Archive for July, 2009

Sony TvIn the GEC segment, if there is one channel whose performance have been consistent, its Sony TV.  It makes space for every new channel and moves one position down. Nobody bothers, no heads roll and it has been going on like this since last few years.

In the last few weeks, Sony has moved to No. 5 position. Courtesy Rakhi Sawant. 1st-2nd is shared between Colors and Zee Tv. Star Plus is at no. 3, NDTV Imagine has move to No. 4 and Sony is at No. 5. For more numbers, click here.

Recently Sony revamped its programming with shows like Bhaskar Bharti, Ladies Special, Palampur Express and Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega but the result was the same. Tonite it launches the reality show Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao, the desi version of I’m  a Celebrity…Get me out of Here!

But the big question is…Will it save Sony ? We will get to know tonite. The promos of the show make it look like a fake jungle with tacky production. Its easy to guess that they have shot the promos here. Hopefully the show will look much better.

The format is simple. Survivor meets The Big Boss. 10 celebrities. Malaysia’s Taman Negara National Park. 2 months of adventure. Whoever survives, wins it.

The 10 contestants are Shweta Tiwari (actress), Marc Robinson (model), Aman Verma (actor. host), Akashdeep Sehgal (actor), Anaida (singer), Chetan Hansraj (actor), Ishq Bector (singer), Mona Vasu (actress), Palak (roadies finalist) and Fiza Mohammed (headline hunter. courtesy Chand – A love story). Mini Mathur and Yudi will host the show.

The show goes on air tonite at 22:00 pm.  And every monday to thursday. On fridays, at 9pm. Here is the promo of the show

ram-gopal-varmaBelieve it or not but its  reported in today’s DNA. You can read the full article here.

The film Mujhe Ramuji Se Milna Hai is directed by Adeep Singh and its all about the struggle in the film industry. Casting couch, exploitation ouch and much more. And since the title has Ramu, the maker of the film wanted him to do a cameo and Ramu happily obliged.

The film is about an actor (Proshant Naryannan) from Delhi’s National School Of Drama (NSD) who wants to meet Ramu for a break in Bollywood.

Ram Gopal Varma gave homage to Madhuri Dixit through the film Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon and now someone is doing the same to him. Though he tried to do the same once by naming his Sholay remake as Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag  and the world knows what happened to it.  Hopefully “Ramu” in the title would not bring any more bad luck!

Hrithik RoshanFirst it was Hrithik Roshan. Then Abhishek Bachchan. And finally its back to Hrithik Roshan.

According to Mumbai Mirror, its confirmed now. Hrithik Roshan will play the lead in the remake of Agneepath, to be produced by Karan Johar and debutant Karan Malhotra will direct it.

After Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish, Hrithik was supposed to work with Vishal Bhardwaj. But now he wants to complete the remake first and then move on to Bhardwaj’s film.  So Vishal have to wait.

Agneepath was produced by Yash Johar and directed by Mukul Anand. Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty and Danny Dengzongpa were the lead actors. Mithun also bagged a national award for this film.

And like us, those of you who are missing the great lines of Harivansh Rai Bachchan, here it is.

Agneepath

 अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ!

वृक्ष हों भले खड़े, 

हो घने, हो बड़े,

 एक पत्र-छॉंह भी मॉंग मत, मॉंग मत, मॉंग मत!

अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ!

 

तू न थकेगा कभी!

 तू न थमेगा कभी!

 तू न मुड़ेगा कभी!

कर शपथ! कर शपथ! कर शपथ!

 

ये महान दृश्य है,

चल रहा मनुष्य है,

 अश्रु श्वेत् रक्त से,

लथ पथ, लथ पथ, लथ पथ !

अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ!

Barack ObamaFirst came out the pic. Online. Then the newspapers picked it up. Next day, it was in the front page of almost every paper. And then the news channels played it in loop. It was the image of the day. Barack Obama getting behind the problem! Impossible!

And now the real story behind the pic. Call it perfect timing of the photographer or something else, but it seems Obama was busy doing something else. Or is it the Disaster Management cell at work ? And Nicolas Sarkozy ? Well, his stand is still not clear. Check out the video.

UPDATE – So, the first pic is clean. Here comes the second one. O-bum-a! Sarkozy still has the same expression! We wonder if its some trap by Sarkozy ?

Barack Obama2

Red Alert - The War WithinAnant Mahadevan is back! The maker of modern day classics like Aksar, Aggar, Anjam, Anamika…jhalak dikhla ja. And this time he is doing something different. Really different. Atleast he is trying to. The first look/trailer of his new film Red Alert – The War Within is out. Its written by Aruna Raje and stars Sunil Shetty, Sameera Reddy, Ayesha Dharker, Gulshan Grover, Seema Biswas, Bhagyashree, Aashish Vidyarthi, Naseruddin Shah and Vinod Khanna.

But whats the point of the voiceover in the trailer…huh ? To make us understand. Never have a trailer been so well spoon-fed to the audience.  Check it out.

imran khanLot of rumours and speculations have been doing the rounds regarding Imran Khan’s new films. And if the industry buzz is to believed, he is the next big thing! With Kidnap, Luck ( to be released soon) and 7 Days in Paris in the making, we will not be surprised if he goes back to Mamujaan to get his ass saved.

In an interview to Sunday Mid Day, Imran has clarified the status of his upcoming films. We can’t find the online link but have put it all here. Put an end to all those rumours and read on.

Zoya Akhtar’s film – It’s not true that I have signed on Zoya Akhtar’s film. Zoya has called me but I have not read or heard the narration. I am not saying whether it’s with Ranbir Kapoor or Farhan Akhtar yet.

Dibakar Banerjee’s film – He has told me a story but hasn’t written a screenplay yet. The cast he wants is with Abhay Deol and Katrina Kaif. It has no gay angle, Abhay isn’t playing a gay guy.

Puneet Malhotra’s film – Its a fuzzy, popcorn, date movie romcom that will start middle of october. With Sonam Kapoor, I have a feeling we will be good together. Its produced by Karan Johar and is titled I hate love stories.

Delhi Belly – Easily the most exciting film I have worked on. It also involved great deal of suffering with that damned beard and long hair. I dont know if the movie will make money or people will watch it. There is a fair chance that there will be protests and theatres will be burned (???). But it’s going to be awesome. I saw the first cut, its really a cool film.

Hmm. What he is saying about Delhi Belly, if its true, we are damn excited. Bring on the controversies. Let the theatres burn! Because other films are dull and boring. Click here and here to read our posts on his other films Luck & 7 Days in Paris.

Kunal VijaykarGot some exclusive dope on directorial debut of Kunal Vijaykar. Read on to know more.

Kunal Vijaykar, the funny foodie man is not so happy these days. His directorial debut Fruit and Nut is ready for release since quite some time but the producers ( Studio 18) of the film are not at all happy with it. They can’t make out head or tail out of it. So Kunal has been asked to re-edit the film to make some sense out of it. Also, its release has been postponed to next year. No date has been fixed.

Fruit and Nut stars Cyrus Broacha, Boman Irani & Dia Mirza. Its written by Sharat Kataria, dialogue writer of Bheja Fry.

fruit n nutStory/plot/synopsis : Its a madcap comedy with a central character named Jolly Maker (Cyrus Broacha), who is a simple, hard working middle class struggling bachelor in search of love, money, friends and success. Jolly Maker works as a clerk in office of a greedy and corrupt builder named Khandar. He is typically nerdy, un-stylish, accident-prone and leaves a trail of disaster behind him.

One fine day in broad daylight, Jolly Maker’s beautiful, sexy, smart and snobbish colleague, Monica (Dia Mirza), gets mysteriously kidnapped. Through a roller coaster ride and series of comical mishaps, Jolly Maker finds himself in the middle of plot that has been hatched by an insane Ex- Maharaja (Boman Irani) to destroy Mumbai!! Whether the poor, adorable, accident-prone Jolly Maker finally falls in love or not, gets his girl or not and above all is able to save Mumbai or not, makes for rest of the film. 

The week belongs to Mohit Chauhan. Though he sounds almost the same and sings in similar manner in almost every other film unless Rahman gets him to do Masakalli, but a Mohit Chauhan song has become a must do in every romantic film. 

Two new films, two song promos and both the songs are of Mohit Chauhan. Kaminey’s Pehli baar mohabbat ki hai and Love Aaj Kal’s Yeh dooriyan. Check out. ( Pehli baar video is bit dark. something wrong)

If the Love Aaj Kal song video doesn’t play, click here for the youtube page link.

The first look of Jahnu Barua’s new film Har Pal is out. It seems like a strange film now as all the three leads of the film are missing in action. Preity Zinta in hiding after mess with Ness, Shiney Ahuja in not so shiny jail and Isha Koppikar has almost vanished. Jahnu Barua’s last hindi film was Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Mara.

Har Pal

Har Pal2

Kambakkht IshqBecause the braindead entertainment journos just put out the press releases, whatever  is issued by the PR guys. Indiafm has been continously pumping figures as if there is no tomorrow. Most of the other newspapers/websites also doing the same. Copy-paste the press release. But there have been few reports which dimissed the 100 crore claims.

Check out this report in LiveMint. According to it, the figures are as follows

Release – 700 prints in India & 260 prints in the overseas market.

Cost – Rs 75 crore including print and publicity, entirely funded by Eros International.

Collections – First week closed at Rs 20 crore distributor share (India) and will touch Rs 25 crore across its entire run. Collections were affected due to a massive downfall in the film from Monday evening onwards.

Verdict : Kambakkht Ishq team popped the bubbly, the dampener this week was that Eros will suffer a loss of almost Rs 10-12 crore on this film.

Indiafm

Cost : Rs. 62 crore, including print and advertisement cost.

Collections :  This report on Indiafm.com is the same as the official press release. According to Trash Adarsh, the film has grossed Rs. 100 crore worldwide in its first week, making it one of the most successful openings in Indian cinema.

Rs. 70 crores in India (Rs. 42 crores nett) and Rs. 21 crores overseas business, with music & digital platforms grossing Rs. 10 crores.  ( Why would anyone count music & digital platform rights with the box office collections ? A clear indication of being desperate to add up the numbers and make it 100!)

The Times Of India

And now the figures according to today’s TOI (page 10. Could not find the online link. You can check the e-paper here and go to page 10, the header is For cine buffs, content is king )

Sold – At a price of Rs 80 crore

Collections – In the first week distribution share is Rs 30 crore, it is certainly difficult to recover the entire cost. Even if satellite rights are sold for Rs 10 crore and home video for Rs 2-3 crore, recovering costs is going to be a tall order – Trade analyst Amod Mehra. 

BoxOfficeIndia.com

Collections : Kambakkht Ishq had an excellent first week of around Rs 36 crore nett. The film has done brilliant business in the North while collections in South India circuits like Mysore are on the lower side. The collections on the 8th day have shown a big fall of around 65-70%.

So, what to believe and what to chuck ? As someone wrote on a blogpost, Box office news and updates of Kambakkht Ishq is more eventful than the movie itself. Couldn’t agree more!