Last week, the Indian box-office saw possibly the biggest flop of recent times.
Ram Gopal Varma has remade Sholay, the 1975 classic with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead. In the new version Mr Bachchan stars as the villain of the film.
Reviews have been terrible and there's been a general uproar against re-making "Sholay" (it's a bit like doing a remake of "Citizen Kane"). The film has been taken off screens after just one week!
Ram Gopal Varma, though he did seem somewhat shaken by the reactions, took it with his characteristic cynicism:
"The messages have been pretty vocal and direct about their dislike for what I've done. I've been called names and treated to the nastiest comments. But I've enjoyed the backlash, far more than people enjoyed Aag" laughs Ramu.
On the other side of the spectrum, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) has just completed its 615th week in Indian cinemas (that's almost 12 years!) and it's still going really strong. In August when four Yash Raj productions were being shown in Mumbai, it was DDLJ that was the biggest earner! The film is a world phenomenon - no other film in the history of world cinema has played this long since its initial release (it has beaten the previous record holder - "Sholay (1975)" by about 7 years).
And finally, something I'm finding quite shocking is that Chak De! India which I thought would be a god-awful film and worth seeing only for Shahrukh, is not only a blockbuster, but is getting terrific reviews! After the first trailer came out, I was (like many people) convinced it would be horrible, but it's now going strong in its 4th week.
Reviews aside, perhaps the most surprising reaction to the film is that of the Academy (the Academy in the US that gives out the oscars ;-P) who have asked for a copy of the script for their permanent script collection.
Shahrukh has also received surprising reviews for his role as hockey coach. It's not just that they're good (which is rare in itself), but anyone who has watched him knows that "understated" or "restrained" are not adjectives that are usually associated with him.
Check out the first teaser trailer for "Chak De India" below (it promises none of the above, does it? lol):
The theatrical trailer looks a bit better, but is still far from promising the kind of reaction the film has received:
Showing posts with label Amitabh Bachchan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amitabh Bachchan. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" - the Indian and American film industries working together
Collaborations between the two biggest film industries in the world sound like a very natural thing, but Indian cinema has never been taken seriously enough for it to happen.
Attitudes, however, are changing on many levels (also see my post from February).
For one thing - who'd have thought that tabloid stories from Bollywood would be the subject of a comedy show on mainstream American TV? (the story of a supposed fallout between Shahrukh and Big B is quite old now, but still talked about in India - they've both repeatedely said there's no truth in it, Shahrukh of course in his own unique way)
But there are also some much more serious changes. A fairly recent story is that UTV Motion Pictures and 20th Century Fox are co-producing M. Night Shyamalan’s next film - The Happening. India has been in co-productions before now (though AFAIK quite rarely), but this time we're talking about a major blockbuster.
That's not the end of things for UTV either. There's also talk of an international project which would co-star Uma Thurman and Hrithik Roshan.
The Shyamalan film sounds rather awful - toxic plants... er right... But I'm very curious how the situation between the Indian and American industries is going to develop.
Just to finish this post on a totally random note (and get rid of something that has been in my drafts since February or something like that ;-P), here are two funny clips - one from this year's Academy Awards with Ellen Degeneres as the host and one from the Filmfare Awards which are the most important awards in India (and take place around the same time that the Academy Awards do) - this year they were hosted by Shahrukh.
(if you desperately want to have an explanation for the sudden appearance of these two clips in this post then I suggest you assume that this is just a way of showing some similarities and differences between the two industries ;))
P.S. Unlike my dad I don't expect everyone to know the quote in the title of this post (since the film it comes from was made in 1942). It is from Casablanca which incidently might be remade in India.
Attitudes, however, are changing on many levels (also see my post from February).
For one thing - who'd have thought that tabloid stories from Bollywood would be the subject of a comedy show on mainstream American TV? (the story of a supposed fallout between Shahrukh and Big B is quite old now, but still talked about in India - they've both repeatedely said there's no truth in it, Shahrukh of course in his own unique way)
But there are also some much more serious changes. A fairly recent story is that UTV Motion Pictures and 20th Century Fox are co-producing M. Night Shyamalan’s next film - The Happening. India has been in co-productions before now (though AFAIK quite rarely), but this time we're talking about a major blockbuster.
That's not the end of things for UTV either. There's also talk of an international project which would co-star Uma Thurman and Hrithik Roshan.
The Shyamalan film sounds rather awful - toxic plants... er right... But I'm very curious how the situation between the Indian and American industries is going to develop.
Just to finish this post on a totally random note (and get rid of something that has been in my drafts since February or something like that ;-P), here are two funny clips - one from this year's Academy Awards with Ellen Degeneres as the host and one from the Filmfare Awards which are the most important awards in India (and take place around the same time that the Academy Awards do) - this year they were hosted by Shahrukh.
(if you desperately want to have an explanation for the sudden appearance of these two clips in this post then I suggest you assume that this is just a way of showing some similarities and differences between the two industries ;))
P.S. Unlike my dad I don't expect everyone to know the quote in the title of this post (since the film it comes from was made in 1942). It is from Casablanca which incidently might be remade in India.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Shilpa Shetty and scandal
Funnily enough it's not the biggest Bollywood stars like Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan or Aishwarya Rai who make international headlines because of scandal. It's Shilpa Shetty - a girl who goes with her mother almost everywhere and seems to be one of the most politically correct stars in Bollywood *grin*
For those of you who have been talked into watching some Bollywood movies, you may remember Shilpa from Baazigar. Baazigar (which was made in 1993 and was her debut film) is in fact her biggest hit to date ;-P The trailer for this film is here if any of you want to see it :) (she's the first lady Shahrukh is romancing, the other leading lady as many of you will know is Kajol).
So firstly, as you may or may not know, Shilpa won the UK celebrity Big Brother not too long ago, but what happened to her in the house caused an international incident. Major British politicians such as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown felt it necessary to speak up and the incident provoked a huge discussion about racism in the UK (as well as discussion about whether what happened to Shilpa was racism or just bullying). Perhaps the best way to give you more of an idea about what happened is this video (go forward to the part when she's interviewed and shown clips from what happened if you're bored with the beginning bit):
Part two of the video is here, but I imagine the first clip will be quite enough information.
But now, Shilpa has become part of another international incident. This time it involves Richard Gere, public kissing (on the cheek!) and I guess further food for thought on how different people from different cultures feel about what's appropriate and what's not (which was the topic of this post). Here's a news report on the incident:
The incident has now gone even farther with talk that Richard Gere might be sentenced to prison for "public obscenity".
For those of you who have been talked into watching some Bollywood movies, you may remember Shilpa from Baazigar. Baazigar (which was made in 1993 and was her debut film) is in fact her biggest hit to date ;-P The trailer for this film is here if any of you want to see it :) (she's the first lady Shahrukh is romancing, the other leading lady as many of you will know is Kajol).
So firstly, as you may or may not know, Shilpa won the UK celebrity Big Brother not too long ago, but what happened to her in the house caused an international incident. Major British politicians such as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown felt it necessary to speak up and the incident provoked a huge discussion about racism in the UK (as well as discussion about whether what happened to Shilpa was racism or just bullying). Perhaps the best way to give you more of an idea about what happened is this video (go forward to the part when she's interviewed and shown clips from what happened if you're bored with the beginning bit):
Part two of the video is here, but I imagine the first clip will be quite enough information.
But now, Shilpa has become part of another international incident. This time it involves Richard Gere, public kissing (on the cheek!) and I guess further food for thought on how different people from different cultures feel about what's appropriate and what's not (which was the topic of this post). Here's a news report on the incident:
The incident has now gone even farther with talk that Richard Gere might be sentenced to prison for "public obscenity".
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Follow-up on Shantaram and Water
Just a short follow-up to my previous post.
You can read a nice article about Water's chances for an Academy Award and about Hollywood starting to take notice of Indian cinema here.
And I've found something on youtube that makes me even more excited about Shantaram. Below I've embedded an interview with the author of the book. It's in five parts (but I've embedded it as a playlist so it should appear as one with the possibility to switch between the five parts). If they manage to keep that sort of spirit in the film then OMG! I really hope they do!
Also, here's confirmation that Mira Nair is indeed in talks with Shahrukh Khan over a small role in the film.
You can read a nice article about Water's chances for an Academy Award and about Hollywood starting to take notice of Indian cinema here.
And I've found something on youtube that makes me even more excited about Shantaram. Below I've embedded an interview with the author of the book. It's in five parts (but I've embedded it as a playlist so it should appear as one with the possibility to switch between the five parts). If they manage to keep that sort of spirit in the film then OMG! I really hope they do!
Also, here's confirmation that Mira Nair is indeed in talks with Shahrukh Khan over a small role in the film.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Is Indian cinema on the verge of making an impact in the USA?
There's many things to write on the topic of why films from outside of the US don't seem to be able to make an impact in the US box office. Someday I hope to write a very long post about why that is (or at least why I think that is), but since I still have to read up a lot about it to properly write it, it won't be soon ;)
But to make a long story short, the most major reason that makes it almost impossible for a non-US (or independant US) film to make an impact in the USA is the system there. A few major studios pretty much own the market and the same companies that produce films also own all the major cinema chains. This means that a film that has not been produced by one of these major studios will probably only get shown in independant cinemas and these are few and far apart. There is no way that a film made outside of "the system" could get shown on a few thousand screens in the US alone as is the case with many major Hollywood productions.
Occasionally a film from outside of the US will do very good business (like Borat did recently), but when you'll check the company credits you'll always find one of the major US studios in them (for Borat it was 20th Century Fox).
India has so far never had a major financial success in the US even though interest in Indian cinema is growing. But there's two films on the horizon which might change this.
The first is Deepa Mehta's Water. In fact already based only on its Canadian box office results it's the biggest Indian box office earner ever in North America. While technically a Canadian film (that's where the financing has come from) it is about Indian issues and by Indian filmmakers (some of them like the director based in Canada and some of them from the Indian film industry like Bollywood star John Abraham).
So far it's enjoyed only a small release in the States (less than 100 screens), but it's being distributed by Fox Searchlight, which is the independant branch of 20th Century Fox and therefore I assume they have the means to give it a wider release if they think it commercially viable. It is Canada's official entry for this year's Academy Awards and has made it into the final five nominated foreign films. While Pan's Labyrinth is probably the favourite to win, Water is most often named as the other film that has a strong shot at winning the award. Ironically, Deepa Mehta has had huge problems with releasing this film in India. It had to be shot in Sri Lanka because the issues raised (it is a film about the treatment of widows in India) were so controversial in India. It has however finally passed the Indian censors and will be released there in March.
Here is a song number from the film:
The trailer is not up on youtube, but you can see it here (I don't have the required plugin, but the downloaded file works for me in vlc). You can read more about the film here.
But perhaps an even more "curious" prospect is Shantaram. It is currently in pre-production and should be released in 2008. Johnny Depp is producing it and is set to play the lead. Warner Bros is involved in the company credits so clearly we're looking at a very wide release. Originally Peter Weir was attached to direct, but it seems he has left the project "over artistic differences" with Johnny Depp and it is now Mira Nair who will direct it. The film is set in Bombay and the Indian cast will probably include some big names. Amitabh Bachchan has recently been attached to the project and is apparently going to star as something of a mentor to Johnny Depp's character. There are rumours (the imdb boards are my source for them so I'm not sure they are reliable) that the producers are in talks with Shahrukh Khan over a smaller role. Certainly there is reason to think that the author of the book is keen on this since he has used Shahrukh's photo on his site as an example of what one of his characters might look like.
Needless to say I'm quite excited about both films ;)
Of course it's quite likely that Water will not win an Academy Award and Shantaram (although I think a wide release is a given) might not spark people's interest in Bollywood stars, but at least what these two films do show is that America is starting to take Indian cinema more seriously than before.
But to make a long story short, the most major reason that makes it almost impossible for a non-US (or independant US) film to make an impact in the USA is the system there. A few major studios pretty much own the market and the same companies that produce films also own all the major cinema chains. This means that a film that has not been produced by one of these major studios will probably only get shown in independant cinemas and these are few and far apart. There is no way that a film made outside of "the system" could get shown on a few thousand screens in the US alone as is the case with many major Hollywood productions.
Occasionally a film from outside of the US will do very good business (like Borat did recently), but when you'll check the company credits you'll always find one of the major US studios in them (for Borat it was 20th Century Fox).
India has so far never had a major financial success in the US even though interest in Indian cinema is growing. But there's two films on the horizon which might change this.
The first is Deepa Mehta's Water. In fact already based only on its Canadian box office results it's the biggest Indian box office earner ever in North America. While technically a Canadian film (that's where the financing has come from) it is about Indian issues and by Indian filmmakers (some of them like the director based in Canada and some of them from the Indian film industry like Bollywood star John Abraham).
So far it's enjoyed only a small release in the States (less than 100 screens), but it's being distributed by Fox Searchlight, which is the independant branch of 20th Century Fox and therefore I assume they have the means to give it a wider release if they think it commercially viable. It is Canada's official entry for this year's Academy Awards and has made it into the final five nominated foreign films. While Pan's Labyrinth is probably the favourite to win, Water is most often named as the other film that has a strong shot at winning the award. Ironically, Deepa Mehta has had huge problems with releasing this film in India. It had to be shot in Sri Lanka because the issues raised (it is a film about the treatment of widows in India) were so controversial in India. It has however finally passed the Indian censors and will be released there in March.
Here is a song number from the film:
The trailer is not up on youtube, but you can see it here (I don't have the required plugin, but the downloaded file works for me in vlc). You can read more about the film here.
But perhaps an even more "curious" prospect is Shantaram. It is currently in pre-production and should be released in 2008. Johnny Depp is producing it and is set to play the lead. Warner Bros is involved in the company credits so clearly we're looking at a very wide release. Originally Peter Weir was attached to direct, but it seems he has left the project "over artistic differences" with Johnny Depp and it is now Mira Nair who will direct it. The film is set in Bombay and the Indian cast will probably include some big names. Amitabh Bachchan has recently been attached to the project and is apparently going to star as something of a mentor to Johnny Depp's character. There are rumours (the imdb boards are my source for them so I'm not sure they are reliable) that the producers are in talks with Shahrukh Khan over a smaller role. Certainly there is reason to think that the author of the book is keen on this since he has used Shahrukh's photo on his site as an example of what one of his characters might look like.
Needless to say I'm quite excited about both films ;)
Of course it's quite likely that Water will not win an Academy Award and Shantaram (although I think a wide release is a given) might not spark people's interest in Bollywood stars, but at least what these two films do show is that America is starting to take Indian cinema more seriously than before.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Nishabd - the Indian Lolita
I think it's appropriate to follow up my Valentine's Day post with the trailer for Ram Gopal Varma's new film Nishabd... It is a story of love between a 60 and 18 year old and the 60 year old is played by none other than Mr Amitabh Bachchan *grin* For those of you who don't know much about Mr Bachchan (and I'm putting the Mr in on purpose because he is often referred to that way, well either like that or just simply as Big B), he is perhaps India's biggest ever superstar. His biggest popularity was in the 1970s. Now there are other Indian actors who have better results in the box office, but despite being over 60 he is still immensely popular all over the world. In fact when BBC did a worldwide poll in 1999 for the greatest actor of the millenium, it was Amitabh Bachchan who came first ahead of actors such as Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando.
But back to Nishabd... Since many people were already quite "er, what?" about Mr Amitabh Bachchan's choice of role in KANK where he plays Sexy Sam (an older man who enjoys the company of beautiful women very much), this part will probably create even more controversy in India.
Here's one of the promos:
For me personally it's interesting, funny and bizarre that he is taking up these sorts of roles now. It is rather against his image (the "Mr" should have clued you in on that one), but it's not just that. Somehow I've always taken him for a traditionalist (in terms of his private life). In fact he is currently under public fire because of a very traditional Hindu practice that was performed in his family recently. His son, Abhishek has gotten engaged to Aishwarya Rai, but for astrological reasons Aishwarya has had to marry two trees and an idol before she can marry Abhishek.
But back to Nishabd... Since many people were already quite "er, what?" about Mr Amitabh Bachchan's choice of role in KANK where he plays Sexy Sam (an older man who enjoys the company of beautiful women very much), this part will probably create even more controversy in India.
Here's one of the promos:
For me personally it's interesting, funny and bizarre that he is taking up these sorts of roles now. It is rather against his image (the "Mr" should have clued you in on that one), but it's not just that. Somehow I've always taken him for a traditionalist (in terms of his private life). In fact he is currently under public fire because of a very traditional Hindu practice that was performed in his family recently. His son, Abhishek has gotten engaged to Aishwarya Rai, but for astrological reasons Aishwarya has had to marry two trees and an idol before she can marry Abhishek.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Valentine's Day in India
This story totally cracked me up. I know it probably shouldn't - the Hindu groups in the article sound rather like some of our Christian groups in Poland which is not good news (not that the Polish groups aren't hilarious sometimes ;-P). But I think the Indian Hindu groups are much more creative in how they want to combat immoral Western behaviour than their equivalents here in Poland:
One Hindu group, the Shiv Sena, said its volunteers would photograph couples caught in "compromising positions".
Overt signs of affection, such as kissing and holding hands, are frowned upon in much of traditional Indian society.
Shiv Sena has warned that its activists will stake out public parks, cinemas and shopping malls in a number of cities, and photographs of couples courting will be handed over to their parents.
But that's not all my Valentine news from India :) (of course this next paragraph is only here because it's a great excuse to write about Shahrukh yet again or rather about something that has been in my drafts since December ;-P) Anyway, in case you're wondering what my favourite Indian actor has prepared for Valentine's Day I have to first fill you in on some news that first appeared in December, but I was too lazy/busy/forgetful (choose the one that you think best applies to me) to put it up on my blog.
So er... Shahrukh was offered the position of host on a very popular TV show called Kaun Banega Crorepati (Kaun I think means who and one of the other words means courage, but that's about all I've managed to pick up of Hindi ;-P). And he accepted. The press loved it because it gave them opportunity to write lots of stories about how tense the relationship between SRK and Amitabh Bachchan is because it was Mr Amitabh Bachchan who used to host KBC. This went well with everything else they had written about the two previously (about which I might also post on my blog very belatedly some day because I think it's rather hilarious).
Anyway, lets get to the show... "Kaun Banega Crorepati" sounds so foreign to me that I made no connection whatsoever as to what this show actually is. All I'm gonna say is that I know it rather well from Polish TV (and I'm pathetic at watching TV, so you'll definitely know it *grin*). It would have never occurred to me that in India being the host of it is so prestigious that stars like Shahrukh and Big B would be offered the position... Of course neither of them host it in the same style as I think it's hosted around Europe but that just makes it all the more amusing. Check out a short totally random fragment with Shahrukh as host (if you want more, all you have to put into the youtube search is "srk kbc"):
My favourite KBC clip however is the hip hop music video promo which I've embedded below. Apparently the video was Shahrukh's idea. But it's just so typical... I don't think any country apart from India could have come up with that sort of promotion for a TV show *grin*
Erm... and the boring bit is that he's invited some celebrities to the show for Valentine's Day (I had to have some excuse for giving you all this KBC news two months after it was due, ok? ;) ).
One Hindu group, the Shiv Sena, said its volunteers would photograph couples caught in "compromising positions".
Overt signs of affection, such as kissing and holding hands, are frowned upon in much of traditional Indian society.
Shiv Sena has warned that its activists will stake out public parks, cinemas and shopping malls in a number of cities, and photographs of couples courting will be handed over to their parents.
But that's not all my Valentine news from India :) (of course this next paragraph is only here because it's a great excuse to write about Shahrukh yet again or rather about something that has been in my drafts since December ;-P) Anyway, in case you're wondering what my favourite Indian actor has prepared for Valentine's Day I have to first fill you in on some news that first appeared in December, but I was too lazy/busy/forgetful (choose the one that you think best applies to me) to put it up on my blog.
So er... Shahrukh was offered the position of host on a very popular TV show called Kaun Banega Crorepati (Kaun I think means who and one of the other words means courage, but that's about all I've managed to pick up of Hindi ;-P). And he accepted. The press loved it because it gave them opportunity to write lots of stories about how tense the relationship between SRK and Amitabh Bachchan is because it was Mr Amitabh Bachchan who used to host KBC. This went well with everything else they had written about the two previously (about which I might also post on my blog very belatedly some day because I think it's rather hilarious).
Anyway, lets get to the show... "Kaun Banega Crorepati" sounds so foreign to me that I made no connection whatsoever as to what this show actually is. All I'm gonna say is that I know it rather well from Polish TV (and I'm pathetic at watching TV, so you'll definitely know it *grin*). It would have never occurred to me that in India being the host of it is so prestigious that stars like Shahrukh and Big B would be offered the position... Of course neither of them host it in the same style as I think it's hosted around Europe but that just makes it all the more amusing. Check out a short totally random fragment with Shahrukh as host (if you want more, all you have to put into the youtube search is "srk kbc"):
My favourite KBC clip however is the hip hop music video promo which I've embedded below. Apparently the video was Shahrukh's idea. But it's just so typical... I don't think any country apart from India could have come up with that sort of promotion for a TV show *grin*
Erm... and the boring bit is that he's invited some celebrities to the show for Valentine's Day (I had to have some excuse for giving you all this KBC news two months after it was due, ok? ;) ).
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