DHAAI AKSHAR PREM KE
Inderjeet Films Combine’s Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke is a superficial love story inspired by the English film, A Walk In The Clouds (which was also the base of the recently-released Kunwara). A rich girl is petrified of her strict father when he decides to get her married to the son of his friend, much against her wishes. Rather than oppose him, she runs away from home and attempts suicide but is saved by a young army officer. She narrates to him her tale of woes and the noble-hearted man that he is, he offers to help her out of her dilemma. To reason out with the girl’s father, he accompanies her home but is misunderstood by her entire family (a big joint family) to be the girl’s husband. This misunderstanding is born out of an earlier bit of misinterpretation by the girl’s paternal aunt who assumes that she has already married a boy of her choice. Rather than help the girl out of her problems, the boy himself gets into more and more problems, being unable to convey to the family that he is not her husband.
Circumstances force him to stay with the girl and her family for a fairly long time. Ultimately, however, he decides to run away from the family and tells the girl so. But, in the meantime, the girl has fallen head over heels in love with him. He, on the other hand, has another girl whom he loves madly. When he reaches home, he is shocked to learn that his girlfriend has already got married to another guy. Shattered, he returns to the joint family only to see that the girl is indeed being married off to the criminal son of her father’s friend. Ultimately, the criminality of the son and his father comes to light, and the army officer gets the rich girl’s hand in marriage — but after moments of tension, drama, suspense and action.
The story moves at an extremely slow pace and tests the audience’s patience. What irritates even more is that even routine things are sought to be conveyed in a round-and-about manner as if they were being shown on the screen for the first time! Writer-director Raj Kanwar seems to be under the impression that the audience has all the time in the world, when the fact is that today’s cinegoers want a fast-paced drama. One gets the feeling several times that something intense is coming but what ultimately emerges is shallow and superficial.
The very base of the film rests on a weak foundation. When the girl’s father is against her supposed love marriage, one wonders why she or the army officer can’t clear all misunderstandings by openly declaring that they aren’t married. What is there to be afraid of when the father himself refuses to accept the marriage? The girl is constantly shown prompting the guy to reveal his true identity to her father. But pray, why can’t she do it? With such a background then, the repeated pleas that the boy and the girl did not get the opportunity to break the news (that they were not man and wife), sound ludicrous. Besides, the whole drama moves ahead simply on the misunderstandings created by the paternal aunt and the household servant (!) — first, that the girl has got married; next, when she brings the hero home, the assumption that he is her husband; again, the incident when she feels giddy, the jumping to the conclusion that she is pregnant. The large family is shown as comprising absolutely brainless people who need no reason whatsoever to get excited.
Even the love from the girl’s angle is more in her mind and, as such, there’s no romance in the film. Philosophical dialogues, when the army officer gets drunk, are very boring. At several other places too, the dialogues (Jainendra Jain) are boring.
Abhishek Bachchan does fairly well; he is handicapped by a pathetic script (Raj Kanwar, Ratna Rajaiah and Viral Lakhia). Abhishek must take much, much more care of his costumes. Aishwarya Rai looks gorgeous at many places and if only she would learn to be more natural in her acting and far less stiff, she could create wonders. Her performance is not really convincing. Sonali Bendre (special appearance) looks pretty but has limited scope. Amrish Puri is okay. Anupam Kher, Shakti Kapoor and Harish Patel have been hopelessly wasted. Except for one scene of (some) substance which Anupam has, there’s nothing worthwhile for either him or the two others. Sushma Seth, in a weird wig, is fair. Neena Kulkarni, Tanvi Azmi and Himani Shivpuri lend average support. Supriya Karnik exhibits her clothes more than her acting talent. Dalip Tahhil, Inder Sudan, the child artistes and Salman Khan (wasted in a friendly appearance) are average.
Raj Kanwar, who has delivered a line of successful films in the past, seems to have been complexed by the runaway success of films of younger directors like Sooraj Barjatya, Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar. The film reminds of Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! and others, but can’t match them at all. Besides his scripting, even his otherwise generally unfailing direction is dull in this film. Music (Jatin Lalit) is a mixed bag. The title song, ‘O mere rabba’, ‘Hai deewana’, ‘Aaja aaja ve mahi aaja’ and ‘Tu mere dil ka raja’ are quite well-tuned but a few other songs are terribly boring. Some are ill-timed and pop up abruptly. Ishwar Bidri’s cinematography is inconsistent — good at places and not so good at others. Editing is loose. Action scenes are fair. Special visual effects (Rajtaru) are quite good.
On the whole, high-priced Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke is a poor show and will entail losses to its distributors. The dull start the film has taken at many places will aggravate matters.
Released on 29-9-2000 at Eros and 22 other cinemas of Bombay thru Ethnic. Publicity & opening: good. …….Also released all over. Opening was way below the mark in most of the other circuits!
LATEST POSITION
Another hope of a fruitful start was dashed to the grounds with the dull opening of DHAAI AKSHAR PREM KE this week.
Bhai No. 1 ran for 1 week with dull collections in Bombay.
Meri Jung Ka Elaan 1st week Bombay 91,200 (15.57%, 1 unrecd., 1 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,15,780 from 2 cinemas; Pune 1,41,685 from 2 cinemas; Delhi 67,472 (29.93%, 1 on F.H.); Varanasi 43,781, Bareilly 62,700; Jaipur 1,57,365 (42.26%).
………..
Fiza 3rd week Bombay 41,92,609 (64.13%) from 11 cinemas (6 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 1,62,176 from 2 cinemas (1 unrecd.), Rajkot 84,019, Jamnagar 50,103; Solapur 1,14,188; Delhi 32,86,401 from 13 cinemas (2 on F.H.); Kanpur 1,65,617 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 2,42,309, Varanasi 1,11,280; Allahabad 1,14,000, Bareilly 49,712; Calcutta 7,13,592 from 3 cinemas; Nagpur 2,33,824 from 2 cinemas, Jabalpur (5 days) 62,011, Amravati 1,01,165, Raipur (6 days) 82,981, Jalgaon 56,800 (2nd 1,06,000), 1 week Gondia (gross) 1,03,944, 3rd week Bilaspur 67,964; Indore 95,000 (2 on F.H.); Jaipur 2,69,893 (25.19%) from 2 cinemas, Ajmer (gross) 1,01,585; Hyderabad (gross) 7,32,050 from 4 cinemas (1 in noon); 1st week Guntur (gross) 98,356.
Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai 5th week Bombay 13,88,486 (34.62%) from 7 cinemas (7 on F.H.); Ahmedabad 8,15,640 from 7 cinemas, Rajkot 95,680 (1 in matinee on F.H.); Pune 2,59,479 from 3 cinemas, Solapur 1,12,918 from 2 cinemas (1 in matinee); 4th week Hubli 1,09,847, Belgaum 68,439; 5th week Delhi 9,68,092 from 4 cinemas; Kanpur 1,14,252 from 2 cinemas, Lucknow 2,09,438, Varanasi 77,414, Allahabad 73,208, 2nd week Bareilly 80,211 (1st 1,39,048); 5th week Calcutta 1,48,957; Nagpur 59,769, Jabalpur (5 days) 49,929, Amravati 1,28,013, excellent, Raipur (6 days) 67,093, Jalgaon 79,237, Chandrapur 70,659, total 5,12,508, 3rd week Yavatmal 50,000; 5th week Indore 90,000, Bhopal 65,618; Jaipur 5,83,212 (74.34%), Ajmer 43,823; Hyderabad (gross) 3,30,192 from 2 cinemas (1 in noon).
Dhadkan is doing well in Maharashtra — Bombay and C.P. Berar — and Nizam.
GREENLAND DRIVE-IN INAUGURATED IN SURAT
Greenland Drive-In cinema, Surat, was inaugurated on 29th September. The cinema, located on the Meg-Dalla Sachin Highway, opened with Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke. This is the first cinema in the country to introduce futuristic technology of sound and screen.
Owned by Nilesh Hasmukhbhai Ahir and his family and partners, the cinema is controlled by D.Y. Pattani. It has a seating capacity of 500 and space for 500 cars. The tickets are priced at Rs. 50. Car owners are charged a rental of Rs. 50 per car.
This is the third drive-in cinema to have come up in Gujarat. The other two are in Ahmedabad and Rajkot. With two more drive-in cinemas being in operation — one in Bombay and the other in Bangalore — Greenland Drive-In becomes the country’s 5th drive-in theatre.
STAR TV, UTV TO CO-PRODUCE FILMS
UTV and Star TV will co-produce Hindi films. Negotiations between the two companies have almost reached an agreement and the modalities are being worked out. UTV will have the world theatrical rights, while Star TV will keep the satellite rights of the films produced by them jointly. 20th Century Fox will also be a part of the arrangement. It will distribute the films in the Overseas territory.
GUJARAT, THE HOTTEST TERRITORY TODAY
Film prices for Bombay territory are increasing day by day, thanks to the increasing volume of business in Gujarat over the past few months. The reason for such an encouraging trend in Gujarat can be attributed to the recent reduction in entertainment tax and the coming up of new state-of-the-art cinemas, including multiplexes (more such cinemas are coming up). Yet another factor, of course, is the third parties who are lured to the trade by its sheer glamour.
Gujarat sub-distributors are offering unheard of lucrative terms to the main (Bombay) distributors for the distribution rights of films for Gujarat. The terms offered for Yash Chopra’s MOHABBATEIN and Vinod Chopra’s MISSION KASHMIR are indeed amazing!
Before this, HAR DIL JO PYAR KAREGA was sold for Gujarat for a record price. HAMARA DIL AAPKE PAAS HAI, too, fetched a lucrative price for the sub-circuit. But these fancy prices, too, are fast appearing as low when one hears of the terms being offered for the entire Gujarat or even individual stations of Gujarat for forthcoming films.
No doubt, business has gone up. But it is also a fact that the sub-distributor of HAR DIL JO…. will lose. In the case of HAMARA DIL…., the sub-distributor will make money despite the high price he paid. Anyway, how long this euphoria will last, one doesn’t know!
JOHARILAL JHANJHARIA CELEBRATES JUBILEES OF TWO CINEMAS
Joharilal Jhanjharia, the noted cinema owner of Indore, celebrated the golden jubilee of his Alka cinema and silver jubilee of his Premsukh cinema on 29th September. CCCA president Santosh Singh Jain and the executive committee members of the CCCA, Indore mayor Gopikrishna Vijay, collector Manoj Shrivastava, minister for local self government, Sajjan Singh Verma, and other notable guests graced the occasion. Mementoes were presented at the function to various distributors on their ‘firsts’ at these two cinemas. In the list of honours are: Dinesh Salgia of Talkie Films, for supplying the print of his Raaj Mukut for the opening programme; S.M. Kothari, the film spectator for purchasing a ticket for the opening show; Laxminarayan and Dayanand Kapoor, whose Ajanabee was the opening attraction at Premsukh cinema.
Shawls and coconuts were presented. In the list of recipients are the following. V.K. Joshi of Famous Pictures, Bhusawal, on their Bobby celebrating silver jubilee at Alka; Anil Rathi of S.R. & Brothers on their Himmatwala celebrating silver jubilee and Ram Aur Shyam completing 100 days, both at Alka; Lalchand Janiani of Prem Films on Dushmun, Hero No. 1 and Mera Gaon Mera Desh celebrating 100 days at Alka; Govind Acharya, manager, Rajshri Pictures (Indore) on the 100 days of their Dosti and Chhoti Bahen at Alka; L.S. Acharya on Guide celebrating 100 days at Alka; Harish of Kamlesh Pictures on 100 days of Be-Imaan at Alka, and 100 days of Sanyasi at Premsukh; Jitendra Jain of Sanman Films for 100 days of Anari at Alka; Mrs. Jatinder Anand of Suchitra Pictures for 100 days of Dulhan at Alka; Vedprakash of Vaishnodevi Pictures Palace on Tulsi celebrating 100 days at Alka; Trilokinath Kapoor of Bharti Film Distributors for 100 days of Kati Patang at Alka; and Darshan Sabarwal of Shri Krishna Pictures on the silver jubilee of Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, and 100 days of Dostana, both at Premsukh.
MASSIVE I-T RAIDS ON INDUSTRY PEOPLE
The income-tax department swooped on several top names of the film industry on 26th September. Among those whose residences and offices were raided were Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Urmila Matondkar, Rani Mukerji, Yash Chopra, Yash Johar and Amrish Puri. The Sekhris, who are chartered accountants of several top industry names, were also raided. Sushil Gupta, financier and leading raw film supplier, also had the unwelcome guests.
Several incriminating documents were seized in the raids that sent shivers down the industry people’s spines. Investigations are still on.
YOU ASKED IT
How many cinemas in India are equipped with DTS sound?
– Over 535 cinemas have DTS sound. The rough state-wise break-up is: Andhra Pradesh 166; Tamil Nadu 86; Maharashtra 72; Karnataka 64; Kerala 59; Gujarat 33; Delhi 14; Madhya Pradesh 13; West Bengal 10; Uttar Pradesh 8; Rajasthan 6; and Punjab 5.
Can you call Hrithik Roshan the no. 1 star today?
– Do you want more proof even after the phenomenal opening of FIZA? You must be joking! Hrithik is no. 1 beyond doubt!
How profitable are the small-budget sex and horror films?
– The producer makes about a lakh of rupees on each such film if he is lucky. Distributors also manage to make money if the (illegal) ‘bits’ in them are good. The risk factor (financial) in such films is minimal.
MIX MASALA
WANTED: PARENTS FOR ABHISHEK!
“The makers of the forthcoming Abhishek Bachchan starrers would do well if they showed him on the screen as a son of living parents.” Not our words. They have been uttered by someone believing in occult sciences. Come to think of it, Abhishek is indeed shown an orphan in all his three films released so far. Need one say more?!!
DO YOU KNOW?
* Madhusudan is the president of three film trade bodies — Indian Film Directors’ Association (IFDA), Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), and the All India Film Employees Confederation (AIFEC). He is also on the world executive board of Media Entertainment International (MEI).
* Jhamu Sughand and Mahesh Manjrekar’s ASTITVA, made in Hindi and Marathi with the same title, was completed in a record 18 days’ time. The film’s Marathi version has some notable firsts to its credit: Tabu, Mohnish Bahl and Namrata Shirodkar will be seen in a Marathi film for the first time; Sukhwindara Singh, who has composed the music with Rahul Ranade, has scored music for a Marathi film for the first time; it is the first Marathi film to be mixed in Dolby Digital sound.
* SHOLAY is indeed “a joy forever” film. And this was proved once again, for the umpteenth time in the last 25 years, since the time it saw its first theatrical release. The film was revived at Regent, Patna last week. The cinema could conduct only 23 shows instead of the normal 28. Guess, how many times, the cinema had to put up the house-full boards? All the 23 times! And, needless to say, it has created a unique theatre record by collecting 1,09,831/- in 1st week. This, despite the film having been screened just six months back at Ashok, Patna!….. Suddenly, there is a demand from exhibitors all over to book the film at their cinemas. The film is being distributed in East Punjab, Eastern Circuit, C.P.C.I. Rajasthan and Nizam by Rajshri Pictures.
3-E
Education-Entertainment-Enlightenment
Saawan Ko Jaane Do!
Politics is a dirty game, whether at the national level or the micro level of film producers’ association — the IMPPA. Elections to the executive committee of the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association were held on 22nd September at the ISKCON, Juhu, Bombay and the group headed by producer Saawan Kumar Tak defeated the one headed by Shakti Samanta. Or so it seemed for about 15 hours. That is, till the following day when it was time to elect the new president of IMPPA, and Saawan Kumar lost to Shakti Samanta!
Actually, what had happened was that both the groups had common candidates. These as well as some candidates who belonged exclusively to the Saawan Kumar group, ditched their leader and, crossing floors, elected the retiring president, Shakti Samanta, back to head the august body. Saawan Kumar was so disgusted at being let down so badly by his ‘supporters’ that he instantly resigned from the committee.
Quite funnily, Saawan Kumar called his group the Sunrise Group. Sadly, the sun set on his political ambitions even before it could rise!
Incidentally, actress-producer Preeti Sapru was elected senior vice president, and Marathi film actress-producer Sushama Shiromanee, vice president of the IMPPA. So there’s some glamour, too, at the IMPPA this time.
INFORMATION MEETS
“That’s why I say that one more strike is the need of the hour to protest against illegal telecasts of films by cable networks….”
– PRANLAL DOSHI
GAJAA
For 20 years, the name Pranlal K. Doshi has been synonymous with these four letters: C.E.A.I., the Cinematograph Exhibitors’ Association of India. Having headed the Association as its president for 20 consecutive years, it is only this year that he has chosen to step down in favour of a new president. This septuagenarian, known for his razor-sharp memory, analytical mind, ever-helping nature and an unrelenting fighting spirit for the cause of his exhibitor-members, has a lot of steam left in him even now, before he hangs his boots. Now as an active member of the executive committee, he promises to maintain the same kind of interest in his Association’s work.
Pranbhai, as he is affectionately and respectfully addressed by his confreres, now plans to concentrate more on his philanthropic activities which he has been pursuing over the years without any pompous exhibition or fanfare.
Pranbhai is owner/co-owner of Central, Super, Palace, Sahakar and Anupam cinemas in Bombay; Krishna, Pune; Prince, Baroda; and Hemlata, Nasik.
It is indeed creditable that you have held the post of the president of CEAI for 20 years consecutively. Has anyone in the past been in the president’s chair for so long in the 44 years’ history of the Association?
– Nobody has held this post for so long. I was made the president for all the last 20 years because they found me to be fit for the post. Even this year, they wanted me to head the Association, but I pleaded inability to continue.
Why didn’t you wish to carry on?
– See, I should have time to discharge my duties. I am already tied up with a lot of social activities. You see, I am a trustee of 22 institutions which run schools, colleges and temples. I want to devote my services towards this end now. One institution — Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya — has eight branches and it funds 900 students every year. This social and charitable work will take a lot of my time and I would not be able to devote myself fully to our Association work. That’s why I decided to retire as president this year. I would now like to devote my time to other activities of life while also serving our Association in the capacity of an executive committee member. Mr. G.N. Desai, our new president, is an able man. Apart from being an exhibitor, he is also an advocate and thoroughly knows government rules and regulations. He was the treasurer of the CEAI for the last 20 years consecutively. He deserved this promotion.
What is the strength of CEAI as of date?
– We have 2,538 members.
And the TOA (Theatre Owners’ Association)?
– They have only 28 members.
Then, why are there two Associations?
– It was started by Kuka and his cinema-owner friends.
What are the prime concerns of the CEAI today?
– Cable TV is threatening film business. The second problem is the high entertainment tax. In Japan and England, entertainment tax is 5 to 10 per cent. Here, in Maharashtra, entertainment tax is 60%. Why?
But how are the exhibitors concerned with the high entertainment tax? Many are just concerned with their theatre rentals.
– Today, practically all cinemas are booking films on percentage basis. Main cinemas of Bombay have even reduced their rentals!
Entertainment tax in Maharashtra is the highest. In Delhi, it is 40%, and in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, tax is much more reasonable and, therefore, business is steady.
It is high time, we all united to plead for a reduction in entertainment tax and also for pressurising government into stopping illegal screening of films on cable TV.
There are 13 lakh cable connections in Bombay, but the government gets tax for only three lakh connections. If the state government levied entertainment tax on every cable TV operator, it would earn more revenue from the cable TV circuit than from cinemas. The cable operators are hand in glove with the police and, therefore, they go unpunished despite screening films illegally. Our Association will prevail upon the state government to levy tax on them.
It’s time, we protested against the state government’s attitude towards the cinema industry. It’s time, we showed our unity and gave an ultimatum to the government and registered our resentment towards its policies.
It was unity among all the ranks of the industry in 1986, which led to a month-long strike (from 10th October to 10th November). The government finally scaled down entertainment tax from 175% to 100% and abolished the surcharge of 10%. At that time, I remember the way your editor, Ramraj Nahta, had pleaded the industry’s case. He had meticulously furnished the statistics and fought the case very strongly.
Again, in 1992, our CEAI and other Associations proposed to down shutters of cinema halls from 9th October to protest against the state government’s continued apathy towards the problems of high taxation and mounting cinema-running expenses. Discussions were held with the government. However, the agitation (the proposed bandh) was postponed due to the riots in Bombay following the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. The efforts, however, bore fruit when the government of Maharashtra granted cinemas the right to levy a tax-free service charge of 50 paise per ticket from 25th Dec., ’92. Later, however, from 16th Sept., ’94, the state government reduced entertainment tax from 100% to 50% — initially for a year, but subsequently continued till 31st Dec., ’96. The service charge of 50 paise was also raised to Re. 1 from 16th Sept., ’94.
The Maharashtra government declined to continue the 50% tax beyond 31st Dec., ’96 as the government found its funds dwindling. An action committee of the film industry was then formed, and all cinemas remained closed from 1st January, ’97 to 28th January, ’97. That did it! Seeing the industry’s unity and its strong case, the state government reduced entertainment tax by 40%.
That’s why I say that one more strike is the need of the hour to protest against illegal telecast of films by cable networks, besides entertainment tax and other problems.
What other problems need to be tackled on a war-footing?
– The municipal taxes and water charges are unreasonably high. For example, I will cite the instance of our Anupam cinema (Goregaon, Bombay). Ten years back, we were paying municipal tax amounting to Rs. 1 lakh per annum. Now, we have to pay Rs. 9 lakh per annum plus water charges amounting to Rs. 1.50 lakh.
And what is municipal tax? It should be the tax on one’s use of property. A shop-owner — may be, he sell diamonds or jewels — may be having a turnover of 20 lakh or 20 crore, he will be liable to a municipal tax depending on the floor area of his shop and not on his turnover. But the municipal tax on a cinema is based on the collections of six months in the last three years. Why should municipal tax be based on turnover? Isn’t it anomalous? With so much of outgoings, how can one maintain a cinema up to certain standards. Given a choice, more than half the cinemas would close down! Curiously enough, only the Maharashtra government levies municipal taxes on cinemas!!
And what’s more, salaries of cinema staff are increased periodically. Even the salaries are mounting. Maintaining a cinema has become a Herculean task. Even though we have modernised our Central cinema (Bombay) with sophisticated equipments and sound systems, it does not fetch us anything. We are just running it. Similar is the case with so many other cinemas.
Now, people are going to build multiplexes. Sterling cinema is proposed to be turned into a multiplex with five screens. There will be no entertainment tax for multiplexes for five years and there will also be no sales tax on the equipments imported for installation in the new cinemas. In such a situation, what will happen to the nearby New Empire cinema? The distributor will naturally go to Sterling because it will fetch him handsome shares. This is just by way of an example.
In the coming years, there might be many multiplexes coming up. But what will happen to the old cinemas in the vicinity? Either, they should be allowed to levy a tax-free service charge of Rs. 10 per ticket for maintenance or such cinemas should be allowed to close down without any condition of having at least a small-capacity cinema built on the premises. Look, what happened to Majestic! We are now going to pursue this matter with the state government.
