60 DIE IN MAJOR FIRE AT DELHI’S UPHAAR CINEMA
A major fire broke out at Uphaar cinema in Delhi on Friday, June 13 at 5 p.m., killing almost 60 people. Over two hundred others were burnt and injured and are being treated in hospitals. The fire brigade, which arrived after 30 minutes of the catastrophe, was trying to control the fire even at 9 p.m.
A transformer in an air-conditioner on the ground floor of the recently renovated cinema got burnt and is said to have caused the fire. As people seeing the film noticed the fire, there was utter chaos with everybody trying to run out of the hall. As soon as the fire broke out, the hall was filled with gas. While people in the stalls could escape faster, many of those seated in the balcony were trapped. Many people who managed to escape, returned inside the gas chamber to save others. Among the 60-odd people burnt to death, at least three were armymen, it is reported.
Border had opened at the cinema the same day. Since Border deals with the story of armymen, a lot of army people had gone to see the film on its opening day. The cinema has a seating capacity of over 1,000.
Many cars parked in the cinema’s parking space were also burnt. Simultaneously with saving the lives of people and battling to bring the fire under control, efforts were on to remove the undamaged cars from the parking lot.
‘Itihaas’: West Bengal Distributor Refuses To Hike Price
With just a week to go for the release of Raj Kanwar’s maiden production venture, Itihaas, also directed by him, the dispute over the price for West Bengal and Assam has not yet been resolved. Raj Kanwar is looking for a price hike while the West Bengal-Assam distributor is in no mood for an increase.
It is learnt that the two failed to reach a settlement and the Bengal distributor ultimately threatened not to take the film’s delivery if it was not effected at the contracted price. Reportedly, the producer is said to have told the distributor, presumably in the heat of the moment, that he would rather not have the film released in West Bengal and Assam than effect delivery at the contracted price. The producer’s claim is that he has gone over-budget and hence the hike. The distributor, however, refuses to buy the over-budget story.
Xavier Marquis, who presents the film, is said to have kept out of the controversy as the deal for West Bengal-Assam was finalised by Raj Kanwar and his brother, K. Pappu.
Of course, one is sure, the film will not remain unreleased in West Bengal and Assam. But the sooner the matter is settled, the better it would be for all concerned.
GULSHAN RAI: A DISTRIBUTORS’ PRODUCER
Looking to the recent spate of flops and disasters, Gulshan Rai is showing concern for his distributors by agreeing to reduce the price of his Gupt. Some of his distributors have approached Rai, seeking reduction in the price. The film, it may be mentioned here, had fetched fantastic prices (in the ratio of 2.5 to 3 crore per major circuit) in all the circuits when it was sold. Gulshan Rai, it is learnt, is agreeing to oblige in cases where he feels, a price reduction is necessary, considering the tight money position in the industry, the recent losses suffered by his distributors in other films, etc.
Incidentally, the cinema trailers of the film have turned out to be extraordinary.
RAMKISAN KASAT’S SON TO WED
Marriage of Sushil, son of leading C.P. Berar distributor Ramkisan Kasat, with Savita will be solemnised on 18th June in Amravati at Hotel Mehfil Inn.
KEDAR NATH AGARWAL NO MORE
Producer, director and Bengal and Delhi-U.P. distributor Kedar Nath Agarwal passed away in Calcutta on 9th June. He was 65. He used to own the concerns Parasnath Pictures and Sangeeta Productions.
Kedar Nath is survived by his wife, two children, brother Naresh Kumar Agarwal and other family members.
ANNOUNCEMENT & LAUNCHING
Rishi Kapoor To Direct Rajesh Khanna, Akshaye, Aishwarya
R.K. Films And Studios’ Aa Ab Laut Chalen, with which Rishi Kapoor makes his debut as director, will be launched with a song recording on June 18 at Sunny Super Sounds. The music will be scored by Nadeem Shravan and lyrics will be penned by Sameer.
The film stars Rajesh Khanna, Akshaye Khanna, Aishwarya Rai, Paresh Rawal, Jaspal Bhatti, Satish Kaushik, Jatin Sial, Himani Shivpuri, Viveck Vaswani and Kader Khan. It has screenplay by Sachin Bhaumick, story and dialogues by Rumi Jafri, scenario by Raju Saigal, photography by Sameer Arya, and art direction by Suresh Sawant.
The unit will leave for a 55-day shooting schedule on August 15 in the United States of America and Canada. Four songs and scenes will be filmed with the entire cast participating.
YOU ASKED IT
What explains the bumper opening of Border this week?
– The extraordinary and formidable star-cast, excellent and correct publicity (that the film is a war film), a war film coming after many, many years and, of course, the super-hit ‘Sandese aate hain’ song.
In the coming days, which forthcoming films can be expected to take bumper initials?
– GUPT, PARDES, DAUD and ISHQ.
Have the problems between the producer and some distributors of Mrityudand, over the issue of price, as mentioned by you last week, been sorted out? Will the film be released this month?
– The differences are being sorted out. New distributors are also showing interest in the film. It will now be released on 11th July. Incidentally, the film’s music is picking up very well.
DO YOU KNOW?
* It was not just India which was in the grip of a BORDER fever, but London and Canada too were in its grip. Long queues for the advance booking of tickets of the film were witnessed in London and Canada!
* Padmalaya’s Telugu film, ENCOUNTER, starring Krishna, is oven-‘hot’ in distribution circles. It has reportedly been sold at a very fancy price for Andhra. This is Krishna’s 310th film and has been directed by Shankar. It will be released on 15th August.
* Jyotin Goel has imported a gorilla suit from Hollywood for the climax of SAFARI.
* Sapna cinema, Indore, which has just 640 seats and is equipped with DTS sound system, has collected over 40 lakh in 30 weeks’ run of RAJA HINDUSTANI.
* KHILADIYON KA KHILADI got the benefit of a housefull show on 5th June at Rituraj, Itarsi. People thought, BORDER had opened at the cinema as it was heavily advertised all over the town that BORDER was coming on 5th June. With the last-minute postponement by one week, the cinema management forgot to change the date in the film’s various boards all over town. People did not notice that BORDER had not been released, even after seeing the publicity of KKK at the cinema!
* BORDER has created a city record by collecting a total of 2,05,443/- on the opening day in Nagpur (5 cinemas). It collected 46,736/- at Smruti (5 shows), 42,579/- at Ashirwad (4 shows), 32,120/- at Panchsheel (4 shows), 48,136/- at Jaswant (5 shows), and 35,872/- at Sangam (4 shows).
* BORDER has created a unique city record by collecting 69,093/- on the opening day at Rajkamal, Akola. There were over-capacity crowds in the very first show at 6 a.m. when the film collected over 18,000/- against a capacity of 11,000/-!
* BORDER has created a theatre record by collecting 51,027/- on the opening day at Babulal, Raipur. It has also created a record by collecting 36,022/- on the opening day (4 shows) at Horas Amrit, Raipur, where it has been released simultaneously.
* BORDER has created a city record by collecting 46,840/- on 1st day at Jayant, Chandrapur.
* BORDER has broken the records of all previous big films like HAHK..!, DDLJ and RAJA HINDUSTANI by collecting 51,735/- on the opening day at Jayanti, Jabalpur.
* BORDER has created a city record by collecting 46,426/- on the first day at Rajlaxmi, Amravati.
* BORDER has created a city record by collecting 36,480/- on the first day (6 shows) at Apsara, Yavatmal.
SHOOTING COVERAGE
‘YUGPURUSH’
A Different Nana Again
– Gautam Mutha
Nana Patekar is out of the Pune mental asylum after 25 years. He had been admitted to the asylum when he was seven years of age. Today, he is 32 but not worldly-wise, although he is no longer a lunatic. A simpleton in appearance and even simpler by heart, he is unbelievably innocent and has a heart of gold.
That’s Nana in Yugpurush. It was shot on June 3, 4 and 5 in Kolhapur at Shalini Palace Hotel, and producer Pranlal Mehta had invited a press team to cover the shooting. The train journey from Bombay to Kolhapur, in the company of the film’s cast and crew, was an enjoyable one. Nana joined the group from Pune where he had gone to attend a school function.
Yugpurush is Pranlal Mehta’s 25th film. He had produced his first film, Kinara, in 1978, and has also made a Gujarati film and two Kannada ones. Yugpurush is inspired from a Russian novel, The Idiot, on which was based a Russian film of the same name as also a Bengali film, Aparichito. It had been Parto Ghosh’s long-time desire to make a film on this subject and finally the Bengali babu, Parto-da, is doing it for Gujarati bhai, Pranlal Mehta.
Yugpurush was to star Sridevi in the female lead but she preferred to walk out of the project before it could roll due to “a misunderstanding that there were some kotha scenes to be done by her”. Manisha has stepped into Sri’s shoes and, likewise, Ashwini Bhave has replaced Deepti Bhatnagar in the film.
As for the title role, Pranlal Mehta said, “Only Nana could have done this role. Besides him, I could think of two great actors who would’ve done justice to the character — Dilip Kumar of yesteryears or young Sanjeev Kumar.” According to Pranlalbhai, even Kamal Haasan may have found it difficult to enact the role.
And if Nana has accepted the challenging role, it is because of two main reasons — one, it is challenging, and two, because Nana is trying not to get typecast in one kind of role, that of an angry not-so-young man mouthing fiery dialogues. In Yugpurush, his dialogues are simple and he speaks them slowly. But even the simple dialogues assume the nature of hard-hitting dialogues because they reflect the thoughts of a man who is as innocent and pure as can be.
There are no villains in the literal sense of the term, in the film. Of course, Mohan Joshi and Shivaji Satam are not idealistic persons but they aren’t filmi villains as well. Jackie Shroff’s character, nevertheless, does have grey shades. He plays a filthy rich business tycoon who must have what his heart desires. Manisha Koirala is the helpless girl who finds herself in the clutches of Shivaji Satam. When she meets Nana, she develops a liking for him and his simplicity and innocence. No villains, therefore no fights. Yugpurush has barely five minutes of action!
With Manisha replacing Sridevi, the project has turned out to be like a sequel to the hit Agni Sakshi — Parto Ghosh, Jackie, Nana and Manisha. Pranlal Mehta must be thanking his stars for the replacement which happened without a deliberate attempt from his side.
Pranlal Mehta is confident, all the awards of 1997 for the best actor will go to Nana for Yugpurush, so “wonderful” is his performance. Another thing Mehta guarantees is the audience’s tears. “Everybody will be moved to tears by Nana,” he predicts confidently.
Parto Ghosh also feels, emotions will be the high-point of the film. He is quick to explain that although the subject of the film is different, it is not an offbeat film which he is making. “It has all the commercial ingredients, yet it will be a film with a difference,” he says with an air of confidence. Parto is also confident that in this film, which will project an altogether different Nana, the audience will also love Jackie Shroff who, according to him, will be a surprise packet. Mohan Joshi’s changeover in the end will also be a highlight, he feels.
Ashwini Bhave is thrilled about her role of a simple girl in Yugpurush. Her only ‘grouse’, if one may use the word, is that Parto-da addresses her as “Oshwini” instead of Ashwini. Bengalis are known to round off any and every world and ‘Ashwini’ is no exception.
Exceptionally unusual is the end of the film in which Nana……. well, it wouldn’t be fair to reveal the ending. But that was exactly the portion being shot in Kolhapur and witnessed by us. A portion of a song was also picturised. The palatial hotel was selected on Nana’s suggestion and was used as Mohan Joshi’s house-cum-office. Mohan Joshi, who plays a publishing baron in the film, is, in real life, the non-controversial kind who does not crib or complain about anything, more because “I’m not in a position where I can even suggest”. He has the drive to make an indelible mark as a villain. Of course, for the present, he concedes that Amrish Puri is the last word in villainy.
If Mohan Joshi doesn’t like to even make suggestions, Nana is forever making suggestions on the sets. “What’s wrong?,” queries Nana and answers himself, “I don’t think, this is interference. It is up to the director to accept or reject my suggestions.” Parto, who is also making Musthafa with Nana, doesn’t seem to mind Nana’s habit of making suggestions, one bit. And if both, the actor and the director, are happy, why should anybody else have any objection?
But then, why doesn’t Nana himself direct another film after Prahaar? “Because it is a time-consuming job. Directing one film will take my two years,” he says. “Then I won’t be able to pursue acting.” And anybody would agree that Nana makes a better actor than director.
The unit will move to Bangalore shortly for a song picturisation. The songs of Yugpurush, composed by Rajesh Rohan, have a Bengali flavour. Rich in lyrical value (the songs are written by Majrooh Sultanpuri), they are all slow except for one which is a fast number. One song, which was picturised in the Pune mental asylum, was liked so much by the asylum authorities that Pranlal Mehta had to give in to their request to give them a cassette containing that song. The asylum uses the song as a prayer for its inmates and plays it daily!
3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment
Thrill-A-Minute, Chill-A-Minute ‘Anaconda’
Columbia-Tristar is planning to dub its English blockbuster, Anaconda, in Hindi. The film, about a type of snake found in the Amazon forests, sends chills down the spine of the viewer as did Jurassic Park. The Anaconda snake is so huge, one could faint at its very sight. It catches its prey (humans) in such a tight grip that the sound of the bones of the prey being crushed can be heard. The snake then gulps down the human body but it doesn’t digest it; rather, after a while, it regurgitates it. The hour-and-a-half film boasts of excellent visuals and nail-biting and hair-raising excitement. Indians are known to have a liking for films based on ichhadhari snakes. Who knows, a film about a different kind of snake — with an opening commentary — might also click. At least one distributor seems supremely confident about the dubbing because he has offered Columbia-Tristar an unheard of price for the to-be dubbed versions.
No-Cut Director
Krishna Reddy is a well-known and successful writer-director of Telugu films, having made almost 15 films. Among his successes is Shubhlagnam of which Judaai was the remake. Krishna Reddy’s latest Telugu release was Aahwaanam which didn’t do too well. For the censors, Krishna Reddy’s films mean that they don’t have to use their scissors at all. For, never has even a single cut been offered by the CBFC in any of Reddy’s films. That’s some record!
Music To Hit Hai
The music of Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai is already being spoken about in superlative terms by those who’ve heard it, even though it hasn’t been released as yet. Sunil Bansal, the Rajasthan distributor of the film, goes into ecstasy while talking of the film’s music. And this, when he has not even heard one actually recorded song. Then how come? Well, it so happened that Yash Chopra was in Jaipur some days back alongwith his wife, Pamela, to attend a marriage. Sunil and his family members had gone to the hotel where the Chopras were putting up, and were pleasantly surprised to hear Pamela Chopra humming the title song of the film behind closed doors of the hotel room. Sunil and family members waited patiently outside the room, refraining from ringing the door bell, so that Pamela could continue humming the song and they could hear it. Says Sunil, “The song is exceptional, its lyrics are simply fantastic.”
Compliment Extraordinaire
The acclaim which Javed Akhtar is receiving as a lyricist, from different quarters is remarkable. Be it for his lyrics in films or his book of poems or his non-film songs, the lyricist continues to make news after news. Currently, his songs in Virasat, Border, Sapnay, Yes Boss, …Aur Pyar Ho Gaya and Mrityudand are either already popular or becoming popular. Which is what made a personality like Lata Mangeshkar remark, “This is something which has never happened to any lyricist during the last hundred years of cinema. I have rarely seen a lyricist in such a state of inspiration, writing poetry and songs that appeal to the classes and masses alike.” No ordinary compliment this, coming as it does from the nightingale of India.
‘Gupt’ In Gandhinagar
For the first time in a city like Gandhinagar (in Gujarat), a vinyl hoarding has been put up in a cinema. The expensive hoarding is of Rajiv Rai’s Gupt and the cinema is Ajay Chudasama’s Rajshri. Well-illuminated, the colourful hoarding is attracting curious onlookers who crowd around it to have a look.
Too Sticky To Handle?
While it is common knowledge now that debut-making Shantanu Sheorey is not the director of Kamal Haasan’s Chikni Chaachi, few are aware of the fact that Shantanu was out barely seven days after the film rolled, in March itself. Kamal Haasan has himself directed the entire film and it would surprise many that Chikni Chaachi is about 90% complete! The portions shot by Shantanu were reshot by Kamal as the latter was not happy with the work done by the former. The film’s online producer, Saab John, has dismissed as baseless Shantanu’s claim in a recent press interview that it was he who walked out of the film because of aesthetic differences between Kamal Haasan and himself. Incidentally, Kamal’s Ladies Only is also ready. After Chikni Chaachi, he plans to produce more Hindi films, on a regular basis now. And yes, the hunt for a new title for Chikni Chaachi (because there are some who feel, womenfolk may not quite approve of the word ‘Chikni’ in the title; while ‘chikni’ in Bambaiya Hindi means good-looking, in the North, it translates into ‘sticky’) is over because it has now been titled Stree 420. Kamal wanted to take no chances by retaining the title Chikni Chaachi because ladies and children have been regular audience of his films in South.
Direct Contact
Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla will meet their fans on Sunday, June 15, between 5.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. at three places in Bombay, viz. Carter Road, Shivaji Park and opposite NCPA. As a promotional drive for Yes Boss, producer Ratan Jain has thought of this novel publicity campaign. The two stars will move in a mobile music van and sign autographs for their fans, besides asking them to see Yes Boss.
