LATEST POSITION

The success of PYAAR KIYA TO DARNA KYA has brought some life in the industry.

Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya has done very well despite examination period. Is poised to become class A in Bombay. Is a commission-earner in East Punjab, Bengal and Rajasthan and overflow in the other circuits. It is also doing very well in Overseas. 1st week Bombay 48,07,493 (92.88%) from 13 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 12,06,439 from 5 cinemas, Rajkot 2,16,780 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Kolhapur 2,22,634 (98%), Solapur 3,09,999 from 2 cinemas (1 in 14 shows), Nasik 1,64,934 (100%); Belgaum 1,16,508; Delhi 49,71,705 (91.31%) from 11 cinemas; Lucknow 4,13,599 (100%), Agra 2,70,938 (94.52%), Allahabad 1,61,000, Varanasi 2,41,279, Meerut 2,32,373 (98.28%), Bareilly 1,96,079 (87.11%), Dehradun 2,07,764 (100%), Saharanpur 1,76,454 (83.26%), Moradabad 1,71,836, Gorakhpur 1,73,235, Aligarh 1,85,568; Calcutta 26,21,229 (91.32%) from 16 cinemas; Nagpur 6,71,138 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur 2,00,382, Akola 1,57,151, Raipur 2,00,580 (82.82%), Bhilai 1,47,674, Durg 1,35,530, Chandrapur 1,93,004, Bilaspur 90,177; Indore 2,98,560 (4 on F.H.), Bhopal 5,43,684 from 3 cinemas; Jaipur 10,77,188 from 5 cinemas, Bikaner 2,76,828; Hyderabad 40,72,338 from 15 cinemas, share 23,19,117; Visakhapatnam 2,06,131, Kurnool 1,85,857.

Yugpurush is dull everywhere but slightly better in Maharashtra. 1st week Bombay 20,57,508 (52.12%) from 10 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 3,59,606 from 4 cinemas, Rajkot 91,000; Solapur 1,53,919 from 2 cinemas; Hubli 1,48,267, Belgaum 1,87,349; Delhi 11,25,119 (37.34%) from 6 cinemas (1 unrecd.); Allahabad 1,02,000, Bareilly 44,858 (20.08%), Dehradun 77,305; Calcutta 7,17,427 from 6 cinemas; Nagpur 3,63,589 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 89,166, Akola 81,035, Raipur 67,853 (31.24%), Bhilai 83,778 from 2 cinemas, Jalgaon (6 days) 66,290, Bilaspur 68,852; Indore 99,000 (2 unrecd.), Bhopal 1,18,231 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 2,48,177 from 2 cinemas, Bikaner 67,371; Hyderabad 9,05,976 from 10 cinemas.

…………

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Titanic (English) 4th week Bombay 16,46,148 (100%) from 2 cinemas; 3rd week Delhi 25,71,324 from 4 cinemas; Calcutta 3,50,210; 3 weeks’ total Vijayawada 10,49,951 (100%), Visakhapatnam 10,71,537 (100%).

IMPPA WELCOMES VINOD KHANNA

Many film producers personally received Vinod Khanna at Bombay’s Santacruz airport on 3rd April. He came to Bombay on 3rd for the first time after his election to the Lok Sabha and was garlanded by many of those who were present to receive him.

Among those who greeted the star-MP at the airport were IMPPA president Sultan Ahmed, IMPPA vice president Sundeep Sethi, Shakti Samanta, Saawan Kumar Tak, Mehul Kumar, Surendra Mohan, Surinder Kapoor (FMC chairman), Anil Ganguly, Jimmy Nirula, Satish Khanna, Anand Girdhar, S.K. Kapur, Surjit Aujla, K.K. Talwar, Vinay Kumar Sinha, Johny Bakshi, Kant Kumar, Madan Mohla, Vinod Chhabra, Firoz Nadiadwala and Dinkar Chowdhary (IMPPA secretary). Vinod Khanna said, he was touched by the love and affection of the industry. He promised that as a Parliamentarian, he would try to do something to solve the industry’s problems.

‘PARDES’ TAX-FREE IN U.P.

Subhash Ghai’s Pardes has been granted tax-exemption in the state of Uttar Pradesh for a period of 1 month from 9th April.

FIRST MALAYALAM FILM IN DTS

Thirakalkappuram, starring Suresh Gopi and Manju Warrier, is the first Malayalam film in DTS. It is produced by Guru Pavana Films (P.) Ltd. and is due for release all over Kerala on 9th April. This maiden film of Guru Pavana Films is a sequel to the President’s award-winning film of 1964, Chemmeen. It is directed by debut-maker Anil Adityan. Music is scored by Johnson.

BUBBY KENT, BOBBY ANAND BEREAVED

Devika Kent, wife of producer Bubby Kent, sister of Overseas and Rajasthan distributor and producer Bobby Anand, and daughter of producer-director Suraj Prakash, expired on 2nd April in Bombay at Kothari Hospital due to a heart attack. She was only 30 years old. She is survived by her husband and a daughter.

Chautha will be held today (4th April) from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Panchtantra building, Yaari Road, Versova, Andheri.

BARJATYAS BEREAVED

Manakchand Barjatya, father of Padam Barjatya of P.B. Pictures, Jaipur, and Jaikumar Barjatya of Rajshri Pictures (P.) Ltd., Patna, and uncle of producers Kamal Kumar, Rajkumar and Ajit Kumar Barjatya, passed away on 21st March in Jaipur. Shanti Vidhan pooja was held on 2nd April in Jaipur.

SHAH RUKH INJURED

Shah Rukh Khan fractured his leg on the sets of Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se a few days back in Madras.

AGAJANI KASHMIRI DEAD

Noted writer of yesteryears, Agajani Kashmiri, who wrote several hits like Anmol Ghadi, Taqdeer, Love In Simla and Junglee, died in Toronto on 27th March. He was 89 and is survived by two sons and grandchildren.

‘BORDER’, ‘DTPH’, ‘JUDAAI’ FOR NATIONAL AWARDS

J.P. Dutta’s Border, Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai and Boney Kapoor’s Judaai have been nominated for the National Awards of 1997, by the Film Federation of India.

The regional language films nominated are: Sarkarnama (Marathi), Sedin Chaitra Maas and Vidroho (both Bengali), Suryavamsam (Tamil), Annamayya (Telugu), Aniyathi Pravu (Malayalam) and Ulta Palta (Kannada).

WEDDING BELLS FOR SOHAIL KHAN

Director Sohail Khan got married to Seema on 29th March at a hurriedly called ceremony in Bombay.

ARJUN RAMPAL WEDS

Leading model and hero of Shantanu Sheorey’s Jadh, Arjun Rampal, got married to well-known model Mehr Jesia in Bombay earlier this week.

FFI, SIFCC BOYCOTT DOORDARSHAN

The Prasar Bharti Corporation’s recent decision to discontinue telecast of regional language films on Doordarshan’s national network has made the Film Federation of India take a decision to boycott Prasar Bharti till the decision is reversed. The South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce has accused Prasar Bharti CEO, S.S. Gill, of taking a unilateral decision and has threatened that unless the telecast of South Indian films was restored immediately, it would stop supplying film-based programmes to Doordarshan.

RAMESH DEO RELEASES WIFE’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, LAUNCHES FILM

Seema Deo and Ramesh Deo celebrated triple occasions on 27th March at Rang Sharda — birthday of Seema Deo, the release of her autobiography, Suhasini, and the launching of their film, Waghnakh (Marathi). The film is being produced by Ajinkya Deo (elder son of the couple) under the banner of Ramesh Deo Productions, and directed by younger son Abhinay Deo whose debut-making film this is.

The event was presided over by Maharashtra chief minister Manohar Joshi who announced the muhurt of the film and also released the book. Cultural affairs minister Pramod Navalkar, mayor Vishakha Raut, municipal commissioner Girish Gokhale, director Raj Dutt, Sulochana and many others from the film and stage industries felicitated the couple. Pradeep Bhide was the compere.

There was a display of fireworks, followed by cocktails and dinner.

Waghnakh will roll on April 20 and it will be completed in two months in Kolhapur. Starring Ramesh Deo, Seema Deo and Ajinkya Deo as the leading man, its leading lady and other cast and credits will be finalised soon.

YOU ASKED IT

What is the business of Titanic expected to be in India?

– Sky is the limit for the film and it is almost impossible to predict a logical estimate. In the USA, people are repeating the film 10 and even 15 times and one can expect such things to happen in India too.

Can the levy of abnormally high entertainment tax be challenged in court?

– It can, and it should be challenged. Expenditure of some lakhs in fighting out the issue in court could result in savings in crores because there are all chances of the tax being abolished or, at least, drastically reduced.

When should one ideally do a film’s casting — when a story-line is finalised or when the complete script is ready?

– When at least a major part of the scripting is complete.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Subhash Ghai is helping Jackie Shroff with his first production venture, GRAHAN. Ghai is reportedly re-editing the film.

* The Advanis of Shri Bableshwar Films, Indore, have completed a hat-trick of successful releases with PYAAR KIYA TO DARNA KYA. The earlier two successes were DEEWANA MASTANA and ISHQ.

* Of the 11 Oscars bagged by TITANIC, two were for the best sound track and the best editing. The sound track was done in DTS, and the editing, on Avid. Both, DTS and Avid, are distributed in India, exclusively by Real Image Pvt. Ltd.

* Rishi Kapoor, the director is no different from Rishi Kapoor, the actor. Proof: as an actor, Rishi does not shoot on Sundays. Now, as director of AA AB LAUT CHALEN too, he does not shoot on Sundays. So what if his artistes and technicians are ready for a Sunday shooting, Rishi says, “no”. And so, it’s a holiday for the entire team.

* PKTDK has created a theatre record at Novelty, Bombay, by collecting 5,68,801/- (100%) in 1st week.

* PKTDK has created a theatre record by collecting 1,64,934/- (100%) in 1st week at Mamta, Nasik.

* PKTDK has created a new city record in 1st week at Delhi’s Vishal cinema by collecting 7,17,617/- (against a capacity of 7,60,714/-) in 1st week. No film in 4 shows daily has collected so much earlier. 

* PKTDK has created theatre records in 1st week at Delhi’s Moti (2,49,037/- against 2,72,098/-), Rachna (4,60,195/- against 5,13,335/-), Batra (4,33,505/- against 5,05,422/-) and Chaudhry, Ghaziabad (2,32,284/- against 2,57,056/-).

* PKTDK has created a new record at Novelty, Lucknow, by collecting 4,13,599/- (100%) in 1st week. All 4 shows on the opening day of 2nd week were also full.

* PKTDK has created a theatre record by collecting 2,32,373/- against a capacity of 2,36,439/- in 1st week at Nandan, Meerut.

* PKTDK has created a theatre record by collecting 1,98,058/- in 1st week at Prabha, Bareilly.

* PKTDK has created a theatre record by collecting 2,70,938/- (against 2,86,643/-) in 1st week at Shree, Agra.

* PKTDK has created a theatre record by collecting 1,85,568/- in 1st week at Surjit, Aligarh.

* PKTDK has created a theatre record at Raj, Gorakhpur, by collecting 1,73,235/- in 1st week.

* PKTDK has created a theatre record by collecting 2,41,279/- in 1st week at Natraj, Varanasi.

* PKTDK has created a theatre record by collecting 1,60,482/- in 1st week at Sangeet, Allahahad.

* PKTDK has created a theatre record by collecting 1,71,836/- in 1st week at Kunwar, Moradabad.

* PKTDK has created a city record by collecting 2,07,764/- (all shows full) in 1st week at Prabhat, Dehradun.

* PKTDK has created a theatre record by collecting 1,76,454/- (against a capacity of 2,11,930/-) in 1st week at Kalpana, Saharanpur.

* PYAAR KIYA TO DARNA KYA has created a theatre record by collecting 1,93,004/- in 1st week at Abhay, Chandrapur.

Peep, Don’t Sleep

Nana Patekar gave three hits, Tirangaa, Krantiveer and Agni Sakshi, and increased his price by 400%. Now, after an average to below-average Ghulam-E-Musthafa and a disaster, Yugurush, he should reduce his price to 20% of what he is currently charging. That is, if Nana believes in fair play.

Sunil Shetty’s Aakrosh is a non-starter all over India. His previous release, Vinashak, too fared badly and entailed losses to most of its distributors. Sunil Shetty should, therefore, reduce his price to 50% of his present price. That is, if he believes in the policy of live-and-let-live.

The list of Akshay Kumar’s failures, debacles and disasters is long. To cut matters short, I can only say that instead of counting his flops, he should rather count the huge losses which distributors of his starrers have suffered in the past two years. He will then automatically feel inclined to slash his price by 75%. That is, if Akshay has a heart which beats for his producers and distributors.

Urmila Matondkar should be honest to herself and compare the number of producers who queue up at her house these days with their number in the post-Rangeela days. She will realise that life after Daud is not so rangeeli after all — for her producers, that is. With this realisation, Urmila herself will feel obliged to slash her price by 50%. That is, if she has foresight and is concerned about the future — of herself this time, more than of her producers.

Jackie Shroff should try and recall when his last solo starrer hit the bull’s eye. I say, try, because it may not be easy for him to remember the number of months since the release of his last hit, and the name of the film. Maybe, he will then reduce the remuneration he charges by, say, 2 lakh for every month he counts. That is, if he believes that the trade is already making such calculations about his career.

Amrish Puri should do some rethinking on his fabulously high price. Although he is undoubtedly the numero uno villain/character artiste, he should appreciate the fact that films sell on the names of heroes and heroines. Thus convinced, he will find it easier to convince himself that his price needs a revision in the downward direction. That is, if the screen villain is a hero in real life.

Sanjay Dutt should open his eyes to two facts — that he hasn’t delivered a hit for a long time and that he hasn’t still completed some of his very old starrers. He may then feel like hurrying up — as much to complete the old stock as to price himself more realistically. That is, if Sanjay can change.

Nana, Sunil, Akshay, Urmila, Jackie, Amrish, Sanjay — all just need to peep into their own conscience. The rest will follow.

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Twentieth Century Craze

Imagine, the producer or distributor of a film not being entitled to the tickets of his own film. Well, that’s exactly the position of Twentieth Century Fox which has released blockbuster Titanic in Bombay — at Regal and Cinemax. So much is the demand for seats that some irate members of the public complained to the police that they weren’t getting tickets at Regal due to block bookings at the cinema. As a result, the police has asked Twentieth Century Fox to refrain from doing block bookings for friends/trade people and others. Resultantly, even Twentieth Century Fox has to obtain police permission for reserving too many seats together at Regal! That’s the twentieth century craze for the Twentieth Century-Paramount co-production!

Maximum Planning, Minimum Wastage

Viveck Vaswani’s Sar Ankhon Par is in its last lap of production, and before the month comes to a close, the film will be complete. A major part of the film has been shot in much the same way as Hollywood films are shot, in the sense that detailed call-sheets are handed out to every unit member even before a shooting schedule actually begins. The call-sheets give the exact time when each artiste is required, for which scene/shot he/she is needed, the props and articles required, the scene number, shot number etc. etc. That way, there’s little room for confusion and minimum wastage of time and money. This style of functioning is courtesy executive producer and writer Sunjiv Puri who has used his vast experience of English productions (he has been involved in the production of several English films shot in India) in Sar Ankhon Par. That’s also the reason why the bound script of the film is ready unlike in the case of most films! Incidentally, SAP will be complete before the month-end.

All Set

There’s a new kind of set designing in Bollywood. Suren Gurbaxani is basically a wedding decorator who erects wedding mandaps, reception stages and does the other decoration too for weddings. He has branched out into set designing for films. The advantage of getting sets erected by Suren’s team is that once they have to be dismantled, there’s no worry for the producer to pay the wooden planks supplier, property supplier and other set materials suppliers. That’s because Suren takes back all the set materials after the set is dismantled. That way, the charges for his services and goods are reasonable too. Why, even some art directors prefer sub-contracting work to Suren who has constructed sets for some films like Dil To Pagal Hai (not all the sets).

BJP Sore

The scene in Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, involving duplicates of film stars Shatrughan Sinha, Rajesh Khanna, Rajinikanth, Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt, has not found the approval of the BJP’s film wing. In the scene in the film, the star look-alikes are shown fighting among themselves and even calling each other names. This hasn’t gone down well with the political party’s film wing which has asked the makers to delete the said scene from all the prints running.

WARNING NOTICE

The public in general and the film trade in particular are hereby informed that our M/s. MUKTA ARTS PVT. LTD., Mumbai-50 had given a break to M/s. RITU CHAUDHARY alias MAHIMA CHAUDHARY in their latest film PARDES. The said Mahima Chaudhary had entered into an Agreement with our said clients dated 19-2-1996 whereby she has agreed to work for our clients in their 3 further films.

The said Mahima Chaudhary is thus bound with our clients for a period of 5 years from the release of their film PARDES i.e. till 9-8-2002. The said Mahima Chaudhary has irrevocably agreed with our clients that she shall not render her services as a model for any advertising company or product or any stage show or TV show in India or abroad without the written consent of our clients. The said rights are assigned to our clients who alone are authorised to deal directly with any such party who opts to have the services of Mahima Chaudhary. Mahima Chaudhary has further irrevocably appointed, nominated and constituted Shri Subhash Ghai or his nominee as the authorised person to act, represent, select and negotiate any outside assignments of feature films shooting and/or advertisement films, TV programmes or stage shows etc. on behalf of Mahima Chaudhary and to decide the terms and conditions thereof during the period of the said Agreement. Mahima Chaudhary does not have any right to negotiate any terms and conditions with any party directly.

The said Mahima Chaudhary is also bound to work in our clients’ 3 further films and allot to them preferential shooting dates.

In view of the above, any party or person desirous of dealing with Mahima Chaudhary shall have to deal through our clients only. In case any party or person directly deals with Mahima Chaudhary, they shall so do entirely at their risk, and our clients shall proceed to take suitable legal action against the said errant party.

(R.K. MIDHA)
ADVOCATE SUPREME COURT
for M/s. MUKTA ARTS PVT. LTD.
Tel.: 640 6410

Bombay,
3-4-1998

DHADKAN

Venus Records & Tapes Ltd.’s Dhadkan is a love triangle with misplaced emotions. A poor bastard child (Sunil Shetty) loves a rich girl (Shilpa Shetty) whose father forces her to marry a wealthy businessman (Akshay Kumar). Three years after her marriage, her ex-flame comes into her life once again, in a bid to win her over. The only difference is that this time, he is a multi-millionaire. Not able to get her, his frustration gets the better of him and he directs his ire at her husband who is rendered homeless in a day. Hell hath no fury like a man scorned — or, rather, spurned! Unable to come to terms with reality, he is ultimately pacified by the girl’s husband who makes him see reason and take life as it comes.

The film’s screenplay (Naseem Mukri and Raj Sinha) and dialogues (Naseem Mukri and Dharmesh Darshan) are weak and, sometimes, even erroneous. Characterisations of the two heroes are anything but convincing. The husband’s Gandhian nature will not go down well with the audience for two reasons — one, such human beings are a rare breed in today’s times (and if one wanted to make it a believable character, one should have done it with much, much more conviction); secondly, the hero who plays the husband — Akshay Kumar — has an action image among the public and his Gandhian character looks completely out of synch. The other hero’s characterisation is faulty, to say the least. For, although he is not shown as a villain in the film, he does things befitting a villain — following his beloved even three years after she has been married to another guy; playing dirty with her husband to avenge his rejection by the girl while sparing her father who is the actual ‘villain’. The madness in his love for the girl after her marriage reminds of Yash Chopra’s Darr but in that film, Shah Rukh Khan was rightly shown as a villain who is murdered in the end, whereas in this film, Sunil Shetty remains a hero till the very end. Sorry, his deeds are anything but heroic! For that matter, Akshay Kumar also does not show heroism of the kind desired by the audience. So, there are two heroes but no heroism in that sense of the term. One gets the impression that the writers, wanted to be different, but in their quest to be different, they’ve done things wrong.

The scenes of the husband’s step-mother, step-brother and step-sister remind heavily of the director’s Raja Hindustani. Dialogues are good at places only. Another weak point is that there’s more gloom and less joy in the film — the girl is unhappy for a long time because she has to marry against her wish; later, she is sad because her ex-flame comes back into her life; the husband is sad because his family hates him; the bastard boy is unhappy because he loses his girlfriend. Climax is too tame and convenient; the ending is also predictable much before it comes.

Akshay Kumar does well according to his characterisation. Sunil Shetty also acts very ably. Shilpa Shetty does a fine job but she should have gone easy on her make-up. In fact, if Shilpa Shetty looks heavily made-up, the other heroine, Mahima Chaudhry, looks tired and lacks glamour. Mahima’s performance is good, though. Sharmila Tagore is over-dramatic. Kiran Kumar is alright. Sushma Seth is quite natural. Parmeet Sethi gives a good account of himself. Manjeet Kullar is also good. Neeraj Vora, Nilofer, Anjana Mumtaz, Kader Khan and Naseem Mukri lend ordinary support.

Dharmesh Darshan, having selected a difficult plot, has not been able to rectify the flawed screenplay, and his direction, consequently, provides little by way of an enjoyable drama. Even otherwise, the serious film holds appeal mainly for the class audience.

Nadeem Shravan’s music is one of the best things in the film. ‘Tum dil ki dhadkan mein’ and ‘Dil ne yeh kaha hai dil se’ are hit songs and are very melodious. ‘Dulhe ka sehra’, ‘Na na karte’ and ‘Aksar is duniya mein’ are also good numbers. W.B. Rao’s cinematography is the other brilliant aspect of the film. The camerawork and the picturesque locations on which the film is shot are fantastic. Background music (Surender Sodhi) is effective.

On the whole, Dhadkan is an insipid fare which fails to touch the heart and will, therefore, not be able to evoke audience appreciation.

Released on 11-8-2000 at Eros and 18 other cinemas of Bombay by Venus Records & Tapes Ltd. thru V.I.P. Enterprises. Publicity: excellent. Opening: good. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull in several places but very good in Calcutta and Nizam.

DEEWANE

S.P. Creations’ Deewane (UA) is about a CID inspector whose only passion in life is work. He loves his childhood girlfriend and she, too, is in love with him. The girl resents his devotion to work when it comes in the way of their romantic outings. By a turn of events, the officer slips into a coma and, in his place, comes his look-alike who is a criminal by profession. Planted by the commissioner of police in the CID officer’s place, this look-alike is attracted towards the officer’s girlfriend who is unaware of the impersonator. This look-alike, too, is passionate, but his passion is for the girl. In her interaction with him, the girl for the first time discovers what true love is. But all along, she is under the impression that the guy she is romancing is her old childhood-friend. All hell breaks loose in her life when, after her boyfriend comes out of the coma, she learns that she had been fascinated by the impersonator. Even as she and her buddy prepare for marriage, the look-alike tries to win her as she tries to shun him. But the realisation dawns upon her that she actually loves the impersonator. Misunderstandings are cleared in the end and while one guy sacrifices, the other gets the girl he loves.

Anees Bazmee’s story is quite interesting, but it has been ruined by a shoddy screenplay which seems to have been hurriedly written by Karan Razdan. There’s simply no thrill of a double role because, very often, the switching of roles between the two is revealed after an exciting incident has taken place rather than before it. Resultantly, the audience is not able to share in the excitement associated with trading places. So insipid is the drama that the viewer is not bothered about who of the two heroes the girl would ultimately marry. Such indifference and absence of a yearning of the heart of the audience for the principal characters is a dangerous sign in a love triangle. The romance looks feeble, at least from the girl’s side. The first  half is too lengthy, repetitive and boring. Post-interval, the drama is better, but only very slightly. Dialogues are alright. While the climax is not incorrect, it does not gladden the viewers’ hearts as two important characters in the drama have to simultaneously sacrifice their loves.

Ajay Devgan gives a sincere performance in a double role. Although there is some action of Ajay, it is mainly gun fights rather than the enjoyable fist fights. Urmila Matondkar is reasonably good. Mahima Chaudhry impresses in emotional scenes. Johny Lever’s comedy is superb. Paresh Rawal entertains at a few places and so do Pramod Moutho and Tiku Talsania. Gulshan Grover has very little scope. Aasif Sheikh, Reema, Usha Bachani, Shivaji Satam, Padmini Kapila, Neha P., Mini Tabassum, Raju Mawani and the rest fill the bill.

Harry Baweja’s direction is ordinary and gets burdened by a poor script. Sanjeev Darshan’s music is very good. The title song, ‘Ae dil’, ‘Qayamat’, ‘Churao na dil’ and ‘Jab ishq da’ are excellently tuned. However, most of the song picturisatins do not match their hit music. Camerawork is fair. Action lacks thrill. Editing is loose. Special effects (CMM Studios, Peter Pereira and Nirmal Jani) are quite nice.

On the whole, Deewane is a boring and dull fare which will put its distributors to heavy losses.

Released on 11-8-2000 at Liberty and 21 other cinemas of Bombay thru Devgan Entertainment & Software Ltd. Publicity: good. Opening: fair. …….Also released all over. Opening was very poor almost everywhere (good in Nizam).

LATEST POSITION

The dull openings of both the major releases of this week have shocked many.

Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega dropped after 4 days at many places but has managed very good shares in 1st week. Is excellent in Bombay, Maharashtra and Nizam. 1st week Bombay 82,06,409 (98.03%) from 14 cinemas (9 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 32,49,245 from 10 cinemas, Padra 2,51,755, Vapi 6,28,571, Jamnagar 1,72,100, Adipur 1,66,690 (73.83%), Bhuj 1,56,699; Pune 19,77,262 from 5 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 4,33,966 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 79,69,730 (79.72%) from 14 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Kanpur 6,30,559 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 8,25,892 from 2 cinemas, Agra 3,85,000, Allahabad 2,64,377, Bareilly 1,72,054; Calcutta 30,30,993 from 15 cinemas (17 on F.H.); Nagpur 9,41,855 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur (gross, 6 days) 2,55,105, Amravati 2,98,968, Raipur (5 days) 1,75,311, Durg 1,14,171, Jalgaon 2,00,946, Gondia (gross, 29 shows) 1,42,641, Wardha 1,30,746, Yavatmal 1,86,441; Indore 2,62,254 (4 on F.H.), Bhopal 2,14,000 (1 unrecd.); Jaipur 12,88,643 (52.11%) from 5 cinemas, Ajmer (24 shows, gross) 2,52,856; Hyderabad (gross) 59,38,533 from 18 cinemas, share 35 lakh; Aurangabad (gross) 9,54,306 from 4 cinemas; Vijayawada (gross) 3,10,425, Guntur (gross) 96,535.

Justice Chowdhary 1st week Bombay 6,83,603 (46.53%) from 5 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 94,950 from 2 cinemas; Pune 1,48,887 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 5,11,773 (19.65%) from 5 cinemas; Allahabad 33,990; Nagpur 98,743 from 2 cinemas, Raipur (5 days) 29,711; Jaipur (29 shows) 74,135 (25%); Hyderabad (gross) 1,80,702 from 3 cinemas.

…………

NEW CINEMA AT DAHISAR

Movie Gem, a new cinema, opened on 11th August at Dahisar, a distant suburb of Bombay, with Deewane.

‘REFUGEE’ TAX-FREE IN M.P.

J.P. Dutta’s Refugee has been granted exemption from payment of entertainment tax in the state of Madhya Pradesh for a period of six months with a maximum limit of 4 weeks in every centre, including shifting. The tax exemption came into effect from 9th August.

VIKAS VASWANI DEAD

Producer Vikas Vaswani died due to heart attack in the early morning hours of 11th August at his residence in Bombay. He was 58 and a bachelor. He will be cremated today (12th).

Vikas was a partner with producer Jagdish Sharma. The two had jointly produced Maa Kasam (Mithun Chakraborty and Amjad Khan). Their film, Kasam, starring Sunny Deol, is under-production.

DIRECTOR SATPAL NO MORE

Director Satpal (Sharma) passed away on 10th August at Cooper Hospital, Bombay, where he was being treated for jaundice. He was 62 and a bachelor. He was cremated on 11th August.

Satpal started his life as an office boy in a film production company. His struggle led him to Bhappi Sonie under whom he worked as an assistant director. He turned an independent director with Bhola Bhala (starring Rajesh Khanna, Rekha, Moushumi Chatterji) which was followed by Chunaoti (Feroz Khan, Neetu Singh) and Do Waqt Ki Roti. He was later associated with K.C. Bokadia. Satpal used to be very close to Dharmendra and Feroz Khan.

400 ILLEGAL VIDEO CDs SEIZED IN DELHI

At the instance of Feature Films Copyright and its staff, the Delhi police recently raided the shop of one Captain Video at Old Lajpat Rai Market and seized 400 pirated video CDs of various films including Jungle, Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain, Hera Pheri and Kya Kehna!. One Ajay Gupta was arrested. The total value of the goods seized is estimated at Rs. 40,000.

NEW CINEMA OPENS AT BURHANPUR

A new cinema, Ankita, opened on 11th August at Burhanpur. Dhadkan is the opening attraction.

TWO BOMBAY DISTRIBUTORS ARRESTED

Naaz building in Bombay was rocked by two arrests in the last eight days. Vinod Kakkar of Veekay Enterprises, Bombay was arrested and sent to a jail at Panvel (near Bombay) on 5th August. On 9th, Devendra Shah was arrested alongwith his young son. The three were granted bail on 11th.

The arrests were made following criminal complaints by Thane sub-distributor Suresh Dave. In the case of Vinodbhai, the Thane sub-distributor alleged that he had double-sold the Thane sub-distribution rights of Shikari to him (Dave) is well as to another party (Ashok Ranglani). Devendra Shah is alleged to be owing huge monies to Dave in the account of Border which he (Shah) distributed in Gujarat and in the distribution of which Dave was a partner with Devendra Shah. Dave alleged that despite the elapse of three years, Devendra Shah was not paying him his share of profits.

KARNATAKA INDUSTRY IN A PREDICAMENT

The notorious Veerappan, while demanding a ransom of Rs. 50 crore for the release of Kannada matinee idol Dr. Rajkumar, has also held the Karnataka film and TV industry to ransom. Since the day the most venerated star was abducted, the Karnataka industry has rendered itself into a state of impasse due to which the financial loss for the film industry has amounted to crores.

ANNOUNCEMENT & LAUNCHING

Anil Kapoor, Satish Kaushik Launch Production Company

Anil Kapoor and Satish Kaushik launched Kapoor & Kaushik Entertainment P. Ltd. with their first production venture, Badhai Ho Badhai, on Aug. 9. A launching pooja was held at Audeus and it was followed by a song recording at Sahara. The song was penned by Javed Akhtar and composed by Anu Malik. The recording is being followed by a 3-day shooting spell in Bombay.

The film stars Anil Kapoor, Karisma Kapoor and Amisha Patel, and it is being directed by Satish Kaushik. Mukta Arts presents it. It will be completed in March 2001 and released in June 2001.

Satish Kaushik will also be directing a film to be produced by Mukta Arts. Its cast is being finalised and it will start shortly.

YOU ASKED IT

Is someone planning a film on Veerappan?

– Veerappan would give anything to a maker to make a film on him. 

Why do Indian filmmakers not break away from the mould and make a film that does not centre around the hero and heroine?

– Rajkumar Santoshi tried it in CHINA GATE which did not run. But that does not mean, such films will never succeed. A gutsy director must try again.

Do stage shows help in popularising stars’ images?

– Besides popularising the stars, they fill star-pockets too!

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Kaun Karega First Move?

There is not an iota of doubt that the Kaun Banega Crorepati game show has become a national craze among TV viewers. Host Amitabh Bachchan’s “positive?”, “sure?” and “confident?” have become catch-phrases even among mundane conversations between friends. These three questions have also spawned a number of jokes. The latest one doing the rounds among friends’ circles is the following:

Husband: Can we go out for a romantic dinner tonight?

Wife: Oh no, not tonight.

Husband: Are you sure? ….Positive? ….Confident?

Wife: Yes, sure, positive, confident.

Husband: In that case, can I phone a (girl)friend?

Now, a suggestion from our side:

How about incorporating KBC-oriented jokes in a film which is slated for an early release — say, within six months? That would have the germs of becoming a highlight comedy!

For example, a character in a film could be shown as a KBC fan who only speaks in the style of Amitabh Bachchan in the game show. A lot of jokes could be ‘invented’ around the KBC show. Somebody like Govinda or Johny Lever would be able to carry it off brilliantly. Come on, producers and directors, the first one could hit it off!

P.S.: A word of caution, here. David Dhawan seems to have liked our suggestion (we told him two days back) and is very likely going to use the KBC host take-off in Jeetendra’s film which he is directing.

INFORMATION MEETS

“We should first be convinced that whatever we have made is at least good enough. And this applies whether we work with Mr. Yash Chopra, Mr. Raj Kanwar or Mr. Karan Johar.”

– JATIN (Jatin Lalit)

GAJAA

They are soft-spoken and cool unlike their music which comprises hot hits dipped in melody. They are not known to be aggressive or pushy to market their creativity. And neither do they believe in blowing their own trumpets or beating their own drums. Or even raking up controversies to grab publicity for themselves. Jatin Pandit and Lalit Pandit have slowly but steadily created a prime place for their music in the Hall of Fame. Today, they are firing on all cylinders. Or, shall we say, recording on all tracks.

Starting with Yaara Dildaara, and followed by Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, Khiladi, Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Khamoshi, Yes Boss, Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Ghulam, Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, this Pandit duo has come a long way indeed!

Their forthcoming films include Mohabbatein, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Dhai Akshar Prem Ke and Raju Chacha.

We now ‘record’ Jatin Lalit in Jatin’s words. Over to Jatin:

Music has become a big market today. It is more than a major territory. But the status of music directors hasn’t grown proportionately. What would you say to that?

– That’s a fact, a very sad fact. If the music directors are united, a lot of benefits can be got.

Will they ever be united?

– We really don’t know. Being in the rat race and indulging in cut-throat competition have become second nature to the music composers. Even those who have been in business for years, want to carry on, thus blocking the prospects of the younger crop coming up. The seniors want more and more and more….

Maybe, that’s because the seniors do not earn so much as to retire.

– That’s also true. The only way to face such competition is one’s work. That’s why we work hard, day in and day out. After all, quality of work counts. But how many producers care for good music? Sometimes, a producer approves our tunes, but if someone comes up with a ‘tempting’ offer, the producer goes there. So, unless and until we start the recording, nothing is confirmed. There’s many a slip between the producer’s approval and recording!

Has it happened with you?

– Yes, a number of times!

And don’t you indulge in under-cutting?

– Honestly, never! Today, we have enough work to keep ourselves creatively engaged. And we are quite content too. If we know that a certain music director has already had a meeting with a certain producer, we don’t approach that producer. Grabbing someone else’s film is unethical. I consider it a sin. As it is, we have proved our music’s worth. An international organisation has adjudged Sholay, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai as the best Indian films. We are proud to be associated with two of the best ones.

It is believed that frustrations and humiliations bring the best out of creative people. What has been your experience?

– Frustrations and humiliations can lead one to a little bit of hard work. But is only hard work enough? One has got to have creativity within oneself. As for the frustration part of your question, we were never frustrated despite people playing games with us. We are a soft-spoken duo which never displayed any aggressiveness where bagging assignments was concerned.

But today, everyone is out to make a fast buck. Haven’t you heard, while in Rome, do as the Romans do?!

– But Rome was not built in a day! We have been around for the last 10 years and we have been working at our own pace. Even at the risk of sounding immodest, we can claim that we have consistently provided quality music. Our music has worked! And that’s why we get work without indulging in any kind of hard-sell. We come from a gharana that is devoted to music. My forefathers were into classical music. My grandfather, Motiram-ji, and his brother, Jyotiram-ji, were court singers and composers of classical music. Our father, Pandit Pratap Narayan, our uncle, Pandit Jasraj, our sisters, Sulakshana and Vijayeta, are singers. We are from the Mewathi gharana. Even Lalit and myself sang songs under R.D. Burman.

But your gharana was involved in classical music. What made you branch out into film music?

– See, we all study in the same schools, we learn the same lessons, yet we branch out in different directions. To start with, a music director has to know about classical music before he branches out in any field of music, whether singing or playing music or film music direction. Tomorrow, maybe, my son might become a music engineer.

What’s your style of working — vis-à-vis lyricists, vis-à-vis directors and producers, and between yourselves?

– We both go into detailing about the subject, the situation and the character of the actor on whom the song is to be picturised. This kind of detailing helps us to co-ordinate between ourselves, our producers and our directors. It’s as simple as that. We don’t just ‘print’ songs! Every tune we make is nurtured like our own baby, whoever the producer or director. After all, music is what has to please one’s ears. We should first be convinced that whatever we have made is at least good enough. And this applies whether we work with Mr. Yash Chopra, Mr. Raj Kanwar or Mr. Karan Johar. What is sweet music to one person’s ears is sweet music to others’ ears too. It is always ideal to work with producers who understand the worth of good music.

But do you think, people devote so much time for detailing, etc.

– Time is an important factor. It is not every time that you come up with good music. Even if a producer wants something fast, we do our best. It might work, it might not. A good melody takes a good time coming.

I will give you an example of a film called Yeh Hai Bambai Meri Jaan. Though the film flopped, its one song, Mera chand mujhe aaya hai nazar, proved a super-hit.

Just the other day, Mr. Ramesh Taurani wrote to us stating that he was proud to be associated with Sarfarosh. He also acknowledged that the music of Ghulam and Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai had sold like hotcakes and was selling even today.

Alright, the music is selling like hotcakes, but did you get a slice of the cake?

– Nobody shares the cake!

Why don’t you put a clause in your agreements for a share in the producers’ income from the music sales?

– One shouldn’t impose oneself since we all agree to work for a price. However, Shah Rukh and Yash Johar gave us a percentage from the music’s earnings for Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

There have been music directors who’ve scored music for many films in a few years, and given really good music. Then suddenly, they go out of form. Why does this happen?

– If you just rush and run, the ultimate result is rust and ruin. I won’t like to sermonise here. You know what happens when a candle is burnt at both the ends!

Most of the times, your music sounds R.D. Burman-ish.

– Yes, we are influenced by Pancham-da. He is an inspiration to us. We have also rendered songs under his baton when we were kids. That’s why Pancham-da chhaap comes out in our songs, at times!

What do you do when you are stuck up for a good tune?

– That will be letting out a secret! Anyway, I will definitely tell you what I do. I sing aloud old film songs tuned by the greats of the good old days — Shanker Jaikishen, S.D. Burman, R.D. Burman, Madan Mohan and O.P. Nayyar. And I sing them continuously for a couple of days and then come into my own. I consider this exercise as a kind of deep meditation.

Which of the old songs come to your mind at such times?

– Many.

Your five favourites?

– Madan Mohan’s Zara si aahat hoti hai to dil sochta hai (Haqeeqat), Laxmikant Pyarelal’s Suno sajana papihe ne (Aaye Din Bahar Ke), Shanker Jaikishen’s Zindagi ek safar hai suhana (Andaz), S.D. Burman’s Hum bekhudi mein tumko pukare chale gaye (Kala Pani), and Roshan’s Jo vaada kiya woh nibhana padega (Taj Mahal).

I remember a duo called Mandhir-Jatin. Are you the same Jatin?

– Yes, I am the same Jatin. Mandhir is our elder brother. He is also with us. At times, we seek his help. Mandhir is a top rhythmist and he is very busy as a musician. Mandhir and I did only one film together, Dil Hi Dil Mein. Thereafter, I and Lalit formed a team.

Finally, what keeps the Jatin-Lalit team in top form?

– Combination of hard work and talent. And destiny, of course!

PYAAR TO HONA HI THA

Baba Films’ Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha is a love story with a difference. Inspired from the Hollywood film, French Kiss, it is the story of a girl who comes to India from Paris to win back her fiancé who has fallen in love with another rich girl. On her flight from Paris to India, the girl meets a guy who is a jewel thief. He hides his loot (a diamond necklace) in the girl’s handbag and then what follows is a long chase. By the time he does get to the necklace, he also gets close to the girl and promises to help her get her fiancé back. In doing, so, the Paris girl and the Indian thief (who, incidentally, has a heart of gold) fall in love. Ultimately, the fiancé is dumped, and the two of them express their love for each other.

The first half is not too serious except for the couple of reels before interval. The chase is stretched too much so that it becomes boring. Of course, the pre-interval portion, like the second half, does have some really cute moments but while some of them are of the kind which will be appreciated by the gentry only, the others (of universal appeal) are few and far between. Besides, the Paris girl trying to win back her fiancé even after seeing him openly flirting with another girl looks quite unbelievable, if only because of two reasons — one, their love has not been established, and secondly, the fiancé‘s role is played by an actor (Bijay Anand) who does not have any star image. On the other hand, the Paris girl is a star (Kajol) and so is her Indian friend (Ajay Devgan). The base of the story, therefore, appears to be weak. It is for this reason that while the audience do not really crave to see Kajol and Ajay Devgan united in matrimony, they also do not weep when it appears that their love may not triumph. In short, the viewers do not move with the lovers. Ajay not being able to express his love to Kajol does not appeal after a while.

Dialogues are witty at many places. Screenplay writing, on the other hand, shows too much recourse having been taken to cinematic liberties. Climax, though fairly exciting, is not novel.

Ajay Devgan does a good job, but because he has an image of an action hero, his fans may not really cherish seeing him in a romantic role, devoid of any action or stunts. Kajol is the life of the film and delivers a simply fantastic performance. She is cute and natural to the core and endears herself to the audience right from the word ‘go’. She looks pretty too. Bijay Anand does a fair job, but an actor with a star image was the actual requirement of the role. Kashmira Shah is so-so. Tiku Talsania does quite well. Om Puri’s talent has not been utilised properly in the role of a police officer whose character is quite unbelievable. Harish Patel lends good support. Mushtaq Khan leaves a mark. Anjan Srivastava, Ghanshyam, Reema, Asha Sharma, Poornima Bhave, Satish Kaul, Shama Deshpande, master Mohsin, master Sharukh and Anant Mahadevan provide the desired support. Remo Fernandes and Jaspinder Narula impress in a song that’s racy.

Anees Bazmee’s direction is fair but his writing should have been far more convincing and much more taut. What was needed the most was to make the borrowed story more plausible and more Indian. Besides the song in the title (a better situation for that hit song would have made a positive difference), the last two songs (‘Jab kisi ki taraf’ and ‘Ajnabi mujhko’) are extremely well-tuned (Jatin Lalit) but they both come too late in the drama. The aeroplane song is dull while the rest are okay. Nirmal Jani’s camerawork is splendid. Action is alright. Art direction is very good. Production and technical values are of a high standard.

On the whole, Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha has cute moments but not the magic and pain of a love story. It has a fantastic initial value (due to bumper publicity, popular music and the lead pair) but not the merit to sustain and go for a long run. The film rests on a weak foundation and, therefore, remains an average fare, mainly for ‘A’ class centres, especially in Bombay and South.

Released on 23-7-’98 at Metro and on 24-7-’98 at 11 other cinemas of Bombay thru Devgan’s Entertainment. Publicity: extraordinary. Opening: excellent. …….Also released all over. Opening was superb everywhere. However, quite a perceptible drop was noticed in collections in some stations of C.P. Berar on the second day (Friday).

ANGAARAY

Rose Movies Combines’ Angaaray (A) is about life in the world of crime in Bombay. A young police inspector is sent to Bombay to get to the root of the underworld and to exterminate the anti-social elements. He is shocked to find his childhood friends as a part of the underworld. Actually, he, too, would have been a part of it had he not been arrested for a crime while still a child. After his punishment, he got an opportunity to reform himself, which he had done. He was now keen to show his friends the right path. He also knew that they (friends) were mere pawns in the hands of the don who actually needed to be finished. The climax deals with the elimination of the don and the reformation of two of his three friends, the third having been killed by the don.

Although an action film, it moves at a very slow pace, especially in the pre-interval part. The pace picks up a bit in the second half in which there’s abundant action. But there’s no relief or entertainment in the whole film. There’s no novelty, neither in the subject nor in the presentation. The character of the don is quite weird and unnecessarily mysterious. Dialogues are okay.

Akshay Kumar does well in the role of a police inspector. His stunts in the initial reels are very good. Nagarjuna, as his friend, is good. Pooja Bhatt has a small role and does a fair job. Sonali Bendre’s character is shown in poor light; she performs well and even her dialogue delivery, which is otherwise lifeless, is good. Irfan Kamal is fair. Paresh Rawal, though reasonably alright, is not in his elements. Gulshan Grover plays the weird don quite well. Mohan Kapur is average. Razzak Khan leaves a mark. The other artistes lend the desired support.

Mahesh Bhatt’s direction is routine. No attempt seems to have been made by him to offer something fresh to the viewer and, what’s more, too much has been taken for granted. Music is functional; ‘Aan de aan de’ and ‘Tanha tanha’ are fairly good but the other songs are dull. Song picturisations are ordinary. Camerawork (Sameer Arya) is of a good standard. Action should have been much more exciting (like Akshay’s stunts).

On the whole, Angaaray is an action film for ‘B’ and ‘C’ class centres only.

Released on 24-7-’98 at Minerva and 18 other cinemas of Bombay by Vimal Agarwal thru R.M. Ahuja & Co. Publicity: fair. Opening: very good. …….Also released all over.

LATEST POSITION

Kareeb has not been appreciated and it began to drop from the 2nd day itself. It has, nevertheless, done well in some ‘A’ class centres. Bombay 32,46,775 (83.36%) from 7 cinemas (4 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,75,151, full (1 unrecd.), Vapi 2,70,494, Baroda 1,75,895; Pune 4,78,295 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 1,01,843; Hubli 92,340 (100%), Belgaum 92,180 (100%); Delhi 32,75,624 (88.90%) from 7 cinemas; Kanpur 1,70,650, Lucknow 2,69,743, Agra 1,70,150, Allahabad 96,600, Varanasi 1,49,403, Bareilly (6 days) 71,404 (37.01%); Amritsar 52,500; Calcutta 9,74,147 from 3 cinemas; Nagpur 3,53,305 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,01,806, Amravati 1,06,284, Raipur (6 days) 99,423; Bhopal (6 days) 2,75,866 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 4,70,592 from 2 cinemas, Bikaner 1,69,795; Hyderabad 19,08,447 from 8 cinemas, share 8,60,000.

………..

Dulhe Raja is quite good. 2nd week Bombay 22,70,855 (62.82%) from 10 cinemas (5 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 3,91,997 from 3 cinemas, Jamnagar 76,860; Pune 4,62,324 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 1,88,445 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 20,33,438 from 10 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 3,43,319 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 2,20,542, Agra 1,50,000, Allahabad 1,46,500, Varanasi 1,51,635, Bareilly 1,30,942 (60.61%); Calcutta 5,56,679 from 6 cinemas; extraordinary in 2nd week in Bihar; Nagpur 1,66,934 from 2 cinemas, Amravati 1,16,413, 1st week Akola 1,94,532, 2nd week Raipur 1,18,045 (1st 1,70,101), Jalgaon 1,15,000, Yavatmal 87,354; Indore 3,11,494 from 2 cinemas (2 on F.H.), Bhopal 2,82,724 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 8,45,612 from 3 cinemas; Hyderabad 4,17,064 from 2 cinemas (1 in noon).

Satya is a super-hit in Bombay and Maharashtra and Nizam but average/losing in the other circuits. 3rd week Bombay (TF) 42,95,740 (94.11%) from 9 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,44,189 from 2 cinemas (2 unrecd.), 1st week Padra 78,564, 3rd week Rajkot 80,569; Pune (TF) 9,91,555 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur (TF) 3,56,320 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 6,49,689 from 3 cinemas; Kanpur 1,05,017, 1st week Lucknow 2,53,172, 3rd week Allahabad 61,000, Varanasi 70,355, Dehradun 74,189; Calcutta 3,33,666 from 3 cinemas (1 in noon); Nagpur (TF) 1,64,599 (91%), Jabalpur 44,954, total 1,41,478, Amravati (TF) 1,63,617, Akola (TF) 90,066, total 2,50,092, share 1,88,000, Raipur 63,048; Bhopal 78,005; Jaipur 71,139, Ajmer 53,769; Hyderabad 4,08,246.

Major Saab 4th week Bombay (TF) 9,82,590 (72.67%) from 3 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 56,667, Vapi 1,50,946,total 9,68,826, Rajkot 39,000, 1st Adipur 1,45,160, 4th week Jamnagar 23,881, 2nd week Bhuj 51,735 (1st 1,07,371); 4th week Pune (TF) 3,42,328 from 2 cinemas, Solapur (TF) 70,979, 1st week Barsi (TF) 40,034; 4th week Hubli 64,159 (3rd 85,915); Delhi 8,72,424 from 5 cinemas (1 on F.H., 1 unrecd.); Kanpur 1,44,258 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,34,936, Agra 1,25,700, Allahabad 80,000, Varanasi 94,781, Bareilly 25,072 (13.14%), Dehradun 88,000; Rohtak 12,063; Nagpur (TF) 44,795, Jabalpur 93,328, total 6,26,116, Amravati (TF) 68,733, Akola (TF) 43,519, total 2,87,560, share 2,12,000, Dhule (TF) 36,367, Raipur 35,034, Jalgaon (TF) 64,138, total 3,31,518; Indore 88,931, Bhopal 50,129; Jaipur 2,24,015; Hyderabad 3,15,943 from 3 cinemas (2 in noon).

Ghulam 5th week Bombay 21,18,990 (60.42%) from 9 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 2,22,372 from 4 cinemas, Rajkot (matinee) 9,509 (1 in regular unrecd.); Pune 4,37,914 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 1,65,000 (4th 1,75,000), total 9,23,380, Solapur 84,655 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 3,87,853 from 2 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 28,093, Lucknow 82,561, Allahabad 31,000, Varanasi 55,600, 1st week Bareilly 75,164 (33.64%), 5th Dehradun 48,252; 2nd week Rohtak 10,813; 5th week Calcutta 1,39,020; Nagpur 1,08,606 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur 1,19,228, total 8,78,064, Amravati 87,521, total 8,16,263, Akola 47,819, total 5,00,182, share 3,70,000, Dhule 40,000, Raipur 64,459, 4th week Jalgaon (6 days) 62,625, 1st Yavatmal 1,27,244; 5th week Indore 63,250, Bhopal 63,516; Jaipur 1,13,360; Hyderabad 5,25,933 from 3 cinemas (2 in noon).

FILM INDUSTRY TO DOWN SHUTTERS ON AUGUST 11

The Bombay film industry will down shutters on 11th August in protest against the government’s inaction in the matter of cable piracy of Hindi films. All film activities viz. production, distribution, exhibition, recordings etc. will remain closed on 11th. A mass rally consisting of members from all sectors of the industry will be organised in Bombay on that day. The rally, which will begin at Juhu, will terminate at Mantralaya where a delegation will meet the Maharashtra chief minister and submit a memorandum to him, urging the government to take quick and stern action against pirates of Hindi films. The rally will also, en route, pass the office of Siticable at Worli. The decision of the rally was taken during a meeting of representatives of all the sectors of the film industry — production, distribution, exhibition and cine workers — held at IMPPA House on 22nd July.

Illegal screenings of Hindi films on cable have spelt huge losses for the film industry in the past few years. The racket of cable piracy has flourished over the years in spite of the Indian Copyright Act being one of the most stringent and comprehensive legislations in the world. On its part, the government has amended the Copyright Act in 1984, making the piracy of films a cognisable and a non-bailable offence, yet it has failed to convict even one offender in 14 years since. The reason for this, according to IMPPA, is the apathetic attitude of the state law enforcement agencies towards the issue. As a result, the menace of cable piracy has continued to thrive under the aegis of major cable networks like Siticable and IN Network, alleges IMPPA. The decision to down shutters and organise a mass rally comes in the wake of this realisation. An Action Committee Against Cable And Other Piracy has also been formed by IMPPA to take up necessary follow-up action in the matter.

It may be recalled here that a few weeks ago, the Tamil film industry had resorted to a similar protest rally in Madras, after which it succeeded in getting several concessions for itself.

ASHA PAREKH IN OFFICE

The newly appointed chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification, Asha Parekh, has begun attending the CBFC office at Bharat Bhavan, Bombay, from 20th July. She succeeds Shakti Samanta who held the office for three consecutive terms (almost seven years).

Lot Of Anand At Bakshi’s Birthday

His 68th birthday on 21st July is the one which veteran and celebrated lyricist Anand Bakshi will remember all his life. Showman Subhash Ghai celebrated the young-at-heart song writer’s birthday in great style at The Leela, where rich eulogies were paid to Bakshi’s writing prowess.

Although the show started almost two hours late due to unavoidable circumstances, the wait was worth its while. An audio visual on Anand Bakshi, made by Plus Channel, traced the growth of Anand Bakshi as a lyricist, beginning from his childhood days when, perhaps, he did not even in his wildest of dreams imagine that he would one day become a legendary name in the world of dreams. The informative AV presentation, with lucid commentary by Javed Siddiqi, was followed by recital of songs written by Anand Bakshi, by some top playback singers. People like Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai himself, Hasan Kamal, Nida Fazli, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Jagjit Singh and Dilip Kumar praised Anand Bakshi’s works.

Bakshi has had a 20-year association with Subhash Ghai, having penned all the songs of all films made under Ghai’s Mukta Arts banner. In lyrics writing, he has completed 42 years.

Shabana Azmi greeted Anand Bakshi with a huge garland ordered by Ghai specially for the occasion. A memento was also presented by Ghai to Bakshi. Javed Siddiqi was the efficient master of ceremonies.

A huge birthday cake was cut by Anand Bakshi well after midnight.

Subhash Ghai also celebrated the golden jubilee of Pardes at the same party.

‘Prem Aggan’ Music Released With Pomp And Show

Feroz Khan launched the music of his Prem Aggan on 18th July at a function at The Leela. BMG Crescendo is marketing the film’s music released by UTV. The audio cassettes were formally released by Sanjay Dutt and Manisha Koirala.

Two songs from the film were screened for the invitees and this was followed by a live rendition of a couple of songs by the film’s playback singers. At least one song has been picturised on some breathtaking locations of Australia. The music of Prem Aggan is scored by Anu Malik. The songs are of the kind which definitely grow on the listener.

The film introduces Fardeen Khan and Meghna Kothari. At the music release function, Feroz Khan introduced the stars and music director of his film, Anu Malik, to the gathering which mainly consisted of the film’s cast, technicians, music dealers, UTV and BMG people, selected guests and media persons.

PRODUCTION NEWS

‘Soldier’ Complete

The entire shooting and dubbing of Tips Films’ Soldier have been completed. Background music is being recorded at Empire Audio Centre. Starring Raakhee Gulzar, Bobby Deol, newcomer Preity Zinta, Suresh Oberoi, Ashish Vidyarthi, Sharat Saxena, Johny Lever and Farida Jalal, the film is directed by Abbas Mustan. Music: Anu Malik. Story: Shyam Goel. Screenplay: Sachin Bhaumick. Dialogues: Javed Siddiqi. Lyrics: Sameer. Cinematographer: Thomas A. Xavier. Action: Akbar Bakshi. Editor: Hussain Burmawala.

‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ Unit Returns

The unit of Dharma Productions’ Kuch Kuch Hota Hai has returned to Bombay after completing a 15-day shooting schedule in Scotland. The entire cast participated. Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Rani Mukerji, Neelam (friendly appearance), Anupam Kher, Farida Jalal, Archna Pooran Singh, Himani Shivpuri, Johny Lever, baby Sana and Salman Khan in a special appearance, the film is being produced by Yash Johar and directed by Karan Johar. Music is scored by Jatin Lalit. Lyrics: Sameer. Cinematographer: Santosh Thundiyil. Choreographer: Farah Khan.

YOU ASKED IT

Why are banks not willing to finance film producers?

– Mainly for two reasons — uncertainty of the business, and the big component of black money involved in film transactions.

Why have films started behaving differently in different circuits rather than faring the same way all over India?

– If a film’s script is powerful and its music is hit, it is bound to do equally well in every circuit. The difference arises in the case of other films because audience tastes have begun to vary region-wise.

Which is the hottest territory today?

– Where are the distributors today that you are talking of the hottest territory? The ‘heat’ comes from a project, that too, before its price/ratio is announced. Other than that, it’s all thanda.

STRAY SUGGESTIONS

* Bobby Deol has cut his long hair short. Good! He should now also cut down his price. Look at Kareeb.

* Pooja Bhatt must really be the busiest heroine around. Don’t believe? Then see Angaaray. Although it is directed by her father, Mahesh Bhatt, the poor girl didn’t have the time to complete her dubbing.

* Govinda should seriously consider completing his films on time. He did it in Dulhe Raja and look at the results. Govinda, after dancing his way into the hearts of the audience, can now also dance his way into the hearts of his producers and directors by reporting on his sets on time. For, time and tide wait for no man.

* Amitabh Bachchan could do with signing a film with a director who has delivered hits in recent times rather than restricting himself to directors who had delivered hits when he (Bachchan) used to be in his prime — years ago!

* Shilpa Shetty should seriously take tips from new love, Akshay Kumar, on dressing. Her costumes in films are always being criticised. Akshay’s clothes are never bitched about. Half the times, he wears nothing except trousers!

* Aishwarya Rai must now try to get over her Miss World image. Models are known to be stiff. But Aishwarya is not stiff. She is very, very stiff. Sniff!

* I & B minister Sushma Swaraj has done a good job of constituting an Advisory Board, Film Export Promotion Forum etc. She should now form a Script Board to advise our film writers on how to write stories and screenplays. If films start running, there’ll be no need for other Advisory Boards.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Rumours were rife earlier this week that Subhash Ghai had replaced Aishwarya Rai from TAAL and had signed Mahima Chaudhry in her place. Of course, the rumours were baseless as Aishwarya continues to be the film’s heroine.

* Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh has launched an exclusive brand of kurtas called Jagjit kurta. The singer usually wears kurta with churidar in his concerts. Jagjit Singh has plans to extend the product line to include sunglasses, pens, clocks, watches etc. in times to come.

* Ashok Talkies, Jalgaon, is screening a festival of tax-free films! Or almost so. The tax-free MAJOR SAAB is running at the cinema in its 5th week. It will be followed by the tax-free DUSHMAN. After that, it will screen SATYA which also is tax-free in Maharashtra.

MIX MASALA

NO SMOKING

Anupam Kher has given up smoking. This is not the first time the actor has quit the habit but he’s very serious now, that he won’t light the cigarette again. Hope his resolve doesn’t go up in smoke!

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

How About This Birthday Gift, Mr. Ghai?

Subhash Ghai’s exemplary gesture of throwing a lavish party to celebrate Anand Bakshi’s 68th birthday has invoked high praise from all quarters. This fine gesture speaks volumes for the affectionate bond that the showman and the poet share between them. While this party will surely be cherished by Bakshi as one of the best birthday gifts he has received, one is sure, the celebrated lyricist would have been even happier had Ghai given him a song to sing in Taal and announced this at the birthday party. In a recent interview with Film Information, Anand Bakshi had expressed a keen desire to sing at least one memorable song in a film before he hangs his boots. In fact, he had gone to the extent of saying that his only fervent desire was that the people should remember him more for a memorable song sung by him than for those he had penned! This wish of his can be fulfilled by Subhash Ghai even now, so what if the birthday is gone. He could offer his favourite lyricist a singing opportunity in his forthcoming Taal. And should he really do so, it would be a great move, for, this would mean a unique occurrence of one of the oldest lyricists singing for one of the youngest music directors of today (A.R. Rahman).

Better Late Than Never

It seems that writers Rajiv Kaul and Praful Parekh had the story of Dulhe Raja for several years before Harmesh Malhotra made it. They repeatedly approached a number of producers with the story during those years, but without any success. With each producer rejecting the story, the chances of it being ever made into a film looked extremely bleak. It almost seemed as though the Dulhe Raja would never get married for want of baraatis! But, luckily for Kaul and Parekh, producer-director Harmesh Malhotra spotted the story’s potential as late as a year ago.

Boomtime In Bengali Film Industry

At a time when the Hindi film industry is struggling to grapple with its fluctuating fortunes at the box-office, at least one regional film industry is experiencing an unprecedented boom. As many as 35 to 40 Bengali films are currently under-production. Moreover, a number of Bengali films have succeeded in hitting the bull’s eye at the box-office in the recent past. A producer like Dilip Kankaria is making/planning at least four to five Bengali films. While low admission rates due to a reasonable entertainment tax of only 20% on Bengali films may explain the viewers flocking to cinema halls in large numbers, the current boom in the Bengali film industry has adversely affected distributors of Hindi films (which, incidentally, pay 70% entertainment tax) in the circuit. A number of exhibitors in West Bengal run mostly Bengali films only. While on the topic, another regional industry which is experiencing a similar boom, though of smaller proportions, is the Gujarati film industry. Following the runaway success of Govindbhai Patel’s Desh Re Joya Dada Pardesh Joya, as many as 15 to 20 Gujarati films are in various stages of production.

‘Kareeb’ & Liberty

It is a coincidence, and a strange one at that. Power failure disrupted the Kareeb screening on the opening day in the same show in two Liberty cinemas — of Bombay and Delhi. Bombay’s Liberty was in pitch darkness for over an hour in the 6 p.m. show on 17th July. In Delhi’s Liberty, power supply played truant two or three times in the 6 o’clock show, for 10-15 minutes each time.

BIWI NO. 1

Puja Films’ Biwi No. 1 (UA) is the story of a young, married and successful businessman who has an affair with a model working for his company. When his wife comes to know of his affair, she confronts him and gives him two options to choose from — either forget the affair and the model forever or leave the house. The husband, agitated at being questioned by his wife, opts for the latter and starts living with his model girlfriend. Although not married to her, he lives with her as would a husband and wife. When this happens, the wife and a family friend join hands to teach the errant husband and his girlfriend a terrible lesson. For this, the wife herself becomes a model and even sends her two kids and mother-in-law to live with her husband and his girlfriend. The kids and the ma-in-law, under instructions from the wife, create situations to show the girlfriend in such bad light always that the husband starts hating his girlfriend. Finally, the husband and wife re-unite. The model returns to the photographer who had proposed marriage to her earlier.

Inspired from the Tamil film Sathi Leelavathi, the film is an out-and-out comedy. The first half is just about fair. It is the second half which is more entertaining, and the two climaxes (one involving all the main characters, and the other with Anil Kapoor, Tabu and their child) are truly hilarious. But the drama is weak and has some drawbacks. The wife is shown to be so rich, modern and beautiful that her pining for her husband (even after knowing that he is sleeping around with the model) appears rather unbelievable. Had the wife been shown to be ordinary-looking and also financially insecure, the pining would’ve looked more plausible. Further, the serious point of the husband straying has been treated too lightly. Showing the wife turning a model herself is unnecessary because after she does take up modelling, there’s no more reference to her new profession. Dialogues (Rumi Jafri) have punch at places but fall flat at some places in the first half. Emotions post-interval are feeble. Some adult jokes are quite funny.

Salman Khan does well as the husband gone wayward. He is especially good in comedy scenes and dances. Karisma Kapoor plays Salman’s wife to perfection. She shines in emotional scenes. Anil Kapoor, as the Punjabi doctor-friend of Salman Khan, is extremely likeable. Tabu plays Anil’s wife very ably. The climax on Anil and Tabu is fantastic. These two Punjabi characters will hold special appeal for audience in Punjab and Delhi. Sushmita Sen acts like a seasoned actress and is admirably free in her performance. Looking sexy and fashionable, she plays the model brilliantly. Saif Ali Khan is alright. Himani Shivpuri and Shashi Kiran lend wonderful support as Salman’s mother and secretary respectively. Master Rinku and baby Pinky are cute. The dog does an able job. Guddi Maruti, Rajiv Verma and Kanu Gill are okay.

David Dhawan seems to be in form after interval. At several places in the film, though, it does appear that David has made the film as a rush job. Music (Anu Malik) is good. The title song, ‘Sona sona’, ‘Jungle mein’ and ‘Mehboob mere’ numbers are racy and well-tuned. ‘Om Sai Ram’ song is designed to appeal emotionally. Song picturisations (Ganesh and B.H. Tharun Kumar) are excellent. Special mention in this regard must be made of the ‘Sona sona’ number, the title song, and ‘Mehboob mere’ songs. Foreign locations are heavenly. K.S. Prakash Rao’s camerawork is good. Production values are simply grand. Background score (Surender Sodhi) is effective. Editing is sharp. Sets are rich. Other technical values are of a good standard.

On the whole, Biwi No. 1 has taken a flying start and it does have comic masala to make people laugh and its distributors smile.

Released on 28-5-’99 at Metro and 19 other cinemas of Bombay by Puja Films thru Shringar Films. Publicity & opening: simply breathtaking. …….Also released all over. Opening was bumper in Delhi (1st day almost 100%) and East Punjab and very good elsewhere. (1st day Jaipur 2,80,138/- from 5 cinemas.)

LATEST POSITION

The box-office took a severe beating on Wednesday (26th May) due to the India-Sri Lanka cricket match.

Sooryavansham proves a total loss. It has recorded extremely poor collections as it failed to pick up after a dismal start, despite appreciation. It, however, picked up in Calcutta and, to some extent, in Bihar. 1st week Bombay 28,32,459 (45.81%) from 11 cinemas (8 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 9,88,714 from 6 cinemas, Baroda 96,948, Padra 88,314, Rajkot 94,633, Jamnagar 60,966; Pune 7,58,063 from 5 cinemas, Kolhapur 1,25,000, Solapur 2,63,725 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 18,46,238 (28.43%) from 13 cinemas; Kanpur 91,577, Lucknow 2,40,591, Agra 1,69,756, Varanasi 1,03,783, Bareilly 64,403 (23.44%), Dehradun 83,282; Calcutta 29,76,819 from 27 cinemas; Nagpur 3,03,777 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur 58,687, Amravati 1,13,879, Akola 1,07,470, Raipur 1,04,049, Bhilai 80,130; Bhopal 1,45,416 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 3,35,862 from 3 cinemas; Hyderabad (gross) 21,26,662 from 9 cinemas, share (including Aurangabad, Parbhani and Warangal) 13,20,541; Vijayawada (gross) 1,50,574, Guntur (gross, 6 days) 85,952, Ongole (gross, 6 days) 97,584.

Rajaji started dropping from 2nd day onwards. 1st week Bombay 30,86,127 (65.23%) from 11 cinemas (11 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 7,83,640 from 4 cinemas, Rajkot 1,14,595; Pune 5,76,794 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 1,24,000, Solapur 2,08,517 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 28,96,036 (51.91%) from 10 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,93,457 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,76,680, Agra 2,63,589, Bareilly 90,637 (65.33%); Calcutta 2,74,982 from 1 cinema (other cinemas’ collections undisclosed); Nagpur 3,87,122 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur 83,350, Amravati 1,40,340, Akola 1,28,167, Raipur 1,48,581, Bhilai 83,462, Jalgaon 1,39,195; Indore 3,11,000 from 2 cinemas (2 on F.H.), Bhopal 2,26,438 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 5,85,487 from 3 cinemas; Hyderabad (gross) 9,05,502 from 6 cinemas (1 in noon, 1 on F.H.).

Hogi Pyar Ki Jeet 3rd week Bombay 9,63,292 (45.76%) from 5 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 2,36,259 from 3 cinemas, Rajkot (matinee) 18,492, Jamnagar 57,459; Pune 4,05,225 from 4 cinemas, Kolhapur 1,27,000, Solapur 97,187; Delhi 1,38,798 (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,35,430 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 2,29,185, Agra 1,75,948, Varanasi 1,77,980, Bareilly 70,568 (23.28%), Dehradun 93,000 (2nd 1,10,000); Calcutta 8,85,711 from 6 cinemas; Nagpur 1,86,501 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur 1,13,054, total 4,68,200, Amravati 1,62,738, Akola 1,01,166, total 3,73,886, Raipur 1,71,131, Bhilai 1,17,180, Jalgaon 1,00,389, Chandrapur 75,868, total 3,54,320; Jaipur 1,44,633, Bikaner 79,579; Hyderabad (gross) 5,76,785 from 3 cinemas (1 in noon).

Kartoos  3rd week Bombay 9,14,687 (37.97%) from 6 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Pune 99,102 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 81,617, Solapur 46,676 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), 1st week Barsi 49,561; 3rd week Delhi 3,70,700 from 3 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,45,056 from 2 cinemas, Bareilly 33,559 (15.01%), Dehradun 61,152 (2nd 1,01,003); Calcutta 1,29,879; Nagpur 70,785 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 41,028, Amravati (6 days) 28,691, Raipur (6 days) 28,005, Bhopal 41,030; Jaipur 1,23,248, Bikaner 2,24,000; Hyderabad (gross) 2,69,884 from 2 cinemas; Vijayawada 3 weeks’ total (gross) 5,10,293, 1st week Guntur (gross) 97,588.

Sarfarosh 4th week Bombay 36,82,522 (81.41%) from 11 cinemas (5 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,47,598 (2 unrecd.); Pune 9,66,035 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 1,37,570, Solapur 1,50,430, 1st week Miraj 1,09,000; 4th week Delhi 12,51,005 from 4 cinemas; Kanpur 2,01,712 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 2,73,098, Agra 1,53,926, Varanasi 1,36,489, Bareilly 42,491 (14.97%), Dehradun 1,35,000 (3rd 1,64,153); Nagpur 1,49,273, 1st Jabalpur 2,39,173, 4th week Amravati 1,42,176, Akola 63,256, total 4,26,842, Raipur 56,396, Jalgaon 80,006, 3rd week Wardha (6 days) 43,431; 4th Indore 1,72,400 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 6,22,657, Bikaner 20,481; Hyderabad (gross) 6,25,166 from 2 cinemas; Vijayawada 2 weeks’ total (gross) 4,55,085.

________

Dada Ne Wahalee Dikri (Gujarati; TF) 5th week Ahmedabad 3,10,046 from 3 cinemas, Baroda 42,500, 1st week Idar 1,05,009, 5th week Rajkot 1,04,000.

SALMAN KHAN CHARGESHEETED

Chargesheets were filed against Salman Khan and others in the court of additional civil judge and judicial magistrate P.K. Vashist of Jodhpur on 24th May for allegedly poaching protected black bucks near Jodhpur last year when he had gone there to shoot for Rajshri’s Hum Saath Saath Hain. The chargesheets have been filed under sections 147, 148, 149 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 9, 39, 51 and 52 of the Arms Act. The other accused in the chargesheets are local people, mostly related to the tourism trade.

CHOWK IN MEMORY OF LAXMIKANT

The spacious lawns at music director Laxmikant’s Juhu bungalow have been host to many a party on Diwali (Laxmi pooja) day. For, Laxmikant used to celebrate his birthday every Diwali day in style and with his film industry friends. Whisky used to flow freely at the party which used to go on till the wee hours of the following morning. Spirits used to be high at such parties which used to be largely attended.

The same lawns on 25th May this year were host to yet another film gathering. But instead of whisky, it was a sober water-melon juice that did the rounds. The spirits weren’t exactly high because the mood was sober. The occasion was the naming ceremony of a public square (chowk) outside Laxmikant’s bungalow in memory of the late music director.

Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane did the honours by unveiling the two plaques with the name of the square — Sangeetkar Laxmikant Chowk — and garlanding the plaques. Deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde was the chief guest while Hareshwar Patil (mayor of Bombay), Nitin Gadkari (public works department minister) and Datta Rane (minister for higher and technical education) were the guests of honour. Local municipal councillor Arun Deo presided over the function. Chief minister Narayan Rane promised to build a memorial of Laxmikant in Sindhudurg where the late music director was born.

Subhash Ghai and Javed Akhtar made speeches recalling the great works of Laxmikant. The ministers also spoke on the occasion. Among the other luminaries who attended the function were Manoj Kumar, Shabana Azmi, Randhir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Surinder Kapoor, Boney Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Asrani, Bindu (Laxmikant’s sister-in-law), Pyarelal, Suresh Wadkar, Kavita Krishnamoorthy, Shabbir Kumar, Shailendra Singh, Nalin Dave, Manhar Udhas, Bappi Lahiri, Aadesh Shrivastava, Ramesh Taurani and Dinesh Gandhi.

Tears welled up in the eyes of Laxmikant’s widow, Jaya, as Narayan Rane was unveiling the plaque. For, although the square-naming ceremony was a proud moment in her life, the cause for it was the saddest memory of her life.

AAMIR ON HIS HOME PRODUCTION, ‘LAGAAN’

KOMAL NAHTA

When it comes to sincerity, few can match Aamir Khan’s. For the dubbing of emotional scenes, the perfectionist star puts glycerine in his eyes and dubs the dialogues as the make-believe tears roll down his cheeks. All this, so that the voice conveys the emotions perfectly. At one such dubbing session, I met Aamir Khan as well as the glycerine bottle, placed on a table next to the chair the actor was occupying. Unfortunately though, Aamir had no use of the glycerine when I met him, since it wasn’t an emotional scene he was dubbing for. Although Mann is said to abound in tear-jerking scenes, it was a scene of fun ‘n’ frolic that Aamir was giving his voice to at Empire that evening.

The success of Sarfarosh was written all over Aamir’s face. There was no place for pride in his scheme of things, just simple joy. Yes, but he was definitely proud of debut-making director John Mathew Matthan. “The man needs credit for having made such a film — and succeeded,” remarked Aamir. For, although the film may not be a runaway hit outside Bombay and Maharashtra, it, nevertheless, is doing good business in all cities of all the circuits. In other words, no distributor stands to lose in the film. While it will give commission to its distributors of other circuits, some may even share overflow with John.

Besides Sarfarosh and Mann (about which also Aamir is extremely excited), Aamir’s home production also has the guy all charged up. Called Lagaan (Tax), the film, informed Aamir, is a period drama set in the year 1890 in a village in India. Yes, you’ve guessed it right — Aamir will wear a dhoti in the film, which will be a first in his career.

Lagaan is scripted and will be directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and, to quote Aamir, “I couldn’t believe it when I first heard the script, it’s so good.” The dialogues are being written by K.P. Saxena who Ashutosh re-discovered from do gaz zameen ke neeche. Not literally, but almost so. K.P. Saxena had penned the dialogues for Ramsays’ Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neechey although he couldn’t take credit for the same due to technical reasons. Lucknow-based Saxena also did ghost-writing for a film or two and is a well-known hasya kavi too.

Rani Mukerji was to have played Aamir’s heroine in Lagaan but a new heroine is now being finalised. “Date problems,” says Aamir, adding, “When we approached her for our film, she had already committed the dates we needed, to some other producers. She did try to adjust them for Lagaan but it was impossible for her. I, too, did not want her to cancel someone else’s dates for my film because, I wouldn’t have liked anyone doing that with dates allotted to me as a producer.”

Aamir is currently in Bhuj (Gujarat) to finalise locations for the film and is expected back in Bombay on 30th. He will fly to London on June 2 or 3 to finalise some British actors and actresses for his film. “Since the film is set in pre-Independence India, there are some British characters too in the film. Besides character artistes, one heroine will also be British,” explained the star.

Lagaan will be shot in one single schedule of four months beginning November 11. The entire shooting will be done in Bhuj. Aamir has already signed A.R. Rahman for the music score although the lyricist/s is/are yet to be finalised.

This is all I can get out of Aamir in the total of 20 minutes in between his dubbing takes. Before recordists Chaturvedi and Pradeep Suri, director Indra Kumar and producer Ashok Thakeria dubbed me an intruder on their time, I made a quick exit from Empire and remained content with listening to (and enjoying), the music of Mann. The catchline of the film — ‘Listen to your heart’ — should be rephrased, at least for the audio sales: ‘Listen to our album’. Yes, listen to it. The music grows on you and how!

YOU ASKED IT

The entire industry feared that the World Cup cricket would adversely affect the initial (opening) of Biwi No. 1. But nothing of the sort happened. What led to the bumper opening of Biwi No. 1 in the midst of World Cup cricket?

– Publicity no. 1! Vashu Bhagnani’s publicity of the film has been so brilliant that people were waiting for the film’s release. Yes, World Cup cricket does affect the box-office but the publicity and the cast of BIWI NO. 1 had made the film as eagerly awaited as World Cup cricket.

Among the forthcoming films, which do you think will take good openings?

– HINDUSTAN KI KASAM, KOHRAM, HUM DIL DE CHUKE SANAM, HASEENA MAAN JAAYEGI, MANN and TAAL.

How much cinematic liberty should a filmmaker ideally take?

– It varies from film to film. Comedies have more scope for cinematic liberties than, say, serious films.

PRODUCTION NEWS

‘Jaanwar’ In Switzerland

The last 10-day shooting spell of Shree Krishna International’s Jaanwar will begin in Switzerland on May 30. Two songs and a few scenes will be picturised on Akshay Kumar and Karisma Kapoor. The film also stars Shilpa Shetty, Mohnish Bahl, Ashutosh Rana, Ashish Vidyarthi, Malay Chakravorty, Rami Reddy, Huma Khan, Johny Lever and Shakti Kapoor. Being produced and directed by Suneel Darshan, it has music by Anand Milind. The eighth and last song was recorded on May 26 and 27 at Sahara India. It was penned by Sameer. Screenplay: Robin Bhatt. Dialogues: K.K. Singh. Cinematographer: Sameer Reddy. Action: Tinnu Verma. Dances: Raju. Editor: Sanjay Sankla.

‘One Two Ka Four’

A 7-day shooting stint of Glamour Films’ Prod. No. 2, now titled One Two Ka Four, commenced on May 23 and is currently in progress at Hotel SeaRock and on locales of Bombay. Shah Rukh Khan and Jackie Shroff are participating alongwith stuntmen. Juhi Chawla plays the female lead. Being produced by Nazir Ahmed and directed by Shashilal K. Nair, the film has music by A.R. Rahman. Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri. Screenplay: Manoj Lalwani and Rajkumar Daahima. Dialogues: Sanjay Chhel. Cinematographer: S. Kumar. Choreographer: Farah Khan. Action: Mahendra Verma.

NEWS FROM NEPAL

SIGH OF RELIEF

Trade people heaved a sigh of relief when both, Kartoos and Hogi Pyar Ki Jeet, clicked in Nepal, ensuring some returns to its distributor who has had a series of flops in the recent past. Kartoos clicked in the mountainous region (Kathmandu, Pokhra, etc.) which comprises 70% of the Nepal market. Hogi Pyar Ki Jeet, on the other hand, proved successful in the Terai region which comprises the other 30% of the market. Kartoos, like International Khiladi, took a bumper opening everywhere, whereas Hogi Pyar Ki Jeet was a slow starter.

‘JAANAM’ SHOCKS

Among the other releases in the recent past, Zulmi, Silsila Hai Pyar Ka and Phool Aur Aag were very poor. Both the big releases, Jaanam Samjha Karo and Sarfarosh, failed to get good openings and proved losers, surprising many. In fact, the fate of Jaanam Samjha Karo at the box-office baffled everyone as the film failed despite its hit music and Salman Khan’s hot-favourite status. Sarfarosh, however, has been liked by the upper class audience but they form only a negligible percentage of the total market.

NO BUYERS

Jai Hind and Sooryavansham have failed in finding buyers — mainly due to their high prices and poor market responses. Since both these movies are unregistered and not formally looked after by anyone in Nepal, it seems almost certain that the Doli Saja Ke Rakhna incident will be repeated. It seems quite likely that in a few weeks’ time, several illegal prints of the two films will be imported and screened here.

NEW RELEASES

Last week’s release, Rajaji, has not found appreciation from the audience, entailing heavy losses to its distributor. Sooryavansham, as mentioned earlier, did not find a release. Biwi No.1 has been acquired at a phenomenal price — the highest ever so far! The film’s publicity campaign and good music have buoyed the confidence of all concerned in spite of the fact that director David Dhawan’s films have, of late, not been faring too well in Nepal.

FOUL PLAY

A few non-Nepalese distributors are currently engaged in the foul practice of illegal sale of prints after a week of the film’s release here. There is a growing concern over the issue as it may prove damaging to the image of Nepal’s bona fide distributors. However uncommon may the illegal sale of prints (to buyers for U.P. interiors, Bhutan and Burma) be at present, it is feared that, if not checked, the menace will wreak havoc on producers and distributors in the near future. Already, owing to this foul activity, an unduly large number of prints are being ordered and imported, irrespective of the merits of films and the market potential. For instance, as many as six prints each of Kartoos, Jaanam Samjha Karo and Biwi No. 1 have been ordered for Nepal, which is a high number indeed. It is expected that at least two of these prints in each case will be resold after a week.

NMPA GETS TOUGH

The distributors’ wing of the Nepal Motion Picture Association (NMPA) will be taking a very strict decision, in the near future, in regard to pictures acquired for Nepal via or from Bihar. There have also been regular efforts made in the past to convince and compel Hindi film producers to sell the rights for Nepal separately, rather than with Bihar. NMPA will be holding its general body meeting on 15th and 16th June, during which a new executive committee will be formed.

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Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Hrithik Gaining Ground

Even before the release of his first film, Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai, Hrithik Roshan is said to be attracting the attention of filmmakers. Reportedly, Vidhu Vinod Chopra found Hrithik so ideal for one of the lead roles in his next, Kashmir, that he instantly signed him up for the same. If sources are to be believed, the film was originally penned with Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan in father-son roles. Currently, plans are afoot to cast Sanjay Dutt in the father’s role. Also, Preity Zinta is likely to star opposite Hrithik in the film. There are indications that, besides Kashmir, at least two other films, starring Hrithik Roshan, are likely to go under way even before Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai is released. These are Khalid Mohammed’s film (opposite Karisma Kapoor) and Mohan Kumar’s next, to be directed by Satish Kaushik.

Yet Another ‘No. 1’

Coolie No. 1, Hero No. 1, Aunty No. 1, Anari No. 1, and Biwi No. 1. To cash in on the popularity of titles with the suffix ‘No. 1’, Dayanand Mandre has titled his dubbed version of the English film, Wishmaster, as Shaitan No. 1. Mandre has mixed the dubbed version in Dolby sound. “The film,” says Mandre, “abounds in special effects and computer graphics.”

‘Mann’ Memories

The reports of the Titanic-like sinking of luxury liner Sun Vista, off the western Malaysian coast, on 21st May, must be evoking a great deal of nostalgia among the unit members of Indra Kumar’s Mann. The 70-member unit spent seven days aboard the liner last August, shooting two songs and a few scenes. Curiously, when producer Ashok Thakeria first approached Sun Cruises (which owns the ship) for permission to shoot aboard its ship, he was told that they would not want to get involved if the film was, in any way, similar to James Cameron’s Titanic! It was only after Thakeria convinced them that his film had nothing in common with the Hollywood blockbuster, that he was given permission to shoot aboard Sun Vista. Soon, the unit boarded the ship from Singapore for a 7-night cruise for a shooting stint. A choc-a-bloc schedule hardly gave any of the unit members any time to enjoy the luxurious facilities on board, yet hero Aamir Khan would usually be seen heading for the jacuzzi to unwind after pack-up. Some of the members would also spend their free time at the casino aboard the ship. One of the common topics for jokes among the unit members used to be that whether there are enough lifeboats on the liner in case it were to do a Titanic. Little would they have realised that something like that would actually happen in future. Sun Vista was on its way back to its base in Singapore with 1,104 people from 26 nations on board when it sank into the sea following an engine room fire. All were rescued and no casualty was reported. Incidentally, some of the passengers of Sun Vista had seen Titanic and sang its theme song while they were being evacuated, to keep up their spirits. The ship’s band played the tune of the same song.

BAADSHAH

Venus Records & Tapes Ltd.’s Baadshah (UA) is a thriller with comedy as its base. A private detective is mistaken for a CBI sleuth not just by the CBI team but also by the villains who are out to kill the actual sleuth. But, in fact, the private detective is on a mission to rescue a rich industrialist’s little daughter from her kidnappers. The gang of villains uses him as its pawn and sends him on a mission to kill a lady chief minister. Much as he would not like to commit the heinous crime, he finds himself in a helpless situation as the villains would blow up the little daughter of the industrialist if the private detective did not exterminate the lady. How the detective, with the aid of his friends, not only saves the chief minister and rescues the little girl but also succeeds in exposing and killing all the villains forms the climax.

The story is confusing and has too many tracks but all credit to the writers (Shyam Goel and Neeraj Vora) for doing a neat job of the screenplay. Yet, despite their best efforts, the audience does tend to get baffled because of so much confusion and misunderstanding between the characters (as required in the plot). The first half is comical and while some jokes are hilarious and mass-appealing, a few others are of the kind which can be enjoyed by the class audience only. The post-interval portion takes a comparatively serious turn and gets boring at places. The last part of the film has plenty of surprise elements but again, it has been stretched a great deal. The inspiration of the last few reels seems to have come from the Jackie Chan starrer, Rush Hour.

One major drawback of the story is that when it is shown that each and every one around the chief minister is keen to see her killed, why doesn’t just anybody actually kill her? Why force an innocent and unwilling guy (private detective) to do it? The coaxing would have made sense had one or two people, really close to the chief minister, not been part of the murder plot because then, the others would not want to risk being identified. But there’s nobody like that and one unimportant character, who could have fitted into the groove, is discarded from the scene immediately. Another drawback is excessive comedy and lack of action (except in the last part of the film). Songs, though good, are not of the hit genre. What’s more, several of the songs look and sound similar.

Shah Rukh Khan plays the private detective to perfection. He is a pleasure to watch in comedy scenes. He also dances well and comes out with flying clours in dramatic scenes. In one word, Shah Rukh is absolutely fantastic and lovable. Twinkle Khanna looks ravishing and also acts ably. Johny Lever is adorable as always and evokes laughter at several places. Amrish Puri does a fine job. Raakhee is restrained as the lady chief minister. Sachin Khedekar, as her husband, impresses. Deepshikha looks sexy and performs well. Sharat Saxena is effective. Pankaj Dheer leaves a mark. Saurabh Shukla is average and so are Neeraj Vora, Shashikala, Sudhir, Mahavir Shah, Adi Irani, Viju Khote and Charlie. Razzak Khan is good. Prem Chopra, Avtar Gill, Amrit Patel, Harpal and baby Karishma Jain lend able support. Deepak Tijori is good in a special appearance. Dinesh Hingoo provides a couple of good comic moments.

Abbas-Mustan once again prove that there is hardly anybody to match them as far as slickness and style in filmmaking go. Their direction is excellent but the same cannot be said of their choice of subject which holds more appeal for children and city audience. Dialogues are masterly at several places where they are witty and humorous. Choreography is eye-pleasing. Thomas A. Xavier’s camerawork deserves distinction marks. Locations look fabulous and so do the stars. Anu Malik’s music is above average but a film of such a canvas needed nothing but super-hit music. Action scenes are quite thrilling. Background score is effective. Production values are grandiose. Other technical aspects are brilliant.

On the whole, Baadshah will rule at the box-office in Bombay and South mainly. In the other circuits, a bumper initial will just about save the situation. Prospects in the Eastern circuit are weak.

Released on 27-8-’99 at New Excelsior and 20 other cinemas of Bombay thru V.I.P. Enterprises. Publicity & opening: extraordinary. …….Also released all over. Opening was bumper everywhere.

LATEST POSITION

The extraordinary opening of BAADSHAH this week and the general upsurge in collections on Thursday due to Raksha Bandhan holiday have brought all-round cheer.

Arjun Pandit has done very well in U.P., East Punjab and Rajasthan, from where overflow is assured. It is below the mark in Delhi and fair in other circuits. 1st week Bombay 58,02,892 (87.12%) from 13 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 16,09,622 from 6 cinemas, Asodar 1,54,646, Baroda 1,90,296, Surat 1,29,122, Valsad (gross, 26 shows) 1,70,997, Bharuch (gross) 2,81,614, Vapi (gross) 3,63,812, Patan (gross) 2,10,157, Cambay 1,52,314, Jamnagar (matinee) 30,654, Adipur 1,49,890, Bhuj 1,16,102; Pune 12,22,536 from 5 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 2,61,643, Solapur 4,31,019 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 44,67,961 (79.93%) from 9 cinemas (4 on F.H.); Kanpur 7,59,011 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 4,39,391, Allahabad 2,95,425, Hardwar 2,12,042 (91.54%); Calcutta 22,96,248 from 16 cinemas; Nagpur 7,18,030 from 5 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,45,348, Amravati (6 days) 1,93,920, Akola 1,71,400, Raipur (6 days, gross) 2,93,621, Bhilai 1,25,454 from 2 cinemas, Jalgaon (6 days) 1,84,358; Indore 3,65,411 from 2 cinemas (5 on F.H.), Bhopal 1,97,611 (1 unrecd.); Jaipur 10,40,036 from 3 cinemas, Bikaner 2,27,970 from 2 cinemas, Udaipur 3,48,700; Hyderabad (gross) 30,57,489 from 17 cinemas; Vijayawada (gross) 1,71,117.

Taal has maintained well in Bombay, Delhi and South. Is excellent in the USA and good in other parts of Overseas. Continues to be dull in the rest. 2nd week Bombay 61,80,501 (82.40%) from 11 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 11,54,301 from 4 cinemas, Baroda 2,20,639, Padra 1,94,292, Valsad 2,07,394, Jamnagar 1,02,540; Pune 12,19,534 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 1,67,656; Delhi 53,93,423 from 9 cinemas; Kanpur 2,89,511 from 2 cinemas, Varanasi 2,05,525, Allahabad 1,77,864, Bareilly 78,369, Hardwar 65,127 (21.43%); Calcutta 9,26,330 from 4 cinemas; Nagpur 3,44,219 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur 89,120, total 2,50,522, Amravati 1,78,510, Akola 1,26,800, total 3,57,195, Raipur (gross) 2,70,722, Bhilai (gross) 1,81,458, total 4,57,180, Jalgaon 1,38,525 (1st 2,18,000), Chandrapur 1,14,242, total 3,20,189, 1st Yavatmal 1,08,937; 2nd week Indore 1,60,000 (2 on F.H.), Bhopal 99,227; Jaipur 6,23,825, Jodhpur 2,75,000 (1st 3,20,000), Ajmer 94,420 (1st 1,29,626), Bikaner (6 days) 82,237, Udaipur 2,89,880 (1st 3,31,200); Hyderabad (gross) 21,46,409 from 7 cinemas, share about 10,80,000, Aurangabad 2,77,506; Vijayawada (gross) 3,53,593, Visakhapatnam (gross) 3,03,075 from 2 cinemas, Kurnool (gross) 1,30,560, Cuddapah (gross) 1,12,198 from 2 cinemas, Ananthapur (gross) 1,51,188.

Kohram has crashed almost everywhere. 2nd week Bombay 29,22,909 (47.11%) from 13 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 5,09,547 from 4 cinemas, Rajkot 1,52,830 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Jamnagar 61,028 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 6,53,960 from 5 cinemas, Kolhapur 1,50,000, Solapur 1,42,483 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 12,43,947 from 8 cinemas; Kanpur 2,26,924 from 3 cinemas, Lucknow 3,34,766 from 3 cinemas, Varanasi 1,51,179, Allahabad 1,65,006, Bareilly (6 days) 37,239; Calcutta 6,55,135 from 5 cinemas; Nagpur 2,03,121 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 61,470, Amravati (6 days) 1,59,784, Raipur (6 days) 86,905, Bhilai (6 days) 39,584, Jalgaon (6 days) 1,22,414, Yavatmal 79,745 (1st 1,75,585); Indore 69,441 (1 on F.H.); Jaipur 2,32,713 from 2 cinemas, Bikaner 1,07,605, Udaipur 1,92,835 (1st 2,18,600); Hyderabad (gross) 3,58,314 from 2 cinemas.

Hindustan Ki Kasam 5th week Bombay 5,23,249 (34%) from 5 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 43,583 from 2 cinemas, Baroda (matinee) 14,664, Rajkot 48,400 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Jamnagar (matinee) 6,439; Solapur 31,757; Delhi 1,32,780; Kanpur 45,021, Lucknow 63,894, Allahabad 28,577, Bareilly (6 days) 21,642; Nagpur 10,138, Jabalpur (6 days) 23,676, 1st week Gondia (6 days, gross) 1,02,275; 5th week Bhopal 20,000; Jaipur (24 shows) 65,193.

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Maa Te Maa Bija Wagda Na Waa (G., TF) 2nd week Ahmedabad 81,636 from 2 cinemas, poor, Rajkot 1,15,000.

MARATHI FILM ACTOR SURYAKANT MANDRE NO MORE

Veteran Marathi film actor Suryakant Mandre passed away in Pune on 22nd August following chest problems. He was 73 and is survived by his wife and three sons.

Beginning his career in Marathi films as a child actor in Dhruv (1938), Suryakant went on to act in over a hundred Marathi films. He was especially popular in the role of Shivaji Maharaj in several films including Bahirji Naik (1943), Jai Bhavani (1947), Ganimi Kava, Swarajyacha Shiledar (1951), Pavan Khind (1956) and others. His other memorable roles include that of a comedian in Amhi Jato Amuchya Gava (1968). In Kaul De Khanderaya, he was paired with his brother, Chandrakant.

“HONEST” SOLUTION!

Reacting to the article published in our issue last week under the caption ‘Film-Making Today — Overseas Market: Is Its Bigness Eclipsing Home Market?’, producer-director Rajkumar Santoshi remarked:

“The solution offered by you (Film Information) at the end of the article is incorrect. It is a regressive solution.” (We had said that the solution lay in making a HAHK..! or a DDLJ, which would click in Overseas as also in Bihar and the rest of India). The real solution, according to Santoshi, lies in being honest to oneself. He substantiated, “If a maker feels, his film caters to the tastes of audience in Overseas more than in, say, Bihar, he should be honest enough to sell the distribution rights for Bihar at a much smaller price. Why must he sell Bihar or another territory, in which the film may not be expected to fare well, at the high ratio fixed for other territories like Overseas? Let the makers be honest to themselves. Therein lies the solution.” Point noted, Mr. Santoshi!

“MAKE FILMS FOR OVERSEAS, NOT BIHAR”: BIPIN SAVLA

Reacting to our last week’s article, ‘Film-Making Today — Overseas Market: Is its Bigness Eclipsing Home Market?’, Bipin Savla, the associate producer of Raja Hindustani, asserts that films should henceforth be made for Overseas only, instead of keeping Bihar as the yardstick. His reasoning is based on the fact that even after Raja Hindustani proved a super-duper hit all over, the film’s Bihar distributor was ‘unable’ to share the overflow with the producer. “If a film like Raja Hindustani fails to get overflow from Bihar, no film can get overflow from there,” says Savla.

With business having gone into overdrive, Overseas is not the kind of territory it used to be. “Previously,” points out Bipin Savla, “Overseas used to be a subsidiary territory, sold on outright basis, but today, it is sold on MG royalty basis. On the other hand, producers used to sell Bihar on MG royalty basis, but today, the MG price of Bihar is as good as outright price.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS & LAUNCHINGS

Vashu Launches Film With Abhishek: A. Muthu Turns Director

Producer Vashu Bhagnani launched Puja Films’ Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya on the auspicious day of Raksha Bandhan (Aug. 26) with a song recording at Mehboob Recording Theatre. The song, penned by Sameer, was rendered (on 27th) by Sonu Nigam and Kavita Krishnamoorthy. Music was composed by Ismail Darbar.

Editor A. Muthu turns a director with this film to roll in September. Abhishek Bachchan has been signed for the lead role. A heroine and other cast are being finalised. Writers: Robin Bhatt and Ikram Akhtar. Dialogues: Javed Siddiqi.

YOU ASKED IT

Is it right to say that making a universal hit is becoming increasingly difficult?

– Not at all! Pick up a universally appealing subject, work on it very hard and make a film — you may have a universal hit on your hands. Today, only a few films are doing universally good business because there’s lack of sincerity on the part of the makers, generally speaking. The pursuit is to make big money (by selling the film at high ratios) more than a big hit. Besides, the territorial ratios need to be revised. Ratios of Bengal and C.P.C.I. Rajasthan need to be brought down.

What is the business of Marathi film Bindhast likely to be?

– About 1.5 crore — maybe, a little more also — from Bombay, Maharashtra, C.P. Berar and Marathwada.

Which has been the biggest success in West Bengal and Bihar so far this year?

– SOORYAVANSHAM and HOGI PYAR KI JEET respectively.

IN & OUT OF BOMBAY

Producer-director Govindbhai Patel, currently in Bombay at Cyrus Hotel (382-7215/1947), will leave for Baroda on 30th August.

Producer Boney Kapoor is in Hyderabad and will return on 30th August.

Producer S. Raamanathan left for Madras this afternoon (28th August).

Mr. R.N. Mandre of Mandre Pictures, Bangalore, is leaving for Kathmandu today (Aug. 28) and will be back in Bombay on the evening of 29th. On 1st Sept., he will leave for Venice to attend the Venice Film Festival for 4-5 days and then fly to London from there. He will be back in Bombay on 10th Sept.

DO YOU KNOW?

* After the failure of RAJAJI, Vimal Kumar has decided to take a break from direction for at least a year. Meanwhile, he is working on two projects that he will be producing simultaneously — one, to be directed by Kuku Kolhi, and the other, by Satish Kaushik.

* Juhi Chawla is making a special appearance in Raj Babbar’s Hindi-Punjabi bilingual, SHAHEED UDDHAM SINGH.

* Santosh Singh Jain has served as president of the Central Circuit Cine Association (CCCA) for a total of 32 years in the 46-year history of the Association. His first stint as president was from 1964 to 1969; second, from 1970 to 1982; and the present, which began in 1984.

* As a distributor, Mohanji Prasad has become active all over again after keeping a low profile despite the big success of DULHE RAJA in Bihar. He has now acquired five films for Bihar! His acquisitions are Boney Kapoor’s PUKAAR, Shyam Bajaj’s KAHIN PYAR NA HO JAYE, Salim Akhtar’s BADAL, Harmesh Malhotra’s ANKHIYON SE GOLI MAARE, Vijay Galani’s new film, and B. Subhash’s DULHAN BANOO MEIN TERI (the last-named film for South Bihar only).

* Subhash Ghai’s TAAL has been dubbed in Tamil as TAALAM.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Lot’s In A Name!

Talk about a movie living up to its name. Last week, the airing of Mehul Kumar’s Kohram on cable in Simla saw a widespread ruckus being created in the city by National Students Union of India activists. As a protest against the students’ vandalism, shops in the entire city remained closed on 21st August. The activists were protesting against depiction of a corrupt minister, played by Danny Denzongpa in the film, named Virbhadra Singh, as that also happens to be the name of the Congress leader and former chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir. As if this weren’t enough, Danny’s character is fondly referred to in the film as ‘Raja Saheb’ which, coincidentally, is also how the politician is generally addressed by the people. Thus when the film was being broadcast, a number of NSUI  activists marched to the cable operator’s premises and went on a rampage, smashing equipment and beating up employees. At the end of it all, the premises of the cable operator, who showed Kohram, itself looked like a scene of kohram! May be Mehul Kumar’s next film will be called Shanti!

‘Star Wars’ Takes Europe By Storm On Debut

The European launch of Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace is an earth-shattering success, if its opening weekend collections in 27 territories all over Europe are anything to go by. Hitting the European screens 11 weeks after its premiere release, this George Lucas marvel has grossed US dollars 26,368,311 from 3,302 screens between August 19 and 22. Among the top-grossing European countries for the film are Austria (USD 1,373,325 from 110 screens), Denmark (932,403 from 66), Germany (12,437,889 from 1,001), Norway (889,637 from 73), Spain (4,306,674 from 352) and Sweden (1,616,025 from 100).

In Japan, where the film is currently running in its seventh week, it has registered a total collection of USD 79,870,663 so far. In UK, the film has grossed USD 67,922,394 in six weeks and is all set to surpass Jurassic Park as the third highest grossing film ever released in UK.

The total Overseas collections of Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace stand at USD 271,754,182, making it the highest grossing film of the year. Its U.S. box-office collections have crossed USD 417 million already.

Karisma Not Quitting….. Keep Quizzing!

Is Karisma Kapoor getting married? Is she not getting married? Is she quitting films? Is she not? Ever since Karisma walked out of Deepak Shivdasani’s Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke, these questions have dominated every discussion on films, whether in trade circles or non-trade circles. The answer to these questions is: Karisma is not quitting films because she has no plans to get married now. Why, the girl in demand has even signed one or two new films just recently. Which ones are they? No, no, their names can’t be revealed here. Let this new question now dominate the discussions on films — whether in trade or non-trade circles!

The Long & The Short Of It

One cannot doubt the intentions of those producers who make their films long. Perhaps, they sincerely intend giving ‘full value for money’ (FVM). But, of late, there have been films which have been described (by the trade as well as the audience) as being “too lengthy”. Some recent examples are International Khiladi, Mann, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Taal and this week’s release, Baadshah (length: 4,929.47 metres).

Of course, there are examples of films, which despite being long, have never been dubbed “lengthy”. In fact, they have proved to be long-runners, like Sangam, Waqt, Sholay, Dulhan Wohi Jo Piya Man Bhaaye, Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! and even the Hollywood international blockbuster, Titanic.

Providing a stark contrast to the big ones, as is the current trend, is Hello Brother, the running time of which is only 2 hours and 15 minutes (length: 3,694.10 metres), which the exhibitors feel is “short, very short”.

One is apt to ask, “Then what should be the optimum length of a film? A veteran editor’s oft-repeated sermon to his assistants and directors used to be, “A film should be as long as it entertains. At the end of it, the viewers should wish for more”. That’s the long and short of it.

So Said Hitchcock

While on the topic of length of a film, it would not be out of place to recall Alfred Hitchcock’s humorous quote: “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.”

Obviously, he said this with reference to English films. Thank God, Hindi cinegoers have an interval to go to the toilet to empty their bladders!

Busybee Distributors

Mohan Chitra must be the busiest distributors not just in C.P. Berar but in the whole of India. The concern has in the last 2-3 months released in C.P. Berar Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Mann, Taal, Arjun Pandit, and Baadshah this week. Its forthcoming releases are 1947 Earth (10th September) and Dil Kya Kare (24th September). The deals would happily go on. Happy dealing!

Joke Of The Week

Since elections are round the corner, here is a true and timely incident that truly brings out music maestro Kalyanji’s vintage humour. Some years ago, someone asked him, “Why is it that more and more actors are standing for elections nowadays?” Kalyanji replied with a deadpan face, “That is because today, people want a government which can act.”! More humour Kalyanji ishtyle, next week.

ASHA PAREKH IS FULLY TO BLAME

Dear Sir,

This has reference to an article published in Film Information in the issue dated 21st August ’99 under the heading, ‘WHY BLAME ASHA PAREKH?’, which is totally misleading.

The writer has quoted various rules of the Cinematograph Act but is apparently not aware of the ground realities in the country where rules are only meant to be quoted for convenience, and, in actual practice, rules are bypassed to harass and torture those who don’t blindly toe your line. Can Asha Parekh explain why ever since she became the chairperson, every medium- and small-budget filmmaker has started getting nightmares at the very thought of getting his film censored. If she is not responsible, how is it that big films are censored in a matter of days whereas small films are held up for months, and the producer is tortured and harassed to such an extent that he has to reshoot and also submit revised versions before the high and mighty chairperson agrees to sign the certificate? Is it not a fact that the regional officer and assistant regional officers have clearly and categorically been instructed to make the passing of small-budget films impossible by appointing only such members on the examining committee as are known to be having views similar to those of the chairperson? I challenge the chairperson to prepare a chart of the passing of small-budget films and the whole world will come to know how the personal bias and prejudice of the chairperson is responsible for the torture and trauma of small-budget filmmakers.

The chairperson cannot deny that she is biased against such films because she has gone on record in her interviews to say that small-budget horror and sex films will not be passed in her tenure as they are anti-scientific, obscurantist, vulgar and against Indian culture. It is not at all surprising that the reason for refusal of certificates to nearly all the small-budget films in the letter of refusal is that the film has a thin storyline or that it is a crudely made film, unscientific, obscurantist and against Indian culture and values. I would like to know that if the denial of certificate is not as per the directions of the chairperson then how is the reason for denial the same for every picture? This not only speaks of lack of application of mind by the EC and RO but total bias of Ms. Asha Parekh. I want to know from her if Fire and Bombay Boys, having lesbianism and gay themes, are her ideas of Indian culture and values. As far as ‘unscientific’ and ‘obscurantist’ are concerned, it is apparent that Ms. Asha Parekh does not watch TV because millions of people watch ‘unscientific’ and ‘obscurantist’ material on all TV channels which are also viewed by children, but adult citizens of the country who vote and elect the government can’t see such films even after buying tickets. I would like to ask Film Information, how is it that no film was refused certificate on grounds of being unscientific and obscurantist before the unfortunate appointment of Ms. Asha Parekh? Moreover, in this case, how can it be said that she is not responsible?

Asha Parekh’s justification in the press for her action in banning small films is that some film was found with interpolation, but does she not realise that for one criminal, you cannot execute a full community? The laws of the country are very clear and if somebody commits a crime, the law will deal with him, and all producers cannot be penalised for the mistake of one.

I am very grateful to Mr. Shekhar Kapur and others because of whom the whimsical and illogical behaviour of the CBFC is out in the open and we can talk about it because so far, out of fear of persecution, the Indian filmmakers had no choice but to bear the humiliation like in my case where reference to ISI of Pakistan was cut in my film, Chote Nawab Bade Nawab, but Sarfarosh, based totally on ISI, was passed as it was a big film. Asha Parekh should realise that every film, whether big or small, is the maker’s dream and the Constitution of India gives the right of freedom of expression to every individual as also the producer, and the viewer has the right to see whatever he wants. Therefore, it is essential that the CBFC should just do its job i.e. certify films and not ban, cut films and try to change films and the society because its job is to certify films and not to be the moral guardian of the country.

– Naresh Mohnot
Proprietor
N.D.R. Productions,
Bombay.

SHOWBIZ TODAY

CITY PULSE: A DREAM SHOW PLACE

How often have you had to fight for getting space on the hand-rest of your chair in a cinema hall? Or how many times have you had to look with disgust at the gentleman sitting behind you in a dark cinema hall when he moved in his seat but, due to lack of enough leg space, kicked your seat or feet? Just how often have you tripped on the steps leading to the auditorium as you groped your way late into a cinema hall with all lights switched off? In the interval, how many times have you had to postpone visiting the toilet simply because you’d have to stand in a queue in a smelly toilet and, after the job is done, try to get water out of a dry tap which is part of a shaky wash-basin?

At City Pulse, the newly-started cineplex at Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat, you encounter none of these problems. Every chair in all the three cinemas of the multiplex has a hand-rest on either side. The leg-space between the two rows of chairs is so much that one can push back his chair and yet not disturb the person in front of him. The stairs leading to the landing of the auditorium are all dotted with tiny bulbs which are kept lit for 15 to 20 minutes after a film starts, for the comfort of latecomers. As for the toilets — take that wrinkle off your nose — they don’t stink. The wash-basins have automated taps from which water flows as soon as one’s hands come under them. The flushes too work automatically.

It this isn’t customer care, there’s plenty more at City Pulse built on a huge expanse of land on the Sabarmati-Gandhinagar highway, a cool 20 to 25-minute drive from Ahmedabad city. The foyer for ticket bookings is of 4,000 sq, ft. and this leads to the cinema foyer which is about 6,500 sq. ft. in area and has a huge fish tank on one side. Three different kinds of lights adorn the ceiling of the foyer. Screens 1 and 2 are opposite each other on the ground floor and the 3rd screen is on the first floor. Wall-to-wall carpets in the cinemas, ultra-comfortable chairs with cold-drink holders, wide screens 65 ft. 55 ft. and 50 ft. in the three cinemas, Dolby digital and DTS sound systems, air-conditioning plants which are kept on throughout every show, all these make cinema viewing a pleasure at City Pulse. Little wonder then that despite being far away from the city, the cinema has been able to build a large and loyal clientele in a short span of a little over three months only. Of course, the distance from the city has its disadvantage too because the 12 noon and 3 p.m. shows are not heavily patronised. But the evening and night shows witness people flocking in large numbers in cars. Car parking, which is usually a cinegoer’s nightmare, is like a nice dream here — there’s parking space for 600 cars! Compare this with the combined seating capacity of the three screens — 1,240 — and you’d understand why car-parking is not a nightmare at City Pulse.

A common projection room caters to all the three screens and it is fully automated with minimal requirement for handling prints. A single print of Taal was screened in its release week in two screens of City Pulse with a difference of barely a minute between the screening time in the two cinemas. Christie’s projectors, auto rewinding facilities and the latest sound equipments make projection a left-hand task.

There’s a single class in all the three cinemas — Screen 1 has 566 seats, Screen 2 has 445 seats and Screen 3, 229 seats — and the ticket rate is uniform, Rs. 100. Each cinema also has separate boxes for VIPs. Yes, the cinema has become a sure spot for spotting VIPs on Saturday and Sunday evenings. For, as the popcorn packets sold at the cinema mention: ‘3 theatres and a picnic’. The whole experience at City Pulse is indeed like a picnic. Besides the beautifully done-up cinemas and immaculately maintained place, there’s a huge compound, in one corner of which is a food court that does brisk business. On another side of the compound, under a huge tree, there’s a live band playing music every evening — Hindi music on four days and English music on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Visitors sit on paadars (stone platforms built around trees), listening to the live band, before the film begins and in the interval. There are water fountains in front of and behind the band, adding to the music. Lush green trees heighten the overall ambience of the place.

A bowling alley, a games parlour and a theme restaurant are under construction in the same premises. An amphitheatre and a conference room as well as 5-star rooms and green rooms for visiting artistes, singers and performers are also under-construction.

The first foyer has a huge wall with a collage of photographs of film stars. Made at a cost of Rs. 3.5 lakh, the collage attracts the attention of many a cinegoer.

The entire complex has cost owner Ashok Purohit many crores but an excellent policy of the Gujarat government makes it a viable business proposition. For ten years, there will be no entertainment tax and show tax on films screened at the cineplex, and no sales tax and turnover tax on eatables sold there. Electricity duty is also not leviable. Easy loans from financial institutions is another aid.

Purohit, it needs to be mentioned here, is himself a leading architect of Ahmedabad. His capabilities as a professional and his aesthetics are evident in every corner of the complex. What also comes to the fore is his concern for cinegoers. While any other businessman would have tried to cut down on wastage of space to make the proposition more economically viable, Purohit has done just the reverse. For example, while the rules provide for exit stairways of a breadth of 5 feet, his stairways are 7 and even 10 feet broad. The cinema exits are 2, 4 and 6 in the three screens in place of the 1, 2 and 3 respectively required by law. This is to ensure quicker exit of people in case of an accident like fire. Remember the infamous Uphaar cinema fire tragedy of 1997 in Delhi? Ashok Purohit has been helped in the designing by his daughter and son-in-law who, too, are architects. His second daughter, who is an interior designer, has done the interiors. Unbelievable as it may sound, the beautiful complex was up and running in just 15 months of its commencement. So well-designed and well-maintained is the cineplex that word has already spread in the industry. Little wonder then that the cinema has had exhibitors from places like Pune (Chaphalkar), Delhi, Nasik and Nagpur visiting it to design their planned multiplexes on similar lines. The incomplete part of the multiplex would be completed in a few months from now. Ashok Purohit’s wife looks after the day-to-day functioning and administrative side of the cineplex. Even before the screening of films started there on 7th May, 1999, the Purohits had organised a live performance of Daler Mehndi at the complex. Ila Arun too sang and danced at the show.

Not really a film man before this, Ashok Purohit was truly initiated into the idea of constructing an entertainment complex when he and his wife visited Universal Studios in Hollywood and saw Citywalk multiplex there. Fifty-five-year old Purohit is so happy with his first multiplex that he now plans to construct more such entertainment plazas in the years to come. He is already designing one with four screens in Nagpur for film financier N. Kumar.

Ashok Purohit, besides being a renowed architect, is also a deeply religious man. In fact, on one side of the cinema, there’s a huge lawn (not open to the public) with a small temple in one corner of it. Purohit points out to the idols of Lord Shiva and Sai Baba there and introduces them thus: “They are my partners in business. I don’t get the time to look after the affairs of the cineplex but I know, my God, my partners are taking care of it.”

Taking care of the bookings for the three screens is exhibitor Nandu Bohra. Purohit has only words of praise for Bohra’s business acumen and gives him a lot of credit for the success of City Pulse in the industry. A look at the table alongside will indicate what fabulous collections films at City Pulse have netted. For example, as against the 3-lakh share of Taal from Ahmedabad city in its first week, one print at City Pulse yielded a share of Rs. 11 lakh in 1 week! Even a film like Mann has yielded a share of Rs. 20 lakh from City Pulse in its 7-week run so far.

Shouldn’t the popcorn packets now read: ‘3 theatres and a picnic — and for distributors, a big pick!?’

– Komal Nahta

UDAAN

Tridev Arts’ Udaan (UA) is the story of a daughter’s revenge for her father’s murder. The father is murdered by his business partners when he does not succumb to their pressure to add opium and other drugs in a tonic manufactured by their company. The killers try to thwart the daughter’s attempt at seeking revenge by declaring her mad and admitting her in a mental asylum. They are helped in this by an evil doctor. But finally, the daughter and five other inmates of the asylum escape from there to wipe out the villains one by one.

The story is ordinary and similar to revenge dramas seen earlier. Screenplay has been written unimaginatively. Save for a few light or exciting scenes, the first three-fourths of the film is quite dull. The last quarter of the drama, after the six people escape from the mental asylum, is somewhat better. Dialogues are ordinary.

Rekha is quite good. She does well in action scenes too. Saif Ali Khan and Madhoo are fair in comparatively less significant roles. Danny Denzongpa, Dalip Tahhil, Prem Chopra and Mohan Joshi are good as a team of villains. Prem Chopra entertains too. Saeed Jaffrey is very good in a brief role. Mohnish Bahl, Annu Kapoor, Asrani, Deven Varma, Makrand Deshpande, Sulbha Arya, Achyut Potdar, Harish Patel and the others lend ordinary support.

Asrani’s direction is fair. Music is okay. ‘Gayaa re dank maar bichhua’ is the better of the songs. Picturisations of the songs are routine. Action is ordinary. Photography is good. The film has taken a long time in the making and it shows.

On the whole, Udaan is devoid of an exciting drama and heroism. It has some chance in ‘B’ and ‘C’ class centres only.

Released on 3-10-’97 at Alankar, Ganga Palace (matinee) and 20 other cinemas of Bombay thru ABC Pictures P. Ltd. Publicity: dull. Opening: average. …….Also released all over except in C.P. Berar.

DHARMA-KARMA

Prince Pictures’ Dharma-Karma (A) is a dull drama about two persons falsely implicated in crimes they haven’t committed. As destiny would have it, one person’s younger brother and the other person’s son also get implicated in a crime. How the two persons save their wards forms the climax of the film in which the identity of the actual criminal (for which the wards are framed) is also revealed. If the story does not arrest attention of the viewer, the screenplay is confusing and the suspense is hardly interesting. Dialogues are too commonplace to be true.

Dharmendra and Jeetendra are very ordinary and both look old. Rahul Roy does well. Trishna is okay. Rohit Kumar does not impress. Karina Grover has no worthwhile role. Rajesh Shringarpure is too ordinary to be noticed. Mohan Joshi, Punit Issar and Sanjeeva make commonplace villains. Upasna Singh, Dan Dhanoa, Gajendra Chauhan, Sanjay Shah and the others pass muster.

Direction is dull. Music is functional. Action scenes do not create much of an impact. Camerawork and other technical and production values are so-so.

On the whole, Dharma-Karma is a dull fare with only its low price being a plus point.

Released on 3-10-’97 at Dreamland and 4 other cinemas of Bombay thru Jupiter Enterprises. Publicity: dull. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over.

‘DHOONDTE REH JAAOGE’ ALL-INDIA BUSINESS

Bombay distributor Suresh Vora of MBS Combine will handle the all-India business of Satish Shah’s Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge. Parties desirous of acquiring distribution rights of the film for any territory can contact Suresh Vora on the following telephone numbers:- Office: 388-8340, 386-0693; Residence: 640-3091; Cellphone: 98200-64030.

KAMAL MUKUT BEREAVED

Bansidhar Mukut, father of Kamal Mukut and grandfather of Deepak Mukut (DHL Creations), expired on 28th September in Jaipur. Kamal Mukut, who was away in London, rushed back to Jaipur on hearing the news.

SULTAN AHMED RE-ELECTED IMPPA PRESIDENT

Sultan Ahmed was re-elected president of the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association for the fourth successive term, at the first meeting of the newly elected executive committee held on 28th September at IMPPA House. Sundeep Sethi was elected senior vice president, and Sushama Shiromanee, vice president. S.K. Kapur was elected honorary treasurer.

The following 16 members from the Ordinary class and 5 from the Associate class I were earlier, on 27th September, elected to the executive committee for 1997-98 after the 58th annual general meeting of the IMPPA at ISKCON:

Ordinary class: K.D. Shorey (he polled the highest number of votes — 67 out of a total polling of just 87), Saawan Kumar Tak (61 votes), Pranlal Mehta (61), Sultan Ahmed (58), Vinay Kumar Sinha (58), Mehul Kumar (57), Sushama Shiromanee (56), B. Subhash (55), B.S. Shaad (54), Satish Khanna (54), A. Krishnamurthy (51), Sundeep Sethi (51), Pawan Kumar (51), Surendra Mohan (48), Anil Ganguly (46) and Madan Mohla (46).

Associate class I: There were no elections and all the five candidates in the fray — Anand Girdhar, Dimppy Ramdayal, Ranjeet, S.K. Kapur and Surjit Aujla — were declared elected unopposed.

PAHLAJ NIHALANI RE-ELECTED AMPTPP PRESIDENT

Pahlaj Nihalani was re-elected president of the Association of Motion Picture & TV Programme Producers (AMPTPP) for 1997-98 at the first meeting of its newly constituted governing council held on 29th September at Citizen Hotel, Juhu, Bombay, immediately after the annual general meeting. Shyam Benegal, Amit Khanna, Shabnam Kapoor and Satish Kulkarni were elected vice presidents, and Kamal Kumar Barjatya and Yash Johar, hon. treasurers. Jimmy Nirula was elected hon. secretary.

Earlier, the following members, besides the above, were elected to constitute the governing council: G.P. Sippy, Manmohan Shetty, Gulshan Rai, Bhappi Sonie, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Subroto Bose, N.D. Kothari, Subhash Ghai, N. Chandra, Harmesh Malhotra, Pramod Chakravorty, Ratan Jain, Ramesh Taurani, Salim Akhtar, Mahesh Kothare and Vashu Bhagnani.

RAM KUMAR BHARDWAJ ELECTED NIMPA CHIEF

Ram Kumar Bhardwaj was unanimously elected president of the Northern India Motion Pictures Association (NIMPA) in Jalandhar at its 48th annual general meeting held on 22nd September. Kanwal Kishore was elected vice president, Yash Paul Mittal, hon. general secretary, and Surinder Sehgal, hon. joint secretary. Romesh Chander Gupta was elected hon. treasurer.

The other members of the executive committee are: Dharam Paul Arora, Madan Lal Kapoor, Inderjit Walia, Tarlok Saggi, Narinder Singh Walia, Anil Kumar Puri, Vijay Kumar Tandon, Joginder Jaggi, Amrik Singh and Ashok Kumar Sharma.

IMPPA TO CELEBRATE DIAMOND JUBILEE

The Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association will celebrate the completion of its 60 years by organising a function, IMPPA 60, in December in Bombay. This announcement was made by IMPPA president Sultan Ahmed at its 58th annual general meeting on 27th September at ISKCON, Juhu, Bombay.

The awards of honour presented to five vetarans at the annual general meeting of the IMPPA every year will this time be presented at the IMPPA 60 celebrations. The veterans to be honoured are Anil Biswas, Babubhai Mistry, Dara Singh, P. Jairaj and Shakti Samanta. An award will also be given to the best commercial successful film of the preceding year viz. Raja Hindustani. In addition to the above awards, a special scroll of honour will be presented to Janki Dass for his role in the freedom struggle.

A souvenir will be brought out on the occasion of the celebrations.

FFI MEETS I & B MINISTER

The Film Federation of India arranged a dinner meeting with the Union Information and Broadcasting minister, Jaipal Reddy, on 27th September at Jade Garden. Many important issues concerning the industry were discussed at the meeting. Earlier, Mr. Reddy visited Hyderabad, Bangalore and Madras to exchange views with the members of the film industry there. The following items were mainly discussed in Bombay: (1) countervailing duty payable on raw stock; (2) repatriation of foreign exchange; (3) disallowance of benefit under section 80 HHC of the Income-Tax Act; (4) reconstitution of the NFDC Board; and (5) telecasting films with UA certificates.

The minister was accompanied by I & B secretary C.R. Kamalanathan, joint secretary (films) Raghu Menon and personal secretary to the minister, A.P. Sahani.

The FFI was represented by the various sectors of the film industry. The members present were: president K.G. Dossani, K.D. Shorey (hon. general secretary), N.N. Sippy (hon. treasurer), G.P. Sippy, B.R. Chopra, Ramanand Sagar, Shakti Samanta, Ravi Gupta, Saawan Kumar, T.C. Dewan, Mahavir Jain, Mahesh Kothare, Satish Kulkarni, A.S. Narang, Indravadan Shah, Somandra Batra, Neena Garkel, Balkrishna Shroff, U.A. Thadani, Kiran V. Shantaram, Vinod Ganatra, Arunaraje, Dineshwar Sinha and Rajendra Singh Hora. Supran Sen, secretary, Film Federation of India, and Anil Pandit, general manager, NFDC, were also present.

KADER KHAN ON SMALL SCREEN

Kader Khan will soon be seen on the small screen too. He is playing a double role in Sameer Productions’ serial, Mr. Dhansukh. It will go on air from 8th October and will be telecast every Wednesday at 8.30 p.m. on DD Metro. Producer: Babubhai Thiba.

DARA SINGH ELECTED PFPA PRESIDENT

Dara Singh was unanimously elected president of the Punjabi Film Producers Association for 1997-98 at its annual general meeting held on 28th September at Dara Villa. B.S. Shaad was elected senior vice president, and Priti Sapru, vice president. Iqbal Channa and Thakur Tapssvi were elected hon. general secretary and treasurer respectively. S.R. Kapur and Baljeet Parmar were elected joint secretaries.

The other members elected to the executive committee are: Bhushan Madan, Jarnail Singh, Pammi Veerendra, Ravinder Ravi, Sardool Atwal, Surinder Walia, Vinod Sharma, Tarsem Badhan and Yogesh Chhabra.

BABY BOY

Rajkumar Agrawal, proprietor of Rajkumar Talkies, Pusad (Maharashtra), was blessed with a baby boy on 26th September at Khamgaon.

IDPA MEETS I & B MINISTER

The Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) met I & B minister Jaipal Reddy on 28th September at the Discovery of India Building, Nehru Centre, Bombay. IDPA president Arunaraje thanked the minister for the initiative taken by his ministry in granting IDPA a regular slot on Doordarshan for showing documentaries.

The IDPA members discussed with Mr. Reddy the problems of documentary makers in the production, distribution and exhibition sectors. A copy of the recommendations on the proposed Broadcast Bill 1997 was also presented to Reddy. This had been the result of a day’s workshop organised jointly by IDPA, RAPA, Ad Club and IAA-Indian chapter at the World Trade Centre.

YOU ASKED IT

Of late, films are not being released simultaneously in one or the other circuit. For example, Mohabbat and Hameshaa were released all over but not in West Bengal. What does this indicate?

– That bad times have begun for producers.

Is there any difference in the pattern of behaviour of distributors these days?

– Two years ago, distributors used to rush and fall over one another to buy films on their accouncement itself. Today, they are sometimes not even interested in acquiring star-cast films at the time of their release, unless they are available at reasonable prices. There isn’t cut-throat competition now.

What is the difference between film dealings today and earlier?

– Today, there’s no sanctity of contract, no morals, no ethics, no respect for the other’s feelings. Everybody has become selfish.

HERE & THERE

Delhi Made Permanent Venue For Competitive IFFI

The speculation on the film industry taking over the organisation of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is over. Though the industry had shown keenness to take over the reins, the government couldn’t be satisfied. Perhaps, some influential filmmakers and bureaucrats have a greater say in the matter.

Last week, a meeting of the advisory committee of the festival was held in New Delhi, and the committee not only took a decision to make Delhi the permanent venue of the IFFI but also to make the festival competitive once again. The meeting was conducted under the chairmanship of I & B secretary C.R. Kamalanathan and was attended by Adoor Gopalakrishnan, D.V.S. Raju, K.D. Shorey, Ravi Gupta, Suresh Chhabria and Malati Sahay. As the quality of the films being screened in the international fetes is going down year by year, the members decided to make the maximum efforts to select only good films for the IFFI and try to bring reputed filmmakers to India to attend the fete and to interact with their Indian counterparts.

As Bombay will also be holding its own international film festival from this year onwards, and Calcutta and Thiruvananthapuram are already holding such festivals, the audience of these mega cities may not feel sorry. Now, Madras, Bangalore and Hyderabad may go the Bombay way.

Nine Cinemas Of Delhi Ordered To Be Closed

The licensing branch of the Delhi Police issued orders of suspension of licences and closure of nine cinemas immediately. The nine cinemas are: Palace, Ritz, Excelsior, Westend, Laxmi Palace, New Amar, Kushal, Jagat and Imperial.

After the Uphaar cinema tragedy in June this year, the authorities have become more strict in following the rules. The above cinemas were running with temporary licences and failed to get the clearance certificates from the health department, fire department, electricity board and the building authorities.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Shringar Films, the Bombay distributors of JAB DIL KISI PE AATA HAI, have decorated a bus shelter at Marine Drive, Bombay, with illuminated designs of the film. In Hyderabad, members of the Nagarjuna Fan Club, wearing logos of the film (starring Nagarjuna) and carrying umbrellas, moved on roller-skates throughout Hyderabad and Secunderabad, as a publicity gimmick on the day of release and the following day. The fan club members were flagged off from Annapurna Studos by Nagarjuna and Tabu. …In Agra, the management of Anjana cinema was forced to hold special shows one night (at 12 midnight and 3 a.m.) due to public demand.

Red Badshah In Pink City

If it’s K.C. Bokadia’s film, it has to be shot in Rajasthan. This Rajasthani producer-director, or, as he likes to call himself, Merta ka chhora, loves his mitti too much, it seems.

And so, like so many of his almost 30 production ventures, Lal Badshah too is being shot in Rajasthan. In the Pink City — Jaipur — to be more precise. In the City Palace of Jaipur, to be even more precise. That’s on the day we visit the set. It has been shot in a private bungalow the previous day.

There are some changes to be made in the climax which is to be shot in the massive and beautiful City Palace belonging to Bhawani Singh. Bokadia doesn’t tell us so but that’s what we gather. And that’s why, shooting is delayed quite a bit as the producer-director is locked in a room with his writers, P.D. Mehra and Anwar Khan, weighing the pros and cons of the various alternatives.

His entire unit is in Jaipur for the climax shooting. There’s Amitabh Bachchan who, obviously, is playing the title role; and there are Manisha Koirala, Shilpa Shetty, Amrish Puri, Shakti Kapoor, Raghuvaran, Mukesh Rishi, Vikas Anand and Mohan Joshi. Sunil Shetty, too, would’ve been there had he and Bokadia not mutually decided that he would not act in the film. No, there was no tension whatsoever between the two. Rather, Sunil could not give K.C. Bokadia the priority dates he wanted, to complete the film and so the latter decided to change the script by doing away completely with Sunil’s character and role. We gather that Bokadia is in a hurry to complete shooting because Bachchan Badshah wants it that way. And Amitabh Bachchan wants it to be completed quickly because he has liked the film’s rushes and so has his brother, Ajitabh. Obviously then, the Bachchans are keen that Lal Badshah be Amitabh’s first release now. ABCL’s Major Saab will follow Lal Badshah.

Of course, when we ask Amitabh about the release re-scheduling of the two films, he quips, “Lal Badshah was always scheduled to be released before Major Saab.” Never mind, what finally matters is that Bokadia’s Badshah will decide whether Bachchan Badshah still has it in him to draw the crowds. From what Bokadia tells us of Amitabh’s role, it does seem that, age notwithstanding, Amitabh just might pull it off this time. He speaks in a Bihari accent in the film and it indeed suits him very much, giving his character so much more colour. Now, don’t say that the colour lal in the title is enough!

Manisha Koirala also plays an interesting role, that of an LIC agent who finds it very difficult to obtain business for her company. An idea about her character can be had from this interesting scene: Manisha is threatened of being relieved of her job, by her boss if she does not get more customers for her company. Upon this, she begs of her boss not to dismiss her as that would kill her children. The perplexed boss chides her for bluffing him as he knows that she isn’t married. Manisha assures him that she is not lying, that if she is sacked by the boss, she wouldn’t find a suitable boy for marriage, and if she didn’t get married, she wouldn’t be able to have children. Which would mean that the boss had ‘killed’ her children.

Whether the boss would kill Manisha’s children or not, Bokadia would surely kill us if we said anything more about Manisha or anybody else’s character in the film! But we can safely add here that Amitabh Bachchan plays a double role in the film — of the father and the son. Radhika plays wife of the old Amitabh, and Manisha is paired with son Amitabh. Shilpa Shetty is a silent admirer of Amitabh who, because of this, changes loyalties in the climax and leaves villain Amrish Puri to help Amitabh.

Well, Amitabh himself has helped K.C. Bokadia. Off-screen, that is. He has reduced his price by giving a concession in the contracted price. Amitabh reminds us that he had similarly helped K.C. Bokadia in Aaj Ka Arjun.

Which brings us to the question: does Amitabh find any difference in aaj ka Bokadia’s working and the Bokadia of Aaj Ka Arjun? “He is more confident today than he was at that time,” is Bachchan’s conclusive certificate of merit to Bokadia.

Of course, K.C. Bokadia, even though he blushes lal on being paid the compliment, would rather wait for the final certificate from the janta ki adalat because it’s their verdict on Lal Badshah which would be more important.

And as Bokadia, action director Veeru Devgan and their unit get ready to take the first shot of the day on Amitabh (a couple of shots have been taken on the other artistes), it’s time for us to bid them ‘bye and leave for the airport. As the Lal Badshah would have said in his Bihari accent, “Ka karaee, ee susri plane konoi ke liye rukti naahin!” Time and flight wait for no man, right?

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Action Hero To Say, “Lights, Camera, Action”

Is the top action hero turning a director? Seems so. The hero’s own production venture, which was being shot abroad recently, ran into rough weather when his director did not live up to his expectations. A new director was called in but reportedly, the hero-producer was looking for something else. Not satisfied, he cut short the start-to-finish shooting schedule, returned to India and has almost decided to call the shots himself. The unit will return to the foreign land next year now, and it will be the hero and producer donning the mantle of director as well.

Puja Premium

Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi has fetched the highest ever price fetched by a solo Akshay Kumar starrer in West Bengal. Kanu and Neru Anchalia have paid 75 for the West Bengal distribution rights of the film. Besides the fancy for the film, what prompted them to pay the phenomenal price is the Puja release. Collections are bumper in West Bengal during the Puja holidays. Since the Puja holidays will get over on 11th October, the Anchalias plan to release Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi on 8th October — two days before its all-India release. Incidentally, the film has been sold for some other circuits too at truly fancy prices.

The 25-Lakh Factor

There was hectic activity in the Time group earlier this week to ensure that only one of the two scheduled releases of Dassera comes. Two films, Deewana Mastana and Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi, both directed by David Dhawan, are due for release on 10th October. Since both are big films sold at fancy prices, Pravin Shah of Time was keen on a week’s gap between the two releases. The biggest charm of coming on 10th October is for the Bengal distributors of the two films because of the Puja holidays advantage there. So Pravin Shah, the presenter of Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi, made an offer to Bharat Shah, the presenter of Deewana Mastana. According to the offer, any one of the two films would be released on Dassera and the one whose film would come, would pay the other producer Rs. 25 lakh for giving as compensation to the Bengal distributor of that other producer. That is to say, if Deewana Mastana would be released on 10th October, Bharat Shah would have to pay Rs. 25 lakh to Pravin Shah who, in turn, would compensate his Bengal distributor. But Bharat Shah politely refused Pravin Shah’s offer. And so, both, Deewana Mastana and Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi, will hit the screens together.

Double Confidence

The rest of the industry may be nervous about two David Dhavan directed films hitting the screens simultaneously next week, but David is far from nervous or anxious. Excited, yes! He says, his excitement springs from his confidence in both his films, Deewana Mastana and Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi. David does not think, a solid story is important in a film for its success. According to him, what is more important is a tight and interesting screenplay which can entertain the audience. Who would disagree?

Why Just One Film?

What is the logic of IMPPA honouring the producers of Raja Hindustani at its diamond jubilee celebrations in December this year? While it is a fact that Raja Hindustani is one of the biggest blockbusters of Indian cinema, the question that arises is: why only Raja Hindustani? Raja Hindustani was released in 1996 and IMPPA is completing 60 years in 1997. If Raja Hindustani deserves the honour, so do DDLJ, HAHK..!, Sholay, Mother India and Mughal-E-Azam, to name a few. Or, if the IMPPA wants to honour just one biggest hit of the year, it has to be the biggest hit of the diamond jubilee year. So far, Border deserves that honour but one has to wait for the year to get over to decide the film which qualifies to be the biggest blockbuster of the diamond jubilee year of IMPPA. In fact, the press release of IMPPA says: ‘One additional award would be given to the best commercial successful film of mainstream during the preceding year i.e. Raja Hindustani.’ Actually, since it is the 60 years that IMPPA is celebrating and not an annual event, it would be in the fitness of things to honour not just the makers of Raja Hindustani but the achievers of the last 60 years. And the list is far from complete without the names of such major hits as Mughal-E-Azam, Mother India, Sholay, HAHK..! and DDLJ. The producers of these films, so to say, changed the course of the industry. IMPPA must acknowledge this fact by honouring them.

‘SOLDIER’ SONGS: BEAUTIFUL TUNES, PRETTY LOCATIONS

Kumar and Ramesh Taurani have yet another winner in their hands in the music of their home production, Soldier. Anu Malik and Sameer have teamed up with the Tauranis and given a hit music score. Director duo Abbas-Mustan and the choreographers seem to have been pretty impressed with the music score for, they’ve made the songs as exciting, if not more, visually too. Most of the songs have been picturised on exotic locales of Australia and New Zealand.

In the meantime, one song is being picturised now on Bobby Deol and Preity Zinta on a rich and opulent set erected at Filmistan Studios. Preity Zinta, the girl who was to be introduced in Soldier but was seen first in Dil Se.., looks pretty and dances very gracefully, as was evident in the preview of the songs of the film on 24th September at Sumeet preview theatre.

The screening was followed by cocktails and dinner at Hotel Sun-N-Sand.

Ramesh Taurani informed at the party that Soldier would be released on 30th October or 20th November. Of course, efforts are on to meet the October date.

CALCUTTA STUDIOS UNDER CLOUDS OF DISPUTE

Film studios in Calcutta may face closure if the ongoing dispute between producers and associations of artistes and technicians is not resolved soon. The dispute has reportedly been caused due to an increasing number of joint ventures between Indian and Bangaladeshi production companies. The dispute has highlighted two major problems occurring as a result of Indo-Bangaldeshi collaborations. Firstly, while an increasing number of Indian film companies are collaborating with the Bangladeshi ones, the same is not reciprocated by the latter. As a result, the interests of Calcutta companies in Bangladesh are not served, it is felt. Secondly, Indo-Bangladeshi ventures in Calcutta have restricted themselves to a fixed set of artistes and technicians — a practice that has made the other sections of the industry quite unhappy.

It may be mentioned here that West Bengal has some of the strongest trade unions in the country, which are perceived as having destroyed many industries. Now, certain sections fear that the film industry in the state may also fall prey to their thoughtless agitations. It may be mentioned here that the unions of artistes and dubbing artistes succeeded in restricting the inflow of Hindi dubbed films in West Bengal last year.

MAHAKAUSHAL CINE ASSOCIATION FORMED

Anand Bernard of Anand Cinema, Jabalpur was elected the first president of the newly-formed Mahakaushal Cine Association, at a meeting of exhibitors of the region held at Hotel Arihant Palace in Jabalpur recently. The Association has been formed with an aim to discuss and find solutions to the various problems plaguing film trade in the Mahakaushal region of C.P. Berar. Kapoor Chand Jain (of Apsara Talkies, Sagar) and Suresh Gupta (of Neeraj Talkies, Katni) were elected vice presidents; Suneet Jain (of Vineet Cinema, Jabalpur), general secretary; and Anil Jaiswal (of Harihar Talkies, Narsingpur) and Surendra Sharma (of Pankaj Talkies, Chhindwara), joint secretaries. Ramnarayan Agrawal of Vandana Cinema, Jabalpur was elected treasurer.

Later, in his inaugural address, president Anand Bernard urged the government to provide its fullest co-operation to the film trade in Mahakaushal region.

CHHATTISGARH DISTRIBUTORS, EXHIBITORS FORM ASSOCIATION

A body of exhibitors and distributors of Chhattisgarh region of C.P. Berar, under the name and style of Chhattisgarh Rajjya Exhibitor & Distributor Association, was formed at a meeting held on 15th September in Raipur, to solve local problems of its members. It was made clear that this Association would not be a parallel body to the CCCA. An ad hoc committee was elected at the meeting. Loonkaran Parekh is the first president, and Sudarshan Behl, Prakash Jain, Ashok Jajodiya, Biharilal and Ramniwas, vice presidents. Lavanya Kumar Tiwari is the secretary, and Shahed Ahmed, joint secretary. Narendra Jaiswal was elected treasurer.

Representatives from different stations of the region have been nominated on the ad hoc body as under:

From Raipur: Maheshbhai, I.C. Dhariwal, M.K. Gupta, G.K. Solanki, P.M. Gattani, A.J. Kawle and T.C. Kanuga. Bilaspur: Munshiram. Ambikapur: Babulal. Korba: Ramesh Jaiswal. Raigarh: Sagar Agrawal. Durg: Ajai Jadhav and Dilipbhai. Rajnandgaon: G.D. Wadhwa. Jagdalpur: Kiran Jaiswal. Dhamtari: Sathi Lal Lunkad. Mahasamund: Prakash Sakherkar. Rajim: Ved Prakash Tiwari. Nawapura: Anand Agrawal. Mungeli: Ashok Soni. Kanker: Dilip Lunia.

CHHOTUBHAI KANTHARAI DEAD

Chhotubhai Kantharai, former owner of Girnar cinema, Rajkot, and Drive In, Ahmedabad, passed away in Rajkot recently. He was 78 and a successful businessman. He donated large amounts for social causes.

SURINDER KAPOOR RE-ELECTED GUILD PRESIDENT

Surinder Kapoor was re-elected president of the The Film Producers Guild of India Ltd. for 1998-99 at the first meeting of the Guild’s Council of Management held on 24th September at B.R. Chopra’s residence. Yash Chopra and Amit Khanna were elected vice presidents, and Kamal Kumar Barjatya and Kiran Shantaram, hon. treasurers. B.K. Rau continues to be the secretary.

This is the fourth consecutive term of Surinder Kapoor’s presidentship.

Earlier, at the 44th annual general meeting of the Guild, held the same day, the following 19 members were unanimously re-elected to the Council of Management: Surinder Kapoor, Yash Chopra, Amit Khanna, Randhir Kapoor, Kiran Shantaram, Kamal Kumar Barjatya, J. Om Prakash, F.C. Mehra, T.C. Dewan, Ramdayal, Harmesh Malhotra, A.G. Nadiadwala, Rajkumar Kohli, Tilak Raj Magan, Prakash Mehra, Pramod Chakravorty, B.R. Chopra, Ramanand Sagar and Gulshan Rai.

AMITABH’S VOICE FOR ‘HERO HINDUSTANI’

Amitabh Bachchan has lent his voice to the opening commentary in Hero Hindustani. Amitabh recorded the commentary for the film at B.R. in his golden voice on the night of 25th September, extolling the rich cultural heritage of India.

The film, release of which has been postponed to 21st October (New Year’s day), will also very likely have a new song. The ‘Saanwal Saanwal’ number, which is already included n the film’s audio cassettes, had not been picturised. It may now be picturised in the days to come.

Incidentally, Raja Hindustani had been released in 1996 on New Year’s day which happened to fall on a Monday that year. Hero Hindustani will be released on this year’s New Year day which falls on a Wednesday.

BABY GIRL FOR NUSRAT

Playback singer Nusrat delivered a baby girl at a nursing home at Malad, Bombay, recently.

BABY BOY FOR AMITA NANGIA

Actress Amita Nangia delivered a baby boy on 23rd September in Bombay.

ENT. TAX REDUCED IN U.P.

Entertainment tax in Uttar Pradesh was reduced from 125% to 100% from 14th September. Collections have shown an increase in the last two weeks following the reduction in tax, which has been passed on to the paying public.

CCCA Goes To Polls In Nagpur Tomorrow
Heavy Attendance Expected

Finally, the Central Circuit Cine Association, the strongest film trade body, goes to the polls tomorrow (27th September) in Nagpur. The 45th annual general meeting is scheduled to be held there today (26th) and it is expected to be a stormy affair. Since there’s a fairly strong opposition panel which is fielding candidates against the ruling panel’s candidates, the annual meeting may turn out to be an exciting affair, witnessing heated exchanges of only words, one hopes.

The opposition has been criticising Santosh Singh Jain’s ruling group for having done very little for the members. In particular, the Madhya Pradesh cinema closure, scheduled from 17th September, had come in for a lot of criticism from some quarters. Of course, ultimately, the bandh had to be called off even before it was initiated. But even this call of cancellation is being used by the opposition to expose what they call the ruling group’s lack of planning.

What the elections have in store for the CCCA and its members will be clear only in the late night hours of 27th when the polling results will be declared. But it does seem likely that Santosh Singh Jain, who has presided over the Association for over 30 years, will this time have to contend with a strong opposition. Meanwhile, Jain had till 25th September not even announced his panel members, obviously with the intention of waiting and watching.

The heat, that has been generated for the elections, is expected to result in a huge attendance at the annual general meeting and elections. On a rough estimate, polling this year may touch or even cross the 800-mark.

In the meantime, M.A. Naqvi, Union minister of state for I & B, is scheduled to inaugurate the annual meeting today at 10.30 a.m. at Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande Hall. Narayan Rane, minister of revenue, Maharashtra, will preside. Pramod Navalkar, minister for cultural affairs, Maharashtra, will be the chief guest. Nitin Gadkari, minister of state for PWD, Maharashtra, and guardian minister of Nagpur, Anil Deshmukh, minister of state for education & cultural affairs, Maharashtra, and Vinod Khanna are expected to be the guests of honour.

N.N. Sippy Re-Elected IMPDA President

N.N. Sippy was unanimously re-elected president of the Indian Motion Picture Distributors’ Association for 1998-99 at the first meeting of the newly elected executive committee held on 22nd September in Bombay at CCI. N.N. Sippy continues as president for the 13th consecutive year. Indravadan Shah was elected vice president, and Kantilal Mehta, hon. treasurer. Devendra Shah and Haresh Bhatia were elected hon. secretaries.

Earlier in the day, the following members were elected to the executive committee after the 59th annual general meeting of the IMPDA at Birla Kreeda Kendra, Chowpatty, Bombay:

Ordinary Class: Balkrishna Shroff (he polled the highest number of votes — 199), N.N. Sippy (176 votes), Devendra Shah (163), U.A. Thadani (156), Tolu Bajaj (151), Haresh Bhatia (142), Ramesh Sippy (125), Ayub Selia (122), Vinay Choksey (120), Kantilal Mehta (118), Guru Shenoy (110) and Vinod Kakkad (107).

In the Associate Class, the following were elected unopposed: Indravadan Shah, Mohan Susania and D.Y. Pattani.

The losing candidates in the Ordinary class were Pradeep Singh (102 votes; lost to Vinod Kakkad by 5 votes), Manoj Khivasara (96 votes), Sanjay Chaturvedi (90 votes), Abid Zaffar (52 votes) and Tekchand Anchal (36 votes).

A total of 257 votes were polled. During the election, the policy of allowing as valid votes carrying single names (introduced last year) came in for heavy criticism from a few members. This was because a lot many ballot papers were, at the time of the counting, observed to be having just one name instead of 12 (since there was no contest for 3 seats in the Associate Class). The issue will come up for discussion during future meetings of the executive committee.

Earlier, in his opening address at the 59th annual general meeting of the IMPDA, president N.N. Sippy outlined the various problems that the film industry was facing at present. These included a major financial crunch, abnormally high costs of film production, high theatre rentals, and cable, video and audio piracies, among others. Sippy also criticised the stars for demanding exorbitantly high prices when they were unable to assure the success of films. He lamented that the theatres continued to be poorly maintained in spite of the exemption of service charge of Re. 1 and Rs. 2 per ticket from entertainment duty, granted by the Maharashtra and Gujarat governments respectively, for their upkeep.

N.N. Sippy made a special mention of the industry’s struggle in combating cable piracy of films. According to him, the fight against cable piracy can be won if the industry chooses to collaborate fully with the police. He suggested that sufficient resources can be generated to fight the menace, simply by the producer and the distributor jointly paying a subscription of Rs. 5,000 on release of their film, to a specially earmarked fund. Moreover, the exhibitors could also contribute a sum between Rs. 500 and Rs. 5,000 for the purpose. He cited the example of Tamil Nadu, where the local film industry and the administration worked hand-in-hand to effectively check the growth of cable piracy in the state. He urged the Hindi film industry to emulate their Tamil counterparts.

The first meeting of the new executive committee was followed by a cocktail-dinner party at the Garware Club.

YOU ASKED IT

Do you have any inside reports of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai?

– It is heard that the first half is light and fun-filled, and the second half will make the audience weep, so strong are the emotions.

What is the business of Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha expected to be in Bombay circuit?

– It may touch 4 crore!

What kind of story does M.F. Husain’s Gaj Gamini have?

– One doesn’t know about its story. But the five heroines in the film represent the five moods of a woman. In the film, the woman is played by Madhuri Dixit, and the other heroines represent the different faces of Madhuri.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Columbia Tristar’s promotional strategy for GODZILLA is paying rich dividends at Chitra Talkies, Amravati. A major part of the promotions is aimed at school and college students, who are offered the tickets for the film at half the rates. Moreover, a special screening of the film was held for government officials of the region. The officials were reported to be so impressed with the film that they dashed out letters to various schools and colleges in Amravati, recommending the film for their students. Subsequently, booking counters were opened at a few schools and colleges. Students were seen in large numbers, awaiting their turn at these counters. Apart from this, specially prepared stickers and toffees were distributed free of cost to the patrons. Not to be left behind, the local cable operators in Amravati have begun telecasting various programmes depicting people’s craze for the film.

* SATYA (tax-free) has created a theatre record by collecting 49,360/ in 5th week at Ashok, Jalgaon.

* DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE (tax-free) has entered 150th combined week at Maratha Mandir, Bombay in matinee shows. It has collected a total of 53,42,309/- in its 96-week run at the cinema so far.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

When East Meets West

The impending CCCA elections are fast developing the shape of a major battle being waged by two rival camps. The panel of opposition is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to seize power from veteran president (and not president veteran! How else would one describe someone who has spent half his life being the president of the CCCA?!) Santosh Singh Jain and his panel. Obviously, all kinds of rumours are floating in the air and one is at a loss to decide what to believe and what not to. In fact, the rumour mills in the territory are being run at such a fast pace that when asked if he had heard the latest, a wag remarked, “Don’t tell me that even Santosh Singh Jain has joined the opposition panel now!!”

Once An Actor, Always An Actor

As Rishi Kapoor’s directorial debut, Aa Ab Laut Chalen, races towards completion, the confirmation comes that he has no plans — repeat, no plans — whatsoever of quitting as an actor. The confirmation comes from the man himself who wants to put all the rumours about his quitting acting to rest. “I am open to acting assignments even now,” Rishi Kapoor told Information. And why just acting? “I am even open to directorial assignments outside the R.K. banner! In fact, after Aa Ab Laut Chalen, I will definitely direct an outside film before I start one for R.K.”

Mithun And Jackie — Birds Of A Feather…

It sure looks like Jackie Shroff is taking a leaf out of Mithun’s book. Of late, he has been on a major signing spree and has accepted nearly 15 assignments in the past couple of months alone! What is curious is the fact that many of these films have him co-starring with Mithun Chakraborty. So, what’s the deal? Have they found some kind of common agenda? Or is it simply a case of Mithun rubbing off on Jackie? Like they say, jaisi sangat, waisi rangat! But then, who knows…?