LATEST POSITION
The pre-Diwali days are pathetic for the box-office, and the collections this year, as in all previous years, are dismal.
Heeralal Pannalal is disastrous. 1st week Bombay 10,78,288 (34.63%) from 8 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 99,458 from 2 cinemas (6 unrecd.), Rajkot (matinee) 13,500; Solapur 60,288; Delhi 6,44,919 (25.09%) from 6 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Kanpur 98,141 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 67,380, Varanasi 94,739, Bareilly (6 days) 50,264 (14.40%); Calcutta 1,13,473 (figures of other cinemas not disclosed); Nagpur 1,47,240 from 3 cinemas, Jabalpur (6 days) 45,992, Amravati (6 days) 53,987, Raipur (6 days) 43,487; Bhopal (6 days) 85,000; Hyderabad (gross) 6,46,614 from 8 cinemas (1 in noon).
Mother proves a bother for all concerned. 1st week Bombay 3,95,542 (14.13%) from 5 cinemas (4 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 56,735 from 2 cinemas (2 unrecd.); Delhi 1,55,133 (20.73%) from 2 cinemas; Kanpur 32,038, Varanasi 22,586, Bareilly (6 days) 12,898; Nagpur 48,536, Jablapur (TF) 47,964; Jodhpur 1,25,000.
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DELHI HC CLEARS ‘SHAKTIMAAN’
Justice Goel of the Delhi high court on 27th October accepted the findings of the committee appointed to look into the pros and cons of the telecast of the TV serial, Shaktimaan, and opined that the committee report strongly favoured its telecast on Doordarshan.
TILAKBHAI PASSES AWAY
Leading exhibitor and distributor of Bombay, Tilakbhai B. Shah, passed away at his residence at Wadala, Bombay, at 5.30 a.m. on 29th October following a prolonged illness. He was 67 and is survived by his wife, a daughter and three sons, including exhibitors Hemant and Laxmichand.
Tilakbhai was the owner of three cinemas viz. Amar (Miraj), Alankar (Karjat) and Victory (Igatpuri). He used to control many cinemas in Bombay and Thane district, including Amar (Chembur), Sharad (Chembur), Sheetal (Kurla), Sangam (Andheri), H.M. Deluxe (Bhayandar), Prince (Bhayandar), Santok (Bhayandar), besides cinemas in Maharashtra.
Prarthana sabha to mourn the demise is being held today (30th October) at Narayan Shyamji Wadi, Matunga (Central Railway) between 3 p.m. and 4.30 p.m.
SAMSUL HUDA NO MORE
Leading Assamese film producer and Assam distributor and exhibitor Samsul Huda (S.H. Film Production, Nagaon), expired on 25th October at his residence due to a cardiac arrest. He was 58 and is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
SUBHASH GHAI ANNOUNCES THREE VENTURES
It was as if the industry’s who’s who had descended upon Audeus in Bombay on the afternoon of 24th October. Subhash Ghai was celebrating his wedding anniversary and, as is customary, announcing his new venture. This time, it was ventures. Three ventures, to be precise! One was the formation of a new company — Mukta Arts International Pvt. Ltd. — and the other two were films to be produced under the new banner.
The new company was formally launched by the lighting of the traditional lamp by Dilip Kumar, Javed Akhtar, Bharat Shah and Ashok Amritraj. Both the films will be produced by Ashok Ghai. While the first production will be directed by Subhash Ghai, the second will be directed by Satish Kaushik. The casts of the two films were not announced.
A book, Woh Mera Chand, written by Ghai’s London-based aunt, Pratibha Davar, was released at the party at the hands of M.F. Hussain and Shabana Azmi. The occasion also marked the celebration of the success of Ghai’s Taal with presentation of trophies to the film’s artistes, technicians and unit members.
Among those who attended the celebrations were Dilip Kumar, Saira Banu, M.F. Hussain, Ashok Amritraj, Shatrughan Sinha, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Bharat Shah, Yash and Karan Johar, Boney Kapoor, Sridevi, Aamir Khan, Anupam Kher, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor, Rajkumar Santoshi, Rakesh Roshan, Ramesh Sippy, David Dhawan, Anil Kapoor, Rajiv Rai, Amrish Puri, Anu Malik, Jackie Shroff, Akshaye Khanna, Shravan, Indra Kumar, Ashok Thakeria, Manmohan Shetty and Amit Khanna.
PRODUCTION NEWS
‘Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai’ In Delhi
S.K. Films Enterprises and Boney Kapoor’s Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai will be shot in Delhi from Nov. 10 in a 15-day spell. Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai and Sonali Bendre will participate. The film, being directed by Satish Kaushik for producer Surinder Kapoor, co-stars Anupam Kher and Smita Jayakar. It was shot a couple of weeks back in the USA. It is written by Jainendra Jain. Music is scored by Sanjeev Darshan and lyrics are written by Javed Akhtar.
‘Tarkieb’ Unit Returns
The unit of producer Jay Mehta’s Tarkieb, being directed by Esmayeel Shroff, returned on Oct. 25 following a 32-day marathon shooting schedule in Bhopal and on locations in Panchmarhi. Many dramatic scenes and two songs were picturised on the entire cast. The film stars Nana Patekar, Tabu, Shilpa Shetty, Aditya Pancholi, Milind Soman, Raghuvir Yadav, Tiku Talsania, Akhilendra Mishra and Ashutosh Rana. Written by Moin-ud-din, the film has music by Aadesh Shrivastava. Cinematography: Mazhar Kamran. Action: Sham Kaushal. Audiography: Buta Singh. Art: Vimlesh Lal. The film is now 65% complete. The second and last shooting schedule will be held from Nov. 15 to Dec. 10 in Panchamarhi. It is being made under the banner of Jay Movies. Pranlal Mehta presents the film.
10-Day Schedule Of ‘One Two Ka Four’
Glamour Films’ One Two Ka Four, being produced by Nazir Ahmed and directed by Shashilal K. Nair, will be shot in a 10-day schedule from Nov. 1 at Madh Island, Band Stand, Kohinoor Hotel and at Strike Ten. Shah Rukh Khan, Jackie Shroff, Juhi Chawla, Nirmal Pandey and kids will participate. Music: A.R. Rahman. Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri. Screenplay: Manoj Lalwani and Rajkumar Daahima. Dialogues: Sanjay Chhel. Cinematography: S. Kumar. Action: Mahendra Verma.
YOU ASKED IT
Which film has yielded the highest share from a single cinema in the country?
– HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN..!, which fetched Rs. 3 crore in three years from Liberty, Bombay. This also means that the film recovered 70 per cent of its production cost from Liberty alone!
Which cinema has the highest capacity in India?
– Metro cinema of Bombay. Its nett capacity for 21 shows is Rs. 12,06,429.
Which films were cinematographed by Dilip Gupta who passed away in Madras on 16th October?
– Dilip Gupta, who had started his film career as an actor with New Theatres, Calcutta, joined Bimal Roy later and became a top cameraman. He cinematographed PARINEETA, DEEDAR, JAB PYAR KISISE HOTA HAI, DIL DEKE DEKHO, DO DOONI CHAR and many other films.
MIX MASALA
‘MY FOOT(WEAR)’!
One evening, after completing a day’s shooting for Tarkieb at Panchmarhi, director Esmayeel Shroff and the film’s lead man, Nana Patekar, got into a debate. While director Esmayeel Shroff opined that the film, when released, would be a super-hit, Nana Patekar said that it would be only a hit. To end the debate, they came to laying a bet. Esmayeel Shroff said, “If I win, main aapko do joote maroonga!. If you win, aap mujhe do joote maarna!” Nana agreed at first, but later backed out saying, “Jooton ko apni hi jagah rehne do.”
DO YOU KNOW?
* The Bombay regional office of the CBFC created a record of sorts last week and this. It cleared as many as 16 feature films, besides a number of trailers, between October 23 and 28. Despite Saturday (October 28) being a holiday for the CBFC, it cleared half-a-dozen feature films that day.
3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment
Today’s Status Symbol
Today, everybody’s claim to fame is that he/she was invited to see Rajshri’s Hum Saath-Saath Hain and that he/she had seen it and had loved it immensely. But the fact is, nobody from the film trade has been invited by the producers to see the film which has generated a lot of expectations all over the country. It’s because the Barjatyas have decided not to have any trial shows for people not connected with the film. The only trial show they kept for people unconnected with the film was on 28th October. For whom was the show? Well, our lips are sealed. Otherwise, those who’ve managed to see the film are the ones who’ve gone as guests of the cast/crew of the film.
Anyway, among the yarn-spinners, who claimed to have seen the film, was a bragging music man who said, he had seen the film, “just the other day” with his wife and had gone bonkers over it. The fact is, this man hasn’t seen the film to-date.
Coming back to the film. Its reports that are filtering in are that it is yet another grand Sooraj Barjatya show — an extraordinarily written, magnificently mounted, beautifully shot and fabulously enacted masterpiece of a film. But till the coming Friday, hold your horses!
One (Main) Cinema Too Many
Despite Liberty being the main cinema in Bombay for Hum Saath-Saath Hain, two other main cinemas, Novelty and Minerva, were also keen to screen the film for the first two weeks. But that did not work out. No saath-saath with the main cinema! But the film will be saath-saath at some suburbs of Bombay. At Thane (station), a film usually gets released in two cinemas. This time, HS-SH will be screened at three cinemas. At Mulund, a new film is normally released at one cinema, but HS-SH will be released at two. In Bombay city and suburbs, HS-SH will see release at 28 cinemas. In the entire Bombay circuit, as many as 100 cinemas may screen it in its premiere week.
Tabu Under Fire!
While shooting for Tarkieb in Bhopal, some Youth Congress leaders met Tabu and requested her to attend a function of theirs the following day in Bhopal. But Tabu, who was not interested in taking part in any political gathering, did not attend. Enraged by her absence, the Youth Congress activists burnt an effigy of the actress!
Bad Diwali For Many Exhibitors
Exhibitors all over the country are in a terrible position. With almost no releases of big and/or star cast films owing to pre-Diwali period, their cinemas are thirsting for films. What has worsened the situation for them is that even the films, which were released in August and September or, for that matter, early October, have mostly proved damp squibs at the ticket windows. Many cinemas have been forced to continue their running programmes, despite dismal collections, because of lack of alternatives. Consequently, films like Hello Brother, Dil Kya Kare, Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain, Mast, Vaastav and Heeralal Pannalal are being continued despite their abysmally low collections. With just one big release (alongwith some small films, of course) on Diwali, the position in the festival period too is not going to be any better for several exhibitors. For, after all, how many cinemas will be screening Hum Saath-Saath Hain? Had Dillagi also come on 5th November, at least the exhibitors would have had a reason to smile.