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May 2, 2000
5 QUESTIONS |
The innocence factor
Komal Nahta
Sleaze sells -- more than stars
Amitabh's special bond Seems like Amitabh Bachchan is destined to have an atoot rishta with Rishta, the film. In the not-too-distant past, Rishta was to be a production venture of ABCL and Indra Kumar was to direct the film. Well, that one did not go beyond the launching stage. But now Amitabh stars in Suneel Darshan’s (of Jaanwar fame) Rishta -- A Bond Of Love, along with Akshay Kumar, Juhi Chawla, Karisma Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana, Ashish Vidyarthi, Mohnish Behl and Shakti Kapoor. Meanwhile, Indra Kumar and Ashok Thakeria are about to launch Rishta, (the same subject which was to have been made for ABCL) with Anil Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai in the lead. A balancing act Despite Shakti Kapoor being a fairly busy artiste -- what with him accepting films of every grade -- producer Dimppy Ramdayal and cinematographer-director Anil Dhanda managed to wrap up the entire shooting of Dalaal No 1 in just 12 days. Yes, there are films of this genre which take 10 to 12 days to complete. Shakti Kapoor plays the title role. Well, the newsy part of this story is that Shakti travelled from Bombay to Rajpipla (in Gujarat) and back by train. He once even did a ‘coolie’ act at Rajpipla station when he carried producer Dimppy’s heavy suitcase on his head! Quite a balanced head, this! Govinda sure has competition for the title of Coolie No 1! Stop piracy, Hrithik style
Of bonus, gifts and such... While on Kaho Naa..., the film has completed 100 days all over the country. In C P Berar, it has scored a century at the following cinemas and centres: Anand Cinema, Raipur; New Vasant Talkies, Bhilai; Satyam, Bilaspur; Anand, Jabalpur; Ashok Talkies, Jalgaon; Manek Talkies, Akola; Panchsheel Cinema, Amravati; Alankar, Nagpur; and Bhatwal Talkies, Dhule. It is expected to go on to celebrate silver jubilee in Raipur, Bilaspur, Jabalpur, Jalgaon, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur. Vishwajyoti Films, distributors of the film for C P Berar, have, together with the exhibitors in whose cinemas Kaho Naa... has completed 100 days, distributed bonus equal to one month’s salary to the staff of the cinemas. This is the generally accepted way of celebrating jubilees in India -- to announce and distribute either 15 days or 30 days salary as bonus to staffers of the cinemas where the film completes a jubilee. Vishwajyoti Films also distributed a month’s salary as bonus to its staff. The distributors had earlier distributed free T-shirts of Kaho Naa... to the lucky winners at the cinemas. They’ve now started distributing attractive photo-cards of Hrithik Roshan to every person buying at least five balcony tickets of a show. Believe it or not, the collections have taken an upward jump after this scheme was introduced. Incidentally, the C P Berar distributor alone has paid over Rs 42 lakh to Rakesh Roshan as overflow from Kaho Naa... Understandably then, Rakesh Roshan has decided to give the distribution rights of his next film too to the same distributor.
A look at the week
Komal Nahta edits the popular trade magazine, Film Information. Do tell us what you think of this column
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Several months back, Abhishek Bachchan had seen the Telugu superhit, Tholi Prema, and had liked it immensely. He was so enamoured by the hero’s character that he requested producer Vashu Bhagnani (who was already making Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa with him) to remake it and cast him in the hero’s role in it. But Vashu told Abhishek that he didn’t think him (Abhishek) to be the appropriate choice for the role. What the script demanded was a very innocent-looking hero, according to Vashu. Some months later, when Vashu saw Jeetendra’s son, Tushar, he immediately signed him on for the Hindi remake of Tholi Prema, titled Mujhe Kuch Kehnaa Hai. What won Tushar the lead man’s role was his genuinely innocent face.
The business of sex and horror films is thriving even as big-budget and star-studded films fall like nine pins. What stars cannot do, cheap and vulgar sex is doing -- luring the audience to cinemas.The business of non-star cast sex and horror films in India is rosy only because of the addition of uncensored portions or, what is called in filmi parlance, ‘bits’ in them. Why, distributors who buy such films, are interested in only seeing the ‘bits’ in the trial show before a deal is struck! The enthusiastic ones insist on ‘bits’ being shot with the same artistes who are there in the film. Earlier, the ‘bits’ used to be the titillating portions of a film, not even remotely connected with the one in which they were to be added. But the demand these days is for matching masala (another code word for ‘bits’). At small stations, some of these sex films yield shares more than even a hit or successful star cast films. For instance, Sarfarosh was booked at a ‘C’ class centre of Rajasthan on a fixed hire of Rs 20,000, whereas Johrabai was booked at the same centre on a fixed hire of Rs 30,000!
The video rights of Kaho Naa...Pyaar Hai have been acquired by Popular Entertainment Network (PEN). It goes without saying that the price is phenomenal! As part of the deal, Hrithik Roshan, the hero of the blockbuster, will endorse PEN’s campaign against video piracy. He will appear in an advertisement which will appeal to the audience to help nab pirates showing illegal video tapes of Kaho Naa... The vigilant ones who respond to Hrithik’s appeal with positive results, will be rewarded by PEN with several attractive gifts like a Tata Indica car, colour TVs, dinner with Hrithik Roshan and his life-sized photographs autographed by him. This advertisement will be seen on Doordarshan and all satellite channels in May. So all ye Hrithik fans, get going! Here’s your chance to meet your fav actor.