MAHAANTA

Ayesha Films’ Mahaanta (UA) is a routine revenge drama laced with ingredients like friendship, love and sacrifice. Two bosom pals are separated when one of them is killed alongwith his wife. The murdered friend’s brother thinks that the other friend is behind the murders actually committed by a gang of villains. One by one, he seeks revenge on the villains and, in the end, is also convinced about the innocence of the friend.

Like the oft-repeated story, the film’s screenplay is also routine. Some twists and turns in the story look contrived and rather far-fetched. For instance, a police commissioner tries to save the life of his friend’s brother by putting him behind bars in the hope that he would be safe and secure there! What’s more, scenes are so lengthy that the drama loses a bit of its impact due to that. The second half, in which the hero kills the villains one after another, is better, although it could do with a lot of trimming. Emotions are totally absent. Dialogues (Talat Rekhi) are very good at places. The film has taken a number of years to complete and the time-gap shows.

Jeetendra does a fair job. Sanjay Dutt is competent. His stunts are very good. Madhuri Dixit looks young and pretty in some scenes and older in other scenes. Her performance, as usual, is good. Amrish Puri makes a terrifying villain. Paresh Rawal, as the other villain, evokes laughter with his dialogues and acting. Shakti Kapoor is okay. Mohsin Khan, Tej Sapru, Tariq Shah, Satyen Kappu, Sumalatha, Poonam Dhillon, Saeed Jaffrey, Kishore Bhanushali, Brijgopal and the others are alright. Commentary by Raza Murad is effective.

Direction is limited by the script. Director Afzal Khan has borrowed ideas from previous hits rather than offering something new. His shot takings are, however, good. Veeru Devgan’s action scenes have been wonderfully composed and they lend good thrill. On the music (Laxmikant Pyarelal) front, there are two good songs — ‘Tapka re tapka’ and ‘Chhoo le choo le’. A couple of other songs are rather dull. Background score is effective, the impact accentuated by DTS mixing. Camerawork is fairly good. Production values are rich. Special (computer) effects are fair.

On the whole, Mahaanta is too routine a film to be able to entertain and will, therefore, prove a costly proposition for its distributors.

Released on 23-5-’97 at Liberty and 26 other cinemas of Bombay thru M.V. Pictures. Publicity: very good. Opening: average (adversely affected due to excessive number of cinemas). …….Also released all over.

NEW CINEMA OPENS IN BOMBAY

A new cinema — King’s — opened on 23rd May at Kurla, Bombay. A mini cinema with 191 seats, it is housed in the same premises at Kalpana and Kamran cinemas. It is airconditioned and is fitted with Stereophonic sound.

The cinema has just one class with an admission rate of Rs. 32.50. Its nett capacity per show is Rs. 3,753.15 and for 28 shows, it is Rs. 1,05,088.70. It is owned by Agadi Seth and its booking is being done by Rajshri.

In recent times, this is the fourth new cinema of Bombay. The three other newly-opened cinemas are Sona (at Borivli), Madhuban and Pooja (both at Dombivli).

FIRST MARATHI FILM ACTRESS KAMALABAI GOKHALE DEAD

Kamalabai Raghunathrao Gokhale, the first Maharashtrian actress to have acted in a film, passed away on the midnight of 18th May at the age of 97. She is survived by her son, Chandrakant Gokhale, and grandson, Vikram Gokhale.

Kamalabai joined Marathi theatre at the age of five. She acted in just one Marathi film, Bhasmasur Mohini, produced and directed by Dadasaheb Phalke in 1913. In fact, Bhasmasur Mohini was the first film to have a female in the cast. Prior to that, it was the norm for male artistes to enact the female roles.

BETTER FACILITIES AT FILM CITY PROMISED

Govind Swaroop, secretary, cultural affairs, govt. of Maharashtra, and managing director of Film City, met film people in an informal meeting organised by G.P. Shirke on behalf of the Chamber of Motion Picture Producers, on 20th May. He patiently heard the various problems faced by the film industry at Film City during shooting and promised to solve these problems. He further informed that Film City had various new plans to give better amenities and facilities for filmmaking at Film City.

He said that Film City had already introduced a medical facility and insurance scheme, available for the benefit of the producers. When asked about the security at Film City, he explained that now, Film City had ex-army personnel on its security team, and security patrolling teams had also been introduced.

The film personalities present at the meeting were Sultan Ahmed, Gaffarbhai Nadiadwala, Ramesh Taurani, T.C. Dewan, Jagdish Sharma, Surjit Aujla, Mehul Kumar and Sushama Shiromanee alongwith representatives of cine workers.

DIMPLE KAPADIA BEREAVED

Chunibhai Kapadia, father of Dimple Kapadia, expired on 17th May in Bombay. Chautha was held on 20th.

BABY GIRL FOR ANAND

Music director Anand’s (Anand Milind) wife delivered a baby girl on 22nd May at Pushpa nursing home, Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri, Bombay. This is the first child of the couple in 17 years.

YOU ASKED IT

When does the Rs. 15 lakh subsidy become due to a Marathi film producer — during the making of a film or at the time of release of the second (next) film?

– Firstly, Rs. 15 lakh subsidy has been promised by the Maharashtra chief minister, it hasn’t been made a policy decision so far. Whenever the policy comes (expected in mid-June), the subsidy for a film will become payable at the time of production of the producer’s next film, that too, in four instalments.

What is the progress of Mehul Kumar’s Aey Watan Tere Liye? Will it be released on 15th August this year, as planned?

– Insiders reveal that the film has been postponed for the time being. It is rumoured that Mehul Kumar is toying with the idea of another film with Amitabh Bachchan and Nana Patekar together.

Why are other film associations not as strong as the CCCA?

– Because there’s no unity among members in the other trade bodies.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Jayshree Talkies, Bijapur, has completed a hat-trick of silver jubilees in 1997 with RAJA HINDUSTANI. The earlier jubilees celebrated were: RAJA in 1995, and DDLJ in 1996.

* A church set of Lala Damani’s SAAZISH, erected in Ooty, has become a tourist attraction. The set has people visiting it every day.

* Just a week before the release of J.P. Dutta’s BORDER on 6th June, his earlier film, KSHATRIYA, will be revived in Bombay under a new title, KHILADIYON KA MUQABALA. Incidentally, both are four-hero films.

Case For Collective Action

The scene in a magistrate’s court in Bombay earlier this week would agitate and shock any sensible person. A lady from Baroda had filed a writ petition in the court, alleging that heroines Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Karisma Kapoor, Raveena Tandon, Pooja Bhatt, Tabu and Mamta Kulkarni were all indulging in obscenity in films. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the lady came with a whole gang of her relatives and friends of all ages, to the court, obviously, with the intention of seeing and showing the stars in flesh and blood! Of course, the lady and her entourage must have been disappointed on not seeing a single actress as the heroines were all represented by their lawyers. Anyway, their disappointment is besides the point. What is the point is: how long can the industry and its people continue to be dragged to the court by such self-proclaimed custodians of law who, more often than not, are actually least concerned about the aesthetics they say they are fighting for.

It is not rare for mahila mandals to take up such issues in courts of law, only because an actor or actress refused to show their face or talk to some mad member of the mandal. Sometimes, the mere kick of troubling a busy and famous artiste prompts an individual or an organisation to make a case out of virtually nothing, and drag a helpless actress to court. And, the person making such a hue and cry must, more often than not, actually be seeing films like a crazy film buff.

The industry must collectively take up this matter with the authorities concerned so that punishment can be meted out to the complainant if it is established that the intention of the complainant was to simply harass an actor/actress or if the complaint is ab initio weak/senseless/baseless. If such a precedent is set, ninety-nine per cent of the cases against stars and filmmakers will never come up. In a recent judgement, a person falsely holding himself out to be Priyanka Gandhi’s husband was sent to jail. A judgement on similar lines in fraudulent cases involving stars is what is needed.

Coming back to the complainants. What are they actually trying to prove with such crazy cases? Their senselessness? Or are they fanning their egos? If they have a grouse, the right body to be addressed, in case of an objection to scenes in a film, is the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). And if they are so concerned about India’s culture and the morality of Indians, why do they turn a blind eye to girls wearing skimpier clothes in real life than our heroines on screen? Is it because a case against a nobody will get them nowhere and no publicity, while a case against a celebrity will get them fame and recognition?

Such fame and recognition be damned. High time, an end was put to such games played with popular names on grounds that are lame.

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Changing Luck?

Lady Luck seems to be smiling on Mushir Riaz who are known as unlucky producers in the industry. For one, the music of their Virasat has become extremely popular, which has made the film ‘hot’ among the city audience, at least. Their hero, Anil Kapoor, who wasn’t exactly going through a good phase of his career, has recently delivered a hit in Judaai. And their heroine, Tabu, has won a National Award for 1996. Mushir Riaz had better keep their fingers crossed so that these three lucky points translate into box-office luck for their moderately-priced Virasat.

Sorry, We’re Not In The Race

Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the debut-making director of Khamoshi, may not have had a taste of success, but he felt, his film could have picked up an award or two at the National Awards. Even this became impossible because Sanjay realised (too late) to his dismay that Polygram (who presented the film) had simply not applied for awards in a single category. And this, despite the fact that the Polygram people kept telling Sanjay that they had sent the print of the film to Delhi for the jury to see it. Phew! Wonder, why anybody would be averse to winning awards?

JEANS
(Dubbed)

Amritraj Solomon Communications P. Ltd.’s Jeans (dubbed from the Tamil film of the same name) is a love story. A girl falls in love with one of a pair of twins, but the father of the twins will hear nothing of getting his son married to her because he is adamant that his twin sons must be married to twin sisters only. The father, who himself has a twin brother, is fooled by the girl’s grandmother into believing that the girl, too, has a twin. The girl, in keeping with her grandmother’s wish, pretends, she has a twin sister. But finally, the truth is revealed, and the boys’ father refuses to relent. Ultimately, the aunt of the two boys steps in to convince the father of the futility of his adamant stand.

The film may have a novel story-line but the director has neither been able to make it a comedy nor a tear-jerker, although he attempts to do both. As the drama progresses, it appears as if a David Dhawan kind of a subject was being given an L.V. Prasad kind of a treatment. The humour is too South Indian to be lapped up by the Hindi film audience. As for the emotions, they simply don’t touch the heart and look too synthetic. Computer graphics (done by Pentafour) are brilliant but they will be appreciated only in cities. The track of the twin heroes is somewhat interesting but that of their father and his twin brother is too lengthy and boring.

Prashant is too fat but acts well in a double role. In dramatic scenes, he needs to improve. Aishwarya Rai would do well to give up her Miss World (and model) hangover because of which she is too stiff to be true. She looks pretty in some scenes in which her costumes (Neeta Lulla) are attractive. But her acting leaves a lot to be desired. Both, Prashant and Aishwarya, dance well. Nasser is good in a double role. Laxmi is quite natural. Radhika does a wonderful job. Senthil and Raju Sundaram do not appeal to the Hindi film audience. Janaki Sabesh is quite nice. S. Ve. Shekhar is so-so.

Shankar’s direction is average. A.R. Rahman’s music is very good. ‘Hai re hai re hai rabba’, ‘Ajooba’ and ‘Columbus’ songs are appealing. Song picturisations on foreign locations, including the wonders of the world, are breathtakingly beautiful. Photography is top class. Technically, brilliant. Production values are very good. Dubbing is okay.

On the whole, Jeans has a body beautiful (locations, photography) but not a matching soul (story, screenplay, emotions). It will, therefore, not appeal to the Hindi cine goers and, except in select cinemas in a handful of cities, it will fail to create any mark.

Released on 15-5-’98 at Metro and 6 other cinemas of Bombay thru Metro Films. Publicity: excellent. Opening: fair. …….Also released all over. Opening was poor at most of the places.

HITLER

B.M.B. Productions’ Hitler is a tale of brotherhood, betrayal and the bad world. It is about an IPS officer who is posted as a jailor and who earns the nickname of Hitler because of his strictness. He has an educated but unemployed younger brother who almost worships him for his principles, an advocate-wife who has given up her practice, two younger sisters and a son. The jailor and the city’s high-profile don are in conflict with each other because the former does not succumb to the pressures of the latter. To teach the jailor a lesson, the don frames his (jailor’s) brother for a murder. While the jailor believes that his brother may have committed the crime, his wife wears the lawyer’s gown again, to prove her brother-in-law innocent. But when the jailor also realises that his brother is not the murderer, he tries to convince the police commissioner about his brother’s innocence. The commissioner’s unrelenting attitude, thanks to the don’s influence, forces the jailor to give in his resignation. Thereafter, he and his brother (who escapes from jail) alongwith a friend get the don arrested.

The revenge story is routine and there’s not even an attempt to offer anything new, neither in content nor in presentation. The first half is dull and boring. The film becomes a bit interesting after interval. Dialogues are ordinary. Emotions fall flat.

Mithun Chakraborty does well. Manik Bedi acts freely. Raghuvaran does alright as a sophisticated don. Hemant Birje is fair. Shilpa Shirodkar acts ably. Dipti Bhatnagar is passable. Johny Lever is funny at places. Mohnish Bahl, Shiva, Satyen Kappu, Aroon Bakshi, Sanjeeva and the others lend adequate support.

Direction passes muster. The film does not have the support of good music. Two songs have a bit of appeal but that’s about all. Song picturisations are routine. Photography is quite nice. Action scenes are not very thrilling.

On the whole, Hitler is an ordinary fare for small centres only. Its low price is about the only redeeming feature.

Released on 15-5-’98 at Alankar and 18 other cinemas of Bombay thru Dilsa Distributors Combine. Publicity: so-so. Opening: average. …….Also released all over.

LATEST POSITION

It was a normal week with an additional holiday for Buddha Poornima.

Duplicate has done well in most of the ‘A’ class centres. It should fetch commission in many circuits. 1st week Bombay 55,55,786 (90.89%) from 13 cinemas (8 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 10,63,323 from 6 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Baroda about 94%, Padra 1,95,288, Rajkot 1,74,535, Jamnagar 1,30,768 (1 in matinee unrecd.), Adipur 1,13,055; Kolhapur 1,80,000 (1 unrecd.), Solapur 1,61,744; Hubli 3,11,255, Belgaum 3,89,833 from 3 cinemas, Dharwad 1,46,831; Delhi 47,21,500 (75.94%) from 12 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 4,92,002 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 3,67,603, Agra 2,75,365, Allahabad 2,00,000, Meerut 1,76,262, Bareilly 1,34,292 (67.56%), Dehradun 1,75,000; Amritsar 52,156; Calcutta 20,22,553 from 12 cinemas; Nagpur 8,61,482 from 6 cinemas, Amravati (30 shows) 1,82,453 (93%), Akola 1,76,234, Bhilai 2,23,125, Yavatmal 1,82,422; Indore 4,06,038 from 2 cinemas (2 on F.H.), Bhopal 5,61,633 from 3 cinemas; Jaipur 12,55,375 from 4 cinemas, Bikaner 2,75,542; Hyderabad 37,40,023 from 14 cinemas, share 20,14,320; good in Mysore where it is expected to yield overflow; Vijayawada 3,07,050 (98%), Visakhapatnam 2,10,398 (98%).

Aunty No. 1 2nd week Bombay 14,83,014 (44.99%) from 8 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 83,416 (1 unrecd.), Rajkot (matinee) 17,796, Jamnagar (matinee) 8,175 (1 in regular unrecd.); Solapur 42,933; Hubli 98,374, Belgaum 97,814; Delhi 15,91,074 from 10 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,81,235 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,45,860, Allahabad 71,800, Bareilly 65,329 (30.23%), Dehradun 51,295; Calcutta 2,76,927 from 3 cinemas; Nagpur 1,10,179 from 2 cinemas, Akola 49,868, total 1,56,483, Dhule 70,352, Durg 58,604 (1st 98,679), Jalgaon 76,404, Yavatmal (4 days) 10,679; Bhopal 1,43,494; Jaipur 2,44,204 from 2 cinemas, 1st week Jodhpur 1,99,000; 2nd week Hyderabad 3,35,751 from 3 cinemas.

Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya 7th week Bombay 8,80,808 (49.38%) from 6 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 98,451, Baroda (6 days) 78,744, Rajkot (mg. shows) 6,846; Kolhapur 63,000, Solapur (14 shows) 1,02,706, 1st week Barsi 62,369; 7th week Delhi 6,37,769 from 4 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,04,282, Lucknow 2,30,841, Agra 82,500, Allahabad 56,000, Bareilly 50,000 (26.21%), Dehradun 69,000; Calcutta 1,73,196; Nagpur 97,909, Akola 70,394, total 7,99,394, share 5,88,946, Bhilai 50,762, 4th week Wardha 38,340, 7th Chandrapur 66,143, total 8,00,360, 1st week Sagar 93,144; 7th week Bhopal (6 days) 1,13,420; Jaipur 1,91,216; Hyderabad 4,79,061 from 3 cinemas (2 in noon).

Chhota Chetan (partly dubbed, revived, 3-D), 4th week Bombay (TF) 20,95,391 (98.28%) from 3 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,62,073; 2nd week Kolhapur (TF, 6 days) 1,42,400, Solapur (TF) 1,29,390; 4th week Delhi 12,56,722 from 3 cinemas; 3rd week Kanpur 61,615, 4th Agra 67,000. Opened this week in Nizam (opening was very good in Hyderabad).

……….

RAMESH TAURANI BEREAVED

Parsram Shewakramani, father-in-law of Ramesh Taurani (Tips), expired on 11th May in Bombay.

SUBHASH GHAI TO LAUNCH HI-TECH STUDIO

Producer-director Subhash Ghai will soon launch a studio with post-production suites and a shooting floor in Bombay. The studio, located at plot no. A-18, New Link Road, Oshiwara, Andheri, is called Audeus and it is equipped with state-of-the-art equipments like Avid Media Composer 8000 with Film Option. Another plus point of the studio is its dubbing suite which boasts of Fairlights MFX3 Plus Digital Audio Work-station. Among the studio’s other features are an 8-track recording facility on MO disk, a single dedicated keyboard which controls both, audio and the Beta recorder, a non-linear editing system which allows single track on 8-track editing features, a Beta projection on 10′ X 7′ screen via Barco projector, an online UPS with 1-hour battery back-up, and a sound transfer room equipped with 35mm, DA 98, DAT, CD, etc.

Apart from these, Audeus also features an air-conditioned shooting floor that can be instantly converted into three to four types of offices, bedrooms or conference rooms. The floor has a ceiling with concealed lights.

MANOJ KHIVASARA TO WED

Marriage of Bombay distributor and exhibitor Manoj Khivasara (Mahalaxmi Film Distributors, Bombay, and Mahalaxmi Theatre, Nasik) with Neelu will be solemnised on 22nd May in Nasik at Nasik Club on Nasik-Pune Road.

GRAND-DAUGHTER FOR KISHINCHAND JANIANI

Prem Janiani, son of Kishinchand Janiani of Prem Films, Jaipur, was blessed with a baby girl on 7th May.

CINEMA TO REOPEN

Geeta Palace Cinema (previously known as Madhuban) is due to reopen shortly in Bareilly. The cinema has a seating capacity of 704 and a nett capacity of Rs. 3,409.38 per show. Its capacity for 28 shows is Rs. 95,462.64.

YOU ASKED IT

What is your personal opinion about the film industry being granted industry status by the government?

– It is not clear how many benefits of industry will accrue to the film industry or how much the film industry will be able to advantageously use the industry status. Power tariff for cinemas and studios will go down and that may be a great saving. Frankly speaking, ever since the government granted film business the status of an industry, it has become a fashion with the film industry people to simply express joy and excitement over the issue without really knowing what’s in store for the film industry.

What is the price at which Ramgopal Varma’s Satya is being sold?

– The producers expect 1 to 1.25 crore per major circuit.

Is it true that Aamir Khan and Manisha Koirala have been paired in Indra Kumar and Ashok Thakeria’s new film?

– Yes, they’ve been teamed together in Indra Kumar and Ashok Thakeria’s new film, titled MANN.

Delhi HC Restrains Cable TV Operators From Telecasting Vinod Chopra’s ‘Kareeb’

Producer-director Vinod Chopra is leaving no stone unturned to protect his Kareeb from the menace of cable piracy. He recently filed a civil suit in the Delhi high court and has succeeded in obtaining, even before the film’s release, an ex parte civil injunction which presents Indus In Media and Siti Cable Networks Ltd. from telecasting Kareeb in any form till 22nd July, 1998 (the next date of hearing).

This is, perhaps, the first time a producer has attempted to restrain cable TV operators from telecasting his film illegally. Cable TV operators usually show new films just days after their theatrical release although they do not hold the rights for them.

Golden Voice Talat Mahmood Is Dead

Aye mere dil kahin aur chal
Gham ki duniya se dil bhar gaya
Dhoondh le ab koi ghar naya

Renowned playback singer of the forties, fifties and sixties, Talat Mahmood’s hit song from Daag rings true today after the death of the singer on 9th May at 8 a.m. at his residence in Bombay following a heart attack. He was 75.

Talat had been struck with Parkinson’s disease some years ago and he was in hibernation for almost a decade. He is survived by his wife, son Khalid, who is a singer, and a daughter.

Trained in music in the Morris College of Music in Lucknow, Talat had a penchant for singing right from his adolescent days. He was picked up by HMV and he recorded private songs in Calcutta. One such number, Tasveer teri dil mera bahala na sakegi, written by Faiyyaz Hashmi and composed by Kamal Dasgupta, sold over one lakh copies in the late 1940s and turned Talat into a singing sensation.

Music director Anil Biswas gave Talat a break in Bollywood in Arzoo in 1951. Aye dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal, which he rendered for Dilip Kumar in Arzoo, marked the beginning of his long association with Biswas and Dilip Kumar. It also made him a sought-after name in Bollywood with music directors like Naushad, Sajjad Hussain, Shankar Jaikishen, S.D. Burman, Khayyam, Salil Choudhury and others recording songs in his voice. His speciality was love-lorn and melodious songs.

Tasveer banata hoon, tasveer nahin banti, Mera jeevan saathi bichhad gaya, Jaltein hain jiske liye, Itna na mujhse tu pyar badha, Shaam-e-gham ki kasam, Phir wohi shaam wohi gham, Aahaa rimjhim ke yeh pyare pyare geet liye, Rahi matwale, Man dheere dheere gaye re, Husnwalon ko dil na do, Shukriya aye tera pyar shukriya, Aisi chali hawa ki khushi dukh mein dhal gayee and Mitwa nahi aaye were some of his hit numbers. He also sang geets and ghazals with unparalleled skill. The beauty of his voice was the quivering silken touch.

Talat also acted in some films like Waaris, Tu Aur Main, Samapti, Dak Babu, Ek Gaon Ki Kahani, Malik and Sone Ki Chidiya. But he wasn’t successful as an actor as he was as a singer.

Talat Mahmood’s funeral was a private affair. Manna Dey and Naushad’s son, Raju, were among the few outsiders who were present.

‘Thai Saheb’, ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’ Bag Swarn Kamal

Girish Kasaravalli’s Thai Saheb (Kannada) has won the Swarn Kamal for the best film of 1997 in the 45th National Awards announced in Delhi on 9th May by jury chairperson B. Saroja Devi. Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai also bagged the Swarn Kamal for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment.

J.P. Dutta’s Border has won the Nargis Dutt Award for the best film on national integration. The Indira Gandhi award for the first film of a director has gone to A.K. Lohitdas for his Malayalam film Bhoothakannadi. Govind Nihalani’s Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa has won the National Award for the best Hindi film.

The best director award went to Jayaraaj for his Malayalam film Kaliyattam. The best actor award was shared by Balachandra Menon (Samaantharangal) and Suresh Gopi (Kaliyattam), both Malayalam films. Even the best actress award was shared by the two heroines of Dahan (Bengali), Indrani Halder and Rituparna Sengupta. The best supporting actor award went to Prakash Raj for Iruvar (Tamil). Karisma Kapoor won the best supporting actress award for Dil To Pagal Hai. Javed Akhtar won the award for the best lyricist for his song Sandese aate hain in Border.

Winners in the regional films category were: Dahan (Bengali) by Rituparno Ghosh, Shesh Drusti (Oriya), Main Maa Punjab Di (Punjabi), written and directed by Balwant Dullat and produced by Devinder Walia, Mangamma (Malayalam), Terrorist (Tamil), Moongarina Minchu (Kannada) and Sindooram (Telugu).

Other award winners were: best screenplay – Rituparno Ghosh (Dahan, Bengali); best music – M.M. Keervani (Annamayya, Telugu); best cinematography – Santosh Sivan (Iruvar, Tamil); best editing – Sreekar Prasad (Terrorist, Tamil); best audiography – Sampath (Ennu Swantham Janakikutty, Malayalam); best art direction – Ramesh Desai (Thai Saheb, Kannada); best costume designer – Vaishali Kasaravalli (Thai Saheb, Kannada); best choreographer – Shiamak Davar (Dil To Pagal Hai); best male playback singer – Hariharan (Mere dushman mere bhai in Border); best female playback singer – Chitra (Payale chun mun in Virasat).

Ramaayanam (Telugu), directed by Guna Shekhar, won the best children’s film award. Dhanraj won the best child actor award for his performance in Dhanna.

Jury’s special award for the best actress went to Jayamala. Deepa Gahlot won the award for the best film critic.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Lata Mangeshkar had never rendered a song under the direction of composer A.R. Rahman until recently. She has now sung under him for three films — Boney Kapoor’s PUKAAR, Nazir Ahmed’s Jackie-Shah Rukh starrer, and Mani Ratnam’s DIL SE.

* DTPH is the fourth film of Yash Chopra to bag the National Award for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. His three earlier award winners were CHANDNI, DARR and DDLJ. A great feat indeed!

* Javed Akhtar has won the National Award for his lyrics for the second consecutive year. He won it last year for SAAZ, and this year for BORDER.

* Following some differences between producer K.C. Bokadia and his financier, the deliveries of his HITLER this week could be effected only late. As a result, the film could not open on Friday in some circuits. In Bombay too, matinee shows of the film were cancelled on Friday. Bombay distributor Dilip Dhanwani had to reportedly pay more than his contracted amount for the delivery.

* Tips has decided to have a Friday release for its JAB PYAAR KISISE HOTA HAI all over. Even in U.P., C.P., C.I. and Orissa, the film will not open on Thursday, as is normal.

* While there’s no system of advance booking in Jaipur (or, for that matter, anywhere in Rajasthan), distributor Sunderdas Sonkiya tried it with an English film, TITANIC. He opened plans for the film at Prem Prakash cinema, Jaipur, on Wednesday and the response to the advance booking was very good! The film has opened this week at Prem Prakash and Mayank.

* It is noteworthy that a Gujarati film, Amar Kumar Jadeja’s BENI BAAR BAAR VARSE HUN AVYO, has been sold for Gujarat and Saurashtra on announcement itself. Its audio rights have been sold. …..The theme song for the film was recorded on 13th May at Ajivasan Sound live — that is, tracks and the voices playing simultaneously. The unusually long song has a duration of 24 minutes.

* Distributors of Bihar are seriously contemplating taking deliveries of films on Fridays and releasing them in their circuit on Sundays. This idea is the result of exorbitant film prices, poor fate of recent releases, and the invariable delay in the arrival of prints in Bihar.

* The Kannada remake of the Tamil super-hit KAATHAL KOTTAI, titled YARE NEENU CHALUVE, is dong very well in Karnataka and is poised to be a hit. It has been produced by Rockline Venkatesh and directed by D. Rajendra Babu.

MIX MASALA

TIT FOR TAT?

At the national conference on ‘Challenges before Indian Cinema’ on 10th May at The Leela Kempinski, Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde referred, in his speech, to star-MP Vinod Khanna as “Vinod Kumar”. Later, Dilip Kumar, in his speech, inadvertently addressed Gopinath Munde as “home minister”. A case of tit for tat? Well, that wasn’t all. FICCI chairman K.K. Modi addressed I & B minister Sushma Swaraj as “Shri” instead of “Smt.”!

IN & OUT OF BOMBAY

Mr. Ashok Tahirani of Ashoka Enterprises, Indore, is in town (634-2335) and will return to Indore on 17th May.

Producer and director Rakesh Roshan will leave for Australia to scout locations for KAHO NAA…PYAR HAI, on 20th May and will return after 10-12 days.

Mr. Balkrishna Shroff of Shringar Films, Bombay, will be back from Singapore on 18th May.

Mr. Ravi Machhar of Abhinay Cinema, Aurangabad, left Bombay for Bangalore today (16th May) and will be back tomorrow.

INDUSTRY STATUS FOR FILM INDUSTRY AT LAST

It was like a typical Hindi film. The best part came in the climax. Before that, the national conference on ‘Challenges before Indian Cinema’ had its highs and lows. But its climax was absolutely unexpected and unpredictable. Perhaps, it was because of that that the conference, organised jointly by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industries (FICCI) and the Film Federation of India (FFI) on 10th May at The Leela Kempinski Hotel, was such a grand hit.

The climax comprised the new BJP government’s I & B minister, Sushma Swaraj, granting industry status to film business. Amidst a standing ovation, Sushma Swaraj announced that she and her government had accorded the status of industry to the film business.

The film industry had been fighting for this status since years. In fact, so concerted had the fight become in the last few years that FFI president Santosh Singh Jain said, after the industry was granted recognition as an industry, that May 10 should be celebrated as the film industry’s Liberation Day. However, FFI general secretary K.D. Shorey felt, it was too premature to celebrate the industry status. According to Shorey, “The day even 10 producers can get finance from banks due to the industry status, will be the day for celebration.”

Although it may take some time before the actual benefits of an industry accrue to the film business, once that starts, it may be possible for film producers to borrow money from banks and financial institutions. What’s more, the power tariff of cinema houses may be brought down at par with the tariff of other industries. Besides these, a whole lot of other advantages will also accrue to the industry once the modalities are worked out. But there may also be some disadvantages attached to the industry status.

Sushma made it clear that the decision to grant industry status was not a momentous one or to win any applause, but that it was a well-thought of decision because it was needed for the betterment of cinema and for promoting good films. She informed that she had discussed the matter with finance minister Yashwant Sinha before attending the conference, and the modalities would be worked out soon and a notification, issued.

Sushma Swaraj, who had come well prepared for the conference, in a very business-like talk, dealt with every point raised in the earlier sessions of the conference. She said that the industry would be put on the concurrent list, and an amendment bill would be placed in Parliament in the next session for that. That would help the government tackle the thorny issues of the industry, she added.

On the demand for forming an export council for promotion of films abroad, she readily agreed to form a Film Export Council, considering it a necessary step to increase the export earnings from films, which had grown from a meagre Rs. 15 crore to Rs. 150 crore in the last five years, just on the industry’s own efforts.

NO ABOLITION OF CENSOR BOARD

Sushma refused to scrap the Censor Board as demanded by many members of the industry. However, she put forth her own idea of a green channel and another red channel of censorship, if the industry agreed to have self-censorship as it was doing in the case of film posters. She explained, “If the producer considers his film fit for universal screening and feels, it does not violate any censor guidelines, he can go through the green channel, which means, he can release the film without going to the Censor Board. In other cases, he can pass through the red channel, which means that he would have to obtain a certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification. But she warned that if anything objectionable was found in the films cleared through the green channel, stringent punishment would be imposed on the producer. She asked the members of the industry to think over it and discuss the matter with her.

On her own, the I & B minister also mooted the idea of forming a development council for films, under her own ministry. The council, she added, would also have leaders of the film industry as members. The council will discuss industry problems on a quarterly basis and thus, the industry would not have to run after the ministers, but would rather be invited by the ministers themselves, she explained. In this way, efforts would be made to solve the industry’s problems as soon as possible. She also said, she wanted to form a group of key advisors from the film world, and the advisors so selected would have to be ‘spotless’ people.

Earlier, welcoming the minister, FICCI president K.K. Modi repeated FICCI’s decision to accept filmmaking as an industry and to take the film industry in its fold.

He urged the government to change those policies which were not beneficial for the industry and remove all the impediments in the growth of the film industry. He said, finance was the life-blood of business, and the doors to get finance from banks and financial institutions should be opened for the film industry by recognising it as an industry just like FICCI had recognised it. He lamented the gross violation of intellectual property rights by indiscreet cable TV operators, as well as the other problems of the industry which needed urgent attention.

Shabana Azmi, tracing the history and development of the film industry in brief, right from the days of Dadasaheb Phalke, said that Indian cinema was the only cinema in the world which had not been affected by Hollywood films because “Indians love Indian films wherever they are”. She emphasised that the National Film Development Corporation had been established with the idea of promoting good films and it had done a lot of good work but it was changing track under some compulsion and that it should redefine its role now to make a fruitful contribution in the development of the film industry. She condemned the flogging of Hindi cinema by people from different walks of life, politicians included, without any rhyme or reason, just to get some publicity. Shabana urged the government to look into the problems of the industry urgently and sympathetically. She also emphasised the need for some soul-searching by the industry people.

HINDI: INDUSTRY’S GREATEST CONTRIBUTION

Shatrughan Sinha, in his forceful address, said that the major need of the industry was finance (and not lectures from ministers) for the promotion of the film industry, and even the fate of good films hung in mid-air for want of finance. He said, the film industry’s greatest contribution to the country was the Hindi language which had not only helped in national integration but had also attracted people of the other parts on the world to India. He urged the government to check piracy of films and also asked Indians not to copy films and music of other countries.

The representative of South Indian films, Gangadharan, presented a shawl to the I & B minister.

Inaugurating the conference in the morning, thespian Dilip Kumar lamented the conditions of the film industry due to cancerous taxation and lack of clean financial resources. He said, multi-taxation had killed about 25 great film institutions like Bombay Talkies, Prabhat Theatres and New Theatres and today’s filmmakers were suffering because of non-availability of finance from banks and financial institutions.

FICCI & FILM INDUSTRY

In his welcome address in the morning, FICCI president K.K. Modi first recognised filmmaking as an industry and the film industry as a partner of FICCI. Concluding his address, he announced that during FICCI’s annual awards function from this year onwards, a special award would be given to a person in visual media, for creativity.

Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister, Gopinath Munde, announced that if the Union government created a kitty of Rs. 1,000 crore for financing films, the government of Maharashtra would contribute Rs. 100 crore in it as its share. Regarding tax concessions, he invited a viable proposal from the film industry.

In his keynote address, former chairman of the National Film Development Corporation, D.V.S. Raju, said that with this national conference, the film industry had opened a new chapter in its history. He pointed out the need to get financial support from banks and financial institutions, saying that till now, the film industry was depending on the resources generated internally for producing 850-900 films every year in 14 languages to cater to millions of audience through a network of about 12,000 cinemas. Finance was also needed to construct more theatres, he added. He pleaded for the abolition of entertainment tax or at least for bringing it down to normal sales tax level and for stopping illegal screening of films on cable.

Raju commented that AIR’s royalty being paid to Indian film songs was not only the lowest but also discriminatory because an English song was paid Rs. 10 whereas Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and other Indian songs were paid only Rs. 2 per song. He wanted it increased to Rs. 25 per song.

Shyam Benegal blamed the present system of film financing as being responsible for pushing cinema into today’s pathetic situation. Professionalism and creativity in filmmaking had had to take a second place to ensure the security of investment against risks, he added.

PUNITIVE TAXES

“Film industry is taxed in a manner that suggests that these are punitive in nature, designed, perhaps inadvertently, to discourage cinema rather than encourage the industry,” said Benegal and asked the government to be rational. He also said, filmmakers saw censorship as a needless sources of aggravation, unnecessary and undeserved, while the Censor Board looked at the filmmaker as some kind of a subversive, intent on polluting the cultural landscape. “A cat-and-mouse game is played between the censors and the filmmakers and that had made censorship infructuous and meaningless,” he concluded.

Vinod Khanna, now a member of Parliament too, in his volatile speech, pleaded to the government not to give a step-motherly treatment to films. He emphasised on the role played by the film industry in national integration. He pointed out some ways to get finance and develop the film world. He also emphasised the need for self-retrospection by the film industry.

EXTORTION MONEY, NOT ENTERTAINMENT TAX

Presenting a vote of thanks, FFI president Santosh Singh Jain hoped “the new government will not lack the necessary political will to study and understand the perpetual problems of the film industry and take suitable steps to solve them.” Jain pointed out that inadequate market was the greatest hurdle in the development of even regional films and thus more theatres were needed to be constructed in most parts of the country. Jain called entertainment tax a malady which was the mother of all ills, and termed it ‘extortion money’ rather than entertainment tax.

The first session of the conference was devoted to ‘Industry status for film industry’. P.G. Mankad, secretary, I & B, chaired it. Co-chairman Amit Khanna said that some states had granted a partial industry status to films, but not the government of India. Recognition as an industry was just the first step towards an organised growth of film entertainment business. Institutional finance on reasonable terms would go a long way in relieving the film industry which provides direct employment to 10 lakh people and indirect to 20 lakh others, he said.

Khanna suggested that a methodology be developed to value the intellectual property rights so that producers could offer these assets as collateral security for raising money from banks etc. He asked the government to involve industry professionals in all decisions which affected the smooth functioning of the film industry and to put the industry on its concurrent list. He also suggested that a Film & TV Promotion Council be established by the government.

SERIOUS BUSINESS

Subhash Ghai pointed to the insecure position of filmmakers who are affected more by loose perceptions and biased government officials. Until and unless the filmmakers were made secure, to expect good films from them would be futile, he explained. Film business was a serious business and it needed industry status for its survival, he added.

Arijit Dutta, an exhibitor of Calcutta, was critical of the government for using the film industry as the proverbial golden goose. In a well-worded speech, he said, the industry deserved to be given the status of other industries.

Mankad assured that he would put the industry’s viewpoint before the government.

P.R. Dasgupta, secretary, education, ministry of Human Resource Development, chaired the second session, on ‘Intellectual property rights and Indian film industry’. Speaking as co-chairperson, K.D. Shorey threw light on the Copyright Act and said, despite the Indian Copyright Act being one of the most comprehensive and fair pieces of legislation, copyright holders were suffering because of the utter apathy, indifference and, sometimes, the callous attitude of the executive, both, in the states and at the centre, and the enforcement agencies. He insisted that it was the duty of the state to ensure with diligence the protection of the arts and inventions. During the last 10 years, some 800-odd cases were made against pirates but even a minimum punishment had not been granted in a single case, the lamented.

Mrs. P.V. Valsala G. Kutty, registrar of copyrights, presented a paper on copyrights.

P.R. Dasgupta agreed with K.D. Shorey and assured help in the best possible manner.

The third session was devoted to ‘Taxation issues related to the film industry’. Former I & B secretary P. Murari chaired the session. Yash Chopra, dwelling on section 80HHC of the Income-Tax Act, said that with the introduction of the section in 1983 with the object of giving incentives to exporters of films, 100% exemption on export earnings was allowed. As a result, there was a remarkable jump in software exports from about Rs. 20 crore per annum to Rs. 150 crore per annum. However, suddenly, the I-T department changed its stand and held that export of software was not entitled to deduction under the section as films were not ‘goods’ or ‘merchandise’. The entire film fraternity had become the victim of a rather fanciful interpretation of the said section by a couple of assessing officers in the I-T department, he sighed.

Yash Chopra requested for a complete abolition of countervailing duty on import of raw stock and the unreasonable restrictions imposed on film producers for film shootings abroad.

HIGHLY DISCRIMINATORY

South’s L. Suresh informed that section 285B of the I-T Act, which makes it compulsory for the producer to file a statement containing particulars of payments of over Rs. 5,000 in the aggregate made by him or due from him to each such person as was engaged by him in the production, within 30 days of the completion of the film, was only for the film trade. It was highly discriminatory and should be removed, he added.

Sv. Rm. Ramanathan from South presented the entertainment tax structure in the various states and appealed to the government to abolish entertainment tax.

The chief commissioner of income-tax, B. Mishra, assured that he would look into the matter and do the needful.

INSURANCE FACILITIES

In the final session on ‘Institutional financing for film industry’, chaired by V. Subramaniam, executive director, Reserve Bank of India, and co-chaired by K.G. Dossani, problems in bank financing for films were discussed. Dossani pointed out that there was no National Film Policy till today though a working group on National Film Policy had made various recommendations in 1980. He said, banks treated film production as a low-priority and high-risk activity. Film industry needed concessional finance from institutions, for which appropriate surety in the form of pledges of Intellectual Property Rights could be provided. He said, insurance facilities must be made available, covering risk, as was being done in the cases of other industries.

K. Kannan, deputy chairman, Indian Banks Association, put forward the banks’ difficulties in providing finance for films.

Chairman Subramaniam informed that the Reserve Bank had not put any restrictions on banks for providing finance for films. When a suggestion was made that a committee should be formed to study film financing, he readily agreed.

FFI treasurer N.N. Sippy proposed the vote of thanks. FICCI general secretary Dr. Amit Mitra conducted the programme very efficiently.

Mixed Reactions To Industry Status

B.R. CHOPRA

I am more than happy with what we have achieved so far. The whole demand for the industry status was to gain respectability as far as film finance is concerned. Now that this demand is granted, we must show, by our future doing, that we deserve it.

BHARAT SHAH

I think, the move will only benefit five or six people in the industry. The change will remain only symbolic in nature as it will fail to achieve anything practically. The banks will only grant finance to those producers who can provide some kind of security. Very few producers will be able to do that. Hence some may bribe a bank official to get a loan approved. However, when the banks will be unable to recover such loans, they will become stricter and the whole scenario will revert to what it is today.

RAMESH SIPPY (Bombay distributor)

It is definitely a move in the positive direction, but how much it will achieve remains to be seen. We should be happy if we are able to derive even 10% of the total benefits expected out of this measure.

SAAWAN KUMAR TAK

It is difficult to say that the change will be for the better. In my opinion, the exercise will only help four-five people at the top. For the rest, it will not make any difference whatsoever. Of course, some producers will go on to bribe the bank managers to get loans approved and, as a result, the industry will earn a bad reputation. In a nutshell, the move will make the rich richer while the poor will remain as they are.

U.A. THADANI

All are very happy. Something will surely come out of it.

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Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Figures Frighten Him; His Figures Frighten All

It does look like Dilip Kumar was not briefed properly before he delivered the opening speech at the National Conference on ‘Challenges before Indian Cinema’. How else could one explain the faux pas he committed during his speech? Dilip Kumar claimed that out of every Rs. 100 collected by a film at the ticket window, only about Rs. 4 or 5 comes to the producer! Such an erroneous remark leads one to wonder whether he meant that the rest of the earnings go to fill the government’s coffers? We do not think so. Maybe, he meant that the exhibitors/distributors take away a very large part of a film’s earnings as compared to the producers. But even if Dilip Kumar thinks so, what was the necessity to bring up this issue at the conference with the government. After all, the issue (of sharing a film’s earnings) is an internal one. Why drag the government into it? And Mr. Dilip Kumar should know that if the distributor keeps his share, it is because he has already given the producer an MG royalty amount even before the film has been released. It would have been wiser for Dilip Kumar if he had taken his self-confessed fear for figures more seriously and stayed away from playing with them. For, at the same conference, he revealed that Mathematics was his weakest subject and he used to score just 4 marks in a paper of 100!

Rather Funny

Distributors in Amravati are governed by a different Income-Tax Act, it seems. Although the income-tax rules provide that amortisation of MG royalty and cost of prints and publicity is allowed if the film is released at least six months prior to the year-ending, in reality, the Amravati income-tax office does not allow the amortisation if a film has not realised its cost, even if it is released 6 months prior to the year-end. In such a case (when a film does not recover its MG royalty, cost of prints and publicity), the I-T department allows each print cost to be allowed only if that print (the cost of which is claimed) has been screened for a stipulated number of weeks, which is too high. There’s no such provision in the Income-Tax Act or the Rules, and it is only the Amravati distributors who have to maintain a record of the print utilisation. Distributor Pramod Munot has won in the appeal against the department, before the CIT (A) as well as the Appellate Tribunal. But the department has now appealed to the high court.

‘Double Role’ Party

The Hindi dubbed version of Jeans was premiered at Metro Cinema, Bombay, on 14th May. The film’s all-India rights holders, Metro Films, also organised a grand party at the Taj Mahal Hotel after its premiere. Now, call it a coincidence or whatever, the wedding anniversary of Tolu Bajaj (who is one of the major partners in Metro Films) fell on the same day. In fact, he was married 23 years ago at the very venue of the Jeans party — that is, the Ball Room of Taj Mahal! And no, the party on 14th May, 1998 was not at all a planned coincidence. In keeping with the film’s ‘double roles’ flavour — it has double roles of hero Prashant as well as of Nasser — the premiere party had a double significance.

HERO HINDUSTANI

R.G. Films (India)’s Hero Hindustani is a comedy fare with some emotions thrown in too. A millionaire Indian, settled in London, compels his grand-daughter to go to India and get married to the (Indian) boy selected by him. The grand-daughter loves somebody else in London and, with the aim of fooling her grandfather, agrees to follow his instructions but on the condition that she will go to India unannounced and marry the selected boy only if found suitable. In India, she meets a tourist guide who is young, smart, talkative and intelligent. She takes him along to London and bluffs to her grandfather that he is her Indian husband. The guide is least interested in marriage, but he slowly and surely wins the heart of the old man. Not only that, he also wins over the girl herself who used to hitherto hate him.

The film has several light moments but while some of them are enjoyable, others are oft-repeated and, therefore, lack freshness and novelty. The story, which reminds of Manchali, looks somewhat farcical but is not completely hilarious to offset its farcical character. There are some emotions but, except in one scene, they don’t really touch the heart. Dialogues are quite nice.

Arshad Warsi does well. Namrata Shirodkar is fair and makes a real impact in a dramatic scene towards the end. Paresh Rawal performs ably. Kader Khan, Shakti Kapoor and Asrani lend a few enjoyable moments. Parmeet Sethi, Reena Kapoor, Sanam Patel, Bharat Kapoor, Shehzaad Khan and the rest of the artistes are alright.

Aziz Sajawal’s direction is reasonably good but he could have added more punch to the drama and made it into a hilarious entertainer. Music is appealing although the absence of a hit number is sorely felt, more so because the film has no popular lead stars. All the same, the title song, ‘Deewana deewana’, ‘Aisi waisi baat nahin’ and ‘Chand nazar aa gaya’ are hummable. Song picturisations are eye-pleasing. Action is functional. Camerawork (Najeeb Khan) is of a good standard. Editing should have been better. Production and other technical values are nice.

On the whole, Hero Hindustani is a fair entertainer but will suffer mainly because of its lead artistes who don’t have any star-status. Its chances in circuits like East Punjab, Bengal, Bihar and Rajasthan are bleak, and in Maharashtra, fair.

Released on 20-10-’98 at Metro (matinee) and 3 other cinemas and on 23-10-’98 at 11 more cinemas of Bombay by Shreeji Enterprises thru Shringar Films. Publicity: very good. Opening: quite good. …….Also released all over. 1st 3 days Ahmedabad 84,266/-, Rajkot (matinee) 18,758/-, Solapur 63,062/-, Varanasi 24,925/-, Allahabad 51,500/-, Lucknow (2 days) 90,218/-, Nagpur (3 days) 91,639/- from 4 cinemas, Akola 48,200/-, Raipur (2 days) 43,365, Jabalpur (2 days) 48,688/-, Amravati (2 days) 55,728/-, Jodhpur 77,000/-, Bikaner 66,057/-, Hyderabad 4,21,235/- from 4 cinemas.

LATEST POSITION

Diwali this year has been joyous for the film industry as both the major releases of last week, BADE MIYAN CHOTE MIYAN and KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI, have done extraordinary business in the holiday week. In Bombay city-suburbs, it is after ages that two films have recorded 100% collections in the first week.

Bade Miyan Chote Miyan has recorded mind-boggling collections amidst mixed reports. Quite a heavy drop was noticed mid-week onwards in West Bengal and Rajasthan. Also dropped on 8th day in C.I. It is super-strong in Bombay. 1st week Bombay 61,08,012 (100%) from 14 cinemas (9 on F.H.), Amar-Chembur 4,15,425; Ahmedabad 14,40,826 from 6 cinemas, Baroda 100%, Rajkot 3,15,700 from 2 cinemas, Jamnagar 1,79,231 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee, 1 unrecd.), Bhuj 1,46,848; Sangli 100%, Kolhapur 2,61,909, Solapur 4,16,958 from 2 cinemas; Hubli 1,84,599 from 2 cinemas (1 in noon), Belgaum 1,12,799 (100%); Delhi 66,39,906 (88.46%) from 15 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Kanpur 2,96,415 (1 unrecd.), Lucknow (26 shows) 4,43,547 (1 unrecd.), Varanasi 2,16,775, Allahabad 2,74,000, Meerut 2,63,760 (100%), Bareilly (6 days) 1,83,461 (73.77%); Rohtak 70,821; Calcutta 34,59,904 from 24 cinemas; Nagpur 10,63,969 from 6 cinemas, Jabalpur (3 days) 1,97,214, Amravati (3 days) 1,36,032, Akola (3 days) 1,44,873, Raipur (3 days) 2,77,497 from 2 cinemas, Durg (3 days) 1,16,451, Jalgaon (3 days) 1,57,444 from 2 cinemas, Bhusawal (2 days) 100%, Wardha (3 days) 53,029, Chandrapur (4 days) 1,44,900, Yavatmal (3 days) 91,200, Khandwa (3 days) 1,06,438 from 2 cinemas; Indore 4,73,970 (60.82%) from 3 cinemas (3 on F.H.), Bhopal 6,42,700 from 3 cinemas; Jaipur 15,09,871 from 6 cinemas; Hyderabad 41,86,713 from 16 cinemas (3 in noon); Bangalore share about 15,00,000 from 8 cinemas; Vijayawada 2,95,330.

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai has collected outstanding and the appreciation is outstanding. 1st week Bombay 60,60,084 (100%) from 12 cinemas (5 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 15,60,208 from 5 cinemas, Baroda 2,24,855 (100%), Valsad 3,49,644 (94.40%), Padra 3,01,176, Rajkot 1,70,680 (1 unrecd.), Jamnagar 1,91,768 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Adipur 1,49,830, Anjar 92,500; Kolhapur 100%, Solapur 2,25,595 (100%); Hubli 3,43,403 (100%), Belgaum 1,27,890 (100%); Delhi 49,64,896 (93.10%) from 9 cinemas, Ghaziabad 2,78,249, total 57,81,757 from 11 cinemas; Kanpur 6,80,591 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow (30 shows) 5,58,120 (100%), Varanasi 3,69,908, Allahabad 2,28,100, Bareilly (6 days) 1,82,612 (75.10%), Hardwar 1,52,000; Rohtak 47,941; Calcutta  27,02,771 from 12 cinemas (others were on F.H.); Nagpur 8,19,640 from 3 cinemas, Amravati 2,80,036, Akola 1,95,000 (100%), Raipur (6 days) 1,71,512, Jalgaon (6 days) 1,76,045, Gondia (30 shows) 1,26,475, Chandrapur (29 shows) 2,15,930; Indore 6,29,498 (75.96%) from 3 cinemas (1 on F.H.), Bhopal (3 days) 1,95,701; Jaipur 11,93,358 from 3 cinemas, Ajmer (29 shows) 1,58,766, Bikaner 2,42,938, did wonderful in Kota; Hyderabad 41,91,493 from 15 cinemas (2 in noon), share 23,64,572; Bangalore 1st week share about 18 lakh (excellent); fantastic in Overseas — 1st week’s figures are all-time records in London and USA.

……….

AJIT BIDS ADIEU

One of the most popular villains of Hindi cinema, Ajit, passed away on 21st October at a private nursing home in Hyderabad. He was 76. Earlier last week, he had been admitted to the nursing home following a heart attack. He was buried on the morning of 22nd at the Jamali Kunta burial ground near Golkonda Fort in the city.

Ajit’s real name was Hamid Ali Khan. Born in 1922 in Hyderabad, he ran away from home in the early forties to try his luck in Hindi films. After a long struggle, he received a big break when he starred as a hero in Dholak in 1951. The film’s flopping at the box-office only lengthened Ajit’s struggling period until K. Asif’s Mughal-E-Azam released in 1960. His portrayal of Durjan Sinh, the loyal Rajput ally of Prince Salim, in the film won him instant recognition. Ajit began getting roles regularly thereafter.

In the mid-sixties, Ajit switched to another area of acting which, in no time, became his speciality. He played his first role as a villain in Suraj in 1966 and soon, developed a style of his own through successive films. His trademark dialogue delivery together with his natty sense of dressing and polished performances almost immediately catapulted him to the numero uno position among the villains in Hindi films. Together with his favourite sidekicks, ‘Mona Darling’ and ‘Raabert’, Ajit made a permanent place in the hearts of millions by proclaiming ‘Saari duniya mujhe Loin ke naam se jaanti hai!’ in Kalicharan. In fact, Mona Darrrling, Raabert (Robert) and Loin (Lion) continue to spawn off many a joke even today.

In a career spanning over four decades, Ajit acted in more than 200 films. Among his best remembered films are Shikari, Maa Ke Ansoo, Naya Daur (where he played a parallel lead with Dilip Kumar), Raja Aur Rank, Heer Ranjha, Jeevan Mrityu, Dharma, Jugnu, Kahani Kismat Ki, Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Zanjeer, Kalicharan, Mr. Natwarlal, Ram Balram and Razia Sultan.

Ajit quit acting in the early eighties following a by-pass surgery in the US. He later made a comeback with Police Officer in 1992 and subsequently, he acted in Jigar too. Later, he played some insignificant roles in a few other films. His last film was Dev Anand’s Gangster.

PRODUCTION NEWS

Raj Kanwar’s Film In Mauritius

An 11-day shooting spell of Inderjit Films Combine’s Prod. No. 2 will commence in Mauritius from Oct. 28. Two songs will be picturised featuring Mahima Chaudhry and Chandrachur Singh. The film also stars Sanjay Dutt, Shakti Kapoor and Raj Babbar. It is being produced and directed by Raj Kanwar from a screenplay by Robin Bhatt and Akash Khurana. Dialogues: Jainendra Jain. Choreographer: B.H. Tharun Kumar. Music director Rajesh Roshan has recorded all the seven songs penned by Sameer.

DO YOU KNOW?

* DDLJ has collected 55.72 lakh in 100 weeks’ run in matinee shows at Maratha Mandir, Bombay. The average collection of the 100 weeks is 74.48% of the capacity. It is now running in 101st week (154th combined week).

* Naaz cinema of Bombay, which had been boycotted by Hindi film distributors, has restarted screening Hindi films now. It ran GAMBLER (r.r.) last week and is currently screening DUSHMAN (r.r.).

* To cash in on the success of PYAAR TO HONA HI THA, Bombay distributors Mahalakshmi Film Distributors, will revive the Ajay Devgan starrer, HAQEEQAT, from 30th October in Bombay city & suburbs, with 15 prints. The concern has decided to use the chain of cinemas which it had booked for its PARDESI BABU (now postponed).

* Three hundred ladies were allowed free in every show on the opening day of SOON LADKI SASARCHI (Marathi; TF) at Shree Natwar, Jalgaon.

* TITANIC will be the first Hollywood film to celebrate silver jubilee (next week) at Rajshree, Baroda.

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Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

The Worst Maintained Cinemas

In the Film Information opinion poll  conducted by us last week (results printed in our Silver jubilee-cum-Diwali bumper issue), distributors reacted differently to our poser about the worst maintained cinemas in Bombay. While some refused to comment, there were a few who said, the list was long, very long. A couple of them opined that 75% of the cinemas were badly maintained. A summary of the replies of the various distributors confirmed that the worst maintained cinemas of Bombay are: Naaz, Dreamland, Shalimar, Super, Imperial, Hindmata, Star, Nandi, Sangam, Sangeeta, Uday, Odeon, Mehul, Pratap, Moti, Alankar, Royal, Nishat, New Roshan, Gulshan, Alfred…..

Quotable Quotes on CENSORSHIP….

“Censorship should be totally abolished. Cricketer Mohinder Amarnath once said that the Indian Cricket Board selectors were a pack of jokers. I would like to say that the censor board consists of a pack of jokers. They have given my Jaihind a ‘UA’ certificate while giving the trailer an ‘A’. Now, what could be a bigger joke than this?”

– Manoj Kumar

“Khatam kar do censors ko! Sab katke haath mein de dete hain aur maal khaate hain industry ka!”

– Farooq Sayed

“In my opinion, no cuts should be ordered in a film certified for adults. The audience today are mature enough to appreciate bold scenes.”

– Mukesh Bhatt

ON THE CURRENT STATE OF FILMS….

“Producers and directors have lost their status. When I entered the film industry, people used to say ‘Yeh Mehboob Khan ki film hai, yeh Raj Kapoor ki film hai, yeh K. Asif ki film hai’. Today, the audiences say, ‘Yeh Shah Rukh ki film hai, yeh Salman ki film hai’. It is not a healthy sign.”

– Manoj Kumar

“Today, stars lack basic morals. They have no business ethics or commitment towards their producers. This is one of the most serious problems with our industry.”

– Devendra T. Shah
(Bombay distributor)

“All steps are futile in a country like India.”

– Manoj Khivasara (Bombay distributor)
(When asked what could be done to tackle the menace of cable piracy in India.)

“Hire mafia or Shiv Sena to tackle the problem.”

– Ramesh Sippy (Bombay distributor)
(When asked what would be the most effective step against cable menace.)

“Stink!”

– Shyam Shroff (Bombay distributor & financier)
(When asked what his main complaint against cinemas was.)

“The one in which we all distributors are situated.”

– Ashok Ahuja (Bombay distributor)
(When asked to name the worst cinema in Bombay.)

Kajol Charisma

Kajol has undoubtedly emerged as the queen of the box-office in the past year or so. As many as four out of her five films released since Diwali ’97 have proven trumps at the turnstiles. Her tremendous rise to the top-notch spot in the past year began with Indra Kumar’s Ishq, followed by Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha and now, Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Only one of her films, Dushman, didn’t do well in this period, and even then, she walked away with a lot of critical acclaim for her performance in that film. No wonder then that the Film Information Opinion Poll ’98 showed as many as 66% of Bombay distributors voting in her favour when asked who the best heroine vis-à-vis her price was today. Considering the fact that KKHH hadn’t even released when we conducted the poll, the number should be much higher now, since KKHH seems all set to break many existing records at the box-office.

Incidentally, the Shah Rukh – Kajol combination is fast becoming one of the most successful star-pairs of Indian cinema. They have so far appeared together in four films, each of which has been a super-success. The films, as we all know, are Baazigar, Karan Arjun, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and now, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

QAHAR

Shanker Movies’ Qahar (A) is an out-and-out action drama with a story fitted into the action fare. Two young men, whose mission is to protect the needy and poor, join hands to finish the evil men who torture and even kill the poor and rape girls. A young upright police inspector at first becomes an obstacle in their way as he thinks that they are taking the law into their hands. But he later realises that the two young men are not the enemies of law but rather of the evil elements who treat law as a toy to be played with. It then turns out that one of the two young men-with-a-mission and the police inspector are brothers. There is drama towards the end before some have to lay down their lives and the evil forces are eliminated.

The film makes no pretensions about being a story-value drama and as the reels unfold, it becomes clear that action is the catchword. There’s violence at the drop of a hat. The sentimental drama after an action-ridden first half comes as a welcome change although it doesn’t really move the audience to tears. The screenplay is one of convenience and quite a few liberties have been taken. Dialogues are fair.

Arman Kohli does a good job in the role of the protector of the poor and the needy. His physique looks formidable. Sunny Deol, in a special appearance, breathes fire as the other protector of the poor. Sunil Shetty, also in a special appearance, impresses with a restrained performance. All the three heroes are good in stunts. The three heroines — Rambha, Sonali Bendre and Deepti Bhatnagar — get limited scope. Rambha leaves a mark in dances. Sonali and Deepti are fair. Gulshan Grover is very good and his ‘tel lagaa ke’ dialogue will go down very well with the masses. Paresh Rawal is effective and so is Kiran Kumar. Raj Babbar is good. Aroona Irani acts with sincerity. Rohini Hattangady also performs well but she looks too fat in the Maharashtrian attire. Raza Murad leaves a mark. Isha Gupta, Gavin and the rest pass muster.

Direction is okay. Action and stunts will appeal to the masses. Anand Milind’s music is good. The ‘Kabutar’ and ‘Bichhoo’ songs are mass-appealing numbers. ‘Maine dil se ye poochha’ and ‘Rab ke saamne’ are also well tuned. Camerawork is alright. Production values are okay.

On the whole, reasonably-priced Qahar, which has opened very well at most of the places, will do well in ‘B’ and ‘C’ class centres mainly and will definitely keep its distributors satisfied. It should fetch overflow from Delhi-U.P., East Punjab, Bihar and C.P.C.I. Business may not be as encouraging in the South.

Released on 5-12-’97 at Dreamland and 24 other cinemas of Bombay thru Nobel Film Distributors. Publicity: good. Opening: quite good. …….Also released all over. Opening was fantastic in U.P., East Punjab, Bihar and C.P.C.I. Rajasthan. 1st day Ahmedabad about 70%.

JUGALKISHORE RATHI’S SON TO WED

Marriage of Harish, son of C.P. Berar distributor Jugalkishore Rathi, with Taruna will be solemnised on 8th December in Amravati. A reception to celebrate the wedding will be held on 9th at Shree Maheshwari Bhavan, Dhanraj Lane, Amravati.

NO MORE

Kaushik Thakar, an assistant sound recordist, died in a train accident at Wadi, near Solapur, on 1st December. He was returning to Bombay from a shooting in Hyderabad. He was 36 years old and the only son of his parents. He is survived by his parents, wife and two daughters. Chautha ceremony was held on 5th at his residence at Pawan Baug, Malad, Bombay.

RAMAN B. DESAI DEAD

Veteran producer-director Raman B. Desai expired on 2nd December in a hospital at Vile Parle, Bombay. He was 80.

He had produced Waman Avtar, Nagmani, Amarjyoti and Hari Darshan and had directed silver jubilee hit Nagpanchmi, Chakradhari, Chandi Puja and several other Hindi films.

He is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.

Incidentally, late Raman Desai’s younger brother, Nattubhai Desai, is working as controller of production for Harish Shah Productions and other producers.

BHUSAWAL GENERAL MANAGER OF RAJSHRI DEAD

M.S. Kulkarni, general manager of Rajshri Pictures (P.) Ltd., Bhusawal, expired on 3rd December at Railway Hospital, Bhusawal. He had been working with Rajshri since 30 years. He was 71 and is survived by his wife, four sons and a daughter. His funeral was largely attended by the C.P. trade.

BENGALI FILM PRODUCER BIMAL DEY DEAD

Noted Bengali film producer Bimal Dey, who produced Charulata (directed by Satyajit Ray) and Mahanagar, died in Calcutta on 1st December after a prolonged illness. He was 79 and is survived by his wife and two daughters.

PREMNARAYAN CHOWKSEY NO MORE

Premnarayan Chowksey, proprietor of Chitra Talkies, Burhanpur, expired on 5th December at Burhanpur due to a heart attack.

SANTOSH SINGH JAIN’S GRANDSON WEDS

Marriage of Siddhartha, grandson of Santosh Singh Jain and son of Padam Sacheti, with Shalini was solemnised in Jaipur on 3rd December. A reception to celebrate the wedding was held on 5th in Bombay at the RWITC, Mahalaxmi.

VAKIL SINGH’S SON TO WED

Amrik Singh, son of leading East Punjab distributor Vakil Singh, will wed Harminder Kaur on 12th December in Jalandhar.

KAMAL MUKUT’S SON TO WED

Marriage of Hemant, son of Rajasthan distributor Kamal Mukut, with Ekta will be solemnised on 12th December in Jaipur at Hotel Raj Mahal Palace.

LARGE ATTENDANCE AT WEDDING OF RAIKER’S DAUGHTER

Nita, architect-daughter of leading Karnataka distributor and exhibitor Ramesh Raiker, got married to Indrajit, also an architect and son of leading architect of Karnataka, Sharad Kembavi, on 4th December in Hubli at Raiker guest house. The wedding reception was held the same day. It was largely attended by film trade people of Hubli as well as Bombay and also industrialists and other top personalities of Hubli.

SRIDEVI IN AURANGABAD AT WOMEN’S CONVENTION

Sridevi and novelist Shobha De were the chief guests at the opening ceremony of a two-day convention of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs/industrialists of Maharashtra, held on 1st December in Aurangabad at Rama International Hotel. In her address, Sridevi said that today, women were no less than men in any field. Anuradha Paudwal, Kavita Paudwal and Sudesh Bhosle were also present. They were in Aurangabad for the Anuradha Paudwal musical nite organised by exhibitor-distributor Jugal Kishor Tapadiya and Dilip Chitlange in celebration of 100 days of the eveninger ‘Saanjhwarta’.

DTS SOUND AT VIJAYAWADA’S ANNAPURNA THEATRE

Annapurna Theatre, Vijayawada, has installed DTS sound system with 6 tracks. The system, including stage, sub-woofer (electro voice), surround (JBL) speakers etc., has been shipped directly from the USA.

‘Qahar’: Out-Of-Court Settlement Of Nail-Biting Title Drama

The title of producer-director Rajkumar Kohli’s film, Qahar, was almost changed to Qahar Hi Qahar on the day of release (4th December). This followed a stay order obtained by producer Rajesh Kumar Aggarwal from the Delhi high court on 2nd December in suit no. 2494 of 1997, restraining Kohli from releasing his film with the title Qahar.

Rajesh Aggarwal’s censored but unreleased film is also titled Qaher. Despite this, Kohli was allotted the title Qahar by the IMPPA, for his film which he made and was to release it as such. But Rajesh Aggarwal moved the court, seeking a stay on the release of Kohli’s film under the said title. After hearing both the sides, the Delhi high court restrained Kolhi from releasing his film with the title Qahar or Qaher till the date of next hearing. Rajkumar Kohli was granted liberty by the court to release his film by adopting another title.

Kohli then changed the title to Qahar Hi Qahar in the prints which were in his possession, but the prints which had been delivered to the distributors of the various circuits had the title Qahar.

An out-of-court settlement took place on Thursday (4th) night and Rajkumar Kohli reportedly paid Aggarwal a few lakhs to be allowed to release his film as Qahar.

The case was withdrawn from the court on Friday, 5th December.

Rajkumar Kohli, commenting on the title drama, told Information, “The monetary loss apart, the mental torture I’ve had to go through in the last three-four days has been killing. Had I known that a film by the name of Qaher has been censored and not yet released, I would have never used the same title. IMPPA should have exercised more caution before allotting the title to me.”

YOU ASKED IT

Why, according to you, did Ishq not take a bumper opening?

– Why, according to you, should it have taken a bumper opening? It was a love story unaided by super-hit music which, in the case of a love story, is a must for bumper opening. All the same, the opening was good in many circuits.

Has Subhash Ghai finalised the cast of his next film?

– When he hasn’t finalised the script, how can he sign the artistes for it?

Is it more advisable to remake an old hit or rework on an old flop?

– Reworking on an old flop can prove beneficial sometimes if one is able to rid it of its weak points and defects.

DO YOU KNOW?

* So sure is Bihar distributor Dr. Sunil (Vijay-Laxmi Pictures, Patna) of QAHAR going into overflow that he sent an advance overflow cheque of Rs. 1 lakh to producer-director Rajkumar Kohli at the time of delivery itself. “This is a token overflow amount and I’m sure, I’ll send more overflow,” says Dr. Sunil.

* Some star secretaries have formed a pool and will be sharing their earnings.

* A main cinema like Dreamland in Bombay does not switch on the air-conditioning plant for the comfort of its patrons. Some people, who had gone to see BHAI this week at the cinema, complained, it was too hot! Arre bhai, yeh kya ho raha hai?

* Delhi-U.P. distributor G.D. Mehta must be holding the record for releasing the maximum Sunil Shetty starrers from his office (Bobby Art International). QAHAR is the seventh film of Sunil Shetty to be released from his office, the earlier six being BALWAAN, SURAKSHAA, GADDAR, TAKKAR, VISHWASGHAT and BHAI.

* Raiker Entertainment, Hubli, has started a scheme of booking of tickets at its cinemas on telephone. Under the scheme, cinegoers are offered membership on a deposit of Rs. 250 which entitles them to five tickets a day in advance and at no extra cost. Over 500 cinegoers enrolled themselves as members within a couple of days of starting the scheme.

* Ramanand Sagar’s SHRI KRISHNA is the serial which earned maximum income for Doordarshan in 1996-97. This information was furnished by the I & B minister in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha during question hour on 20th November. Sagar’s RAMAYAN was also the highest revenue grosser when it was on air.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Copyright Chor

A Bengali film, released some weeks ago, is doing good business in Bengal. Titled Sedin Chaitra Mash, this film is the remake of Rajshri’s Chitchor. But since the producer of the Bengal remake did not buy the remaking rights from Rajshri, the latter has gone to court under the Copyright Act. Reportedly, a court receiver has been appointed on the box-office takings of this remake of Chitchor.

From Secretary To Distributor To Producer

Sunil Gaud, secretary to Om Puri and Sanjay Kapoor, has decided to diversify. He already has a distribution office in West Bengal (he recently released Virasat and Aastha there). He will now venture into film production too. Sunil will produce a Bengali film and has acquired the remaking rights of Anari (starring Raj Kapoor and Nutan and directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee) from negative rights holder Narendra Hirawat.

Heroine-Hunting

Rumours were rife in the Bombay trade that Sooraj Barjatya had gone to see Bhai at a cinema in Bombay as he wanted to sign Sunil Shetty for his new film. Although one part of the rumour is true, the other is incorrect. Sooraj did go to see Bhai with dad Rajkumar Barjatya. But not to see Sunil Shetty’s work. Rather, they wanted to see the performances of the two heroines, Sonali Bendre and Pooja Batra. While the three heroes in the film (Hum Saath-Saath Hain) have already been finalised, the girls opposite them are yet to be decided. Who will be the lucky ones?

Double Ramzan?

Now that mid-term elections to the Lok Sabha have been declared, film release schedules are bound to be affected. The month of January will have minimum releases due to Ramzan. With elections scheduled to take place in February-end or early-March, there may not be any major releases around that time. To quote O.P. Bansal, “We might have a repeat Ramzan (period of no major releases) in February/March.”

Sound Research To Avoid Unsound Investment

K.C. Surana of Raj Mandir cinema, Jaipur, is in Bombay for the wedding reception of Santosh Singh Jain’s grandson, which was held yesterday (5th December). He made the most of his trip and saw Dil To Pagal Hai at Bombay’s Liberty cinema alongwith Rajasthan distributor-exhibitor O.P. Bansal. Surana wanted to check the sound quality of the Dolby DTS print as he is contemplating installing either Dolby SR or Dolby digital or DTS sound system at his cinema too. In the alternative, he might go in for a new sound system of Sony. Anyway, not the type to rush in for a new sound system “just because other cinemas are installing it”, Kushal Chand-ji wanted to see the difference between the sound and decide thereafter. In a chat with Information, he said, “If I am going to spend 40 to 50 lakh, I might as well know what I am spending on. Our sound system is already of such impeccable quality that installing Dolby DTS sound system may not add to our revenues at all. But still, looking to the prestige of the cinema and with a view to providing better facilities to our patrons, I am game for installing a new sound system but only after I am convinced of its worth.” Interestingly, Surana was frank enough to admit (something which not many would have the courage to do) that he did not find much difference in mono sound and Dolby sound of Liberty. Incidentally, since there was some problem in the DTS sound at Liberty, the management switched over to Dolby SR sound. It may surprise many to know that Yashraj Films had already changed three or four prints at Liberty because the quality wears off after a couple of weeks. There is reportedly a technical snag in the DTS prints made in India!

No Laughing Matter, This!

The tendency of some distributors to take out 20 and 30 prints of a film for a 25% territory is making many laugh at them. But this is no laughing matter. While it is alright for such distributors to say that they take such an excessive number of prints to take advantage of the initial craze, it is also a fact that these very distributors, after a couple of weeks, sell most of the prints in the no. 2 market. So whom is their over-enthusiasm affecting adversely? The producer and the distributors of the other circuits, obviously. It is strange that producers should permit such distributors to take so many prints. Even if they do grant permission, they should insist on taking physical stock of the prints after, say, a month or two. Producers’ associations also need to take up this matter because it has serious repercussions on the trade at large.

‘JUDWAA’ 100 DAYS

Sajid Nadiadwala’s Judwaa has completed 100 days of its run today (May 17) at Liberty, Bombay, and other places. It stars Salman Khan in a double role with Karisma Kapoor, Rambha, Anupam Kher, Shakti Kapoor, Satish Shah, Kader Khan and others. It is directed by David Dhawan and its music is scored by Anu Malik. Purshottam K. Agarwal presents the film.

DISTRIBUTOR RAMBHAI MURDERED

Bombay and Delhi-U.P. distributor Rambhai Patel (Sheetal Films, Ahmedabad-Bombay-Delhi) was brutally murdered on the night of 12th May at Savli near Baroda. His partner in another business, Ramjibhai, was also murdered simultaneously.

Rambhai and Ramjibhai had a flourishing angadia business and had to reportedly recover several crores of rupees from the Somani brothers. When the latter went on postponing the payment, Rambhai and Ramjibhai had an altercation with the brothers a few days before the murders.

It seems that the murders were planned in great detail because Rambhai and Ramjibhai had been summoned by the Somanis to Salvi at the factory of Somani Cement to collect part of their payment. The Somanis, it is learnt, telephoned Rambhai on 11th May and asked him to come to his factory the following day. A reminder phone call was made on 12th too.

The two partners were taken to the godown of the factory on the night of 12th when they reached Somani Cement. By then, the goondas of the Somanis had taken their places in the godown and overpowered the two who least suspected foul play and, therefore, went unarmed. They were beaten with iron rods and wooden sticks, kicked and finally shot dead in true filmi style. Both, Rambhai and Ramjibhai, died on the spot as they could offer little opposition to the gang.

The dead bodies were put in their car and a goon of the Somanis was to set the car on fire at a distance from Savli. But even while preparations were being made to set the car afire at Parthampura village, a police van was passing that way. Sensing danger, the killers fled the scene. The police recovered visiting cards and diaries from the pockets of the two dead persons and, after investigations, arrested the Somani brothers on 15th May. The police suspect that three other persons were also involved in the horrendous murders, but they are still at large.

Rambhai had distributed Deewana, Bewaffa Se Waffa, Mehboob Mere Mehboob and Mashooq in Bombay circuit, and Phool Aur Kaante, Saajan and Sadak in Gujarat. He had also released a film or two in Delhi-U.P.

Rambhai was only 45 years old and is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters. His 13-year old son was away in Ooty on a holiday when the murder took place. The funeral took place at Rambhai’s native place, Balol, on 14th. A post mortem was conducted on 13th.

IN & OUT OF BOMBAY

Producer-director Indra Kumar is on a holiday abroad and will return in the first week of June.

Producer-director Rakesh Roshan left for a holiday abroad on May 13 and will return after a month.

Mr. Raman Maroo of Shemaroo Video will return to India from abroad on 27th May.

Mr. Rajesh Chowdhary of Modern Movies, Jaipur, returned to Jaipur on 16th May.

Mr. Baba Ramdeo of ABC Enterprises, Jaipur, is expected in town after a couple of days and will stay at Royal Inn (649-5151).

Producer Dinesh Salgia is in Indore and will return on 20th May.

Mr. Ashok Tharani of Ashoka Enterprises, Indore, will reach Bombay (634-2335) on 19th May.

Producer Mahendra Dhariwal, presently in Bombay, will leave for Jodhpur (46196) today.

Mr. Kamaldeep Singh Lamba of Kanwaljit Enterprises, Secunderabad, will be in Bombay (98200-74761) from May 19 to 23.

YOU ASKED IT

Jai-Kishen was released recently as Khiladi Hindustani. Anjaam has become Nafrat. Does this title-changing game help?

– In rare cases, it does. By the way, titles of only unsuccessful films are changed, generally speaking. Nobody has tried it with an old hit.

Video pirates have become super-active again. The latest Hindi films are telecast on cable TV channels all over, just two to four days after their theatrical release. Why doesn’t the industry take serious action against such pirates?

– The industry can do nothing till the government decides to help it. So helpless is the industry feeling that it has stopped contemplating taking any action whatsoever, which also is not right.

In 1995, when the government extended the benefit of 50% entertainment tax in Maharashtra for a further period of one year, it did so with the intention that the benefit should be passed on to cinegoers. Is there a similar intention in the current relief?

– No, this time, the government has reduced entertainment tax from 100% to 60% for the benefit of the industry only. Even then, where ticket rates are too high, it would be in the interest of all concerned to pass on at least a part of the benefit to the audience. If the industry does not do so, it may end up killing the hen that laid the golden eggs. For, if admission rates are not brought down in some cinemas, attendance, which is already low, may come down further.

Why? Why? Why?

Some stray thoughts have been crossing my mind for the past few days, which is good food for thought.

Like, why do distributors put the following line in their advertisements in newspapers: ‘To show or see this film on video/cable is illegal’. Has any distributor succeeded in taking action against anybody who shows or sees the latest films on video/cable?

Like, why do we refer to a film’s launching as its muhurt. A muhurt, by its very nature, must be held at the auspicious time. For film muhurts, the auspicious time is not that governed by the stars above but only that when the stars here on earth arrive for the launch. Then, what’s so muhurt-ish about the launching?

Or why do many producers ‘celebrate’ 100 days or silver jubilee of their films even though they run in deficit?

Why do producers flaunt the entry of their songs in countdown shows on the various television channels as a passport to success of their films when the two have no correlation whatsoever?

Why do distributors, when reviving old films, announce that the same have been revived ‘due to public demand’? Does any channel exist for public demand to reach the distributors?

Why, in the interviews on different satellite channels, do the producer/director/actor/ actress always harp on one thing — that my film/role is very different — when the fact is not so. Why can’t they just say that it is entertaining and leave it at that because nobody must be taking this “very different” bit seriously any longer.

Or why do music companies present Platinum and Double or Triple Platinum Discs to music albums when there’s no transparency at all about the album sales and when such Discs have become so common that they do little — or rather nothing — to augment the album sales or brighten up the prospects of a film if the album happens to be a film album?

Why do several producers announce that their films “can be enjoyed on the big screen only” and, yet, sell the video rights of such big-screen entertainers?

Why does the CBFC give ‘A’ and ‘UA’ certificates to films when practically all the films can be seen in cinemas by non-adults or by children unaccompanied by their guardians or without their consent? And these very adult films, after some days, are telecast on channels which have no censorship rules!

Or why do stars make the producers pay their personal make-up man, hair dresser, spot boy, driver? I’m sure, our stars are not so poor that they can’t afford to pay their personal staff adequately. No other profession provides scope for such payment from the person hiring the professional’s services to the professional’s servant, cook etc. etc.

Any why do distributors always cry that the industry is finished, that if prices don’t come down, there’ll be no buyers left, that times have never been as bad as they are today — and, after and in spite of all this, rush to buy films at fancy prices?

Or why do distributors crib that stars don’t run, rather, the film runs, but when it comes to buying films, they want only stars-cast films and will never touch a non-star cast project?

Why does everyone keep saying that the industry is fighting for its very survival even though this ‘dying’ industry has completed 100 years?

And finally, why am I writing all this? Is anything going to change?

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Piracy Of A New Kind

The menace of video piracy has raised its ugly head once again. And this time, with more force than ever before. Although illegal, the latest films are telecast on cable TV throughout the country barely four or five days after their premiere theatrical releases. The video cassettes may be pirated and of poor quality but their telecast and wide reach do make a dent in box-office collections. This piracy is most pronounced in Delhi where pirated video cassettes are openly available. As if this isn’t bad enough, we now have cases of piracy of video CDs too. The pirated video CDs, like the pirated video cassettes of Raja Hindustani, are already available in the market. There is reliable information that due to be out in the market very shortly are video CDs of HAHK..!, DDLJ, Rangeela, Bombay and Judaai. Pertinent to note that official (legal) video cassettes of none of the above films have been released as yet. Piracy of video CDs has spread panic among legal video distributors who used to recover at least a lakh or two from sale of video CD rights. With pirated copies out, this market may be as good as lost now!

Quality-Conscious

The quality-conscious producers and directors taking personal interest in the production of music cassettes of their films is not new. But a music director doing so! Viju Shah deserves a pat on his back for the pains he took in the mastering and duplication of Gupt audio cassettes. He visited the audio plants of Tips outside Bombay and spent hours and hours till he was completely satisfied with the quality. All this, so that the public gets impeccable quality.

And if Viju Shah needs to be complimented for the above, Rajiv Rai also deserves to be congratulated. For, although Gupt is due for release on 4th July, its first copy will be out by the end of May. Reportedly, Rajiv wants that about 10 prints of the film be taken out daily so that complete check can be maintained on their quality. Compare this with the cases of 99% of the films released. Hundreds of prints of such films are prepared in one week!

Madhuri Magic Again?

For those who feel, it’s the end of the road for Madhuri Dixit who has had four failures in a row (Yaraana, Rajkumar, Prem Granth and Koyla), there’s news to the contrary. Madame Dixit, who has not been looking as beautiful as she used to earlier, is, it is heard, looking her glamorous and slim self in Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai. Maybe, Madhuri and Chopra’s magic will work, and this Diwali, the actress will have the audience go pagal over her all over again.

‘Sapnay’ Crushed

In Bombay, HMV had tied up with Crush (soft drink) for the publicity of its Sapnay. Hoardings, sponsored by Crush, sprang up all over the city, advertising both, Sapnay and the soft drink. Catchy captions caught the attention of the public. Captions like: ‘Love hurts but a little Crush never hurt anyone’ or ‘Bet you never had a Crush like this’. With the collections of Sapnay coming crashing down day by day in majority of the cinemas, Crush may now well put up hoardings with the following captions: ‘Love hurts but a Big Crash hurts everyone’ and ‘Bet you never saw a Crash like this’.

THE LAST LAUGH

** What are the distributors of Mrituydaata singing in chorus?

“We are making constructive efforts to finally turn Mukta Arts into an institution”

– SUBHASH GHAI

How did the idea of setting up Audeus germinate in your mind?

– When I set up Mukta Arts in 1982, I wanted to model it along the lines of the big studios of yesteryears. V. Shantaram’s Rajkamal, Bombay Talkies and others were all institutions in themselves. Similarly, we do not want Mukta Arts to remain just a film production house, but we are making constructive efforts to finally turn it into an institution. Launching new talents, having a large number of technicians on payroll are only a few of our efforts to make Mukta Arts function like the studios of olden days. But, we do not want to stop at just that.

The biggest loss the industry suffered with the closing of the studio culture, was in the area of research & development. The studios could afford to invest in innovative technical experiments because of their institutional status. This is not possible for today’s independent film producers. So, promotion of R & D became another important purpose behind the setting up of Audeus.

Apart from that, as a filmmaker, I have always dreamt of having a state-of-the-art studio of my own. I have been able to fulfill this dream with Audeus.

What makes you confident of good returns on a huge investment such as this?

– The level of technical awareness has improved vastly not only among filmmakers but also among the viewers. The public is not going to accept technically inferior films today. Thus if a film producer wants to fight the satellite invasion, he will have to come to studios like Audeus and make his film with the help of the latest equipments.

How long did it take to complete the studio?

– We had already bought the plot after Khal-Nayak in 1993, but then Trimurti flopped and our company faced a few financial difficulties as a result. Finally, we began working constructively on this studio about three years back and were able to complete it in May this year.

How did you decide on the name ‘Audeus’?

– Someone had once told me that Audeus means ‘harmonious sound’ in Greek. I liked its sound and because it conveys the idea behind the studio, I chose to name it thus.

All equipments are becoming outdated in a short span of time as newer and better equipments are developed every now and then. This means that there is a need for constant upgradation of equipments in studios such as Audeus. How will you tackle this problem?

– You are right. Existing technology becomes outdated every six months. We are aware of this fact and hence we have a set plan to upgrade the equipment at Audeus at regular intervals.

We also have a plan to add to the present set-up which constitutes only the 1st phase of the project. We have acquired a total area of 13,000 sq. ft., out of which Audeus takes up only 6,000 sq. ft. We still have an unutilised area of 7,000 sq. ft. on which we will introduce state-of-the-art song recording rooms and mixing halls in phases II and III of the project. We intend to turn Audeus into a one-stop post-production shop for feature films within a year.

Are there any plans of setting up similar studios in the future?

– Not similar, but larger and even more beneficial to the film industry. I want to set up a large state-of-the-art shooting floor fully equipped with the latest lighting equipment and other modern facilities. I also plan to set up an institute where young talents and aspiring technicians will be trained in the latest techniques. Moreover, I have plans to establish a library of film-related reading material like screenplays, etc. It is impossible to lay one’s hands on script or screenplay of any film, especially for one not connected with films. I would like to have these in a library open to any person interested in films, whether rich or poor. Again, these efforts will directly contribute towards turning Mukta Arts into an institution, as I mentioned before.

Any parting words?

– I would like to give back to the industry whatever I have earned from it and I hope that my efforts will serve the industry well.

LATEST POSITION

The box-office continues to present a gloomy picture as far as new releases are concerned.

Dushman faced a steep decline mid-week. 1st week Bombay 40,07,228 (70.19%) from 14 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 5,59,385 from 6 cinemas, Jamnagar (matinee) 17,780; Pune 8,27,633 from 6 cinemas, Solapur 1,07,615 (1 unrecd.); Hubli 1,06,827, Belgaum 53,887; Delhi 20,39,291 (54.56%) from 8 cinemas (1 unrecd., 1 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,65,219, Lucknow 1,77,898, Agra 1,40,897, Varanasi 1,17,252; Calcutta 12,54,829 from 11 cinemas; Nagpur 1,55,681 from 2 cinemas, Akola 68,082, Raipur (6 days) 1,08,995, Yavatmal 1,05,246 (2nd week 1st day 8,282); Bhopal 2,34,550 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 4,88,165 from 3 cinemas; Hyderabad 15,44,734 from 8 cinemas.

………..

Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai is steady in Bombay (good cinemas), Delhi city (good cinemas), C.I. and very good in Rajasthan but drops further in U.P., East Punjab, Bengal, Bihar, C.P. and Nizam. 2nd week Bombay 28,27,275 (76.24%) from 7 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 73,948, Jamnagar 70,761; Pune 6,49,894 from 3 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 91,340; Hubli 1,63,614, Belgaum 1,07,536; Delhi 26,80,178 from 7 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,79,352 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 2,10,375, Allahabad 69,450, Bareilly (6 days) 81,033 (42%), total 2,22,467; Calcutta 7,78,803 from 7 cinemas; Nagpur 1,99,740, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,11,847, Akola 68,879, 1st week Raipur 1,30,583 (53.92%), Bhilai 1,01,225, Durg 90,543, 2nd week Jalgaon (6 days) 65,689, Chandrapur 1,12,761, total 2,86,565, 1st Bilaspur 1,56,190; 2nd Bhopal (6 days) 1,72,604 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 2,58,186; Hyderabad 5,43,725 from 3 cinemas.

Mard 2nd week Bombay 96,171 (27.18%); Ahmedabad 84,725 from 2 cinemas, Baroda 47,353; Pune 77,940 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), 1st week Solapur 32,937; 2nd week Delhi 4,89,615 from 4 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 28,459, Lucknow 45,853, Allahabad 32,500, Varanasi 57,571, Bareilly 47,714 (22.09%), 1st week Hardwar 44,827; Rohtak 7,575; 2nd week Calcutta 96,482; Nagpur 47,918, 1st week Jabalpur (6 days) 66,875, 2nd week Amravati 66,499, 1st Akola 90,746, 2nd week Raipur 62,515, 1st Bhilai 32,392, 2nd Bilaspur (6 days) 45,567, total 1,26,072; Bhopal 30,610; Jodhpur 79,000, 1st week Bikaner 1,69,296.

………..

Chhota Chetan (partly dubbed, revived, 3D) 7th week Bombay (TF) 19,27,044 (90.38%) from 3 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,21,755; Pune (TF) 3,13,253, 5th week Solapur (TF) 55,678; 7th week Delhi (TF) 11,94,960 from 3 cinemas; Agra 27,635, 1st week Allahabad 88,020; Nagpur (TF) 3,26,234, 2nd week Amravati (TF) 1,48,737, 1st Chandrapur (TF, 27 shows) 1,23,835 (2nd week 1st day 16,225); 3rd week Hyderabad 3,05,801.

BOMBAY HC STAYS FURTHER DEALING IN ‘LAL BAADSHAH’ AUDIO RIGHTS

K.C. Bokadia’s Lal Baadshah has run into rough weather. The Bombay high court, by an order passed on 27th May, has prohibited further dealing in the film’s audio rights. This order was passed by the court in a motion filed by Vijay Chokhani of Pearl Video Films.

K.C. Bokadia had borrowed a sum of Rs. 10 lakh from Vijay Chokhani of  Pearl Video Films, while agreeing to hand over the audio rights of Lal Baadshah as security against the loan. Later, K.C. Bokadia sold the audio rights of the film to Pen Audio in violation of the agreement with Vijay Chokhani. As a result, Pearl Video Films filed a suit in the Bombay high court, which, in an order passed on 29th April, asked Pen Audio to deposit a sum of Rs. 5 lakh with the court within 4 weeks.

Pen Audio filed an application for extension of time, which was rejected by the court on 27th May.

The court’s order prohibiting further dealing in the film’s audio rights, therefore, stands in view of the fact that Pen Audio failed to deposit the money with the court.

ARUDRA PASSES AWAY

Renowned Telugu film writer and poet Bhagavathula Shankara Sastry, popularly known as Arudra, passed away on 4th June in Madras after a brief illness. Apart from his outstanding work as a writer, poet, literary critic and historian, Arudra penned lyrics for over 2,000 Telugu film songs and also wrote dialogues for nearly 150 Telugu films. He was also the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi awards of both, the Central as well as the Andhra Pradesh state governments.

He is survived by his writer-wife, K. Ramalaxmi, and three daughters.

SUBHASH GHAI’S AUDEUS LAUNCHED

Dilip Kumar formally inaugurated Subhash Ghai’s state-of-the-art post-production and shooting studio, Audeus, on 31st May. Shabana Azmi lit the traditional lamp, and Bharat Shah cracked the auspicious coconut. A large number of industry people graced the launching of the studio situated off Link Road, Andheri, Bombay.

Audeus has a Fairlight MFX 3 Plus Digital Audio Workstation inclusive of a dubbing suite, an Avid Media Composer (with Film Option), a sound transfer room, a Steenbeck editing studio, an air-conditioned shooting floor (60 feet by 40 feet by 17 feet height) and a sound-proof generator.

The Workstation is widely used in Hollywood. The Avid Media Composer enables non-linear editing for television and film.

PRASAR BHARATI BILL MOVED

I & B minister Sushma Swaraj on June 1 moved the Prasar Bharati Bill in Parliament. Some new clauses, other than those provided in the October ordinance, have been added. Under the new Bill, the term of office of part-time members will be six years. One-third of them will retire every two years. The whole-time member will retire at the age of 62 years and will not be entitled to any compensation because of his ceasing to hold such office. No part-time member will be entitled to any compensation. The President of India will appoint a president and ten board members. Four of them will be Parliament members. A recruitment board will be formed, comprising the chairman, other members, ex-officio members, the nominated member and elected members for posts equivalent to joint secretaries.

The day the Bill is passed, S.S. Gill will cease to be the chief executive officer, as his age is 70 years. He will not be entitled to any compensation.

Video Piracy And Overseas Distribution

Apropos the article on video piracy, carried in Film Information last week, some more disturbing facts have come to light — this time, in connection with Philippines, where scheduled releases of several Hindi films have had to be cancelled due to the arrival of pirated video copies of films prior to their theatrical screenings.

The Philippines distributor of Duplicate had to suffer heavy losses after the film was released there on 24th May. It is reported that the pirated video tapes of the film had already hit the market as early as on 17th May. Moreover, the prints of these pirated tapes were of a crystal-clear quality and contained no advertisements. As a result, the attendance in the cinema which screened the film did not even cross 50% of the expected occupancy. Later, the scheduled release of Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai had to be cancelled by the distributor in an attempt to avoid losses as the pirated copies of the film had already surfaced in video stores a few days before its theatrical release. Now, it is learnt that the scheduled release of Dushman, too, has met with the same fate.

According to a leading distributor of Philippines, these pirated video tapes are of superb quality, and the video cassettes of two of the abovementioned three films had no advertisements in them. Incidentally, Pakistan still remains the source of origin of most pirated tapes of Hindi films, it is learnt.

This entire piracy operation is quickly gaining ground and unless urgent and firm steps are taken to exterminate it, some Overseas centres may become ‘dead’ for Hindi films forever.

No Substantial Relief For Industry In Union Budget

The Union Budget, announced on 1st June, has provided some relief to the film industry, but nothing substantial has been offered.

The amortisation period for films has been reduced from 180 days to 90 days. That is to say, the cost of films produced/released till 31st December (instead of 30th September earlier) will henceforth be allowed to be amortised. Rules 9A and 9B of the Income-Tax Rules provide for the entire cost of production/distribution of a film to be allowed in the financial year in which it is produced/released, only if the film is released before 1st October. In the case of a distributor, the cost of prints and publicity are allowed separately in the year in which it is incurred, whether the film is released before or after September 30. If a film is released after 30th September, the cost is allowed only to the extent of the revenue, the balance cost is amortised in the next financial year. The amortisation period has now been reduced to 90 days — that is, the cost of films released till 31st December will be fully allowed to be deducted.

Recorded video cassettes for television broadcast and audio cassettes have been exempted from the 8% excise duty.

Customs duty on cinema jumbo rolls has been reduced from 25% to 10%. The reduction in basic customs duty on positive film imported, from 25% to 10% is, however, not expected to have any impact on the final price because of various reasons: (a) an additional 8% value added tax has been levied and this is on the gross amount; (b) the MODVAT now available will be 95% instead of the earlier 100%; (c) the rupee has been further devalued in comparison to the dollar. Due to all the aforesaid reasons, the final price of positive raw stock will hardly undergo any change, according to Sushil Gupta and Bipin Salva, two leading dealers in the stock. Says Bipin Savla, “The 8% value added tax is not leviable on positive raw film as there is no indigenous production. If the tax is abolished, as being asked for by the industry, positive raw stock will become cheaper by Rs. 50 per roll, if not, it will become dearer by Rs. 50. The price of negative raw film will go up because while all other duties on its imports have remained the same, an additional 8% VAT has also been levied on it.”

The limit in section 258B of the Income-Tax Act has been increased from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 25,000. Under the said section, producers will now be required to furnish information to the I-T department in respect of payments above Rs. 25,000 to any person now, instead of the earlier requirement of Rs. 5,000.

In the meantime, the AMPTPP has rushed ‘thank you’ telegrams to finance minister Yashwant Sinha, I & B minister Sushma Swaraj and MP Shatrughan Sinha for the reliefs in the Union Budget.

YOU ASKED IT

How many Hindi films are on the sets and how many more are complete and either being readied for release or already ready for release?

– About 250 films are at various stages of production. Of these, only about 100 films are making regular progress. About 225 films are complete and are either being readied for release or are already ready with their first copies out. Of these 225, at least 75 to 100 are lying unreleased and unsold since many years.

Will film prices come down now?

– They are already coming down, what with distributors often refusing to take deliveries at the contracted prices.

Why is Titanic not doing as well in centres where it is opening now, as it did eight and 10 weeks earlier?

– Firstly, because the TITANIC wave was at its peak 15 weeks back. Secondly, cable TV operators all over India have been telecasting TITANIC repeatedly and, therefore, the craze is definitely declining. A simultaneous release all over India would have been much better.

DO YOU KNOW?

* Although producer K.P. Singh launched HUM TO MOHABBAT KAREGA on 1st June, there was not a single shot that was canned that day. That’s because both, Bobby Deol and Karisma Kapoor, only rehearsed that entire day under the supervision of director Kundan Shah. Hum to rehearsal karega, what? Shooting started on 2nd.

* Qawwals are Rajiv Babbar’s favourites. Or so it would seem, going by the fact that he gave a filmi break to qawwal Altaf Raja in his SHAPATH, and is now giving a filmi break to another qawwal, Parveen Saba, in his new film, YAMRAAJ. Like he had a qawwali sung by Altaf, which was also picturised on the qawwal himself, Parveen Saba’s qawwali will also be picturised on Parveen herself.

* In 11 of the 17 centres in C.P. Berar, where the Rathi group controls cinemas, their cinemas have grossed the maximum entertainment tax/collections in the year ended 31st March, 1998. The cinemas which have topped the list in the various centres are: Smruti in Nagpur (51,40,016/- tax); Raj in Raipur (36,58,299/-); Shyam in Balaghat (gross collections 25,23,621/-); Vasant in Akola (23,09,153/- tax); Jyoti in Dhulia (17,38,316/-); Vasant in Wardha (12,66,880/-); Shyam in Yeotmal (12,25,328/-); Prabhat in Gondia (10,97,811/-); Shyam in Paratwada (5,64,086/-); Shree in Achalpur (3,73,479/-); and Jaihind in Badnera (3,13,984/-).

* PKTDK has created another U.P. record by collecting 1,53,175/- in 10th week at Novelty, Lucknow. Total for 10 weeks: 27,70,142/-.

* PKTDK has created another theatre record by collecting 60,697/- in 10th week at Uday, Akola. Total: 9,95,263/-. Share: 6,96,546/-.

* PKTDK has created a record by collecting 86,465/- in 1st week at Mayoor, Balaghat.

* CHHOTA CHETAN (tax-free) has created a city record by collecting 3,26,234/- (95%) in 1st week at Smruti, Nagpur, in spite of extreme heat and opposition of cricket matches.

* TITANIC has created a city record by collecting 6,65,816/- in 4 weeks at Amrut, Hubli. 4th week’s collection: 1,56,246/-.

COMMENTS

BHARAT SHAH

I’ve stopped financing films. I now either go in for world rights control or equal partnerships only.

TOLU BAJAJ

Film production is a tedious job and the returns in most of the cases are not commensurate with the amount of work put in. Given the efforts a producer puts in, he could earn much more in any other industry.

RAJ LALCHANDANI (Bombay distributor)

With films flopping one after another, somebody should organise a Satyanarayan pooja to appease the Gods.

RAJEEV MALHOTRA (Bombay exhibitor)

Looking at DCRs these days is a nightmarish experience.

NITIN GHELANI (Bombay exhibitor)

The position is such today that a distributor, who doesn’t release a film on Friday, is in profit. Because, not making a loss is akin to making a profit.

Are We Prepared For Industry Status?

Ever since the I & B minister announced industry status for films, it has become a fashion — or almost so — in the industry to express joy and contentment over the newly conferred ‘title’. Since the modalities have still to be worked out, one doesn’t really know what the new status will translate into in terms of day-to-day functioning of producers, artistes, exhibitors, distributors and all the others who are a part of the film industry. Not just that, most of the industry folk aren’t even aware of what implications the word ‘industry’ added after the word ‘film’ would have, whether it would bring in more advantages than headaches, whether it would make life any less miserable than it has become today for the industry folk.

Which brings us to the pertinent question: are we really prepared for the industry status? The immediate thing that comes to a producer’s mind when he talks of films as an industry is financing of film production by banks and financial institutions. But, contrary to general belief, mere industry status is not enough to prompt banks and other financial institutions to offer loans to producers on a platter. For this, producers too will have to support their loan applications with a lot of paper-work, facts and figures. A project report is one of the first things a bank will ask of a producer. Not many producers today are even aware of what a project report is or how it is to be prepared. Because of the disorganised way in which the industry has been functioning for years, there never had been left a need for something called a project report. But sooner than later, producers will start talking of project reports with banks and bank managers as they do dates diaries with stars and star-secretaries.

Making project reports will go a long way in bringing about organisation in the disorganised industry. For, projecting costs would require detailed planning and it would also guard against unnecessary and wasteful expenditure. Actually, project reports could also act as a handy tool in the hands of financiers and world rights controllers to keep a tab on where their finances are going, how much over-budget the film has gone, where costs need to be controlled, etc. etc. The utility of a project report to a financier apart, when monies are borrowed from banks and institutions instead of private financiers, a producer will simply not be able to do without a project report.

Insurance is another aspect that will need attention. There is an opinion that banks may insist on an insurance cover for the film they would finance. In that case, that would require more paper-work which, in turn, would also work towards bringing in discipline in the industry.

Are we ready for all this? If not, the industry had better gear up for reaping the fruits of industry status. The government has done its job of declaring showbiz as an industry. Let the opportunity now not slip out of the industry’s hands for lack of discipline and organisation. Let the industry show the government that it is ready for what it had asked. Let project reports, discipline, organisation, schedules and the like be the words of the new millennium. Let us bid goodbye to disorganisation, indiscipline, loose talks and the like.

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Too Many Releases In Too Few Weeks

The release schedules of the coming few weeks seem to be choc-a-bloc with too many films due for release within too short a time-span. Gharwali Baharwali, Achanak and Humse Badhkar Kaun are due next week. Ghulam releases a week after that, on 19th June; Major Saab is scheduled for 25th; and Satya and Kareeb, for 3rd July. This, at a time when Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai, Duplicate and Dushman are already showing in most ‘A’ class centres! Given the fact that at least two of the four running films will continue occupying cinema halls in the coming weeks, one wonders how the distributors for the abovementioned due-for-release films will find cinema halls to screen them, especially from and after 19th June. If one adds Chhota Chetan and Titanic to the list of films already occupying cinema halls, the scenario becomes even more frightening. And to think of it, just some weeks back, exhibitors did not have films to screen.

Films Go Abegging For Buyers

It had to happen. And it is happening. Distributors, reeling under the pressure of losses, are withdrawing from the scene. Many of the distributors of various circuits are simply not interested in buying films. “We are not in the race”, “We’d rather wait and watch”, “We don’t mind releasing films on commission basis, but buying them is out”, these and various similar comments are often being heard these days. Even ‘A’ grade set-ups are going abegging for buyers. Some of the top (in terms of makers, cast, music etc.) films are being offered to distributors for running on pure commission basis as they (distributors) are not prepared to pay MG royalties. Six months back, nobody would have imagined that this would be the state of affairs. But those who had the foresight, predicted, the situation would be terrible. Their prophecy is coming true.

Jitters Of A Different Kind

With three star-cast films — Gharwali Baharwali, Achanak and Humse Badhkar Kaun — set for release simultaneously next week, there is a lot of tension in the air. While the producers and distributors of these three films are understandably nervous as each of these films may bite into the other two’s collections, Manmohan Shetty of Adlabs is getting the jitters, but of a different kind. All the three films are being processed at Adlabs. Delivering such a large number of prints (almost 500 for the three films) by the same deadline must pose a massive problem. But knowing  Manmohan Shetty’s planning and punctuality, one is sure, he will deliver every print before the deadline and, in the process, also add a few more feathers to the cap of Adlabs.

Too Much Is Too Bad

Mithun Chakraborty’s reckless signing has started taking its toll on producers and distributors of his starrers. With the last four Mithun-starrers — Ustadon Ke Ustad, Gudia (partially released), Hitler and Mard — bombing at the box-office, it is Mahendra Dhariwal, the producer of this week’s release, the Mithun-starrer Hatyara, who has had to bear the brunt. His distributors for Overseas and East Punjab took deliveries at reduced prices. The C.I. distributor had, a few days back, pleaded inability to take delivery and Dhariwal had, therefore, to change his distributor. The new price he got for C.I. was, of course, lesser than the earlier price. All of which have left the producer in deficit. Mithun Chakraborty and his prospective producers had better read the writing on the wall and go easy.

No Buyers

That sub-distributors for Gujarat and Saurashtra are shying away from coming forward to buy films is evident from the fact that Achanak has not been acquired by any party for these two sub-territories of Bombay circuit. This, despite starring Govinda and Manisha Koirala! On his part, Bombay distributor Dilip Dhanwani is not one bit perturbed by this. He is happy releasing the film all over the circuit himself, including in Thane district. Achanak is just one example. There are so many more films available for Gujarat, Saurashtra and Thane district but with no buyers in sight.

Marketing As Important As Making Film

The eagerly awaited Godzilla was premiered in Madison Square Gardens, New York, on 18th May. The film had one of the largest premieres ever in the history of Hollywood. Produced by Dean Devlin and directed by Roland Emmerich, Godzilla is the nineties’ version of the cult character created by Toho Co. of Japan in 1954 and featured in 22 American films since  1956. The film, released successfully in Asia on 25th May, has already recorded the biggest ever opening figures in Indonesia.

For both, Devlin and Emmerich, the duo who earlier gave Independence Day, making films has been an educating process in how to successfully market their films. This is the reason why they chalked out a previously unheard of promotional strategy for Godzilla — that of creating an aura of secrecy around the film’s post-production and not releasing any stills or trailer footage before the film’s release. The idea behind this was to increase speculation about Godzilla’s look and build up tension before the release of the film. According to Devlin, it had been a tremendous problem having to redefine Godzilla’s look as the character had already featured in so many  films over the years. But they turned this very problem into a clever new marketing and promotional strategy which worked at keeping the brand new look of Godzilla a secret till the film’s release.

CBFC In The Dark

On 5th June, as the CBFC staff was preparing the censor certificate for Achanak, all the lights in the building went off due to a power failure and left everybody in the dark quite achanak. It is commendable that the CBFC staff managed to complete all the formalities and prepared the certificate by 2 p.m. in spite of inadequate light and oppressive heat. While producer Vijay Galani and director Naresh Malhotra must have shed their mehenat ka paseena during the making of Achanak, the CBFC staff literally sweated it out while making a censor certificate! Incidentally, the film was seen by the censors on 4th June and it was ordered some cuts. It is to the CBFC’s credit that the producer had the censor certificate in his hands within 24 hours of the film being viewed by the examining committee.

LATEST POSITION

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

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

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

…………

_______

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

IMPPA WELCOMES VINOD KHANNA

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

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

‘PARDES’ TAX-FREE IN U.P.

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

FIRST MALAYALAM FILM IN DTS

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

BUBBY KENT, BOBBY ANAND BEREAVED

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

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

BARJATYAS BEREAVED

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

SHAH RUKH INJURED

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

AGAJANI KASHMIRI DEAD

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

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

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

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

WEDDING BELLS FOR SOHAIL KHAN

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

ARJUN RAMPAL WEDS

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

FFI, SIFCC BOYCOTT DOORDARSHAN

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

RAMESH DEO RELEASES WIFE’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, LAUNCHES FILM

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

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

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

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

YOU ASKED IT

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

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

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

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

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

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

DO YOU KNOW?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peep, Don’t Sleep

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– Komal Nahta

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Twentieth Century Craze

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

Maximum Planning, Minimum Wastage

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

All Set

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

BJP Sore

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

WARNING NOTICE

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

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

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

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

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

Bombay,
3-4-1998

MAJOR SAAB

Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd.’s Major Saab (UA) is a love story set against the army backdrop. Although the romantic tale has nothing to do with the military backdrop, the two main characters in the film are armymen. Thus, although the title gives the impression that the film is about the army, it actually turns out to be like any other love story. The title may, in this sense only, be construed to be less appropriate, but it is this very military background of the film which distinguishes it from other romantic dramas and lends freshness to an otherwise routine subject. Further, because of the two characters being in the army, the writers have been able to pack in a handful of truly nationalist dialogues with a lot of patriotic flavour, something which the audiences are bound to appreciate and even applaud.

Amitabh Bachchan plays the title role, incharge of a group of cadets whom he is imparting training to. One of the cadets is Ajay Devgan who is forced to join the army but has no intentions of remaining there. In fact, he keeps breaking the strict rules of the army, much to the annoyance of the major who is a strict disciplinarian. But gradually, the soft inside of the tough major wins over the disobedient cadet and he promises to follow in the footsteps of the major. On his part, the major helps the cadet (whom he starts treating like his son) free his beloved from the clutches of her devious brother and another evil don. For this, the major himself flouts the army rules.

The first half is slow and dull, and belongs to Ajay Devgan who, with his pranks, keeps the interest alive to some extent. The second half belongs to Amitabh Bachchan and, although lengthy and repetitive, this part is better. The ‘Sona Sona’ song in the pre-climax is the best thing in the film and it rejuvenates the audience to participate in the drama in the form of thunderous applause, whistles, cheers and even dancing with Bachchan. Credit for this goes as much to the music (Aadesh Shrivastava) as to the picturisation and Amitabh’s fabulous dance. Climax has plenty of action but is average. Dialogues (Santosh Saroj) in praise of Indians and the Indian jawans are brilliantly worded. Emotions are almost absent although there was much scope for them in the scenes between Amitabh and Ajay and between Ajay and Nafisa Ali (Amitabh’s wife). Robin Bhatt and Santosh Saroj’s screenplay has several flaws and is not even smooth. For instance, Ajay promises to become another Amitabh but the promise is not even sought to be fulfilled. Sonali’s change of mind (about marriage) and her brother’s change of heart appear ridiculous.

Amitabh Bachchan looks superb in the get-up of a major. His performance is even more superb. He plays his role to perfection, using his voice, expressions and body language fabulously. His dance, as said above, is the best (most superb) thing in the film and, in fact, the song and dance (choreographed by Ganesh) alone are enough to see the distributors of the film through. Ajay Devgan also acts very ably. If he is very good in action scenes, he is even better in the scenes which require him to perform. Sonali Bendre does an average job. Nafeesa Ali looks pretty and acts reasonably well, but her dialogue delivery is not good. Mohan Joshi performs well. Ashish Vidyarthi is also good as Sonali’s brother. But his character changes a bit too often. Mushtaq Khan leaves a mark. Navin Nischol and Siddharth provide good support. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is wasted. Shahbaaz Khan, Vikas Anand, Dinesh Hingoo and the others lend fair support.

Tinnu Anand’s (Verinder Raj Anand’s) direction is quite alright but his sense of editing leaves a lot to be desired. On the music side, the ‘Sona Sona’ song is a rage. Of the other numbers (Anand Raaj Anand), a couple of them are good but their picturisations are dull. Ravi K. Chandran’s camerawork is excellent and the same can be said about Sabu Cyril’s art direction. Action scenes (Bhiku Verma) are well composed. Editing is loose, and the film’s merits will improve if it is further edited by about 10 minutes.

On the whole, Major Saab will not get any critical acclaim or appreciation and may not have a long run, but it will definitely keep its distributors smiling due to four main reasons — ‘Sona Sona’ song and dance; Amitabh Bachchan’s performance; the bumper opening it has taken; and its reasonable price. These four factors outweigh the minus factors, namely, ordinary script and loose editing. Business in North India and Bihar should be better.

Released on 25-6-’98 at Metro and on 26-6-’98 at 19 other cinemas of Bombay by AB Corp. thru Shringar Films. Publicity: extraordinary. Opening: simply astounding. …….Also released all over. Opening was cinema-shattering everywhere except (surprisingly) in Jaipur.

LATEST POSITION

MAJOR SAAB has taken a bumper start. This, coupled with the success of last week’s release, GHULAM, has improved the generally dull first half of 1998.

Ghulam, as predicted, is the best in Bombay, Maharashtra and South (A1) and has done well in all the other circuits. It dropped quite badly in Gujarat and Saurashtra from mid-week. 1st week Bombay 59,26,533 (99.99%) from 14 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 14,29,544 from 7 cinemas, Padra 1,94,192, Rajkot 1,59,346, Jamnagar (matinee) 38,763; Solapur 2,17,038 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Belgaum 1,42,653 (100%); Delhi 33,75,118 (86.84%) from 8 cinemas; Kanpur 4,69,447 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 3,62,029, Agra 2,75,726, Allahabad 1,68,500, Meerut 1,78,271; Calcutta 27,73,744 from 21 cinemas (other cinemas were on F.H.); Nagpur 8,53,514 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur 2,48,933 (100%), Amravati 2,66,661, Akola 1,86,308, Raipur 2,04,840 (73.62%), Chandrapur (29 shows) 2,15,765; Indore 3,99,000 from 2 cinemas (2 on F.H.), Bhopal 3,56,387 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 7,82,318 from 3 cinemas; Hyderabad 31,38,710 from 12 cinemas (1 in noon), share 17,19,432.

Maut Ke Saudagar (dubbed) 1st week Agra 85,145; Jaipur 1,46,169.

Gharwali Baharwali 2nd week Bombay 24,74,620 (60.47%) from 8 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,28,389 (2 unrecd.), Rajkot 1,70,085, Jamnagar 1,31,493 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Adipur 2 weeks’ total 2,00,199; Solapur 1,30,603 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 22,12,143 from 9 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,88,787 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 3,26,348, Agra 98,747, Allahabad 94,500, Bareilly 59,506 (26.63%), Hardwar 26,000; Calcutta 4,89,017 from 5 cinemas; Nagpur 1,89,651 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur 1,21,628, total 2,86,771, Amravati 1,45,455, Akola 1,34,994, total 3,03,765, Raipur 1,24,610, Durg 77,596, Yavatmal 95,774; Indore 1,26,628 (2 on F.H.), Bhopal 1,94,939 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 1,87,010, Jodhpur 1,90,000, Ajmer 89,624; Hyderabad 3,40,472.

Achanak 2nd week Bombay 8,59,243 (47.54%) from 6 cinemas (8 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,59,468 from 3 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Rajkot (matinee) 7,773; Solapur 91,850; Delhi 7,39,616 from 5 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,19,588 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 1,77,788, Allahabad 48,000, Meerut 90,400, Bareilly 46,051 (21.31%); Calcutta 2,66,241 from 2 cinemas; Nagpur 1,08,277 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur 37,783, Amravati 70,629, Raipur 50,272, 1st week Jalgaon 1,33,240; 2nd week Indore 45,000, Bhopal 82,338; Jaipur 2,58,810 from 2 cinemas; Hyderabad 1,81,349 from 2 cinemas (1 in noon).

Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai 5th week Bombay 14, 25,593 (67.17%) from 5 cinemas (3 on F.H.), good; Ahmedabad 47,189, Jamnagar 50,208; Solapur 54,630, 1st week Barsi 36,254; 5th week Belgaum 83,967; Delhi 23,98,043 from 6 cinemas, very good; Kanpur 93,815, Lucknow 1,03,245, Agra 95,671, Allahabad 39,109, Bareilly (6 days) 46,820 (24.27%), 1st week Hardwar 56,098; 5th week Calcutta 3,84,718 from 4 cinemas; Nagpur 1,47,781, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,04,066, Akola 50,954, total 3,68,074, 4th week Raipur 57,348, 5th week Jalgaon (6 days) 38,665, Chandrapur 80,298, total 5,76,524, 3rd week Yavatmal (6 days) 22,644, 4th week Bilaspur 32,643; 5th week Bhopal 1,66,466, excellent; Jaipur 2,80,987, very good, 4th week Bikaner 96,375; 5th week Hyderabad 4,14,710 from 3 cinemas (2 in noon).

ASHA PAREKH APPOINTED CBFC CHAIRPERSON

Asha Parekh has been appointed chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification. She is the first lady to be appointed to chair the organisation and she succeeds Shakti Samanta.

Asha Parekh’s term is for a period of three years.

YOU ASKED IT

Why was Major Saab sold at a reasonable price to its distributors? Were they not willing to buy it for more than 1.25 to 1.5 crore?

– AB Corp. compensated its distributors for the losses of MRITYUDAATA and SAAT RANG KE SAPNE by keeping the price of MAJOR SAAB reasonable.

It is true that Ghulam has not done well in the USA?

– Yes, it is a shocking fact!

What is the title of the new Assamese film which has hit the bull’s eye?

– Ashok Kumar Bishaya’s JOUBAND AMANI KARE (which means JAWANI DEEWANI in Hindi). It is the biggest blockbuster in Assamese.

PEOPLE
Are talking about

** The brilliant opening of Major Saab all over the country. Amitabh Bachchan has not lost his charisma, that’s the general opinion.

** The wonderful gesture of producer-director K.C. Bokadia who gave Amitabh Bachchan the super-hit Sona Sona song for Major Saab. The song was recorded (by Aadesh Shrivastava) for Bokaddia’s Lal Baadshah but Amitabh liked it so much when he heard it that he jumped to pick up the song when Bokadia announced that there was no situation for it in Lal Baadshah. By the way, a super-hit number like Sona Sona needs no situation.

PEOPLE
Are happy about

** The return of the good times. Major Saab has taken a flying start, Ghulam has clicked, Gharwali Baharwali will fetch commission in some circuits, Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai is steady at medium collections since several weeks.

** Asha Parekh being appointed chairperson of the CBFC.

PEOPLE
Are scared about

** Two love stories, namely Kareeb and Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, scheduled for release one after the other. The former is due on 17th July while the latter will come on 24th July.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Delivery Problem Of A Different Kind

Major Saab had yet another hiccup — this time due to a technical snag — just before the preparation of the film’s final prints. There was reportedly a technical problem in the film’s sound negative. The rectifications took some time and, as a result, the sound negative could not be delivered to Adlabs in time for the preparation of the final prints. Much to its credit though, Adlabs successfully managed to deliver all the final prints of the film, as scheduled. But there was virtual maara-maari for the prints, among the various distributors. In the meantime, Delhi-U.P. distributor G.D. Mehta raised his order of prints by 5 at the eleventh hour (thanks to the last-minute booking in some stations). With these extra prints, G.D. Mehta’s tally has gone up to 45 prints. The total number of prints of Major Saab has crossed 280.

Top Distributors, Petty Rivalries

The scene in Delhi-U.P. exhibition trade is rather sad. Distributors of this circuit go to court against exhibitors, at the drop of a hat. This court-going practice is born out of the jealousies among some leading distributors of the territory. Reportedly, the distributors adopt dog-in-the-manger policy and try to block cinemas with their films so that the other distributor/s cannot get a good chain of cinemas for his/their releases. The professional enmity between some of the distributors is so bitter that a distributor would prefer paying deficit to a cinema rather than discontinuing his film to make way for his rival’s film. The classic case was a recent one in which a distributor knocked the doors of the court against an exhibitor who threatened to discontinue his film to accommodate another distributor’s film. So keen was a third distributor (not in any way connected with the film showing at the said cinema or with the film trying to be accommodated) to see that the new film should not be able to bag the cinema that he even told the complainant-distributor to not just go to court but also take some 10 thousand rupees from him towards the cost of litigation! All because this third distributor may have had an axe to grind with the second distributor. A case of dushman ka dushman, dost! All this pettiness among top distributors also affects exhibitors who often find themselves unnecessarily dragged into controversies. Obviously, the exhibitors can’t take sides because they have to deal with all the distributors. Incidentally, this cut-throat competition among distributors has prompted them to become cinema controllers too.

Titanic Rumours

Rumours are rife in the industry that two films are simultaneously being made, each based on the Hollywood blockbuster, Titanic. The two films being talked about are Indra Kumar’s Mann and Rakesh Roshan’s Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai. In reality, there is no truth in the rumours as both the films have different stories from each other as well as from the Hollywood blockbuster. The only similarity among them is that each of these films is to be shot aboard a ship — a fact which may well have sparked off the rumours. Last heard, Rakesh Roshan was planning a trip to Greece to find a suitable ship for his film while Indra Kumar has already found his ship in Singapore.

Asha Parekh In A New Role

Asha Parekh is the first lady to be appointed chairperson of the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC). She takes over from Shakti Samanta whose 7-year stint (the longest ever in the CBFC) ended on 24th June, 1998. Asha Parekh may be the first lady to be appointed chairperson of the CBFC, but, technically, she is not the first woman to occupy that chair. That distinction is already reserved for Aparna Mohile who was the acting chairperson of the CBFC in 1982 and ’83 — from 11th August, ’82 to 14th March, ’83. She is presently the Postmaster General, Maharashtra. Asha Parekh is officially the 21st chairperson of the CBFC, but since two earlier chairmen were reappointed on two separate occasions (B.D. Mirchandani — 15-6-’54 to 9-6-’55, re-appointed from 25-3-’60 to 1-11-’60; and D.L. Kothari — 22-11-’59 to 24-3-’60, reappointed from 2-11-’60 to 22-4-’65), she becomes the 19th person to hold the office since CBFC’s inception in 1951.

ZOR

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

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

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

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

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

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

LATEST POSITION

KAMA SUTRA is a tale of super-success everywhere.

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

………..

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

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

…………

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

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

‘DTPH’ 100 DAYS

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

RAMESH PATEL’S DAUGHTER TO WED

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

NEW MINI CINEMA IN BOMBAY

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

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

YOU ASKED IT

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

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

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

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

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

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

DO YOU KNOW?

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

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

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

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

CBFC Higher Than High Court?

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

Sexy Success

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

Luck Transferred

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

Killing Jack To Accommodate John

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

Divine Blessings?

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

LATEST POSITION

The Rakshan Bandan holiday/s on 7th/8th proved bountiful for the industry.

Barood reaped the benefit of Raksha Bandhan holidays but dropped from 5th/6th day onwards. 1st week Bombay 36,42,868 (71%) from 12 cinemas (8 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 6,03,505 from 5 cinemas, Vapi 4,85,986 from 2 cinemas, Padra 1,30,225, Rajkot 1,28,390 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Jamnagar (matinee) 24,069; Pune 8,06,646 from 5 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur 1,46,825; Delhi (6 days) 23,22,062 (62.91%) from 9 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 3,80,435 from 2 cinemas, Agra 1,87,000, Varanasi 1,39,432 (70.15%), Allahabad 1,01,000, Bareilly 1,39,432 (70.15%); Calcutta (6 days) 17,55,979 from 18 cinemas; Nagpur 5,34,286 from 6 cinemas, Amravati 95,579, Bhilai 92,864; Bhopal 2,53,250 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 7,27,687 from 4 cinemas; Hyderabad 20,23,978 from 11 cinemas (1 in noon), share 7,25,928.

…………

Godzilla (dubbed) has done excellent. 1st week Bombay 4,54,913 (100%) (2 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 3,72,450 from 3 cinemas, Baroda (English & Hindi) 2,30,351, Rajkot 1,50,230, Adipur 1,64,923, share 1,16,455, record; Pune 3,38,467; Delhi 18,92,581 (85.51%) from 5 cinemas; Kanpur 3,35,647 from 2 cinemas, Varanasi (6 days) 1,61,372, Allahabad 94,300; Calcutta (6 days) 16,69,608 from 15 cinemas (1 in noon); Nagpur 45,038.

………..

Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha is doing very well in Bombay, West Bengal, C.P.C.I. and South. 3rd week Bombay 22,49,795 (94.82%) from 5 cinemas (5 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 5,82,805 from 4 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Vapi 2,35,896, total 10,64,702, Rajkot (matinee) 14,160, Jamnagar 92,789 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Pune 6,48,184 from 3 cinemas, Kolhapur 1,10,000; Delhi (6 days) 18,39,773 from 6 cinemas; Kanpur 2,87,200, Varanasi 1,20,117, Allahabad 1,13,000, Meerut 1,39,128, 1st week Bareilly 1,55,006 (68.87%), 3rd week Hardwar 49,589; Rohtak 20,494; Calcutta (6 days) 5,44,117 from 4 cinemas; Nagpur 2,42,391 from 2 cinemas, Amravati 1,19,001, Akola 1,35,344, total 4,68,254, Raipur 1,39,373, Bhilai 91,045, Chandrapur 81,790 (2nd 85,238), total 3,30,560; Bhopal 2,85,601 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 5,49,281, Ajmer 1,23,291, 1st week Bikaner 2,18,134; 3rd week Hyderabad 6,93,346 from 4 cinemas (1 in noon).

Dulhe Raja 5th week Bombay 5th week Bombay 6,48,553 (52.17%) from 4 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,21,320, Jamnagar (matinee) 9,583; Pune 1,45,254 from 2 cinemas, 1st week Barsi 30,981; 5th week Delhi (6 days) 4,15,342 from 2 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Kanpur 3,07,648 from 2 cinemas, Agra 1,48,756, Varanasi 1,12,632, Allahabad 74,300, Bareilly 90,927 (42.09%); 2nd week Rohtak 10,364; 5th week Calcutta (6 days) 1,08,561; Nagpur 1,49,124 from 2 cinemas, Amravati 68,510, 4th Akola 60,125, total 4,13,167, share 2,68,862, 5th week Raipur 84,698, Bhilai 60,270, 4th Jalgaon 48,064, total 4,16,868; 5th week Bhopal 38,783; Jaipur 3,90,388 from 2 cinemas, 2nd week Ajmer (gross) 1,69,092, Bikaner 85,780; 5th week Hyderabad 4,18,931 from 3 cinemas (1 in noon).

Satya 6th week Bombay (TF) 41,22,214 (82.71%) from 10 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 97,143, Baroda 22,083, Rajkot (mg. shows) 9,865; Pune (TF) 5,23,893 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Kolhapur (TF) 1,73,687, 2nd week Barsi (TF) 43,877 (1st 79,153); 6th week Delhi (6 days) 2,47,913 from 2 cinemas; Kanpur 81,434 from 2 cinemas, Allahabad 45,861, 1st week Hardwar 78,800; 6th week Calcutta (6 days) 1,07,815; Nagpur (TF) 87,916, Amravati (TF) 1,07,523, Akola (TF) 59,066, total 4,36,392, share 3,09,406, 2nd week Dhule (TF) 92,302 (1st 1,18,450), total share 1,18,471, Wardha (TF) 61,009, Yavatmal (TF) 60,040; Bikaner 38,380; 6th week Hyderabad 3,34,810 from 2 cinemas (1 in noon).

________

Godzilla (English) 1st week Bombay 8,95,474 (92.01%); Delhi (6 days) 26,03,585 from 4 cinemas; Calcutta (6 days) 6,02,039 from 2 cinemas; Nagpur 2,11,875; Vijayawada 2,30,000, Visakhapatnam (noon) 50,278.

DELHI-U.P. DISTRIBUTOR AJAY GOEL DEAD

Ajay Doel, proprietor of M.K.D. Films (96), Delhi, was killed in a gas leak accident in his office in Delhi earlier this week. Kriya ceremony was held on 14th August.

MADHUBHAI PATEL DEAD

Madhubhai Manibhai Patel of Laxmi Cinema, Nadiad, Natraj Talkies, Borsad, and Natraj, Kapadwanj, passed away in Nadiad on 7th August. Besna was held on 13th at his residence in Nadiad.

SIZE DOESN’T MATTER!

Glamour, the preview theatre housed in the premises of Gaiety, Galaxy and Gemini cinemas of Bandra, Bombay, will very soon be turned into a commercial cinema. The mini cinema has 46 seats, and the admission rate will be Rs. 65. Its weekly capacity (daily 5 shows) will be Rs. 64,400.

The new cinema will open with Godzilla (English). It is equipped with Dolby digital sound and a new AC plant. It is being managed by Manoj Desai and Rajesh Thadani.

INDUSTRY PLEADS FOR MORE RELIEFS IN U.P.

The Film Makers’ Combine and the Association of Motion Picture & TV Programme Producers hosted a meeting on 9th August at Citizen Hotel to discuss the U.P. government’s film policy with Kalraj Mishra, tourism minister of the state.

While thanking the minister for the reliefs granted by the Uttar Pradesh government, including reduction in entertainment tax and industry status for films, a fervent appeal was made to further reduce entertainment tax.

The CHAMPP also presented a memorandum to the minister at the meeting, requesting for the following:

(1) The U.P. government should give a grant of Rs. 15 lakh, like the Maharashtra government, to a filmmaker making films in Bhojpuri, Brajbhasha, Awadhi, Bundelkhandi, Maithili, Purvi, Garhwali and other languages of the state.

(2) Films made in regional languages should be granted entertainment tax exemption for one year if filmed 50% in the state and for 2 years if 75% shooting is done in the state.

(3) 50% concessions should be given to the units of regional films shooting on locations in U.P. and staying in government lodges. Such concessions should also be given by the tourism and other departments of the state.

(4) The film producer should get as a loan up to 50% of the grant at minimum interest rate from government’s financial institutions, taking into consideration the progress of the film.

RAVI DEWAN’S BEAUTY CARE SALON

Action master and director Ravi Dewan and his wife, Maya, are inaugurating a beauty care salon today (15th August). Called Maya’s, it is situated at MHADA, Building no. 7, Flat 001, Oshiwara Extension, New Link Road, near Tarapore Towers, Andheri (W), Bombay. Phone: 639-1386.

DO YOU KNOW?

4.41 CRORE IN 1 WEEK

* The English and Hindi versions of GODZILLA have collected a total of 4.41 crore in 1st week on 123 prints in India. The first week’s all-India share is a fantastic 2.91 crore!

MAIN SOLAH PER CENT KI!

* In a unique coincidence, Dev Anand’s MAIN SOLAH BARAS KI has collected 77,248/- against the capacity of 4,64,915/- at New Era in Malad, Bombay, thereby achieving the dubious distinction of recording 16.62% collections in its first week! This uncanny similarity between the film’s title and its percentage collections has led people to wonder whether Dev Anand will now make an autobiographical film and title it MAIN EK SAU SOLAH BARAS KA! If nothing else, it would at least give some hope to that film’s distributors — for a similar coincidence (116% collections)!

YOU ASKED IT

Why are so many horror films being made?

–Because their budgets are small and they are made in a short span of time. Other than these, small non-star cast films don’t have buyers.

There’s a fad to cut non-film albums these days, coupled with making music videos. Are these enterprises paying?

– If a private non-film album clicks in a big way (like Alisha Chinai’s ‘Made In India’, Daler Mehndi’s ‘Bolo Ta Ra Ra Ra’ and Altaf Raja’s ‘Tum To Thehre Pardesi’), it can yield profits of a couple of crores or even more!

For a super-hit music album like Dil Se.., is it worth spending lakhs on publicity?

– Of course, it is worth the money being spent before the film’s release. It would be wrong to not spend on publicity of a hit album.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

Kaho Naa…Kareena Hai

So, finally the lid is off. Our sources have confirmed that Kareena Kapoor has been signed by director J.P. Dutta finally. Of course, there’s no formal announcement by Dutta so far. It may be recalled that Kareena Kapoor’s controversial departure, a few weeks ago, from Rakesh Roshan’s Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai had opened up a can of worms. It has been rumoured since then that Kareena left the film because she was being offered a film by J.P. Dutta, pairing her opposite Abhishek Bachchan. The rumours seem confirmed now, with the news of Kareena signing the J.P. Dutta film which stars Abhishek Bachchan with Jackie Shroff and Sunil Shetty. There, the cat’s out of the bag.

Tug-Of-War For Film

A controversy involving Bade Miyan Chote Miyan may soon start in Delhi. For, there seem to be two distributors of the film for Delhi-U.P. While one is the original distributor to whom the film was sold at a price of 2 crore plus, the other is a new entrant. It so happened that after having acquired the film and even paying under-production money, the original distributor reportedly developed cold feet and asked for a price reduction. The producer, not in a mood to reduce the price, negotiated with another distributor who expressed his willingness to buy the film. In the meantime, Major Saab was released and it not only took a flying start but also did good business in the subsequent weeks. This seems to have influenced the thinking of the original distributor who is now keen to release BMCM himself. But the producer has reportedly promised the distribution rights to the other distributor. Who will finally get the film and at what price remains to be seen. In the meantime, the producer must be feeling thrilled about the heat the film is generating, what with two buyers ready to buy it at a heavy price.

‘Dil Se..’ Craze At Peak

The music of Dil Se.. is rapidly making inroads into the hearts of millions of people everywhere. Almost every other person is heard humming various tunes from the Dil Se.. album, seemingly paving the way for a fantastic opening for the film, due for release next week. In fact, the never-before-heard combination of A.R. Rahman, Gulzar and Lata Mangeshkar has become so adorable to the public that it would not be surprising if cinema halls all over the country witness scenes of people getting up and dancing on their seats, whistling, even showering coins on the screens and asking for an encore, especially of the Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan number when the film releases.