MOHABBAT

Dashaka Films’ Mohabbat is a love triangle with an element of suspense. A girl and boy fall in love with each other and their romance is even approved by the girl’s guardian (brother). But the boy’s young boss is also in love with the same girl, although he cannot get himself to express his love to her. The suspense angle follows; there’s tragedy and more tragedy. Ultimately, one guy gets the girl.

The film reminds of Saajan which also had one girl and two boys. Although there’s no blind love as in Saajan, the resemblance does remind one of the film. The first half of Mohabbat is light. The drama and tension begin in the post-interval portion which also has a couple of emotionally moving scenes. While some of the light scenes in the film are very enjoyable, at least one dramatic scene — that in which the identity of the sacrificing boy comes to the fore — in the second half draws instant applause. However, a couple of reels immediately after interval are dull. Similarly, the last reel is predictable. Another drawback is that in the entire second half, the heroine has no dialogue as she loses her voice. Nevertheless, the character of the boy (boss’ employee) is so lovable that it does make up for some drawbacks.

Madhuri Dixit does a good job. She has a look that’s quite different from her past films. Her introduction dance is very good. But she does not have a single dramatic scene in the film. Sanjay Kapoor springs a surprise with a restrained performance that is good. Akshaye Khanna is the darling of the drama. He looks very handsome and delivers a performance that’s truly brilliant. Within minutes of appearing on the screen, Akshaye endears himself to the audience and has them craving to see more of him. His dances are simply superb. Farooque Shaikh is fair. Farida Jalal and Saeed Jaffrey are good. Tej Sapru is miscast. Shiva, Sulbha Arya, Ashwin Kaushal, Dimple Ghosh, Guddi Maruti and Bob Brahmbhatt lend able support.

Reema Rakesh Nath makes a confident debut as director. Although her script is not too novel, her narration of the same is impressive. Music comprises one hit number — ‘Don’t break my heart’ — and a couple of fairly hummable numbers. But a song or two are quite boring. Song picturisations (Saroj Khan) are superb, the best being ‘Don’t break my heart’ and ‘Main hoon akela’. The dance steps of these two songs are fabulous and both, Madhuri and Akshaye, are at their graceful best. Foreign locations, on which the songs have been picturised, are beathtaking. Rajan Kinagi’s camerawork is wonderful. Editing is very appropriate. Dialogues should have been more fiery.

On the whole, although Mohabbat does remind of Saajan, it has fair merits and some freshness to fetch returns to its distributors.

Released on 19-9-’97 at Liberty and 20 other cinemas of Bombay thru Metro Films. Publicity: excellent. Opening: average. …….Also released all over except in West Bengal. Opening was very good in Delhi-U.P. and C.I. but not up to the mark in C.P. and Rajasthan. It opened in Malegaon on 16th (Tuesday) where it collected 100% on first 2 days.

ENT. TAX DOWN IN KARNATAKA

The Karnataka government has reduced entertainment tax for non-Kannada films from 110% to 70% with effect from September 20, 1997.

TWO FILMS, ONE TERRITORY, ONE STORY

It happened last week in Bengal. And it has happened this week too — in Bengal again.

Sri Ramdevji Art International, the West Bengal distributors of G.P. Sippy’s Hameshaa, did not honour their commitment of the delivery amount and thereby pleaded inability to take delivery of the film. As a result, Hameshaa could not be released in West Bengal. Going by its disastrous fate in the rest of the country, it is likely that the film will now never be purchased by any distributor for West Bengal. But that is not the point. What is shocking is that this should have happened to a film produced by G.P. Sippy, who has given films like Sholay.

This week, the same story has been repeated in the case of Rikkoo’s Mohabbat. It was acquired less than a month ago by one Kesri Pictures for West Bengal. The concern had, prior to this, released Vijeta in West Bengal. Having reportedly acquired the film at 37.5 lakh MG royalty, the distributors pleaded inability to meet their commitment at the time of delivery and announced that they just had 30 lakh for payment towards MG royalty, prints cost and publicity! The producer declined to effect delivery at the new reduced price and so this film too could not be released in West Bengal.

CAA ASKS POLICE TO SHOW RESTRAINT

The Cine Artistes’ Association has taken strong objection to the lack of restraint shown by police officials who leak information to the press, of the names of stars who are going to be interrogated by them in the Gulshan Kumar murder case. As a result of this, the stars, feels CAA, are subjected to humiliation by the media which projects the news as if the interrogation had something to do with the crime (by using words such as ‘so-and-so star grilled’), although the stars are actually merely co-operating.

The CAA has requested the deputy commissioner and the commissioner of police of Bombay to instruct their officials to exercise restraint and avoid unnecessary depiction of its members.

PURU RAAJ KUMAR CONVICTED

Puru Raaj Kumar, son of late Raaj Kumar, was convicted by metropolitan magistrate K.H. Holambe Patil of Bombay’s Bandra court on September 15 for running over a group of persons sleeping on a pavement at S.V. Road, Bandra, three years ago. He has been directed to pay Rs. 90,000 each to the next of kin of the three deceased, and Rs. 5,000 each to those who were seriously injured. For committing driving offence, he has been fined Rs. 2,000, to be deposited in court.

SINGER NOOR JAHAN HOSPITALISED

Melody queen Noor Jahan has been hospitalised in Islamabad with serious heart problems. The 78-year-old Noor Jahan, who rendered thousands of songs in Urdu and Punjabi films, besides highly popular national songs, started her career in India before the 1947 Partition.

NADEEM ARRESTED IN LONDON, RELEASED ON BAIL

Music director Nadeem, prime accused in the murder of Gulshan Kumar, was arrested by Scotland Yard on the morning of 17th September in London. According to the Scotland Yard, the police invoked the Interpol alert and got in touch with the music director who agreed “to give himself up”. The police surrounded his sister’s house at Kingsbury in north-west London, where he was staying.

Nadeem was produced before the Bow Street magistrate the same morning and released on conditional bail. The conditions say that he will not leave Britain, make himself available for questioning by the police and surrender his passport which has been revoked.

The Indian authorities have since started extradition proceedings against Saifi Nadeem Akhtar and the same will come up for hearing on 24th September.

Nadeem, who has retained a top London law firm, Henri Bradman & Co., told the magistrate that he had every intention of responding to the arrest warrant issued against him by a Bombay court, but required time as his wife was ailing in London.

MUKESH THAKKAR KILLED IN ACCIDENT

C.P. Berar distributor Mukesh Thakkar (Mukesh Films, Amravati) was killed in a road accident on 16th September near Karanja. He was returning to Amravati in a luxury bus from Nagpur where he had gone to attend the reopening of a cinema, Bharat, in which he was a partner. The bus overturned, killing two persons of which one was 40-year old Mukesh.

Mukesh Seth, as he was fondly called by the C.P. trade, was the son of will-known film agent Shyamsunder Thakkar. He had recently released Kaun Sachcha Kaun Jhootha, Muqadar and Chudail in C.P. Berar. He had acquired China Gate and Aankhon Mein Tum Ho for distribution.

The Amravati trade remained closed on 17th as a mark of respect to Mukesh. He is survived by his father, three brothers, wife, a son and a daughter.

His funeral was held on 18th September.

The Amravati film trade, under the chairmanship of Vijay Rathi, paid homage to Mukesh Thakkar at a meeting on 18th September in Amravati. The trade remembered him as a sincere and devoted worker and paid glowing tributes to him. The Raipur cine trade also paid homage to him in a condolence meeting held on 17th September at the office of Raj Pictures, Raipur.

COURT RESTRAINS ZEE TV

The Bombay high court has restrained Zee TV (Essel Vision) from telecasting five films of producer Gobindram Ahuja and has appointed a court receiver in respect of the said films with a direction that in case Zee TV seeks further telecast of the said five films, the court receiver will seek permission of the appropriate court and, at that time, appropriate directions will be passed with regard to the said films.

Satellite telecasting rights of nine films of Ahuja were given to Zee TV in 1994 with the express condition that each film was to be telecast for a maximum of five times in India. Gobindram Abhuja alleged in his notice of motion that in violation of the agreement, three of his films had been telecast more than five times. Two other films had been telecast five times, and four others had been telecast less than five times. The court, therefore, appointed a court receiver in respect of the five films which have been telecast five or more times in India.

Ahuja has further alleged that despite the court order, Zee TV has continued to violate the terms and conditions of his agreement for which contempt of court proceedings are being launched.

N.N. Sippy Re-Elected IMPDA President

N.N. Sippy was unanimously re-elected president of the Indian Motion Picture Distributors’ Association for 1997-98 at the first meeting of the newly elected executive committee, held on 19th September. This is N.N. Sippy’s twelfth consecutive term as president. Indravadan Shah was elected vice president, and Kantilal Mehta, hon. treasurer. Devendra Shah and Haresh Bhatia were elected hon. secretaries.

Earlier, the following members were declared elected to the executive committee on 18th after the 58th annual general meeting of the IMPDA at Birla Kreeda Kendra, Chowpatty, Bombay: Ordinary class: Ayub Selia, Balkrishna Shroff, Devendra Shah, Guru Shenoy, Haresh Bhatia, Kantilal Mehta, N.N. Sippy, Ramesh Sippy, U.A. Thadani, Tolu Bajaj, Vijay Choksey and Vinod Kakkad. In the Associate class, the following were declared elected: Indravadan Shah, Mohan Susania and D.Y. Pattani.

There were no elections this year as there were as many nominations and sitting members in both the classes as the number of seats. Gulshan Rai and Sharad Doshi, two sitting members, did not offer themselves for re-election. In their place, Ramesh Sippy and Tolu Bajaj were declared elected. Four others — Dilip Dhanwani, Manoj Khivasara, Pradeep Singh, Tekchand Anchal — had filed their nomination papers in the Ordinary class but withdrew the same before elections. The nomination of the fifth member, Sanjay Chaturvedi, was rejected on technical grounds.

Gulshan Rai Feted

Gulshan Rai, a senior member of the IMPDA, was felicitated at the annual meeting. He was presented a shawl, a shriphal and flowers.

Anti-Video Piracy Cell

Bombay distributor Shyam Shroff suggested at the meeting that a separate cell to combat video piracy be set up by the IMPDA. His suggestion met with a favourable response and it was agreed that an anti-video piracy cell be formed soon.

A cocktail dinner party was held at Garware Club on the evening of 18th September.

PRODUCTION NEWS

‘Lal Badshah’ In Rajasthan

Writer-producer-director K.C. Bokadia will start a 25-day shooting schedule of B.M.B Productions’ Lal Badshah on Sept. 21 in Jaipur, Udaipur and Bikaner. Many scenes and songs will be picturised featuring all the artistes. After this last outdoor spell, the film will be almost complete. Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Manisha Koirala, Shilpa Shetty, Shakti Kapoor, Mukesh Rishi and Amrish Puri, it is presented by M.S. Combines (P.) Ltd. Music by Aadesh Srivastava and dialogues by Anwar Khan are the other major credits.

‘Sarfarosh’ Forges Ahead

A 10-day shooting schedule of Cinematt Pictures’ Sarfarosh will be held from Sept. 21 to 30 on Bombay locations. Dramatic and action scenes will be picturised. The film stars Naseeruddin Shah, Aamir Khan, Sonali Bendre, Mukesh Rishi, Govind Namdeo, Akhilendra Mishra, Akash Khurana, Smita Jaykar, Sukanya Kulkarni, Rajesh Joshi, Makrand Deshpande, Salim Shah, Ahmed Khan, Pradeep Raut and Ali Khan. It is being produced and directed by John Mathew Matthan. Music is scored by Jatin Lalit. Lyrics: Sameer. Action: Abbas Hanif.

25-Day Initial Stint Of ‘Champion’

A 25-day shooting schedule of Shree Shiv Bhakti Films’ Champion will start on Oct. 1 in Hyderabad. Sunny Deol, Raveena Tandon and Rahul Dev will participate in this first schedule. Producer Sujit Kumar and director Padma Kumar have just returned from a tour of England, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, where they had gone to finalise locations for the film. It has music by Anu Malik, lyrics by Javed Akhtar, cinematography by Thiru, screenplay by Maharajan, and dialogues by Sanjay Masoom.

MIX MASALA

BABA BOY

Indra Kumar, who is directing Ishq for Baba Films, was blessed with a baba on 9th September. The ace director earlier had two baby girls and no baby boy. With the third child being a baba, it’s now a complete family.

IN & OUT OF BOMBAY

Mr. Ravi Machhar of Sahyog Films, Secunderabad, and Abhinay cinema, Aurangabad, left Bombay for Vaishnodevi on 18th September and will return to Bombay on 24th.

Producer-director Subhash Ghai left for the USA on 18th September and will return to India after a month.

Mr. Manohar Kankaria of Musical Films P. Ltd., Calcutta, is in town (388-4190/ 387-5393/98210-47403).

Mr. Ajit Singh of Ajit Films, Delhi, is at Hotel Ramada Inn Palm Grove and will return to Delhi on 22nd September.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Efforts are on to find a suitable director who will complete the unfinished DUS of late Mukul Anand. J.P. Dutta and Priyadarshan are reportedly being considered.

* Rajiv Babbar has launched his fifth film and, like his previous four (CHEETAH, JALLAAD, MUQADAR and the under-production SHAPATH), this one — SHER-E-HINDUSTAN — also stars Mithun Chakraborty.

* PARDES (tax-free) has created a theatre record by collecting 3,35,737/- in 6th week at Rahul, Pune. Also creates a theatre record by collecting 79,634/- in 6th week at West End, Pune.

* PARDES is showing a marked improvement week by week at Triveni, Bangalore, where it collected 2,25,000/- in 4th week, 2,46,000/- in 5th week, and 2,70,000/- in 6th week.

* THE LOST WORLD (Hindi) has created an all-time record by collecting 4,19,619/- (nett) in 1st week at Prem Prakash, Jaipur.

* THE LOST WORLD (English) has created a record by collecting 2,54,693/- in 2nd week at Smruti, Nagpur.

It Happened In Bangalore

The song being picturised at the Capitol Hotel in Bangalore for Pardesi Babu is truly catchy. ‘Paaon mein payal, haathon mein kangana, ho maathe pe bindiya / It happens only in India’ go the lyrics.

If the song reminds you of the ‘I love my India’ song of Pardes, it’s nobody’s fault. For, this number of Pardesi Babu is not inspired from that song of Pardes. In fact, the Pardesi Babu song was recorded six months back.

Anyway, it is being picturised on 10th September in Bangalore. Govinda and Shilpa Shetty, both good dancers, are in great form and we suspect, it has something — rather, a lot — to do with the catchy lyrics and the catchier tune. Both are the work of Anand Raaj Anand.

In fact, so involved is Govinda that he gives as many as 10 and 12 retakes for one difficult step. Why, even after dance director Chinni Prakash has okayed the shot and is very happy with it, Govinda pleads for another retake and another and another….. Chinni and director Manoj Agarwal are thrilled with the devoted actor’s commitment. A beaming Kulbhushan Gupta (producer) says, “It is this involvement of his which more than makes up for Govinda’s latecoming on the sets.”

Well, Govinda has actually arrived a day late in Bangalore. We are informed that it was his revolver (which Govinda carries these days for security reasons) which was not allowed on the fight and because of which Govinda preferred to miss the flight the previous day . But when Govinda does reach Bangalore, he informs that it was his allergy which held him up in Bombay. Saying thus, he asks his Man Friday, Gauri Shankar, to scratch his itching back.

If Govinda is a day late, the film’s other heroine, Raveena Tandon, hasn’t showed up at all. And how could she? The poor girl was laid up in bed in a hospital in Bombay, suffering from meningitis. Thankfully, she’s alright now. Rather than waste the dates of the other artistes, the director decides to shoot the scenes and the song involving Govinda with Shipa Shetty. “Our script is completely ready,” informs Kulbhushan, “and so we could do this.” Therefore, what’s being picturised in Bangalore was to have actually been shot in Bombay.

Besides the hotel where the song picturisation was completed in four days (Govinda shot the whole night on the last shooting day as the following day was a holiday being the second Sunday), the film was shot on a set erected at Abhay Naidu Studios as also in a garment store — Twinkle — in a shopping complex.

Twinkle is owned by the brothers-in-law of the film’s presenter, Chetan Avlani, and it was the stars who were twinkling in the shopping complex that night. Chetan, too, participated with Govinda and Shilpa Shetty, playing the cashier of the shop. But while he received cash in the shot, off-screen Chetan has, obviously, not been at the ‘receiving end’, having had to shell out crores for this expensive project.

Lavish the film might be. But equally lavish are Govinda’s praises for director Manoj Agarwal. In fact, it is on Govinda’s recommendation that Manoj has been signed by producer Vimal Kumar to direct his next. This is the same film which was to have been directed by David Dhawan. David being busier than the proverbial ‘D’ — sorry, bee — Vimal has decided to make the film with another of Govinda’s favourite, Manoj.

Satish Kaushik plays a Sardar in Pardesi Babu and, as Kulbhushan puts it, “He will be the highlight.” Satish’s name in the film is Happy Singh but in the film, he is anything but happy. Rather, he is always tensed up about something or the other.

As we are tense about our return flight to Bombay. Unconfirmed seats on the Indian Airlines flight don’t get confirmed so easily and we, therefore, return from the airport to the hotel. Even though we are jittery, Kulbhushan is ‘kool’ as a cucumber. He is the Happy Singh on the sets — and in the true sense of the term. Raveena’s illness, Govinda’s latecoming, Kulbhushan’s wife’s hospitalisation even while the schedule is in progress — all this, besides the regular production hassles, and even then, ‘Kool’bhushan is not one bit tense.

Perhaps, that’s why he can produce three films at a time. His Vidroh with Akshay Kumar is on the completion stage. The third project is Shivam, with Raaj Kumar’s younger son, Panini.

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Aftermath Of Shoot-Out: Decline In Shootings

The murder of Gulshan Kumar last month and the string of threatening telephone calls from underworld dons to leading producers, actors and financiers have started telling on filmland activities. Not only have lavish film parties stopped, even film shootings have reduced. Yes, film finance is hard to get these days, with several financiers having pulled out from the game for the time being and some others having decided to take it easy. It will not be wrong to say that the number of film shootings has declined by 30 to 40%. According to director K. Ravi Shanker, who has an equipment division, “The decline in shootings is to the tune of 40% to 50%.”

Unimaginable Prices

Gujarat and Saurashtra have become heavenly sub-territories for the Bombay distributors of big films. Star cast and big-banner films are fetching even more than a crore from Gujarat, and half that price from Saurashtra. Why, so ‘hot’ are these sub-circuits that one big film, due for release on Diwali, is simply not being offered for sale in the sub-circuits. Another big film, due again for Diwali release, is being offered for sale at over 2 for Gujarat and over 1 for Saurashtra! Yes, 2 crore and 1 crore!!

Eastern Circuit Ratio Needs Redefining

It is baffling how the Eastern circuit is considered almost the same as Bombay circuit in the fixing of a film’s ratio/price. Businesses of almost all films reveal that the returns in Bombay circuit are greater than in the Eastern circuit. At times, business of a film in Bengal is just about 70% of that in Bombay. Sometimes, it is even less than that. Of course, the distributors of Eastern circuit do save in print costs because the number of prints they take are invariably much lesser than that taken out by a Bombay distributor. Even the publicity costs of the two circuits are very different, being much higher in Bombay and comparatively lower in Bengal. But despite these savings, the ratio of the Eastern circuit needs to be not more than 75 to 80% of that of Bombay.

Partners Abroad

Aditya Chopra and Bombay distributor-exhibitor Anil Thadani have opened a distribution office for the United Kingdom, in London. Of course, the new company’s — not named as yet — first release in the UK will be Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai. Aditya and Anil had released the former’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge in Bombay circuit through their concern, A.A. Films. With Dil To Pagal Hai, Yash Chopra has opened an independent distribution office for Bombay.

For The Small Screen, Of Course

Romesh Sharma’s experience with his first TV serial, Ajnabi, has been so rewarding that he has commenced yet another serial, Usool. Like Ajnabi was made as a film more than six years ago (a film which no distributor was prepared to touch even with a barge-pole) and then ‘converted’ into a money-spinning serial, Usool too was planned as a film. To be telecast on Sunday mornings at 10.30, beginning 28th September, on the national network of Doordarshan, the ambitious serial, produced and directed by Romesh Sharma from his own story and screenplay, stars Danny Denzongpa, Parikshat Sahni, Tinnu Anand, Tom Alter, Shashi Sharma, Neena Softa, Deep Dhillon, Virendra Saxena, Siddharth Ray and Romesh Sharma himself. It is mounted on a colossal scale, and a major part of the serial is shot in Mauritius.

‘KAMA SUTRA’ GOES TO COURT

R. Mohan, who holds the all-India distribution rights of Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra, has filed a writ petition against the decision of the CBFC, which has offered additional cuts in its dubbed versions (Hindi, Tamil and Telugu). The English version, cleared by the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal, was issued certificate by the CBFC earlier, but its three dubbed versions have been offered new cuts.

The petition will come on board once the courts reopen after Diwali vacations in the first week of November.

‘QAHAR’ POSTPONED

Raj Kumar Kohli’s Qahar, which was scheduled for release on 14th November, has been postponed by two to four weeks. The postponement has been necessitated due to the CBFC’s objection to the Junglee kabootar song in the film, reportedly due to Maneka Gandhi’s crusade against cruelty to animals. According to Kohli, “Although there is no cruelty whatsoever to the pigeon, we can’t fight with the CBFC. It they don’t see reason in our arguments, we will have to change the picturisation of the song. Hence the postponement.”

RAMESH TAURANI FREED ON BAIL

Ramesh Taurani, who was in judicial custody in the Gulshan Kumar murder case, was granted bail by the Bombay high court on 23rd October.

RUMI JAFRI WEDS

Writer Rumi Jafri got married to Hannan on 24th October at Apostolic Carmel High School, Bandra, Bombay. A reception to celebrate the marriage will be held this evening (25th) at Andheri Sports Complex.

Cable TV, Satellite Rights Are Separate: Bombay High Court

In a significant judgement by the Bombay high court on 21st October, satellite broadcasting rights have been held to be different and distinct from cable TV rights. Film rights can, therefore, be sold separately to the various television delivery systems like cable, terrestrial and video, the court has ruled.

Mr. Justice A.V. Sakhre, while disposing of a number of suits involving various cable TV operators on the one hand and satellite rights holders linked to Zee on the other, ruled that video rights cannot include all modes of exploitation where video cassettes are used since they (video cassettes) are merely one form of storage device.

The judgement is likely to go a long way in introducing a semblance of order in the chaotic film industry. The notices of motion of the various cable TV operators having been dismissed, the court seems to have upheld the arguments of the holders of satellite rights that mere purchase of video rights does not cover other forms of broadcast.

In one group of suits, some cable TV operators, who were holding the video rights of Bees Saal Baad and Mera Dharam, were claiming that the satellite broadcasting rights, which had been purchased by Zee Telefilms, also belonged to them. In another set of cases, Zee, which holds the satellite rights of Laawaris and Muqaddar Ka Sikander, had got a stay against ATM and others who held the video rights, from using the video rights separately as satellite rights.

In a recent controversy, both, the Hinduja-owned cable TV channel, CVO, and Zee Cinema aired Manoj Kumar’s Kranti on 15th August at the same time. Manoj Kumar had reportedly sold the satellite rights to Zee Cinema, while he had separately sold the cable TV rights to the Hindujas in 1984. As per the present Bombay high court judgement, it will now be perfectly in order for Manoj Kumar or any other producer to sell cable TV and satellite rights separately.

YOU ASKED IT

What is the most disturbing change you have noticed in the film industry from last Diwali to this?

– Distributors have begun to feel a sense of being let down by producers.

I want to produce an ‘A’ grade film and I have a capital of Rs. 1 crore. How should I start?

– With a capital of just a crore, you should not even be dreaming of producing a film, what to talk of actually producing a film. You should have at least 3 to 4 crore or arrangement for the same to venture into production today.

Is Amitabh Bachchan starring in J.P. Dutta’s next alongwith Sunil Shetty and Akshaye Khanna?

– J.P. Dutta has not finalised the cast of his next film.

MIX MASALA

DTS IN NAAZ

Naaz cinema, which houses almost all distribution offices of Bombay, may not have been upgraded as far as its sound quality is concerned. That is to say, it does not have Dolby or Dolby DTS sound. But there are at least two DTS distributors in Naaz. What’s a DTS distributor, you might ask. Well, the first DTS distributor is Devendra T. Shah because his initials are D-T-S. The other DTS is Dilip Dhanwani. DTS in his case stands for ‘Distributor in T-shirts’. Yes, Dilip is the only distributor who always sports a T-shirt.

INCORRECT PUBLICITY

Many people feel, the publicity of Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi went against the film. The heavy Sumo wrestler was publicised so heavily that people thought, he would have a substantial role or, at least, an important role. But in the film, the wrestler appears in only the climax, that too, for a short while. One publicity design of the film showed Akshay Kumar lying on top of the wrestler (who himself is lying down) and Juhi Chawla lying on top of Akshay. Another design showed Akshay and Juhi tugging at the wrestler’s underwear. This gave the impression, to kids especially, that the film would have comedy done by the wrestler. But it wasn’t so. May be, wrong publicity was responsible for Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi missing the bus.

Oh! Our Poor Stars

Our stars are the poorest people in the industry. Producers have money, distributors have it too, and so do exhibitors. Technicians are moneyed people but our stars — they are really poor. Don’t believe me? Then answer these simple questions:

(1) Why do many of our artistes take their families and friends on outdoor schedules of their films at the producer’s expense? Why do the family members and friends stay in the five-star hotel booked by the producer, eat food paid for by the producer, and even ask for cars to be arranged by the producer when they need to go shopping to buy rich clothes, jewellery, art items etc.? No, no, don’t misunderstand. I said, the stars are poor, not their families. These family members and friends also drink the liquor of the producer and romance on STD calls paid for by the producer. Would any hero or heroine take any of his friend on a foreign shooting schedule if a producer were not to pay for the friend’s air travel, stay, wining and dining? Forget it, most of them wouldn’t.

(2) Why do stars (many of them) charge petrol money from producers? Poor things, they can’t afford petrol in their Mercedes, Volkswagens, Pajeros and the other fancy imported cars they possess.

(3) Or why do the stars ask their drivers and other personal staff to take conveyance money and other allowances from the producer? Isn’t it sad, our stars are hardly any better than our poor who live below the poverty line. The only difference is that the stars themselves don’t beg, they have employees (like drivers, attendants, spot boys etc.) who are asked to beg. Yes, I call it begging because if the stars, who charge the producer crores, can’t pay in hundreds to their personal staff or can’t fuel up their personal cars, it is actually worse than begging.

(4) Have you ever heard of other professionals asking their assistants to charge small expenditure like conveyance, to the person to whom they are rendering their services? For example, a lawyer will never tell you to pay petrol money to his driver, or a doctor will not expect you to give conveyance money to his compounder. Then why the stars who earn much more?

Why do most stars behave as if they are obliging a producer by signing his film? After all, they are not working for free. And why do producers always have to bend backwards to please their artistes? Producers need to come out of this star-created system which forces them to expend lakhs of rupees which, by no stretch of imagination or business prudence, should be expended by them. The hero/heroine/ character artiste has been signed for the film, not his/her family members or friends nor even his car, driver or spot boy. If the artiste feels like carting his friends or aunts, uncles and cousins along to an outdoor location, fine. But tell him, Mr. Producer, that along with the big jingbang, he must not forget to carry his wallet or credit card.

After all, the artistes must be given lessons in the art of spending money. The producer who does it first shall do a great service to the industry.

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

‘A’ Bad Year

Bombay distributors Raju Bhagde and Achal Agarwal (of Art Home) have made an interesting observation. According to them, 1997 has been particularly unlucky for people with mesh rashi i.e. those names beginning with ‘A’, ‘E’ or ‘I’. They quote examples: Amitabh Bachchan whose comeback in Mrityudaata bombed; Akshay Kumar whose career is passing through an all-time low (Lahoo Ke Do Rang, Insaaf, Daava, Tarazu and Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi), …Aur Pyar Ho Gaya which bombed, IRK Films (Bombay distributors of …Aur Pyar Ho Gaya), Ajay Devgan, Itihaas, A.A. Nadiadwala (Lahoo Ke Do Rang), Akshaye Khanna (Mohabbat), Aishwarya Rai (…Aur Pyar Ho Gaya), Ahuja Films (Bombay distributors or Tarazu), Ayub Selia (Thane distributor or Tarazu), Achal Agarwal himself, who has been passing through a professional low. So much so that films released in ‘A’ months — April (Himalay Putra, Kaun Sachcha Kaun Jhootha, Koyla, Mrityudaata) and August (Daud, …Aur Pyar Ho Gaya, Prithvi, Mere Sapno Ki Rani, Tarazu) also bombed with the exception of Ziddi (April) and Pardes (August). To this list, we would add ABC Enterprises, Jaipur (which released Daud and Mrityudaata in Rajasthan). The only exception, perhaps, is Anil Kapoor who has had a particularly fantastic year (Judaai, Virasat and Deewana Mastana).

Music Industry: Out Of Tune

1997 has been a bad year for at least three leading ‘T’ music companies — T-Series (Super Cassettes), Tips and Time. While Gulshan Kumar, the boss of T-Series, was killed on 12th August ’97, Tips boss Ramesh Taurani was taken into police custody in connection with that murder. Dhirubhai Shah of Time was arrested under COFEPOSA. Besides the above ‘T’ companies, two ‘B’ music companies — Big B and BMB — shut their operations. Little wonder then that the music industry is in a bad shape. It’s like the music industry is suffering from TB.

Surprise Visitor

The unit of N.N. Sippy’s Silsila Hai Pyar Ka had a surprise celebrity visitor on the sets at Convent Villa on 21st October. Hollywood actress Goldie Hawn visited the set but since she dropped in unannounced, there was none of the customary welcome. “In fact, we were caught unawares,” gushed a visibly thrilled associate producer Pravesh Sippy as he recalled, “A fleet of imported cars came to a halt outside Convent Villa where we were shooting that day, and in walked this foreigner. It took us some seconds before it registered that none other than Goldie Hawn had come on the sets.” Goldie discussed her directorial venture with Pravesh and revealed that she was in India for a film she was making on spiritual gurus. She was thrilled to know that Pravesh Sippy and his co-associate producer, Prem Pillai, had watched her on the Jay Leno show on NBC channel. Goldie Hawn was excited to learn that the director of the film she was watching the shooting of was a lady, Shrabani Deodhar. And then the two ladies discussed direction too. Karisma Kapoor was floored when Goldie Hawn said, she knew her as Bollywood’s no. 1 heroine of the day. The Hollywood actress asked Karisma about the songs and dances she (Karisma) was so famous for. Well, the only disappointed person from the unit was producer N.N. Sippy himself. For, while Goldie Hawn was hobnobbing with his unit members, N.N. Sippy was busy elsewhere at an urgent meeting.

No Brother

Thanks to Pahlaj Nihalani postponing his Bhai Bhai to 14th November, we will now have just one Bhai — that of Deepak Shivdasani — releasing on Diwali. But in Nizam circuit, Diwali will be a Bhai-less affair! That is to say, even Bhai will not hit the screens there. Although Dilip Tandon (Indra Films, Secunderabad) will take delivery of Bhai alongwith the all-India distributors next week, he will release the film only on 7th November. Reason: non-availability of a proper chain. Here in Bombay, Bhai Bhai had been scheduled for release at New Excelsior as the main cinema. With it being postponed, it is Bhai now, which will be released on Diwali at New Excelsior, besides Dreamland, another main cinema. T

Business In Bihar

Believe it or not but Hanif Sameer’s Sanam, which bombed everywhere, has done fantastic business in Bihar. …….And the business of Salim’s Raja Ki Aayegi Baarat in Bihar is almost as much as that of Border in the same territory!

Matinee Picnic

DDLJ has celebrated its golden jubilee at Bombay’s Maratha Mandir in matinee shows. Today (on October 25), it has completed exactly one year of its run at Maratha Mandir. The film completed 50 weeks at New Excelsior, Bombay, and was shifted to Sachinam thereafter, where it ran for 3 weeks. It was then shifted to Maratha Mandir in matinee shows. Since it is tax-free and also because admission rates in matinee shows are low otherwise too, there are many people who don’t mind repeating the film for just viewing a song or two or, say, for seeing the first half. Yes, people come in and go out when they please as if they were on a picnic, and on any given day, there are many people seeing the film only partly. That’s the advantage of having repeat value in a film — an advantage that can be heightened if the film is tax-free and if admission rates are low. From Maratha Mandir alone, the distributor has got a share of over 18 lakh in one year. And the film can go on running for many more weeks still.

Govinda-Akshay Face-To-Face: History Repeats Itself

Like Deewana Mastana and Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi, both directed by David Dhawan, were released on the same day (10th October), there were two films of director Kishore Vyas also, which were released on one day. They were Jawaharlal Bafna’s Bhabhi and Ramesh Ludhiani’s Dancer, released on 23rd August, 1991. The coincidence is that even then, it was a clash of a Govinda-Juhi starrer (Bhabhi) with an Akshay Kumar starrer (Dancer), like Deewana Mastana (Govinda-Juhi with Anil Kapoor) and Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi (Akshay Kumar). And like at present, it was Govinda’s film which had scored over Akshay’s even then. Moral of the story: Akshay Kumar should plan his releases in such a way that he doesn’t clash with Govinda if the directors of the two films are the same.

60 DIE IN MAJOR FIRE AT DELHI’S UPHAAR CINEMA

A major fire broke out at Uphaar cinema in Delhi on Friday, June 13 at 5 p.m., killing almost 60 people. Over two hundred others were burnt and injured and are being treated in hospitals. The fire brigade, which arrived after 30 minutes of the catastrophe, was trying to control the fire even at 9 p.m.

A transformer in an air-conditioner on the ground floor of the recently renovated cinema got burnt and is said to have caused the fire. As people seeing the film noticed the fire, there was utter chaos with everybody trying to run out of the hall. As soon as the fire broke out, the hall was filled with gas. While people in the stalls could escape faster, many of those seated in the balcony were trapped. Many people who managed to escape, returned inside the gas chamber to save others. Among the 60-odd people burnt to death, at least three were armymen, it is reported.

Border had opened at the cinema the same day. Since Border deals with the story of armymen, a lot of army people had gone to see the film on its opening day. The cinema has a seating capacity of over 1,000.

Many cars parked in the cinema’s parking space were also burnt. Simultaneously with saving the lives of people and battling to bring the fire under control, efforts were on to remove the undamaged cars from the parking lot.

‘Itihaas’: West Bengal Distributor Refuses To Hike Price

With just a week to go for the release of Raj Kanwar’s maiden production venture, Itihaas, also directed by him, the dispute over the price for West Bengal and Assam has not yet been resolved. Raj Kanwar is looking for a price hike while the West Bengal-Assam distributor is in no mood for an increase.

It is learnt that the two failed to reach a settlement and the Bengal distributor ultimately threatened not to take the film’s delivery if it was not effected at the contracted price. Reportedly, the producer is said to have told the distributor, presumably in the heat of the moment, that he would rather not have the film released in West Bengal and Assam than effect delivery at the contracted price. The producer’s claim is that he has gone over-budget and hence the hike. The distributor, however, refuses to buy the over-budget story.

Xavier Marquis, who presents the film, is said to have kept out of the controversy as the deal for West Bengal-Assam was finalised by Raj Kanwar and his brother, K. Pappu.

Of course, one is sure, the film will not remain unreleased in West Bengal and Assam. But the sooner the matter is settled, the better it would be for all concerned.

GULSHAN RAI: A DISTRIBUTORS’ PRODUCER

Looking to the recent spate of flops and disasters, Gulshan Rai is showing concern for his distributors by agreeing to reduce the price of his Gupt. Some of his distributors have approached Rai, seeking reduction in the price. The film, it may be mentioned here, had fetched fantastic prices (in the ratio of 2.5 to 3 crore per major circuit) in all the circuits when it was sold. Gulshan Rai, it is learnt, is agreeing to oblige in cases where he feels, a price reduction is necessary, considering the tight money position in the industry, the recent losses suffered by his distributors in other films, etc.

Incidentally, the cinema trailers of the film have turned out to be extraordinary.

RAMKISAN KASAT’S SON TO WED

Marriage of Sushil, son of leading C.P. Berar distributor Ramkisan Kasat, with Savita will be solemnised on 18th June in Amravati at Hotel Mehfil Inn.

KEDAR NATH AGARWAL NO MORE

Producer, director and Bengal and Delhi-U.P. distributor Kedar Nath Agarwal passed away in Calcutta on 9th June. He was 65. He used to own the concerns Parasnath Pictures and Sangeeta Productions.

Kedar Nath is survived by his wife, two children, brother Naresh Kumar Agarwal and other family members.

ANNOUNCEMENT & LAUNCHING

Rishi Kapoor To Direct Rajesh Khanna, Akshaye, Aishwarya

R.K. Films And Studios’ Aa Ab Laut Chalen, with which Rishi Kapoor makes his debut as director, will be launched with a song recording on June 18 at Sunny Super Sounds. The music will be scored by Nadeem Shravan and lyrics will be penned by Sameer.

The film stars Rajesh Khanna, Akshaye Khanna, Aishwarya Rai, Paresh Rawal, Jaspal Bhatti, Satish Kaushik, Jatin Sial, Himani Shivpuri, Viveck Vaswani and Kader Khan. It has screenplay by Sachin Bhaumick, story and dialogues by Rumi Jafri, scenario by Raju Saigal, photography by Sameer Arya, and art direction by Suresh Sawant.

The unit will leave for a 55-day shooting schedule on August 15 in the United States of America and Canada. Four songs and scenes will be filmed with the entire cast participating.

YOU ASKED IT

What explains the bumper opening of Border this week?

– The extraordinary and formidable star-cast, excellent and correct publicity (that the film is a war film), a war film coming after many, many years and, of course, the super-hit ‘Sandese aate hain’ song.

In the coming days, which forthcoming films can be expected to take bumper initials?

– GUPT, PARDES, DAUD and ISHQ.

Have the problems between the producer and some distributors of Mrityudand, over the issue of price, as mentioned by you last week, been sorted out? Will the film be released this month?

– The differences are being sorted out. New distributors are also showing interest in the film. It will now be released on 11th July. Incidentally, the film’s music is picking up very well.

DO YOU KNOW?

* It was not just India which was in the grip of a BORDER fever, but London and Canada too were in its grip. Long queues for the advance booking of tickets of the film were witnessed in London and Canada!

* Padmalaya’s Telugu film, ENCOUNTER, starring Krishna, is oven-‘hot’ in distribution circles. It has reportedly been sold at a very fancy price for Andhra. This is Krishna’s 310th film and has been directed by Shankar. It will be released on 15th August.

* Jyotin Goel has imported a gorilla suit from Hollywood for the climax of SAFARI.

* Sapna cinema, Indore, which has just 640 seats and is equipped with DTS sound system, has collected over 40 lakh in 30 weeks’ run of RAJA HINDUSTANI.

* KHILADIYON KA KHILADI got the benefit of a housefull show on 5th June at Rituraj, Itarsi. People thought, BORDER had opened at the cinema as it was heavily advertised all over the town that BORDER was coming on 5th June. With the last-minute postponement by one week, the cinema management forgot to change the date in the film’s various boards all over town. People did not notice that BORDER had not been released, even after seeing the publicity of KKK at the cinema!

* BORDER has created a city record by collecting a total of 2,05,443/- on the opening day in Nagpur (5 cinemas). It collected 46,736/- at Smruti (5 shows), 42,579/- at Ashirwad (4 shows), 32,120/- at Panchsheel (4 shows), 48,136/- at Jaswant (5 shows), and 35,872/- at Sangam (4 shows).

* BORDER has created a unique city record by collecting 69,093/- on the opening day at Rajkamal, Akola. There were over-capacity crowds in the very first show at 6 a.m. when the film collected over 18,000/- against a capacity of 11,000/-!

* BORDER has created a theatre record by collecting 51,027/- on the opening day at Babulal, Raipur. It has also created a record by collecting 36,022/- on the opening day (4 shows) at Horas Amrit, Raipur, where it has been released simultaneously.

* BORDER has created a city record by collecting 46,840/- on 1st day at Jayant, Chandrapur.

* BORDER has broken the records of all previous big films like HAHK..!, DDLJ and RAJA HINDUSTANI by collecting 51,735/- on the opening day at Jayanti, Jabalpur.

* BORDER has created a city record by collecting 46,426/- on the first day at Rajlaxmi, Amravati.

* BORDER has created a city record by collecting 36,480/- on the first day (6 shows) at Apsara, Yavatmal.

SHOOTING COVERAGE

‘YUGPURUSH’
A Different Nana Again

– Gautam Mutha

Nana Patekar is out of the Pune mental asylum after 25 years. He had been admitted to the asylum when he was seven years of age. Today, he is 32 but not worldly-wise, although he is no longer a lunatic. A simpleton in appearance and even simpler by heart, he is unbelievably innocent and has a heart of gold.

That’s Nana in Yugpurush. It was shot on June 3, 4 and 5 in Kolhapur at Shalini Palace Hotel, and producer Pranlal Mehta had invited a press team to cover the shooting. The train journey from Bombay to Kolhapur, in the company of the film’s cast and crew, was an enjoyable one. Nana joined the group from Pune where he had gone to attend a school function.

Yugpurush is Pranlal Mehta’s 25th film. He had produced his first film, Kinara, in 1978, and has also made a Gujarati film and two Kannada ones. Yugpurush is inspired from a Russian novel, The Idiot, on which was based a Russian film of the same name as also a Bengali film, Aparichito. It had been Parto Ghosh’s long-time desire to make a film on this subject and finally the Bengali babu, Parto-da, is doing it for Gujarati bhai, Pranlal Mehta.

Yugpurush was to star Sridevi in the female lead but she preferred to walk out of the project before it could roll due to “a misunderstanding that there were some kotha scenes to be done by her”. Manisha has stepped into Sri’s shoes and, likewise, Ashwini Bhave has replaced Deepti Bhatnagar in the film.

As for the title role, Pranlal Mehta said, “Only Nana could have done this role. Besides him, I could think of two great actors who would’ve done justice to the character — Dilip Kumar of yesteryears or young Sanjeev Kumar.” According to Pranlalbhai, even Kamal Haasan may have found it difficult to enact the role.

And if Nana has accepted the challenging role, it is because of two main reasons — one, it is challenging, and two, because Nana is trying not to get typecast in one kind of role, that of an angry not-so-young man mouthing fiery dialogues. In Yugpurush, his dialogues are simple and he speaks them slowly. But even the simple dialogues assume the nature of hard-hitting dialogues because they reflect the thoughts of a man who is as innocent and pure as can be.

There are no villains in the literal sense of the term, in the film. Of course, Mohan Joshi and Shivaji Satam are not idealistic persons but they aren’t filmi villains as well. Jackie Shroff’s character, nevertheless, does have grey shades. He plays a filthy rich business tycoon who must have what his heart desires. Manisha Koirala is the helpless girl who finds herself in the clutches of Shivaji Satam. When she meets Nana, she develops a liking for him and his simplicity and innocence. No villains, therefore no fights. Yugpurush has barely five minutes of action!

With Manisha replacing Sridevi, the project has turned out to be like a sequel to the hit Agni Sakshi — Parto Ghosh, Jackie, Nana and Manisha. Pranlal Mehta must be thanking his stars for the replacement which happened without a deliberate attempt from his side.

Pranlal Mehta is confident, all the awards of 1997 for the best actor will go to Nana for Yugpurush, so “wonderful” is his performance. Another thing Mehta guarantees is the audience’s tears. “Everybody will be moved to tears by Nana,” he predicts confidently.

Parto Ghosh also feels, emotions will be the high-point of the film. He is quick to explain that although the subject of the film is different, it is not an offbeat film which he is making. “It has all the commercial ingredients, yet it will be a film with a difference,” he says with an air of confidence. Parto is also confident that in this film, which will project an altogether different Nana, the audience will also love Jackie Shroff who, according to him, will be a surprise packet. Mohan Joshi’s changeover in the end will also be a highlight, he feels.

Ashwini Bhave is thrilled about her role of a simple girl in Yugpurush. Her only ‘grouse’, if one may use the word, is that Parto-da addresses her as “Oshwini” instead of Ashwini. Bengalis are known to round off any and every world and ‘Ashwini’ is no exception.

Exceptionally unusual is the end of the film in which Nana……. well, it wouldn’t be fair to reveal the ending. But that was exactly the portion being shot in Kolhapur and witnessed by us. A portion of a song was also picturised. The palatial hotel was selected on Nana’s suggestion and was used as Mohan Joshi’s house-cum-office. Mohan Joshi, who plays a publishing baron in the film, is, in real life, the non-controversial kind who does not crib or complain about anything, more because “I’m not in a position where I can even suggest”. He has the drive to make an indelible mark as a villain. Of course, for the present, he concedes that Amrish Puri is the last word in villainy.

If Mohan Joshi doesn’t like to even make suggestions, Nana is forever making suggestions on the sets. “What’s wrong?,” queries Nana and answers himself, “I don’t think, this is interference. It is up to the director to accept or reject my suggestions.” Parto, who is also making Musthafa with Nana, doesn’t seem to mind Nana’s habit of making suggestions, one bit. And if both, the actor and the director, are happy, why should anybody else have any objection?

But then, why doesn’t Nana himself direct another film after Prahaar? “Because it is a time-consuming job. Directing one film will take my two years,” he says. “Then I won’t be able to pursue acting.” And anybody would agree that Nana makes a better actor than director.

The unit will move to Bangalore shortly for a song picturisation. The songs of Yugpurush, composed by Rajesh Rohan, have a Bengali flavour. Rich in lyrical value (the songs are written by Majrooh Sultanpuri), they are all slow except for one which is a fast number. One song, which was picturised in the Pune mental asylum, was liked so much by the asylum authorities that Pranlal Mehta had to give in to their request to give them a cassette containing that song. The asylum uses the song as a prayer for its inmates and plays it daily!

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Thrill-A-Minute, Chill-A-Minute ‘Anaconda’

Columbia-Tristar is planning to dub its English blockbuster, Anaconda, in Hindi. The film, about a type of snake found in the Amazon forests, sends chills down the spine of the viewer as did Jurassic Park. The Anaconda snake is so huge, one could faint at its very sight. It catches its prey (humans) in such a tight grip that the sound of the bones of the prey being crushed can be heard. The snake then gulps down the human body but it doesn’t digest it; rather, after a while, it regurgitates it. The hour-and-a-half film boasts of excellent visuals and nail-biting and hair-raising excitement. Indians are known to have a liking for films based on ichhadhari snakes. Who knows, a film about a different kind of snake — with an opening commentary — might also click. At least one distributor seems supremely confident about the dubbing because he has offered Columbia-Tristar an unheard of price for the to-be dubbed versions.

No-Cut Director

Krishna Reddy is a well-known and successful writer-director of Telugu films, having made almost 15 films. Among his successes is Shubhlagnam of which Judaai was the remake. Krishna Reddy’s latest Telugu release was Aahwaanam which didn’t do too well. For the censors, Krishna Reddy’s films mean that they don’t have to use their scissors at all. For, never has even a single cut been offered by the CBFC in any of Reddy’s films. That’s some record!

Music To Hit Hai

The music of Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai is already being spoken about in superlative terms by those who’ve heard it, even though it hasn’t been released as yet. Sunil Bansal, the Rajasthan distributor of the film, goes into ecstasy while talking of the film’s music. And this, when he has not even heard one actually recorded song. Then how come? Well, it so happened that Yash Chopra was in Jaipur some days back alongwith his wife, Pamela, to attend a marriage. Sunil and his family members had gone to the hotel where the Chopras were putting up, and were pleasantly surprised to hear Pamela Chopra humming the title song of the film behind closed doors of the hotel room. Sunil and family members waited patiently outside the room, refraining from ringing the door bell, so that Pamela could continue humming the song and they could hear it. Says Sunil, “The song is exceptional, its lyrics are simply fantastic.”

Compliment Extraordinaire

The acclaim which Javed Akhtar is receiving as a lyricist, from different quarters is remarkable. Be it for his lyrics in films or his book of poems or his non-film songs, the lyricist continues to make news after news. Currently, his songs in Virasat, Border, Sapnay, Yes Boss, …Aur Pyar Ho Gaya and Mrityudand are either already popular or becoming popular. Which is what made a personality like Lata Mangeshkar remark, “This is something which has never happened to any lyricist during the last hundred years of cinema. I have rarely seen a lyricist in such a state of inspiration, writing poetry and songs that appeal to the classes and masses alike.” No ordinary compliment this, coming as it does from the nightingale of India.

‘Gupt’ In Gandhinagar

For the first time in a city like Gandhinagar (in Gujarat), a vinyl hoarding has been put up in a cinema. The expensive hoarding is of Rajiv Rai’s Gupt and the cinema is Ajay Chudasama’s Rajshri. Well-illuminated, the colourful hoarding is attracting curious onlookers who crowd around it to have a look.

Too Sticky To Handle?

While it is common knowledge now that debut-making Shantanu Sheorey is not the director of Kamal Haasan’s Chikni Chaachi, few are aware of the fact that Shantanu was out barely seven days after the film rolled, in March itself. Kamal Haasan has himself directed the entire film and it would surprise many that Chikni Chaachi is about 90% complete! The portions shot by Shantanu were reshot by Kamal as the latter was not happy with the work done by the former. The film’s online producer, Saab John, has dismissed as baseless Shantanu’s claim in a recent press interview that it was he who walked out of the film because of aesthetic differences between Kamal Haasan and himself. Incidentally, Kamal’s Ladies Only is also ready. After Chikni Chaachi, he plans to produce more Hindi films, on a regular basis now. And yes, the hunt for a new title for Chikni Chaachi (because there are some who feel, womenfolk may not quite approve of the word ‘Chikni’ in the title; while ‘chikni’ in Bambaiya Hindi means good-looking, in the North, it translates into ‘sticky’) is over because it has now been titled Stree 420. Kamal wanted to take no chances by retaining the title Chikni Chaachi because ladies and children have been regular audience of his films in South.

Direct Contact

Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla will meet their fans on Sunday, June 15, between 5.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. at three places in Bombay, viz. Carter Road, Shivaji Park and opposite NCPA. As a promotional drive for Yes Boss, producer Ratan Jain has thought of this novel publicity campaign. The two stars will move in a mobile music van and sign autographs for their fans, besides asking them to see Yes Boss.

LOHA

Jockey Films’ Loha (A) is a crime film. A suspended police officer vows to avenge his sister’s murder by a don who has the complete support of a corrupt minister and a corrupt police officer. A forlorn army officer and a patriotic don join hands with the suspended police officer and help him in his mission. The army officer’s wife has been killed by another don. One by one, the villains are eliminated and, in the climax, the don too is finished by the police officer.

The screenplay provides scope for a lot of confrontation scenes between the dons, between the police officers and also between the hero and the main villain. The impact of several of the confrontation scenes is good mainly because of the hard-hitting dialogues (Bashir Babar) spoken in the language of the streets. The sarcasm at today’s politicians and times makes many scenes enjoyable. However, the action scenes are hardly as enjoyable. Rapes have been incorporated anywhere and everywhere to titillate the masses.

Dharmendra plays the iron-man with gusto and wins applause from front-benchers whenever he shows his fist as a mark of his strength. Mithun Chakraborty, in a subdued role, gives good support to Dharmendra. Sujata Mehta has a small and insignificant role. Shabnam Mala, Meghna and Pinky Alfanzo hardly get any scope. Mohan Joshi is quite good. Ishrat Ali does very well. Pramod Moutho acts ably. Shakti Kapoor, Deepak Shirke, Kiran Kumar, Harish Patel, Rajesh Vivek, Rami Reddy and Rajan Khan lend fair support. Govinda and Manisha Koirala entertain in special appearances and they are provided able support by Dinesh Hingoo.

Direction is alright. Music has hardly any appeal. There’s a sad song too, which looks out of place in a film of this genre. Photography and other technical values are below the mark.

On the whole, fast-paced Loha has enjoyable dialogues as the biggest asset, which, to an extent, make up for a routine story and technical drawbacks. It should give some returns to its distributors on the strength of business in ‘B’ and ‘C’ class centres.

Released on 17-10-’97 at Dreamland and 14 other cinemas of Bombay thru Tridev Movies. Publicity & opening: fair. …….Also released all over. Opening was impressive in C.P. Berar and Rajasthan.

LATEST POSITION

The examination period and the festival period have taken their toll on the box-office.

Deewana Mastana has done fairly good business in the first week. It dropped from 5th day onwards at several places. Should prove a commission-earner in some circuits and fetch overflow in others. 1st week Bombay 48,08,479 (92.06%) from 12 cinemas (10 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 8,51,008 from 7 cinemas (2 unrecd.), Rajkot 1,94,398 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Jamnagar 1,21,361 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 11,66,285 from 5 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 1,67,000; Hubli 1,95,674 (97.79%) from 2 cinemas (1 in noon), Belgaum 2,07,627 (96%); Delhi 49,83,740 (89.45%) from 13 cinemas (1 unrecd., 1 on F.H.); Kanpur 3,93,036 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 2,42,939 (100%), Agra 2,65,415, Varanasi 1,80,252, Meerut 1,87,913 (100%), Bareilly 1,40,480 (62.88%), Dehradun 1,80,000 (86.95%), Gorakhpur 1,33,000, Hardwar 95,000; Amritsar 55,410; Calcutta (8 days at most of the cinemas) 28,91,918 from 17 cinemas; Nagpur 5,83,620 from 5 cinemas, Amravati 1,49,654, Akola 1,56,830, Raipur (6 days) 1,78,877, Bhilai 1,37,127, Jalgaon 1,47,650, Chandrapur 1,43,666; Indore 2,57,596 (5 on F.H.), Bhopal 3,52,894 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 7,26,463 from 3 cinemas, Bikaner 2,66,248; Hyderabad 28,68,327 from 15 cinemas (1 in noon), share 14,50,000.

Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi has not found favour with the audience, and its collections began dropping from 4th and 5th day onwards. It will entail heavy losses to most of its distributors. 1st week Bombay 40,77,877 (75.38%) from 14 cinemas (11 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 5,62,913 from 6 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Vapi 4,22,443 from 2 cinemas, Baroda 1,58,493, Bharuch (gross) 2,25,286, Rajkot 1,61,581 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Jamnagar 1,14,808 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 10,50,053 from 7 cinemas (2 in matinee), Kolhapur 1,22,877, Satara 1,51,866 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Belgaum 1,17,943 (82.67%); Delhi 47,39,590 (79.71%) from 13 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 3,74,937 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 3,30,686, Varanasi 1,78,815, Bareilly 1,01,223 (65.76%), Dehradun 1,26,000 (56.31%), Gorakhpur 1,40,000; Calcutta (6 days at most of the cinemas) 21,00,123 from 16 cinemas; Rourkela 2,28,333 from 2 cinemas; Nagpur 5,58,472 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur 1,75,067, Amravati 1,45,443, Akola 1,02,286, Raipur 1,40,002 (57.41%), Bhilai 1,17,038, Jalgaon 1,02,027; Indore 1,15,005 (4 on F.H.), Bhopal 3,57,078 from 3 cinemas; Jaipur 7,92,646 from 4 cinemas; Hyderabad 20,88,693 from 12 cinemas (2 in noon).

……..

SURINDER KAPOOR HEADS GUILD AGAIN

Surinder Kapoor was unanimously re-elected president of The Film Producers Guild of India Ltd. for 1997-98 at its meeting held on 11th October. This is the third successive term of Kapoor as president. Yash Chopra and Gulshan Rai were re-elected vice presidents, and Kiran Shantaram and Kamal Kumar Barjatya, hon. treasurers.

Earlier on the same day, at the 43rd annual general meeting of the Guild, the following 14 other members, besides the five above, were unanimously re-elected to the executive committee: B.R. Chopra, F.C. Mehra, T.C. Dewan, Harmesh Malhotra, Prakash Mehra, Pramod Chakravorty, J. Om Prakash, Ramanand Sagar, Ram Dayal, A.G. Nadiadwala, Randhir Kapoor, Rajkumar Kohli, Tilak Raj Magan and Amit Khanna.

B.K. Rau has been designated secretary of the Guild.

HINDI ‘KAMA SUTRA’ OFFERED NEW CUTS: RELEASE POSTPONED

Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra, which was scheduled for release this week, has been postponed. The Hindi, Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions have not been censored as yet.

The three dubbed versions have been offered ‘A’ certificate with seven to eight more cuts in scenes which were okayed in the original version. The all-India rights holder, R. Mohan, had expected the same cuts for the dubbed versions as in the English version, and no more. But that was not to be. R. Mohan is likely to appeal against the cuts to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal.

Consequently, the release of the English as well as the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions has been postponed.

OVERWORK? OVER-CONFIDENCE? REPETITIVENESS? WHAT’S IT, DAVID?

David Dhawan may have created a record by having two of his films — Deewana Mastana and Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi — released in the same week. But none of the two abovenamed films has been a record-breaker as several earlier films of David.

Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi will prove to be a loser in most of the circuits. Although Deewana Mastana is doing well, it isn’t a hit like David’s earlier films viz. Aankhen, Shola Aur Shabnam, Bol Radha Bol, Raja Babu, Coolie No. 1, Saajan Chale Sasural or Hero No. 1.

What is the reason? Is David’s style getting repetitive? Is directing too many films together taking its toll on David’s work? Are his writers not coming up with new ideas?

Although David Dhawan should be able to answer the above questions accurately, it appears that all of the above have in some way or the other contributed to the current state of affairs.

Had it been any other director, this would not have been an issue. But David is directing several films presently and is scheduled to start several more. At least 50 crores of the industry are at stake at the hands of David.

That’s the reason David Dhawan should pull up his socks. May be, he should try teaming up with new writers. David’s over-confidence is showing somewhere.

SUBHASH GHAI CLOSES BITE THE MANGO FETE

Subhash Ghai made a speech at the final night of Bite The Mango Film Festival on 11th October in Bradford, U.K. He spoke of his career as director and star-maker as also his plans for the future. The hit Choli ke peechhe song from his Khal-nayak and his Pardes were also screened on the occasion. Pardes was greatly appreciated.

Shabana Azmi won the audience’s hearts with her screen talk about her art-house career and the role of women in Indian Cinema. Local businesses raised funds in support of her favourite charity, Nivara Hakk, for Bombay’s homeless.

Among the films from India screened at the festival were Plus Films’ Gudia and Sardari Begum, and Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Kathapurushan. Mrityudand and Pardes were also shown. Films from several other countries including the UK, USA and Pakistan were also screened.

The festival inaugurated its first film trade market.

MERAJ NO MORE

Film director Meraj died following a paralytic attack at his residence in Allahabad on 12th October. He was 46 and is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

Meraj used to assist Gulzar before he became an independent director, and directed films like Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein, Sitara and Dhat Tere Ki.

His funeral was held in Allahabad on 13th.

MADAN SETH DEAD

Madan Seth, proprietor of Geet and Gunjan cinemas, Vapi, expired on the morning of 17th October in Bombay following cardiac arrest. He was 65 and is survived by his wife, two sons, two daughters-in-law, a daughter and a son-in-law. The funeral was held the same evening.

A condolence meeting will be held on Monday, October 20, at Arya Vidya Mandir School, St. Cyril Road, opp. St. Andrews High School, Bandra, Bombay, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Geet and Gunjan cinemas remained closed on 17th. Jayshree, Shree and Vaishali cinemas of Vapi suspended a show each, as a mark of respect.

GYAN SAHAY BEREAVED

Siya Rani Sahay, mother of cameraman and director Gyan Sahay, expired on 15th October in a hospital in Bombay after a brief illness. She was cremated at the Vile Parle crematorium on 17th with Hindu Vedic rites. She was 76.

East Punjab Exhibitors’ Losses Put Distributors In Doldrums

Distributors of Punjab have been left high and dry by exhibitors of Amritsar, Abohar, Sonepat and Rohtak, who have formed pools. The exhibitors’ pools have decided not to give MGs or fixed hires to distributors, thanks to the heavy losses they’ve suffered in recent times. This had to happen and it was only a matter of time. Losses of exhibitors have now put the distributors in doldrums because the latter used to depend heavily on monies from the exhibitors of the above centres at the time of taking deliveries of films.

Amritsar, especially, is the main coverage centre and used to contribute upto 25% of a film’s price. With the exhibitors’ pools deciding to screen films on theatre hire only, distributors are now panicking. It is for this reason that this week’s Loha has not opened in Amritsar.

Distributors of at least two films due for release on 31st October (Diwali) are in a problematic state due to the exhibitors above pulling out from giving them MGs and FHs.

Difficult days are ahead for distributors of East Punjab. And the difficult times of distributors are bound to be reflected in their dealings with producers. So producers, too, have cause for concern.

Queen Elizabeth Witnesses Kamal Haasan’s Muhurt

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth witnessed the muhurt of Kamal Haasan’s Tamil film, Marudanaayagam, on 16th October at Film City, Madras. For the muhurt shot, Kamal Haasan, who plays the lead in the film, besides producing and directing it, delivered the patriotic dialogue, “Who says, I cannot take on the British? I am the soil, the air and the sun of this land.” Though the dialogue was in Tamil, its English translation had been given to the Queen. The Queen was introduced to the leading members of the unit after the muhurt.

A red-carpet welcome was accorded to the Queen and her entourage at the Film City by Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi, TMC president G.K. Moopanar and Union I & B minister Jaipal Reddy. Before the shooting, the queen watched a 5-minute test shoot footage of the same film. She exchanged pleasantries with some of the film guests like Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth, Sridevi, Prabhu Deva, Amrish Puri and Asha Bhosle.

YOU ASKED IT

Why do you blame artistes for charging high prices? After all, they are demanding high prices because they get them.

– Yash Chopra could also have got 3 crore per major territory for his film DIL TO PAGAL HAI, but he didn’t price his film at 3. He was satisfied getting 2 per major circuit. Stars have to start believing in the live-and-let-live policy. After all, they can’t be letting the industry (comprising, among others, producers and directors) suffer while not themselves opening their eyes to reality. Stars are, in one word, exploiting the producers who have no alternative.

Ideally, in how much time should a film be completed?

– In eight to twelve months.

What should the Diwali resolution of producers be?

– To concentrate more on scripts rather than on stars and to cut down on all wasteful expenditure.

CENSOR NEWS

Yash Raj Films P. Ltd.’s Dil To Pagal Hai was given C.C. No. CIL/1/49/97 (U) dt. 17-10-’97; length 4925.57 metres in 17 reels (no cut).

Yashish Enterprises’ Bhai was given C.C. No. CIL/3/37/97 (A) dt. 15-10-’97; length 4540.62 metres in 17 reels (cuts: 34.47 metres).

Mirabai Films P. Ltd.’s Kama Sutra: A Tale Of Love (dubbed) has been offered A certificate, with 8 cuts; cuts were not accepted by the producers.

TRAILERS

Trailer of S.G.S. Cine Arts International’s Ghulam-E-Musthafa was given C.C. No. CIS/2/17/97 (UA) dt. 15-10-’97; length 102.41 metres.

Trailer of Yashish Enterprises’ Bhai was given C.C. No. CIS/3/35/97 (A) dt. 15-10-’97; length 96.41 metres.

Trailer of Tridev Arts’ Udaan was given C.C. No. CIS/3/34/97 (A) dt. 14-10-’97; length 144.17 metres (cuts: 20.42 metres).

Trailer of Columbia Tristar Films of India Ltd.’s Vishwarakshak: Duniya Ke Rakhwale (dubbed) was given C.C. No. CIS/2/53/97 (UA) dt. 15-10-’97; length 71.70 metres.

IN & OUT OF BOMBAY

Bombay distributor-exhibitor Anil Thadani left for London on 14th October to finalise the release of DIL TO PAGAL HAI in U.K.

Producer-director Subhash Ghai is expected back from his foreign trip on 20th/21st October.

Dr. Sunil Kumar of Vijay-Laxmi Pictures, Calcutta-Patna, left Bombay for Patna on 17th October.

MIX MASALA

SINGLE AND DOUBLE

Since it gets confusing when one talks of Bhai and Bhai Bhai together, the industry people have evolved a novel way to do away with the confusion. Deepak Shivdasani’s Bhai is called ‘single Bhai‘ and Pahlaj Nihalani’s Bhai Bhai is called ‘double Bhai‘!

TENSION OVER DATES

There is a lot of tension between the leading lady and the presenter of an under-production film over the matter of dates. The presenter, it is reported, is exasperated by the constant jugglery of dates by his heroine and is believed to be seriously thinking of replacing her.

DAVID BREAKS OWN RECORD

If you think last Friday was the first time when two films of a director were released simultaneously, you are wrong. Earlier too, two films of one director have been released on the same day. The coincidence is that on both the occasions, the director was the same — David Dhawan.

On last Friday were released David’s Deewana Mastana and Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi. Eight years ago also, on 29th December, 1989 to be precise, two films directed by David Dhawan were released. They were Aag Ka Gola (produced by Pahlaj Nihalani) and Jurrat (produced by Rajendra Kumar).

So, David Dhawan last week broke his own record of eight years back.

WHEN OLD IS NOT GOLD

Believe it or not but Dharma Karma didn’t take an opening in Delhi-U.P. because the audience there thought, it was some old film of Dharmendra-Jeetendra which had been revived with a new title. The absence of a popular young hero may have given the pubic such an impression. But then, you might well ask, why did Dharma Karma not take an opening in the other cities too? Come on, avoid such embarrassing questions — embarrassing for Dharma and Karma or, rather, Dharmendra and Jeetendra.

DO YOU KNOW?

* West Bengal distributor of DIL TO PAGAL HAI, Pritam Jalan, has decided to open plans (advance booking) of the film at three cinemas of Calcutta — Metro, Priya and Mitra — on 27th October, for two weeks together.

* The Tamilnadu distributor of DIL TO PAGAL HAI will be giving free tickets of the film for any of the first three days at Melody, Madras, to people who buy Lacoste or Nike products from Pondy Bazaar boutique at T. Nagar in Madras.

* Since JODIDAR is an animal film, a special students show was kept one day in Itarsi at Sundaram cinema (earlier name Janta Chitralaya). The rates of admission were nominal.

* DIL TO PAGAL HAI has been booked at Raj, Itarsi, for simultaneous release on 31st October at a fantastic MG of Rs. 5 lakh! This is three times the MG of DDLJ.

* Although by tradition, a film runs at one main cinema, YES BOSS has been screened at various main cinemas in Ahmedabad. It first opened at Relief, was then shifted to Rupam, then Prakash, Shree, Shiv and Ashok.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

BLAME DISTRIBUTORS ALSO

Dear Sir,

Your ‘Hats Off!’ editorial last week was good. But why blame artistes only? This is half truth. You say that “Distributors are crying tears of blood”. Don’t you think, they are equally responsible for this state of affairs? The first blow came from them by way of ‘ceiling’. They wanted to restrict the number of films of artistes. They wanted to control producers and artistes. Artistes, when they realised that they have to do less films, naturally became ruthless, even with their best producer-friends. They felt star-ceiling was another form of slavery. And thus entered a few No. 2 big shots who offered huge prices and bulky singing amounts to artistes, resulting in the total eradication of regular producers. These big shots had money, but did not know how and where to spend the money. Artistes were allured by these big shots. Result: a person, without any concrete knowledge of film production, cannot make successful films just because he has ample wealth. To make a successful film, a combination is required. A combination means a sensible producer who selects correct technicians and stars at reasonable prices. This combination was broken the moment ceiling was imposed. In the last two years, only proposal makers are in the forefront. And distributors also started running after them. They invested money in the wrong hands. Who shall they blame now? Not artistes.

– Jawaharlal Bafna

LEGAL ACTION AGAINST FILM INFORMATION?

While the production and distribution sectors of the industry hailed our editorial on stars and star prices last week as “bold” and “beautiful”, there is at least one star who is contemplating taking legal action against Film Information for writing about him in the said editorial.

The star under question was in a foreign country when the issue of last week was out, and he was reportedly trying to seek legal opinion on what action could be taken against Information for commenting on his market position vis-à-vis his price.

Notwithstanding his proposed action against Information, we would once again ask him to reduce his price to a more reasonable level (and to also report on the sets on time), for the sake of the welfare of the industry. After doing that, he can go ahead and start legal proceedings. Good luck to the guy!

– Editor

Better Never Than Late!

Last week, I wrote about star prices. Another very disturbing practice in the industry is that of latecoming by stars. Many of the stars believe, it is their birthright to arrive late on the sets.

What the hell is going on? Why are our producers behaving like an impotent lot, ready to bear any shit that is flung at their faces. And by whom? By those whom the producers pay — and pay not in hundreds, thousands or lakhs of rupees, but in crores. In no other industry in the world is there such a criminal wastage of time as in the film industry in India. Time is money — this age-old adage has no meaning for our stars, or rather, it has a different meaning. For the artistes, their own time is money but the time of others is worthless.

Like stars, we have star music directors too. They come two and three hours late for their recordings, as a rule. Their musicians are no better.

What nonsense! Producers and directors shouldn’t be taking things lying down. Today, if you ask a David Dhawan how he adjusts to Govinda’s latecoming, he puts on a brave face and laughs, “Govinda is such a talented actor, he can finish in two hours what other actors would take six or eight hours to complete.” But Mr. David Dhawan, does Govinda’s talent give him a licence to treat all the others in the unit as dirt and hold up the entire shooting day after day. Or if a Sunny Deol or a Manisha Koirala cancels an entire shooting schedule because of his/her mood or other engagement, why should any producer treat this as “part of the game”? And if an Anupam Kher reports at 2 p.m. for a 9 a.m. shift, why does a producer yet smile his best Binaca smile and go running to open the door of his car and welcome him with open arms? He must have the guts to tell Kher that he is late by five hours and that this nonsense will not do.

Producers have to learn to put their foot down. They’ve borne too much for too long. It’s a shame when today a Raveena Tandon bunks the shooting of a veteran like Manoj Kumar. The producer is paying the star for acting in his film. The dates allotted to him are his, and he should not tolerate any hanky-panky by the star as far as the dates are concerned. If Hollywood can do it, why not Bollywood?

Why, in Bollywood itself, we have Amitabh Bachchan who is punctual always. We also have Amrish Puri who is ready with his make-up on, on the set at the scheduled time. Nana Patekar arrives on the sets on time and leaves on time. In fact, so punctual is Nana that at a recent shooting, when his co-star, Manisha Koirala, reported late, he literally begged of her, in full view of the film’s unit, to report for shooting on time. Needless to add, it embarrassed Manisha but not enough for her to mend her ways.

The intensity of the problem of latecoming can best be explained by this example. Suppose a hero reports late on the sets by one minute. If, on an average, there are 50 people directly and indirectly connected in that shooting, it would mean a waste of 50 man-minutes. That’s the loss of time in one shooting in one day if just the hero is late by simply one minute. Multiply this figure by 360 working days in a year, and we have 18,000 man-minutes. Multiply this by 100 shootings per year and we have 18,00,000 man-minutes lost! In other words, if the hero of every film reports one minute late on the sets, the industry will lose 18,00,000 man-minutes in one year. If we divide this by 50 men (we’ve assumed, there are 50 men in a shooting, connected directly and indirectly), we have 36,000 minutes or, in other words, 600 hours of wastage. Translated in shifts (of 8 working hours), this would mean 75 shifts. David Dhawan can complete a film in a lesser number of shifts than this. And, mind you, we’ve assumed (a) that only the hero is reporting late, and (b) that he is late by just one minute. Imagine then, the criminal waste of time in reality when not just the hero but every Tom, Dick and Harry is reporting late by hours.

Until the producer asserts his position, he cannot hope to get a better deal. And if he can’t help himself, he should stop crying and hurling abuses (all off-record and behind closed doors) at his stars. Because even God does not help those who cannot help themselves. Yes, Mr. Producer, show the stars that you are the boss and not the one who can be bossed around and tossed about. Change the saying ‘Better late than never’ to ‘Better never than late’. Yes, it’s more sensible to never work with latecomers than to tolerate their latecoming.

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Not Postponed

There were rumours throughout the week that Deepak Shivdasani had postponed the release of his Bhai and would now get it after Diwali. The reason being given for the postponement was that since Pahlaj Nihalani’s Bhai Bhai was being released on Diwali, there would be confusion among the audience if Bhai too came simultaneously. But the rumours turned out to be false as Bhai is definitely hitting the screens on 31st October, notwithstanding the fact that Bhai Bhai is also scheduled for release on the same day.

Dull Dassera, Dark Diwali

The scenario in the film industry refuses to change. The panic-stricken industry continues to reel under a financial crunch even more than two months after the killing of music magnate Gulshan Kumar, which triggered off the fear. Financiers have withdrawn from the industry and are preferring to lie low for the time being. Shootings have declined by more than 60%. The grim scene has become grimmer with several big films flopping. The gloom that has spread in the industry can best be gauged by the fact that there was no film launching even on an auspicious day like Dassera this year. Diwali, therefore, cannot be expected to be a very bright affair for the industry this year.

Worst-Ever Crisis

The extent to which film shootings have declined can be gauged by the following:

A busy heroine like Karisma Kapoor could manage to go to the USA and Canada for the shooting of her dad, Randhir Kapoor’s Aa Ab Laut Chalen although she is not acting in the film. The shooting, for which she had allotted dates, was cancelled and Karisma made the most of the cancellation by flying off to where her father’s unit was.

Mahesh Gupta, a leading supplier of set materials, has not got an order for a single paint box since the last twelve days! Being one of the popular set material suppliers, Gupta, in normal circumstances, sells several paint boxes every day because sets are always being erected, and paint is required throughout the year. But the current lull in shooting activity is of the kind never seen before.

Hindi Films In English

“You dog, I won’t leave you alive.” Imagine Dharmendra mouthing this dialogue.

“I want to be your wife, cook food for you and be the mother of your children.” Picture Sridevi saying these words.

“Our trucks with arms and ammunition have been stopped by the police; call up the minister immediately. Tell him, I want to talk to him.” Amrish Puri utters these words.

The above will soon be a reality. Overseas distributors Galaxy Exports have decided to dub about a hundred old Hindi films in English for the various cable TV networks across the world. If Hollywood producers can dub English films in Hindi for theatrical release in India, Bollywood too can dub Hindi films in English for television release, to begin with.

The first Hindi film being dubbed by Galaxy is Yateem. Before this, Rajshri had dubbed Maine Pyar Kiya and HAHK..! in English.

Karnataka Apes Maharashtra

As in Maharashtra, so also in Karnataka. When the Maharashtra government had reduced entertainment tax in the state in 1994, several cinemas refused to pass on the benefit to cinema-goers by reducing admission rates. Some cinemas even increased the rates. The same is now happening in Karnataka. Some cinemas of that state, too, are refusing to let the public enjoy the benefit of the state government’s reduction of entertainment tax for non-Kannada films from 110% to 70%. Instead of reducing admission rates, they’ve enhanced rates in balcony from Rs. 15 to Rs. 20.

JUDAAI

S.K. Films Enterprises’ Judaai, remake of the Telugu super-hit Shubhlagnam, has an unusual story of a greedy lady who, despite being happily married, sells her husband to another girl for the lure of luxury. The other girl is filthy rich and madly in love with the greedy lady’s husband and initiates the deal (of buying the husband) when she learns of the lady’s greed. At first, the first wife revels in her new riches, but slowly, as the second wife starts taking her place in the day-to-day life of her ex-husband, she realises the blunder she has committed. All hell breaks loose in the lives of the three people when both the wives want the husband exclusively. The first wife repents; the second wife refuses to relent. Finally, the tension is resolved in a tear-jerking and moving climax.

The film’s first half is light and full of fun. The drawback is that except for the wife’s comedy track, all the other comedy tracks (yes, there are several comedy angles) are completely unrelated with the main story. Further, there is an overdose of comedy and hardly any seriousness. The film takes a serious turn a little before interval. The initial part of the second half is once again very comic but slowly, the drama becomes tense and, to an extent, even emotional. Overall, it is the second half of the film which is its mainstay due to the scenes of the two wives and the helpless husband together. The best part of the film is its Indian ending which justifies the unusual story too. Some scenes like the one in which the second wife applies teeka to her husband, the sarcastic comments directed towards the first wife by her mother, her friend, her children, her husband and even an outsider are a highlight.

Performances of the entire cast are first-rate. Anil Kapoor does an excellent job in a role that is very difficult. He plays with feeling the silently suffering husband, ruled by the emotions of his two wives, both of whom forget that he too is a human being. Sridevi is mind-blowing as the money-hungry wife and mother of two kids. She shines in light scenes and excels in emotional ones. So brilliant is her performance that it is impossible to imagine another actress who could have done such justice to the role. Urmila Matondkar proves that she too is a performer par excellence. As the moneyed girl, she looks gorgeous, her entry being very mass-appealing. Her changeover to an understanding wife in the post-interval portion is so remarkable and her performance, so sincere that one can’t help falling in love with Urmila’s character. This girl is bound to go places. Paresh Rawal’s comedy is simply hilarious; his poker-faced dialogue delivery is terrific. Johny Lever plays to the gallery and entertains a lot. Kader Khan is superb. Upasna Singh is very good and her ‘Abba dabba jabba’ dialogue should be liked by front-benchers. Farida Jalal shines in a brief role. Saeed Jaffrey, Junior Mehmood, master Omkar Kapoor, baby Alisha Baig, Dharmesh Tiwari, Shehzaad and Dinesh Hingoo lend admirable support. Poonam Dhillon, in a guest appearance, comes as a pleasant surprise and performs ably.

Raj Kanwar’s direction is superb. Not only has he extracted excellent work from his team of artistes, he has also handled the subject with maturity. Nadeem Shravan’s music is good but a couple of super-hit songs were very necessary. ‘Allah miya’ is the best number, followed by ‘Judaai judaai’ and ‘Pyar pyar karte karte’. Song picturisations are heavenly. Foreign locations are beautiful and they’ve been ably captured by cameraman Harmeet Singh. Dialogues (Jainendra Jain) are wonderful. Production values are rich.

On the whole, Judaai may meet with initial resistance due to its offbeat story but can be expected to pick up by word of mouth and ladies’ patronage to keep its investors of most circuits happy.

Released on 28-2-’97 at New Excelsior and 15 other cinemas of Bombay thru V.I.P. Enterprises. Publicity: excellent. Opening: below average. …….Also released all over except in Mysore. Opening was poor in C.P.C.I. and Punjab, and excellent in Bihar and Rajasthan.

AUZAAR

Tips Films Pvt. Ltd.’s Auzaar (UA) is the story of two friends, one a CBI officer and the other, son of an underworld don. The don’s son has murdered another don and the latter’s son now wants to wipe out his father’s murderer and his entire family. The CBI officer comes to the rescue of his friend and, together, the two of them succeed in killing the villain. There is nothing new by way of story. Even the screenplay, especially in the slow first half, is routine. But what makes the film somewhat interesting is the brilliant action, particularly in the lengthy and exciting climax, the racy music and eye-catching song picturisations, and the big canvas of the film. The pre-interval portion is not only routine, it also sometimes moves at a terribly slow pace unnecessarily.

Salman Khan does a splendid job as the college boy who later becomes a CBI officer. Sanjay Kapoor shows improvement and does quite well. Shilpa Shetty is alright and she dances very gracefully. Paresh Rawal is fair. Nirmal Pandey, as the eccentric son of the murdered don, is the film’s surprise packet and he leaves a mark in every scene he comes. Johny Lever provides the much-needed light moments but such moments are few and far between. Asif Sheikh is effective. Kiran Kumar is okay. Jeetu Verma impresses with his Rajasthani dialogues. Vishwajeet Pradhan, Tiku Talsania, Ila Arun and the rest lend adequate support.

Sohail Khan’s approach to the scripting seems to be a bit too casual. For a debut effort, his direction is fair, but more concentration on the writing is necessary if he is to really make a mark. Dialogues are good only at places. Anu Malik’s music is very catchy. ‘Masti ka aalam aaya hai’, ‘I love you’, ‘Chalte chalte mila ladka deewana’ and ‘Dhoondhte reh jaaoge’ (good lyrics) are extremely well-tuned numbers. Picturisation of ‘Masti ka aalam’ is the most mass-appealing. ‘I love you’ has tremendous visual appeal. Camerawork (Kaka Thakur) is very nice. Production values are rich. Action (Mahendra Verma) is excellent. Background music should have been better.

On the whole, despite being a routine film, Auzaar has good initial value, action and music to sail safe in majority of the circuits.

Released on 28-2-’97 at Maratha Mandir and 18 other cinemas of Bombay by Tips Films P. Ltd. thru R.G. International. Publicity: excellent. Opening: good. …….Also released all over. Opening was excellent in Delhi-U.P. and Rajasthan, and very good in other circuits except C.I. where it was below the mark.

LATEST POSITION

Hero No. 1 started declining from 5th/6th day onwards everywhere. Should prove to be, at best, a commission-earner/overflow film. 1st week Bombay 51,76,378 (95.21%) from 16 cinemas (11 on F.H.); Baroda 2,81,300 from 2 cinemas, Bharuch (gross) 2,33,868, Rajkot 1,63,376 (1 in mat. unrecd.), Jamnagar 1,19,341 from 2 cinemas (1 in mat.); Kolhapur 1,86,400, Solapur 1,75,207 from 2 cinemas (1 in mat.); Delhi 48,20,530 (90.65%) from 13 cinemas (1 unrecd. and 3 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,15,514 (2 unrecd.), Lucknow 2,45,951 (100%), Agra 2,21,000, Varanasi 1,82,209 (88.55%), Allahabad 1,46,100, Aligarh 1,84,288, Gorakhpur 1,53,000 (72.40%); Amritsar 52,350; Calcutta 20,96,561 (82%) from 17 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Nagpur 6,00,240 from 4 cinemas, Akola 1,19,754, Raipur 2,16,881, Risali 78,982, theatre record, Bhilai 2,24,217 from 2 cinemas, Wardha 77,587, Chandrapur 1,08,912, share 83,912; Indore 4,70,626 from 2 cinemas (1 on F.H.), Bhopal 3,96,842 from 2 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Bikaner 1,71,123; Hyderabad 37,73,978 from 20 cinemas, share 18,95,295.

Judwaa proves overflow in some circuits and class A in other circuits. 3rd week Bombay 19,52,953 (80%) from 8 cinemas (5 on F.H.); 1st Padra 1,31,502, 3rd Rajkot 1,47,971 from 2 cinemas (1 in mat.), Jamnagar (mat.) 7,080 (1 unrecd.); Solapur 85,824 from 2 cinemas (1 in mat.); Delhi 15,67,094 from 8 cinemas; Kanpur 2,57,542 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,96,136, Agra 1,35,217, 2nd Allahabad 1,00,000, 3rd Varanasi 96,225, Bareilly 53,153 (29.15%), Aligarh 64,299, Gorakhpur 57,000; Calcutta 6,82,941 from 8 cinemaas; Nagpur 2,49,163 from 3 cinemas, Amravati 66,700, Akola 48,516, total 2,32,784, Raipur (6 days) 81,237, Bhilai 50,960, Jalgaon 52,997, Bilaspur (6 days) 55,974; Bhopal 1,14,045; 2nd week Hyderabad 7,60,040 from 5 cinemas.

Yeshwant is also an overflow film. Class A in Maharashtra. 3rd week Bombay 16,78,317 from 11 cinemas (5 on F.H.); Baroda 1,35,672, Jamnagar 90,862, total 3,46,206; Solapur 1,42,571 from 2 cinemas (1 in mat.), 1st week Miraj 70,400 (96%); 3rd Delhi 8,49,451 from 3 cinemas; Kanpur 1,41,800 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,32,827, 2nd Agra 1,38,000 (1st 1,86,000), 3rd week Allahabad 84,600, Varanasi 1,13,880, Bareilly 52,183 (29.15%), Aligarh 78,655, Gorakhpur 99,000, theatre record; Calcutta 10,00,199 from 14 cinemas; Nagpur 1,67,344 from 3 cinemas, Amravati 1,41,218, total 4,82,761, share 3,54,413, Akola 97,327, total 4,32,497, Raipur 1,24,809, theatre record, Bhilai 51,110, Durg 59,981, Jalgaon 1,00,016, theatre record; Indore 1,30,898, Bhopal 1,04,050, Ujjain 72,983; 1st Bikaner 60,856; 3rd Hyderabad 5,92,263 from 3 cinemas; 1st Vijayawada 2,97,718.

Raja Hindustani 11th week Bombay 21,23,741 (73.73%) from 8 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Solapur 1,21,906, 10th Barsi 14,562; 15th Delhi 9,27,923 from 5 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Lucknow 1,58,021, Agra 1,10,820, 16th Allahabad 63,000, Varanasi 77,686, Meerut 1,18,326, theatre record; 15th Bareilly 56,898 (30.57%), Aligarh 1,06,200, 16th Gorakhpur 56,000, city record; 15th week Calcutta 1,33,631; 12th Nagpur 1,77,978 from 2 cinemas, 13th week Jabalpur 1,48,593, total 24,29,238, 11th Akola 58,320, total 12,48,576, 15th Raipur 55,041, 16th Bhilai (6 days) 29,970, 11th week Wardha 31,548; 15th Indore 1,97,006, 14th Bhopal 1,19,297; 15th Jodhpur 91,000; Hyderabad 3,47,995 from 2 cinemas.

KAVIRAJ INDEEVAR BIDS GOODBYE

Veteran lyricist Indeevar passed away on 28th February in Bombay at Lilavati Hospital due to a cardiac arrest. He was 73 and is survived by his wife and a son. He had been admitted to hospital on 17th on account of a heart ailment.

Kaviraj Indeevar, as he was respectfully called, had written over 2,500 songs for almost 450 films. Among his evergreen and popular hits are such songs as Chandan sa badan (Saraswatichandra), Kasme vaade pyar wafaa sab (Upkar), O laal duppatte wali (Aankhen), Suraj kab door gagan se and Jaati hoon main (both from Karan Arjun). Almost 50 films for which he has penned lyrics are currently in various stages of production.

Shyamlal, which was the real name of Indeevar, came to Bombay in 1941 from a village in Uttar Pradesh. He got his break in 1946 in Shyambabu Pathak’s Doubleface. He had completed half a century in the film world just last year. During his 51 years as lyricist, he worked with almost all the music directors. Perhaps, the only notable music director for whom Indeevar never wrote lyrics was Naushad. Even for Naushad, he did write a song in Kishore Sharma’s Chanakya Aur Chandragupta, directed by B.R. Chopra. That song was rendered by Lata Mangeshkar, but the film got shelved mid-way. He also composed the music for the 1996 Miss World contest in Bangalore.

If Indeevar’s lyrics could move a listener to tears or bring a grin on one’s face, they could also irritate the Britishers so much that the lyricist was put behind bars for a year. His ‘crime’: he had written anti-British songs.

A typicality of Indeevar’s songs was that they were almost always written in chaste Hindi and were simple, yet meaningful. Like his lyrics, Indeevar too was simple in his thoughts and living. He had a smiling face and a down-to-earth nature.

Among the hundreds of films Indeevar penned lyrics for are Nirmoy, Madari, Bhool Na Jana, Badbaan, Himalay Ki Godmein, Safar, Purab Aur Pachhim, Mohra, Qurbani, Karan Arjun, Khudgarz, Koyla (unreleased).

It is difficult to imagine what the film music scene will be like without Indeevar. His sudden death has left the industry shocked. The genius lyricist, who had a song for every occasion and mood, didn’t even give a hint that he was going. Even if he had said, “Jaata hoon main….”, the industry could have pleaded to the Gods up there with a line from Indeevar’s own song. “Jaldi hai kya?”

‘JUDAAI’ RELEASE IN KARNATAKA POSTPONED

Boney Kapoor’s Judaai has not been released in the state of Karnataka this week. While Mysore circuit comprises many parts of Karnataka, Bombay circuit also consists of a part of the state. A couple of stations of Karnataka also fall in Nizam circuit. While Judaai has been released in other parts of Bombay and Nizam circuits, it has not been released in Mysore circuit at all.

The Kannada version of the Telugu super-hit, Shubhlagnam, of which Judaai is a remake, is due for release next week in Karnataka. It stars the son of matinee idol of Kannada films, Rajkumar, as hero. Because of the immense power Rajkumar wields there, he saw to it that the release of Judaai was stalled till after his son’s film hit the screens. At first, Mysore distributor Pal Chandani is reported to have refused to postpone the release of his Judaai, but he relented later.

Another reason for the stalling of the release of Judaai seems to be the controversy which Anil Kapoor landed himself in recently with Kannada film actress Malashri who is the heroine opposite Rajkumar’s son in the Kannada film due for release next week. It is learnt that Malashri had wanted Anil Kapoor to make a special appearance in Lady Commissioner, being produced by Ramu (who is now her husband) and starring herself. Anil had initially agreed to act in the film but later decided against it. This seems to have agitated Malashri who, it is likely, may have pulled the strings on the eve of release of Anil’s Judaai. Before that, she had also filed a case against Anil Kapoor in her Association.

DHANNALAL THAKURIA NO MORE

Dhannalal Thakuria, owner of Regal cinema, Indore, expired on 21st February in Indore. He was 95. Thakuria was also a distributor and, in fact, the oldest living distributor.

DILIP KUMAR TO ATTEND HIS RETROSPECTIVE IN JODHPUR

Dilip Kumar will attend the opening of a retrospective of his films in Jodhpur on 7th March at Girdhar Mandir cinema. The retrospective is being organised by the Film Society of Jodhpur with a week-long festival of Dilip Kumar starrers.

Dilip Kumar will be publicly honoured at a function on 7th. According to the secretary of the Film Society, Mohan Swaroop Maheshwari, two shows each of 14 Dilip Kumar starrers will be held in the week-long festival. Among the films to be screened are Amar, Andaz, Aan, Devdas, Babul, Mughal-E-Azam, Ram Aur Shyam, Udan Khatola, Madhumati and Mashaal.

U.A. THADANI HOSPITALISED

Veteran Bombay exhibitor and distributor U.A. Thadani took ill on 26th February while he was attending to his work in office and was rushed to the ICU of Hinduja Hospital. He is recuperating at the hospital and his condition is reported to be steady now.

MALASHRI WEDS RAMU

Kannada film heroine Malashri announced at a press conference in Bangalore this week her marriage with producer Ramu. The wedding took place at her Bangalore residence.

Malashri became close to Ramu during the making of his Muttinantha Hendthi some years ago. She is currently working in two forthcoming films of Ramu, CBI Durga and Lady Commissioner.

‘AUZAAR’ PROMOTION IN BOMBAY

Tips Films has worked out an innovative advertising and promotion plan for Auzaar in Bombay. The message of the film’s release is being reached out to people in a rally of uniformed motor-cyclists who are doing the rounds of the city. The rally was flagged off by Salman Khan.

A contest for viewers is also currently on in cinemas screening the film, where over 10,000 prizes can be won.

URMILA BHATT MURDERED

Urmila Bhatt was murdered at her residence in Bombay on the night of 22nd February. Although the identity of the murderer is not known, the motive behind the killing seems to be a dispute over money. According to the police, there was a transaction of about Rs. 8 crore between Urmila Bhatt and somebody for whom the police are on the lookout. Urmila Bhatt’s husband was not in Bombay when the murder took place.

The police suspect that the TV serial, Zee Horror Show, may have inspired Urmila’s murderer because she was murdered in the same way as she was killed in the said serial which was telecast just four days prior to the murder.

Urmila Bhatt had received a telephone call at around 7 p.m. the same day, and the caller threatened to kill her. The actress told this to an undisclosed friend who also was reportedly threatened over the phone on Sunday night. Urmila Bhatt was cremated on Sunday evening.

The murder came to light when a relative visited the veteran actress. When nobody answered the door-bell, he got scared and, alongwith Urmila’s daughter and son-in-law, opened the door, only to find her dead body. Her throat had been slit with the help of a sharp instrument. The rear door of the house was partly open.

Urmila Bhatt had acted in a number of Hindi, Gujarati and Rajasthani films. Among her Hindi films are Phir Bhi, Tapasya, Toofan, Preetam, Pratiggya, Koshish, Dhund, Jheel Ke Us Paar, Pyasi Nadi, Sankoch, Chattan Singh, Call Girl, Chhatis Ghante, Vardan, Dharam Karam, Geet Gata Chal, Jaan Haazir Hai, Pratikaar, Touheen, Dosti Ki Saugandh, Izzat Ki Roti, Zakhmi Rooh etc.

PRODUCTIONS NEWS

‘Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya’

A week-long shooting stint of G.S. Entertainments’ Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya began on Feb. 26 at Madh Island and on Bombay locales. A song on Salman Khan, Kajol and a huge crowd is being picturised under the supervision of choreographer Ganesh Hegde. The film co-stars Arbaaz Khan, one more heroine, Asif Sheikh, Kunika, Tiku Talsania, Rajoo Kariya, Kiran Kumar, Shakti Kapoor and Ashish Balram Nagpal who has been recently signed. It is being directed by Sohail Khan from his own story and screenplay, and produced by him jointly with Bunty Walia. Music: Jatin Lalit. Lyrics: Sameer. Vashu Bhagnani presents its.

‘Barood’ Unit Back From Europe

Producer and director Pramod Chakravorty and the unit of Pramod Films’ Barood returned to India this week after completing a 20-day shooting schedule in Europe. Action and other scenes as well as songs were picturised featuring Akshay Kumar, Raveena Tandon, Mohnish Bahl and fighters. The film co-stars Raakhee, Gulshan Grover, Mohan Joshi, Aroona Irani and Amrish Puri. It is being co-produced by Bharat Shah, and has music by Anand Milind and lyrics by Sameer.

YOU ASKED IT

Big banners pay low prices to their artistes and technicians but charge double the price while selling their films to distributors. Are they justified in doing so?

– Who are you and I to talk about justification when the price is governed by the laws of demand and supply? The big banners charge a big chunk for their goodwill.

When music has always been an important part of Hindi films, why is it said that ‘today’, hit music is very necessary?

– Hit music generally ensures good opening, and since the prices of films these days are phenomenal, a good opening is very essential. Hence the importance of hit music these days.

What happened to Sudhakar Bokade’s Kalinga? Its director, Dilip Kumar, had over a year ago said in a press conference that differences between him and Bokade had been cleared.

– But the film is incomplete as yet. Maybe, another press conference would have to be called to clear matters again.

DO YOU KNOW?

* For Naaz cinema, Parbhani (Nizam circuit), it is double celebration time. While RAJA HINDUSTANI completed 100 days at the cinema in regular shows on 19th February, TERE MERE SAPNE completed 50 days in morning shows.

* Producer Surendra Bohra seems to be a lucky mascot for his artistes as far as awards are concerned. When his SAAJAN KA GHAR was being made, Juhi Chawla bagged her first Filmfare award (for HUM HAIN RAHI PYAR KE). This year, Chandrachur Singh and Arbaaz Khan have bagged the Filmfare awards and both of them are acting in Bohra’s films.

MIX MASALA

RECORD CUTS!

One has heard of censors banning a film completely but Mohan Sulibhavi’s Duniya Ki Rangeen Raatein may, perhaps, be the film which has been passed with the maximum number of cuts in the history of Hindi cinema. Believe it or not, it has been cleared for adults after the deletion of 4,046.14 feet (1,233.49 metres) which is almost of a running time of 45 to 50 minutes! And these cuts have been offered by the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal. The total length which has been passed is 2,286.43 metres. The producer, it may be mentioned here, has accepted the cuts, and the censor certificate has also been issued. Incidentally, the producer (Mohan Sulibhavi) is a censor script writer who does the liaison work of producers in regard to censorship of films.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Unusual Twists Are The Real Challenge

It is not for nothing that Rajkumar Santoshi is considered a director of great standing. Some of his views are truly worth appreciating. Like, for instance, he says, while talking of film stories: “When we sit for story discussions, I never get put off by such remarks as ‘…..But how can this be possible? Who will do such a thing? Nobody can do such and such a thing.’ Rather, such reservations inspire me to take up the challenge because that is the unusual twist in the story. Yudhishtir in Mahabharat put his wife at stake while gambling, which no human being would dream of doing. But because Yudhishtir did it, Mahabharat was born. And if Mahabharat can appeal to mankind, a film story with some unusual twist, which is least expected, can surely be lapped up by cinegoers.”

And while on Santoshi, the best compliment anyone must have paid him was the one paid by financier Bharat Shah. This was when Santoshi was making Damini. He was planning a film with a top South actor, but everybody kept dissuading him, saying that the project wouldn’t be financially viable since the hero, despite being a great actor, doesn’t sell in the Hindi belt. When Rajkumar Santoshi asked Bharatbhai Shah whether he would finance the project, the latter told him, “Even if you make a film with my peon as hero, I’ll back the project!” Rajkumar Santoshi even today cherishes this compliment as the most valued one.

Sorry For The (Leg) Break

That Mamta Kulkarni fractured her leg in the recent shooting spell of Rajkumar Santoshi’s China Gate at Gangavati (near Bangalore) is common knowledge. But not many know that another actor also fractured his leg in the same shooting spell. The only difference is that while Mamta got hurt while getting off the horseback, this actor — Mukesh Tiwari — fractured his leg while doing stunts on horseback for the film. Action director Tinnu Verma must be feeling doubly sorry for the leg breaks! Mukesh Tiwari, it may be mentioned here, is a new villain who is being introduced in China Gate. He is from the National School of Drama. Incidentally, the Gangavati shooting schedule, which remained incomplete due to the leg breaks, will be continued once the two artistes recover — that is, after quite a long break!

Big Bengali Hits

If Raja Hindustani is doing roaring business in West Bengal (it is expected to do a business of 2.5 to 3 crore!), so are two Bengali films. Ravi Agarwal’s Lathi, inspired from Mohan Kumar’s Avtaar, is expected to touch the 2-crore mark. Dhanuka’s Swami Keno Asami, imported from Bangladesh, is also doing very good business. This hit stars Chunkey Panday, Rituparna and others. So even if Chunkey doesn’t have exciting Hindi films on hand, he has reason to celebrate all the same.

From Clerk To ‘King’: What A Success Story!

The life story of Nizam distributor and exhibitor B.G. Upadhyaya would read like a fairy tale. Son of a post-master, he started out as a booking clerk in Krishna cinema of Parli Vaijnath (Maharashtra). He rose to the post of a manager in the same cinema and then became its controller. He then purchased the cinema and another cinema too (Gopal Krishna) at Parli Vaijnath. His enterprising activities didn’t stop there. He also acquired the other two cinemas, Shree and Shreenath, of Parli Vaijnath, on lease. All of which makes him a monopolist at Parli Vaijnath. Not content with being only an exhibitor in Nizam, Balaprasad Gangadhar Upadhyaya then decided to dabble in distribution. And dabble he did. In a short span of some years only, he has released (distributed) as many as 40 films in Nizam circuit, including many of K.C. Bokadia and Anil Ganguly. In fact, he started his distribution office, Aruna Enterprises, with Anil Ganguly’s Dil Ki Baazi. Having become an exhibitor and distributor, Upadhyaya is now trying his hands at production. He has started out by dubbing a Tamil film (Sangotte which means ‘Red Fort’) which is now ready for release in Hindi as Kalyug Ka Arjun. A bold political film, Upadhyaya is confident that it will be exempted from entertainment tax, at least in Maharashtra. And not just because Maharashtra deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde was his classmate, but also because the film, he feels, deserves tax exemption. Upadhyaya will now be producing a Hindi film. He has acquired the remaking rights of the Malayalam hit, King.

CBFC Hits Back At Ratnam

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in Madras has taken exception to Mani Ratnam’s critical comments on its functioning and on the procedure adopted by the censors in clearing his recently released Tamil film, Iruvar. The CBFC has described a recent interview of Mani Ratnam as “misleading”. In the said interview, Mani Ratnam is said to have cast aspersions on CBFC members and officials, according to regional officer of CBFC (Madras), G. Rajasekaran. The celebrated filmmaker, who is known as much for his controversial films as for his films getting stuck up at the censors, said in the interview that censors lacked guts to take decisions on their own and tended to pass the buck to curry favour with politicians. It may be recalled here that Ratnam’s Iruvar has two main characters bearing striking resemblances to Tamilnadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi and late M.G. Ramachandran. The film was referred to the state home department before it was cleared by the CBFC, with cuts. Mani Ratnam has wondered whether the censors had the legal right to refer the film to the home department. He has alleged that the censors seemed to have a prejudice against Iruvar even before seeing it. In a three-page statement issued by the regional officer (RO), the RO has noted that the CBFC had acted in accordance with the rules. He has explained that in certification of a film, the CBFC had to ensure that the public order was not endangered. The state home department, which was responsbile for law and order, had been asked to review the film in view of the possibility of it provoking a clash between rival political groups. That was in order, according to G. Rajasekaran, who has noted that the entire procedure adopted by the CBFC was recorded in writing, and nothing prevented Ratnam from going to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal or even the court of law if he considered that the CBFC had violated the law in referring his film to a committee of the home department.

Quite A Mouthful

When it comes to coinage of certain film trade phrases and terminology, you can’t beat West Bengal distributors. For them, drop in collections means ‘droppage’. Kitna droppage aaya?, is the common question among Calcutta distributors. Of course, it’s a different thing that there is no such English word as ‘droppage’.

And when it comes to seeking advice on which film to buy, a Calcutta buyer is sure to ask: Kya yeh picture main kha loon? So, next time, if a West Bengal distributor asks you “Kya kha loon?”, don’t give him a list of delicacies. Instead, give him a list of probable hits — films, that is.

VISHWA VIDHAATA

Shazeen Films International’s Vishwa Vidhaata (A) is an unusual story presented in a pathetic manner. An honest youth gets involved with traitors but refuses to join hands with them and, instead, revolts against them. The leader of the traitors orders his killing and to escape the inevitable death, the youth goes in for a face change by plastic surgery. He gets married to his old love but does not reveal his true identity to anybody (even though he has done no wrong). The couple gets a baby boy who grows up to become a police officer and who is a replica of his father before the face change operation. Very conveniently, while the police force as well as the villains smell a rat and set out to solve the mystery (of how the young police officer resembles the honest youth of yesteryears, who was dubbed a traitor), the officer’s mother is oblivious to the similarity in looks between her son and her beloved before marriage! Misunderstandings follow — the son first suspects his mother and later, on learning of his father’s face-change operation, suspects that he was a traitor. Finally, all misunderstandings are cleared but the police officer loses both, his father and mother.

The plot is of the kind which would confuse the viewer more than entertaining him. The concept of plastic surgery is not yet too well-known in India. Further, the pace of the film is so slow that the viewer loses all interest soon after it starts. Cinematic liberties have been taken liberally. For instance, the police records are shown to have video clippings of the actual bomb explosion operation of the traitors. If the police could videograph the operation, why did they not arrest the traitors? The writer and director seem to have been bitten by the bug to be different and, therefore, come up with strange and unpalatable twists and turns in the story. Many of the misunderstandings in the drama could have been avoided simply if the honest youth had confided in his wife, about his surgery. No explicable reason for his not doing so has been provided. Confrontation scenes between father and son and between hero and villain are dull. Emotions fail to touch the heart. The traitors seem to be only interested in exploding bombs all over the place without rhyme or reason.

Jackie Shroff is fair. Ayesha Julka does quite well but does not look like Sharad Kapoor’s mother. Sharad Kapoor gives a sorry account of himself. He needs to improve a lot on his dialogue delivery, voice modulation as well as acting. Pooja Batra is not one bit impressive in the brief role she has. Being so lean and tall, she needs to take great care of her costumes, some of which are rather bad in the film. Ashish Vidyarthi is okay. Vishwajeet Pradhan, Arjun, Rakesh Bedi, Shehzad Khan, Mushtaq Khan, Avtar Gill, Jatin Kanakia, Vikas Anand and the rest lend adequate support.

Direction is dull. Muisic is very slow and although two songs — ‘Kal nahin tha’ and ‘Kaliyon si palkein hain’ — are melodious, they are so slow and their picturisations, so routine that they will not appeal to the viewer. Action scenes are good. Photography is so-so. Editing leaves a lot to be desired. Production values are appropriate.

On the whole, Vishwa Vidhaata is a lesson in how not to make a film. It will prove to be a total loss at the box-office.

Released on 14-11-’97 at Alankar and 18 other cinemas of Bombay thru Dilsa Distributors Combine. Publicity: very good. Opening: average. …….Also released all over.

LATEST POSITION

DIL TO PAGAL HAI is continuing its victory march and has recorded extraordinary collections in 2nd week everywhere. Is ‘AA’ in Bombay.

Dil To Pagal Hai 2nd week Bombay 39,73,792 (99.64%) from 8 cinemas (6 on F.H.), Chandan, Juhu, Bombay 7,72,516; Ahmedabad 13,49,403 from 4 cinemas, Baroda 2,46,001, Padra (gross) 2,56,831, Rajkot 2,10,833, Jamnagar 1,52,507 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 8,27,648 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 1,92,332 (100%), Solapur 1,91,850 (100%), Satara 2,01,073 (98.64%) from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Sangli 1,82,035 (100%); Hubli 2,75,199 from 2 cinemas (1 in noon), Belgaum 1,55,344 (100%); Delhi (6 days) 40,29,144 from 11 cinemas (1 unrecd., 1 on F.H.); Kanpur 4,48,696 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 3,50,635, Agra 2,31,677, Allahabad 1,60,100, Meerut (6 days) 1,70,214, Bareilly (6 days) 1,40,146, Dehradun 1,65,000 (1st 1,99,901), Gorakhpur 1,29,000, Hardwar 60,000; Calcutta 19,70,138 from 13 cinemas (1 unrecd.); Nagpur 7,63,239 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur 2,02,142, total 4,15,214, Amravati 2,23,073, total 4,76,996, Akola (27 shows) 1,75,685 (100%), Raipur (6 days) 1,79,123, Bhilai (6 days) 1,42,169, Jalgaon 1,67,160; Indore 3,18,000, Bhopal 4,59,240 from 3 cinemas; Jaipur 7,94,777 from 2 cinemas, Jodhpur 2,55,000, Ajmer 1,34,766, 1st week Bikaner 1,65,000, Bharatpur (3 days) 54,000, 2nd week Udaipur 2,95,972; Hyderabad 13,74,862 from 5 cinemas (2 in noon).

Ghulam-E-Musthafa 2nd week Bombay (6 days) 20,06,737 (63.37%) from 12 cinemas (5 on F.H.), now tax-free in Bombay and other parts of Maharashtra; Ahmedabad 4,06,207 from 5 cinemas (2 unrecd.), Jamnagar (matinee) 12,545 (1 in regular unrecd.); Pune 6,38,908 from 4 cinemas, Kolhapur 1,08,276, Solapur (matinee) 44,527 (1 in regular unrecd.); Belgaum 100%; Delhi (6 days) 12,92,361 from 8 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,75,913 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,70,726, Agra 1,35,629, Allahabad 99,500, Varanasi 1,39,590, Bareilly (6 days) 53,224, Dehradun 65,000 (1st 1,25,000), Gorakhpur 92,000, Hardwar 32,718; Calcutta 7,86,935 from 7 cinemas; Nagpur 3,55,078 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,05,855, Amravati (6 days) 1,11,177, Akola 95,309, Raipur (6 days) 69,660, Bhilai (6 days) 69,360, Wardha 62,416, 1st week Yavatmal 1,05,675; 2nd Indore 82,134, Bhopal 2,06,162 from 3 cinemas; Jaipur 1,94,792, Jodhpur 1,00,000, Bikaner 37,972; Hyderabad 6,04,948 from 4 cinemas.

Bhai dropped at many places. 2nd week Bombay 28,39,632 (69.75%) from 13 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 7,37,106 from 6 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Rajkot 1,16,413 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Jamnagar 86,000; Pune 3,15,590 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 1,41,179 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), 1st week Satara 1,53,142; 2nd week Delhi (6 days) 14,23,548 from 8 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,05,551 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,69,912, Allahabad 76,500, Varanasi 1,40,500, Meerut (6 days) 1,25,868, Bareilly (6 days) 66,227, Gorakhpur 1,15,000, 1st week Hardwar about 80,000; Calcutta 20,18,044 from 19 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Jabalpur (6 days) 70,358, 2nd Amravati (6 days) 1,24,393, Akola 69,032, Raipur (6 days) 1,01,705, Bhilai (6 days) 53,732, Jalgaon 1,34,070, Yavatmal 77,148 (1st 1,68,410); Indore 49,441, Bhopal 1,10,345 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 2,40,741 from 2 cinemas, 1st week Ajmer (29 shows, gross) 2,20,117, Bharatpur (gross) 1,59,550; 1st week Hyderabad 16,76,975 from 9 cinemas (5 on F.H., 1 in noon), share, including fixed fire cinemas, 11,00,000.

……….

BABY BOYS

Ajay Chudasama, partner in Rajshri cinema, Gandhinagar and Rajshri cinema, Bhavnagar, was blessed with a baby boy on 14th November at Gandhinagar. His brother, Dharmendra (Dharam) Chudasama, was also blessed with a baby boy on 8th.

Earlier, on 7th, a son was born to Manish Yagnik of Rajshri, Gandhinagar. These are the first issues of all the three.

‘VIRASAT’ SILVER JUBILEE

Mushir-Riaz’s Virasat is celebrating silver jubilee this week all over. Directed by Priyadarshan, the film stars Anil Kapoor, Tabu, Pooja Batra, Milind Gunaji, Govind Namdeo, Tiku Talsania, Neeraj Vora, Satyen Kappu, Dilip Dhawan, Sulbha Deshpande, Anjana, Reena, Ajay Ratnam, Ajit Kumar, Dev Sharma and Amrish Puri. Dialogues: Vinay Shukla. Music: Anu Malik. Lyrics: Javed Akhtar. Art: Sabu Cyril. Dances: Farah Khan. Action: Tyagarajan. Editor: N. Gopalakrishnan. Cinematographer. Ravi K. Chandran. Associate producers: Tanvir & Tauqir.

ADVANCED DOLBY SOUND AT JYOTI, JALANDHAR

The latest Dobly digital sound system has been installed at Jyoti cinema, Jalandhar. It has the unique advantage of giving Dolby results even in mono prints, which is not available anywhere in India as yet.

GETTING BACK LOST GLORY

Asha Talkies, Miraj, which once upon a time used to be sought-after for Marathi films but had later come to be known as a cinema for sexy English films, is trying to get back its lost glory. Its booking was taken over by S.A. Bagwan of Kolhapur recently and since then, the cinema is seriously being given a change of image. Besides, its maintenance has improved too. This has also resulted in collections going up because people have started frequenting the cinema. The Marathi film, Durga Aali Ghara, is running in its third week there and despite low admission rates, it has yielded a share of Rs. 26,000 in 2 weeks.

‘LAL DARJA’ NOT NOMINATED FOR OSCAR AWARDS

Bappi Lahiri’s Bengali film, Lal Darja, has not been nominated for the Oscar awards, as claimed by the producer and reported in our issue last week. Error is regretted.

‘PARDES’ CELEBRATES 100 DAYS AT 49 CENTRES

Subhash Ghai’s Pardes is celebrating 100 days of its run today (15th November) at 49 centres in India and abroad. It stars Shah Rukh Khan, Mahima Chaudhry, Apoorva Agnihotri and Amrish Puri. Music: Nadeem Shravan. Lyrics: Anand Bakshi. Camerawork: Kabir Lal.

BABY BOY FOR SHAH RUKH KHAN

Shah Rukh Khan’s wife, Gauri, gave birth to a baby boy on 12th November at Breach Candy Hospital in Bombay. This is the couple’s first child and he has been named Aryan.

GULSHAN KUMAR’S FAMILY SEEKS TO BECOME PARTY IN NADEEM CASE

Family members of slain music baron Gulshan Kumar have sought to be arraigned in the extradition proceedings of the main suspect, music director Nadeem, which was to have come up for hearing in the London court of the Bow Street magistrate on 3rd November but has been postponed by three weeks, to November 24. The postponement had been necessitated because the Bombay police did not record the evidences of the various key witnesses in front of a magistrate. Evidence not recorded before a magistrate is not admissible in the London court. The Bombay police has since recorded them in order.

Gulshan Kumar’s family has written to the British crown prosecution office, which is handling the extradition of Nadeem on behalf of the Indian authorities, seeking to hire an eminent British lawyer to represent them in the extradition case, as a third party.

In the meantime, the British crown prosecution office has given its written opinion to the Indian authorities that they had found a prima facie case for extradition in the evidence placed before them by the Maharashtra government.

Meanwhile, the police have appealed to the Supreme Court against the bail order of Tips owner Ramesh Taurani.

INDORE DISTRIBUTORS DECIDE ON FRIDAY RELEASE

There will henceforth be no new releases on Thursday in C.I. All films will now be released on Fridays, as in most of the other circuits. This decision has been taken by the Indore Distributors Forum.

In keeping with the Forum’s decision as also because Pahlaj Nihalani so desired, his Bhai Bhai was released on Friday this week in C.I. So, films will now be released on Thursdays in C.P. and U.P. only.

YASHWANT DUTT DEAD

Noted theatre and film actor Yashwant Dutt died of a heart attack at his residence at Malad, Bombay on the morning of 11th November. He was 52 and is survived by his wife and son.

He had returned home around 4 a.m. that day after reshooting the ending for the recently released Marathi film, Sarkarnama. His sister found him dead in his flat at 10.30 a.m.

Top Marathi film personalities, including Nana Patekar and cameraman Debu Deodhar, reached his residence on hearing the news of his death.

MAHARANA, BHILWARA GOLDEN JUBILEE

Maharana Talkies, Bhilwara (Rajasthan) entered its 50th year on 9th March this year. To mark the golden jubilee, celebrations were held on Diwali. Huge display advertisements of the cinema were issued in all newspapers of Rajasthan and Bhilwara district, where glowing tributes were paid to all those who were responsible for the birth of the cinema. Tributes were also paid to 18 employees who are no more but whose services to the cinema and its patrons are memorable.

Sweets were distributed among cinema-goers in the evening show of Diwali day. A lottery was also held for the audience. Silver coins were awarded to the entire staff.

The cinema building was beautifully lit up on Diwali. Incidentally, the cinema won the first prize in three lighting competitions of Bhilwara during Diwali.

CCCA Puts Ceiling On Film Prices
C.P.C.I. Rajasthan Price Limit Is 72 Lakh

The new executive committee of the Central Circuit Cine Association has taken an important decision on film prices and put an upper ceiling of Rs. 72 lakh for the circuit — 20 lakh for C.I., 20 lakh for Rajasthan, and 32 lakh for C.P. Berar. This resolution of price ceiling will apply to films which are launched after 1st January, 1998. This information was given by CCCA president Santosh Singh Jain at a press conference on 12th November in Indore.

Jain observed that stars were not only ruling the film industry and devouring all the income of producers, distributors and exhibitors (which they weren’t investing again in the industry) but also ruining the industry. Producers and stars, he said, quoted examples of successful films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! and Border to fix the prices of their films and themselves in crores although 90% of the films which are made, flop, putting distributors in trouble. This was also adversely affecting the lot of producers, he added. Santosh Singh Jain lamented that stars diverted their monies earned from films, in real estate and other properties instead of investing at least a part in the industry.

Jain said that the film industry was in deep crisis and this ceiling was, therefore, a necessary weapon, like the CCCA’s earlier ceiling on stars’ assignments. This ceiling, he explained, would help in reducing film prices and star prices. Films would then be made within reasonable and affordable budgets, and it would also result in increase in number of productions.

Jain informed that the new Film Bhawan (extension) being constructed in Indore at a cost of Rs. 50 lakh would fetch an income of Rs. 20 lakh every year, which would be utilised in the services of distributors and exhibitors.

H.S.P. Rao, CCCA hon. secretary S.K. Surana, and hon. treasurer Ramesh Sureka were also present at the press conference.

Sound Tracks In India

Following is the content of the letter written by Mr. Tony Spath of Dolby Laboratories Inc., England, to Subhash Ghai. Although it deals with Ghai’s Pardes, it also talks of sound in Indian films. It is being reproduced hereunder so that our technicians, directors and laboratories may take tips from it.

Mr. Ghai,

Following our phone conversation, and my seeing Pardes, here are some of my personal comments on soundtrack.

In general, sound in India is getting more recognition as filmmakers like yourself go to new lengths in order to use and make use of sound quality in the soundtrack.

Dialogues are loud by Western standards but this is how people like to hear films in India. They are at least cleaner dialogues than were typically, say, two years back, but even so, little use is made of audio perspective on dialogues: by which I mean, treating the voice so that it sounds as if it comes from the distance/ambience that is shown on the screen. I must say that Pardes does make some use of some varying levels to suit different scenes.

Music recording has also improved. However, there is a tendency for there to be distortion at high levels, particularly on voices. Recordists need to be aware that once a voice is recorded in a distorted way, firstly, it won’t get any louder in the process, and secondly, it is distorted forever after. The music in Pardes I liked — ethnic with a hard edge and clean drums and percussion.

One of the biggest differences between a Western soundtrack and a Hindi one is in the amount and use of atmospheres. A good stereo atmosphere sets the scene and really adds to the “feeling” the image is conveying. If there was one thing I would suggest to you for the future, it is to make sure, your recordist makes stereo atmosphere recordings on each location, and to use these as the main atmosphere ingredient in each scene. Where it doesn’t work, use someone else’s (there are plenty available from CD).

Soundtrack printing and negative processing is still some way behind what we would call ideal. Some labs try to do a good job and monitor their quality but others just do not because they see no financial benefit in doing so — typically, their customers are long-standing producers who have always printed at their lab and won’t go elsewhere, so there is not the usual market-led incentive that if they don’t do a good job, they will not get the next film. This is our biggest problem at present — finding any way to make these particular labs take an interest in quality. The result — of their lack of quality control — is that analogue prints sound different reel to reel, occasionally very sibilant and “spitty” on the dialogues, sometimes dull by comparison. Dolby Digital prints with no proper quality control will be fine — until the reader cannot cope with the number of errors on the track, at which point, it reverts to analogue. We have equipment we supply, which will make it easy for labs to monitor their Dolby Digital sound track printing: we will supply these at a good price to labs. Do you have any ideas on how we can get them to understand the need to adopt quality control?

Well, these are my thoughts. I hope, they are useful. As always, it was a pleasure to talk to you when I was over there two weeks back. I have passed the plans of your studio on to one of our UK film sound consultants, who will be in touch with you to comment.

– Tony Spath

YOU ASKED IT

To what do you attribute the non-success of Ghulam-E-Musthafa outside Maharashtra?

– There are several reasons, the main being Nana Patekar’s character which was very different from his image of mouthing fiery dialogues and swear words. Too Muslim a title also kept a large chunk of the non-Muslim audience away.

When is Yash Johar’s Duplicate due for release?

– Rather than rush with the post-production work, Yash Johar has decided to go slow on it and get the film in April-end or early May.

Who is the most in-demand music director today?

– Anu Malik.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Sunny Deol made a touching gesture when, despite his busy schedule, he agreed to make a special appearance in a song-dance for Raju Mavani’s ISKI TOPI USKE SARR. He enthusiastically participated in the song picturisation in a 6-day spell in Hyderabad last week.

* Producer Salim was scheduled to shoot his MEHNDI in Jaipur but he did not get permission to shoot there in the nights due to a tourist festival. So he put off his Jaipur trip and instead had Jaipur recreated at Madh Island in Bombay where he is currently shooting for the film. A huge set of a haveli and a village has been created.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Mithun ‘Hottest’ And Shah Rukh ‘Coolest’ Star

Mithun Chakraborty is the hottest star today. Shah Rukh Khan is the least hot! Sorry, sorry! Mithun is the hottest donkey and Shah Rukh is the lowest priced donkey!! Surprised? Shocked? There’s no need for that. There’s the biggest ever Donkey Fair which began in Ujjain on Kartik Poornima day (14th November). Donkeys from all corners of India are brought to this fair by their owners. They (donkeys — not their owners) are, for the fun of it, nicknamed after famous Bollywood stars. So we have donkeys nicknamed Mithun, Shah Rukh, Sunny, Madhuri, Juhi, Akshay, Sunil, Anil etc. At this year’s fair, the donkey named Mithun fetched the highest bid — of over Rs. 5,000! The price range of other donkeys named Govinda, Sunny, Dharmendra and Akshay was between one and two thousand. The lowest offer was for the donkey called Shah Rukh.

‘Jeans’ Junction

Director Shankar (of Tamil films) should be feeling thrilled with himself. For, no less people than Bharat Shah, Subhash Ghai, Tolu Bajaj, Indra Kumar and Ashok Thakeria have, under the umbrella of Metro Films, Bombay, acquired the all-India rights of the Hindi dubbed version of his under-production film, Jeans. Yes, the office of Metro Films is the new Jeans junction! Shankar is making this Prabhu Deva and Aishwarya Rai starrer in Tamil, and dubbing the same in Hindi and Telugu. The three versions are being planned to be released simultaneously and if that happens, it will be the first time that a dubbed Hindi film will be released at the same time as its original version.

DULHE RAJA

Eastern Films’ Dulhe Raja is a comedy film about a rich businessman who owns a five-star hotel, and a young dhaba owner who refuses to vacate the hotel’s compound in which he has built his dhaba and which is causing losses to the hotel owner. The dhaba owner (Govinda) falls in love with the businessman’s daughter (Raveena Tandon) and she, too, pretends to be in love with him to teach her father a lesson. Ultimately, of course, both, the father and daughter, realise that the dhaba owner is the most suitable match. Fun is the catchword and the film moves from incident to incident, evoking laughter and entertaining the viewers till interval point. The second half, when the drama branches out into various tracks, isn’t very funny. Still, it does have its enjoyable moments. The dhaba owner enlivens the proceedings whenever he comes on the scene. Dialogues (Anwar Khan) are witty at many places and help in elevating the comic drama to a good extent. Although the story is very ordinary, writers Rajeev Kaul and Praful Parekh have made up for it with a fairly well-written screenplay.

Govinda does a fabulous job in the title role. Comedy is his forte and he comes out with flying colours, endearing himself to the audience with his street-smartness and comic punches. Raveena Tandon looks pretty and does reasonably well. Kader Khan is very good. Johny Lever, as Kader Khan’s manager, provides several fun-filled occasions with his comedy. Monnish Bahl does an able job. Prem Chopra and Rana Jung Bahadur are good as the villainous brothers. Asrani also provides some entertainment. Anjana Mumtaz, Sudhir, Viju Khote and Manmoujee lend fair support. Guddi Maruti, Anil Nagrath, Suresh Malhotra, Anil Verma, Dinesh Hingoo, Veeru Krishan and the rest fill the bill.

Harmesh Malhotra’s direction is reasonably good. Anand Millind’s music is racy. ‘Ankhiyon se goli maare’ is the best number and is already very popular. The title song and ‘Raja Bhoj….Gangu Teli’ are also fairly good songs. Picturisation of songs is too ordinary and needed to be far better. Production values are also ordinary. Camerawork and other technical aspects are quite good.

On the whole, Dulhe Raja is a good mass entertainer and will keep its distributors, especially of Northern India and Bihar, happy.

Released on 10-7-’98 at Dreamland and 20 other cinemas of Bombay thru Dilsa Distributors Combine. Publicity: good. Opening: very good. …….Also released all over. Opening was excellent in Bihar, very good in Delhi-U.P., C.I. and Rajasthan but not up to the mark in C.P. Berar.

LATEST POSITION

The Idd holiday on 7th/8th proved advantageous for the box-office.

Satya picked up very well in Bombay and Maharashtra due to mouth publicity, but the pick-up in Gujarat, Bengal and Bihar was not up to the mark. It has done poor in Delhi-U.P., East Punjab, M.P. belt of C.P. Berar, in C.I. and Rajasthan. The Telugu version is extraordinary in Hyderabad where the Hindi version is also terrific. 1st week Bombay 39,15,035 (81%) from 9 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 2,61,354 from 3 cinemas, Rajkot 1,24,347, Jamnagar 71,702 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 8,73,260 from 4 cinemas, Solapur 1,60,510 (100%); Delhi 9,19,323 (48.29%) from 4 cinemas; Lucknow 2,19,272, Allahabad 68,000, Meerut 1,26,877; Calcutta (most of the collections are for 6 days) 5,15,500 from 5 cinemas (1 in noon); Nagpur 5,20,349 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur 43,428, Amravati 1,70,860, Akola 80,015, Raipur 90,008, Bhilai 82,045, Bilaspur 43,821; Indore (5 days) 1,08,684 (2 on F.H.), Bhopal 1,36,852 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 2,88,830 from 2 cinemas; Hyderabad 5,25,541 (100%), share 2,66,000, Aurangabad 2,04,263, share 1,54,000; Telugu (dubbed) version Hyderabad share from 13 cinemas 17,09,822; Vijayawada 3,39,549 from 2 cinemas, Visakhapatnam 4,04,225 from 2 cinemas, Anakapalli 92,227, Rajahmundhry 2,17,332 from 2 cinemas, Kakinada 1,24,569, Nellore 1,57,052, Guntur 2,47,120, Tenali 1,49,093, Eluru 1,27,659, Ongole 1,53,044.

Jaane Jigar is very dull. 1st week Bombay 6,95,137 (43.63%) from 5 cinemas (4 unrecd., 4 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 51,875; Delhi 3,70,695 (41.16%) from 3 cinemas; Lucknow 64,220, Allahabad 42,128, Bareilly 51,378 (23.78%); Nagpur 98,161 from 2 cinemas, Raipur 31,923; Bhopal 65,152; Jaipur 89,413; Hyderabad 5,75,835 from 8 cinemas (2 in noon).

…………

Major Saab has dropped further. 2nd week Bombay 26,86,186 (62.73%) from 10 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 2,65,998 from 2 cinemas (2 unrecd.), Vapi 2,51,320, total 6,14,220, 1st week Padra 1,56,492, 2nd week Rajkot 1,21,731, Jamnagar 1,10,472, total 2,74,112; Pune 6,08,535 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 1,16,222; Delhi 31,68,686 (59%) from 10 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Lucknow 3,33,420, Allahabad 1,55,000, Bareilly 90,002 (47.19%), Dehradun 1,60,000, Hardwar 50,000; Rohtak 24,925 (1st 50,908); Nagpur 1,80,425 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur 1,55,948, total 4,09,050, Amravati 1,05,606, Akola 55,388, total 2,00,480, Dhule 59,728, Raipur 92,421, Bhilai 60,119, Jalgaon 76,140, Yavatmal 31,614, Bilaspur 88,544; Indore 2,28,381 from 2 cinemas (2 on F.H.), Bhopal 1,87,685 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 3,41,572 from 2 cinemas; Hyderabad 4,91,389 from 3 cinemas (2 in noon).

Ghulam 3rd week Bombay 40,59,867 (82.87%) from 12 cinemas (5 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,48,279 (1 unrecd.), Vapi 1,28,735, total 10,05,157, 1st week Rajkot (matinee) 13,571, 3rd week Jamnagar (matinee) 13,000; Pune 6,74,493 from 4 cinemas, Solapur 1,52,592 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 15,30,724 from 7 cinemas; Lucknow 1,80,073, Allahabad 65,000, Meerut 1,04,571, Dehradun 82,000; Nagpur 1,13,974 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur 1,56,945, total 6,14,112, Amravati 1,44,775, Akola 84,672, total 3,80,308, Dhule 90,109, total 3,62,500, Raipur 94,448, Bhilai 68,331, 2nd week Jalgaon (6 days) 1,11,136, 3rd week Bilaspur 85,397; Indore 1,14,897, Bhopal 1,07,728; Jaipur 1,72,480; Hyderabad 7,43,034 from 3 cinemas (1 in noon).

PRADEEP RECEIVES PHALKE AWARD AMIDST STANDING OVATION

Poet and lyricist Pradeep received the highest national honour conferred on a film personality, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, on 10th July at the 45th National Film Awards at Siri Fort, New Delhi. When octogenerian Pradeep came on the stage in a wheel-chair, president K.R. Narayanan came forward to greet him and presented him the award. The emotion-charged audience gave a standing ovation to the great poet, who was recognised as the best film poet by India’s first president, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, as early as in 1961.

President Narayanan also presented awards to the other winners — Jayamala (Golden Lotus for best film Thai Saheb, directed by Girish Kasaravalli), Yash Chopra (Golden Lotus for best popular film Dil To Pagal Hai), J.P. Dutta (Nargis Dutt award for Border), Govind Nihalani (best Hindi film, Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa), Jayraaj (best director, Kaliyattam), Suresh Gopi and Balachandra Menon (joint winners for Kaliyattam and Samaantharangal respectively), Indrani Halder and Rituparna Sengupta (joint winners for best actress in Dahan), Karisma Kapoor (best supporting actress for DTPH) and Deepa Gahlot (best film critic).

I & B minister Sushma Swaraj, I & B state minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and FFI president Santosh Singh Jain were seated on the dais.

RAKESH ROSHAN REPLACES KAREENA KAPOOR

Producer-director Rakesh Roshan has replaced Kareena Kapoor with Amisha Patel. Kareena was to have made her debut alongwith Rakesh Roshan’s son, Hrithik Roshan, in Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai. In fact, the two had even participated in a shooting scheduled of the film last month.

According to Rakesh, he had to take the step of removing Kareena from the film’s cast because the heroine and her mother, Babita, made unreasonable demands like a top billing for Kareena, above even Hrithik. “They even wanted me to picturise scenes before I pcturised a song,” said Rakesh Roshan.

Amisha Patel is the grand-daughter of Rajni Patel and daughter of Amit Patel. She has modelled for Jai soap and many other products. Some of her commercials are currently on air on television channels.

While Babita was not available for her comments, close industry sources reveal that Kareena herself was keen to leave the film because she has been offered the lead role opposite Abhishek Bachchan in J.P. Dutta’s Aakhri Mughal. Obviously, Dutta would want his film to be Abhishek and Kareena’s launching pad, say the industry sources. However, our sources reveal that there’s no truth in this story.

AMARJEET NO MORE

Veteran producer-director and publicist Amarjeet passed away on 4th July in Bombay. He had directed Hum Dono and had produced several films like Prem Shastra, Teen Deviyan, Gambler, Sunny and Rocky. Amarjeet was closely associated with the Navketan banner and had also assisted Chetan Anand in many of his films.

Amarjeet is survived by his wife and a daughter.

The bhog ceremony will be held on Sunday, 12th July at 11 a.m. at Shri Guru Singh Gurudwara, 3rd Road, Khar (W), Bombay.

NATUBHAI DESAI DEAD

Natubhai Desai, controller of production for all the films produced by Vinod Shah and Harish Shah, expired on 7th July at his residence in Bombay. He was 68 and is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

A prayer meeting will be held today (Saturday, 11th July) between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Khalsa Sabha Bombay, behind Citylight Cinema, Matunga, Bombay.

JAMANBHAI MANSATA DEAD

Jamanbhai Mansata of Yeshwant Talkies, Indore, and Jyoti Talkies, Calcutta, expired on 7th July in Calcutta. He was 86 and is survived by three sons.

‘RAJA HINDUSTANI’ TAX-FREE IN MAHARASHTRA

Raja Hindustani has been granted tax exemption in Maharashtra for a period of one year from 6th July. The film was released in November ’96.

KUMAR SANU’S RECORDING STUDIO

Playback singer Kumar Sanu has started a recording studio, K.K. Sound, at Andheri (W), Bombay, at plot no. 23, Shah Industrial Estate, off Veera Desai Road. It will be formally inaugurated on 13th July. The studio offers 24-track digital and analog recording facilities.

YOU ASKED IT

After Ghulam and Major Saab, which is the next film which can be expected to take a bumper start?

– Mani Ratnam’s DIL SE… It has music extraordinaire, Shah Rukh Khan and Mani Ratnam’s name.

Which was the first Bhojpuri film and in which year was it made?

– Nirmal Pictures’ GANGA MAIYA TOHE PIYARI CHADHAIBO, made in 1962 and directed by Kundan Kumar. It proved to be a super-hit.

‘Dil Se..’: Instant Hit From Rahman

Rejoice! Sing! Dance! The music of Dil Se.. has been released and boy! what music! Venus’ album is a listener’s delight. Every one of the six songs is extraordinary.

Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan is an instant super-hit number. Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi are in top form in their rendition. Thayya Thayya is its Punjabi version. The song has that quality which can make people dance in the cinema halls. Satrangi re is another fabulous number, by Sonu Nigam and Kavita Krishnamoorthy. Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan and Satrangi re will soon be heard in every car and at every discotheque, that’s a guarantee!

Di se re has A.R. Rahman, Harmony Anuradha and Anupama using their vocal chords to the fullest. Melody at its peak! Jiya jale has none other than Lata Mangeshkar and M.G. Sreekumar rendering the soulful number. Ae ajnabi has an excellent tune and is of the kind which keeps growing on you. Udit Narayan is in great form in this song, teaming up with Mahalakshmi.

A.R. Rahman seems to be at his inspired best in this album and Gulzar’s lyrics complement his superb tunes. Undoubtedly, the best music of recent times, Dil Se.. is a triumph as much for the three producers, Shekhar Kapur, Mani Ratnam (director also) and Ram Gopal Varma, and for presenter Bharat Shah as for Rahman and Gulzar. And yes, unlike other Rahman albums which take time to grow on the listener, this one is an instant hit — there cannot be a mistake about that.

Venus has a goldmine in its hands. Kasam se..!

Tamil Nadu Government Concedes Industry’s Major Demands

Actors, directors, producers and others connected with the Tamil film industry took out a huge procession, led by Rajinikanth, on 3rd July in Madras to protest against video piracy in the state of Tamil Nadu, which is causing immense harm to the industry. Closure of 192 cinemas in the last two years is attributed to video piracy. Nearly 200 more cinemas are on the verge of closure. Now, videos of films are sometimes released even before the premiere of the films. Chief minister Karunanidhi announced a package of steps in response to a memorandum submitted by the industry representatives to him.

The chief minister conceded two major demands — to crack down on video pirates and to offer entertainment tax concessions to the tune of Rs. 40 crore. He said that a state enforcement wing, headed by an inspector general of police, besides district cells, would be formed to curb video piracy. The Goondas Act would be amended to enable the authorities to detain under the preventive detention law, anyone punished twice for video piracy. The government will not give any fresh licences to video theatres nor renew existing licences. Entertainment tax for new films would be reduced from 40% to 30%. The CM appealed to the film magazines to refrain from publishing reports which portrayed members of the film industry in bad light.

Entertainment Tax Reduced In Uttar Pradesh

The meeting of film industry delegates with the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh last month has borne fruits. Chief minister Kalyan Singh has announced a reduction in entertainment tax, from 125% to 100%. He said, films shot 50% in the state would be given 50% rebate in entertainment tax, and those shot 75% in the state would be fully exempted from tax, for three years. But these films should not compromise with the moral values of the society. A preview committee would be formed, comprising secretaries of various state departments and three members of the film industry including film journalists and critics. The chief minister also announced rebate to Hindi, Brij and Bhojpuri language films for six months, and films of other languages for 30 days. For the development of the film industry in the state, he also promised to develop a Film City.

Kalyan Singh also announced the formation of the Film Development Board, in the state assembly on 3rd July. He said, the Board was being formed to encourage film producers to make films on Indian culture and tradition. It would help to ensure more employment opportunities in the state, besides encouraging the film industry. The members of the Board will comprise principal secretaries or secretaries of information, institutional finance, industry and tourism departments along with reputed film producers, directors and distributors. The Board would table its recommendations for identification of important locations for filmmaking. The government would provide necessary facilities like roads, communications, power etc. in these identified areas.

Jackie’s Humane Gesture

It is a well-known fact that our film industry has gone out of its way in helping our countrymen in times of calamity and distress. Be it the Indo-Pak wars or the Bhopal gas tragedy or during droughts, the industry has invariably joined hands with the government and helped in raising significant funds for the relief of the victims. In the same way, the industry has shown a keen response to the Gujarat government’s request for help in raising funds for the relief of the people who lost heavily in the recent storm. Akshay Kumar had been on a tour of Gujarat recently to raise funds for the cyclone victims. Anu Malik is also presenting a nite today (July 11) in Surat. While this speaks volumes for the generosity of our industry, the most welcome gesture, perhaps, in this regard came from Jackie Shroff. Having expressed his inability to attend the musical nite as he was scheduled to be in Mauritius for a shooting, Jackie announced his decision to hold a special charity premiere of his Grahan in Ahmedabad in August when the film will be released. The proceeds of this premiere will go to the government fund for the cyclone victims. He has also promised that he would have his entire cast and crew flown to Ahmedabad for the premiere.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Sunny Deol  shot for 45 days at a stretch in Ooty for Polygram’s PYAR KOI KHEL NAHIN. Rarely does one hear of Sunny giving bulk dates for a film. PYAR KOI KHEL NAHIN is being directed by Subhash Sehgal.

* SATYA, which started at 1,700/-on the opening day at Ashoka, Behala (Calcutta), picked up day by day so that its week closed at 17,500/-.

* The Hollywood blockbuster TITANIC has earned its distributors, 20th Century Fox, a share of over Rs. 40 lakh from its combined run of 18 weeks in two cinemas of Bombay city alone. The film was first released at Cinemax, Goregaon, and recorded 100% collections in a six-week run there, earning a share of over Rs. 25 lakh. From the seventh week onwards, it was shifted to Cinestar, Kandivli, where in a twelve-week run so far, it has registered collections of Rs. 33,20,277/-. Incidentally, both these cinemas are controlled by Shringar, Bombay.

FANTASTIC RAJA

* The opening of DULHE RAJA was so fantastic in Bihar that the rentals in 12 cinemas of the 15 in which the film has been released were covered on the first day itself! Most of the cinemas recorded over-capacity collections.

COMMENTS

K.C. BOKADIA

The public is fed up of meaningless violence. One may burn up cars and trucks but the fact is, we cannot compete with disasters like in TITANIC. Indians are fond of good songs, emotions and good dialogues. And that’s what I’ve strived to give in my LAL BAADSHAH. The good dialogues, when spoken by Amitabh Bachchan, will add to the fun. After all, he has been known for his dialogue delivery.

GULSHAN RAI

Most of the films released these days have no sustaining power; they take bumper openings and soon, collections drop. This lack of holding power coupled with high theatre rentals is killing business.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Big B, Small Gestures

Amitabh Bachchan may have had a love-hate relationship with the press, but the general public, by and large, has continued to adore him just as it did before. One of the reasons why he has been able to maintain this popularity is the way he treats the people who come in contact with him. He attends to even the smallest things that would make the other person, regardless of his stature, feel comfortable. The following incident bears further testimony to this fact: Recently, Amitabh Bachchan was interviewed for a programme for the Vividh Bharati service of the All India Radio. The team comprising an interviewer and a sound recordist reached at the appointed hour at Amitabh’s bungalow, only to find him busy in a television interview. As a result, the duo had to wait for almost an hour before Amitabh could be with them. But, during their wait, Amitabh’s staff went out of its way to make them feel comfortable and even repeatedly apologised for the delay. The apology came in spite of the fact that it was due to the late arrival of the TV interview team and had absolutely nothing to do with Amitabh! Anyway, when he finally met the radio team, he ensured that absolutely no phone calls would be passed on to him for the next hour and began the interview only after a chair was provided for the sound recordist who would have otherwise had to remain standing throughout the interview. Not only this, the sound recordist, being an ardent fan of Amitabh, had borrowed a camera from a friend so that he could have a photograph of him taken with the superstar. When this fact was brought to Amitabh Bachchan’s knowledge, he readily obliged and even suggested a good spot where the photograph could be taken. This is not all. When the interviewer paid him compliments on behalf of a female relative who was a great fan of Amitabh and was bedridden due to arthritis, Amitabh sympathised with her condition and even wrote her a touching note, wishing her a speedy recovery! Needless to say, the special treatment at the hands of Amitabh Bachchan left the duo in complete awe of the superstar’s simplicity and humility.

Silence Is Golden

So much has been said and is being said about the kind of roles Amitabh should  or shouldn’t do. In fact, the issue has taken on mammoth proportions with almost every Tim, Dick and Harry airing an opinion on it. While a certain amount of discussion over such topics in the press and trade circles is valid and even helpful in certain cases, one mustn’t forget that such debates last only till the star in question delivers a hit. Similarly, the debate over the kind of roles Amitabh should be playing will die down the very moment he delivers a hit. In the meantime, Amitabh Bachchan himself is not faced with much of a choice. He could either be blunt and speak the truth that these issues, like he playing roles that suit his age, are being raised only because he has not been able to give a hit of late, or he could gracefully accept all this needless criticism and advice with a patient ear, knowing fully well that a hit by him will end all this chatter. Amitabh, being his usual self, has chosen the latter, in the process, perfecting the art of listening to unsolicited opinions. The debate, in the meanwhile, rages on……

Say “No”

The recent controversy over Kareena Kapoor being replaced in Rakesh Roshan’s Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai has resulted in a lot of tongues wagging. Now that Rakesh Roshan and Kareena are no longer working together, rightly did a smart Alec remark, “It is a case of Kaho “naa” between the two of them.”

INFORMATION MEETS

“I had to try very hard to convince producers and directors that I had no intentions of giving up acting.”

– ASRANI

RAJ VAIDYA

From the humble beginning as a child artiste on All India Radio, Jaipur, to becoming one of the most fondly remembered comedy actors; then, being forced into oblivion by circumstances, but rising back to regain lost ground — Asrani has seen it all. An FTII graduate in acting, he struggled for a number of years before finally getting a break in Hindi films but once he arrived, he carved out a definite niche for himself in no time. Whether playing Amitabh’s secretary in Abhimaan, or playing the angrez ke zamaane ka jailor in Sholay, each character played by Asrani has left an indelible mark on the audience all over.

But then, why has Asrani, the comedy actor par excellence and former superstar in Gujarati films, disappeared from the silver screen in the recent past — this is a question many have wanted an answer to.

In a serious chat with Film Information, comedian Asrani himself explains his journey from acting to direction and back to acting after a few years of break from the screen.

You have worked with a host of reputed directors in your career spanning nearly three decades. What has the experience been like?

– It has been tremendous, to say the least. I have been fortunate in having worked with some of the top directors of Hindi cinema like Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar, Shakti Samanta, B.R. Chopra and L.V. Prasad, among many others. The most important aspect of my association with these stalwarts has been the immeasurable amount of knowledge on cinema that I have received from them. Each of my directors had a distinct style of his own and I imbibed a lot by observing them as well as through interaction with them. I have always maintained that working in cinema is like learning a language. While FTII can teach you the rules of the grammar, only a good director can teach you how to make sentences using these rules.

You share a very special bond with Hrishikesh Mukherjee, having featured in nearly all his films since GUDDI…..

– You are right. It is a special bond — a bond of affection. To describe it, I will have to go back to my FTII days. Those days, Hrishikesh Mukherjee was on the FTII faculty and used to visit Pune to teach us film editing. I had been aware of his immense work in films till then, and quickly realised that if I could somehow impress him, it would surely open up the doors of the film industry for me. So, I soon began hovering around him as much as possible, but to no avail. Finally, in order to get rid of me, he told me that he would call me in case he thought of a role for me, and he returned to Bombay. A couple of years passed after that, during which I had moved on to become an instructor at FTII. Then, one day, Hrishikesh Mukherjee came again to the FTII, this time with his entire team comprising Gulzar and others. They had come to test Jaya Bhaduri for the title role in Guddi. I was asked to locate Jaya on the campus and I immediately rushed to the canteen where she was sipping tea with her batch-mates, Danny Denzongpa and Anil Dhawan. The moment I told her about Hrishikesh Mukherjee considering her for the role in Guddi, she rushed out to see him. It so happened that while Jaya was talking to Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar asked me what I thought of Jaya as an actress, since I was an instructor at the FTII. I praised her acting abilities and then, later asked Gulzar whether there was any role in the film which I could bag. Gulzar refused to part with any information about the film, adding that Hrishikesh Mukherjee was well-known for his discipline and would chuck him out of the project if he divulged anything about the film. But I persisted and finally succeeded in convincing Gulzar in telling me that there was a bit role of a small-town boy who comes to Bombay to make it in films. This was an opportunity too good to miss and soon, there I was, pestering Hrishikesh Mukherjee for a role in Guddi. He dissuaded me by saying that there was none that I could play. At this, I instantly asked him about the role of the young man wanting to become a film star. The very next moment, Hrishikesh Mukherjee was livid. He turned to Gulzar and shouted his lungs out at him for having divulged this information. Having realised that there was no way he  would give me a role after that, I quickly fled the scene. But, as fate would have it, I was eventually signed for the same role. I was paid Rs. 250 for it! My work in Guddi was appreciated and I received about eight to ten films soon after Guddi was released. Well, this was my first brush with Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Over the years, we have been able to develop a warm, emotional bond between us, which lasts even today.

Many consider your role of a comic jailor in SHOLAY as one of your finest. How was it conceived?

– To tell you the truth, the role was written down to its minute details even before I was approached. Ramesh Sippy had sent a message asking me to see him for a role that he wanted me to portray in his then forthcoming film, Sholay. When I went to meet him at the appointed hour, I was surprised to see writers Salim and Javed also present. I was even more surprised when Javed Akhtar narrated my role to me because rarely had I been narrated a role that was so completely sketched out in the script itself. My costumes, mannerisms and my look were described in minute details. Even my lines were already written. I was so impressed that I immediately agreed to do it, sharing director Ramesh Sippy’s belief that even though the role was small, it had the potential to become a landmark. Later, Ramesh Sippy showed me a few photographs of Hitler and called Akbarbhai of Kachins to create a set of costumes along the lines of what Hitler used to wear. He later called Kabir, who was one of the best wig-makers at the time, and gave him the responsibility of creating a special wig for me. He also asked me if I could imitate Hitler’s way of speaking in a high tone. I practised on my dialogue delivery during a few rehearsals and gave an okay performance in my very first take itself. The shot over, the writers and the director congratulated me on my performance which, according to them, was better than what they had visualised. But, the truth is, I was inspired a lot by their commitment to even a two-or-three-scenes role like mine, and hence, was able to deliver a performance like that.

I would also like to add here that Dharmesh Darshan, who is directing me in Mela currently, is also one such rare director who takes great pains over each and every role in his film, however small it may be.

Obviously, SHOLAY is one of your favourite roles. But, apart from it, which of your other roles are closer to your heart than the rest?

– Definitely the one where I play a patient at a mental asylum in the Sanjeev Kumar-Leena Chandavarkar starrer Anhonee. Then, there was the one in Balika Badhu, directed by Tarun Majumdar. I also like my performances in Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar, Abhimaan and Koshish.

In the ’80s, you worked in a number of films directed by directors from the South. The comedy in these films was somewhat different from that in our films. How did you adjust to doing such silly roles?

– I agree that the comedy in those films was crude. You see, most of these films were Hindi remakes of hit films made in Tamil, Telugu etc. Since the directors from the South are a superstitious lot, they refused to change anything — not even the smallest bit — from the original. Initially, I did point out the fact that their kind of comedy would not work with all-India audiences which view Hindi films. But they were adamant and one of them even asked me to pack up if I did not agree with his way of functioning. I am aware of an incident when even a star like Dharmendra was asked to pack up when he refused to wear a silly costume. He later agreed, just like I did, mainly because the working down South was very organised and disciplined, as also for the fact that we were paid well and in time.

Eventually, after a couple of big hits early on, there came a time when 24 Hindi films made down South flopped within a single year. Obviously, Hindi audience had passed their judgement on this practice of passing off buffoonery in the name of comedy.

There came a time in the ’80s when you ruled the roost as superstar in Gujarati films? How did that come about?

– Actually, in the early ’80s, I was getting bored with the kind of roles I was getting. I thought that, may be, I should try and create a decent role for me by myself. But the only way I could do it was if I were to direct the film myself. So, I wrote, directed and acted in Chala Murari Hero Banne. Though the film bombed at the box-office, producer-director Vijay Bhatt was impressed with my effort and offered me the lead role in the Gujarati film, Maa Baap. The role of a common but honest autorickshaw driver, devoted to his parents, was so well-appreciated by the audience that the film went on to become one of the biggest hits in Gujarati cinema. In fact, it ran for 25 weeks in London — a feat not even a Hindi film had ever achieved till then. The success of Maa Baap was followed by 10 jubilee hits in Gujarati, which included Mota Gharni Vahu, Via Viramgam and Amdavadno Rickshawalo — the last one directed by me.

After a successful and long career in both, Hindi and Gujarati films, you seemed to have disappeared from the scene for many years. What happened?

– This is an important question. So, let me give you a detailed answer. Let me describe the circumstances that led to my disappearance from the screen. Towards the end of the eighties, my roles in Gujarati films had become repetitive and as a result, I found myself stagnating once again in my career. The roles I was getting in Hindi films were also nothing to write home about. Just around that time, I was offered two films to direct. I took up the offers, thinking, I could create good roles for myself in these films. Thus, I directed Dil Hi To Hai for Magnum, and Udaan for Shabnam Kapoor and Raju Kothari. Unfortunately, the planning of both these films went haywire and, as a result, Dil Hi To Hai took two whole years to complete, while Udaan took four more years after that. This delay cost me a very significant loss of nearly 23 acting assignments as I had to refuse them due to unavailability of dates — most of which were taken up by the two films I was directing. But, even after Udaan was complete, nobody came forward to sign me, thanks to the misconception in the industry that actors who turn directors no longer like to act. I was a helpless victim of this misconception and had to try very hard to convince producers and directors that I had no intentions of giving up acting. Of late, I have begun getting roles in films like Gharwali Baharwali, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Mela, Priyadarshan’s Raftaar, Firoz Nadiadwala’s Kartoos and David Dhawan’s Haseena Maan Jayegi, among others.

One thing I would like to state while on the topic is the fact that the public never deserted me even during this period of forced oblivion and I am very grateful to them for that. Whenever I travelled, even abroad, for that matter, people always asked me why I had quit acting and when would they be able to see me again on screen. This encouraging response gave me a lot of strength and hope during the lean patch.

Who are your favourite actors currently?

– There are quite a few. Among them, Govinda is an extremely talented actor and my co-artiste in Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. Then, there is Kader Khan whose comedy timing is superb, to say the least. Moreover, I am particularly impressed with the dedication of Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. Both these heroes involve themselves completely in the project and you can be sure that they will give their 100% in every role they play.

Among my all-time favourites are Danny Kaye and, to some extent, Jack Lemmon in Hollywood, while in India, it can only be Kishore Kumar who, in many ways, was the Indian counterpart of Danny Kaye.

HI-TECH HUNDRED DAYS’ CELEBRATION OF ‘PARDES’ IN DELHI

The 100 days of Pardes in Delhi was celebrated at The Hotel Surya. Writer-producer-director Subhash Ghai inaugurated Mirage, the most sophisticated discotheque in India, amidst a 500-strong crowd comprising the Who’s Who of New Delhi, all applauding him.

The 3-D holographic effects and the specially flown DJ from London served to make the event more memorable. Mahima Chaudhary and Apoorva Agnihotri were also present and were mobbed by the young and old alike. Amrish Puri was the guest of honour.

A live rendition by singers Sonu Nigam and Hema Sardesai swept the crowd off their feet.

Nine cinemas in Delhi are screening Pardes in its 16th week. Odeon cinema had a special show (which the unit of Pardes attended) in aid of The Heart Care Foundation.

CINEMA OWNER DEAD

Pentta Reddy, partner of Venkatadri 70mm cinema, Hyderabad, passed away suddenly this week in Hyderabad.

‘RAJA HINDUSTANI’ GOLDEN JUBILEE

Cineyug’s Raja Hindustani is celebrating combined golden jubilee at Super, Bombay this week. It celebrated golden jubilee all over four weeks back. The film, presented by Tips Films Pvt. Ltd. and written and directed by Dharmesh Darshan, stars Aamir Khan, Karisma Kapoor, Suresh Oberoi, Johny Lever, Navneet Nishan, Veeru Krishan, Kunal Kemmu, Farida Jalal, Tiku Talsania, Archna Pooran Singh, Pramod Moutho and Mohnish Bahl. Producers: Karim Morani, Bunty Soorma and Aly Morani. Music: Nadeem Shravan.

ILLEGAL PRINT OF ‘MR. & MRS. KHILADI’ SEIZED AT NIPHAD

An illegal print of Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi was seized in a raid at Laxmi Touring Talkies, Niphad, district Nasik on 11th November. The raid was conducted by Dr. Sunil Patil, proprietor of Shriram Talkies, Akluj and V.N. Films, Miraj-Shrirampur, the sub-distributor of Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi, with the help of the police. The police took the owner of the cinema, Balasaheb Keshavseth Sonawane, and his operator into custody along with the print, for further investigations.

According to Dr. Sunil Patil, the business of illegal prints is going on in full swing in Shrirampur-Malegaon-Nasik areas, due to which sub-distributors of the area are adversely affected.

Earlier, in April 1997, an illegal print of Judwaa was seized at Satyam Talkies, Taharabad in Nasik district.

SEMINAR ON HUNDRED YEARS OF CINEMA — GAINS & LOSSES

The Indian Organisation of Mass Communication (IOMC) has organised a seminar, ‘Hundred Years Of Cinema — Gains & Losses’, on 26th November at 4 p.m. in the lecture hall of Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Centre, Worli, Bombay. The panel of speakers includes author and journalist Firoze Rangoonwalla, J. Om Prakash and K.D. Shorey. IMPPA president Sultan Ahmed will be the chief guest while Dr. Sushila Rani Patel, famous classical singer, will preside over the seminar. The guests of honour at the seminar will be WIFPA president G.P. Shirke, AMPTPP president Pahlaj Nihalani and Chandru Punjabi of Prakash Builders. Dinkar Chowdhary is the chairman of the IOMC.

CINEMA LICENCE SUSPENDED

The licence of Babulal Talkies, Raipur, was suspended from 19th November by the district authorities due to irregularities.

As Indra Kumar, ABCL Part Ways
INDRA KUMAR TO START FILM FOR MARUTI

Indra Kumar will not be directing ABCL’s film, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Aamir Khan. It is learnt that ABCL and Indra Kumar have amicably parted ways.

It may me recalled that ABCL had launched Indra Kumar’s film at a grand party two years back at The Leela Hotel. This film, as yet untitled, was to have been Amitabh Bachchan’s comback film. But Amitabh thereafter signed other films and got busy in their shootings as Indra Kumar continued to be busy with his Ishq.

News now comes in that the project has been called off. It is believed that Indra Kumar will now direct a film for Maruti International, the joint banner of himself and Ashok Thakeria.

Mohan Babu Hurt, Master Tarun & TV Crew Killed In Bomb Explosion

At least 24 persons including Telugu film child artiste Master Tarun were killed and 29 others including Telugu film hero and MP Mohan Babu and MLA and ex-minister Paritala Ravi were injured in a powerful bomb explosion near D. Rama Naidu Studios in Hyderabad on the noon of 19th November.

The blast occurred when Mohan Babu and Ravi were returning from the studio after attending the muhurt of Ravi’s first film.

Mohan Babu was admitted to Apollo Hospital with minor injuries on the chin and right leg. A television team crew of Eenadu TV, comprising six members, was also killed on the spot. The blast is believed to have been caused by high-intensity gelatine sticks and detonators kept in a Fiat car and triggered by a remote-controlled device. The real culprits are not yet known.

Master Tarun sustained severe injuries in the bomb explosion and died in a private hospital later that day. He was the son of noted film actress Roja Ramani and Hari Bhagvan of Asian Films, Secunderabad. Master Tarun had acted in several Telugu films including Aditya 369. He was also anchoring a television programme for school children, Master Minds, on Eenadu Television.

The Hyderabad Sate Film Chamber of Commerce on 20th deplored the wanton acts of barbarism indulged in by anti-social elements. The Chamber conveyed its condolences to the bereaved and its heartfelt sympathies to the injured. All film offices remained closed on 20th.

‘ISHQ’
Price Fix Hua, Kaise Hua?
Achha Hua, Jaise Hua!

The distributors of producer Gordhan Tanwani’s Ishq are singing his praises even though his film has gone grossly over-budget. For, Tanwani has done what very, very few producers would dare to do.

Rather than put the entire burden of the increased cost (which could be anything between Rs. 50 and Rs. 75 lakh per major territory!) on his all India distributors (who, in any case, were willing to hike the ratio from the earlier ratio of Rs. 1.5 crore), Gordhan Tanwani has asked them to pay the increased amount only later!

While taking an additional 15 to 20 lakh per major territory from his distributors towards the price for delaying the video release of the film, Tanwani has not altered his MG royalty at all. Instead, he has asked his distributors to pay the additional price after recovery of their MG royalty, print cost, publicity cost and commission. That is to say, distributors will have to shell out the enhanced part of the revised MG royalty only if and when the film goes into overflow calculated at the current MG royalty.

This speaks volumes for Gordhan Tanwani’s caring attitude towards his distributors, besides his utmost faith in his film. For, he has put his Rs. 1.5 to 2 crore at stake this way. Littler wonder then that his distributors like Tolu Bajaj (Delhi-U.P.) and Ravi Machhar (Nizam) are all praise for him.

YOU ASKED IT

Are Rajkumar Santoshi and Rahul Rawail being considered to direct Dus?

– No. DUS will be completed by Nitin Manmohan.

Have you seen Ishq? What are its reports?

– ISHQ is carrying extraordinary reports. We are yet to see the film but those who’ve seen it, feel, it can do great business.

What is Rakesh Roshan’s next? When will it start?

– Rakesh Roshan might launch his son, Hrithik Roshan, as hero in his next. Nothing has been finalised so far.

Which film in the near future can be expected to take a bumper opening?

– ISHQ should take a fantastic opening next week. Rajkumar Kohli’s QAHAR also seems to be a mass-oriented film which can take a good initial.

PRODUCTION NEWS

‘Mother’ 90% Complete

The unit of Saawan Kumar Productions’ Mother returned from Mauritius on Nov. 18 after picturising many scenes and six songs. The film is now 90% complete. Being written, produced and directed by Saawan Kumar, it stars Rekha, Jeetendra, Randhir Kapoor, Rakesh Roshan, Prabha Sinha, Navni Parihar, Nishigandha, Asrani, Shubha Khote, Mushtaq Khan, Shashikala, Rahat Khan and Sanober Kabir. Screenplay: Ravi Kapoor. Dialogues: Anwar Khan. Choreographer: Chinni Prakash. Lyrics: Sameer. Music: Dilip Sen Sameer Sen.

‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ 15-Day Spell Complete

Director David Dhawan completed a 15-day shooting schedule of Epic Enterprises’ Bade Miyan Chote Miyan last week in Hyderabad. Songs, action and other scenes were picturised at Ramoji Rao Studios and Annapurna Studios as well as on locations. All the artistes participated. The film, being produced by Sheetal Jain and Vashu Bhagnani, stars Amitabh Bachchan, Govinda, Raveena Tandon, Ramya, Paresh Rawal, Satish Kaushik, Sharat Saxena and Anupam Kher. Writer: Rumi Jafri. Music: Viju Shah. Cinematographer: K.S. Prakash Rao.

MUSIC INFORMATION

Super’s Tribute To Raj Kapoor, Indian Independence

Super Cassettes has released ‘A Tribute To Raj Kapoor’ in two volumes. It has also brought out a 5-cassette pack, ‘Golden 50 Musical Years’.

IN & OUT OF BOMBAY

Writer-producer-director Subhash Ghai is in Delhi and will return to Bombay on 26th November.

Mr. Vijay Khajanchi of Khajanchi Film Exchange, Amravati, is in town (493-0645) and will return to Amravati on 26th November.

Mr. Manojkumar Seksaria of Milgrey Optical Centre and Ramnord Lab left for New York on 18th November to attend the 139th SMPTE Technical Conference and Exhibit, being held from Nov. 21 to 24. He will also visit the UK before returning to India.

Mr. Vinod Malhotra of Jyoti Pictures, Indore, is expected in town on 24th November and will stay at Hotel Linkway (649-6008).

Mr. J.P. Chowksey of Prachi Films, Indore, is expected in town on 24th November.

DO YOU KNOW?

* There are 42 cinemas in Andhra Pradesh alone, which have installed Dolby DTS sound, according to the commercial manager of Real Image Pvt. Ltd., Madras.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

‘Ishq’ Set to Create New Records

Overseas distributor Mohan Chhabria is all set to create a new record in the U.K. He plans to release Ishq with 30 prints. The record so far is held by Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai which opened with 19 prints.

Nearer home, Nizam distributor Ravi Machhar will be releasing Ishq in 17 or 18 cinemas of the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, which also is a record. Machhar is publicising the film extensively in the circuit and will put up standies of the four lead artistes at important cinemas of Hyderabad-Secunderabad.

Sorry, No Songs

Rajkumar Santoshi’s China Gate will be a songless film. Revealing this, Santoshi explained the other day how his financier Bharat Shah had, without a hitch, left it to him to decide whether there should or shouldn’t be any songs in the film. Three or four songs have been recorded but Santoshi feels, songs aren’t necessary in the film. Rajkumar Santoshi said, he was touched by Bharatbhai’s gesture and his (Shah’s) confidence in his conviction. Incidentally, Santoshi will start his Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan starrer on Aamir’s birthday, that is, on March 14. No, he has not promised to release it on Shah Rukh’s birthday which falls in November!

Little Wonderful Show

One has heard a lot about Kalyanji Anandji’s ‘Little Wonders’ programme but one has to see it to believe it. A two-and-a-half-hour variety entertainment show, it has performances by only kids — the youngest kid being 3½ years old, and the oldest, about 12½! Even the compere of the show is young and energetic Mini Tabassum who goes by the name of Baby Suhani for this show. Whether it is film songs or mimicry, instrumental recital or dance, the performances are all brilliant. Kalyanji Anandji’s Kalavir Academy deserves kudos for giving a platform to whizkids to expose their talents. Little wonder then that ‘Little Wonders’ has completed 250 shows in various cities of India and also abroad. And it is poised to complete many, many more shows.

Mohan Babu Left In Lurch

Mohan Babu, Dasari Narayana Rao and actress Vijayashanthi were to tour parts of Andhra Pradesh earlier this week to gather people’s support for Mohan Babu’s new party which he is planning to form after withdrawing support to Andhra chief minister Chandrababu Naidu. But before the tour could start, Vijayashanthi left for Delhi to meet BJP chief L.K. Advani. She is likely to support the BJP. Dasari reportedly was in no mood to accompany star-MP Mohan Babu as his (Dasari’s) latest release has met with a cold audience response. All this prompted Mohan Babu to call off his tour.

No Smoking Zone

Cigarette and bidi lovers will have to sacrifice puffing at the smokey thing if they want to watch a film at Shaan cinema at Vile Parle, a Bombay suburb. Well, at least for the three hours they are in the cinema premises. For, Shaan, which has been centrally air-conditioned, will henceforth not permit smoking in its premises. Not just inside the auditorium, people will not be allowed to smoke even in the cinema foyer. Shaan has been completely renovated. Already equipped with Dolby DTS sound, it will screen Ishq from 28th November.

BOMBAY FILM INDUSTRY CLOSURE POSTPONED TO AUGUST 18

The proposed one-day strike of the Bombay film industry and the rally of August 11, to demonstrate the industry’s protest against the government’s inaction in curbing cable piracy of Hindi films, have been postponed by a week — to August 18. The rest of the details remain the same i.e. the entire industry will down shutters on August 18 (instead of August 11) and a rally will be organised from Juhu to Mantralaya in Bombay. It will terminate after an industry delegation hands over a memorandum to the chief minister, urging him to take firm and necessary action to curb the menace of cable piracy.

A meeting of representatives of all sectors of the film industry will be held at Mehboob Studios on August 9 at 4 p.m. to chalk out other details of the closure and the rally.

LATEST POSITION

Heavy rains in Maharashtra and various other parts have adversely affected collections.

Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha has done very well in the 1st week and is particularly excellent in major cities of the various circuits, but a drop was noticed in several other places from 5th/6th day onwards. 1st week Bombay 22,60,634 (100%) from 5 cinemas (6 on F.H.), Vashi 2,67,750; Ahmedabad 11,13,784 from 6 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Vapi 6,19,710 from 2 cinemas, Padra 2,03,464, Rajkot (matinee) 36,697 (1 unrecd.), Jamnagar 1,29,282 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 11,83,723 from 5 cinemas, Solapur 2,30,726 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee); Belgaum 1,16,507; Delhi 39,85,872 (86.65%) from 9 cinemas; Kanpur 4,10,924 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 4,18,769, Allahabad 2,07,370, Varanasi 1,85,603, Meerut 2,05,644, Hardwar 1,05,562; Rohtak 41,215; Calcutta 20,04,361 from 12 cinemas; Nagpur 8,26,157 from 4 cinemas, Amravati 1,81,427, Akola 2,07,640, Raipur 1,75,612, Chandrapur 1,63,531; Indore 2,38,013 (3 on F.H.), Bhopal 4,29,711 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 12,07,588 from 4 cinemas, Ajmer (29 shows) 1,66,938; Hyderabad 15,58,445 from 7 cinemas (1 in noon).

Angaaray has not found appreciation. 1st week Bombay 20,01,430 (60.56%) from 9 cinemas (8 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 2,76,671 from 3 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Rajkot 1,07,265 (1 in matinee unrecd.); Delhi 14,86,349 (43.03%) from 8 cinemas (1 on F.H., 1 unrecd.); Kanpur 1,84,528 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,83,452, Allahabad 63,500, Varanasi 1,22,068, Bareilly 63,669 (41.36%); Calcutta 11,76,360 from 16 cinemas; Nagpur 2,00,729 from 4 cinemas; Indore 2,46,803 from 2 cinemas (2 on F.H.), Bhopal 1,47,872 from 2 cinemas; Jodhpur 1,62,000; Hyderabad 16,24,303 from 9 cinemas (7 on F.H.), share (including F.H.) 11,25,000.

Kareeb drops further. 2nd week Bombay 19,45,260 (50.35%) from 7 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,59,812 (1 unrecd.), Vapi 1,00,900, total 3,71,394, Baroda 1,42,107; Pune 3,27,269 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 40,725; Delhi 22,13,639 from 6 cinemas; Kanpur (6 days) 85,642, Lucknow 2,33,575, Allahabad 57,880, Varanasi 85,212, Bareilly (6 days) 51,603; Calcutta 6,17,540 from 3 cinemas; Nagpur 1,04,498, Amravati (6 days) 42,390, Raipur (6 days) 54,834; Bhopal 97,454; Jaipur 1,61,244, Bikaner 90,024; Hyderabad 4,44,744 from 2 cinemas.

………..

Dulhe Raja 3rd week Bombay 11,63,643 (60%) from 6 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 2,19,454 from 3 cinemas, Jamnagar (matinee) 11,582; Pune 3,60,532 from 3 cinemas, 2nd week Solapur 81,306; 3rd week Delhi 12,55,330 from 6 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,81,071 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,84,528, Allahabad 1,11,300, Varanasi 1,42,824, Bareilly 1,08,114 (50.04%); Calcutta 2,43,450 from 2 cinemas; Nagpur 1,63,801 from 2 cinemas, Amravati 93,002, 2nd week Akola 1,02,477, total 2,97,009, share 2,24,304, 3rd week Raipur 95,182, Jalgaon 94,000, Yavatmal 57,286; Indore 1,53,780, Bhopal 1,63,092; Jaipur 2,69,706 from 2 cinemas; Hyderabad 3,45,506 from 2 cinemas (1 in noon).

Satya is extraordinary in Maharashtra. 4th week Bombay (TF) 44,08,892 (86.16%) from 10 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,49,907 from 2 cinemas, Rajkot 45,744; Pune (TF) 8,90,283 from 5 cinemas (2 in matinee), Solapur (TF) 1,74,035; Delhi 6,33,364 from 3 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 96,501 from 2 cinemas, Allahabad 60,857, Varanasi 39,838; Calcutta 1,83,352; Nagpur (TF) 2,20,782 from 2 cinemas, Amravati (TF) 1,44,679, Akola (TF) 71,846, total 3,23,938, share 2,38,770, 1st week (3 days) Wardha (TF) 59,695, Chandrapur (TF) 1,21,222; 4th week Bhopal 70,000; Hyderabad 3,26,958.

Show Tax In Madhya Pradesh Shoots Up
Industry Loss Estimated At 6 Crore Annually

Show tax in Madhya Pradesh has been increased 13 times with effect from 24th June. According to a gazette in notification (no. 30/18) dated 3rd July, the show tax per show will now be charged between Rs. 50 and Rs. 200. The show tax before this was Rs. 15 per show.

Although the gazette notification of 3rd July does not specify cinema, it does talk of public performances. The Supreme Court in 1959 had in the case of Delite cinema, Jabalpur, versus Jabalpur Municipal Corporation held that film screenings in a cinema came within the ambit of public performances.

According to Narendra Agarwal of Anjani Talkies, Khandwa, the additional burden to distributors and exhibitors of the state due to the hike in show tax would be about Rs. 6 crore annually. Madhya Pradesh has more than 700 cinemas, of which 500 operate regularly.

The Central Circuit Cine Association has been trying to get the M.P. government to permit cinemas to levy a tax-free service charge on the lines of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. While the tax-free service charge has not been allowed, the increase in show tax has come as a rude shock to the film trade in M.P.

With CCCA elections due next month, this issue of show tax is likely to be brought up at the annual general meeting by members who feel that the present executive committee should have taken steps to ensure that show tax on cinemas was not increased. There is still time, and a timely and effective representation to the government can save the industry 6 crore and also serve as a face-saving device for the CCCA executive committee.

YOU ASKED IT

Which films will be released on Diwali this year?

– BADE MIYAN CHOTE MIYAN and KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI.

While Rajiv Babbar’s Shapath and Chandaal had opened to good houses, why has Yamraaj, released this week, not had a similar (good) opening?

– Perhaps, because of a surfeit of releases of Mithun starrers. Too much of anything is bad, right? Nevertheless, in Bombay, YAMRAAJ has taken a good start.

Do you think, banks will finance film production or is all this talk about bank and institutional finance for the film industry, useless?

– It is just a matter of time. Banks and financial institutions seem to have started thinking in terms of giving loans to film producers.

Who is the biggest enemy of the film industry?

– Some of the industry people themselves, especially those who claim to be on the creative side but are actually interested in only making a quick buck. There’s no seriousness or dedication in their work.

REGIONAL FILMS

Gujarati
Upendra, Naresh, Jeet Teamed

Upendra Trivedi, Naresh Kanodia and Jeet Upendra have been teamed in J.K. Film Productions’ Prod. No. 1, to be produced by Vikram Singh Dodia and Mahavir Singh Kochar. It will be directed by Atmaram Thakor. Story: Vikram Singh Dodia. Screenplay & dialogues: Vikram Patel.

100 Days In Bombay

G.N. Films’ (Keshod) Desh Re Joya Dada Pardesh Joya completed 100 (combined) days in Bombay at Dreamland (matinee) two weeks back. The film also completed silver jubilee in 25 centres of Gujarat and Saurashtra and is now heading towards golden jubilee. It was released in America last week.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Unexciting Independence Day

With the release of Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se.. having been postponed by a week, there’s no major release now scheduled for 14th August. Surprising, because the Independence Day holiday on 15th August is considered to be truly bountiful for the box-office. Maharaja was trying to meet the 14th August release date but the film will not be ready for that day now, maybe, because post-production work went slow under the assumption that Dil Se.. would make it on 14th, so Maharaja could follow the next week. In the meantime, rumour-mongers insist that presenter Bharat Shah has postponed Dil Se.. by a week so that Barood, which is also presented by him, gets two clear weeks without any major opposition. Barood is scheduled for release on 7th August. Of course, the rumours are baseless, but it is said that there should be no big film hitting the screens on 14th August.

Dream Goes To Dust

After all the pains he has taken over the completion of his dream project, Ramoji Rao must be a disillusioned man today. His Film City in Hyderabad is reportedly running into losses to the tune of several lakhs every month. Reason: no takers. Now, this must surely seem surprising, for, the Film City offers every single facility required in the process of making a film. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that one can just walk into the Film City with the script, cast and crew, and walk out with the first copy of his film. Yet, it is a sad fact that for inexplicable reasons, producers are shying away from this completely self-sufficient studio. In the past six months, only two films have been shot there, putting Ramoji Rao to huge losses.

20 Flops For Every Hit

You way have heard of two-in-one and three-in-ones. Commonly used to describe a radio-cum-cassette-player (two-in-one) or a radio-cum-cassette-player-cum-CD-player (three-in-one), the expression could also be used to refer to a person or thing who/which does two/three jobs/activities/duties. But have you heard of a twenty-in-one? Well, that’s what one leading Bengal distributor has been nicknamed by others in the trade in Calcutta. Of course, although there’s no malice meant, this distributor is referred to as 20-in-1 because, to quote another Bengal distributor, “The 20-in-1 releases 20 flops for every hit/success released by him.” That is to say, for every hit/success released by him, there are about 20 flops that follow in his distribution concern.

Godzilla-Replies

The publicity caption of the Hollywood film Godzilla, viz. ‘Size does matter’, has become a popular catchline. Here’s how the catchline can be altered to suit happenings in the Indian film industry.

Why is Satish Kaushik the favourite comedian of David Dhawan these days?

Because size does matter!

Why were Amitabh Bachchan and Govinda cast in Bade Miyan Chote Miyan?

Because height does matter!

Why has Saawan Kumar made Mother ’98 with four oldies?

Because age does matter!

Why are so many films flopping these days?

Because price does matter!

Why did nobody believe Mukesh Bhatt when he said that Ghulam had cost him 15 crore to make?

Because lies does matter!

Dream Merchant

Film Folk and Bank Loan

There’s so much optimism in the film industry after 10th May, the day on which I & B minister Sushma Swaraj announced industry status for the film world. Without knowing how and when bank finance will become available to films, trade people are all talking of bank and institutional finance. Every filmland party, every film-folk gathering has a fixed topic of discussion since that May day! Actually, bank finance is coming out of my ears — and last night, it also came into my dreams. Not the finance, silly. They were some proposals for bank finance that made it into my dreams.

Pramod Chakravorty applied to the Bank of Baroda for finance for his next, starring Akshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty. The bank manager pleaded inability to finance such a risky proposal. “But where’s the risk?”, argued Chakki-da. “See,” replied the bank manager, “when your Barood was launched, Akshay and Raveena Tandon were in love with each other but during its making, they fell apart and thereby delayed your film. If Akshay and Shilpa also decide to split, it would mean delaying your new film. We are wary of Akshay’s temporary love affairs even more than his permanent affair with flops.”

Harmesh Malhotra, flush with the success of Dulhe Raja, approached Union Bank for a loan for his next, also starring Govinda and Raveena Tandon. The assistant manager of the bank processed the file and not only turned down the loan application but also Harmesh Malhotra’s request for a meeting with the manager. “Govinda starrers are a strict no-no in this bank,” informed the assistant manager. “We are aware of Govinda’s latecoming habits and we’d rather not risk our money in his films.”  Harmesh-ji tried to reason out with the bank officer that Govinda had mended his ways and was now reporting for his shootings on time, but the banker said, he was also aware that Govinda gets such I’m-now-punctual-and-serious stories printed in the press at regular intervals. “He is regular about these news items but very irregular for his shootings,” the banker concluded.

Boney Kapoor and Anil Kapoor approached Dena Bank for a loan of Rs. 4 crore. The money, they said, would be needed after 30 days for a start-to-finish shooting schedule of Pukaar. The bank officials were not totally ignorant about films and asked the Kapoor brothers, “Start-to-finish? But Pukaar was started three years ago, right?” Boney nodded, “Of course, it was. What we mean by start-to-finish is that we start our next shooting schedule after we receive your loan and the shooting goes on till your loan is finished.” The bank officials gave the Kapoors one look of dismay which said more than a thousand words.

Amitabh Bachchan’s application for loan was rejected by Bank of India even before it was read. Reason: the bank felt, it was too risky to lend money to AB Corp. as Amitabh’s detractors pay money to buy people who then frequent cinemas screening the star’s film and walk out mid-way. This, the bank managers agreed with Bachchan, created the wrong impression among the rest of the people viewing the film. Amitabh tried to reason out with the manager that the situation was not as grim as he was imagining and that his (Amitabh’s) press statements about detractors or anything else should not be taken so seriously. “Yes, seriously,” nodded the bank manager, “we aren’t taking your loan application also seriously.” And he began to laugh deliriously.

Vinod Chopra, aware of how every loan application for films was being rejected by different banks, tried to be different. He approached the Grindlays Bank to get a loan sanctioned not for his next film but rather for the legal battle he would have to fight against video pirates at the time of release of his new film. The manager of Grindlays Bank was, however, blunt to the point of being rude. He told Vinod Chopra, “You needn’t get any court order for your new film. After the debacle of Kareeb, the cable TV operators may themselves refuse to touch your next film. No legal battle, no loan.”

Vashu Bhagnani tried to sweet-talk the manager of Saraswat Bank into giving him a loan for his new film. “If you sanction the loan, I’ll make a film on your bank and title it Bank No. 1,” smiled Vashu, while pushing a briefcase of money no. 2 into the manager’s hand. The manager, fearing a scam no. 1, returned Vashu his briefcase of currency notes as well as the loan application. “Cash liya to darna kya?”, asked Vashu. “Loan deke marna kya?”, counter-questioned the bank manager. “Okay, okay, loan nahin deke ladna kya?“, shot back Vashu as he caught hold of his briefcase and sped out of the bank.

Mahesh Bhatt refused to go to any bank. “If I can direct films over the telephone, I can jolly well raise finances over the same telephone,” he told brother Mukesh Bhatt. He then telephoned his bank (Overseas Bank) manager and asked if he could finance the purchase of the latest VCDs and LDs of Hollywood films. “Their cost,” explained Bhatt to the banker, “is much more than the production cost of my films.” The bank manager explained to Mahesh Bhatt that the bank rules did not permit him to lend money for anything except film production. He, therefore, asked him to get a loan application prepared, attaching the script of the film he wanted finance for. Bhatt shouted, “Are you mad? How can I write the script without seeing LDs of new Hollywood releases?” Saying thus, he banged down the telephone.

Saawan Kumar approached his bank — Bank of Maharashtra — for a loan for his next film. “What is the security you can offer?”, asked the manager. Replied Saawan Kumar, “I can offer the security of my unreleased film, Mother ’98.” “But that film is not sold,” lamented the manager. “So what if the film is not yet sold?”, asked Saawan Kumar, adding, “I have the capacity to hold. The film is taking some time to be sold because the subject is bold…” The bank manager interrupted him, “Okay, okay, but what do I do with the security of an unsold film?” It was now Saawan Kumar’s chance to cut him short. Said he, “Look, mister, would you accept gold as security?” The manager’s face lit up. “Of course, I would,” he smiled. “Okay then, do you know the cast of my Mother ’98?”, asked Saawan Kumar, and himself answered the query, “It has Rekha, Jeetendra, Randhir Kapoor and Rakesh Roshan.” The manager looked perplexed. “But there are no youngsters in the film?”, he queried. Saawan Kumar shot back, “You just said, you will accept gold as security, didn’t you? Well, my film may have oldies, but then, old is gold.” The manager grinned, “Sir, your loan is sanctioned.”

– Komal Nahta