better played and enjoyed than explained. Feeling hungry? Twenty-two, yes, 22, varieties of popcorn await you at ‘Catch 22 Corns’, ‘Popcorn & Nachos’ & ‘Top Corn’. Popcorn is not enough of a meal for you? Want something more filling? Just wait till the gates of ‘Food Hunt’ are opened sometime next month, where among others, Birdy’s by Taj, Just Around The Corner & Dosa Diner will provide their goodies.

And what is a ‘Banquet Hall’ doing here? Yes, you can also have an engagement or birthday party right here! Sounds unbelievable, isn’t it?

But hey! just a minute, you are here to see a film, remember? Yes, you are here to see a film on one of its three screens. So, here’s more about the three cinemas housed in the R World complex.

Each cinema is divided into two classes — Gold and Platinum. Cinema I has 462 seats in the Gold category (stalls), Cinema II has 336, and Cinema III has 337 seats. Each of the three cinemas has 100 seats in the Platinum (balcony) class. The ticket rates vary between Rs. 60 and Rs. 150 depending on the film being shown — Hindi or English. There is a single projection system for all the three screens.

Now we come to the posh push-back seats made of pure leather. Luxury at its very best! You have to sit in the seats to experience the comfort — never before experienced in any cinema in India (Psst! In case the film is boring, you may feel more inclined to just stretch your legs and lie back in the plush seat. Before you can spell S-L-E-E-P, you’ll be fast asleep! No thanks to the boring film, but all thanks to the coziness of the chair.)

Hello, if you think all the leisure activities (video games, bowling alley, go-karting and many more which are still to come) are for free with a film ticket, think again. Whoever said, all good things come for free? Each service comes for a price, whether the parking space for your vehicle or the games you play or the cyber cafe or just about everything except the Kid Screen. Nevertheless, such is the quality of the services that you don’t really feel the pinch in the pocket.

Although, the extravagance of the multiplex must have really pinched the pocket of Ajay Sinh Chudasama. But it is money very well spent! Indeed, anyone who visits the place will be prompted to say, “R World is our world!” Well, actually it is out of this world! You have to see it to believe it!

– Meena Nahta

PRODUCTION NEWS

8-Day Shooting Spell Of Jeetendra’s Film

Director David Dhawan started an 8-day shooting spell of Shri Siddhivinayaka Films’ Prod. No. 1 at Film City and on different locales of Bombay on Dec. 7. All the artistes are participating. Cast: Govinda, Sushmita Sen, Rambha, Anupam Kher, Satish Kaushik, Kiran Kumar, Sharad Kapoor, Ashish Vidyarthi, Shahbaaz Khan, Mohnish Bahl, master Jibran, Razzak Khan, Jaya Bhattacharya and Anant Mahadevan. Story-screenplay-dialogues: Yunus Sejawal and Imtiaz Patel. Music: Anu Malik. Cinematographer: K.S. Prakash Rao. Action: Mahendra Verma. Art: R. Varman. Executive producer: Prakash Pange. Jeetendra presents the film, being produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor.

‘Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega’ Song Picturised

Director E. Niwas and choreographer Ahmed Khan picturised a song on Fardeen Khan, Twinkle Khanna and dancers for Dream Merchants Enterprises’ Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega in and around Goa in a 5-day spell till Dec. 7. The film is being jointly produced by Nitin Manmohan and Ram Gopal Varma. It co-stars Saif Ali Khan, Aftab Shivdasani, Sonali Bendre, T. Bharani, Sudha, Dalip Tahhil and Sharat Saxena. Writer: Rajnish. Music: Vishal Bhardwaj. Lyrics: Abbas Tyrewala. Cinematographer: Venkat Prasad. Art: R. Varman. Sound: Jagmohan Anand.

CD DUPLICATION PLANT RAIDED

On a tip-off by Malhotra Copyright Protection Agency Pvt. Ltd., Bombay, the assistant superintendent of police, Bhiwadi, raided a CD duplication plant in Bhiwadi (near Delhi) on 3rd November. Nearly 40,000 video CDs of Mohabbatein, Mission Kashmir, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai, Beti No. 1 and pornographic films were seized. Offences have been registered under various sections of the Copyright Act and the Indecent Representation of Women’s Act. The other seized objects include raw materials for producing nearly 5 lakh pirated video CDs, totally valued at approximately Rs. 5 crore, including the value of the CD manufacturing plant of the pirates.

Among the accused are owner Balbir Singh and his son, Amit.

ENTERTAINMENT TAX SLASHED BY 40% IN U.P.

The Uttar Pradesh government has, in a decision taken during a cabinet meeting this week, reduced entertainment tax on cinema tickets in the state to 60% from the existing 100%. However, the benefit of the reduced tax will be applicable only to those cinemas which do not hike their admission rates.

At the same meeting, the government allowed exemption from payment of entertainment tax to Beti No. 1 (upto 2nd May, 2001) and U.P. Chalchitra Nigam’s Karm Kasauti (for one year).

DOUBLE WEDDING IN KANODIA FAMILY

Marriages of Sooraj and Hitu, sons of top Gujarati film actor Naresh Kanodia, with Rhea and Rupal respectively, will be solemnised at the Hare Krishna Temple Garden at Juhu, Bombay on 12th December.

DEEP JAIN’S SON TO WED

Marriage of Vikas, son of Deep Jain of Divya Films, Delhi, with Sheenu will be solemnised on 11th December in Delhi.

ANWAR DEAD

Anwar, secretary to Shah Rukh Khan, expired on 6th December in Bombay at Lilavati Hospital. He had been admitted to the hospital two days back and had been battling for life. His condition deteriorated with each passing day and he breathed his last on 6th. He was 33 years old and is survived by his wife and a son.

Anwar had reported serious a few months back too, but recovered then.

A condolence meeting will be held today (9th) from 4 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. at 11, G/1, Venus Apartments, Nav Kiran Marg, opposite Good Shepherd Church, Four Bungalows, Andheri (W), Bombay. Quran Khani will be held on 17th December at Al Mecca, A-22/301, Millat Nagar, Andheri (W) between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

YOU ASKED IT

The censors (CBFC) categorise films as social, crime, thriller, historical, devotional, mythological and so on. What purpose does it serve?

– The censors don’t categorise a film, the producers do so when applying for censorship. This helps the censors to examine a film in accordance with the category as specified by the producer.

Is it practical to buy filming rights of a popular television serial?

– The concept works in Hollywood. Nobody has tried it in India so far.

With growing incidence of religious heads taking objections to certain scenes, don’t you think, the CBFC should have religious heads, too, on its panel?

– Not a good suggestion, this! But, definitely a good joke!!

In Protest Against Government’s Apathy

NO SHOW ON 20TH DECEMBER
(EXCEPT ON CABLE TV)

Cinemas all over Maharashtra will down shutters for a day on 20th December to protest against the inaction of the law-enforcing authorities to check illegal telecast of films through cable television networks. The call for the strike has been given jointly by the Indian Motion Picture Distributors’ Association (IMPDA), the Cinematograph Exhibitors’ Association of India (CEAI), the Theatre Owners’ Association (TOA) and the Central Circuit Cine Association (CCCA). The Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act, 1994 was amended recently by the government, making it compulsory for cable TV operators to obtain rights from the copyright owners for telecast.

The then Union I & B minister, Arun Jaitley, while addressing a filmland gathering mostly comprising producers and distributors, on 16th September at Sahyadri guest house in Bombay, had said that cable TV operators had shown eagerness to go by the law. He had also said that stringent action would be taken against erring cable operators.

The film industry was filled with hopes that the days of cable piracy were over. But that turned out to be just wishful thinking and a Utopian dream.

Information had then warned, through its editorial (in the issue dated 23rd September) that the minister’s promises were empty even as industry people behaved as though they had won a lottery of Rs. 100 crore. We reproduce alongside the same editorial (in box) for your reference.

Even now, we doubt whether this one-day strike will achieve anything. Will it gear up the law-enforcing authorities enough to initiate strong action against the erring cable operators who think law is an ass in this country?

Despite assurances from Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, joint police commissioner of Bombay, D. Sivanandan, and Arun Jaitley, cable operators merrily carry on with their illegal shows with the police turning a blind eye. When will the industry folk learn to see through the sugar-sweet talks of the ministers?

At a press conference held on 8th December at Garware Club, Bombay, IMPDA president N.N. Sippy, CEAI president Gunvantrai Desai, TOA secretary R.V. Vidhani and CCCA president Santosh Singh Jain presented an alarming picture of the cinema exhibition trade. Rampant cable piracy had been on the rise due to which cinemas were losing patronage, they said. Many cinemas had been closed and hundreds of cinemas on an all-India level were on the verge of closure, they added. Due to dwindling attendance of cinegoers, big cinemas were giving way to mini cinemas in commercial buildings and arcades, they said.

R.V. Vidhani, secretary, TOA pointed out, “The hike in property tax, water charges, power tariff, show tax and advertisement tax every year has subjected the exhibition sector to heavy expenditure. Despite our representations, the government has not done anything to help the cinema industry survive. The property tax alone has been hiked by a whopping 80% in the last two years!”

CCCA president Santosh Singh Jain warned, “The government will incur a loss of Rs. one crore per day if the cinemas in the state remain closed.”

An exhibitor of Thane revealed, “When we go to lodge a complaint at the police station and ask them to raid the cable operator showing the latest films in contravention of the amended copyright laws, the police officials simply dole out the standard excuse, ‘We do not have enough manpower to carry out a raid’.”

IMPDA president N.N. Sippy resented the state government’s apathy towards cable operators’ misdemeanours. He said, “Cable piracy is almost nil in the Southern states as the state governments there are vigorously implementing the amended copyright rules.”

The Associations have jointly issued a memorandum to Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, notifying the government of the one-day protest strike. The memorandum has also stated that if the government failed to take deterrent action against cable TV operators violating the Copyright Act, all the cinemas would be forced to down their shutters for good.

PIL AGAINST GOVERNMENT?

Filing of a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court against the Maharashtra government’s apathy in the matter of cable piracy was mooted at the press conference called by the Associations on 8th December. The PIL will charge the state government of failure to implement the amended Copyright Act, due to which cinemas were being forced to close down. The idea of filing the PIL appealed to the various leaders of the Associations. A final decision to file the PIL will be taken after consultations with the producers’ Associations in Bombay and legal opinion.

Will the PIL prove a bitter but effective pill to stir the government into action? Depends on how the PIL is presented in the high court.

Reproduced from our issue dated 23rd September, 2000:

High Hopes!

While the interactive meeting between ministers and the film industry, held on 16th September at the government guest house in Bombay, was a good move, it seems very unlikely that anything fruitful is going to emerge out of either this meeting or the recent amendments made to the Cable Network Regulation Rules, 1994.

Under the amended law, cable TV operators cannot telecast any film on their network unauthorisedly. Otherwise, they are liable to be punished, the minimum punishment being imprisonment upto 2 years.

But right on the day the meeting was held in Bombay, cable TV operators in the city were screening new films, perhaps, unaware of the new law. And so was the scene all over the country.

Union I & B minister Arun Jaitley informed at the said interactive meeting that the cable operators had shown eagerness to go by the law. Nobody expected cable operators to say that they would not go by the law. Then, why assume that they will do what they promise? Jaitley also informed that cable operators had confessed that they used to telecast films illegally because of competition between cable operators and subscribers’ demands. The very act of confession is a slap on the government’s face. No reason can ever be good enough for an illegal act. So the confession should not be lauded; rather, the subject-matter of the confession (act of piracy) should have been punished long back. But we Indians have got a way to make martyrs out of thieves also!

D. Sivanandan, the joint commissioner of police of Bombay, at the same meeting, asked the film industry to set up a monitoring agency for tracking down erring cable operators. Thank you! Now the industry will do what the police should be doing. Sivanandan also assured that immediate action would be taken against the culprits. Come on, haven’t we heard that one umpteen times earlier? And how immediate is ‘immediate’? Six days have elapsed since Sivanandan’s assurance but no cable operator has even been threatened, leave alone action being taken. Is the police unaware of the new films being openly telecast by cable operators all over?

But then, does the industry have a choice? We just don’t sell dreams. We also see dreams — beautiful dreams — and assume that some day, they will wipe out all our nightmares. Didn’t someone say, this industry survives on HOPE? 

Hopeless!

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

In Search Of Majnu

Hollywood revived the legendary love story of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio enacting Romeo. ‘If they can modernise a legendary love story on a lavish scale, why can’t we revive our Laila Majnu?’, he asked himself. That’s how B. Subhash has announced Laila Majnu – The Revival. The film’s story and screenplay have been worked out by B. Subhash’s young daughter, Malvika, and the dialogues have been written by Hasan Kamaal. B. Subhash is now on the lookout for a young handsome man to enact the character of the love-smitten Majnu. “I want a Majnu who would be called Majnu of this millennium,” says B. Subhash. Any bidders?

First Impression, The Only Impression

One wonders why a talented actor like Manoj Bajpai is bent upon proving himself to be hero material. He tried it in Shool, then in Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar and yet again in Ghaath. He has proved pretty much unsuccessful all the three times, thereby completing a hattrick! With every flop that he delivers in the hero’s role, he is only eroding the goodwill he created with Satya. Even today, if people remember him as Bhiku Mhatre (the name of his character in Satya), it should be enough indication to him of how people want to see him in films of tomorrow. Yet, Manoj seems to be running after hero roles. The fear here is that a talented actor like him is wasting his talent in trying to prove a point, which may ultimately do his career more harm than good. That would be really bad!

With admission rates being so high, the audience, obviously, wants to see saleable stars, to get their money’s worth. Manoj Bajpai certainly doesn’t appeal to them as a hero even if he is a reservoir of talent. It would be better for Manoj to shine in films like Satya than to sink in insipid fares like Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar.

As for Ghaath, the earlier Bombay distributor relinquished the distribution rights in the film for obvious reasons. As late as 20 hours before the first show started on Friday, it seemed uncertain whether the film will or will not open in Gujarat and Saurashtra because the deliveries weren’t effected. Ultimately, Inder Raj Kapoor intervened and used his good offices to get the deliveries effected.

Over-Busy Or Over-Cautious?

Rakesh Roshan seems to be taking the title of his film, Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai, a bit too seriously. For, while openly declaring the pyaar between Hrithik and girlfriend Suzanne Khan, Rakesh Roshan is simply not announcing the wedding date. Even as media reports hazard guesses on the date of the marriage, papa Roshan is tight-lipped. Will the wedding be held in Bangalore on 20th December? Will the pheras take place in Bangalore? Will the nation’s heartthrob honeymoon with his wife in a faraway foreign land? Ask Rakesh Roshan and he replies, “I will take a decision about the wedding date next week. Hrithik is busy with his shooting and has no free date for the wedding and the honeymoon.” Obviously, the date is being kept a closely-guarded secret because the wedding itself will be a very, very select affair. Whatever the marriage plans, Rakesh, enough of pyaar hai now…. Kaho naa…shaadi (kab) hai?

Dream Merchant

I dreamt last night after a very long time. I dreamt that I was the lucky one to occupy the hot seat in the popular Kaun Banega Crorepati show on Star TV. But I presume, since I had just recently seen Mohabbatein, I saw Amitabh Bachchan as a mix of the TV show host and the Shankar Narayan of Aditya Chopra’s film.

The KBC set was full of scantily-clad girls straight out of the Mohabbatein set. “Oh my God,” I thought to myself, “kaun banega inka pati!”

I having won the faster-finger-first round, Amitabh was ready to fire questions at me. Luckily for me, as I found later, all the questions related to films. I could expect Amitabh to be at least that partial to me.

The first question:

Why is Salman Khan shirtless in all his current films?

The options:-
A. He has no dress designer.
B. He can’t afford clothes.
C. He feels very hot.
D. None of the above.
I chose the D option.

Amitabh congratulated me and declared that I had won Rs. 1,000. “Do you know the real reason?”, he queried. Nodding, I replied, “Yes, Salman is shirtless because he has been betting his last shirt on every new release of his — and losing!” “Excellent,” screamed Amitabh. “Bahut achchhe.”

The second poser was more trade-oriented.

Which of Govinda’s following films is a flop?

A. Shikari.
B. Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai.
C. Beti No. 1.
D. All of the above.

“Shikari,” I mumbled. “Sure?”, asked Amitabh. “You have 3 lifelines at your service,” he added and went on to explain each one of them. “Beti No. 1,” I hazarded another guess. “Lock kar diya jaaye?”, asked Bachchan. I was not sure. Looking at my shaky confidence, Amitabh once again reminded me of the life-lines. I opted for phone-a-friend.

“Aapke dost ka naam kya hai?,” he asked. Very nervous, I said, “Govinda.” I was nervous because I didn’t actually know whether Govinda is a friend or a foe. Amitabh interrupted into my nervousness and exclaimed, “Oh, hero Govinda? Kahan rehten hain woh (pause) aaj kal?” A trifle embarrassed, I replied, “He lives here in Bombay and he is still doing films; only thing, since his films aren’t doing well, people don’t quite remember his whereabouts.” Anyway, Govinda my friend, the perpetual late-comer, was late to come on the telephone line too. “Kaise ho, chhote miyan? Main Amitabh Bachchan bol raha hoon, Kaun Banega Crorepati se,” announced Bachchan. “Oh, bade miyan,” shot back Govinda. I nervously asked Govinda which of his films was/were flop(s) and, after giving him the options, waited for his reply as the clock ticked away. “Shikari, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai and Beti No. 1 are all super-hits,” replied Govinda and continued, “The correct answer should be ‘None of the above’.” I told him, “This option does not exist.” This infuriated the dancing hero so much that he screamed back, “This KBC show is a flop, not my films. You leave that set and come to Sony TV’s studio to participate in Jeeto Chappad Phaad Ke.” The gong sounded loud. 30 seconds were up. Amitabh looked at me mischievously. “Afsos, aapke mitra aapki madad nahin kar sakey!” I interrupted him and said, I’d go for the D option.

“Bilkul sahi,” Amitabh yelled. “All the three films of Govinda are flops. Very, very creditable that you could answer such a tough question because several magazines have been writing that Shikari and the other two Govinda starrers are hits. Congratulations, aap do hazaar rupaye jeet gaye.”

It’s time for the third question:

Why is Aishwarya Rai considered the No. 1 actress of India?

A. Because of her talent.
B. By default.
C. Because Kajol got married.
D. Because of her beauty.

“Because Kajol got married,” I announced and almost immediately thereafter, requested for another chance as I wanted to change my reply. “Option B,” I announced. It was again a thunderous applause as I won Rs. 3,000. There was a commercial break before which Amitabh announced, “TV set chhodkar kahin mat jaayiye, please. Unless, aap Mohabbatein dekhne ja rahe ho — toh jaayiye.”

The fourth question for Rs. 5,000 was slightly tougher. Announced Bachchan:

What is the title of Feroz Khan’s new film starring Fardeen Khan?

Options:
A. Tera Saath Hai Kitna Pyara.
B. Tera Haath Hai Kitna Pyara.
C. Tera Baat Hai Kitna Pyara.
D. Tera Laat Hai Kitna Pyara.

Although I wasn’t at all sure of the correct answer, I hit a shot in the dark and chose the A option. This, even though I wasn’t sure whether, after Prem Aggan, either of Feroz Khan or Fardeen Khan could tell the other ‘Tera saath hai kitna pyara’.

“You’ve won Rs. 5,000. How did you guess it?, Amitabh wanted to know. I refused to answer that one and only smiled. Amitabh, too, smiled and fired the fifth question.

Despite being talented, why is Mahima not sought-after?

A. She is unprofessional.
B. She is very expensive.
C. Her mother interferes too much.
D. She is very choosy.

Even before one could say ‘Mahima’, I opted for the C answer. Amitabh was flabbergasted. “Oh, oh, this is incredible, how did you know this?”, he thundered. I replied sheepishly, “It’s simple — it had to be something to do with Mahima’s mother — her name says it all — Ma hi Ma.”

Time for question 6 for 20,000/-.

Why are the cinemas in Maharashtra downing shutters on 20th December?

A. To protest against high entertainment tax.
B. Because, as it is, there is no audience in cinemas.
C. To let cinema employees celebrate iftaar.
D. To protest against cable piracy.

I was nervous this time and started biting my nails. Sensing my nervousness, Amitabh reminded me of the two life-lines that were still available to me. So I opted for 50:50. The computer deleted two options viz. A and D. I was, therefore, left with B and C options. I chose B and declared, “Because, as it is, there is no audience in cinemas.”

“Sure?”, queried Bachchan. “Confident?”, he asked. I nodded in the affirmative to which the counter-questioned, “Lock kar diya jaaye?” “Yes,” I replied. Claps again. I’d won Rs. 20,000.

The seventh question for Rs. 40,000 came up almost instantly.

Why was MOHABBATEIN made as an unusually lengthy film?

A. It had no editor.
B. It had too many characters.
C. Aditya Chopra wanted it to have length and strength.
D. For no real reason.

This was the toughest question. Rather than risk getting out, I cut it short by using my last life-line — the audience poll. There was just no confusion for me because 100% audience — yes, cent per cent — voted for option D. That is to say, ‘for no real reason’. I told Bachchan, I would go with the audience. I saw Amitabh feeling a little uncomfortable, maybe, because he was a part and parcel of the oh-so-lengthy Mohabbatein. But the great actor that he was, he didn’t let his discomfort show. He asked the computer to lock D. That indeed was the right answer. I had won Rs. 40,000.

Amitabh congratulated me again but not very wholeheartedly. One more break later, he was ready with the next question for Rs. 80,000.

In the recent income-tax raid on Anu Malik’s house, what did the I-T people lay their hands on?

A. Rs. 10 crore.
B. Incriminating documents.
C. Swiss Bank account numbers.
D. Foreign CDs.

I promptly opted for D. “Foreign CDs,” I declared confidently as if I myself was declaring my assets to the I-T sleuths.

Amitabh Bachchan tried to puzzle me by maintaining a grim silence for about 20 seconds. I got a bit jittery, but I did not budge — much like Shankar Narayan of Mohabbatein who doesn’t ever budge from his stand. Then, all of a sudden, Amitabh’s face lit up as he screamed, “Absolutely correct. Fantastic. Mubarak. Bahut bahut abhinandan. Kya aap I-T mein kaam karte hain?”

I would’ve loved to skip the explanation, but Bachchan wouldn’t let it go. “How did you guess it, please let us know,” he pleaded. I replied, “It had to be foreign CDs — because the quality of Anu’s music has gone up greatly in recent times!”

I was reaching my second padau (barrier) and Bachchan fired the next question for Rs. 1,60,000.

Ram Gopal Varma likes to make films with heroines who are:

A. Very talented.
B. Extremely beautiful.
C. Reasonable in their price.
D. Least busy.

I tried to jot down the names of all the heroines Ramu had been working with in recent years, but my list was just not progressing. Then, I realised that there was no question of a list. Ram Gopal had been working with Urmila and only Urmila Matondkar. My choice of the correct answer became easy. “D,” I declared. Amitabh complimented me for my super-intelligence and asked me if he could ask me the next query for Rs. 3,20,000…..

…..My dream took a fast-forward. Yes, I had won a crore of rupees! “Fantastic, extraordinary, badhai ho, badhai ho, you are the second contestant to win Rs. 1 crore or our show,” Amitabh went on and on. I was beside myself with joy. Before I knew it, I had tears (of joy) rolling down my cheeks.

“Ek karod, aapke jeevan mein kya maayne rakhte hain?“, Amitabh asked me, waiting for a reply.

“Bahut,” I cried, “bahut, bahut.”

“What will you do with the crore?”

“It will help me turn a producer,” I replied, still crying.

“Oh really? What film do you plan to producer?”

I had all the courage backed by the crore and I replied — still crying, “I want to produce a film with Hrithik Roshan, Shah Rukh Khan and yourself, Amitabh Bachchan. I’ve decided to call it Hamesha Khushi Never Gham because after I’ve produced this film, I’ll roll in crores. My satellite rights will sell for 15 crore, my music for 10 crore, my Overseas for 15 crore, my Bombay territory for 3 crore…. oh, oh, I can’t wait!”

Amitabh was bewildered. “What?,” he asked, “you will sign three superstars with 1 crore? Sorry dear, if you want to sign us all, you will have to participate in Sawaal Dus Crore Ka. You need at least 10 crore to make Khushi Forever Gham Never or whatever your film is called.”

I woke up with a terrible start! I was still crying.

– Komal Nahta

GAJA GAMINI

Dashaka Films Pvt. Ltd.’s Gaja Gamini portrays the journey of a woman called Gaja Gamini — who is suspended in time and space, along with a spectrum of characters taken from art, history, music and poetry.

Gaja Gamini is born from a wall and manifests herself into four different characters — Sangeeta, Shakuntal, Monica and Mona Lisa. All the four characters voice the aesthetics of feminine beauty. Sangeeta, the blind singer, meets four other characters culled from history and fiction. Alongwith these women, she sets out to consolidate the power of womankind in a man’s world.

Shakuntal is yet another symbolic figure, conceived by Kalidas. She yearns for her lover like Shakuntala did for Dushyant. Kalidas is himself a metaphor of illusion. Monica is the woman of the 20th century. She is also in search of existential love, surrounded by a sea of knowledge. Mona Lisa is reincarnated in the form of Madhuri.

All the characters in the film are symbolic and metaphorical. They transcend the barriers of time and so one sees Da Vinci sitting on the ghaats of Banaras and painting the elusive Gaja Gamini. One also sees Kalidas with a cycle, and Kamdev descending on earth to woo her. The entire film oscillates between illusion and reality. Everything is so abstract that viewing the film becomes a painful and terribly tedious exercise.

The film is targeted at the intellectuals. The use of numerous innuendos and metaphors are beyond a common viewer’s comprehension. It would only appeal to people with great poetic inclination or with an artistic bent of mind. The film, punctuated with colours and music, has, obviously, food for thought for the very erudite tribe only. Though it has a message, it is not conveyed in a straightforward manner. Use of poetic language and words make it more difficult to understand the meaning instantly.

Madhuri Dixit, as Gaja Gamini, is grace personified. She is at ease in her performance. As always, she acts ably, dances magnificently and sails smoothly through her role. Shabana Azmi, as Nirmala and later as Lady Malika Bill Grate (chairperson of the Planning Commission), acts convincingly. But her potential has not been exploited to the fullest. Mohan Agashe, Ashish Vidyarthi, Farida Jalal and Shilpa Shirodkar support ably. Inder Kumar, as Kamdev, is not convincing. Naseeruddin Shah is wasted as Leonardo Da Vinci. Raeesa Husain is so-so in her debut performance as Phulwania. Shah Rukh Khan, as himself, plays his part well and enlivens the screen with a spontaneous performance in his characteristic style.

M.F. Husain’s direction couldn’t have been more absurd. Technical aspects are okay. Dialogues are too stagy. Music is very classical-based and so does not appeal at all. Choreography (Saroj Khan and Jojo Khan) is praiseworthy. Camerawork is okay and production values are just about average.

On the whole, Gaja Gamini stands zero chances at the ticket-windows because of its abstract content and dull form. A waste of raw stock, time and money, it will prove to be the disaster of the decade.

Released on 1-12-2000 at Eros (matinee) and 1 more cinema of Bombay thru Yashraj Film Distributors. Publicity: dull. Opening: good.

‘KASHMIR’ TAX-FREE IN MAHARASHTRA

Mission Kashmir has been granted exemption from payment of entertainment tax in Maharashtra for one year with effect from 25th November. The film is also tax-free in Delhi.

‘HAMARA DIL AAPKE PAAS HAI’ 100 DAYS

Boney Kapoor’s Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai completes 100 days of its run today (Dec. 2) at Dreamland (matinee), Bombay and in other centres of India. Produced by Surinder Kapoor and directed by Satish Kaushik, the film stars Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Sonali Bendre, Anupam Kher, Anang Desai, Johny Lever, Himani Shivpuri and Jaspal Bhatti. Lyrics: Javed Akhtar. Music: Sanjeev Darshan.

RAVI ELECTED CMDA PRESIDENT

Ravi was elected president of the Cine Music Directors’ Association (CMDA) at its annual general meeting on 5th November in Bombay. Ravindra Jain and Khayyam were elected vice presidents, and Raj Sonik, general secretary. S. Madan and Alok Ganguly were elected joint secretaries, and O.P. Sonik, treasurer. The other committee members elected are J.P. Kaushik, Surinder Kohli, Tapan Bhattacharya, Dilip Dutta, Shantanu Kumar, Milind Chitnavis and Dutta Koli.

A two-minute silence was observed in the meeting in memory of Kalyanji Shah (of Kalyanji Anandji) and Kishan Sandhu.

Music director Vishal Bhardwaj was felicitated for winning awards for Godmother.

TROUBLE BREWING IN IMPPA

Trouble seems to be brewing in the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association (IMPPA) once again. The problem arose over the appointment of an additional member, Thakur Tapssvi, to the executive committee soon after the new committee took charge in September. B.S. Shaad, an elected committee member, took objection to Tapssvi’s appointment. Besides him, a few other producers have objected to the appointment on technical grounds. Resultantly, the appointment of additional members, loosely referred to as co-option, will now become the subject matter of legal opinion.

Shaad, in the meantime, has decided to resign from the executive committee if Thakur Tapssvi’s co-option goes through. He has already resigned from the membership and convenorship of various sub-committees of the IMPPA.

While Article 28 of the Articles of Association of the Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association provides for appointment of additional members in special cases only, Article 29 provides for co-option for special purposes only.

Shaad and the others objecting to the appointment of Tapssvi under Article 28 allege that there was no special case for which he was appointed. They further allege that Thakur Tapssvi’s is a back-door entry for the ensuing tug-of-war when IMPPA president Shakti Samanta will vacate his chair after he attains the age of 75. It is believed that at least one member, eyeing the president’s chair, is keen that Tapssvi is taken as additional member because additional members appointed under Article 28 have voting rights. Besides Tapssvi, the other producer who has been appointed under Article 28 is Mushirbhai.

In the meantime, Vinod Verma, a member of the IMPPA, has written to it to declare all appointments and co-options under Articles 28 (two appointments) and 29 (four co-options) null and void as there was neither any special case before the executive committee nor any special purpose which would warrant the appointment/co-option.

ADLABS’ IPO OF RS. 52.80 CRORE TO OPEN ON 11TH DECEMBER

Bombay-based Adlabs Films Ltd., one of India’s leading film processing laboratories, will soon enter the capital market with an initial public offering of 44 lakh equity shares at Rs. 120 per share aggregating Rs. 52.80 crore. The issue will open on 11th December and close on 16th December. The IPO is being made to facilitate the completion of a 4-cinema multiplex in Bombay, which will also house the IMAX dome theatre, and to upgrade and modernise the existing processing capacity of Adlabs.

Adlabs has an agreement with IMAX Corporation, Canada to bring the IMAX experience to India through a 520-seater state-of-the-art theatre which is under construction at Wadala, Bombay.

At a press conference held on 28th November at The Taj, Bombay, Manmohan Shetty, chairman and managing director of Adlabs Films Ltd., said that the IMAX theatre will be thrown open to the public in April 2001 while the four multiplex cinemas with a total of 1,225 seats will be inaugurated in January 2001.

Talking about the expansion plans, the Adlabs chief said that the lab, founded by him and Vasanji Mamania in 1978, has been regularly adding technologically advanced facilities. The lab created a record this year when it took out in one week a total of a thousand prints for Yash Chopra’s Mohabbatein and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Mission Kashmir. This year, Adlabs has processed a record 1,40,000 film rolls! Adlabs, today, commands a 60 to 70% market share in film processing in Western India.

SBI Capital Markets Limited are the lead managers to the public issue.

YOU ASKED IT

There are some anti-piracy organisations which help the police in detecting illegal screenings and piracy of films. Are those organisations authorised by the police?

– No, they are appointed by the producers. They are not entitled to make arrests but they can ask the police to conduct raids. 

What should be the right price for the satellite (which is a growing market) and Overseas rights for a star-cast film like, say, Mohabbatein?

– The combined price for satellite and Overseas rights for a set-up like MOHABBATEIN could be Rs. 15 to 20 crore!

Box-office collections in which centres of Maharashtra are particularly affected in the Ramzan period?

– The centres affected are the predominantly Muslim areas of Bombay, Bhiwandi (where 6 and 9 p.m. shows are often abandoned), Pune, Solapur, Malegaon, Islampur, Ichalkaranji etc. The same goes for Muslim-inhabited areas in other circuits. 

ANNOUNCMENT AND LAUNCHING

Ajay Devgan, Amisha Starrer To Roll

Bahry Films’ Parwana will go on the floors on Dec. 8 at Natraj Studios with a 10-day stint. The film is being produced and directed by Deepak Bahry and stars Ajay Devgan, Amisha Patel, Gulshan Grover, Paresh Rawal, Sayaji Shinde, Kader Khan and Danny Denzongpa. Story-screenplay: Rajiv Kaul and Praful Parekh. Dialogues: Tanvir Khan. Cinematographer: Damodar Naidu. Music: Sanjeev Darshan. Lyrics: Sameer. Sound: Chhotu Bhai. Action: Veeru Devgan. Editor: Naseer Khan.

T.P. Agarwal Announces Three Films

Producer T.P. Agarwal has announced Star Entertainments Pvt. Ltd.’s Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, to be directed by Osho Raja (formerly Ashok Tyagi), Aur Phir Ek Din, to be directed by Akashdeep, and a Hindi-Tamil bilingual, yet untitled, to be directed by K.S. Atheyaman. The cast and other credits of all the three films are yet to be finalised.

T.P. Agarwal’s Titliyaan, a tele-serial directed by Dayal Nihalani, has completed 31 episodes on Sahara TV. It is telecast every Wednesday at 8 p.m. A cocktail-dinner party was hosted on 26th November to celebrate the success of the serial. Another sitcom of Agarwal, Uff! Yeh Ladkiyaan, being directed and cinematographed by Nadeem Khan and starring Chunkey Panday in the male lead, will be telecast shortly.

Sooraj Barjatya To Direct Hrithik, Kareena, Abhishek

Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor will play the lead pair, and Abhishek Bachchan will make a friendly appearance in Rajshri Productions P. Ltd.’s Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon. It will be directed by Sooraj R. Barjatya who has himself written the story, screenplay and dialogues. Anu Malik has been signed to provide music. Other cast and credits are being finalised. The film will be launched next year.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Jivandas Mohta (Venkatesh Films, Calcutta) has produced a Bengali film, SASURBADI ZINDABAD, which has become a runaway hit. Released before Diwali this year, it is expected to do a business of over 3.5 crore!

* R.B. Choudhary, the well-known Tamil and Telugu film producer, is known for launching new talents in every venture of his. But he has tried a different kind of launching with his PAPPA, a Tamil film. Venkatesh, the top lead man of Telugu films, and Kodi Ramakrishna, the veteran director of Telugu films, will make their debuts in a Tamil venture of R.B. Choudhary. This film is a ‘straight’ (which means, it is not a remake).

* Preeti Jhangiani, one of the young leading ladies of MOHABBATEIN, who was earlier introduced by Rajshri Music in its music video album, YEH HAI PREM, proved herself to be pretty generous when she handed over a cheque for Rs. 1,00,001/- to her secretary, Akash, on his birthday recently. Perhaps, that was Preeti’s way of expressing her thanks to her secretary due to whose efforts she has bagged films opposite Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Fardeen Khan and Sunil Shetty.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Self-Styled Censors

The Pandits of Varanasi seem to be an extra-sensitive lot. Some months back, they hounded out Deepa Mehta from Varanasi even before she could start shooting for her Water. The protesting pandits have now trained their guns on Amitabh Bachchan who, they say, has gone against Hindu tradition by reciting the Gayatri mantra in Mohabbatein with his shoes on. Amitabh lost no time in clarifying that enough care was taken by him to remove his shoes during the filming of the scene which showed him reciting the Gayatri mantra. Even while dubbing for the scene, he had removed his shoes, he said while refuting the charges of the pandits. But that cut no ice with the holier-than-thou pandits. They stormed into Taksal cinema earlier this week and forcibly got the scenes showing Amitabh Bachchan reciting the Gayatri mantra cut. The fundamentalists have also sent a letter to I & B minister Sushma Swaraj, asking her to get the relevant scenes deleted from the film. On the other hand, the Film Producers’ Guild of India has also dashed off a letter to the minister, registering its protest against “the extra-constitutional authorities who barge into cinemas and, with their muscle power, force the cinemas to delete scenes according to their whims… Can we allow hoodlums to hold the world’s largest film industry to ransom?” The Guild has asked the minister to take up the matter of Mohabbatein with the government of Uttar Pradesh.

Like Yash Chopra, so also Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The latter has been asked by the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) to tender an apology for projecting the entire Sikh community as cowards in his Mission Kashmir. What has upset the SGPC is an innocuous scene in the film, which showed Sanjay Dutt asking a junior Sikh police officer to take a plunge into the Dal Lake very carefully lest the bomb planted there explodes before he does so. The Sikh officer gets so jittery that he wets his pants. The SGPC has asked Vidhu Vinod Chopra to delete the “objectionable” scene immediately from the film as, according to them, it showed Sikhs as cowards. It has asked the producer-director to express his regrets to the Sikh community.

Surprisingly, the Film Producers’ Guild of India has not made any mention of the Sikhs’ undue demand to cut the scene in Mission Kashmir. Is it because Vinod Chopra is not a member of the executive committee of the Guild?

Khushi In Boney-Sri’s Lives

Boney Kapoor and Sridevi’s second child now has a name. She is called Khushi Kapoor. Born on 5th November at Breach Candy Hospital, Bombay, the girl was christened Khushi on 26th November at Boney’s home. The christening ceremony was followed by lunch and it was attended by Boney’s parents, Anil Kapoor’s wife (Anil was out of station), Ashok Thakeria, Nizam distributor Ravi Machhar and a few other friends of Boney.

Boney and Sri’s first daughter is called Janhvi which was Urmila Matondkar’s name in Boney’s Judaai. Khushi is Sonali Bendre’s name in Boney Kapoor’s Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai. Both, Urmila and Sonali, played the second female leads in the respective films.

Kajol’s ‘Friendly Appearance’

It was a party to celebrate an audio release, but with a difference — no audio was formally released. One is talking about the party of Devgan Entertainment & Software Ltd.’s Raju Chacha at Hotel Sun-N-Sand at Juhu, Bombay on 25th November. Generally, at audio release functions of Hindi films, the cassettes and CDs are formally released by a guest of honour chosen by the producer. No such thing took place at the Raju Chacha party… Ajay Devgan, who usually is a mild-mannered person, got agitated with the media people (journalists and TV crews) who rushed to the stage to capture the moment when the lead artistes of the film took their places. To his credit though, he almost immediately regained composure and was his usual polite self within minutes.

Rishi Kapoor, who returns as an actor in the role of a business tycoon in the film, threatened to arrive at the party any moment. The emcee repeatedly announced that the teen idol of yesteryears would arrive at 11 p.m. There was no sign of him till almost after midnight. He probably made it after the guests had left!

The biggest surprise of the party, however, was Kajol’s ‘cameo appearance’. Kajol’s leaving the party within minutes of her arrival raised quite a few eyebrows, especially considering that Raju Chacha is hubby Ajay’s home production in which she plays the female lead. Irrespective of what guests might think of it, Kajol left the party with mom Tanuja and dad Shomu Mukerji.

Raju Chacha will have its world premiere on December 28 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Los Angeles (USA). This will be the first ever Bollywood film to have its world premiere in Hollywood.

SHOOTING COVERAGE

KABHI KHUSHI… ALWAYS FUN!

“Uncle, yes, it was alright,” whispers the director after shouting “Cut”. The shot has been okayed after a couple of takes. Amitabh Bachchan is the uncle, and Karan Johar is the director. There’s “aunty” Jaya Bachchan, too, in the shot that has been canned sans a dialogue. The film being shot is producer Yash Johar’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.

Yes, Karan refers to the Bachchans as “uncle” and “aunty”. The guy has known them as his father and mother’s close friends ever since he was a kid. “I can’t call him Amit-ji, please!” Old habits die hard, we guess!

The two Bachchans have their backs to the camera as they pray to Lord Rama on Diwali day. Their house is lit up, enough to indicate that it is a joyous occasion but also a bit subdued to indicate that there’s something amiss.

The unhappy part of the happy Diwali festival is that Shah Rukh Khan, the older son of the Bachchans, is not a part of the festive celebrations. Younger son Hrithik Roshan, however, imagines Shah Rukh to be around and his face lights up, but only for a split second. Tears well up in his eyes as he realises that his elder brother is not around. This is the next shot that is being canned.

Explains Karan, “This is the interval point in the film.” The title song is playing in the background as Hrithik gives his dramatic shot necessitating several emotions to be seen on his face one after the other and all in barely 30 seconds. Sometimes, it is Hrithik who asks for another take; on a couple of occasions, it is Karan; and if not the two of them, it is cameraman Kiran Deohans who wants a retake. The final take is so wonderful, it brings tears to our eyes too! So, when the film is released, one can expect the intermission to be a tearful one!

That is the gham. But just before the gham shot, there is khushi of a unique kind on the set. Amitabh Bachchan presents a box of laddoos to the cameraman, bowing in front of him. Kiran, a trifle embarrassed, accepts the box. We hastily get up to compliment Amitabh on becoming a grandpa for the second time (daughter Shweta delivered a baby boy on 23rd November), but the actor beams, “Nahin, uski mithai toh do dinon pehle baant di thi.” And then he goes on to explain the reason for his presenting laddoos to Deohans. “Kiran never okays my shot in the first take — never! So I promised him a box of laddoos the day he would okay even one shot of mine in the first take. It happened today, a little while ago, and I, therefore, am thanking him with a box of laddoos! Wow! There are laddoos for everyone on the set as Bachchan has arranged not just for one but several boxes. Bachchan has another ‘complaint’ too. This is revealed by Karan Johar. “Amit uncle tells me that I never praise him on the sets like I do when Shah Rukh or Hrithik give a wonderful shot. But what do I tell him, he is always so good. How does one compliment such a legendary actor?”

Having himself won compliments galore for his debut film, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Karan is working doubly hard this time. He is sparing no efforts to ensure that his second venture turns out to be a worthy successor to the first one, be it in the department of music, writing or direction. Karan is modest when he says, “I am a much better writer than a director.” For, his involvement on the sets, as a director, is 100%. Note, for example, how Karan ‘s facial expressions are in synch with those of Hrithik’s when the latter is giving the shot. Seated in front of the TV monitor, Karan smiles for a split second before his face falls in exactly the same way as Hrithik is doing in front of the camera.

If there’s one gham Karan has about the film, it is the absence of Waheeda Rehman as a part of the huge star cast. Waheeda had been finalised to play a pivotal role in the film and she even participated in the shooting for a day, but her husband’s sudden illness prompted her to opt out of the project. A few days later, she lost her husband. In the meantime, Karan had finalised another talented veteran, Achla Sachdev, in place of Waheeda Rehman. The star cast is formidable, to say the least — Amitabh, Jaya, Shah Rukh, Kajol, Hrithik, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Achla Sachdev, Sushma Seth and others.

Coming back to the shooting at Filmistan, what is it that follows the intermission point in a film? A break, of course! And so it was time for a break after the interval shot involving Hrithik Roshan was canned. No sooner was the break announced than there was general feasting. If Bachchan had called for laddoos, Hrithik had ordered for two large pizzas. Even while he was gorging on them, Amitabh emerged from his make-up room and was about to pick up a piece when he was told that it was a chicken pizza. “Oh, I’m vegetarian,” he sighed. Karan promptly sent his man for a cheeze pizza for Bachchan. “All this has also been called for by Hrithik?”, queried Amitabh, pointing to the sandwiches and other snacks spread out on the table.  “No, yeh unit ka hai,” came a voice, “Oh, toh ye sarkari hai,” joked Bachchan.

Jokes, pizzas and sandwiches apart, the set erected by Sharmishtha Roy was indeed majestic. Producer Yash Johar explained, “All these paintings you see on the walls are very expensive ones. The house has to look like a multi-millionaire’s.” Karan adds, “The temple is actually on the top floor, but it has been shifted down here because it is Diwali.”

Even as the shot is progressing, Karan asks his assistant to arrange for a ring with a single diamond in it. “It is for Shah Rukh’s proposed engagement,” Karan explains. “I’ll be canning that shot tomorrow,” he adds as he gulps down fruits.

Fruits of this labour of love of Karan will be borne only next Diwali which is the time Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham will be released. Till then, Karan is sparing no efforts to translate his beautifully scripted family drama into a movie marvel. Suffice it to say, the film will have ample doses of fun and emotions to capture the hearts of the viewers when released.

– Komal