what we are reading – EightandHalf
We started the segment “Just A Page” with completely different intention. But here’s a fun page in the same category. Read it to know more. It’s from the latest issue of trade magazine Film Information.
Aah, bollywood. There’s a reason why we love it so much.
The film has been ready for quite sometime and made few headlines because of some nude & kissing scenes. Finally the first trailer of the film is out. Scroll down and check out the video.
The film is directed by Sudipto Chattopadhyay and stars Bipasha Basu, Maradona Rebello, Mahesh Manjrekar and Lillete Dubey. Its produced by Sanjay Gupta’s White Feathers Art House Films. Yes, yes, you heard it right. Please dont ROFLOL!
2009 – The Master of Feel Bad started the year delivering his career’s first hit and the Master of Feel Good Cinema ended the year with a recording breaking monster hit! Aha, not that bad if we count only the boundaries. After the musical notes of the year, we sat down to discuss the filmy notes of the year. Here it is – the good, the bad and the fuglies!
1. Best Credit Roll – If ever a credit roll said something so simply and superbly, this is it. Luck By Chance. Also great debut by Zoya Akhtar.
2. Anurag Kashyap turned musical and how! More than a dozen songs and we discovered Amit Trivedi.
3. Anurag Kashyap – 2009 belongs to only one director. Dev D, Gulaal and even Paanch finally got a release, you know where. Whats more, he finished shooting his next film That Girl In Yellow Boots in just 13 days. Aur bolo ?
PS : The same Anurag Kashyap wrote the dialogues for Kurbaan ! Strange bedfellows remained strange.
4. Nobody, we repeat nobody, can save Harman/Hurrman/Harmann/Harrman/Whatever it is Baweja.
5. Wooden Film of the Year – New York. Three good looking woods with zero expression.
6. Ranbir Kapoor – Dude of the year! He is not only working with best directors of bollywood but delivering his best too. Cool & confused, fool & romantic, middle class & lost – he did it all.
7.Imran Luck Khan – The poster boy of 2008 is light years behind Ranbir. He only talks cool and acts still uncool. Competition, whats that ?
8. Imtiaz Ali has only one story to tell. The journey of cool and confused lovers on the verge of marriage. First time, they were about to mary. Second time, they were close to marriage. This time, they finally married and then solved their problem. More here and here.
9. Samir Karnik got money to make one more movie. Who ? Where ? Why ? How ?
10. Rani Mukherjee’s career is over. Hadippa!
11. Multiplex cinema & hits are not everything. Its a big myth. Ask the makers of Wanted. Or is it only Salman Khan ?
12. And if its Salman Khan, why Main Aur Mrs Khanna packed up in just two days ? As they say, nobody knows anything. And what was UTV smoking ?
13. Overrated Gimmicky shit of the year – Paa. More ramblings here.
14. R Balki should stick to making tv commercials. One idea and thats it. He also told the same story again. Smart & dying child bring lovers back together. Age gap somewhere. Check.
15. Akshay Kumar’s bubble busted and how!. He failed everywhere. Chandni Chowk, China, Hollywood, under water, inside or outside Tasveer.
16. The Invisible Director – Who is Anurag Singh ? Does anyone knows him ? The man who put the last nail in the coffin of Rani’s acting career. Hadippa!
17. Sanjay Gupta and gang (read Suparn) are still copying. Even the promos! Now the Unknown ones! More here.
18. Suresh Nair – the only writer to have two big films releases on the same friday. Aladin & London Dreams and both flopped.
19. Underrated Film – Sooni Tarporevala’s delightful Little Zizou, where all the possible parsis united to turn bollywood into pollywood! ( Missed Barah Aana, Mohandas)
20. Ripley’s Believe It Or Not – Sunil Shetty got an award for acting in Anant Mahadevan’s Red Alert – the War Within. Believe it, nobody has seen the film yet.
21. Most Subtle Expression of the year – In Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Delhi 6, a man lands up with a mirror to show your andar ka kala bandar! Beat this!
22. Nagesh Kuknoor – Dont give him big budgests and big stars. He will go cuckoo-noor!
23. Vishal Bhardwaj delivered again. Five films in a row. And showed us Amole Gupte – the actor. More here.
24. Ajab Prem ki Gazab Kahani tried too hard to be Andaz Apna Apna. Insanity happens! You cant plan and design it.
25. ENG Filmmaker -Madhur Bhandarkar continued his expose and it finally flopped.
26. Smirk & Smug of the Year – Vivek Oberoi in Kurbaan. It was the ROFLOL film of the year where terrorism was wrapped in chiffon saree.
27. RajKumar Hirani lied to all of us and made the same film again. As a friend said, its Munnabhai B Tech. More here.
28. Couple Of The Year – Jaideep Sahni & Shimit Amin who delivered Rocket Singh – Sales Man of the Year! More here.
29. The only U-25 who proved us wrong – Ayan Mukherjee. Wake up Sid. Confident debut. More here.
30. Only 12 scenes, not 12 roles – Ask Priyanka Chopra. Easily the best performance of the year. Length doesnt matter, performanace counts. Vishal did it. Gowariker failed.
Bravery Awards – Aftab Shivdasani turned writer and producer with Aao Wish Karein.
Someone directed a film titled Jai-Veeru!
Abhijeet Sawant turned actor.
LOL Titles Of The Year – They said it all. No explanations required.
Kal Kisne Dekha
Do Knot Disturb
Fruit & Nuts
London Nightmares
Blue-s
Aa Dekhein Zara
Dhoondte Rah Jaoge
Ek Se Bure Do
(Tough) Luck
Shorkut – The Con Is On
PS. ENG – Electronic New Gathering.
Coming up next – what to expect in 2010!
Its not Unknown anymore! In this era of social networking, how do you expect to steal and run away. Acid Factory is directed by Suparn Verma and produced by Sanjay Gupta. Earlier we wrote about the Acid-Factory-Unknown plagiarism issue here. They set a new benchmark by even copying the trailer of the film!
Dear Guptaji and Vermaji,
Havent you heard “kanoon ke haath bahut lambe hote hain”. Its time to shut the dvd shop! Cntrl C + Cntrl V is getting too risky. Learn the other commands soon!
According to reports in international press, Simon Brand, the director of Unknown has got to know about the film Acid Factory, has seen the trailer and now is planning to take the matter to court and sue the makers of the film. You can read the reports here and here.
The reports are in French/Spanish, and if you are too lazy to do the translation, we have done it. But since its google translation, you might have to jumble few words here and there.
Director desolate with the copy that Indian industry has its ‘Unknown’, ‘Acid Factory’ is bet of the year.
You can change the actors, the title – by Unknown (Hollywood, 2006) for Acid Factory (Bollywood, 2009) – are still shots and sequences and a slight film draws up another success. The director of Strangers (in Portugal) is inconsolado with a new episode of shameless plagiarism of the Indian industry.
“I was in shock,” said the Colombian director Simon Brand. “It took me a while to assimilate it, especially after seeing the trailer on the Indian tape. I found a copy that is identical to the point of stealing plans and entire sequences,” he said, desolate, the filmmaker. In 2006, in a discreet, left the film that told the story of five men who are in a factory without knowing who they are. This thriller is starring, among others, James Caviezel, Joe Pantoliano and Greg Kinnear.
Three years later, the streets of major cities in India are filled with posters for a big Bollywood production – a budget five times that of Unkown. Five men are in a factory without knowing who they are … The movie is signed by Sanjay Gupta, who perhaps should think three times before going through Hollywood – accuse him of, among the 13 films he has done, have made plagiarism by 95%.
The story is not new and even classics (Godfather, etc. ..) have been “adopted” by Bollywood, who does not pay a penny for the rights. “After the initial run, it is difficult to prosecute them,” says Brand. Acid Factory debuted there 15 days.
The other report has more details, including the director’s plan to sue the makers of Acid Factory….
In the United States has struggled to get into theaters, but in India is the big bombshell of the season. The streets of large cities have been papered indas for weeks with the announcement of the release of the film, while Hollywood was just one more. The American version is called ‘Unknown’ (2006). The Indian, ‘Acid Factory’. But this is not the story of a comparison, nor a remake, but of a plagiarism by any measure.
Simon Brand, director of the Colombian original version released in Spain under the title ‘blank mind’ with James Caviezel, Joe Pantoliano and Greg Kinnear as protagonistas’-heard the case a few weeks ago in Los Angeles, where he lives five years. It was told by her producer or his agent, but an Indian journalist who called him to interview him about it.
‘I was shocked,’ admits Brand. ‘It took me a while to assimilate, especially after seeing the trailer for the film in India. I found that is an identical copy to the point that they have stolen entire flat and take ‘.
And do not lie. It is true that the plot is the same-five men wake up locked in a factory, and none of them remember how they got there or who they are-but with Indian actors, produced by one of the directors of the highest reputation in his country, Sanjay Gupta, and the title changed to make it more attractive.
Then, according to criticism from several local media, the thriller is a chain of sequences copied frame by frame, of the Colombian film director. Some go further, asserting that the 13 films directed, written or produced by Gupta, 95 percent are exact copies of Hollywood titles or Korean films.
It seems that not alone and that plagiarism in Bollywood is already part of the culture of the industry. Crushing machine by the intellectual property rights have come films like ‘The Godfather’, ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’, ‘My friend the ghost’, ‘Sabrina’, ‘The Hand That Rocks the Cradle’, ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ‘,’ The Fugitive ‘and’ Sleeping with the enemy ‘, to name a few of an endless list of titles of current and classic cinema.
But nobody could stop them. Even 20th Century Fox, which in May this year filed a lawsuit against the film by BR Films ‘Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai’, arguing that it is an exact copy of ‘My Cousin Vinny’, starring Danny de Vito and Marisa Tomei.
‘Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors’
Even Harry Potter has been victim of Indian intellectual property theft. ‘Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors’ is the Indian version of the character of JK Rowling, but so far have escaped any sanction despite the demand for Warner.Now, two weeks after the release in India of ‘Acid Factory’, Simon Brand is expecting that the lawyers for the distributor of ‘Unknown’ in Asia to take action on the matter, while acknowledging that it will be difficult.
‘I talked to industry insiders familiar with the matter and tell me that when the film has already opened in the United States sue for plagiarism is complicated because it is a common practice in India’, says Brand, who claims to feel a ‘huge powerlessness and frustration “to see how he copied their work without receiving any reward for it. And that the Indian film was shot with four or five times more than his budget.
It has a director with his second film, ‘Paraiso Travel’, managed to beat all box office brands in Colombia last year and be compared with ‘Amores Perros’ and ‘City of God’. “The problem is that piracy was and is unstoppable, has Brand, who, despite everything, he dreams of making films of high power in India someday.
As Dhoni says in the Aircel tvc “Aur bolo” !
Just a few days back, we wrote this post on Suparn Verma’s Acid Factory and how its original is not Unknown any more. Acid Factory is the only hindi release this friday. The film is produced by Sanjay Gupta and stars Irrfan Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Fardeen Khan, Aftab Shivdasani, Dino Morea, Diya Mirza, and Danny Denzongpa.
Lets see if we jumped the gun or the critics feel the same.
Khalid Mohamed (Khalidsspot) – At some point, someone asks, “What are we doing here?” If you make the mistake of visiting the factory, so will you. For sure – 1.5/5
Anupama Chopra (NDTV) – You could forgive the sheer silliness of the enterprise if the film delivered enough bang for the buck but Acid Factory can’t even manage that. See it if you must – 2/5
Rajeev Masand (CNN IBN) – Acid Factory, directed by Suparn Verma, looks like it’s been assembled from the footage that was edited out of Sanjay Gupta’s Kaante. Shot in the same grainy moss-green colour tone; its characters speak in a similar hyper-active overlapping style; and two big action set-pieces notwithstanding, it’s a suffocating psychological thriller at its core. You’ll come out wishing you had inhaled some of that amnesia-inducing gas too – 2/5
Taran Adarsh (Indiafm) – On the whole, ACID FACTORY is a slick thriller that has an interesting premise and also super stunts and chase sequences as its trump cards. The film is targeted at the urban youth, especially those who relish thrillers – 3/5
Chandrima Pal (Rediff) – If you’ve never heard of a Columbian film called Unknown, you haven’t really missed much. If you give this 95-minute copy of the poorly-received film a miss, you’ll do yourself a favour – 2/5
Gaurav Malani (ET) – Sanjay Gupta enters familiar territory with remaking Unknown (another Hollywood action-thriller) and caustically credits half a dozen writers for assembling this Acid Factory. Its a masala movie in the fast-food mode but could leave you with acidity pangs – 2/5
Anand Vaishnav (Buzz18) – For its action and some of Irrfan’s well-improvised scenes, Acid Factory makes it to the watchable category. It’s a wannabe action packed Hollywood B-movie. It gets the stupidity right, but falls short in attitude – 2/5
Kaveree Bamzai (India Today) – Suparn Verma is one of those directors who confuses style with substance. Just because you have a budget, I believe it was Rs 21 crore, it doesn’t mean it has to be spent blowing up every available car in South Africa – 1/5
Shubhra Gupta (Indian Express) – Equally expectedly, everyone whips out their weapons, and lots of gunfire is exchanged, but overall, you don’t get too much bang for your buck – 2/5
What else can you expect from Sanjay Gupta’s factory ?
UNKNOWN ??
Acid Factory is the new film by journalist turned filmmaker Suparn Verma (Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena). In an interview to Hindustan Times, when asked about the story of Acid Factory, Suparn had to say this…
Sanjay Gupta is known to look towards foreign films for inspiration. So which one was the muse for Acid Factory?
Sanjay (Gupta) had this amazing story given to him by a writer about seven people trapped inside an acid factory. They’ve lost their memories and in the terrifying present have just realised that there’s a killer amongst them and two others are his intended victims. We wove the screenplay around it. The challenge was in shooting the film in sequence and extracting performances from the group as a whole and not simply from individual actors. Before shooting, I made my cast read out their parts in front of each other and that created a bond between them.
You can read the full interview here. For us, the most interesting part of the interview was the first line – Sanjay had this amazing story given to him by a writer. We would like to know who is the writer ? And why is the poor writer not given credit in the interview ? Strangely, even in the IMDB full credit list of Acid Factory, there is no mention of the writer, though it tells you who is the stunt double and even has 2nd AD’s name.
Coming from Sanjay Gupta’s factory, most probably the writer doesnt exist! Or its all UNKNOWN! Read Dvd, copy, plagiarism! Unknown ? Yes, thats the name of the film. We havent seen it but to quote from IMDB, here is the plot of Unknown.
Five men wake up in a locked-down warehouse with no memory of who they are. They are forced to figure out who is good and who is bad to stay alive.
OR
How would you feel if: You were tied to a chair, In a locked-down warehouse, In the middle-of-nowhere, With no recollection what-so-ever of what happened, or what didn’t. To add to it, you’re not alone. There’s 4 others in the exact same state of mind. Some responsible for putting the others there BUT no one knows who’s who. Thats how this movie starts, getting grittier with every passing minute.
Now, scroll up and read the plot in Suparn’s answer. It sounds suspiciouly similar to Unknown. And coming from sanjay Gupta, dil hai ki manta nahi!
The film stars Irrfan Khan, Manoj Bajapi, Fardeen Khan, Aftab Shivdasani, Dino Morea, Diya Mirza, and Danny Denzongpa.
If you still have some doubts, check out the trailer of Unknown..
Gawd, even the trailer looks the same! And here is the Acid Factory trailer..
Are we jumping the gun again ? With Sanjay Gupta, who loves guns and bikes and babes, its justified! What say ? Or lets wait till this friday.
TGIF! Too much of news flow today. Some bolly quickies!
1. After almost two decades, Nana Patekar will soon return to direction to direct his son Malhar. The film will be produced by Prakash Jha.
2. Bit late but better to keep track. Agyaat is in High Court! Writer Sajit Warrier filed a complaint with Film Writers Association that Agyaat is his script. He was writing it for Ramu long back. And after few years, he suddenly got to know that the film is ready. FWA told Ramu to pay him 9 Lakhs. Ramu has moved to High Court. A unit member from Agyaat confirmed the fact that Sajit was writing for Ramu, not sure if its the same script. Will put a detail post soon.
3. Irfan Khan walks out of Sanjay Gupta’s Alibaug. First it was Sanjay Dutt and now Irfan Khan. Problem ? Payment issues. Thats Guptaji’s old habit. Irfan doesnt want to work with Guptaji till his Acid Factory (P – Gupta, D – Suparn Varma) payment is cleared. Or is this some PR at work for Acid Factory ?
4. Saif Ali is putting 28 ACs in his new home at Bandra. WTF ! And for what ? To have ice cubes and snow flakes in the potty! He has also taken up the terrace of the building and is turning it into a gym with all the facilities. May be its for the gym!
5. Heard of a film called Kissan ? No ? Its obvious. Has Sohail Khan, Arbaaz Khan and Jackie Shroff in the lead. Manoj Kumar has given permission to the makers of the film to use the song mere desh ki dharti in Kisaan.
6. Yashraj Films has denied the news that they have signed Salman Khan for an upcoming film.
7. Delhi Belly is social comedy and NOT sex comedy. NO desi American Pie – Abhinay Deo ( director of Delhi Belly. P – Aamir Khan)
8. Post Dev D, music composer Amit Trivedi’s hands and pockets are full with offers. He is doing Udaan ( D – Vikramaditya Motwane. P – Anurag Kashyap), Chillar Party ( P – UTV. D -Vikas Bahl’s debut), Film City ( P- UTV. D -Deven Khote’s debut ). Also the background score of Wake Up Sid (P – Karan Johar. D – Ayaan Mukherjee) and some more!
9. Shah Rukh Khan is in London, with his family for holidays. Karan Johar is also there. And he is busy shopping with Ritesh Deshmukh! Hmmmm. Looks like Ritesh will finally get a role in Dostana 2.
10. Ayesha Takia’s sister Natasha Takia is all set for her bollywood debut soon. And Mukul Deora ( Politician Milind Deora’s brother) is getting into film production. Is Bhabiji Pooja Shetty behind the filmy inspiration ?
PS. D is for Director and P is Producer.
Times are changing and surely for good. According to this report in Hindustan Times, Sameera Reddy is all ready to quit bollywood. Reason – She is not getting any good offers! Is that any news ? She should have packed up long back. We hope she quickly packs her bags now before someone approaches her and makes us suffer one time. Enough of Reddy’s T & A.
BTW, we wonder if Sanjay Gupta is the reason. With no sugar daddies to help her out, what will Reddyji do. And if you havent read Guptaji’s quote on Reddyji, do click here.
There are days when we dont feel like getting out of bed. Because from bed we get down to the floor and ROFL!! It was one such morning. And the credit goes to Guptaji.
Sanjay Gupta is married now (Its not funny). Oops remarried(Thats also not funny). To his ex-wife Anu Lekhi (This is WTF moment!). Wondering why ? Because Guptaji has a roving eye, had quite a number of flings and suddenly he felt like becoming one-woman-man!
Times of India has more deatils about his remarriage…how,when,why and where. You can read the full article here.
To quote him from a recent interview….
As for the rest of the women, just as I’ve left my days of adapting foreign DVDs behind, I’ve also left the Reddys behind.
Guptaji, we are not sure about the Reddys but let Alibaug release and we will get the original dvd out of closet!
This film has been making lot of headlines recently. From nude scenes to gay kiss to confused sexuality, it got it all. Here is the first look of Pankh.
The film is produced by Sanjay
Gupta and directed by debutant Sudipto Chattopadhyay. Inspired by the real life story of child artist Ahsaas Channa, Pankh is the story of a child actor whose mother dresses him up as a girl for his film roles. Years after becoming an adult, the boy is still confused about his sexuality.
Bipasha Basu, Mahesh Manjrekar and Lilette Dubey also star in it. The film was in news recently because of a nude scene featuring Maradona Rebello. To read more about the nude scene and the controversy click here.
And it also features a gay kiss between debutant actor Maradona Rebello and Amit Purohit. To know more about it, click here.
BTW, do check out the first name on the poster carefully. Anything odd ? If we are not blind, its looks like SANJAY DUTT on the poster of Pankh! How, what,where,why,when, WTF ? Have they patched up ? No, not for sure. Then ? We are clueless. If you got any dope, do let us know.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 