LATEST POSITION

The holiday of Maha-Shivratri was the only saving grace of an otherwise dull week — dull because of the poor films.

Saat Rang Ke Sapne is a washout. 1st week Bombay 13,32,656 (64.32%) from 7 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 3,02,363 from 2 cinemas; Kolhapur 51,871, Solapur 32,693; Delhi 7,82,042 (37.12%) from 3 cinemas; Kanpur 48,367, Lucknow 49,561, Allahabad 34,136; Amritsar 52,160; Calcutta 3,09,978 from 2 cinemas; Nagpur 1,17,689 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur 88,628, Amravati (6 days) 61,351, Raipur (6 days) 55,958, Bhilai 59,836; Indore 1,18,695 (1 on F.H.); Jaipur 1,81,814, Jodhpur 1,50,000; Hyderabad 4,40,197 from 2 cinemas.

Saazish is also a disaster. 1st week Bombay 18,80,478 (41%) from 14 cinemas; Ahmedabad 71,172 from 2 cinemas (2 cinemas unrecd.), Rajkor 47,900 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Kolhapur 68,734, Solapur 59,525; Delhi 10,74,696 (35.01%) from 8 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Kanpur 66,294 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 75,529, Allahabad 33,900; Calcutta 10,70,672 from 17 cinemas; Nagpur 1,76,589 from 4 cinemas, Chandrapur 75,062; Jaipur 1,86,161 from 2 cinemas.

2001 dropped badly after a reasonable start. 1st week Bombay 22,56,890 (54.70%) from 12 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 93,038 (2 cinemas unrecd.), Rajkot 1,55,240 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 5,60,816 from 6 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 1,09,127; Hubli 1,02,065, Belgaum 1,01,874; Delhi 13,22,661 (51.09%) from 7 cinemas; Kanpur 1,37,590 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,75,714, Allahabad 57,800, Meerut 77,368, Bareilly 70,282 (31.46%); Calcutta 12,49,980 from 17 cinemas; Nagpur 1,29,548 from 2 cinemas, Amravati (6 days) 1,06,356, Akola 1,00,248, Raipur (6 days) 71,788; Bhopal 1,49,010 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 3,80,471 from 4 cinemas; Hyderabad 12,80,205 from 9 cinemas (4 unrecd.).

………..

LALITA PAWAR DEAD

Famous character actress Lalita Pawar passed away probably on 23rd February in her flat in Pune where she lived alone. Although she died on 23rd, it was noticed only on 25th when neighbours complained to the police. It is believed that she died of a heart attack.

Lalita Pawar, who was 82 years old, was known for her squint-eyed persona of the wicked mother-in-law or step-mother. But she also played emotional roles with aplomb. She was, perhaps, best at portraying the role of a strict lady but one who had a soft heart.

An unfortunate incident in Lalita Pawar’s life affected her left eye. While shooting for the silent film, Jung-E-Azadi, director Bhagwan (the well-known comedian) got annoyed with her over some mistake and slapped her hard. It was this which resulted in the bursting of a vein and maimed her left eye. With this deformity, the actress continued to work, and she acted in over 500 films.

She started acting in silent films when she was just nine years old. Her first film was Patitoddhar after which she worked in a number of other silent films too. In 1928, she acted in a silent film, Aryamahila. Then followed such adventure films as Thaksen Rajputra and Chatur Sundari. The first talkie film in which she acted was Himmat-E-Mard (1935), directed by G.P. Pawar who she eventually married. She also acted in his Duniya Kya Hai. Among the other films she had worked in were Anari (in which she palayed the famous Mrs. D’sa), Shri 420, Jayshree, Sajni, Suraj, Baarish, Sant Raghu, Bal Yogi Upmanyu, Karigar, Kabhi Andhera Kabhi Ujala, Mahasati Behula, Grahasti, Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Sau Din Saas Ke, Gharana, Humrahi, Khandaan, Aankhen, Sampoorna Ramayan and many, many others. Deepak Shivdasani’s Bhai was one of her last films. Lalita Pawar also worked in a number of Marathi films such as Netaji Palkar, Jaymalhar, Ramshastri and Limited Manuski.

Lalita Pawar’s original name was Ambika Sagun.

OM PRAKASH NO MORE

Veteran character actor Om Prakash breathed his last on the afternoon of 21st February at Lilavati Hospital at Bandra, Bombay, due to cardiac arrest. He had been admitted to the ICU of the hospital two days earlier and had slipped into a coma.

He was 78 and is survived by a daughter. He had no children of his own, and had adopted the daughter of his brother, producer-director Pachhi. In fact, Om Prakash had lost interest in life to a large extent, after Pachhi’s death a few years ago and the death of his wife seven years ago. One could always find him at Rooptara Studios.

He had acted in over 300 films in a career spanning four decades. Among his well-known films are Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai, Dhake Ki Malmal, Ek Jhalak, Miss Mary, Sadhu Aur Shaitan, Dus Lakh, Buddha Mil Gaya, Amar Prem, Baghi Sipahi, Karigar, Police, Zanjeer, Aandhi, Sharaabi, Namak Halaal, Padosan, Guddi, Khandan, Kanyadaan, Bhoot Bangla, Chupke Chupke, Malik, Julie, Dil Daulat Aur Duniya, Parivaar, Neend Hamari Khwab Tumhare, Pyar Kiye Jaa, Ek Shriman Ek Shrimati, Around The World and Gopi. His first film, Daasi, was released in 1944. Before that, he worked in All India Radio. He was born in Lahore.

His funeral was held on 22nd at the Chembur crematorium. It was largely attended. The chautha ceremony was held on 24th and that too was largely attended.

Om Prakash was well-known for comic and emotional roles. He played comedy roles with as much ease as he did emotional or dramatic roles. His typical sing-song dialogue delivery was his trademark. Om Prakash was also a producer and director. His production banner was called Light & Shade. Among the films made by him were Kanhaiya, Chacha Zindabad, Sanjog (directed by Pramod Chakravorty) and Jahan Ara (directed by Vinod Kumar). He had his production office at Famous, Mahalaxmi. He also owned a cinema — Prabha — in Bareilly, which he sold off a few years ago.

BABY BOY FOR ANEES BAZMEE

Writer-director Anees Bazmee’s wife, Fatima, gave birth to a baby boy in Bombay on 25th February. This is Bazmees’ third child, the first two being daughters.

PADMINI KOLHAPURE’S ACTING SCHOOL

Padmini Kolhapure will open the Padmini Kolhapure School of Acting Modelling & Grooming today (28th February) in New Delhi at 29, Hauz Khas Village. Besides Padmini herself, professional tutors from various fields of performing arts will take classes in the acting school.

RAGHUNATH JHALANI NO MORE

Director Raghunath Jhalani expired in Bombay on 23rd February due to cancer. He was 64 and is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

Born on 22nd August, 1933, Raghunath Jhalani started out as an assistant to Bimal Roy in 1956. He assisted Bimal Roy in Apradhi Kaun, Sujata, Bandini, Prem Patra and other films. He got his break as a director with J. Om Prakash’s Aye Din Bahar Ke in 1966. Among the other films he directed were Aya Sawan Jhoom Ke, Aankhon Aankhon Mein, Anamika, Uljhan, Badalte Rishte and Be-Reham. Jhalani had also produced and directed some television serials.

YOU ASKED IT

How many cinemas are there in the country?

– 9,033 permanent cinemas, besides 3,744 touring cinemas. That is to say, there are a total of 12,777 cinemas in India.

When high admission rates are killing box-office collections of film after film, why don’t producers and distributors do something to correct the situation?

– They’ve tasted blood (high admission rates) and it’s difficult to give up the taste so easily.

Is the trend of dubbing Hollywood films in Hindi likely to make the censors stricter for English films also, in view of the fact that no additional cuts can be ordered in the visuals of a dubbed film?

– Don’t give ideas to the censors! There is the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal and the court too, for aggrieved producers.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Yash Johar’s DUPLICATE is being booked by exhibitors of U.P. at fantastic prices. It’s the magic of Shah Rukh Khan’s earlier starrer, Yash Chopra’s DIL TO PAGAL HAI, which is responsible for the fancy terms being offered by exhibitors, many of whom are those who did not get a chance to screen DTPH at their cinemas. A case of one Yash film helping another Yash film? Yash boss!

* The months of April and May will have double-role starrers hitting the screens. QILA, due on 10th April, has thespian Dilip Kumar playing a double role. JEANS, due on 24th April, has hero Prashant and character actor Nassar playing double roles. In DUPLICATE, due on 1st May, Shah Rukh Khan plays a double role. Amitabh Bachchan will be seen in a double role in LAL BAADSHAH which is to hit the screens in May.

* Two fathers are sparing no efforts to launch their sons into films, and, coincidentally, both the dads are abroad for scouting locations for the films of their respective sons. While Rakesh Roshan is in Dubai for KAHO NA PYAR HAI, in which he will introduce son Hrithik, Yash Johar is in Mauritius to scout locations for son Karan Johar’s debut directorial venture, KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI.

Ability And Stability

There’s panic in the film industry. And not because of the political scenario in the country or because one doesn’t expect any single party to get an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha elections. The fear in Bollywood is born out of the ‘deaths’ of so many films.

Although it may sound mean, it wouldn’t be wrong to describe the falling at the box-office of film after film as their deaths. Not only are films flopping, they are also taking distributors closer to their doom.

One may ask, what’s new about debacles. We’ve always had flops amidst hits, and disasters amidst blockbusters. But the failures of the last couple of years have been major because film prices have been sky-high. Earlier, distributors could bear the shocks of flops because the stakes weren’t so high. But today, one big debacle can force a distributor to close down shop forever.

If the scene in the last couple of years has been bad, that in the last two or three months has been alarming. Films have not even been taking respectable openings, what to talk of registering handsome collections.

What then must be done? Rather than blaming it on bad times, the industry must try to put its own house in order. Directors and writers must work harder on scripts because content is the backbone of any film. Without a solid backbone, no film can hope to stand. And with prices being what they are today, films need to not only stand but stand firmly for weeks together. A Zor opened to bumper houses but what happened after four days? It fell like a pack of cards. The losses to distributors of major circuits will reportedly be in the region of half or three-quarters of a crore, not to talk of the heavy losses which over-enthusiastic exhibitors (who paid fancy terms) will suffer. That the film was bad is indisputable, but that’s the reason for the losses. The reason for the losses being so HEAVY is that the film’s price was worse than the film itself! Aflatoon and Banarasi Babu were other recent releases which were priced too heavily.

Coming back to the content in a film, it is rather shocking that such little attention is paid to a matter of so much importance. The audience today is far more smart than that of yesteryears. It is exposed to a multitude of satellite channels and can distinguish between the good and the bad. So, it’s all the more necessary that script-writers and directors pull up their socks now instead of being socked down forever.

Stability in prices and ability of makers and writers will be the new catchwords now.

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Familiarity Breeds Contempt?

The trailer of Tutu Sharma and David Dhawan’s Gharwali Baharwali, being aired on satellite channels, is both, innovative and entertaining. It shows Anil Kapoor surfing channels on a television set, with a remote control. Addressing the viewers, Anil says something to the effect that change is fun — whether it is changing channels or the ladies at home! He then goes on to introduce his gharwali — Raveena Tandon — and baharwali — Rambha. The trailer is surely very different from the familiar ones we are used to seeing.

Love In The Air

The film industry seems to have become a ‘love’ly place. Only that could explain the spate of love films under production. We have Love Today, Loveria and Love You Hamesha. There’s also Love Station and if that’s not enough, there’s a junction too — Love Junction. There are at least two love stories by the names of Love Story 98 and Jungle Love Story. And what does love translate in Hindi into? Pyar! So we have several pyar films also being made. Like there’s Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai, Hum Deewane Pyar Ke, Pyar To Hona Hi Tha, Silsila Hai Pyar Ka, Raja Ko Rani Se Pyar Ho Gaya, Tumse Pyar Ho Gaya, Pyar Koi Khel Nahin, Paraya Pyar etc.

SAAT RANG KE SAPNE

Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd.’s Saat Rang Ke Sapne is a love triangle, set in a village of Rajasthan. A young girl (who does nautanki for a living) and boy (servant) fall in love with each other. The young boy’s master, who is much older, also loves the same girl. How the master starts hating his servant (whom he used to otherwise love like a brother) because of his affair with his beloved and to what levels he stoops to take him out of his path form the latter part of the drama. Ultimately, the master realises his folly, and the young girl and boy unite in matrimony.

The plot has inherent drawbacks which make the film a case of neither-here-nor-there. It starts as a comedy and light-hearted entertainer but there’s so much tension, melodrama and seriousness after interval that the entire flavour of the first half is lost. Why, characters change like one changes one’s clothes. The master is shown a happy-go-lucky and fun-loving, golden-hearted man in the first half, but he becomes a vicious villain in the second half. As against the serene first half, the post-interval portion abounds in hysteria. The emotions simply fail to touch the heart because they look fake and are for a wrong reason. Further, the love story of the master and the girl will not appeal to the viewer and looks rather far-fetched, if only because Anupam Kher (playing the master) looks too old for the role.

Some comedy scenes are really brilliant. However, there are a few comic punches which will appeal mainly to the class audience.

The ever-dependable Arvind Swamy is not in his element. He does a fair job. He looks too stout to be a hero. Juhi Chawla lives her role and impresses immensely. She looks pretty too. Anupam Kher acts ably but, as said above, his image does not suit the lengthy romantic role. Farida Jalal performs very well. Satish Shah’s comedy is excellent. Govind Namdeo is extremely natural and effective. Mink does a good job. Tinnu Anand, Paintal, Aroona Irani and Sukumari lend the required support.

Priyadarsan’s shot compositions and takings are marvellous as usual and he has also brought out the colour of Rajasthan just too beautifully on screen. However, his selection and treatment of the script leave plenty to be desired. Otherwise a stickler for perfection, even that perfection is missing in the film. For instance, a couple of dialogues (by Rajasthani characters) are spoken in Bhojpuri dialect! Editing is so poor, one wonders whether the director gave the editor a free hand to do his job. The film seems to go on and on endlessly and can be edited heavily. In fact, it shouldn’t be a surprise if distributors take the initiative in this direction themselves.

Music (Nadeem Shravan) is good. The title song is the best and its picturisation is fabulous. ‘Aati hai to chal’ and ‘Ba ba batao na’ are quite appealing. The ‘Jhoothi jhoothi’ song is boring. Ravi K. Chandran gives the viewer heavenly locales on celluloid with his super camerawork. The desert landscapes are beautiful. Sets are natural.

On the whole, Saat Rang Ke Sapne has form (colours, beautiful locations, excellent photography) but its content is far from satisfactory and its undue length, too disturbing. The romantic angle of the young girl and the middle-aged master could have appealed as a small part of the plot but does not impress at all as the main plot. The colourful film, therefore, has dark prospects.

Released on 20-2-’98 at Eros (one show daily) and 9 other cinemas of Bombay by ABCL thru Shringar Films. Publicity: excellent. Opening: fair. …….Also released all over. Opening was extremely poor everywhere.

SAAZISH

Damani Pictures Pvt. Ltd.’s Saazish (UA) is a story of two brothers, one a grave digger in a village, and the other who is studying in the city to become a doctor. The two brothers love each other very much and the grave digger (elder one) sacrifices everything in life to see his dream — of making his younger brother a doctor — fulfilled. All hell breaks loose when the younger brother is murdered in mysterious circumstances. The elder brother, shattered and clueless, sets out for his brother’s medical college and tries to solve the mystery. One by one, more persons are murdered in the college but ultimately, the mystery behind the heinous crimes is solved.

The first half tries to be a family drama with emotions, but most of the sentiments and/or their situations are contrived. The second half is a suspense drama but the chill of a suspense story is missing. Another very big drawback of the film is that most of the major characters in the film are Christian. Films with Christian characters usually have very limited appeal. Another defect is the extremely slow pace; the drama moves so slowly that the viewer loses interest after a point of time. Dialogues are so-so.

Mithun Chakraborty acts well but his hair-style doesn’t suit him. Vikas Bhalla is fair. Pooja Batra would do well to wear clothes that suit her tall and lean structure. She is average in acting. Kashmira Shah fails to impress in any department. Her dress sense too is quite funny. Helen and Aroona Irani perform ably. Homi Wadia is okay. Mahavir Shah, Ishrat Ali (should stop being so loud everytime), Liliput and Sachin lend average support.

Debut-making director Sudhir R. Nair’s shot takings are reasonably good but his script sense as also sense of tempo leave a lot to be desired. Jatin Lalit’s music is pleasant. ‘Khushi ka rang chhaya hai’ is melodious. The other songs are fairly hummable. Song picturisations, however, are average. Action scenes are few but well composed. Camerawork and other technical aspects are okay.

On the whole, Saazish is an unexciting fare with bleak chances.

Released on 20-2-’98 at Dreamland, Novelty (matinee) and 17 other cinemas of Bombay thru Devgan’s Entertainment. Publicity: fair. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.

2001

Om Films’ 2001 (A) is a suspense film. It is the story of two police officers who are assigned the task of solving the mystery of a spate of murders in which the murderer leaves the same clue — the figure 2001 — at the place of the crime. The first half has suspense, drama and some romance too. The revelation of the suspense comes after interval and it is quite childish, especially the significance of the figure 2001.

Characterisations haven’t been worked upon. Moreover, the film relies on too many coincidences to move forward. The suspense fails to excite or frighten the viewer. The audience, as a result, finds it difficult to get involved in the drama. Climax is average.

Romance is established only in songs. Emotions fall flat. Some dialogues are good. A few comedy punches do entertain.

Jackie Shroff does quite well. Dimple Kapadia is alright. New hero Rajat Bedi looks fair, acts quite freely and performs action stunts ably. He needs to loosen up a bit more in dances. Tabu is cute in a less significant role. Suresh Oberoi does an extremely good job as the villain. Gulshan Grover, as another villain, is also immensely nice. Deven Varma is in form. Mohan Joshi, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Upasna Singh, Navneet Nishan, Mukesh Khanna (in a friendly appearance), Sharat Saxena and the others lend able support.

Direction is okay. Music is of the popular genre. ‘Teri ye bindiya’, ‘Tu qatil’ and ‘Teri meri dosti’ are the likeable songs, and their picturisations are reasonably good. Background music does not befit a suspense film. Action scenes are alright.

On the whole, 2001 does not have the chill and thrill of a suspense drama and will, therefore, not catch the fancy of the audience.

Released on 20-2-’98 at Alankar and 14 other cinemas of Bombay thru Dilsa Distributors Combine. Publicity: very good. Opening: fair. …….Also released all over. Opening was alright at some places but dull at others.

LATEST POSITION

The election fever seems to be taking its toll on the box-office.

Zor, after a great start, dropped badly at most of the places mid-week. 1st week Bombay 38,40,173 (90.46%) from 11 cinemas (10 on F.H.), Juhu, Bombay 6,08,136 (74.71%); Ahmedabad 13,00,319 from 7 cinemas, Rajkot 1,65,550, Jamnagar 1,32,850; Pune 12,69,753 from 6 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 3,58,430 from 2 cinemas; Hubli 100%, Belgaum 1,16,507 (100%); Delhi 48,29,709 (78.87%) from 14 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 5,82,397 from 3 cinemas, Lucknow 3,86,375, Agra 2,60,500, Allahabad 1,80,500, Varanasi 1,86,529, Bareilly 1,53,962 (68.40%), Dehradun 1,78,000, Hardwar 1,11,000; Amritsar 1,95,750; Calcutta 5,16,451 from 2 cinemas (other cinemas undisclosed); Nagpur 6,98,268 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,77,018, Akola 1,97,170 from 2 cinemas, Dhule 1,32,665, Raipur 1,91,880, Bhilai 1,09,080, Durg (6 days) 1,10,256, Chandrapur 1,81,017, Yavatmal (6 days) 78,407; Indore 2,80,000 (3 on F.H.), Bhopal 4,43,014 from 3 cinemas; Jaipur 10,85,113 from 6 cinemas, Bikaner 23,83,863; Hyderabad 33,01,282 from 18 cinemas, share 17,82,700.

Kama Sutra – A Tale Of Love (dubbed) is excellent in Delhi-U.P. and East Punjab but drops in other circuits. 2nd week Bombay 26,28,873 (66.13%) from 9 cinemas (5 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 2,68,225 from 2 cinemas, Baroda 1,25,441, 1st week Adipur 1,07,101; 2nd week Pune 4,99,116 from 3 cinemas, Solapur 80,454; Hubli 98,367, Belgaum 87,865; Delhi 33,71,840 from 7 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,09,796, Lucknow 2,49,261, Agra 85,658, Allahabad 1,26,636, Varanasi 1,29,178, 1st week Bareilly 1,06,982 (56%), Dehradun 1,67,883, 2nd week Gorakhpur 82,400; Calcutta 14,09,182 from 13 cinemas; Nagpur 1,44,314, Akola 49,235 (1st 1,54,085), Raipur (6 days) 85,433, Bhilai 66,771, 1st week Gondia 34,382, Wardha (6 days) 78,428; 2nd week Indore 1,01,011 (1 on F.H.), Bhopal 1,11,207; Jaipur 3,08,119, 1st Bikaner 1,62,781; 2nd week Hyderabad 7,82,185 from 4 cinemas; Vijayawada 2 weeks’ total 5,38,368.

………..

Desh Re Joya Dada Pardesh Joya (Gujarati, TF) is mind-blowing. 6th week Ahmedabad 8,52,114 from 5 cinemas, Asodar 88,624, 4th week Patan 72,144 (3rd 72,951), Baroda 1,79,404 (3rd 1,48,344), 2nd Nadiad 88,724 (1st 79,147), 1st week Anand 1,38,428, Bharuch 1,04,200, 4th Jamnagar 1,74,581, total 6,54,581, 6th Rajkot 2,22,488, total 12,92,435, Bhavnagar 2,33,573 (5th 1,92,947), Jamnagar 1,32,264, Morvi 1,34,995, 3rd week Botad 1,21,627.

OM PRAKASH SERIOUS

Actor Om Prakash slipped into a coma on 19th February and has been admitted in the ICU of Lilavati Hospital at Bandra, Bombay.

SANJAY DUTT WEDS RHEA PILLAI

Sanjay Dutt married his long-time girlfriend, Rhea Pillai, at an impromptu wedding ceremony at Mahalaxmi Temple, Bombay, in the early hours of 15th February. The couple was at a Valentine’s Day party when they decided to get married right away. A pundit was hurriedly summoned and the marriage, performed according to Hindu rites.

WEDDING BELLS FOR SHABBIR KUMAR’S DAUGHTER

Marriage of Rubina, daughter of playback singer Shabbir Kumar, with Saqib will be solemnised today (21st February) in Bombay at Spring Field High School, near Rizvi College, off Carter Road, Bandra.

AMITABH INAUGURATES CINESTAR CINEMA

Amitabh Bachchan formally inaugurated Cinestar, the new mini cinema at Kandivli (West), Bombay, on 17th February. A special show of ABCL’s Saat Rang Ke Sapne was held on the occasion. It was thrown open for the public from 20th February with Saat Rang Ke Sapne.

Owned by Rashesh and Himanshu Kanakia and controlled by Shringar, the cinema has 281 seats and is equipped with Dolby digital and DTS sound systems.

In the inaugural speech, Amitabh expressed happiness that the system of having a shopping complex and a cinema in the same premises, as in foreign countries, had been introduced in India too with Cinestar. The cinema is located on the second floor. It is built on the same premises where once stood Sona cinema. There is also a terrace cafetaria outside the auditorium.

Shravan Shroff of Shringar proposed the vote of thanks. A memento was presented to Amitabh Bachchan on the occasion.

Cinestar is the second cinema of the Kanakia brothers, the first being Cinemax (at Goregaon, Bombay) which was inaugurated in December ’97.

Cinestar is attractively done up and has excellent sound quality, besides a large screen. Comfortable cushioned push-back seats are yet another trump card. Its phone no. is 864-7164.

‘BAPUJI’ CHINUBHAI SHROFF NO MORE

Bombay and Gujarat distributor and exhibitor Chinubhai C. Shroff breathed his last at Valsad (in Gujarat) on the morning of 18th February in his sleep. He was 79 and is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.

Popularly known as Bapuji, Chinubhai had gone to Valsad a day before with his partner in exhibition, Dara P. Mehta. He retired on 17th night but complained of sleeplessness to his friend who was with him. Around 4 o’clock in the morning, he got up to go to the toilet and thereafter, tried to sleep again. His friend, who tried to wake him up at 8 a.m., was shocked to see that Bapuji was dead.

Born at Patan in North Gujarat in June 1918, Chinubhai came to Bombay as a child with his parents. He studied in the city up to matriculation. He started film distribution in 1948 with Khidki and continued the business till 1960. In 1965, he joined Gaffarbhai Nadiadwala’s Bombay distribution office as its manager. Thereafter, he worked as the distribution manager of Swaroopchand Jain’s distribution office in Bombay, Shakti Film Syndicate.

He entered exhibition business subsequently with Apsara cinema, Baroda. Later, in 1970, he joined P.D. Mehta group as a partner and remained in partnership till his end came. He also distributed several Gujarati films between 1975 and 1985.

Chinubhai was an amiable person, jolly and also very co-operative. He used to not think twice before coming to the rescue of one in need.

Dream Merchant

It’s election time and there’s no topic more exciting than election talk these days. Naturally then, I had to dream about elections and since films is my first love, I dreamt of elections and the film people.

I dreamt that the Congress Party approached Salman Khan to campaign for the party and Salman agreed to oblige. In the first election meeting, which he addressed in a village of Madhya Pradesh, he won people’s hearts when he said that he identified with the Garibi Hatao programme of the party. “To feel the pain of the garib janata,” he said, “I’m also living like a poor man these days. You must’ve seen my A O jaane jaana song from Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya in which I don’t have a shirt to cover my body, and even my pants are torn and tattered.” Salman further went on to say that in the film industry, he had enlisted the support of Mamta Kulkarni, Pooja Batra and Kashmira Shah among females, and Akshay Kumar among males. “They, like me, have all agreed to wear the bare minimum in sympathy with the poor of the country,” he announced amidst applause.

Juhi Chawla was in Uttar Pradesh with Atal Behari Vajpayee. In her accented English interspersed with Hindi, Juhi giggled, “See, we all have dreams of a rich India, a prosperous India. Like you, I, too, dream. Recently, I’ve dreamt a dream of seven colours, maine saat rang ke sapne dekhe hain. And I hope, you all too see Saat Rang Ke Sapne,” concluded Juhi, not able to resist the temptation to talk of her new release. Vajpayee nudged Juhi in time to make her realise that she shouldn’t get any reference of Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd. in her colourful speech as Amitabh was known for his Congress connections.

Sangeeta Bijlani declined to campaign in Bombay and said, she would address an election meeting in Bihar as she had taken a great liking for Biharis after hubby Azharuddin had been forgiven by them for calling them chor. But poor Sangeeta got all mixed up about who she was campaigning for. She ultimately landed canvassing support for her Chandni serials.”Just as nobody is big or small, so also no screen is big or small,” she shouted, adding, “So just as you made Chandni a hit on the big screen, you should make my Chandni a hit on the small screen too. If you can applaud Azhar on TV, you can appreciate me too on the same television screen.” Before she could begin her next sentence, L.K. Advani declared that the maiden had bowled the audience over and that she should now retire.

The Samajwadi Party approached Aamir Khan to campaign for them but the perfectionist that Aamir is, he asked them to give him statistics about the voters in the constituency he would be addressing, before he prepared his speech. Said Aamir, “Give me details about how many males and how many female-voters there are in the constituency, the break-up of males in the age group of 18-25, 26-35, 36-50 and over 50 years of age and likewise for females. I also want the voters to be divided according to their incomes i.e. those in the annual income bracket of less than Rs. 12,000, those between Rs. 12,001 and Rs. 24,000, those between Rs. 24,001 and Rs. 75,000, those between Rs. 75,001 and Rs. 1,25,000, those between Rs. 1,25,001 and Rs. 5,00,000, and those above Rs. 5,00,000.” Before Aamir could continue, the Samajwadi Party representatives got up and told Aamir, they would like to use his services in the next elections because by then, all the statistics would be ready.

Madhuri Dixit was flown to the Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab to canvass for her co-star of Dayavan and father of her co-star of Mohabbat. Her speech was better than even the speech she made at the Filmfare awards function last month. She called on the people to exercise their right to vote as “it is a sacred right. I would say that those who do not vote must be given mrityudand,” she thundered. “It’s my pukaar to you all,” she shouted, “that you must vote for Vinod Khanna.” Immediately thereafter, Madhuri and Akshaye Khanna began dancing to the ‘Don’t break my heart’ song of Mohabbat. The crowds shouted in one voice. “We won’t break your heart, Madhuri-ji”.

Karisma Kapoor, the newest heart-throb of the nation, shared the dais with none other than Sonia Gandhi herself at Shivaji Park in Bombay. The Rani Hindustan began her speech with the song: Pardesi Pardesi jaana nahin / Mujhe chhod ke, mujhe chhod ke. Even as people were wondering what she was up to, Karisma clarified, “My hit song of Raja Hindustani is being used to tease Sonia-ji simply because she comes from Italy. But I assure you, Sonia-ji will not leave the country, as being propagated by the BJP. And, assuming for a moment that she does, I will fly to Italy (at the expense of one of my many producers), and tell Sonia-ji, ‘Aa ab laut chalen.” There was thunderous applause. Karisma got even more charged and continued, “Waise toh politicians pagal hai lekin aapko Congress ko vote dena hoga kyon ki silsila hai desh ke karodon rupaiyon ka.” Karisma ended her speech with a parody of her Hero No. 1 song: Sonia kitna Sonia hai / Tere jaisa mera dhan / Tu meri tu meri tu meri tu meri / Tu meri Leader No. 1.

The United Front made the mistake of carting along Sooraj Barjatya to Uttar Pradesh. In his trademark soft voice and unassuming style, Sooraj began, “Kyon itni sari parties, kyon ye voton ke liye bheekh maangna. Kyon nahin sab parties mil ke government bana lein? Agar aisa ho to hum Barjatyas politicians ke saath saath hain. Nahin toh, main toh sirf itna kahoonga: Hum aapke hain koun..!”

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Four A’s In ‘Taal’

Finally, Subhash Ghai has made up his mind about who will play the other hero in his Taal. Not just made up his mind, Ghai has also finalised the guy. At the muhurt of Taal, it was only Akshaye Khanna’s name which was announced — not formally, though. Subhash Ghai was not decided about the other hero in this two-hero-one-heroine project because, as he once mentioned, “It is a very complex character, and I’m not sure who will be able to do justice to the role.” It is now Anil Kapoor who will be essaying that ‘lifetime’s role”. And as if the two A’s (Anil and Akshaye) weren’t enough, Subhash Ghai has also signed an ‘A’ heroine, Aishwarya Rai. So Ghai’s Taal is already triple A, what say? Maybe, Ghai should spell it T-A-A-A-L or rather T-A-A-A-A-L because music director A.R. Rahman is no less a star!

Longer Run

On the one hand, we have producers beaming trailers of their films for months together on satellite channels. And on the other hand, films are being discontinued after one, two or three weeks’ runs in cinemas. Which means, the trailers are running more than the films!

Hit Disaster

And finally, this one to keep you smiling through the week.

Isn’t it strange — the greatest Hollywood HIT of recent times and, maybe, to become the biggest hit of all times, Titanic, is a DISASTER film.

ZOR

Vicky Films (P.) Ltd.’s Zor (A) is a routine story of a one-man army against the evil forces in society, represented here by a don, a minister and a Godman. The three villains try to ruin the country through communal riots and this agitates a journalist so much that he takes it upon himself to expose their misdeeds. He realises that the three are involved in the worst of criminal activities when he tries to find out the truth about his dearest friend who has been dubbed a terrorist and for harbouring whom his (journalist’s) father, an honest police officer, is imprisoned. Sunny Deol plays the journalist who switches tracks and becomes the custodian of the country. The three villains are played by Om Puri, Govind Namdeo and Mohan Agashe.

The biggest defect in the script is that it has too much of preaching. Sunny Deol goes on endlessly about the virtues of being a nationalist and the vices of being a traitor/terrorist. What the audience expects of Sunny Deol is to bash up people but he does that quite sparingly. Instead, he has been given lines and lines of dialogues to mouth. This not only irritates the audience, it also dilutes the intensity of the tension in the drama. Screenplay leaves plenty to be desired as the drama very often loses grip and becomes loose and uninteresting. Some scenes, where there was ample scope for action, have been completed either without action or with minimal fights. Nor are there many hard-hitting or fiery dialogues to evoke claps. The first half is very dull and the drama is somewhat better after interval.

Sunny Deol, no doubt, does very well but his fans are bound to be disappointed due to his limited action. At least in the climax, one expects him to beat the lives out of the villains but he, instead, argues it out in the court of law, making the climax unnecessarily verbose. Sushmita Sen shows a marked improvement over her first film, acts fairly well and impresses in dances too. Milind Gunaji, as Sunny’s bosom friend, fails to put life into his character. Although he plays a Muslim armyman, his diction is typically Maharashtrian. Om Puri has limited scope and is fair. Govind Namdeo too doesn’t get much scope. He does well. Mohan Agashe is very impressive in the role of the Godman. Anupam Kher is good as Sunny’s father. Laxmikant Berde’s comedy is nothing to write home about. Veeru Krishan is good. Dina Pathak, A.K. Hangal, Tiku Talsania, Farida Jalal, Dinesh Hingoo, Rana Jung Bahadur, Sucheta Pawse, Deepanjali and the rest lend fair support.

Sangeeth Sivan is another director who seems to believe more in form than in content. For, his flair for dim lighting and capturing visual beauty is obvious in every frame (in fact, the poor lighting gets jarring after a while), but he needs to take serious lessons in scripting. Music is the greatest drawback of the film. The songs are pathetic and none of them appeals to the listener. Although their picturisations are eye-filling, the boring tunes are enough to put off the viewer. Action scenes have been well composed. Sound effects and Dolby digital mixing are of a high standard.

On the whole, high-priced Zor is a disappointment and, despite a very good start, will find the going tough in most of the circuits. Business in Punjab should be better.

Released on 13-2-’98 at Novelty and 21 other cinemas of Bombay thru Nicks Investment P. Ltd. Publicity & opening: very good. …….Also released all over. Opening was excellent everywhere except in Gujarat where it was fairly good.

LATEST POSITION

KAMA SUTRA is a tale of super-success everywhere.

Kama Sutra – A Tale Of Love (dubbed) had done extraordinary. Ladies are reported to be now frequenting cinemas screening the film, in many places. 1st week Bombay 38,92,794 (88.89%) from 10 cinemas (5 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 7,11,395 from 3 cinemas, Baroda 1,61,669, Rajkot 100% (all shows full in advance); Pune 10,01,556 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 96,665 (100%); Hubli 1,40,596 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Belgaum 1,29,393 (100%) from 2 cinemas (1 in noon); Delhi 35,02,771 (95.01%) from 6 cinemas (1 in F.H.); Ghaziabad 1,62,300 (63.08%), Kanpur 3,11,498 (89.71%), Lucknow 2,87,893 (98.43%), Agra 1,72,000 (66.49%), Allahabad 1,81,611 (94.63%), Varanasi 2,21,635 (89.37%), Meerut 1,56,995 (94.30%), Gorakhpur 1,36,040 (89.47%); Calcutta 23,04,438 (both, English and Hindi versions) from 15 cinemas; Guwahati share over 2,00,000; Nagpur 6,33,235 from 3 cinemas, Amravati 1,66,569, Raipur (6 days) 1,88,729, Bhilai 1,70,214; Indore 5,24,121 from 2 cinemas (1 on F.H.), Bhopal 3,64,065 from 3 cinemas; Jaipur 4,44,700 (100%); Hyderabad 15,42,628 from 6 cinemas (1 in noon); Vijayawada 3,31,820; English and Tamil versions doing fantastic in Tamilnadu.

………..

Banarasi Babu drops further. 2nd week Bombay 18,19,931 (51.97%) from 10 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,94,563 from 3 cinemas, Vapi 1,49,600, Jamnagar (matinee) 6,964 (1 unrecd.); Pune 3,82,753 from 3 cinemas, Solapur 89,106 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Satara 27,217; Delhi 17,42,167 from 11 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,73,174 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,72,829, Allahahad 90,500, Varanasi 1,48,456, Bareilly 68,293 (27.10%), Dehradun 81,000 (1st week 1,28,000), Hardwar 20,000; Nagpur 1,45,407 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,09,899, Amravati (6 days) 52,569, Dhule 57,023, Bhilai 75,213, total 2,20,342, 1st week Jalgaon (6 days) 1,19,553; 2nd week Indore 79,009 (3 on F.H.), Bhopal 40,000; Jaipur 2,55,677 from 2 cinemas, Bikaner 70,060; 1st week Hyderabad 22,90,500 from 13 cinemas; below average in 2nd week in Madras.

Vinashak is also dull. 2nd week Bombay 15,94,862 (43.28%) from 9 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 3,03,947 from 5 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Vapi 1,81,376, 1st week Jamnagar (matinee) 36,904 from 2 cinemas; 2nd week Pune 2,29,565 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 1,21,306, Solapur 1,56,930 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Satara 1,02,077 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 12,61,749 from 9 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,83,345 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,60,416, Agra 1,18,000, Allahahad 1,01,500, Bareilly 66,036 (33.22%), Dehradun 70,205 (1st 1,36,316), 1st week Hardwar 64,748; 2nd Calcutta 1,46,662; Gaya 32,000; Nagpur 1,32,978 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur 1,14,649, total 2,94,540, Amravati 1,04,375 total 2,97,608, Raipur 72,220, Bhilai (6 days) 43,249, Durg 40,697, Jalgaon 91,051 (1st week 1,82,235), Wardha 28,109, Chandrapur 62,125, total 2,11,443, 1st week Yavatmal 1,23,466; 2nd week Bhopal 2,69,216 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 2,93,984 from 2 cinemas, Jodhpur 1,20,000, Bikaner 50,000; Hyderabad 3,86,747 from 4 cinemas (1 in noon).

…………

Chachi 420 8th week Bombay 18,46,875 (73.84%) from 7 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 90,158, Baroda (matinee) 17,893; Pune 3,02,961 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 66,373, Solapur 70,772, 2nd week Barsi 21,957 (1st 35,551), 8th week Satara 22,922, 3rd week Miraj 64,230; 2nd Dharwad 46,918; 8th week Delhi 4,17,144 from 3 cinemas; Kanpur 83,599 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 95,627, Agra 25,735, Allahabad 19,600, Dehradun 36,640 (7th 53,000), total 5,92,606; Nagpur 69,201 from 2 cinemas, 7th week Jabalpur 57,175, total 5,87,914, 8th week Dhule (6 days) 33,328, total 4,29,190, Raipur (6 days) 41,886; Bhopal 1,04,500; 7th week Jaipur 99,008; 8th week Hyderabad 1,42,401.

Desh Re Joya Dada Pardesh Joya (Gujarati, TF) is creating havoc wherever released. 5th week Ahmedabad 7,29,736 from 4 cinemas, Asodar 1,19,952, 2nd week Patan 72,951, 3rd week Baroda 1,48,344, 1st Nadiad 79,147, 3rd Jamnagar 1,73,518, 5th week Rajkot 2,24,732, Bhavnagar 1,92,947, Junagadh 1,37,337, Morbi 1,59,591, 2nd week Botad 1,21,724.

‘DTPH’ 100 DAYS

Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai completed 100 days of its run all over on 7th February. It stars Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan and Karisma Kapoor. Music: Uttam Singh.

RAMESH PATEL’S DAUGHTER TO WED

Marriage of Sheetal, daughter of Ramesh Patel of Filmcenter, with Kartik will be solemnised on 17th February at the RWITC, Mahalaxmi, Bombay.

NEW MINI CINEMA IN BOMBAY

A new cinema in Bombay, Cinestar, will be inaugurated on 17th February with an invitee show of Saat Rang Ke Sapne. The cinema, owned by the Kanakias and controlled by Shringar, is located at Kandivli (West) where earlier stood Sona cinema. The cinema will be thrown open to the public from 20th February.

It has 281 seats and only one class. The admission rate is Rs. 55 and the nett capacity for 28 shows is Rs. 2,65,545. The cinema is equipped with Dolby digital and DTS sound systems.

YOU ASKED IT

With Kama Sutra having clicked, can’t old English sex films be dubbed in Hindi, especially in view of the fact that dubbed versions of censored films cannot be offered new cuts in visuals?

– Yes, old English sex films can be dubbed but that doesn’t mean that all of them will click like KAMA SUTRA. The novelty and shock value of KAMA SUTRA cannot be expected to be there in every film.

Aren’t too many small-budget horror films being made?

– In the small-budget group, it’s only horror or sex films that are considered safe. Someone should try making a horror film with plenty of action. It just might click.

Does the Maharashtra government now give subsidy to Marathi film producers before the release of a film?

– Yes, subsidy of Rs. 15 lakh is given to a producer during the making of his film.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Bombay distributors Shringar Films hold the distinction of having released the first Dolby film (1942 A LOVE STORY at Metro, Bombay), the first DTS film (HINDUSTANI at Eros, Bombay) and the first Dolby digital film (DAUD at New Excelsior, Bombay).

* KAMA SUTRA (dubbed) has created a record by collecting 96.90% in 1st week in Delhi (4 cinemas).

* CHACHI 420 has created a record by collecting 5,92,606/- in 8 weeks at Payal, Dehradun.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

CBFC Higher Than High Court?

Although the Bombay high court clearly laid down in the case of Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra that there can be no additional cuts in the visuals in the dubbed version of a film (over and above the cuts in the original version), the Madras regional office of the CBFC has committed the same mistake which had been committed by the Bombay regional office in the case of Kama Sutra. The film in question this time is Gali Gali Anarkali, the Hindi dubbed version of the English (Indian) film, I Love You. Although I Love You is censored and released, the Madras office of the CBFC has refused certificate to the dubbed version.

Sexy Success

West Bengal distributor Romi Jaiswal seems to be lucky with films laden with sex. He had released Bandit Queen in his territory, which proved a hit. Now he is laughing his way to the bank with Kama Sutra. In between, he had damp squibs like Insaaf. Moral of the story: Sex spells success.

Luck Transferred

If West Bengal distributor Romi Jaiswal is lucky with sex films, Nizam distributor Ravi Machhar wouldn’t even try his luck with such films. Ravi was the original distributor of Kama Sutra for Nizam circuit, but his parents were against the idea of their son releasing “such films”. Like an obedient son, Ravi relinquished the rights and suggested the name of another distributor, Dilip Tandon, to R. Mohan, the all-India rights controller of Kama Sutra. Tandon should thank Ravi Machhar’s parents for the lottery.

Killing Jack To Accommodate John

It’s sad how a distributor ‘kills’ one film to make way for another. East Punjab distributors, Saraswati Films, released Kama Sutra last week and Zor this week. To accommodate Zor, they discontinued Kama Sutra from the cinemas of Jalandhar and Ludhiana. This, even though the collections of Kama Sutra were truly good. That’s not fair.

Divine Blessings?

By a strange coincidence, several people associated with Kama Sutra have their names which are religiously reverred in Hindu mythology. The film’s producer-director is Mira (Nair) and her banner’s name is Mirabai Films P. Ltd. The all-India rights are with R. Mohan (Lord Krishna is also called Mohan). The Bombay distributors are Shyam and Balkrishna (both names of Lord Krishna) Shroff. The Delhi-U.P. distributor is G.D. Mehta and the ‘G’ in his name stands for Govardhan. The name of the concern distributing the film in East Punjab and Rajasthan is Saraswati (Goddess of learning) Films.

KAMA SUTRA – A TALE OF LOVE
(Dubbed)

Mirabai Films Pvt. Ltd.’s Kama Sutra – A Tale Of Love (A), dubbed from English, is a film (set in the 16th century) which has a story knit around sex and more sex. A princess and her lowly servant grow up together as friends but the latter resents having to wear the former’s old clothes always and being sidelined everywhere even while the former gets the best of everything in life. The servant, who grows up to be very sensual, seeks revenge on the princess by seducing her (the princess) to-be husband just a little before their marriage. The casanova husband falls prey to the servant’s seduction. So much so that when he consummates his marriage with the princess, he can think of only his sexual escapade with the servant.

The servant, who is now banished from the palace, meets a court sculptor who takes her to a teacher who used to teach the princess and other girls lessons in Kama Sutra. The sculptor and the servant are attracted towards each other. In the meantime, the princess’ husband yearns to get back the servant and when he does find her, he makes her his chief courtesan, much to the chagrin of his wife (the servant’s childhood friend). Thus begins the emotional and sexual game with the four players viz. the princess, her husband, the servant and her beloved.

Sex has been very liberally shown and that’s the catchword in the entire film. It titillates the viewer, more so because so much sex has never been seen earlier in a Hindi film. Otherwise, the drama moves at a slow pace but that is often sought to be compensated by vivid sex, coming at regular intervals. Music is in the background and there are no songs in the film.

Indra Verma does a wonderful job as the servant, looking sensual and performing brilliantly. Sarita Chowdhury, as the princess, is quite good. Naveen Andrews looks and acts the sex-hungry husband of the princess beautifully. Ramon Tikaram is also extremely natural in the role of the sculptor. Rekha is restrained and truly effective as the teacher imparting Kama Sutra lessons. The rest of the cast, including Harish Patel, Pearl Padamsee, Arundhati Rao, Khalid Tyabji and others, lend admirable support.

If the sex scenes are vivid, the dialogues too are pretty bold at several places. Although the censors may have cut portions, they’ve also permitted a lot to be shown. Dubbing is excellent.

Direction (by Mira Nair) is exemplary because the erotic scenes are truly so and they succeed in exciting the viewer, which was the aim of the film. What’s more, the drama also holds appeal for the class audience. Photography is superb. Sets (Nitin Desai) are fabulous. Production values are very nice. Costumes of the various characters give the impression of the drama being set centuries ago.

On the whole, a film like Kama Sutra is visually one of the boldest ever seen on the Hindi screen and it is this novelty and shock value and, of course, abundant and uninhibited sex, which will see it succeed handsomely at the box-office. The craze for the film will not be limited to young adults or just menfolk, even women and the elite can be expected to patronise the film in a big way as days pass. Class A1.

Released on 6-2-’98 at Satyam and 15 other cinemas of Bombay by Shogun Films thru Shringar Films. Publicity & opening: very good. …….Also released all over, to bumper houses everywhere. Over-capacity crowds were witnessed in several cinemas in different circuits.

LATEST POSITION

The industry’s Idd has come this week with the bumper opening of non-star cast and songless KAMA SUTRA. The actual Idd festival last Friday could not do anything for star-cast and song-filled BANARASI BABU and VINASHAK. Instead, Idd proved bountiful for DTPH and ISHQ as their collections jumped up in the week under review.

Banarasi Babu has not been appreciated and will entail losses to its distributors due to its high price. 1st week Bombay 35,70,871 (67.84%) from 15 cinemas (8 on F.H.): Ahmedabad 3,16,454 from 3 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Rajkot 1,44,628 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Jamnagar 96,272 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 8,10,681 from 5 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 2,33,660 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Satara 80,556; Belgaum 1,97,826; Delhi 29,09,218 (50.57%) from 11 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 3,53,047 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 2,88,717, Allahabad 1,59,000, Varanasi 1,95,495, Meerut 2,03,067, Bareilly 1,52,558 (60.54%), Dehradun 1,28,000, Hardwar 34,711; Nagpur 4,08,917 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,78,062, Amravati (6 days) 81,220, Akola 1,27,922, Bhilai 1,45,128, Chandrapur 1,14,646; Indore 1,29,580 (4 on F.H.), Bhopal 4,10,189 from 3 cinemas; Jaipur 7,41,585 from 4 cinemas, Bikaner 1,34,900.

Vinashak dropped rather badly from 2nd day onwards at some places and from 4th day onwards at other places. Its only saving grace is its reasonable price in some circuits. 1st week Bombay 43,19,365 (69%) from 13 cinemas (9 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 6,17,036 from 7 cinemas, Rajkot 2,34,565 from 2 cinemas, Adipur 1,26,405; Pune 7,90,168 from 6 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 3,49,261 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee); Hubli 100%, Belgaum 1,35,845 (100%), Dharwad 100%; Delhi 29,39,616 (51.85%) from 12 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 3,76,191 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 3,03,033, Allahabad 1,82,500, Varanasi 2,39,601, Meerut (6 days) 1,61,808 (100%), Bareilly 1,46,845 (73.88%), Dehradun 1,36,316; Calcutta 23,03,921 from 22 cinemas; Nagpur 4,59,519 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur 1,79,890, Amravati 1,93,233, share 1,35,300, Akola 1,49,848, Raipur 2,12,595 (45.96%) from 2 cinemas, Bhilai 98,267, Durg 88,891, Jalgaon 1,82,235, Wardha 62,409, Chandrapur 1,49,319; Bhopal 3,22,002 from 3 cinemas; Jaipur 4,97,553 from 3 cinemas, Jodhpur 3,00,000, Bikaner 97,500, Bharatpur (gross) 1,20,000; Hyderabad 32,09,820 from 17 cinemas.

…………

_________

Desh Re Joya Dada Pardesh Joya (Gujarati, TF) is still going great guns and proves a blockbuster. It has collected better this week than in the previous week at many places. 4th week Ahmedabad 7,21,313 from 4 cinemas, Asodar 1,01,341, 2nd week Baroda 1,47,948, 4th Rajkot 2,14,376, 2nd Jamnagar 1,65,858 (1st 1,40,676), Bhavnagar 1,93,621 (1st 1,86,425).

Laali (Punjabi) is doing well in the circuit in East Punjab.

COURT ALLOWS SHOGUN FILMS TO USE TITLE ‘KAMA SUTRA – TALE OF LOVE’

Rejecting the notice of motion taken out by B. Gupta against Mirabai Films Pvt. Ltd. and Shogun Films Pvt. Ltd., the producers of Kama Sutra – A Tale Of Love, for the use of the title Kamasutra which is being made by him, Justice A.T. Vaidya of the Bombay city civil court in a judgement passed recently has said that as the name Kama Sutra – A Tale Of Love had been registered by the Association of Motion Picture & TV Programme Producers, though rejected by the Film Makers Combine, the same could be used by the defendants (Mirabai Films). However, the judge said that the loss suffered by Gupta could be compensated by the defendants in terms of money. The court also held that the balance of convenience was in favour of the defendants as the plaintiff had approached the court at a belated stage.

YUNUS PERWAIZ TO CONTEST LS ELECTIONS

Actor Yunus Perwaiz will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from the East Delhi constituency. He will be a candidate of the Samajwadi Party.

ADITYA CHOWKSEY’S WEDDING LARGELY ATTENDED

C.I. distributor Aditya Chowksey, son of distributor J.P. Chowksey, got married to Chhavi on 3rd February in Indore at Sayaji Hotel. The wedding reception was largely attended by the C.P.C.I. trade as also by Bombay trade personalities.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Besides Anil Kapoor and Salman Khan, there will be a third hero in Vashu Bhagnani’s BIWI NO. 1. His role will be small but important. Vashu and director David Dhawan have not yet finalised the guy.

* Sanjay Dutt plays a very important role in Raj Kanwar’s second home production, as yet untitled and starring Chandrachur Singh and Mahima Chaudhry. Raj prefers to call it a “dynamic role” although it is a guest appearance but a very, very lengthy guest appearance.

* Tips has got made attractive cards (in the style of picture postcards) of its forthcoming film, JAB PYAR KISI SE HOTA HAI, directed by Deepak Sareen. The card does not reveal the film’s name, it only shows Salman Khan and Twinkle Khanna in a song sequence, wearing similar clothes — red and green checkered shirt with blue jeans. Besides the main credit titles, the card announces: ‘Await the heart-throbbing music coming on Tips’.

RECORDS RE JOYA!

* Govindbhai Patel’s DESH RE JOYA DADA PARDESH JOYA (Gujarati, TF) is moving from glory to glory. The fourth week’s collections in most of the cinemas are better than or almost equal to those of the third week. The 3rd and 4th week’s collections respectively are: Amber, Ahmedabad 2,67,790/- (full) and 2,67,790/- (full); Anupam, Ahmedabad 2,68,392/- and 2,67,502/-; Anand, Naroda 90,016/- and 95,325/- (theatre records); Ashok, Ahmedabad 85,027/- and 90,696/- (theatre records); Vasant, Asodar 76,288/- and 1,01,341/-; Rajshree, Rajkot 2,14,878/- and 2,14,376/-; Galaxy, Bhavnagar 1,86,425/- and 1,93,621/-; Chitrakoot, Morbi 1,48,321/- and 1,51,151/-; Liberty, Junagadh 1,47,565/- (record) and 1,45,588/-. At Sadhna, Baroda, it collected 1,52,724/- in 1st week, and 1,47,948/- in 2nd week. The corresponding collections at Deepak, Jamnagar were 1,40,676/- (1st week) and 1,65,858/- (2nd week). The total for 2 weeks (3,06,534/-) is a city record. At Jaimeen, Botad, it has collected 1,42,161/- in 1st week.

Are Awards Losing Their Sanctity?

The recent film awards functions held by two big media groups have caused a lot of heartburns among industry people, giving rise to bickerings and allegations of partiality in the selection of winners. Since awards are subjective, there will always be such complaints, and history is witness to this fact because although one awards function was started as an annual affair only some years back, the other has been an annual ritual for many years now. But the foul talk that’s been generated this year after both the awards functions is, perhaps, the maximum. And that indeed is cause for concern not only because the industry participates in both the annual celebrations whole-heartedly year after year but also because the two media groups have their reputations to guard.

The funny part of the awards functions is that both profess to be popular awards and yet the winners in so many categories were absolutely different in the two functions. If the public, as is claimed, selects the winners, what does this imply? That there’s a different set of people selecting the award winners for one function, and another set of persons for the other function? Both the media groups had separate juries too but the wide variance in the winners makes one wonder whether it was finally the verdict of the jury alone and not of the public too. Or was it? Was even the verdict of the juries overridden in a bid to oblige people? That’s one major accusation being hurled at the organisers of at least one awards function. A top producer, wishing to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, felt that the winners were cleverly picked out so as to cover as many people and films as possible. Says he, “With the awards functions getting commercialised, the sponsors naturally insist that all top stars, producers, directors, music directors etc. should attend the function, to get the maximum mileage for their products. The organisers can ensure such attendance by honouring as many people as possible, whether or not they deserve to be so honoured. So we have popular awards and critics’ awards as also awards for new reasons and achievements.”

A natural corollary of having separate awards under the popular catgegory and the critics category is that the critics do not think like the normal public. While it is understandable in the case of one or two categories, how does one explain such differences in a line of categories? Obviously, the intention was to please too many people at the same time, some deserving, others undeserving.

A glaring difference in the two awards functions was the almost complete omission of Dil To Pagal Hai from even the list of nominations in one, and the sweeping of awards by the same film in the other. Even subjectivity has to have some basis and there cannot be so much difference when both the awards are public awards. Then, some awards went by the name of popular awards although the films for which the concerned persons won those awards were flops. There’s no harm in giving awards to persons associated with flops if the said persons have excelled in their fields, but how can such awards assume the character of “popular awards”? The dictionary meaning of the word ‘popular’ is: ‘of, carried on by, the people; adapted to the understanding, taste, or means, of the people’. When the people didn’t patronise the film, how could they have voted for a person associated with the film? One is not disputing that the winners deserved such awards. No, that’s not the point here. But what the point definitely is is that such awards cannot be called popular awards.

The third major awards function, that is still to be held, may give rise to more controversies. The nominations themselves are raising eyebrows. A lot of questions vis-à-vis the awards functions are remaining unanswered. For a free and fair awards ceremony, what is required is complete transparency. Unfortunately, none of the awards ceremonies has been able to give that feeling of transparency — neither to the general public nor to the industry people.

Little wonder then that some top names, again wishing to remain anonymous, are seriously considering boycotting one or the other awards functions from next year onwards. The rumblings have begun. The organisers of these major events cannot afford to ignore these sounds of discontent. So also the sponsors of these mega events.

– Komal Nahta

Honestly Speaking….

Exhibitors all over the country are panicking. With hardly any films sustaining at the box-office, cinemas will soon have to go abegging for films. That would mean jeopardising the position of exhibitors. With distributors coming into a commanding position vis-à-vis exhibitors, the former would be able to dictate terms to the latter. Of course, that itself wouldn’t be enough to get smiles back on the faces of distributors because they’ve also been reeling under losses due to films falling like nine pins. Kama Sutra has come like a belated Idd!.

Well, actually, if you ask me, I’ll say — even at the cost of sounding repetitive — that it is the prices which are failing sometimes, not the films. Producers should realise the importance of correct pricing because ultimately, in calculating whether a film is a paying proposal or a loser, one has to weigh its cost against its business. Unrealistically high prices of films are ruining the market. Distributors are dying a slow but sure death. And if distributors don’t come forward to buy films of producers, the situation in the coming months will become even more alarming than it is today.

The demonstration effect is killing the industry. Each one is getting influenced by what the other is doing. If he can price his film so high, why can’t I? That seems to be the new mantra. In the case of artistes, the guiding factor for fixing one’s price is: when he/she is charging so much, why shouldn’t I? Producers and artistes ask themselves these questions but, believe me, they don’t have the guts to accept the honest reply.

The honest answer to the two questions above is: Each film is different from the rest, every artiste is unique, there can be no mathematics or readymade formulae for price fixation. A Sunny Deol may command ‘x’ price but Sunil Shetty or Akshay Kumar cannot, simply because they are also action heroes like Sunny, demand prices equivalent to or even determined by what Sunny is asking for. Or just because a Subhash Ghai sells his film at ‘y’ price, it doesn’t mean that every producer can get that price. It also doesn’t mean that even if he can get that price, he should ask for it even if his project does not deserve that price.

A question — and a pertinent one — that arises here is: who will decide what is the deserving price? The honest reply is: the conscience of the producer or the artiste concerned. If one cannot be fair, one should take the help of knowledgeable people in the industry who are known for their unbiased and balanced approach. It may sound a ridiculous option but that’s if you don’t give it a serious thought. Think over this for two days and then ask yourself for an honest reply. Chances are, you will agree with what’s mentioned above.

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Differential Admission Rates

A lot of concern is being expressed at the level of box-office collections of some recent releases. But while expressing concern, one must not forget that the high admission rates of cinemas, especially in major cities, are also responsible for the pathetically low collections. It is a fallacy to imagine that a cinegoer would be willing and even eager to pay the same ticket price for a lesser hero as he would, say, for Sunny Deol or Shah Rukh Khan. The latter may not be as hot in smaller centres, but in cities, where admission rates are sometimes prohibitively high, he is the darling. And if the films of lesser heroes are not up to the mark, the exorbitant admission rates act as a double deterrent. Alongside pricing of films and artistes, it’s time one gave a serious thought to the pricing of cinema tickets too.

Of Good Luck And Bad Luck

It is not without reason that the film line is called the most speculative line. For, when Lady Luck will smile at you, you never know. Take, for example, the case of Rajasthan distribution. Kama Sutra was originally with Chopra Jaggi Pictures for the circuit. When Chopra Jaggi relinquished the distribution rights, two distributors saw the film (only last week). One was Rajasthan distributor Baba Ramdeo and the other party was East Punjab distributors, Saraswati Films. After the trial show, while Baba wondered whether he should go for it or not, the Saraswati guys struck the deal. Thus, they had the film for East Punjab as well as for Rajasthan. Baba Ramdeo later even had a change of mind and offered to buy the film from the Saraswati guys after giving them profit. But do you know why they refused to let go the rights? According to Baba Ramdeo, “They told me, they couldn’t leave the rights as they had told Subhash Ghai that they were releasing the film in Punjab as well as Rajasthan!” Imagine, sticking to a commitment because it had been conveyed to Ghai who, in any case, was not otherwise connected in any way with the film or the deal. The Saraswati guys must thank Ghai for their luck. And also thank Kamdev, the sex God, for their double windfall with the sexy Kama Sutra.

In Bombay too, the film changed hands. It was first acquired by Ajay Devgan who then relinquished the rights, presumably because pirated video cassettes of the film surfaced in the market. It was then that all-India rights holder R. Mohan decided to release it himself thru Shringar Films.

Doubly Lucky

Delhi-U.P. distributor G.D. Mehta is a very lucky guy. After negotiations, the price of Kama Sutra for Delhi-U.P. was brought down dramatically last week. And when the collections of all the three releases of last week nose-dived on Saturday itself in Delhi, exhibitors made a bee-line for the office of G.D. Mehta to book Kama Sutra as that was the only release of this week. That’s what you call double luck.

Sexy Shringar

Bombay distributors Shringar Films are on a sexy trip. It started with Aastha which they distributed, but there was a long gap after that. The trip has restarted this year with Kama Sutra this week. In the pipeline are two more films — Deepa Mehta’s Fire and Trans Arts India’s Erotic Tales (Part I) — which have a good dose of sex. The latter film (cleared by the Appellate Tribunal) actually consists of two different films — Mani Kaul’s The Cloud Door and a foreign film, The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch. It may be recalled that The Cloud Door, starring Anu Agarwal and Murad Ali, had attracted huge crowds in 1995 at the IFFI held in Bombay, obviously, due to its steamy sex scenes.

No Men Please

Apprehending that ladies may not readily and immediately come to cinemas screening Kama Sutra, Bombay distributor Balkrishna Shroff has decided to hold special shows for ladies only on Tuesday (10th February) at 3 p.m. at ten to twelve cinemas of Bombay city and suburbs. A good move which can be well emulated by distributors of other circuits since there were very, very few ladies in the house-full audiences on the first day throughout the country.

BANARASI BABU

Sapna Arts’ Banarasi Babu (UA) is a comedy film with Indian sentiments thrown in in good measure. It tells the story of an Indian boy, staying in Banaras, who gets married to an Indian girl settled abroad. The girl’s mother is against the match and when her daughter cannot adjust in her new home, the mother is the happiest. With a view to get the two divorced, she takes her daughter back abroad. But not the one to give up so easily, the guy follows his wife abroad and teaches his mother-in-law and wife such a lesson that they turn over new leaves.

The story idea may not be new but it is, nevertheless, good as it offers a lot of scope for fun and laughter. But the screenplay writer has not really done a good job as several scenes either look contrived or are predictable. The second half, in which the guy teaches his wife and mother-in-law a lesson for their ill-mannered behaviour and lack of values, should have been much more exciting than it is. But since several incidents have been seen in films earlier, the impact is diluted. Moreover, giving too much footage to the mother-in-law and lesser to the wife is a mistake committed by the writer. Dialogues are punch-packed but only at places.

Govinda is excellent as usual. The guy’s sincerity is absolutely praiseworthy and so is his sense of timing. Ramya fails to impress as the heroine. She looks too over-weight and her costumes are bad. Kader Khan is humorous but doesn’t get scope for being hilarious. Bindu is good at times and loud at other times. Shakti Kapoor’s comedy is half-baked so that he manages to evoke laughter only occasionally. Asif Sheikh does well. Reema lends good support. Sanam, Shagufta Ali, Upasna Singh and the others are average.

David Dhawan’s direction is good but the magic of his earlier films with Govinda is missing here mainly due to a less competent script. The contribution of music is also not much. ‘San sana san sai sai’ is the only exciting number but its picturisation is ordinary. ‘Meri gori gori baahein’ and ‘Susri garam garam’ are fairly good songs. However, the absence of a couple of hit numbers is sorely felt. Cinematography is very good. Production values are appropriate.

On the whole, Banarasi Babu does not have enough hilarious moments and since it is not a laugh riot for viewers, it cannot be expected to keep its distributors smiling. Rather, its high price may see them in the red in some circuits.

Released on 30-1-’98 at Maratha Mandir and 22 other cinemas of Bombay thru Pinky Films. Publicity: very good. Opening: good but not up to the mark (despite Idd holiday). …….Also released all over except in West Bengal and Nizam.

VINASHAK

Mark Films International’s Vinashak (A) is about an Indian’s obsession for his motherland. It is the story of a police officer for whom duty is everything and who upholds law even in the most adverse of circumstances. He is sent on a mission to investigate the illegal activities being carried out by the jailor of the central jail, but once inside, he is shocked to find that his supporters have been killed and he is now in the clutches of villains including the jailor, a corrupt police officer and a minister. How he escapes from the jail and kills the villains one by one is narrated in the latter part.

The film, unlike many action films, has a definite story-line and a well-written screenplay (Rajkumar Santoshi). The first half is tight and effective but the drama becomes a bit too tense after interval as there’s not much relief then. Further, some sequences look too far-fetched to believe. In this class falls the blowing up of a car by a bomb planted in a toy car operated by a remote control, in full view of the public. Dialogues (Naeem-Ejaz) are good at several places.

Sunil Shetty lives the role of the patriotic police officer and impresses a great deal with his acting, action and dances. Raveena Tandon looks pretty and performs ably. Her dances are graceful. Danny Denzongpa is brilliant as the villainous jailor. Tinnu Anand makes an effective minister. Alok Nath evokes much hatred due to his lovely performance. Mohan Joshi leaves a mark, his facial expressions being remarkable. Om Puri does well but he deserved better scope. Mukesh Rishi is ferocious. Harish Patel wins the audience’s hearts with a lovable performance. Satyen Kappu, Shivaji Satam, Disha, Jassi, Dipti and the others give very good support. Pinky’s dance is truly sexy.

Action director Ravi Dewan makes an impressive debut as a director. His shot compositions and takings are nice. He should have, however, balanced the heavy second half with some light scenes. Viju Shah’s music is good. ‘Godna god mohe godariya’ and ‘Moriya moriya’ are the best songs. Picturisations of ‘Godna’ and ‘Rooba rooba’ songs are fantastic and truly eye-filling. Nitin Desai’s sets are rich and beautiful, but it must also be added here that the set of the central jail is too beautiful and tidy to look like a jail! Peter Pereira’s camerawork is extraordinary. The Dalhousie locales have been captured beautifully. Action scenes (Ravi Dewan) have novelty and have been excellently composed, especially in the first half. Technical and production values are of a high standard. Sound effects (mixed in Dolby) are lovely.

On the whole, despite less relief, Vinashak has the entertainment value to keep its distributors smiling.

Released on 29-1-’98 at Metro and on 30-1-’98 at Minerva and 20 other cinemas of Bombay thru Dilsa Distributors Combine. Publicity: excellent. Opening: good but below expectations despite Idd holiday. …….Also released all over.

HAFTA VASULI

Seven Mountain Movies’ Hafta Vasuli (UA) attempts to reflect what goes on in society today due to criminalisation of politics. A young police officer joins hands with a corrupt politician and a criminal to make fast money. An upright municipal officer (inspired from Khairnar’s character) comes on the scene, and his job of demolishing unauthorised constructions on government land brings him in conflict with the criminal who is a builder too. The get-rich-quick police officer realises the folly of his policy when his childhood friend, now a professor, takes law into his hands and lands in jail. The police officer, now a changed man, alongwith the municipal officer succeeds in getting the professor freed from prison. The three of them then unite and humiliate the politician and the criminal by supporting a eunuch in the elections. While the politician repents for his misdeeds, the unrelenting criminal is killed by the trio.

The story is the usual revenge and good-versus-evil drama. The screenplay provides some interesting situations, especially in the second half. The scathing attack on today’s government, corrupt politicians and officials is enjoyable. The election scene of the eunuch is a highlight. Some dialogues are very good.

Jackie Shroff does truly well. Aditya Pancholi lives his character. Ayub Khan is fair. Madhoo and Saadhika are alright. Gulshan Grover’s villainy with a touch of comedy is not very menacing. Hemant Birje, as the criminal builder, is good. Rohini Hattangady is very effective. Sr. Balraj Vij, Anand Balraj Vij, Laxmikant Berde (as the eunuch), Aroon Bakshi and the other cast provide fair support.

Deepak Balraj Vij’s direction is quite good. Music is alright, the ‘Family mein lafda’ and ‘Vote for’ songs standing out if only for their comment value. Action scenes are ordinary, save a few. Photography is of a nice standard.

On the whole, Hafta Vasuli lacks the excitement of a political action drama and, therefore, remains an average fare. It is likely to result in losses for some distributors.

Released on 30-1-’98 at Dreamland and 17 other cinemas of Bombay thru Mahalakshmi Film Distributors. Publicity: fair. Opening: average. …….Also released all over except in East Punjab and C.P. Berar.

YOU ASKED IT

Have the cast and credits of Subhash Ghai’s Taal been finalised?

– The story is Subhash Ghai’s and the screenplay is being written by Sachin Bhaumick, while dialogues are by Javed Siddiqi. It is a two-hero-one-heroine subject but so far, only Akshaye Khanna has been finalised. A.R. Rahman will score the music. Lyrics by Anand Bakshi and art direction by R. Verman are the other major credits.

Is it true that music director Shravan’s sons are also turning music directors?

– Yes the team of Shravan’s two sons, Sanjiv and Darshan, has been signed by producer Vimal Kumar to compose the music for his next film which will be directed by Kuku Kohli and which stars Sunil Shetty and Juhi Chawla.

Who do you recommend as the safest hero today?

– Nobody and everybody. Nobody is safe at unrealistic film prices. Everybody can be safe if films are sold at reasonable prices.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Vinod Khanna was given a tumultous welcome at Gurdaspur on 27th January when he reached his constituency in Punjab to file his nomination papers for the forthcoming elections to the Lok Sabha. Several film stars have agreed to visit Gurdaspur to canvass for Vinod Khanna.

* Producer Tutu Sharma and director David Dhawan are using the services of different cameramen for the various songs in their GHARWALI BAHARWALI to bring in variety and beauty. Kabir Lal picturised a song at Ramoji Film City (near Hyderabad) in a 10-day spell till January 30. Before that, the film’s cameraman, K.S. Prakash Rao, picturised the other songs. The last song will now be canned by a third cameraman. Truly, beauty lies in the eye — sorry, lens — of the beholder.

* Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Govinda and Karisma Kapoor have joined hands with Wizcraft to open theme restaurants in India. The formal announcement was made on 29th January in Bombay.

Subhash Ghai’s Triple Celebrations
The Party In Perfect Sur & Taal

How just a new venue and an unusual time can change the flavour of a party was evident at the triple celebrations of Subhash Ghai on 25th January. Usually, filmland parties are held in the evenings but these celebrations were held in the afternoon. Rather than in one of the many 5-star hotels, the function took place at the picturesque Royal Palms at Goregaon, Bombay.

The three celebrations were — Subhash Ghai’s birthday, silver jubilee of his Pardes and the launching of his new film, Taal. Ghai’s birthday actually falls on 24th January but it was celebrated a day later, alongwith the other two events.

There wasn’t any formal muhurt or the customary muhurt shot for Taal. The banners simply announced ‘Subhash Ghai’s Taal – The beat of passion’. Nor was there the customary cake-cutting to mark Ghai’s birthday. But yes, the silver jubilee of Pardes was celebrated with the customary distribution of jubilee trophies to the film’s cast and crew.

The top brass of the industry including Sunil Dutt, Dilip Kumar, Yash Chopra, Boney Kapoor, Sreedevi, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Manisha Koirala, Aishwarya Rai, Satish Kaushik, Manmohan Shetty, Govind Nihalani, Laxmikant, Govinda, Indra Kumar, Ashok Thakeria, Smita Thackeray, Sultan Ahmed, Gaffarbhai Nadiadwala, Bharat Shah, Kiran Shantaram as well as Raj Thackeray and many others attended the party that was, all said and done, different — as different as the title of Ghai’s new film. Whether it was the new venue or the triple events or the Ghai brand of warm hospitality that made the invitees have triple the usual fun, one doesn’t know.

CONTROVERSY CORNER

‘Banarasi Babu’ Released Even As…….
West Bengal Distributor Obtains Stay Order On All-India Release

Nandu Tolani’s Banarasi Babu almost did not release on Friday, January 30. West Bengal distributors, PMD Entertainments (P.) Ltd., Calcutta, on 29th January obtained a stay order on the film’s all-India release, from a division bench of the Bombay high court. More specifically, PMD Entertainments were granted ad interim reliefs in terms of prayer clauses (a) and (b) of their draft notice of motion, by the division bench comprising Justice V.P. Tipnis and Justice N. Arumugham.

Clauses (a) and (b) of the draft notice of motion were:

(a) that pending the hearing and final disposal of the suit, the 1st and 2nd respondents (Nandu Tolani and Sapna Film Distributors, Calcutta, respectively) by themselves, their servants, agents and representatives be restrained by an order and injunction of this hon’ble court from in any manner releasing and/or distributing and/or exhibiting the said picture in any part of India including in the said territory till such time that the 1st respondent effects delivery of release prints of the said picture to the plaintiffs (PMD Entertainments) for simultaneous release in the said territory, viz. West Bengal.

(b) that pending the hearing and final disposal of the suit, the 1st and 3rd (Filmcenter Laboratories) respondents by themselves, their servants and/or agents be restrained by an order and injunction of this hon’ble court from in any manner either directly or indirectly delivering or causing to be delivered prints of the said picture in any territory of India until such time the prints of the said picture for release in the said territory are first delivered to the appellants.

The dispute began when producer Nandu Tolani towards the end of December ’97 sold the West Bengal distribution rights of Banarasi Babu to PMD Entertainments and faxed a letter to the Eastern India Motion Picture Association (EIMPA), asking the latter to cancel the registration of the film from the name of Sapna Film Distributors and register the film in the name of PMD Entertainments (P.) Ltd. instead. The letter was irrevocable but it is alleged that after receiving monies from PMD Entertainments, Nandu Tolani sought to withdraw his irrevocable letter and asked the EIMPA not to register Banarasi Babu in favour of PMD Entertainments. Interesting to note that (i) Sapna Film Distributors was to have released the film in West Bengal from Billoo Bakliwal’s office, and (ii) Billoo Bakliwal’s father, L.C. Bakliwal, is the vice president of the EIMPA.

Anyway, sensing fraud, PMD Entertainments on 23rd January obtained a stay order from the Bombay high court, restraining Filmcenter from delivering or causing to be delivered the prints of Banarasi Babu for West Bengal circuit. PMD Entertainments were directed to deposit a sum of Rs. 30 lakh in court on or before 28th January. The said amount was deposited on 28th when the Bombay high court stayed the delivery of prints for West Bengal to both, Sapna Film Distributors and PMD Entertainments. During arguments, it was pleaded on behalf of Nandu Tolani that if the film was released all over but not in West Bengal, the said territory (West Bengal) would become worthless after 30th January, the day of all-India release.

Aggrieved by the order not granting it delivery of prints despite the deposit of monies in the court, PMD Entertainments preferred an appeal on 29th January before the division bench and obtained reliefs in terms of prayer clauses (a) and (b). PMD Entertainments took the same plea that if the film was allowed to be released all over except in West Bengal, the West Bengal territory would become worthless, an argument put forward by Nandu Tolani himself.

Consequent to the court order obtained around 4.15 p.m. on 29th, there was high-tension drama at Filmcenter, which went on till after 3 a.m. on 30th. U.A. Thadani, Lala Damani, Girdhar Hinduja and others tried to intervene and bring about a reconciliation between Nandu Tolani and PMD Entertainments but their efforts failed. Ramesh Patel, Arun Patel, N.C. Hira and others of Filmcenter were engaged in hectic meetings till 3 o’clock in the morning of 30th.

Luckily for the Bombay and Nizam distributors of the film, their deliveries were effected just before the court order restraining Filmcenter from giving deliveries was obtained.

It is to be seen now whether PMD Entertainments uses this order to stop the film’s screening all over India. Banarasi Babu opened in U.P. on Thursday morning, and in the rest of the country, on Friday morning. One feels, contempt of court proceedings could be filed against Nandu Tolani for permitting the film’s release or, in other words, not preventing its release.

A similar incident had taken place in the case of Sultan Ahmed’s Dharam Kanta, the screening of which was discontinued from Nizam territory on a court order obtained by Sultan Ahmed. Interestingly, Ranjit & Co. were the advocates for Sultan Ahmed then and they are also the advocates for PMD Entertainments now.

In the meanwhile, insiders reveal that Nandu Tolani tried to have the film released (thru Sapna Film Distributors, of course) in a cinema of Calcutta on Wednesday/Thursday and even had his advocate (!) carry two prints for the purpose to Calcutta, but could not succeed in his mission.

                                       

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

David Dhawan And Bengal Territory

David Dhawan had better visit Calcutta and do some havan/pooja there. For, his films seem to be getting embroiled in delivery controversies in the West Bengal territory only. Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi could not be released in West Bengal simultaneously with the rest of India because of the delivery drama. And likewise, this week’s Banarasi Babu, too, did not open in West Bengal. Although his Deewana Mastana was released in West Bengal with the rest of the country, there was, nevertheless, a problem in finalising the distributors (as deals were struck with two distributors).

Delivery Dramas

There were delivery problems in two of the three releases this week. And the cause in both the cases was the same: finance. Shortage of money to meet the liens on the films resulted in untold tension and hardships to the persons involved. The West Bengal distributor of Banarasi Babu obtained a stay on the all-India release of the film (read story elsewhere in this issue), so that it almost appeared as if the film wouldn’t be released. A lien of 40 lakh against the Bombay territory caused tension in the case of Hafta Vasuli. Of this, 15 lakh was payable to Jackie Shroff. The hero’s lab. letter against Bombay circuit created a problem and it also appeared in the case of Hafta Vasuli that the film would not be released in Bombay. But the Bombay distributors, Mahalakshmi Film Distributors, co-operated and made the release possible. So luckily, both the films were finally released (except Banarasi Babu in West Bengal).

Terrific Trailers

New trailers of Zor have been made and they are being played in cinemas from Idd day, to thunderous applause. Distributors of the film should now rest assured as the suspense about its release date is over because the trailers announce its release date of 13th February. Distraught distributors have complained that the producers never bothered to either confirm or deny the release date, which led them to play their own guessing games. Anyway, the film has been cleared by the CBFC, and the censor certificate should be in the producers’ hands next week.

If the theatrical trailer of Zor is winning applause, so is the television trailer of Salaakhen, which shows Sunny Deol banging his head against the grills (salaakhen) of the jail (lock-up) door till his head bleeds. Both, Zor and Salaakhen, are presented by Sanjay Tolani.

Welcome The New Kapoor Girl

It can be told now. Karisma Kapoor’s younger sister is the latest to become a part of the world of heroines. Yes, Kareena Kapoor has been signed by ……. Shall we give out the name of the producer? No, we’d rather involve you in a guessing game. The one, who has signed her, is a producer and director. And he has cast her opposite his son who also will be launched in the film. The producer-director is …… No, there’s simply no need to spell out the name. You all have already guessed it.

Neelam Bhi Saath Hai

Neelam, who has been doing pretty well for herself on television these days, has bagged a plum role in Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Saath Saath Hain. She plays the only sister of the three brothers viz. Mohnish Bahl, Salman Khan and Saif Ali Khan. With the three heroines (Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Karisma Kapoor) also having been finalised, Neelam is the seventh star to have been announced by the Barjatyas. So the film could, as of now, as well be called Hum Saat Saat Hain (We Are Seven Seven)!

BADMAASH

Seven Seas Films’ Badmaash (A) is a gang war film with a routine story. A brave, unemployed young man saves a college girl from being molested by the son of a small-time don and beats him up. The don takes this as an insult and seeks revenge. In the meantime, the young man and his friends form a gang of their own to face the don’s challenge. The don’s son rapes the young man’s sister and kills her. In retaliation, the young man kills the don’s son. Thereafter, the young man’s father and mother are also killed one by one. Ultimately, the don is exterminated.

The drama offers no novelty, and scenes have been seemingly written to accommodate action and violence. What’s more, in spite of having so much action, the makers have opted to avoid putting in some comedy for relief. Even the action scenes are mostly unexciting. Dialogues are ordinary. The film has taken many years to complete and that shows in continuity jerks.

Jackie Shroff goes through his role mechanically. Shilpa Shirodkar is fair. Paresh Rawal’s villainy is quite alright. Pran does a reasonable job. Bindu has done well. Ramesh Bhatkar, Vikram Gokhale, Dilip Dhawan, Shagufta Ali, Tej Sapru, Siddharth Ray, Sanjay Shah and Viju Kohte lend ordinary support. Pradeep Kumar and Jalal Agha, in special appearances, have just one scene each.

Direction is no better than the lacklustre script. Of the songs, ‘Aamchi Mumbai’ has some appeal for front-benchers. The other numbers are ordinary. Song picturisations are dull. Camerawork is not up to the mark. Production values are ordinary.

On the whole, Badmaash has taken a poor start and has nothing much to see a pick-up.

Released on 23-1-’98 at Novelty and 14 other cinemas of Bombay thru Dilsa Distributors Combine. Publicity: good. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over.

MISS 420

Venus’ Miss 420 (UA) is a romantic suspense thriller. The intelligence department of the CBI puts a young spy, Miss 420, on the job to trap the people involved in smuggling defence documents to foreign countries. The department chief senses the involvement of its own officers too. The drama starts with a car being blown up in a bomb explosion by the smugglers to kill Miss 420. They are shocked when they see a similar-looking girl who comes alongwith her lover, in search of her brother who is an investigative journalist. There are several turns and twists thereafter and finally, a climax full of action. Almost three-fourths of the film moves on the romantic track and hardly impresses with its songs and dances. The songs are good and their picturisations, sensual, but they were popular several years ago. Even while the suspense keeps on increasing, the real excitement comes towards and in the climax. Dialogues are ordinary.

Sheeba lends glamour by exposing freely. She is fair as far as acting goes. Baba Sehgal is not impressive. He looks old too. Mohan Joshi does very well. Shakti Kapoor is good and so also Tinnu Anand. Asif Sheikh leaves a mark. Jeet Upendra, Mahesh Anand, Mushtaq Khan, Aroon Bakshi, Goga Kapoor, Anant Mahadevan, Ajit Vachani, Amita Nangia, Shubha Khote, Kuldeep Pawar and Abhimanyyu fill the bill. Johny Lever entertains in a couple of scenes.

Akashdeep’s direction is fairly nice. At least three songs — ‘Aaja meri gaadi mein baith jaa’, ‘Mesmsaab O memsaab’ and ‘Dhak dhak’ — are beautifully tuned but they’ve become stale now. Camerawork is good while the other technical aspects are alright.

On the whole, although it has a good suspense track, Miss 420 lacks in face value and substantive drama and will, therefore, find the going tough.

Released on 23-1-’98 at Maratha Mandir and 6 other cinemas of Bombay by Venus thru Shringar Films. Publicity: fair. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over.

UPHAAR TRAGEDY ACCUSED SUMMONED

CBI special magistrate Brijesh Sethi has taken cognisance of the offences under different sections of the Indian Penal Code in the Uphaar cinema tragedy case in Delhi and has summoned all the accused to his court on 16th February. Eight government officials and six persons of Uphaar cinema have been chargesheeted under sections 304A (causing death by negligence) and 304.

VINOD SHARMA ELECTED RAPA PRESIDENT

Vinod Sharma was elected president of the Radio & TV Advertising Practitioners’ Association of India Ltd. (RAPA) for 1997-98 at its annual general meeting held recently in Bombay. Brij Mittle was elected vice president, Ashok Vaishnavi, hon. secretary, and K.N. Goel, hon. treasurer. Besides the above, Ameen Sayani, Amar Thakur, Madhu Srivastava, Purush Baokar, Rajendra Joshi, Shashi Surendranath, Suren Chawla and Vinod Ganatra were elected members of the managing council.

FIRE DESTROYS CENTRAL CINEMA

Central Plaza cinema at Girgaum, Bombay, was gutted in the early morning hours of 21st January. While the cinema and the furniture were badly damaged in the fire that broke out around 5 a.m., the projection room and the air-conditioning plant of the cinema, which are behind the auditorium, are intact. The police and the fire brigade do not think, it is a case of sabotage or short circuit.

Contract labourers had cleaned up the cinema as usual on 20th night after the last show of Police Story 2. They shut all the exits and left around 4 a.m. Some employees, who were sleeping outside the auditorium, were woken up by the smoke around 5 a.m. The fire brigade was summoned and the fire doused in about 20 minutes. No casualties were reported.

The cinema is owned by Pranlal Doshi who had acquired it from K.M. Modi in 1968. It was built in 1918. It had been renovated by Doshi just two years ago. The cinema was known for screening Marathi films once upon a time. Years ago, it used to screen top Hindi films. Then came a bad patch. Of late, the cinema had started screening English films in regular and late-night shows too. The cinema was originally called Central and it was rechristened Central Plaza only some time back.

UMESH MEHRA’S DAUGHTER TO WED

Nishita, daughter of director Umesh Mehra and grand-daughter of producer F.C. Mehra, will wed Pushkar on 6th February at the Royal Western India Turf Club, Mahalaxmi, Bombay.

WEDDING BELLS FOR J.P. CHOWKSEY’S SON

C.I. distributor Aditya Chowksey, son of J.P. Chowksey, will wed Chhavi on 3rd February in Indore at Sayaji Hotel.

SUBHASH GHAI’S TRIPLE CELEBRATIONS

Subhash Ghai will host a luncheon party on 25th January at Royal Palms to celebrate three occasions: silver jubilee of Pardes, his birthday (on 24th January) and the announcement of his new film.

VINOD KHANNA TO CONTEST LS ELECTION

Vinod Khanna will contest the Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket, from the Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab. His candidature was finalised and announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party on 22nd January. He is pitted against former Union minister Sukhbans Kaur.

Vinod flew to Delhi on 22nd morning.

KALYANJI, ANANDJI, MAVJIBHAI BEREAVED

Hansbai Virji Shah, mother of Bombay distributor Mavjibhai Shah and music directors Kalyanji, Anandji and Babla, expired on the morning of 23rd January. She was 92.

Chautha will be held on Sunday, 25th January, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Karsan Laddhu Hall, Dadar, Bombay.

CENSOR NEWS

Vicky Films Pvt. Ltd.’s Zor (length 4534.08 metres in 17 reels), applied on 19th and seen on 21st, has been offered A certificate, with many cuts.

Sapna Arts’ Banarasi Babu (length 3790.80 metres in 16 reels), applied on 19th and seen on 22nd, has been okayed for UA, with minor cuts. Certificate will be issued soon.

Mark Films International’s Vinashak was given C.C. No. CIL/3/3/98 (A) dt. 20-1-’98; length 4386.51 metres in 15 reels (cuts: 51.24 metres).

Om Films’ 2001, applied on 16th and seen on 20th, has been issued C.C. No. CIL3/6/98 (A) dt. 22-1-’98; length 4423.96 metres in 17 reels (cuts: 39.04 metres).

Damani Pictures P. Ltd.’s Saazish was given C.C. No. CIL/2/3/98 (UA) dt. 20-1-’98; length 3949.75 metres in 16 reels (cuts: 330.19 metres).

Seven Seas Films’ Badmaash was given C.C. No. CIL/3/4/98 (A) dt. 20-1-’98; length 3446.14 metres in 14 reels (cuts: 108.86 metres).

Mirabai Films P. Ltd.’s Kama Sutra – A Tale Of Love (dubbed), cleared vide Bombay high court order dt. 23-12-’97, has been issued C.C. No. CIL/3/5/98 (A) dt. 21-1-’98; length 3043.88 metres in 7 reels (some deletion in sound only).

YOU ASKED IT

The first month of the new year has been quite disastrous for the industry. Will that be a bad omen?

– Don’t you worry. Things will definitely begin to look up from 30th January. So, cheer up and forget about the bad omen.

Has Jeans (dubbed) been sold for any territories so far?

– Tolu Bajaj, who has the all-India rights of the film, will himself release it in Bombay, Delhi-U.P. and Nizam. Business for the other circuits will be done now. The film’s shooting is complete, and Hindi dubbing will start shortly.

Why do people generally avoid seeing films during election campaigning time?

– People generally prefer to see, talk about and listen to politicians during the one-two months of election campaigning. At places, people avoid frequenting cinemas for fear of tension due to party rivalries. Then, there are also election meetings to be attended.

SIGNED

Priya Gill In ‘Josh’

Priya Gill has been signed opposite Shah Rukh Khan in United Seven Creations’ Josh, being produced by Ganesh Jain, directed by Mansoor Khan and presented by Venus. Others in the cast are Aishwarya Rai, Chandrachur Singh, Sharad Kapoor and Sharat Saxena.

Veeru Devgan Signs Amitabh For Next

Amitabh Bachchan and Veeru Devgan will be together once again in Devgan Arts’ Prod. No. 2. Other cast and credits are under finalisation.

IN & OUT OF BOMBAY

Producer-director Subhash Ghai and Mr. Tolu Bajaj of Metro Films, Bombay, returned from Madras on 23rd January.

Mr. Nanubhai Desani of Vaishali cinema, Bhavnagar, staying at Sahara Hotel (386-1491), will return to Bhavnagar tomorrow (25th January).

MIX MASALA

AWARD KI PUKAAR

It was a lucky flight that brought Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit from Hyderabad to Bombay to attend the Screen Videocon awards function on 17th January. For, both of them won the best acting awards. The two were shooting in Hyderabad for Boney Kapoor’s Pukaar and came to Bombay for a day, only to attend the awards nite.

IDOL CHAT

Of the 25 contenders for the Femina Miss India title due to be conferred shortly, at least three have film personalities as their idols. Twenty-one-year-old Vithika iodlises Sunil Dutt and Sarojini Naidu. Jaspreet, who is 22 years old, says, Shabana Azmi is her idol. And for 21-year-old Smriti, her grandfather and Shah Rukh Khan are her two idols.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Real Image, the DTS frachisees in India, got a shot in the arm when the first DTS film in India, KARUPU ROJA (Tamil), bagged the best sound recordist award for Sridhar in the Tamil Nadu State Film awards announced recently in Madras. Kamal Haasan’s Tamil hit, INDIAN, another DTS film, bagged the award for the best film.

* Bappi Lahiri was the first music director to record a song at Mehboob Recording Theatre when it opened in 1972. The song was for CHALTE CHALTE. On 19th January, 1998, the fully renovated (with new recording machinery) Mehboob was inaugurated, again by Bappi Lahiri who, this time, recorded a song for TUMSE PYAR HO GAYA. Indeed, Mehboob se pyar ho gaya!

* SHAPATH has yielded a distributor’s share of about 1,70,000/- in 4 weeks from Saroj, Amravati. This is better than the shares of films like AFLATOON, DHAAL and QAHAR from Amravati city.

‘Banarasi Babu’ Shrouded In Controversy

As if the several years it has taken in the making wasn’t enough, Nandu Tolani’s Banarasi Babu is in the midst of a controversy even a week before its scheduled release on 30th January.

The film’s West Bengal distributors, PMD Entertainments (P.) Ltd., have obtained a stay order (dated 23rd January) from the Bombay high court, restraining Filmcenter from delivering the prints of the film for West Bengal circuit to anybody except themselves. The film was originally registered in the name of Sapna Film Distributors. PMD Entertainments acquired it on 22nd December, and Sapna Film Distributors accordingly wrote to the EIMPA, asking it to de-register the film from its name. The communication to the EIMPA mentioned that the arrangement was irrevocable.

However, when Zor was postponed, Nandu Tolani (partner in Sapna Film Distributors with Amar Pandey) decided to release Banarasi Babu himself in West Bengal and, accordingly, asked the EIMPA to ignore the ‘irrevocable’ arrangement.

Fearing problems, PMD Entertainments moved the court and succeeded in obtaining the injunction order. According to Bipin Savla, representative of PMD Entertainments, “It’s sad that Nandu Tolani is behaving this way. I bailed him out of so many difficulties after PMD acquired the film for West Bengal. Kader Khan had not been paid a single naya paisa and he refused to complete his work on the last day of shooting unless he was paid. He also refused to dub till his further dues were cleared. I paid him for completing shooting and gave an undertaking for further payment before he commenced dubbing. Why, I also paid for the sound negative and for clearing several liabilities of Nandu earlier this month. And Nandu forgot all this no sooner was Zor postponed. Obviously, he was acting on the instructions of some vicious mind.”

‘Kama Sutra’ Censorship
CBFC Ignorance Exposed

Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra (Hindi dubbed) was finally issued censor certificate on 21st January, 1998. The dubbed Tamil and Telugu versions must also have been likewise issued certificates. The three dubbed versions were cleared by the Bombay high court after a long legal battle.

The high court order dated 23rd December, 1997, is worth reading for several reasons. For one, it exposes the ignorance of one government department (Central Board of Film Certification) in matters relating to another government department (I & B ministry). Secondly, it also throws light on the vanity of the CBFC’s examining committee which was under the impression that it was above the I & B ministry and was not governed by its directions!

Although the two-judge bench of Justice B.P. Saraf and Justice A.Y. Sakhare did not say so in their 25-page order, a reading of the same makes one wonder whether CBFC chairman Shakti Samanta and Bombay’s regional officer Sanjeevani Kutty have any moral right to continue in office after such an order.

The gist of the case and the order is given hereinbelow:

Mira Nair’s company, Mirabai Films P. Ltd., filed a writ petition as they were aggrieved by the letters of the regional officer, CBFC, dated 13-10-’97 and 17-10-’97, directing them to delete certain visuals from the dubbed Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions of Kama Sutra – A Tale Of Love. These directions, according to the petitioners, were illegal and contrary to the existing guidelines of the Central government. They contended that the CBFC had no power to further censor the visuals of the dubbed versions of an already certified film. The English (original) version of Kama Sutra – A Tale Of Love was certified (for adults) on 9th October, 1997. Even this had entailed a long legal battle but that’s not the point here.

When the petitioners submitted the dubbed versions to the CBFC, seeking ‘A’ certificate for them, in terms of the guidelines issued by the Central government regarding the procedure to be followed for certification of dubbed versions of already certified films, they (petitioners), opted that the dubbed versions should not be treated as fresh films and should be subjected to the special procedure laid down therein. According to the Central government guidelines (issued by the I & B ministry by D.O. letter of 10th June, 1993), an applicant in respect of a film claimed to be a dubbed version has been given an option to have his film treated as a fresh film or have his film subjected to the special procedure mentioned therein. The petitioners exercised the second option which clearly stipulates that once the examining committee by majority is satisfied that the dubbed version visuals are exactly the same as the visuals of the original version, there should not be another censorship in respect of visuals of the film except for the titles, credits cards etc.

But on receipt of the application, the CBFC again required the viewing of the dubbed film by the examining committee and later, by its letter dated 13th October, 1997, directed certain cuts in the visuals and dialogues of the Hindi version. By other letters dated 17-10-’97, certain cuts in the visuals and dialogues of the Tamil and Telugu versions were directed to be made. The petitioners complied with the directions of the CBFC as far as the cuts in the dialogues were concerned. But they were aggrieved by the CBFC directions for deletion of certain portions of the visuals in the dubbed versions because, according to them, there could not be any further censorship in the visuals of the dubbed film if they were exactly same as the visuals of the original version, about which there was no dispute. The writ petition was filed in so far as the directions pertained to the cuts in the visuals in the dubbed films.

CBFC regional officer Sanjeevani Kutty filed an affidavit on 21-11-’97 on behalf of the Union of India and the CBFC, the two respondents in the case. In para 14 of the said affidavit, it was stated that the guidelines of the Central government were executive instructions which were to be followed on a trial basis for six months. It was further stated that after six months, the procedure was to be reviewed and appropriate changes were to be made, it was also pointed out that the question of incorporating those executive instructions in the Cinematograph Certification Rules was under consideration of the Central government. It was further stated that even if they were so incorporated, they could not be applied retrospectively in case of the film of the petitioners.

Thereafter, vide an affidavit filed by an outsider, reference was made to the statement of the I & B minister to the effect that instructions had already been issued that visuals of dubbed films need not be re-certified and only dialogues would have to be examined by the examining committee. In support of the above contention, a copy of the communication dated 28-7-’97 from the joint secretary, government of India, ministry of I & B, addressed to FFI president K.G. Dossani, and various other documents were annexed to the affidavit. One of the documents so annexed was a copy of the record of discussion of the meeting of the I & B minister with representatives of the film industry, held on 15th July, 1997.

The court asked the counsel of the CBFC to tell them as to how on the face of these documents and the statement of the minister concerned, the CBFC could say that the guidelines/executive instructions, issued by the government on 10th June, 1993, were applicable only for a period of six months and were no more in force. The counsel told the court that CBFC was not aware of the above documents furnished by the petitioners (emphasis ours). In a further affidavit, filed by Sanjeevani Kutty on 16-12-’97, she explained that the documents referred to and relied upon by the petitioners were not in the possession of the CBFC when her earlier affidavit was filed. She, however, stated that the said documents had been confirmed by the ministry. It was, therefore, contended that since the CBFC was under the administration purview of the I & B ministry, it would not like to take a stand contrary to that of the ministry on that point.

But this was not the end of the matter. After the CBFC changed its stance, nothing should have survived in the writ petition. But the counsel of the CBFC submitted that in view of the above report of the examining committee, appropriate directions may be given by the court to the CBFC not to re-censor visuals of the dubbed films or, in the alternative, give it (CBFC) some time to enable it to modify the impugned letters. After time was allowed, the CBFC counsel told the court that the examining committee, appointed by the CBFC, did not agree to certify the dubbed films without the cuts in the visuals suggested by them despite the above directions of the Central government. The examining committee, it was added, felt that the executive instructions of the ministry, with its blanket prohibition on cuts in the visuals in dubbed films, restricted them from exercising their free opinion. The court asked the CBFC counsel to tell it as to how the examining committee could examine the visuals when the scope and ambit of its power was confined to the re-examination of the dialogues only. The counsel pleaded helplessness with respect to the wrong stance of the examining committee.

The court held that the examining committee was not correct in law in refusing to follow the guidelines issued by the Central government in respect of censorship of dubbed films. Section 5-B of the Act clearly empowers the Central government to issue such directions as it may think fit, setting out the principles to guide authority competent to grant certificate under the Act in sanctioning film for public exhibition. In the special procedure laid down for dubbed films, paragraph 5 clearly states: ‘The examining committee shall confine itself to censorship of the audio track (dialogue, lyrics etc.) in terms of the guidelines issued by the Central government for certification of film.’

Virendra V. Tulzapurkar with Virag V. Tulzapurkar, A. Deasi and C. Rana, instructed by M/s. Shah Desai Doijode & Phatarphekar appeared for Mirabai Films P. Ltd. R.V. Desai with Anoop V. Mohta appeared for the respondents.

FRUITFUL MEETING OF INDUSTRY, CABLE TV OPERATORS

The additional commissioner of police, North-West region, Bombay, Dr. Satya Pal Singh, on 15th January did for the industry what nobody has done so far. He organised a meeting of film personalities and cable TV operators, who have been at loggerheads over the issue of illegal screening of films on cable TV networks and in video parlours, at Otters Club, Bandra, Bombay.

Issues such as the above do not have readymade solutions, and the meeting in question assumes significance if only because a police officer of the rank of additional commissioner of police has (a) sympathetically heard the woes of the industry, (b) got two warring parties to meet and interact.

Yash Chopra, K.D. Shorey, Shyam Shroff (Bombay distributor), Kiran Shantaram, N.N. Sippy, U.A. Thadani (Bombay distributor-exhibitor), Sultan Ahmed, Ravi Chopra, Surinder Kapoor, Paresh Manjrekar (20th Century Fox), Ram Dayal, Gaurav Sharma, Ravi Reddy (raiding organisation) and C.L. Shukla (retired ACP) represented the film industry at the meeting. The cable TV operators, who attended the meeting, were Nadirali Jairaj, Kalpesh Shah and R.K. Mishra of 7 Star Satellite Network, Yogesh Shah, Ketan Kanakia, Avinash Batra, Dinesh Bhadarkar and Paresh Ashar of IN Cable Net, Ajay Patkar (Major Time Cable), S.E.B. Palanna (ICT Network), Ajit Rane (Aashish Vision), Paresh Thakkar (Rajesh Cable), Arvind Turbhe, Ravi Singh, Govind Ubhe, B. Raja and Sunil Thakur (of Siti Cable), Randeli Pereira, Rahul M. Patil, Virendra Pathak (Bhavani Cable), Pravin Patel (Space Vision), Jairam Palav (Bi TV), Ravi Agarwal (Rohit Vision), Rohinton Dadybujor (UCN-Space Vision), Aamir Gabaji, Mansoor Taiyabbhai (Super Cable TV), Brian D’souza and Suvarna.

DCPs of zones VII, IX and X and ACP and S.O. of North-West region were also present along with Dr. Satya Pal Singh.

At the outset, the addl. C.P. wecomed all the members of the film industry and cable TV operators for attending the meeting in response to the invitation from police. He explained the purpose of the meeting, saying that illegal screening of feature films was gross violation of the Copyright Act, causing tremendous loss to government revenue and also considerable loss to the film industry. The addl. C.P. further said that it was expected from the cable TV operators to present their views frankly about the truth in the allegations of the film industry and whether they wanted any change in the existing law. This is not only the problem of Bombay city but the entire country, he added. He explained that all had come together to discuss about the probable solutions.

K.D. Shorey began the meeting on behalf of the film industry. He said that normally, video rights were released after two weeks, and cable TV rights were released from the date of release of the film. He said that the amendment in copyright law came into force from June 1994 and the punishment is decided to the extent of minimum imprisonment for six months and fine of Rs. 50,000 for violation of copyrights. He explained the scope of Section 19 of the Copyright Act, that no right can be transferred unless it is in writing signed by the assignor or by his duly authorised agent. It is, therefore, compulsory for every cable TV operator to have copy of such assignment of copyrights, without which he should be prosecuted. The producer invests crores of rupees in the making of a film, and nobody has the right to exhibit it without copyrights, he explained.

Sultan Ahmed said that the Bombay high court had categorically defined home video rights, cable rights and satellite rights. He pointed out that he had sold the home video rights of his film but later on, the said film was also being shown on Cable TV. He quoted few instances of raiding the cable operators and appealed to the police to take stern action against infringement of the Copyright Act. He suggested that every cable TV operator may furnish the list of films to be shown in the next month, to the local police station so that assignment of copyrights could be found out.

Yash Chopra spoke about his Dil To Pagal Hai and appreciated the operation from the city police commissioner. However, he mentioned in dismany that after about 2½ weeks, DTPH was shown by cable operators. As many as eight cases were registered in Bombay, he said, but due to weak laws, the offenders continued showing DTPH. He also mentioned that there was no response from Ashok Hinduja of IN Cable Net. Chopra said that in spite of stern action, the violation continued, and the government was not serious about it. He, therefore, appealed to the cable operators to co-operate and stop violation of copyrights.

Yash Chopra proposed that a special cell to deal with copyright cases be formed for which the film industry was willing to share the expenditure.

N.N. Sippy bitterly pointed out that many theatres in Bombay had been demolished since the inception of Cable TV. He described the financial liabilities of a film producer and the rate of interest paid in the raising of funds for making a movie. He insisted that licences of cable TV operators committing violation of copyrights be cancelled and also appealed to them to not encourage such violation, else law would take its own course. He also supported the idea of formation of a special cell and assured that the film industry would bear the expenditure.

U.A. Thadani, president of the Theatre Owners’ Association, ruefully said that copyright violation was affecting the business of theatres the most. He pointed out that 46 cinemas had been demolished and only 106 cinemas were left in Bombay and if the violation of copyright continued with the present speed, there would be no cinemas left in the city.

Shyam Shroff pointed out that he had to withdraw his Chachi 420 early because it was released on 19th December and shown on cable networks on 22nd December and, therefore, collections fell down so much that he could not afford to pay the theatre rent.

Satish Kulkarni angrily said that if somebody picked a pocket, he was beaten up, but here, dacoity was being committed by cable TV operators and no action was taken. He lamented that dacoits had been invited in the meeting. The addl. C.P. admonished him and asked him to mind his language.

After the representations from the film industry were over, Atul Saraf from 7-Star Cable Network pointed out that there was no high gain in screening of new films, but this was happening due to unethical competition between the cable TV operators. He also pointed out that there were instances of extortion by private agencies working for copyright owners. The contentions of Saraf were further elaborated by his partner, Sudeshkumar Mishra. He said that some cable operators form a common control room for 100 to 150 points and some of them are promised free connections and showing of blue films, which attracts customers. He also pointed out that some big people, who have entered in the business, had applied all the tactics to finish small cable TV operators, which had ultimately put this competition on the wrong path of copyright infringement.

Jairam Palav of Bi TV also said that due to rivalry, the violation of copyright took place, and the raiding agencies were taking advantage of the situation. He suggested that sooner or later, cable industry would merge into the film industry and, therefore, a common association of film industry and cable operators could solve the problems.

Ketan Kanakia of IN Cable Net, which covers over 2,500 cable operators, said that the parent network had no control over its franchisees because a franchisee could insert a new channel without the knowledge of the parent network, and commit violation of copyright.

Arvind Turbhe of Siti Cable agreed that violation occurs due to competition and supported the idea of a common association.

Anilkumar Shravan of Feature Film Copyright Association clarified about the allegation of selective raids, saying that Siti Cable and IN Cable Net operators stopped the film whenever they telephoned the control room about the violation of copyright. Here, K.D. Shorey interrupted and said that such cable operators be arrested and prosecuted. It cannot be an excuse that the producer has not assigned the right. The most common allegation is that there are about 17 to 18 companies in operation for raiding cable TV operators and most of them ‘settle’ with the cable operators.

Yogesh Shah of IN Cable Net (Hindujas) said that the root cause was availability of the cassette, and he said that if the import of video cassettes could be stopped, controlling the violation of copyrights would be possible.

The addl. C.P. appreciated that the police had got an insight into the problem through this discussion. Police have also understood the grievances of both the sides, he added, but emphasised that there was no second opinion about illegal screening being a crime and where there was a crime, police was bound to take action. If somebody was violating the law and the other was following him, it is not justified at all, he explained. Without a gain, there cannot be competition and, therefore, there should be a common association of film industry and cable operators to smoothen the business in the interest of both the industries, he concluded.

The monthly programme of cable operators was jointly turned down by them on the ground that the schedule depends on availability of cassettes and hence it was not possible to furnish a schedule.

Shyam Shroff said that the list of persons raiding cable operators was already given to Social Service Branch, Crime Branch, C.I.D. etc.

The addl. C.P. frankly admitted that there were so many priorities before the police that this could not be a priority for them. However, in agreement with a suggestion to form a special cell, he opined that there could be a specialised agency with necessary expertise and more incentives for the staff working in the said cell. Here, K.D. Shorey said that there was an apex body on the national level, where it had been discussed and decided about the formation of a special cell. The addl. C.P. requested him to get the minutes of the said meeting for guidance and to submit to seniors in the department to consider it.

The addl. C.P. further said that the problem was really serious but the police had no control over law and judicial proceedings. He, therefore, appealed to the film industry being equipped with money power and media, to mould the minds of people to stand against the violation of copyrights. The idea of forming a special court to deal with copyright cases was also appreciated by the addl. C.P.

At the end, the big cable networks (Hidujas, 7-Star etc.) came up with a proposal to record a two-three-minute interview of the addl. C.P. emphasising that it was illegal to screen films without copyrights, and this interview could be shown before every film (with copyrights) on cable networks so that there was no moral or professional pressure from the public on cable TV operators to show the viewers newly released films. The addl. C.P. welcomed this idea and gave his consent for an interview.

The addl. C.P. concluded the meeting saying that the police wanted the co-operation of everyone and it was the bounden duty of the police to protect the legal interests of every citizen but where there was a crime, police would certainly take action against the offenders. He thanked all the invitees for their attendance and for sharing their views with the police.

Release Schedules
Was It Worth All The Tension & Speculation?

The postponement of the release of Zor from 30th January to 13th February, announced on 22nd January, put to an end two weeks of tension and uncertainty. Rarely has there been as much speculation on the release date of a film till the eleventh hour as in the case of Zor. And not without reason was there such a guessing game being played.

Firstly, alongwith Zor, there were two more major releases scheduled for 30th January, viz. Vinashak and Banarasi Babu. Quite understandably, there was a scramble among distributors of the three films in every circuit to book the best cinemas. For this and otherwise too, persons connected with the aforesaid two films were hoping that Zor wouldn’t make it. Although Banarasi Babu is a light film, both, Zor and Vinashak, have action heroes and action as their strong point. This was yet another reason why there was a lot of speculation about the release of Zor.

Further, while Vinashak was censored, Zor and Banarasi Babu weren’t till the middle of this week. Since the censors are known to be quite strict about action and violence, the trade was apprehensive about Zor being censored in so short a time. To add to the problem was the holiday on 26th January for Republic Day. The two days preceding 26th are, in any case, holidays for CBFC, being Saturday and Sunday. This raised greater doubts in the minds of the trade people about whether it would be feasible for the CBFC to issue certificate to Zor even if it would be seen before the holidays.

In fact, this is one major cause for the film’s postponement because, after the examining committee of the CBFC viewed Zor on 21st January, it offered it plenty of cuts, in action as well as dialogues. While some cuts were acceptable to the producers, most of them weren’t. It was then that the makers decided that they had to postpone the film, and they announced the alternate date on 22nd morning.

What also seems to have prompted the makers of Zor to postpone the release date by two weeks, besides the censor problem, was the realisation that they could concentrate more on the film’s (pre-release) publicity if they got two additional weeks.

Coming back to the reasons for speculation on the release of Zor, there was at least one film, Hafta Vasuli, which was waiting in the wings. The producer of Hafta Vasuli had made it clear that he would release if and only if one of Zor or Vinashak would be postponed. Since there was no question of Vinashak moving ahead, all eyes, obviously, were on Zor.

All said and done, a pertinent qustion that arises is: is it justifiable for a producer to keep his distributors on tenterhooks till the last moment? And, in turn, is it right on the part of the film’s helpless distributors to keep exhibitors involved in the guessing game? One understands clearly that the intentions of the producer of Zor were neither wrong nor misdirected and that he did make all efforts to get the film on 30th January. One is convinced that so much effort was made since the week of 30th January is the Idd week when box-office collections are expected to soar to great heights.

But was Idd so important as to give the film’s distributors and so many, many exhibitors sleepless nights and hypertension? Agreed, Idd is a bountiful period for a film, but is there no tomorrow? Has no film, not released on Idd, ever done well? Finally, of course, it is the film and its merits alone which can see it through, festival or no festival.

Was such zordaar tension worth its while, especially in view of the fact that films sometimes take two and three years to complete but when it comes to releasing them, producers behave as if every day of delay will cost them several crores.

The whole industry needs to learn a lesson from the case of Zor.

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Tinnu Verma’s New Role

Remember the song from the Rishi Kapoor-Madhuri Dixit-Sanjay Dutt starrer, Sahibaan, which went thus: Iss mele mein log aate hain, log jaate hain….. Well, nothing fits Dharmesh Darshan’s Mela more aptly than this mela song. Because people have been coming in (its cast and credits) and going out (of its cast and credits) with regularity. First, it was action director Tinnu Verma who was replaced by Bhiku Verma who, too, was ultimately replaced by Abbas-Hanif. After that, the film’s music director was changed. Anu Malik stepped into Rajesh Roshan’s shoes. And now, Tinnu Verma is back in Mela. No, not for composing the action scenes. But rather to act in the film. He has replaced no less an actor than Aditya Pancholi. It will now be Tinnu Verma playing the main villain in place of Aditya Pancholi. Must say, Tinnu is out to prove his versatility this year. From action director to film director (Bajrang) to actor (Mela)!

Priyan Ki Pasand

Time was when Priyadarshan used to make films in Malayalam and an occasional film in Hindi. Time is when he is making one Hindi film after the other. Why, in the first half of 1998 itself, we will have two of Priyadarshan’s films releasing — Saat Rang Ke Sapne and Kabhi Na Kabhi. If there’s one film Priyan (as he is affectionately called) is looking forward to directing, it is Dariya which will be produced by ABCL and will star Amitabh Bachchan in the role of a fisherman. According to Priyan, it will be launched in May. There’s another film he is very excited about and that is Sajid Nadiadwala’s Chandralekha which will star Anil Kapoor and Priyan’s favourite heroine, Tabu. This film will roll in August. For the present, it is Saat Rang Ke Sapne which is giving him a high. He describes the film as “the most beautiful film made in India”. By the way, Juhi Chawla is another actress Priyadarshan likes working with. New heroines, of course, are always welcome.

Cinema Fires: Uncanny Coincidence

It was an uncanny coincidence that the morning newspapers of 21st January reported about the investigations that had begun in Delhi by the CBI with regard to the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy, and the evening papers screamed that the Central Plaza cinema in Bombay had been gutted in a fire the same morning. The only silver lining, if one may use the term, to the Central Plaza fire tragedy was that unlike in Delhi, there were no deaths or casualties in Bombay. This then became the second major cinema accident in nine months.

On The Net, Get Set, Go

After Rajshri (Barjatyas) and Yash Chopra, several producers are going on the Internet. The Barjatyas were the first to have their own website. Yash Chopra built his site before the release of Dil To Pagal Hai. Bombay distributors and exhibitors Shringar are also on the net. Boney Kapoor and family, and Rakesh Roshan and family will also soon be on the net. Fashion photographer Alan Mans is constructing their sites and is also negotiating with some others. This is the scene in Bombay. Down South, in technology-savvy Bangalore, cinemas have got their own websites. Lido was the first cinema in the garden city to go online. This is the same cinema which had introduced Stereophonic sound in the late ‘sixties! Inspired by the positive response to Lido’s home page and booking facility, the multimedia firm, Communico Graphique, put up a website. Plaza, Urvashi, Naga and Cauvery then signed on. Three more cinemas — Rex, Symphony and Galaxy — are slated to go on the net shortly. One enters the site, follows the instructions, chooses the cinema he wants to go to and clicks. The page will unfold to reveal the name of the film being screened, the star cast and other details. One then follows the instructions to book tickets as well as chooses where he wants to sit. The system then gives a code and confirms the seat numbers. One will have to quote the code and obtain tickets at the cinema before the show.

Well-Engineered Card

The invitation card of JRS Combines’ Tamil-Telugu film, Engineer, is indeed pretty and quite unique. It gives a sort of 3-D effect. That’s not the only reason why the card stands out. The other reason is that this is the first Tamil-Telugu film in which Madhuri Dixit will act. She has been paired opposite Arvind Swamy. The film’s muhurt was performed on 23rd January in Madras at AVM Studios. While its producer is J. Ramachandra Rao and writer-director is A.R. Gandhi Krishna, the other names in its credit titles are known in Hindi film circles too. There’s A.R. Rahman scoring the music, Vairamuthu writing lyrics, Jeeva handling the cinematography, and Raju Sundaram doing the choreography. Presentation is by Nagendra Prasath.

TRIPLE CELEBRATIONS IN MEMORY OF L.V. PRASAD

A statue of celebrated filmmaker late L.V. Prasad will be unveiled today (17th January) at Jubilee Hills check post, traffic island in Hyderabad at the hands of Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandra Babu Naidu. The road no. 2 on Banjara Hills will also be renamed as L.V. Prasad Marg today. The honours will be done by B. Satyanarayana Murthy, minister for municipal administration.

A stereo recording theatre will be inaugurated today at Prasad Film Laboratories, Hyderabad, at the hands of A. Madhava Reddy (minister for home and cinematography) and Dr. Akkineni Nageswara Rao.

GANESH JAIN’S DAUGHTER TO WED

Rekha, daughter of Ganesh Jain of Venus Record & Tapes, will wed Sidharth on 1st February at CCI East Lawns, Churchgate, Bombay.

SHAMBHU SEN DEAD

Music director Shambhu Sen Jamal Sen, brother of music director Dilip Sen and father of music director Sameer Sen, expired on 13th January in Bombay due to brain haemmorhage. He was 65 and is survived by his wife, three sons (Sameer, Sanjeev and Lalit Sen), two daughters and five brothers (Madan, Tansen, Inder, Nihal and Dilip Sen).

Shambhu Sen had scored music in Mrig Trishna and Banno.

NEW CINEMA

A new air-conditioned cinema, Saaz, will open at Bhandup, a distant Bombay suburb, in March or April ’98. It is controlled jointly by VIP Exhibitors and H.K. Shah.

SHAHID BIJNORI DEAD

Actor Shahid Bijnori, father of actress Shagufta Ali, expired on 10th January in Bombay. He was 57 and had worked in over 100 films including Bahu Begum. He is survived by his wife and Shagufta.

LAXMINARAYAN KAPOOR BEREAVED

Hukumchand Kapoor, son of Laxminarayan Kapoor of Bharti Film Distributors, Indore, expired on 13th January in Indore.

SWAPNALOK, UDAIPUR MAY CLOSE DOWN

The management of Swapnalok cinema, Udaipur, has decided to close the cinema due to non-payment of dues to distributors by the cinema controllers, Mutha Films, Jodhpur. The management has decided to keep the cinema closed till all the dues are paid and no-dues certificates, presented to it.

MARATHI FILM PRODUCERS QUEUE UP FOR AID

About 43 producers of Marathi films have applied to the Maharashtra government for assistance under the new policy of Rs. 15 lakh aid. In an attempt to revive the dying Marathi film industry, the cultural affairs department of the state government abolished entertainment tax on Marathi films last November and also evolved a scheme for grant of aid of Rs. 15 lakh each to 15 producers every year.

A high-level committee comprising nine Marathi film personalities was recently set up to select the 15 good quality scripts. This committee is expected to finalise the 15 names within a month, and financial aid to produce films based on the approved scripts will be disbursed before 31st March, 1998.

The committee comprises Raj Dutt, Sulochana, Vasant Kanekar, Rohini Hattangady, Charudutt Sarpotdar, D.M. Mirasdar, S.N. Navre, Vijaya Mehta and Mohan Agashe, besides cultural affairs secretary Chitkala Zutshi. It has a 3-year term and has the powers to chalk out the criteria for a ‘good film’.

The 43 producers who’ve applied for the aid have all submitted their scripts to the committee for scrutiny. Cultural affairs minister of Maharashtra, Pramod Navalkar, in the meantime, appealed to Marathi film producers and actors who have switched over to Hindi films, to return to Marathi cinema.

YOU ASKED IT

Will Zor and Banarasi Babu be released on 30th January?

– Yes, they can come on Idd. Work is on on a war-footing on the front of both the films. Insiders, however, reveal that at least one of the two will make it on 30th January.

Why did producer Vashu Bhagnani start his Biwi No. 1 without any fanfare?

– One presumes, Vashu did not have a launch party because his close friend, Ramesh Taurani, is under arrest. Vashu is proving to be a friend no. 1.

Why does the audio cassette of ABCL’s Saat Rang Ke Sapne not mention the name of the music director?

– ABCL’s audio cassettes are manufactured and marketed by Gulshan Kumar’s Super Cassettes. Since the music of SAAT RANG KE SAPNE is scored by Nadeem Shravan and in view of the case against Nadeem vis-
à-vis Gulshan Kumar’s murder, the company has preferred not to mention the names of Nadeem Shravan on the inlay cards.

ANNOUNCEMENT & LAUNCHING

Priyadarshan Directs Akshay, Sunil, Tabu In A.G. Nadiadwala’s Film

Producer A.G. Nadiadwala has signed Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Tabu to play the lead roles in A.G. Films (P.) Ltd.’s Prod. No. 21, tentatively titled Raftaar. It will be directed by Priyadarshan. The film went on the sets on Jan. 15 with a 10-day shooting schedule. Two songs have also been recorded. They were penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri and set to tune by Anu Malik. Written by Neeraj Vora, the film has in its supporting cast Pran, Asrani, Gulshan Grover, Rakesh Bedi, Sharat Saxena and Paresh Rawal. Cinematographer: Jeeva. Art: Sabu Cyril.

‘Love Today’ Rolls

Producer Mansoor Ahmed Siddiqui launched Anas Films’ Love Today on Jan. 15 at Gemini Studios, Bombay. The launching is being followed by a week-long shooting schedule. Being directed by Rajat Rawail from his own story, the film stars Jackie Shroff, Govinda (special appearance), Raveena Tandon (special appearance), Priya Gill, Vinay Anand, Sadashiv Amarapurkar, Asha Sachdev, Rajoo Shreshtha, Rakesh Bedi, Javed Khan, Maya Alagh, Neeraj Vora, Razzak Khan and Kiran Kumar. Screenplay: Raju Saigal, S.M. Ahale and Sandeep Bhaumick. Dialogues: Javed Siddiqi. Cinematographer: Nirmal Jani. Action: Hanif. Choreographer: Raju Khan. Art: Sunil Singh. Sound: Vinod Potdar. Lyrics: Sameer. Music: Uttam Singh.

DO YOU KNOW?

* ZOR has been offered a fantastic MG for a small station — Adipur — of Saurashtra. The exhibitor has made an offer of Rs. 25,000 more than the total share of GUPT from two nearby small stations viz. Gandhidham and Anjar!

* HMV has devised a different marketing plan for its BADA DIN due for release in Bombay and Calcutta next week. The plan will rely on tremendous participation from students and other prospective viewers. This is being generated by press campaigns, telemarketing and one-to-one interactions at college campuses. The music (Jatin Lalit) of BADA DIN, it must be added, is gaining in popularity day by day.

* Two internationally renowned singers, Boy George and Apache Indian, will appear in two different songs of Bappi Lahiri’s LOVE STORY ’98. Boy George has already recorded an English song in his own voice and even participated in its picturisation in the recent 10-day shooting schedule in London. Apache Indian will participate in a song picturisation in Bombay.

* NFDC’s CHAR ADHYAY may not be able to stick to its scheduled screenings at the ongoing IFFI in New Delhi as it has not been cleared by the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal. The CBFC objected to a single key scene in the film which is based on Rabindranath Tagore’s 1934 novel. The CBFC cut off a portion of the scene depicting the murder of a woman, because it showed bare flesh, albeit in a flash. Kumar Shahani, the film’s director, also seems to have got into a controversy with the Vishwa Bharati Board which owns the copyrights of all Tagore’s writings and songs. The Board has obtained a stay on the film’s screening on the ground that Kumar Shahani had violated all terms they had agreed upon, barring the financial one. These include okaying the translation of the script by an expert from Vishwa Bharati, having its expert present during the film’s shooting, and obtaining a fresh permission when the film was not completed within the stipulated period of one year. Jaya Bachchan, who has dubbed for heroine Nandini Ghoshal in the film, has urged the registrar of the Vishwa Bharati to withdraw the injunction against the film’s release. She has also resigned as a member of the Vishwa Bharati’s disputes committee.

* Popular television actor Nitish Bharadwaj will be fielded by the BJP from a constituency other than Jamshedpur (from where he won last time) in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan said in a statement in Bombay that a false impression had been created that Nitish was being denied a BJP nomination.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Film With Saraswati, Laxmi For The Other

The Zor dispute relating to East Punjab territory has been settled. The film had reportedly been sold to two distributors, Desh Raj and Saraswati Pictures. One hears, Desh Raj has been given Rs. 8 lakh profit. Laxmi for relinquishing the rights!

Signs Of Revival

Mysore circuit has been a dull circuit as far as deals for Hindi films are concerned ever since the Karnataka government abolished the slab system of taxation and introduced 110% entertainment tax for non-Kannada films. In September last year, entertainment tax was brought down to 70% but this reduction didn’t really help distributors because exhibitors proportionately hiked their rents and, consequently, most of the benefit didn’t reach the distributors. Recently, veteran Mysore distributor R.N. Mandre mustered courage and acquired three films at 10% of the major territory’s price. The films are N.N. Sippy’s Silsila Hai Pyar Ka, J. Om Prakash’s next, to be directed by David Dhawan, and starring Shah Rukh Khan and Karisma Kapoor, and Glamour Films’ untitled under-production venture, starring Jackie Shroff, Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla, and being directed by K. Sashilal Nair. Let’s hope, these three deals prompt producers to be more reasonable in their prices, and distributors to be more enterprising.

1998: The Year Of Anupam Kher?

1998 may well be an eventful year for Anupam Kher who hasn’t had too many releases in the past two years. To start with, he has Zor and Saat Rang Ke Sapne to look forward to. In Saat Rang Ke Sapne, Anupam is the third angle of the love triangle, the other two being Arvind Swamy and Juhi Chawla. As the year progresses, the audience will see Anupam in Salaakhen (“a lovely film, better than Ziddi,” is how Kher describes it), Jhoot Bole Kauva Katay, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Tips’ Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai, Tips’ film, directed by Kundan Shah, and, of course, Feroz Khan’s Prem Aggan.

Lucky Day

It is a matter of joy that both the Gujarati films released last week have not only done very well in the first week but have also been appreciated by the audience. Both, Govindbhai Patel’s Desh Re Joya Dada Pardesh Joya and Amubhai Patel’s Pardesi Maniyaro are raking in good money at the ticket counters. Yet another regional language film, B.S. Shaad’s Laali (Punjab), is also doing very well in Punjab. Laali, too was released last week. Which means, January 9 was a propitious day for regional language films.

ANNOUNCEMENT & LAUNCHING

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ Goes On Sets

Producer-director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was launched recently in Bombay with an initial 13-day shooting schedule. A song was picturised on Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai. A Jhamu Sughand presentation, the film is being made under the banner of Bhansali Productions and stars Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, Aishwarya Rai, Zohra Sehgal, Vikram Gokhale, Smita Jayakar, Rekha Rao, Kenny Desai and Rajeev Verma. Other credits include cinematography by Anil Mehta, art by Nitin Desai, editing by Bela Segal, story by Pratap Karvat and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, screenplay by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Kenneth Philips, music by Ismail Darbar, lyrics by Mehboob, dialogues by Amrik Gill, sound by Jitendra Chaudhary, choreography by Bhushan Lakhandri, Ganesh Hegde and Vaibhavi, action by Sham Kaushal, and costumes by Neeta Lulla and Shabina Khan. Vikram R. Bangera is the executive producer.

RAM B.C. NO MORE

Bombay exhibitor Ram B.C. passed away in his sleep on 6th January at his residence in Bombay. He was 67 and was cremated the same day.

Several years ago, Ram B.C. used to be a leading Bombay distributor and exhibitor with his brother, Shankar B.C. His concerns, Deluxe Pictures and Bombay Pictures Circuit, used to be well-known distribution concerns. In 1963, he started a distribution office in Delhi with Mere Mehboob. The Bombay distribution business was started in 1959 with Yahudi. Among the films distributed by Shankar and Ram B.C. in Bombay and Delhi-U.P. were Amardeep, Dil Ek Mandir, Gunga Jumna, Aradhana, Kati Patang, Upkaar, Shor, Purab Aur Pachhim, Dus Numbri, Sanyasi, Raja Jani, Roti Kapada Aur Makaan, Talash, Dushmun, Dost and Majboor. The B.C. brothers had also produced Laila Majnu, Chhoti Bahu, Pyar Hi Pyar and Lahu Ke Do Rang. They used to also finance films.

Ram B.C. was born on September 22, 1930. He started his film career in 1948 as a representative. In 1952, he became the manager of Sippy Films. He started exhibition business in 1956 with Broadway cinema, Bombay. At one time, he and his brother controlled as many as 20 to 24 cinemas like Liberty (Bombay), Rupam (Sion, Bombay), Rupam (Ahmedabad), Deepali (Ahmedabad), Prakash (Ahmedabad) and Moti (Bombay) etc. He branched out into the hotel industry in 1969 and owned Hotel Hilltop at the time of his death. He was actively involved in social work and was also a member of the Telephone Advisory Committee.

His funeral on 6th was largely attended by the film trade. Marka on 8th at Warden Road was also very largely attended.

SAHADEV SHAH DEAD

Sahadev Shah, owner of Deepak Talkies, Delisle Road, Bombay, expired on 5th January in Bombay due to heart failure. He was 57.

He was on the advisory panel of the Central Board of Film Certification for many years. He was also a member of the Telephone Advisory Committee. Shah had been a member of the executive committee of the Theatre Owners’ Association. Shah was also associated with a number of other registered trade bodies in various capacities. He is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.

TUTU SHARMA BEREAVED

Jagan Prasad Sharma, father of producer Pradeep (Tutu) Sharma, passed away in a hospital in Jaipur on 3rd January. He had not been well since a fortnight. He was 72 and is survived by his wife, son Tutu, daughter-in-law Padmini (Kolhapure), daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.

Jagan Prasad Sharma had produced a film in 1961. Titled Char Diwari, it introduced Shashi Kapoor as a hero. He was the president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association and was popular in social circles. Rajasthan chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, reacting to the demise, said that the passing away of Jagan Prasad Sharma was a personal loss to him.

NASEERUDDIN SHAH BEREAVED

Farrukh Sultan Begum, mother of Naseeruddin Shah, passed away in the early hours of 7th January in Bombay. She was 84 and is survived by three sons, Zaheeruddin, Zamiruddin and Naseeruddin Shah.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Ramzan Rush!

Releases during Ramzan are usually few. But this Ramzan month, there’s a spate of releases — almost all of which are small films. For such small films, it is a choice between the devil and the deep sea. Either they come in opposition of big films or avoid oppositions and come during the dull Ramzan period when big films are generally not released. Many of the small film producers have opted for avoiding big film oppositions and, therefore, are getting their films during the lax Ramzan month. Have a look at the ‘Releases’ column in this issue and you will agree with us.

Trailer Tattle

There are at least five trailers being currently aired on the various satellite channels, which are catching the fancy of viewers. The trailer of Vicky Kumar and Sanjay Tolani’s Zor makes a zordaar impact, and shows Sunny Deol breathing fire. Salman Khan, Kajol and Arbaaz Khan come as a whiff of fresh air in the musical trailer of Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya (the song goes thus: Od lee chunariya maine tere naam ki). The trailer of ABCL’s Saat Rang Ke Sapne is as colourful as colourful can be. The rural atmosphere has been created beautifully. Suspense is the catchword in the trailer of 2001 which, incidentally, boasts of very good music. Ravi Dewan’s maiden directorial venture, Vinashak, gives a ‘good first impression’ through its trailers. And on radio, it is the songs of K.C. Bokadia’s Lal Badshah, which are being liked by listeners.

Happy Shooting Year

While many might consider 1st January a day for relaxation (after the New Year’s eve party?), Karisma Kapoor is pretty superstitious about the first day of the year. She makes it a point to shoot on the New Year’s day every year, whatever the situation, because she considers it to be a good omen for the rest of the year. This year, it was the shooting schedule of N.N. Sippy’s Silsila Hai Pyar Ka which she was participating in from the last week of December, and she requested Sippy to ensure that she faced the camera at least for one shot on 1st January. In 1997, Karisma shot for Dil To Pagal Hai on 1st January. And on 1st January 1996, she shot for Raja Hindustani.

Canteen 420?

The contractor running the canteen at Eros cinema, Bombay, needs to put a check on a couple of his canteenwallahs. For, they don’t hesitate in fleecing the gullible customers who rush for snacks and cold-drinks during interval. As it happened earlier this week with one of the family members of Film Information. He had gone to see Chachi 420 at Eros alongwith his family and ventured (in the crowded foyer) to buy a packet each of vegetable samosas (Rs. 10) and Uncle Chipps (Rs. 15). On giving a Rs. 50 note, he was returned Rs. 20. Not a word was uttered by the guy who gave him the snacks and returned the change. What’s more, the guy had even started attending to other customers. The Information person was about to move from there when he realised, he had got Rs. 5 less. He checked the rates (displayed on a board in the canteen) and again checked the change he had got from the canteenwallah and only then asked him for the balance Rs. 5. It is then that the guy on the counter told him that he didn’t have Rs. 5 change and asked him if he had Rs. 5 so that he could take that and return Rs. 10. Why did the man not say this earlier? Why did he have to wait for the customer to ask for the balance Rs. 5? Your guess is as good as ours. Since Eros has a large clientele of affluent people, there are many who don’t even count the change before putting it into their pockets. It’s really sad that such an incident should have taken place at a prestigious cinema like Eros.

While on Eros, its air-conditioning plant was not working even that day. It’s been in a non-working condition for quite a few days now. Considering that the balcony ticket rate is Rs. 75, isn’t it too much for the air-conditioner to remain switched off — for whatever reasons — for days together?

Political Parodies

Come elections and it’s time for the politicians to use the latest hit film songs to woo voters and to run down their opponents. This time, even hit pop songs are being used by the BJP to poke fun at the Congress. Political parties usually make special audio cassettes of these parodies of hit numbers and distribute them free of charge among voters. The BJP this time is using Altaf Raja’s super-hit qawwali, Tum to thehre pardesi from the album of the same name, to tease Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. The parody goes thus: Tum to thehre pardesi/Saath kya nibhaaoge/Pehli flight se Italy chale jaaoge. Another BJP song that’s tipped to be an instant hit (like the film from which it has been inspired) is Dilli to pagal hai.

How’s This Title?

And this one to keep you smiling through the week.

Govinda’s pet name, as everybody knows, is Chi Chi. It is also common knowledge that Govinda’s Aunty No. 1 is inspired from Mrs. Doubtfire, on which is also based Chachi 420. So what should have been the title of Aunty No. 1?

Rattle your brains for a while. If you can’t think of the answer, read this last line:

It should be Chi Chi 420. Howzatt?!?

CLASSIFICATION: 1997
(Total 120 films, including 28 dubbed films)

AAA
(Super-Duper Hit)

BORDER

AA
(Super Hit)

DIL TO PAGAL HAI (‘AAA’ in Bombay, East Punjab & West Bengal)

A1

JUDAAI
HERO NO. 1
ZIDDI

A

VIRASAT (‘A1’ in Bombay)
ISHQ
CHACHI 420 (‘AA’ in Bombay, C.P. Berar)

BB

PARDES (‘A1’ in Bombay)
DEEWANA MASTANA (‘A1’ in Bombay)
JUDWAA (‘A’ in Bombay)
YESHWANT (‘A’ in Bombay)
ANACONDA (dubbed)

B1 to BB

GUPT (‘A1’ in Bombay & Tamilnadu-Kerala; average in some circuits)
BHAI (‘A’ in Delhi-U.P.)
ASTHA

B1

JODIDAR
THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK (dubbed)

B to B1

YES BOSS (‘A’ in Bombay & Nizam)
KAALIA
JUDGE MUJRIM
QAHAR
SHAPATH
KOYLA (‘BB’ in Nizam)
AUZAAR (‘BB’ in Nizam)
DAADAGIRI

B

CHUDAIL (‘BB’ in some circuits)
SURAJ
GHULAM-E-MUSTHAFA (‘BB’ in Bombay & C.P. Berar)

THE REST

……….

AT A GLANCE

FILM INFORMATION’S
Bests Of 1997

Best Film
BORDER

Best Producer
J.P. DUTTA
(BORDER)

Best Director
PRIYADARSHAN
(VIRASAT)

Best Actor
KAMAL HAASAN
(CHACHI 420)

Best Actress
TABU
(VIRASAT)

Best Character Actor
AMRISH PURI
(VIRASAT)

Special Award
KIRON KHER
(DARMIYAAN & SARDARI BEGUM)

Best Villain
ASHISH VIDYARTHI
(ZIDDI)

Best Comedian
OM PURI
(CHACHI 420)

Best Story
KAMAL HAASAN
(VIRASAT)

Best Screenplay
KAMAL HAASAN
(CHACHI 420)

Best Dialogues
GULZAR
(CHACHI 420)

Best Music Director
UTTAM SINGH
(DIL TO PAGAL HAI)

Best Lyricist
JAVED AKHTAR
(‘Sandese Aate Hain‘ – BORDER)

Best Song
SANDESE AATE HAIN
(BORDER)

Best Background Music
VIJU SHAH
(GUPT)

Best Choreographer
SHIAMAK DAVAR
(DIL TO PAGAL HAI)

Best Playback Singer (Male)
UDIT NARAYAN
(DIL TO PAGAL HAI)

Best Playback Singer (Female)
LATA MANGESHKAR
(DIL TO PAGAL HAI)

Best Editor
N.P. SATISH
(CHACHI 420)

Best Action Director
TINNU VERMA
(ZIDDI)

Best Cinematographer
K. RAVICHANDRAN
(VIRASAT)

Best Art Director
BIJON DASGUPTA
(GUPT)

Best Male Newcomer
AKSHAYE KHANNA

Best Female Newcomer
AISHWARYA RAI

Film Weather: 1997

120 RELEASES

A total of 120 films were released in 1997, of which 28 were dubbed. As compared to this, 125 films (96 original and 29 dubbed) were released in 1996.

HIT & MISSES

Of the 120 films released, 18 proved successful — including hits, super-hits, blockbusters and above average. Another 11 were average or just about earners, and the remaining proved either losers, flops, debacles or disasters.

WHITHER PUBLICITY

Film publicity acquired gigantic dimensions. There was an emergence of vinyl (back-lit) displays and surfeit of promos on satellite channels to serve as potential boosters. The publicity costs zoomed from Rs. 10-15 lakh to even a crore for the big ones. They were all worth the expenses if the film clicked. But if it didn’t, the publicity just proved sasti murgi mahenga masala as in the case of Daud and Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi.

SUCCESSES ALL

The biggest hit of the year was J.P. Dutta’s Border, followed by Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai. Judaai, Hero No. 1, Ishq, Ziddi, Deewana Mastana, Judwaa, Virasat, Pardes, Chachi 420 and Yeshwant were the other notable successes of 1997, ranging from hit to overflow.

AUTONOMY TO DD, AIR

The United Front government granted autonomy to Doordarshan and All India Radio by constituting the Prasar Bharati Board on 23rd November by issuing an ordinance. The Board has ten members with Nikhil Chakravarty being its chairman and S.S. Gill, the chief executive officer. The constitution of the Board has not been ratified by Parliament as it was dissolved before the ratification could take place. Thus, the fate of the Board, which has already started working actively to give a new life to DD and AIR, itself hangs in balance.

BOOST TO MARATHI FILMS

The Maharashtra revenue minister, Narayan Rane, granted 100% exemption from entertainment tax to Marathi films. Subsidy to Marathi films was also increased during the year.

COME FRIDAY

Distributors of C.I. decided to release new films on Fridays instead of on Thursdays in deference to the CCCA’s directive. Distributors of C.P. Berar have been given an option to release their films either on Thursdays or on Fridays.

NEW FILMLAND MPs

Shabana Azmi and Mrinal Sen were two film personalities who made it to Parliament in 1997. The industry can hope for some governmental support with two more representatives in the Rajya Sabha now.

MISERABLE CRISIS

A pall of gloom was cast on the industry after the heinous murder of Gulshan Kumar in August. Added to the gloomy atmosphere was the threatening telephone calls received by many industry people from extortionists and the underworld. This made finance so dear that film shootings dropped down by over 50%. Financiers simply did not show interest in being associated with film projects, and the industry faced the worst ever crisis in many, many years. Studio floors wore a deserted look, recording rooms were silent for days together, artistes, who had no time to eat and sleep, found themselves sitting at home or holidaying abroad, busybee choreographers had no one to dance to their steps, action directors had forgotten, so to say, how to fight, equipment hirers found their otherwise money-making equipments a burden, paint and property suppliers found that they had nobody coming to them. In short, the film industry was almost paralysed.

Added to this was the spate of flops in August, September and October. And since the prices of films, which bombed, were high, the losses too were very big. For this reason too, the rotation of money, in a way, stopped.

Things started looking up only in November and December as shootings and recordings gained momentum and Dil To Pagal Hai and Ishq also clicked.

THE NEW BRIGADE

Five new faces made a mark on the film firmament in 1997. Akshaye Khanna’s was the most sensational debut in many years, in dad Vinod Khanna’s maiden production venture, Himalay Putra. Although the film did not do well, Akshaye was hailed as a star. In the super-hit Border, he was loved, and in Mohabbat, he was again immensely liked even though the film itself did not make it. Aishwarya Rai mesmerised the audience with her beauty, and proved that talent can also go hand-in-hand with beauty, in …Aur Pyar Ho Gaya. The film, however, flopped. Mahima Chaudhary came out a winner with a promising performance in Subhash Ghai’s Pardes, and so did Apoorva Agnihotri in the same film. Pooja Batra made a flying start in the all-round successful Virasat but didn’t impress half as much in her next two films, Vishwa Vidhaata and Bhai.

PRICES STABILISING

Although much has been said and written about film prices as well as star prices, it is, perhaps, for the first time in so many years that both, producers and stars, have woken up to the need to rationalise the price structures of films as well as themselves (stars). In this, it is the distributors who have played a good role by refusing to run after proposals priced crazily. They have shown restraint and, therefore, prices of films, generally speaking, have at least stabilised in the recent past. Stars also have stopped hiking their prices after every hit.

The Central Circuit Cine Association, the strongest body in the film industry, has even gone to the extent of fixing an upper limit on film prices, for its members and their circuits viz. C.P., C.I. and Rajasthan. Of course, although this price ceiling has no chance of succeeding due to two reasons — one, the upper limit is unrealistically low, and two, buying and selling is a free trade and cannot be restricted — the ceiling, nevertheless, is a pointer to the fact that film pricing has become as unrealistic as it could.

BACHCHANS BACK

1997 marked the comeback of Amitabh Bachchan (Mrityudaata was released this year). Jaya too staged a comeback with Govind Nihalani’s Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa which is yet to be commercially released.

CENSOR CENSURE

The censors were as usual hard to please but were a little liberal this year. Yet, there were some Hindi feature films which had a difficult time before they could pass through. Purna Satya, Bhai, Dhaal and Train To Pakistan managed to be cleared through the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal although after a lot of deliberations.

Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra: A Tale Of Love was offered ‘A’ certificate with as many as eight cuts which were not accepted by the producer. The producer moved court and it was cleared.

AWARD WINNERS

Bappi Lahiri’s Bengali film, Lal Darja, bagged the National Award (Swarn Kamal) for the best film. Kamal Haasan and Tabu won the National Awards for the best actor and actress for their roles in Indian (Tamil) and Maachis respectively. Sivaji Ganesan was awarded the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award.

For the first time, an India actor, Dilip Kumar, was named the recipient of the Pakistan government’s ‘Nishan-E-Imtiaz’ award. Lata Mangeshkar won the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana award as well as the Maharashtra Bhushan award of the Maharashtra government. B.R. Chopra received the Pearl award for lifetime achievement, at the first East Asian Film & Festival held in Malaysia.

COULD NOT MAKE IT

The year also saw many a heartbreak and many distributors also breaking their backs. Debacles and disasters were many in number but what was more astonishing than the quantity of flops were the magnitude of losses in each of the flops and debacles. Prices of films were sky-high and when such films bombed, the losses were, obviously, nerve-shattering. Among the major and notable flops of the year that went by were …Aur Pyar Ho Gaya, Hameshaa, Ghoonghat, Lav Kush, Himalay Putra, Mrityudaata, Salma Pe Dil Aagaya, Daud, Lahoo Ke Do Rang, Insaaf, Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi, Itihaas, Kaun Sachcha Kaun Jhootha, Sapnay, Aar Ya Paar, Mere Sapno Ki Rani, Betaabi, Vishwa Vidhaata, Udaan, Aflatoon, Daava and Zameer. Many of these films were high-priced and some were even astronomically priced!

BLOW HOT BLOW COLD

The Overseas market turned a haven for big star-cast films, as proved by the runaway successes of films like Dil To Pagal Hai, Judaai, Koyla, Ishq, Gupt and Pardes. But it turned otherwise for the ‘smallies’.

YEAR OF TRAGEDIES

1997 was a tragic year for the industry. No year has witnessed so many tragedies as the year gone by. On 13th June, the day of release of Border, a massive fire broke out at Uphaar cinema in New Delhi, which was screening the film. A total of 49 people died, and it raised a whole controversy of safety regulations in cinema halls. Licences of several cinemas, mostly in the capital city, were suspended after this catastrophe, for violation of safety rules and regulations. On 12th August, Gulshan Kumar was gunned down, and music director Nadeem has been named the prime suspect in the case. Nadeem was and is still in London, and proceedings to extradite him are on. Ramesh Taurani has also been arrested in the same case.

Extortionists made attempts on the lives of Rajiv Rai and Subhash Ghai but, fortunately, both had Providential escapes.

IMPORT VALUE

Dubbed films usually meant films dubbed from films of South Indian languages until a couple of years back. But the scenario has undergone a drastic change now. Out of 28 dubbed films released in 1997, over 50% were dubbed versions of English films. But only two of them clicked, viz. Anaconda and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, both of which had creatures to provide the chills and thrills. So, the success ratio has hardly been 15 per cent.

FILM FESTIVALS

The 28th International Film Festival of India in Thiruvanathapuram from January 10 to 20, 1997, was boycotted by the film industry because of the controversy in the selection of the chief guest for the festival. A kind of parallel Panorama was also held by Amol Palekar, Gulzar and Aparna Sen there, and their films — Daayra, Maachis and Yugant — were screened.

Bombay’s first festival, called Festival Of Films, Mumbai, was held from November 24 to 30 at Chavan Auditorium and Tata Theatre in Bombay. Dev Anand received a lifetime achievement award at this Festival, and filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan was honoured for completing 25 years in the film industry on his own terms. FIPRESCI awards were started in India in this festival, and the first two recipients for the best films were Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Kathapurushan (Malayalam) and Rituparno Ghosh’s Dahan (Bengali).

STATE OF CINEMAS

With the installation of ultra modern acoustics such as DTS Dolby, Ultra and digital sound, the maintenance of cinemas improved vastly all over. In the days to come, many small-capacity cinemas will come up with state-of-the-art technology. One such cinema, Cinemax, opened at Goregaon, Bombay in December ’97.

DELIVERY TRAUMA

The tables turned against producers in 1997 when distributors in several cases simply refused to take deliveries of the films at the time of release. For some years before this, it was the distributor who had to succumb to pressures at the eleventh hour and hike the price at the time of delivery. But the cases of Insaaf, Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi, Mohabbat and Hameshaa in 1997 were different. At least one or more distributor(s) of these films put his/their foot down and opted for not taking delivery rather than taking it at an enhanced price or even at the contracted price.

ENT. TAX DRAMA IN MAHARASHTRA

Act 1: Cinemas in Maharashtra closed down ‘indefinitely’ from Jan. 1, 1997 in protest against the state government’s failure to continue the concession of 50% entertainment tax beyond 31st December, 1996. The call for the bandh was given jointly by CEAI, the TOA, the CCCA, the IMPDA and the Kinematograph Renters Society (KRS) after the tax rate was increased to 100%.

Act 2: The cinemas reopened on January 30/31 following an unconditional withdrawal of the bandh by the action committee of the film industry. The government promised reliefs from April 1.

Act 3: The revised tax rate came into effect from May 1 following a promulgation of an Ordinance signed by the governor. The new tax rate was scaled down to 60% from the earlier 100%.

NO MORE

The year saw some really noteworthy names depart from this world. Among those who died were Chetan Anand, Gulshan Kumar, Mukul S. Anand, Basu Bhattacharya, Anjaan, Indeevar, R.R. Khajanchi, Mukesh Duggal, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Krishnan (of the Krishnan-Panju director duo), Anoop Kumar, Urmila Bhatt, Mehtab, Murad, Ranjitraaj, Chandu Parkhi, Narayan Rajgor, Chandrakant Sangani and Yeshwant Dutt.

YOU ASKED IT

With so many shootings having been cancelled after August ’97, is there a likelihood of the flow of releases in 1998 being affected?

– Definitely. There will be fewer releases in the latter part of 1998 because the progress of films has slowed down following the cancellations of shootings.

Why have more and more producers started shooting their songs abroad?

– For one, film budgets today are much higher and so are profit margins. And when margins are so high, producers don’t mind spending heavily to add gloss to their films because they are, after all, spending part of their profits. Besides, a lot of work is done a lot faster in foreign schedules, where there’s no disturbance.

Aren’t more comedy films being made now than, say, four or five years ago?

– Yes, because comedies are now universally accepted rather than in a circuit or two (like Bombay and South), some years back.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Accent On Non-Action

Action took a backseat in the films that proved successful in 1997. Light entertainers or love stories made it at the box-office more than action films. As against Border and Ziddi, there were at least eight successes/hits/super-hits that either had no action or very limited of it. Dil To Pagal Hai, Judaai, Ishq, Hero No. 1, Deewana Mastana and Chachi 420 were all devoid of action. Pardes and Gupt had action but not too much of it. Yeshwant had a fairly good dose of fiery dialogues and action. All of which means that action is not the only thing which sells.

‘Major’ Change

With ABCL’s Major Saab, director Tinnu Anand has decided to effect a major change. And the change is not pertaining to the film’s shooting (or reshooting, as is the buzz in the rumour mills). The actor-director has now decided to call himself Virender Raaj Anand! By the way, there will now be two Raaj Anands in the credits of the film: director Virender Raaj Anand and music director Anand Raaj Anand.

PRODUCTION NEWS

‘Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya’ Dubbing Starts

Dubbing of G.S. Entertainment’s Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya commenced at Ketnav on Dec. 22 with Arbaaz Khan. The film also stars Dharmendra, Salman Khan, Kajol, Anjala Zaveri, Kiran Kumar, Asif Sheikh, Kunika, Ashok Saraf, Ashish Balram Nagpal, Tiku Talsania, Anand Balraaj, Dinesh Hingoo, Nirmal Pandey and Abu Malik. It is directed by Sohail Khan who also produces it jointly with Bunty Walia. Music: Jatin Lalit. Vashu Bhagnani presents it.

LATEST POSITION

Despite severe cold and even rains (in some parts of the country), CHACHI 420 has done very well after a dull start because it picked up in many places due to mouth publicity. ISHQ and DTPH are also doing well.

Chachi 420, as expected, picked up at many places as the week progressed. 1st week Bombay 34,63,408 (89.29%) from 10 cinemas (10 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 4,02,103 from 3 cinemas (1 in daily 1 show), Baroda 1,84,976, Jamnagar (21 shows) 93,492; Pune 5,23,666 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 2,38,454, Solapur almost 1,50,000 (99.80%), Satara 1,20,587 (84.63%); Belgaum 1,47,238; Delhi 30,82,848 (81.39%) from 7 cinemas; Kanpur 1,61,708, very good in Lucknow, Varanasi 1,03,234, Allahabad 85,500, Gorakhpur 56,000; Calcutta 12,72,190 from 11 cinemas; Nagpur 4,44,249 (98.31%) from 3 cinemas, Amravati (6 days) 1,85,796, Akola 1,38,949, Dhule 96,443, theatre record, Bilaspur 1,15,113; Indore 2,65,871, Bhopal 3,42,886 from 2 cinemas; opened in Jaipur on 25th, 1st day 64,459 from 2 cinemas; 1st week Hyderabad 11,15,274 from 5 cinemas (1 in noon).

Aflatoon is dull. 1st week Bombay 29,02,383 (68.36%) from 10 cinemas (11 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 6,75,942 from 6 cinemas (1 in daily 1 show), Vapi 2,78,656, Baroda 1,13,763, Bharuch (gross) 2,28,210, Rajkot 1,83,432 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Jamnagar 93,072; Pune 6,81,466 from 5 cinemas (2 in matinee); Hubli 1,23,845; Delhi 29,61,599 (57.58%) from 11 cinemas (4 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,71,995 from 2 cinemas, Varanasi 1,17,929, Allahabad 1,07,000, Gorakhpur 1,05,000; Rohtak 25,742; Calcutta 6,17,987 from 7 cinemas; Nagpur 4,16,559 from 5 cinemas (2nd week 1st day 3,001 in 1 cinema), Jabalpur 1,18,587, Amravati 1,01,448, Akola 99,051 (2nd week 1st day 8,500); Bhopal 2,67,525 from 3 cinemas; opened in Jaipur on 25th (1st day 1,21,228 from 5 cinemas); 1st week Hyderabad 25,15,704 from 16 cinemas (1 in noon).

……

Ishq 4th week Bombay 29,22,117 from 8 cinemas (4 on F.H.); Sapna, Vasai 76,571, H.M. Deluxe, Bhayandar 1,29,827; Ahmedabad 7,09,630 from 4 cinemas, Vapi 2,12,556, total 14,17,363, 1st week Rajpipla 98,968, city record, 4th week Rajkot 1,60,000, Jamnagar (28 shows) 96,284; Pune 9,76,333 from 5 cinemas (1 in mat.), Kolhapur 1,23,671, Satara 1,14,787 from 2 cinemas (1 in mat.); Hubli 1,39,368, Belgaum 1,13,876, Dharwad 54,316, Bijapur 57,508; Delhi 14,92,391 from 7 cinemas (1 unrecd., 1 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,14,915 from 2 cinemas, Varanasi 1,29,240, Allahabad 1,17,000, Meerut 1,61,778, Gorakhpur 76,000; Nagpur 4,07,236 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,30,013 (3rd week 1,66,124), Amravati (6 days) 1,32,597, Akola 1,19,650, total 6,86,000, 3rd week Durg (6 days) 57,957, 2nd Jalgaon 1,32,144; 4th week Bhopal 2,48,807 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 3,11,847 from 2 cinemas (1 cinema 6 days), Bikaner 26,000.

Dil To Pagal Hai 8th week Bombay 25,66,922 (75.98%) from 7 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 3,26,904 from 3 cinemas, Baroda 1,67,692, Rajkot (mat.) 27,900, Jamnagar (noon) 22,409; Pune 7,35,017 from 3 cinemas (1 in mat.), Kolhapur 1,83,234, Satara (mat.) 37,073; 1st week Gadag 68,567, Bijapur 1,34,570 (full); 8th week Delhi 8,04,060 from 3 cinemas; Kanpur 85,733, Varanasi 77,167, Allahabad 35,000; Rohtak 7,198; Calcutta 7,29,887 from 4 cinemas; Nagpur 1,41,707 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,02,207 (7th week 1,30,108), total 12,06,668, Amravati 1,12,455, Akola 82,861 (7th week 79,788), total 10,63,600, Jalgaon 52,011, Gondia (gross) 3 weeks’ total 3,02,338; 8th week Bhopal 87,668; Jaipur 3,98,889; Hyderabad 6,23,053 from 3 cinemas (2 in noon).

A.G. VARTAK’S DAUGHTER WEDS

Dr. Samata, daughter of eminent exhibitor and distributor of Bombay, A.G. Vartak, got married to Dr. Shrikant on 25th December at Vasai, Bombay.

SILVER JUBILEE

Gupt has completed silver jubilee (25 weeks) runs at Vivek and Kalyan cinemas of Delhi.

YOU ASKED IT

When it is said that a good initial is half the battle won, how do you explain films like Chachi 420 which pick up by mouth publicity?

– Films like CHACHI 420, JUDAAI and BANDIT QUEEN are few and far between. The saying that a good initial is half the battle won is general.

With one more Akshay-starrer, Aflatoon, flopping, what is the future of Akshay Kumar and his starrers in the making?

– Akshay Kumar needs to pull up his socks before it is too late. A handful of films with top makers is what he needs to sign — and sign fast!

How would you describe 1997?

– The worst ever year for the film industry — a year of calamities and catastrophes, fears and failures.

DO YOU KNOW?

* One Ramarao Jadhav of Sangli has become a crazy fan of the Marathi film SARKARNAMA, running at the local Anand cinema. He sees it day after day in the 6 p.m. show and has now been permitted (by the local film representative) to see it free of cost. What’s more, he has also been presented an audio cassette of the film. When asked why he liked the film so much, he replied that he liked the usage of the word satkar in the film to describe the kidnapping and murder of persons by the politician. He also said, he liked the jugalbandi of the chief minister and the cultural affairs minister in the film.

* The cinemas of Ujjain have screened the following numbers of films in 1997: Nirmal Sagar 13, Metro 14, Prakash 24, Trimurti 25, Narendra 30, Kamal 33, Swarg 49, Bhatwal 50, Sunderam 51, Ashok 54, and Mohan 55.

* To take advantage of the tax-exemption policy of the Maharashtra government for Marathi films, Dada Kondke has been reviving his old Marathi hits one after the other. This week, he has revived SASARCHA DHOTAR in Pune, and RAM RAM GANGARAM in Bombay.

Not Worth Their Price

No star is worth his price today. Consequently, most of the films are also not worth their prices. It is surprising, therefore, how distributors continue to buy films at exorbitant prices. Or are they paying hefty prices at all now? Equally confusing is the fact that producers are running after stars who act pricey.

The first week’s figures of some star-cast films should serve to be eye-openers for all concerned — producers, distributors and the stars themselves. The last-named section of the industry badly needs to wake up to the bad realities of the film business today. For, if they realise that they are being unreasonable in their demands, they will appreciate the need to bring down their prices.

Shapath, starring Mithun Chakraborty and Jackie Shroff, collected 76.67% in Bombay and 69.42% in Delhi. Akshay Kumar fared equally badly with Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi collecting 75.38% in Bombay and 79.71% in Delhi. Akshay’s position deteriorated further with Aflatoon which closed its first week at 68.36% in Bombay and 57.58% in Delhi. Qahar may have boasted of such names as Sunny Deol and Sunil Shetty in its cast but did it manage to draw in the initial crowds? The first week figures for Bombay and Delhi were 70% and 75.27% respectively. Nana Patekar’s Ghulam-E-Musthafa may have reaped the benefit of Diwali in Bombay and barely managed a face-saving 87.55%, but in Delhi, the first week closed at 65.87% only. Even a two-hero (Anil Kapoor and Govinda) film like Deewana Mastana could collect just 92.06% in Bombay, and 89.45% in Delhi. When such is the position of star-studded films, cases of Vishwa Vidhaata (Jackie Shroff and Sharad Kapoor) and Bhai Bhai (Samrat and Manek Bedi) are absolutely pathetic. The former’s first week was 38.94% in Bombay and 33.85% in Delhi, while the latter’s corresponding figures were 56.05% and 29.58% (despite tax-exemption)! Dhaal, starring Vinod Khanna and Sunil Shetty, closed at 50.90% in Bombay and 37.77% in Delhi.

If these terrible figures can’t put the artistes to shame, what will? If these pathetic collections cannot serve as an eye-opener for producers, what will? If this sorry state of affairs cannot awaken the distributors, whatever will? And the aforestated statistics may be relating to the films of just a few stars but the position of almost all the artistes is the same. Barring a couple of heroes, nobody’s film is able to draw in the initial audience. And even those stars, whose films command a bumper opening, have to depend on the support of a good banner, a brilliant director, hit music — in other words, it is the entire set-up which matters.

The star prices and film prices are unrealistic, unjustified and completely wrong. And wrong economics cannot last forever. It has to be set right. If not corrected by a concerted attempt, the correction process can spell disaster. A disaster that can be averted!

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Urmila Replaces Karisma

Karisma Kapoor had replaced Urmila Matondkar in Dil To Pagal Hai. It’s now Urmila’s turn to replace Karisma. Miss Matondkar has stepped into the shoes of Miss Kapoor in Sunny Deol’s London. Reportedly, it is the rescheduling of the film’s shooting because of which Karisma couldn’t allot all the required fresh dates that prompted her to opt out of the project. In London, Urmila is paired with the two Deol brothers, Sunny and Bobby.

Five Million Dollars For Getting Pregnant!

Some of the court judgements in the US are truly interesting — as interesting as the court cases. One such recent case and judgement involves US actress Hunter Tylo. She has been awarded 5 million dollars after she was fired from Melrose Place for being pregnant and, therefore, not attractive enough for her role as a seductress. The Los Angeles superior court jury on 22nd December held that pregnancy was no bar to remain seductive. To make her point that she could be both, pregnant and sexy, at the same time, Tylo, who is now in the eighth month of pregnancy, wore tight mini skirts to court each day. What’s more, the jury even remarked that Tylo looked very attractive to the court.

Missed The Train

Pehle aap, pehle aap is a phrase that goes well with the nawabs of Lucknow who are said to have missed a train because of their etiquettes. But what happened in a Lucknow train the other day would change the phrase to Pehle main, sirf main! Unconfirmed reports say that filmmaker Muzaffar Ali, his wife and daughter were thrown out of a moving Lucknow Mail heading for Delhi on 21st December. Although Ali has not lodged any complaint, eye-witnesses have said that it was indeed Muzaffar Ali and his family who were pushed out of the first class air-conditioned compartment by the henchmen of a politician. The GRP has also confirmed that the filmmaker was thrown out of the train at Lucknow station as soon as it began to move. It is learnt that the security personnel and attendants of the politician dumped a few bags and suitcases of Ali on the platform. It was then Muzaffar Ali and his family’s chance to be practically thrown out!