what we are reading – EightandHalf
Delhi Belly was suppose to be his debut film. And now he is ready with his next one – Game. The trailer of Abhinay Deo’s debut feature Game is out. The film stars Abhishek Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut, Sarah Jane Dias, Jimmy Shergill, Shahana Goswami, Gauhar Khan, Boman Irani and Anupam Kher. Its pitched as a slick edge-of-the-seat whodunit thriller. It has been produced by Excel Entertainment.
If only Ashutosh Gowariker stops taking himself so seriously, the world would have been a better place to live. Ok, thats called exaggeration. But yes, he might get his mojo back. Last night Ashutosh Gowariker was online, through the twitter account of Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey. One of us tweeted and asked him for Refund. And this is what he replied…
You are asking for a refund?? It is like asking for a refund from the revolutionaries who gave their lives for you!!
Woohoo! As if Gowariker is going to donate all the collections from the film to the families of freedom fighters. And dear Gowariker, if you think there is nothing wrong with KHJJS, then all the best.
On his Facebook wall, Anurag posted this message yesterday –
See Chittagong, a far superior film made on the same subject as KHJJS.. At 1/8 th the cost, far superior actors and immense passion.. Producers decided to sit on it, because of a phone call from someone, Because that someone was trying desperately to save his son’s career..welcome to bollywood, where whose son you are… outshines all the hardwork and passion and potential and talent. KHJJS came and went, now what.
And if its true, then its not the first time. Remember how AB Sr. put out all the congratulatory smses that people smsed him for Abhishek, in full page advertisements after the release of Guru. And for Raavan, he put the blame on editing.
Mumbai Mirror picked the info from Anurag’s FB wall and carried this news today. And according to Mirror, Amitabh Bachchan reacted to it saying its incorrect and baseless. Click here to read the report that The Telegraph carried in 2007 about Shonali Bose’s film. It seems Naseeruddin Shah and Jaya Bachchan were interested in it. One more Bachchan ? Wah, what an irony!
Shonali’s film Chittagong is directed by her husband Bedabrata Pain. It stars Manoj Bajapayee and Raj Kumar Yadav ( LSD).
UPDATE : After the news of Delhi Belly getting shelved came out, AKP has now denied the news. According to official release – On behalf of Aamir Khan Productions, we would like to inform that Delhi Belly has not been shelved. The film is presently in it’s post production stages. Delhi Belly will release in summer 2011.
The Delhi Belly news was passed to us from a reliable friend who has worked on the film. So, we still believe in what he told us. Also, strangely the IMDB page of the film has been removed. Search for Delhi Belly and you get nothing. But you can click here to check out the google cache of the same page which was there earlier.
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December is going to be the month of “shelved” news. First we told you the news about Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Broken Horses and now its about Imran Khan’s new film.
Its shocking but it seems to be true. The film was shot long back. And till now there has been no announcements about the release plan. Starring Imran Khan, Shenaz Treasurywala, Kunaal Roy Kapoor and Vir Das in the lead, the film has been directed by Abhinay Deo.
UTV and Aamir Khan produced the film. But at the editing stage they realised that its not making much sense. They shot, re-shot, edited, re-edited, tried everything possible and spent about Rs 20 crores on it but still could not make much sense of it. And now they have finally decided to shelve it.
UTV doesn’t want to go ahead with it any more and Aamir Khan is not that stupid to take all the risk himself. The director Abhinay Deo has moved on to his next film and Imran Khan is clueless about the release date. The film is a sex comedy set in Delhi and is mostly in English. And some are putting the blame on Bhansali’s Guzaarish. With such a big dud in its kitty, UTV doesn’t want to take any more risk. In the next few days, if you hear about more films getting shelved, don’t be surprised.
PS – Dear UTV, stop lying now. Or tell us who is reading the scripts and green-lighting the films ? If they can’t read scripts and make sense of it, try us. Chance Pe Dance ?
We had read about this film but had no clue that it will look so gorgeous. Produced by Disney Pictures, Once Upon A Warrior is directed by Prakash Kovelamudi and stars Siddharth, Shruti Hassan and Lakshmi Manchau. And it seems finally we have got a desi fantasy film with super special effects. Enough of those cardboard drawings and tacky effects. Click on the play button and check it out.
Its difficult to believe the news. Its difficult to imagine that life can be so cruel and unpredictable. We are still hoping that it turns out to be a really sad joke. But it seems to be true. Manish Acharya, the writer-director-actor of surprise hit Loins Of Punjab Presents passed away today morning. We don’t have the exact details yet but it seems that he fell off while horse riding in Matheran.
Manish was a graduate from NYU’s Tisch School of Arts and also played the role of a shadow puppet (narrator) in Nina Paley’s delicious film Sita Sings the Blues. RIP Manish Acharya.
And dear 2010, can you now fuck off soon! Sourabh Ushan Narang, Pankaj Advani and now Manish Acharya. Its impossible to make sense of this world.
This is the 3rd year of the Rendezvous With French Cinema (4th-7th December) and they have got some good films this year too. And the best part, its all FREE! Read on for all the details.
– All the films are subtitled in English.
– You can collect your free passes at the entrance of the Cinema, one hour prior to the screening time of each film.
– Passes are FREE but strictly on first come first served basis (2 passes per person).
– Each film will be presented by their respective cast and/or filmmakers. A question and answer session will follow at the end of each screening depending on the availability of the cast.
VENUE 1 – METRO BIG CINEMAS – DHOBITALAO JUNCTION
Saturday 4 December – 06:30 pm – Heartbreaker (Opening Film, by Invitation only, 1h45)
Sunday 5 December – 06:30 pm – Of Gods & Men. 09:30 pm – Potiche (1h43)
Monday 6 December – 07:00 pm – Oceans (1h43). 09:30 pm – Sarah’s Key (1h51)
Tuesday 7 December – 06:45 pm – Carlos ( 5h30 with 20 minutes interval). 09:30 pm – Love Crime (1h46)
VENUE 2 – FUN CINEMAS – ANDHERI WEST
Saturday 4 December – 06:30 pm – Of Gods & Men ( 2h)
Sunday 5 December – 04:00 pm – Carlos (5h30 with 20 minutes interval). 06:30 pm – Oceans (1h43) 09:30 pm – Sarah’s Key (1h51)
Monday 6 December – 06:30 pm – Potiche (1h43). 09:30 pm – Love Crime (1h46)
Tuesday 7 December – 06:30 pm – Heartbreaker (1h45)
Our Recco – CARLOS – Its cinema at its explosive best! Don’t miss it.
CONTACT – For more information, you can contact MONSOON FILMS – Tel: + 91 22 2880 5544 /2880 5544 /4003 5542 /4003 5542
EMAIL : rendezvousfrenchfilms@gmail.com
Two news items from Vidhu Vinod Chopra Productions. First, his much ambitious Hollywood debut Broken Horses is NOT happening.
He set up an office in LA, did recce for the film and even put out a video of it on his official website. But now it has been shelved. The main reason seems to be the problem in getting the cast onboard. Because in Hollywood, the rules aren’t the same. Though there was some buzz about Mickey Rourke and Nicholas Cage doing the film but it seems it all just buzz.
But an official release from Vidhu Vinod Chopra Productions states that Broken Horses is very much alive, and presently in its pre-production stages.
And the second news – Sharman Joshi has finally bagged a big film. The next 
production of Vidhu Vinod Chopra – Ferrari Ki Sawaari in which Joshi will play the lead actor. The film will be directed by Rajesh Mapuskar, a long time associate of RajKumar Hirani. According to official release, its a heartwarming tale of how the pursuit of an Indian cricket legend’s Ferrari makes a young boy’s dreams of playing cricket at Lords a reality.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajesh Mapuskar have co-written the script and dialogues are by Rajkumar Hirani. The shooting will start in February and it will release next year.
Aha, here it is! Screeny is back. But who many Screenys do we have ? I have lost count. Anyone ? Ok, thats secondary. We first got this bit and as expected, here is the short. Also, attached is a note by Screeny, about the short – the how and why. And its done for us because somewhere the dots gets connected. Read, watch and put your comments…good, bad, ugly, anything will do.
Screeny went in search of a good fight. The fights were out there in Mumbai. Sporadic, but invisible… Tales of struggle and survival…unseen, untold, unsung… Like lives of larvae braving guppies beneath the algae. He wanted a good fight. And it was never about winning. How do you define victory after all? What is the point of victory if you lose your soul ? What if you win a hundred fights that you didn’t believe in ? He just wanted the bruises… the pain… the exhilaration of delivering even one blow…and blurry pride in be still standing at the end of it, dying to do it again, having learnt to fight better. Even if the fights don’t churn out anything new, it would lead him to some good fighters of the club. Fighters with fire. Whose passion is not in the contest of the fight, but the process of the fight.
The verdicts and thumbs downs are left for those who prefer to stand watching, eternally outside the ring. He needed them for their cat calls and cheers. It gave him direction. They will boo you for the punches you get. But they don’t know anything about the choice you made to fight with bare hands. They will mock the thud of your every fall. But they don’t have to know about your choice not to wait for the crutch of better resources. And Screeny knew the most important thing – The distance between the centre of the ring and the benches of judges or spectators is not a few yards but an eternity of reluctance and procrastination and slothfulness and self doubt. ‘How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?’ Atleast we all know who said that.
If interested in picking up a fight like Screeny, write to B H Filmix at barehandsfilmix@gmail.com
If you missed the latest episode of Koffee With Karan, we have got the most interesting part of the show. Our VOTD – Critics talking about filmmakers and the directors talking about the film reviews.
KWK had Raj Kumar Hirani, Farah Khan and Imtiaz Ali as guests on the show. And the critics were Mayank Shekhar, Minty Tejpal, Sarita Tanwar, Anupama Chopra, Rajeev Masand and Taran Adarsh. But WTF is Sarita Tanwar ?! Someone who has no clue about films and rated Once Upon A Time In Mumbai and My Name Is Khan 4.5 stars! And Taran Adarsh ? Well, thats a joke. Or joker. You decide.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 