KUNWARA

Tips Films and Geetha Arts’ Kunwara is a comedy film with an emotional undercurrent in the story. Remake of the Telugu hit, Bhavanagaru Bhagunnara, and inspired from the English film, Walk In The Clouds, it is about a boy who is in love with a girl but has to pretend to be her sister’s husband to save the sister and their family honour. Confusions and misunderstandings later, not only does he get his girl back but also gets the girl’s sister happily married to her beloved.

The film’s first half is light and enjoyable but only in parts. The lengthy scene of the boy’s friend enacting a dead body is quite funny. But the second half is less entertaining when the story takes precedence over the comedy punches. Unfortunately, the story, which had an inherent emotional strength, has not been treated with the sensitivity it deserved. Resultantly, emotions fall flat. A couple of comedy scenes of the friend in the second half are also enjoyable but they are not a match to the ones in the pre-interval portion. Dialogues (Rumi Jafri), like the screenplay (Ikram Akhtar and Yunus Sajawal), are not up to the mark. Climax becomes very routine and predictable. The angle of the girl’s father and grandfather looks too exaggerated.

Govinda does well as usual, but he doesn’t get too many hilarious scenes to match his talent. He looks terribly fat in the entire film and his make-up leaves something to be desired. His dances are extraordinary. Urmila Matondkar matches Govinda in dances excellently and looks glamorous. She too doesn’t get much scope to perform. Johny Lever, in the role of Govinda’s friend, is extraordinary as the dead body. In the second half also, his scenes bring smiles on the faces of the audience. Kader Khan is average. Om Puri does quite well. Naghma is so-so. Mohan Joshi and Aasif Sheikh lend fair support. Raza Murad, Smita Jayakar, Shammi, Jeetu Verma, Indra Kumar, Gavin and the rest fill the bill.

David Dhawan’s handling of comedy is just about fair and he is ill at ease in the treatment of the emotional side of the drama. Music (Aadesh Shrivastava) is good. ‘Kunwara chahoon re’, ‘Urmila he Urmila’ and ‘Jab ladka ho kunwara’ are the pick of the lot. But it must be mentioned that there’s no super-hit number. Song picturisations are eye-filling and the difficult steps are a pleasure to watch. But the foreign locations and ambience have started getting monotonous. Some of the songs have poor situations too. Camerawork is fair. Action scenes are so-so. Production values are alright.

On the whole, Kunwara is not at all the hilarious hungama it sets out to be. Nor is it a tearjerker which its story had the potential of making it. Not having taken a good start, it will prove to be an expensive proposition for its distributors who’ve paid a price for it. Below average.

Released on 21-7-2000 at Metro and 21 other cinemas of Bombay by Tips Films P. Ltd. thru Shringar Films. Publicity: very good. Opening: good. …….Also released all over. Opening was good at places but below the mark at others.

LATEST POSITION

No film is taking a long run! Like REFUGEE last week, it was the turn of BICHHOO this week to come sliding down. JUNGLE, too, dropped from 4th day onwards. However, its initial was so good and its price, reasonable (in almost all the circuits) that distributors of most of the territories are safe. …..Rains in different parts of the country continued to play havoc with the box-office for the second week in succession!

Jungle is quite good in Bombay and South and fair in other circuits. 1st week Bombay 55,64,160 (76.73%) from 13 cinemas (8 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 10,64,175 from 4 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Rajkot 1,09,672, Jamnagar 1,10,873; Pune 17,53,289 from 5 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 2,64,059 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 56,67,331 (70.73%) from 12 cinemas; Lucknow 4,39,367, Agra 4,10,000, Varanasi 2,08,142, Allahabad 1,78,066, Bareilly 1,13,836; Amritsar 50,360; Calcutta 13,32,009 from 10 cinemas; Nagpur 6,33,308 from 3 cinemas, Raipur (6 days) 1,35,512, Jalgaon 1,10,586, Chandrapur 1,48,758, Bilaspur 1,18,815; Indore 1,76,000 (3 on F.H.), Bhopal 2,59,597 from 2 cinemas; Jaipur 7,13,052 (44.35%) from 3 cinemas, Ajmer (gross, 29 shows) 1,64,383; Hyderabad (gross) 39,90,889 from 17 cinemas (2 in noon).

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Bichhoo declines. 2nd week Bombay 19,90,498 (45.14%) from 11 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 5,00,413 from 5 cinemas, Baroda 1,06,796 (1st 1,80,956), Vapi 1,91,516, total 6,92,326, Rajkot 1,57,740 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Jamnagar 50,500; Pune 3,89,402 from 4 cinemas (1 in matinee), Solapur 2,06,338 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee), Satara 1,36,851 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 15,43,359 from 9 cinemas (3 on F.H.); Lucknow 3,45,333, Agra 2,34,000 (1st 4,32,600), Varanasi 1,94,442, Allahabad 1,89,309, Bareilly (6 days) 1,24,353; Nagpur 3,52,488 from 4 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 1,01,601, 1st week Akola 2,17,671, 2nd week Raipur (6 days) 91,833, Jalgaon 1,01,492, Wardha 56,165, Bilaspur 52,746; Indore 1,45,797 from 2 cinemas (2 on F.H.), Bhopal 90,000 (1 unrecd.); Jaipur 2,10,945 (41.03%); Hyderabad (gross) 8,61,595 from 5 cinemas (1 in noon, 1 on F.H.).

Refugee 3rd week Bombay 28,20,135 (50.48%) from 11 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 2,74,580 from 2 cinemas, Padra 2,06,851 (2nd 2,95,126), Vapi 2,19,387, total 15,33,822, Jamnagar 1,07,291, total 5,55,215, Adipur 1,28,640 (56.97%), Bhuj 1,40,237; Pune 6,90,312 from 5 cinemas, Solapur 1,48,834, 1st week Barsi 59,202, 3rd week Satara 90,186 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); Delhi 15,35,453 from 7 cinemas (1 on F.H.); Lucknow 4,85,797, Agra 1,02,000 (2nd 1,40,000), Varanasi 1,27,914, Allahabad 1,73,800, Bareilly (6 days) 38,962; Calcutta 1,68,093 from 3 cinemas; Nagpur 2,15,254 from 2 cinemas, 1st week Jabalpur 2,64,866, 3rd week Akola 88,373, total 4,52,802, Raipur (6 days, gross) 1,68,990, Durg 45,951, Jalgaon 1,04,291, Wardha 30,973, Chandrapur 72,107, total 4,92,669, 2nd week Yavatmal (gross) 75,666, 3rd week Bilaspur 70,870, 2nd week Sagar (6 days) 41,068; Jaipur 5,72,927 (73.03%), Ajmer 59,892; Hyderabad (gross) 5,10,273 from 3 cinemas (1 in noon).

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‘PUKAR’ SILVER JUBILEE

Surinder Kapoor and Boney Kapoor’s Pukar entered combined silver jubilee (25th) week in Bombay and other places on 21st July. Directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, the film stars Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Namrata Shirodkar and Danny Denzongpa. Music: A.R. Rahman. Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri.

HEMA MALINI TAKES CHARGE OF NFDC

Hema Malini, who was recently appointed chairperson of the National Film Development Corporation, took charge on 19th July in Bombay. She attended the first meeting of the NFDC board. The government has not yet made any announcement regarding the new directors and the managing director.

MUKTA ARTS’ IPO PRICE RS. 165 PER SHARE

Subhash Ghai’s Mukta Arts Ltd. has fixed the price for its initial public offering (IPO) at Rs. 165 per share. The price fixed is 10% above the floor price of Rs. 150 per share.

Mukta Arts will issue 60,60,700 equity shares of the face value of Rs. 5 at a premium of Rs. 160 per share as the company proposes to raise Rs. 100 crore. The issue would comprise a book-built portion of 45,45,400 shares and fixed price portion of 15,15,300 shares.

Mukta Arts received bids ranging from Rs. 160 to Rs. 180 per share for the institutional portion of Rs. 37.50 crore. The maximum number of shares were bid at Rs. 170 per share, leading to the book being built 5.80 times in this category.

An excited Ghai, who was attending the birthday party of his favourite lyricist, Anand Bakshi, on 21st July, told Information, “By God’s grace, the book-building portion has done extremely well. The IPO opens on 28th July. We have kept the price per share at Rs. 165.”

‘TAAL’ GOLDEN JUBILEE

Subhash Ghai’s Taal entered 50th combined (golden jubilee) week in Bombay and other places on 21st July. Produced and directed by Ghai, it stars Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Akshaye Khanna, Alok Nath and Amrish Puri. Music: A.R. Rahman. Lyrics: Anand Bakshi. Cinematographer: Kabir Lal.

SADBHAVNA AWARD FOR DILIP KUMAR

Veteran star and Rajya Sabha member Dilip Kumar has been bestowed with the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavna award for his role in promoting peace and communal harmony. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 2.5 lakh and a citation. It will be presented to the thespian on 20th August in New Delhi. The previous recipients of this award have been Mother Teresa, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Lata Mangeshkar and Sunil Dutt.

‘Nayak The Real Hero’: Shankar’s Maiden Hindi Film Takes  Off

It was after a very long time that an elaborate muhurt shot was taken to mark a film’s launching. Otherwise, it is generally cocktail-dinner parties these days which mark a launching but they are without muhurt shots.

The film in question was A.M. Rathnam’s Nayak The Real Hero, being directed by Shankar. This is the director’s first Hindi film. His previous films like Humse Hai Muqabla, Hindustani and Jeans were dubbed versions of Tamil films.

Remake of the Tamil blockbuster, Mudhalvan, the Hindi version (Nayak The Real Hero) stars Anil Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Sushmita Sen (in a special appearance), Shivaji Satam, Saurabh Shukla, Paresh Rawal, Johny Lever and Amrish Puri.

It was a hot and sunny Saturday (15th July) afternoon after a week-long wet spell in Bombay when the muhurt of Shankar’s maiden Hindi venture was held at Filmistan Studios. Rakesh Roshan sounded the clapper-board for the muhurt shot directed by Yash Chopra and for which the camera was switched on by Aishwarya Rai. Anil Kapoor, facing the camera, delivered fiery dialogues with great enthusiasm.

Like the ambitious film, the invitation cards for the muhurt were rich and beautiful. A huge 20-page booklet of the film accompanied each invitation card and soon became the talk of the trade. The muhurt was attended by a number of trade people.

Shooting began in Ladakh soon after the muhurt. The film is planned for release on 6th June, 2001. Based on a story and screenplay by Shankar himself, it has music by A.R. Rahman, lyrics by Anand Bakshi, cinematography by K.V. Anand, dialogues by Anurag Kashyap, editing by B. Lenin and V.T. Vijayan, art by Thotta Tharani, action by Kanal Kannan, special visual effects by Venky, audiography by H. Sridhar and co-direction by Vijay Kumar Raichura. It is being made under the banner of Sri Surya Movies.

YOU ASKED IT

Is the market for re-issue rights finished?

– It is as good as finished!

Every filmmaker claims that the subject of his film is the star. Then why do they take stars?

– Every filmmaker claims that the subject of his film is the star, but most of them know that they are bluffing. As for taking stars, who told you that a fantastic subject does not need stars? You’ve heard of sone pe suhaaga, haven’t you?

Can you tell me how many viewers watch films in cinema halls in a year all over India?

– The number of viewers is equivalent to the country’s population, that is, over 100 crore! Yes, in a year!!

Since when are the black-and-white money transactions going on in the film industry?

– Since B & W days!

DO YOU KNOW?

* JOSH, which was released in Raipur at Raj Talkies in the first week, was shifted to Prabhat in 4th week, then to Samrat in 5th week and then to Krishna in 6th week (2 shows daily). This kind of joshila shifting has been done for the first time in Raipur!

* C.P. Berar distributor Laloo Kabra (Vishwajyoti Films, Bhusawal) must be having a soft corner for star-children. For, he has released four films which introduced star-kids in the last four years. He was the C.P. distributor of HIMALAY PUTRA (starring Akshaye Khanna), PREM AGGAN (Fardeen Khan), KN…PH (Hrithik Roshan) and REFUGEE (Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor).

CENSOR NEWS

Tips Films P. Ltd. and Geetha Arts’ Kunwara (social) was given C.C. No. CIL/1/42/2000 (U) dt. 14-7-2000; length 3857.70 metres in 16 reels (cuts: 25.43 metres).

N.S. Films International Inc.’s Tapish (social) was given C.C. No. CIL/3/74/2000 (A) dt. 18-7-2000; length 4188.27 metres in 15 reels (no cut).

Madan Enterprises’ Daku Rani Champabai (social) was given C.C. No. CIL/3/72/2000 (A) dt. 14-7-2000; length 3675.53 metres in 14 reels (cuts: 49.61 metres).

Paras Productions’ The Body – Tan Badan (revised; social) was given C.C. No. CIL/3/73/2000 (A) dt. 14-7-2000; length 3652.71 metres in 14 reels (cuts: 27.30 metres).

Kawaljit Enterprises’ Kaamatma (dubbed; horror) was given C.C. No. CFL/3/103/2000 (A) dt. 7-7-2000; length 2587.14 metres in 5 reels (no cut).

D.R.M. Combines’ Nasheelee Aankhe (dubbed; social) was given C.C. No. CFL/3/110/2000 (A) dt. 17-7-2000; length 2122.57 metres in 6 reels (no cut).

Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment’s Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega (length 4619.26 metres in 18 reels), applied on 18th and seen on 19th, has been passed with U certificate, with cuts.

TRAILERS

Trailer of Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment’s Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega was given C.C. No. CIS/1/198/2000 dt. 17-7-2000; length 91.44 metres.

Trailer of Venus Records & Tapes Ltd.’s Dhadkan was given C.C. No. CIS/1/201/2000 dt. 18-7-2000; length 95.40 metres.

Musical trailer of S.K. Films Enterprises’ Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai was given C.C. No. CIS/1/200/2000 dt. 18-7-2000; length 41.15 metres.

Trailer of Tips Films P. Ltd.’s Kunwara was given C.C. No. CIS/1/194/2000 dt. 7-7-2000; length 115.82 metres.

ANNOUNCEMENT & LAUNCHING

Subhash Ghai’s ‘Yaadein’ Launched In London

Subhash Ghai’s Yaadein was launched in London on July 15 with a muhurt at Tower Bridge. The muhurt shot was directed by Shekhar Kapur while top industrialist L.N. Mittal sounded the clapper-board, and another top industrialist, Srichand Hinduja, broke the auspicious coconut. Lord Raj Bagri switched on the camera which Jackie Shroff faced. Ketan Somaya garlanded the camera. Keith Vaz, minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, was the chief guest. The muhurt was followed by cocktails at Chor Bizarre. Media magnates like Sameer Jain, director, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd., attended the muhurt and party.

Following the 3-day London stint with Jackie Shroff, a 5-day shooting stint of the film commenced in Bombay on July 21 with the participation of Jackie Shroff, Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor. The film, being directed by Subhash Ghai and produced by Ashok Ghai, has music by Anu Malik, lyrics by Anand Bakshi, cinematography by Kabir Lal, and art by Sharmishtha Roy.

Dharmendra Signed

Dharmendra has been signed to head the cast of Ambica Films’ Prod. No. 3, to be directed by Kanti Shah and produced by Sanjesh Ahuja and Rajesh Ahuja. The film will be launched on Aug. 4 with a start-to-finish shooting schedule. It will be shot in Bombay, Gujarat and Rajasthan. It co-stars Rajani Chandra, Mohan Joshi, Kiran Kumar, Shakti Kapoor, Deepak Shirke, Shiva, Anil Nagrath, Durgesh Nandini, Kirti Shetty and Bindu Kamat. Sawan Kumar Sawan provides music.

Dharmendra In Title Role

Dharmendra has been signed to play the title role in Shri Balaji Films’ maiden venture, Daaku Bhairav Singh. The film is being directed and edited by Pappu Sharma. It co-stars Shakti Kapoor, Joginder, Anil Nagrath, Surendra Pal, newfinds Devaa, Prithvi Singh, Raman Nayyar, Prem Vallabh and Raajkumar Mishra. Story-screenplay: Naresh Namdev. Dialogues: Baldev Prasad. Music: Bablee. Lyrics: Manoj Darpan. Action: Darshan Singh. The film will be launched on July 24 with the recording of five songs at Techno Sounds.

PRODUCTION NEWS

‘Aaghaaz’ Complete

A 7-day shooting stint of Suresh Productions’ Aaghaaz (The Beginning) was completed on July 18 in Switzerland. Choreographer Chinni Prakash picturised the last two songs of the film on Sunil Shetty and Sushmita Sen. The film is now complete and post-production work is in progress. It co-stars Namrata Shirodkar, Anupam Kher, Johny Lever, Sharat Saxena, Gulshan Grover, Mukesh Tiwari, Govind Namdev, Asrani, Alok Nath, Shraddha Nigam, Asha Sachdev, Padmini Kapila, Nupoor, Rakesh Bedi, Akshay Anand, Viju Khote, Rajesh Puri, Anjan Srivastava, Shiva, Yunus Parwaiz, Rajendra Mehra, Dev Malhotra, Ishwar Patel, Swadesh Mahan and Achyut Potdar with Sharad Kapoor, Suman Ranganath, Parmeet Sethi and Sudhir Dalvi in special appearances. Music: Anu Malik. Lyrics: Sameer. Story: Posani Krishna Murali. Screenplay: Nikhil Saini. Dialogues: Kamlesh Pandey. Cinematographer: Shyam K. Naidu. Art: Sharmishtha Roy. Dances: Chinni Prakash and Ganesh.

3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment

‘Nayak’: The Reality About The Title

A.M. Rathnam’s Nayak The Real Hero, launched last week, has created an unpleasant situation for two producers — insofar as its title goes. The title, Nayak, had been booked by N.R. (Babloo) Pachisia years back, and he was to originally make the film with Anil Kapoor in the lead, and Rajkumar Santoshi as the director. But the project with Santoshi did not materialise. Babloo then finalised a new project with Hrithik Roshan in the title role of Nayak. By a quirk of fate, Anil Kapoor became the nayak of Rathnam and Shankar’s Nayak The Real Hero. And what’s more, Rakesh Roshan, father of Hrithik — the nayak of Babloo’s Nayak — sounded the clapper-board for the muhurt shot of Shankar’s Nayak The Real Hero on 15th July. In the meantime, Babloo has complained to the title registration committee against the use of the title Nayak with the suffix, since he holds the title Nayak. If Babloo’s complaint is found to be valid, then Rathnam might have to drop the title. Let’s see, for whom the title registration committee plays khal-nayak!

Musically Showing

Making showcases on the making of a film has become the in-thing these days. But Vashu Bhagnani has decided to go musical with the showcase of Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa. He has prepared a showcase which will be exclusively a musical and nothing else. It will show songs and focus on the making of the film’s music. TJCG has music by Ismail Darbar who recently bagged the National Award for the music of his debut film, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

Dubbing Studio Comes Up In Manali

There is an ancient saying that the thirsty will go to the well, the well will not come to him. Well, this does not hold water today. At least, not for producer Vashu Bhagnani. He needed Abhishek Bachchan to dub for his Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa. But Abhishek was shooting in Manali for Gurudev Bhalla’s Shararat. And Manali, a hill resort, does not have a dubbing studio. Then what? Did the dubbing studio ‘go’ to Manali? Yes, that’s what Vashu Bhagnani did — ‘take’ a studio to Manali! He got all the accessories for a dubbing studio shifted from Madras to Manali to set up a temporary dubbing studio at the hill station! And Abhishek dubbed for the film in Manali. Says Vashu, “Abhishek is a class apart from the other heroes. He is so hardworking! He used to shoot all day long in Manali and dub for my film in the morning before reporting for the shooting, and again in the night after the shooting.”

The Story Behind The ‘Deewane’ Story

Want to know the story of Harry Baweja’s Deewane? For that, you will have to wait for the film to be released. But there’s definitely an interesting story behind the story of Deewane and how it came to be made. Writer Anees Bazmee once narrated half the story of Deewane to Harry Baweja. Half (till interval point), because he (Anees) had not thought about the latter half as it was an unusual and difficult subject. He asked Harry if he was interested in making a film on the subject but Anees himself wasn’t half-sure if Harry would say “yes”. Harry also found the story to be very interesting but he thought that it was “a difficult subject to make into a film”. As an after-thought, he told Anees, “Give me 24 hours to think about it.” At the end of 24 hours, Harry called up Anees and said, he was ready to make a film on the subject. But since Harry had to start the film very, very soon (he had the dates of Ajay Devgan and others who were signed for his new film) and Anees was very, very busy, the director asked the writer if he had any objection to Harry’s writer (of earlier films), Karan Razdan, writing the screenplay. When Anees said, he had no objection, Harry asked him to narrate the subject to Karan Razdan. As desired by Harry, Anees narrated it to Karan. On hearing the story, Karan was also in the same predicament as Anees and Harry. After thinking for a while, Karan said, he wouldn’t want to write it because it was too tricky a subject. Harry persuaded him and told him to mull over the subject for 24 hours. At the end of those decisive 24 hours, Karan, too, had a change of mind. He was positive of complementing Anees Bazmee’s story with a suitable screenplay. Karan worked over it and came up with a script which was readily approved by Harry Baweja. So, that’s how Deewane was ‘born’ — and ‘brought up’!

Shabana Overwhelmed 

Shabana Azmi has reason to celebrate once again. After winning rave reviews for her stage performance in Tumhari Amrita, she has won encomiums and laurels for her performance in another stage-play, The Waiting Room. An English play, produced by Tanika Gupta and directed by Indhu Rubasingham, it was staged last month in London in 18 sold-out shows at the Royal National Theatre. The stage-play did win the audience over but what bowled them out completely was Shabana Azmi, her smile and her performance. Says an overwhelmed Shabana, “I was taking a huge chance, I could have failed. But it is important for actors to risk failure, to break out of the safety nets they create for themselves. That’s the only way an actor can grow.” Shabana and her co-stars had rehearsed for a month, putting in eight hours every day. The ghost of Dilip Kumar is an interesting character in the play. Shabana plays the role of Dilip Kumar’s fan in the drama.

‘Fiza’: Set For A Flying Initial

That Khalid Mohamed’s Fiza, which was being touted by trade people as a ‘class’ film, will take a flying start when released on 8th September was proved beyond doubt at the special screening of three songs and a music piece of the film at Hotel Sun N Sand on 18th July. The romantic song, ‘Mahiya’, picturised on Hrithik Roshan and Neha, is a musical hit. Its picturisation is also truly beautiful. Sushmita Sen’s dance on the ‘Mujhe mast mahaul mein’ number is sexy and stylish. The girl looks bewitching and it is difficult to say what is better — the song, its picturisation or Sushmita’s dance! Karisma Kapoor dances with effortless ease on the ‘Ghunghroo toot gaye’ song. The dance steps are breathtakingly difficult but Karisma’s agility is even more breathtaking. And the music piece? Hrithik Roshan’s acrobatics and dance on the 4-minute music piece are absolutely mind-blowing. Muscles of his arms and back will have his fans go in wild raptures. With this music (Anu Malik) and song picturisations (choreographers Farah Khan and Saroj Khan and cameraman Santosh Sivan), the directorial debut of Khalid Mohamed cannot but take a great start. One song has been composed by A.R. Rahman too.

Boney’s ‘National’ Choice

Producer Boney Kapoor has acquired the Hindi filming rights of the Tamil film Sethu, which won the National Award for the best film in the regional films category this year. The original (Tamil) version of Boney’s Sirf Tum, titled Kadhal Kottai, had also won the Natonal Award for the best screenplay in the year of its release.

Shocking End Of A Shah Rukh Fan!

Seventeen-year-old Varun Raghavan always had an illusion that he was as heroic as Shah Rukh Khan. He used to tell his mother that he was ‘Baadshah’ à la Shah Rukh. He wore whatever his idol used to wear in films. So crazy was he about the star that Varun used to always imitate him. But the train roof-dance act that Shah Rukh did in Dil Se.. in the Chhainya chhainya song proved to be the swan song of Varun’s life. Varun, son of a railway department employee in Delhi, got electrocuted while doing the Dil Se.. number on the roof of the train along with his friends. He was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where he was lying badly burnt and unattended for seven hours before the doctors pronounced him dead. Tragic indeed!

INFORMATION MEETS

“I realised that ultimately, it is the copyright-holder who is king!”

– JAYANTILAL GADA

GAJAA

Jayantilal Gada made a humble beginning by renting out film video cassetes at the rate of Rs. 10 per cassette. Today, his company, Popular Entertainment Network (PEN), is one of the leading film software companies of the world, valued at Rs. 100 crores! The company is actively engaged in the entire gamut of entertainment enterprise including video, cable, audio, satellite, television and terrestrial rights and even finance. The unassuming and self-effacing chairman and managing director of PEN, Jayantilal Gada, has two objectives – to emerge as the best and the biggest independent content provider of Hindi film software and to become the top and the most popular entertainment company in the country – and thereby, pen a new history in the world of entertainment. Over to Jayantilal Gada:

What was the idea behind establishing PEN (Popular Entertainment Network)?

– I started out by opening a video library, named Popular Video, at Kurla, Bombay. At that time, I was just renting out video cassettes. Later, in 1983, I started the wholesale business of video and became a wholesale distributor of video cassettes of companies like Bombino, Indus and Time. Around the same time. I also started acquiring video rights of films. PEN then acquired video copyrights of a big lot of films from Esquire. I also dealt with individual producers and bought video rights directly. But after four years, that is, in 1991, my business experienced a downswing. There had been miscalculations on our part. Our bad path lasted two years, but even then, we cleared all our liabilities of that time. Even today, we are, perhaps, the only company with zero debt.

Things once again started looking up with the advent of Zee TV. We began buying satellite rights from various producers and selling them to Zee. Simultaneously, we used to buy terrestrial rights (Doordarshan rights). Then came channels like Sony, Star Plus and others to whom we provided content. Today, PEN is the largest content provider to Zee, Sony, Star Plus, Sahara TV and others.

Khoon Bhari Maang was the first film which we screened on Doordarshan for 25 lakh as the telecasting fee. Doordarshan then hiked its fee to 35 lakh. In 1995, I acquired the telecasting rights of Sholay. It was my dream that to telecast Sholay on Doordarshan. My dream was realised when the great film was telecast on 26th January, 1995 for a fee of Rs. 35 lakh. Thereafter, in March ’95, Creative Eye telecast Tezaab for the same fee. Seeing the potential of the huge revenues that could be generated by the telecast of big films, Doordarshan hiked the fees to a whopping Rs. 1 crore in the following month, that is in April ’95, after the telecast of Tezaab. DD should open its eyes to the reality and realise that the fee of 1 crore is too exorbitant. Every film is not a Sholay. Coming back, we were als the first ones to bring two new films on DD – Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman and Saajan – within less than 5 years of their theatrical release.

With so many marketing agencies coming up for the telecast of films, why did you not open an agency yourself?

– We only played the role of software suppliers. We used to supply software to agencies like Nimbus, ABCL, Multi-channel, Creative Eye and Hansa. But later, when the marketing agencies started defaulting in their payments, things became very difficult. We could also have started a marketing agency, but I did not venture into it for two reasons: firstly, we did not want to spoil relations with our producers; secondly, to telecast a film on Doordarshan meant staking a big investment. We, instead, utilised our resources in buidling up a library of films, rights of which would be with us for 5 to 7 years since we were buying the telecast rights of films for 5 to 7 years.

Telecasting rights of how many films does your company have?

– More than 550 films. Our only competitor is NFDC which has 800 films.

After PEN, who has the second biggest stock of films?

– Nobody.

What is the value of your library?

– Ernst & Young have valued it at Rs. 100 crores. Besides telecasting (DD) rights, we have satellite rights of a number of films, negative rights of about 50 films and world rights of 6 films. Our target is to have negative rights of 150 films!

Why did you think of building a library of films by acquiring their DD, satellite and/or other rights?

– The first time I sold the video rights of a film for the territory of Nagpur (to Ultra; the film was An Evening In Paris) for Rs. 9,000 only, I realised the value of a copyright owner. It is when this realisation dawned that I decided to build a library.

You also have a music company called Pen Audio. Why have you stopped acquiring audio rights of films?

– For two more years, we will not be buying audio rights. If we divert our attention to acquiring music rights, we will not be able to concentrate on the business of satellite rights, internet rights….

Will the buying of internet rights become a big business in the days to come?

– This will also become a separate territory but not as big as the territory of video rights was once upon a time. Until the time computers in India are available cheap, viewing films on the net will remain a distant dream for a great majority in our country. Even today, 14-inch TVs are sold more than 21-inch standard size TVs. Maybe, in 3-4 years’ time, internet may be in every house.

How did you come to present films?

– I realised that ultimately, it is the copyright-holder who is king! The first world rights we held were of Sudhakar Bokade’s Sauda. We were not involved in its production but we were joint negative rights holders of the film with Bokade. This film was to have had its premiere release on Doordarshan. Unfortunately, the film could not get a ‘U’ certificate and, therefore, it could not qualify for telecast on Doordarshan. It had, therefore, to be released theatrically.

Which films are you presenting now?

– We had presented Mehul Kumar’s Kohram. I succeeded in this venture. Now, we are presenting three films of Mehul Kumar, writer-producer-director Gopal Malhotra’s Dil Ke Peeche Peeche which has music by Nadeem Shravan, Ratan Irani’s Mere Apne and producer-director Gurudev Bhalla’s Abhishek Bachchan starrer Shararat which will be completed in September.

What do you see in a project before becoming its presenter?

– The bottomline is, of course, safety of our money.

How do you guage whether your money will be safe or not in a project?

– The primary thing is that I must be convinced that the film will be completed. The satellite, Doordarshan, cable and video rights alone fetch good money today.

You have taken over the television project, SAMRAT ASHOK, from Prakash Mehra. With Shah Rukh Khan producing a film on Ashok The Great, don’t you think that it will be big competition for your TV serial? Especially considering that Shah Rukh is the hero in his production.

– Not at all. I don’t think, the film will affect my serial at all. We have 104 episodes, whereas the film is only of three hours.