Looking for that elusive crossover film

Of late every Bollywood producer wants to make the ultimate film, one that will crossover and become our own Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or Slumdog Millionaire. Both Slumdog and Crouching Tiger not only won critical acclaim but also became big money spinners in the West. So is it a quest for glory per se in the form of recognition in the West, or is it sheer size of the market for movies in the rest of the world that is driving these endeavors? The attempts so far have seen marginal to no success. Which brings to mind the questions - what is a crossover film and what content would make a successful crossover film?

Let me put forth my definition of a crossover film. Such films go beyond the traditional markets in the home country, or already exploited by films from the country, and usually end up making a lot of money. This is why no big studio film from HW is ever thought of as a crossover film - they have already expanded to the far reaches of the world, and depending on content, enjoy varying success in these regions. So why do we think of Slumdog Millionaire as a crossover film? Is it the fact that it is based on an Indian novel? Or the fact that it has a completely Indian cast? Can we think of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto as a crossover film? I would propose that Slumdog Millionaire was never intended to be, nor was it ever supposed to be a film that needed to crossover. It could be thought of as an Indie film that made it big, sort of like a mammoth Little Miss Sunshine.

What about Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon? Ang Lee was coming off two successful Chinese films Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman (both quite popular in the West) when he directed Sense and Sensibility. This one got him nominations and awards galore. As someone who went to film school in the US and trained under Spike Lee, it is not surprising that the man is in touch with Western audiences. So when he decided to make Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in the Wuxia genre with three strong female warriors, and a master who connected them together, he did not pick a traditional Chinese tale set way back in the past, but a rather contemporary tale set in the past, and used two actors who were not Chinese and already somewhat known in the west. Chow Yun-Fat was well known from the John Woo actions thrillers and has been seen in a few HW productions already, so this was favored over his inability to speak fluent Mandarin. Similarly Malaysian born Michelle Yeoh had already gained popularity as a Bond girl a few years before, and was picked despite her lack of Mandarin. So the film was made mainly for crossover audiences. It ended up being just that and not doing well at all in the home market in China. Similarly, the "Indian" (though never Bollywood) film Monsoon Wedding was a quintessential crossover film, that did poorly in the domestic market in India. Subjects that are acceptable to the Western audiences (like incest and pedophilia) will never be palatable to general Indian audiences outside a small niche of multiplex viewers.

Recent efforts in Bollywood to crossover also seem studied ones. The makers picked a demographic, and it had to be one that was fairly large, and then tried to fuse elements into their films that would entice that demographic. Thus Chandni Chowk to China filmed in China and used Chinese actors, had a martial arts focus, and even a leading lady who was supposed to be half-Chinese. The film fared poorly in the domestic market and created no blip in the Box office that caters to a billion Chinese speakers. Another similar example is that of Kites. In this film a Hispanic leading lady, a lot of Spanish dialogs, and a New Mexico and Mexico setting were used as hooks to lure in some fraction of the 400 million Spanish speakers worldwide. The film sank in the Indian market and left no mark anywhere else in the world. The third film had an Islamic focus, hoped to capture the fancy of some of over 1.5 billion Muslims population worldwide, and used an autistic man to showcase religious profiling in the US. The film was a decent success in the domestic market (though much less than one would expect for the scale at which it was mounted), and a bumper success in the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, all non-traditional markets with a substantial Muslim population. It fared well in the usual overseas markets and ended up as the highest overseas grossing BW film.

Before thinking of content that would work in crossover films, there are two points to consider. The first relates to the capacity in India itself. A film like 3 Idiots showed that with a crowd pleasing content it is possible to collect 2 times the money (in India) collected by any other Indian film. And when a film like this one does a decent job overseas (though in the traditional markets), one wonders why there is this fuss about crossing over. Second thing to keep in mind is that no film that was made with a deliberate aim to crossover ever succeeded on the home-ground. So success overseas, if seen at all, is usually at the expense of domestic success. While this has happened for some crossover films, with Crouching Tiger and Bend It Like Beckham as prime examples, when Indian film-makers stop making films for Indian audiences and chase after fame or money overseas they end up with NOTHING in their hands.

There is also the issue of Hollywood Studios trying to gain a foothold in the Indian market. Their investment aims to capitalize on the 1 billion plus Indian population, and is not focused on making a crossover film. They already have most of the Western market, and want to expand to non-traditional markets. Have they invested wisely so far? The investment of Sony Pictures in Saawariya was probably most suited to the goal the outfit was after, Saawariya was not supposed to be a crossover film. However, it turned into a debacle because no one ever saw what Mr. Bhansali was cooking until the dish was served up! And an adaptation of The White Nights, set in a fantasy land was not a film rooted in any tradition the Indian audiences could relate to. Warner Brothers invested in Roadside Romeo without realizing that a pricey children's film is a non-starter in India. We will go with our kids to see Harry Potter, but not some Indian made film that seems half baked. Now they are investing in more low key films, like Atithi Tum Kab Jaaoge, and meeting with good success. Fox invested in My Name is Khan and did not see much success in India, though the film saw excellent success in the Islamic world and in the traditional Hindi film markets overseas.

So what kind of films can crossover? Make films that tell stories that appeal to people world-over. Do not ape the West in narrative, or style. Be true to your roots and traditions.
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Hype? Yes Hit? No

big bollywood has flopped big time in the first few months of 2010. “this has been one of the worst years for the industry with major films failing to match up to the pre-release hype,” says mumbai-based trade analyst taran adarsh. t2 lists nine big films that were full of sound and fury signifying nothing...

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PYAAR IMPOSSIBLE

Budget: Rs 25 crore (approx.)

Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Uday Chopra

Director: Jugal Hansraj

Tall claims: Promoted as a ‘beauty and geek’ love story, producers Yash Raj Films tried filming this Priyanka Chopra-Uday Chopra starrer on the lines of a Hollywood rom com. “I have a feeling that Pyaar Impossible will be one of the biggest grossers of the year,” Uday — who turned scriptwriter with this film — announced to all and sundry in the run-up to the January release.

Promo madness: Not really a topline Yash Raj production, Pyaar Impossible didn’t witness an OTT publicity blitzkrieg. But fresh from the success of Kaminey and flush with the excitement of a National Award, Priyanka — in an eye-catching bob and sexy shirt-dresses on every TV channel — forced you to give her a 10 on 10 while the peppy Alisha had every nightclub grooving.

Why: Uday as hero (even though he was playing a geek!) was one of the primary reasons why the audience decided to stay away. Formulaic and boring, Priyanka did her best to justify her Rs 6 crore fee, but still found it impossible to save Pyaar Impossible from tanking at the box office. According to www.boxofficeindia.com, PI collected a mere Rs 6 crore in its three-week run.

Viewer voice: “Uday Chopra made a mess of a promising story. Priyanka looked like a dream though,” says college student Surbhi Joshi.

t2 suggestion: Can you imagine how much fun a geeky Ranbir Kapoor could have infused into this yawnathon?

DULHA MIL GAYA

Budget: Rs 35 crore

Cast: Sushmita Sen, Fardeen Khan. Plus, Shah Rukh Khan

Director: Mudassar Aziz

Tall claims: Sushmita Sen and Shah Rukh Khan together after Main Hoon Na with Fardeen Khan in a supporting act in a film produced by Viveck ‘Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman’ Vaswani sounded like a dream project on paper. “This is one film that has not aged despite the delay in shooting. When I look at the finished product, the entire wait was entirely worth it,” was what Sush had to say weeks before the release. Well, the handful of viewers did age a few decades sitting in the audi where DMG was being screened!

Promo madness: Conscious that they had a potential loser on their hands, the makers went all out to promote DMG as a Shah Rukh Khan film, despite the Bollywood Badshah having only a guest appearance. As a result, SRK distanced himself from the promotions, even going as far as announcing that he would never make a special appearance in a film again!

Why: Poor direction and a dated script ensured that Dulha Mil Gaya was nothing more than old wine in an old bottle. Sushmita lapsing into Archana Puran Singh mode time and again, Fardeen’s deadpan expressions and Shah Rukh’s bored look did nothing to help. Boxofficeindia.com reported that the film earned just Rs 3.5 crore, labelling it a “disaster”.

Viewer voice: “Dulha Mil Gaya had a 60s storyline in a 2010 packaging. Sushmita Sen’s Shimmer was a real headache-inducer,” says software professional Mainak Duttagupta.

t2 suggestion: Fardeen Khan shouldn’t be seen within 200 yards of a film set. And director Mudassar Aziz, next time get a script!

VEER

Budget: Rs 55 crore (approx)

Cast: Salman Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Jackie Shroff, Sohail Khan, Zarine Khan

Director: Anil Sharma

Tall claims: In pre-release interviews, Anil Sharma described Veer as a “mass entertainer”, while Salman crowned it “Bollywood’s biggest epic yet”!

Promo madness: Salman turned scriptwriter for Veer and went all out to promote it — from riding a horse at the Mahalaxmi Race Course to walking the talk at his Being Human fashion shows.

Why: Numerous historical fallacies apart, the unintentionally comic Veer was a test of the audience’s patience. Salman tried his best to breathe (read snort) life into his character of a braveheart with Mithun lending able support, but to sit through three hours of this mangled mess of a movie was just asking for three much. Zarine was dubbed Fat Kat, with ample reason. Veer’s total losses amounted to nearly Rs 40 crore!

Viewer voice: “I laughed at even the supposed serious scenes,” says banker Kaushik Mitra.

t2 suggestion: Trimming the film to less than two hours and retaining only the Salman-Mithun scenes would have been the only way Veer would have managed to be a little more Wanted.

CHANCE PE DANCE

Budget: Rs 20 crore (approx)

Cast: Shahid Kapur, Genelia D’Souza

Director: Ken Ghosh

Tall claims: Touted as an autobiographical take on Shahid Kapur’s real-life struggles. “Chance Pe Dance is a film everyone will identify with. The young and old will flock to see the film,” Shahid had claimed in many a pre-release interview.

Promo madness: Post the Kaminey frenzy, director Ken Ghosh decided to do chance pe dance and piggyback on Shahid’s red-hot status. Apart from the usual brand tie-ups, a series of unique promotional activities followed with Shahid and Genelia even spending an entire night cooped up in a car — just as Shahid’s character does in the film!

Why: Thanda story, thanda direction, thanda performances. Even though this was his mentor’s film, one could tell clearly that Shahid’s heart was not in Chance Pe Dance. The Shahid-Genelia cute rom com moments failed to rise above the mediocre script. The promos didn’t pique audience interest and the string of negative reviews sounded the death knell for Chance Pe Dance which managed to earn only a third of its investment.

Viewer voice: “I love Shahid and Genelia but still couldn’t sit through more than an hour of the film. I liked Shahid’s moves on the dance floor though,” says college goer Samir Agarwal.

t2 suggestion: Only a good cast doesn’t a good film make. How about getting a credible script the next time around? Even a love triangle would have spiced up this dance pe failed chance a wee bit.

KITES

Budget: Rakesh Roshan’s Filmkraft sold Kites to Big Films for Rs. 105 crore

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Kangana Ranaut

Director: Anurag Basu

Tall claims: Now this was one film that made far more news before release than after. From the fallout between director Anurag Basu and producer Rakesh Roshan to the hot-hot Hrithik-Barbara offscreen vibes, the Roshans went all out to keep the Kites interest flying high for months.

Promo madness: With premieres at London and New York, Kites was promoted as “Bollywood’s first international project”. The entire PR machinery of Kites worked long and hard in highlighting the Hrithik-Barbara chemistry. Stories of Hrithik’s wife Sussanne walking out of the Roshan home because of Barbara were fed to the media months prior to the May 21 release date.

Why: Stylish locales, beautiful people and a distinct international feel were there all right, but somewhere the makers forgot to spare a thought for the script. Ticket rates hit the roof, but after a frenzied weekend, footfalls plummeted miserably. Team Kites has been unable to take the failure, with papa Rakesh blaming biased reviews and beta Hrithik tweeting vociferously against those who have given them the thumbs down.

Viewer voice: “Hrithik looked hot but Kites was a huge bore,” says college goer Pavitra Joshi.

t2 suggestion: A total remake.

RANN

Budget: Rs 30 crore

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Paresh Rawal, Riteish Deshmukh, Sudeep

Director: Ram Gopal Varma

Tall claims: Touted as an expose on the murky goings-on in the media world, director RGV claimed Rann was “the most hard-hitting film of the year”. Well, what can we say apart from the fact that Rann did hit the unsuspecting viewer. Hard!

Promo madness: Innovative movie marketing got a strong fillip with Rann. Bachchan went all out to promote friend RGV’s latest, even reading out the primetime bulletin on news channels!

Why: Sensationalistic and over the top, Rann turned out to be a little too hyperbolic for the audience’s taste. Bachchan tried to salvage matters towards the end but it was a case of too little too late.

Viewer voice: “Rann had a promising theme let down by poor execution. I thought Sudeep was good in certain scenes but sometimes he overacted too,” says homemaker Mita Sengupta.

t2 suggestion: Needed: A hard-hitting, no-holds barred treatment of the subject. Not needed: the weird camera angles, the eardrum-bursting background score, the caricaturish performances.

TEEN PATTI

Budget: Rs 25 crore

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Sir Ben Kingsley, R Madhavan

Director: Leena Yadav

Tall claims: Boosted by the to-die-for opportunity of casting Big B and Sir B in the same film and backed by Hinduja money power, director Leena Yadav went all out to promote Teen Patti as a Bachchan-Kingsley classic. “The conversations between them are dynamite,” Yadav told t2 in the run up to the release.

Promo madness: Led by Bachchan, the lead cast left no card unturned in promoting Teen Patti, just stopping short of organising gambling sessions! But the racy promos failed to translate into a racy film.

Why: Cryptic and confusing, the much-touted Bachchan-Kingsley interactions were as cold as a slab of ice. Yadav tried to pack too many things into Teen Patti, making it an unbearable watch.

Viewer voice: “I couldn’t really understand much of Teen Patti. But whatever I could understand was pretty bad,” laughs college student Antara Dasgupta.

t2 suggestion: Yadav should have exploited the Bachchan-Ben jugalbandi to the hilt. Also, would have made more sense to prolong the bare-back fest in the Neeyat number. That was far better than the rest of Teen Patti put together.

BADMAASH COMPANY

Budget: Rs 25 crore

Cast: Shahid Kapur, Anushka Sharma, Meiyang Chang, Vir Das

Director: Parmeet Sethi

Tall claims: In pre-release interviews, director Parmeet Sethi claimed that he had written the Badmaash Company script in six days flat. Well Parmeet, it showed!

Promo madness: Shahid and Co. did not go on a massive promo binge, but in the days before the release, their faces were plastered on every television channel. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi girl Anushka’s hotbod in a teeny-weeny yellow bikini top was massively promoted. We weren’t impressed.

Why: A hastily put together script and lacklustre performances summed up Badmaash Company. A disinterested Shahid only made matters worse. Despite a decent first weekend, Badmaash Company was a major loser at the box office.

Viewer voice: “For a con film Badmaash Company was pretty boring. I lost interest midway through the film,” says school student Ishaan Singhania.

t2 suggestion: Er, how about taking a little more time to write a more gripping script? And how about a little bit of badmaashi between Shahid and Anushka?

HOUSEFULL

Budget: Rs 45 crore

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Riteish Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Jiah Khan

Director: Sajid Khan

Tall claims: With weeks to go for the release, Sajid Khan promised producer Sajid Nadiadwala that Housefull would rake in upwards of Rs 60 crore at the box-office.

Promo madness: From the IPL matches to the Roadies finals to the T20 World Cup, team Housefull was just about everywhere. Led by the director, the cast even landed up at the doorstep of unsuspecting fans urging them to watch the film.

Why: Cringe-inducing humour and the lack of genuine laughs was the chief complaint against Housefull. Though not a flop by any standards, Housefull failed to meet audience expectations. It shattered many a box-office record in its opening weekend, but negative reviews and poor word-of-mouth slowed down its box-office run.

Viewer voice: “People slapping each other at random doesn’t make me laugh. The laughing gas gag at the end only made matters worse,” says homemaker Shweta Sareen.

t2 suggestion: A little less toilet humour, a little more script-sense. A little less of the prolonged climax, a little more genuine laughs. A little less of Lara and Riteish, a little more of Boman Irani’s Gujju papa and Chunkey Pandey’s Aakhri Pasta.

The Reluctant Hero - Hrithik Roshan

Something in him has changed. In place of the jovial boy is a dark brooding man. But Hrithik Roshan continues to see life as a beautiful journey. 

 

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He reached for it like a desperate man, clutching at straws. That was Hrithik Roshan’s reaction when he first heard the script of Kites. “I jumped at it, on my crutches,” he says. For five dark months in 2008, Hrithik grappled with crippling knee pain. On long, sleepless nights, the 36-year-old brooded over whether he should quit acting. “Science had given up on my knee. I was heartbroken. Kites pulled me up.”

Hrithik’s labour of love, Kites, released on 21 May to lukewarm reviews and mixed audiences. On public forums like Twitter and Facebook, viewers ranted against the film’s haphazard execution. On the Friday it opened, the star defended his film on Twitter, posting, ‘To all the people who didn’t like Kites n stated that with honesty n love—I’m PROUD to have u as my fans.’ Hrithik also sent ‘understanding’ to those who hated the movie with a vengeance.

The star was quoted saying that if he couldn’t “dance or jump around”, he didn’t want to be an actor. Surely there is more to acting than that? “Yes,” he says, “In fact, I’m playing a paralysed man in Guzaarish (directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali). I don’t think you get the scope of my knee problem. I couldn’t get up from my chair without the help of my hands. How could I look like a fit, strong character? I would have had to compromise on the spirit of my roles, even my walk. I didn’t want to act if I didn’t have the spirit.”

Hrithik Roshan has always been passionate about acting. There have been no walk-on parts for the sake of friendship. After his first brush with stardom, he hasn’t signed films in a frenzy just to prove something to his audience. As a film journalist, you interview Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan perhaps twice a year. Akshay Kumar does five movies a year and that much pre-publicity. The last three Christmas seasons, there have been journalists at Aamir Khan’s door.

Hrithik, in comparison, has had nearly two-year gaps between his films (he has done only 15 in the lead role since Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai in 2000, and the figure would have been much smaller if it were not for the blitz that followed his extraordinary debut). Meanwhile, Ranbir Kapoor has caught on Hrithik’s heels. At the time of filing this story, Hrithik has about 224,000 followers on Twitter, somewhat modest by the standards of his contemporaries. And there are regular complaints that he does not tweet enough.

Is Hrithik a reluctant superstar? “Superstardom is a waste of time,” he says, “There’s no truth in that. When your ego fills up, your creativity is switched off. I follow my instincts and look at where it’s got me.”

In 2008, before the release of Jodhaa Akbar, when we met at his Juhu home, he wore a sunny attitude. He was just back from shooting a commercial in Goa. At the time of Krrish in 2006, he gamely joked about being a superhero while a grey Persian cat walked gingerly around us. This interview, though, is going to be different.

I’m ushered into a room with an overpowering painting of his wife Sussanne and him, his green eyes staring at you from the frame. ‘Baba’ has gone for a haircut, say his staff. Hrithik eventually walks in wearing a black T-shirt. The mood is somewhat sombre.

He has been a subject of intense speculations—an affair with Kites co-star Barbara Mori, Sussanne walking out on him, a fall-out with his father that caused him to leave home, wild partying, alcohol, drugs, his disapproval of his sister Sunaina’s remarrying. Didn’t it worry him, the damage such rumours could do to his image? After all, he perhaps has the largest fan base among children in the country. “In fact, this is the best lesson I could teach children—don’t react. Live with dignity. Don’t get provoked. After all, on a macro level, it’s things like these that cause wars.”

Hrithik says the drugs and partying allegations stuck to him because of the wild, dishevelled appearance he cultivated for Guzaarish. His hair was a crazy, unruly mop, his face hidden behind a beard. Does he miss that look? It’s a teasing question, looking for some humour in a guy who once sportingly showed a flash of his secret buzz cut (for Lakshya) from beneath a baseball cap. But this Hrithik is more serious, he doesn’t take the bait. “I miss every character. I feel lost that I may never meet that guy again. For seven months, I looked through the eyes of a dying man. Nothing matters. There’s so much pain and suffering; you have to spread love.”

Hrithik knows pain. His sister Sunaina fought a protracted battle with cancer and has said that her younger brother helped her pull through. His knee problem has persisted for a few years. “One day, the 20,000 remedies I’d tried converged on my knee. It’s like God felt I’d paid my price,” he says with a smile. Can he play with his kids now—four-year-old Hrehaan and two-year-old Hridhaan? “I have to warm up my knee; then I can play Spiderman. I have my hands full. Two boys can do a lot of damage. But they have such pure energy; they connect to the child in me.”

As a boy, Hrithik was extremely shy. There is an incident that his uncle and music composer Rajesh Roshan told a film magazine. Back in 1979, Amitabh Bachchan was in a studio to record the song Mere paas aao for the film Mr Natwarlal when his eyes fell on five-year-old Hrithik in the chorus. “What an angelic child,” Bachchan is said to have commented in his baritone, walking up to the boy. “I got so frightened, I ran all the way home,” says Hrithik grinning.

He had an uneven childhood. A film industry child, he attended birthday parties with Farhan Akhtar, Karan Johar and Uday Chopra, went to school in the same car as Abhishek Bachchan and stood in as Ranbir Kapoor’s babysitter. “Ranbir’s peed on me,” he had once told me, laughing, “Our parents went on holiday together and I used to carry him around. He used to cry a lot.”

But with his father’s patchy career, Hrithik also saw failure from very close. So he knows the value of striving. As a terribly shy child with a stammer, he practised his speech in front of a mirror. When he wanted to develop a physique, he took tips from Salman and worked hard on the goal. He assisted his dad on Karan Arjun and Koyla. It set the base for one of the most enduring friendships between any two A-list stars—Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik. In a recent interview, Shah Rukh introspected over how he never felt as insecure as he did when Hrithik became a sensation with Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai. Hrithik says, “There was no reason for the insecurity. Shah Rukh was vulnerable then and people were rude and disrespectful to a man who had entertained us for ten years before I came on. Things didn’t change inside me. I couldn’t stop liking my best friend. Now we can laugh about that.”

With Kites, he believes he is poised for a turn in his career, ready for big risks. The film’s US version has been edited by director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour series, X-Men: The Last Stand). There is Hollywood buzz around Hrithik after reviews like that of The New York Times film critic Jeannette Catsoulis, who wrote, ‘Mr. Roshan requires viewing uncut: writhing on the dance floor or just gazing into space, the man was made to drive women crazy, one movie at a time.’ Back home, as Rakesh Roshan works on the sequel to Krrish, Hrithik is shooting Zoya Akhtar’s road movie Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara with Farhan and Abhay Deol, and he has Guzaarish lined up for release later this year. Also, he is a prospect in Shekhar Kapur’s futuristic water politics story Paani. “I was supposed to be launched by Shekhar 12 years ago in Ta Ra Rum Pum with Preity (Zinta),” he says. Last year, Hrithik made the unusual choice of playing the role of the narcissistic, opportunistic star Zaffar Khan in Luck By Chance. “People asked me why I wanted to do this negative character. I’m an actor. You have to be negative sometimes,” he says.

The actor describes himself as naïve, a dreamer. A man whom fame cannot change. “I hear the roars and shrieks when I go on stage to perform, but I can’t fill my ego up with that. I see it as a pat on my back and I move on.”

Kites The Remix - review

Prior to watching Kites: The Remix, I'd never seen a proper Bollywood movie, and in the interest of full disclosure I should acknowledge I've never studied their films or the industry at large in any significant way. But it is nevertheless hard not to judge the taste of audiences who apparently made the film a massive success in its native India. Because even whittled down and refined by Brett Ratner, who edited out the music sequences and beefed up the drama with a new, western score, the tropes used to bring to life this tale of lovers on the run are too worn out – or just poorly executed – to make this more than a straight-to-video tale that somehow mysteriously managed to find its way to the silver screen.

The film stars Hrithik Roshan as J, a Vegas dance instructor and hustler who creates a cottage industry for himself marrying illegal immigrants so they can get their green cards. Managing somehow to seduce the daughter of an affluent casino owner, J prepares for his first "real" marriage, which will allow him to discard his checkered past forever. But when his fiancee's brother Tony (Nicholas Brown) announces his own marriage to J's eleventh wife, Natasha (Barbara Mori), J worries that their shared history will ruin both of their plans. While reaching out to Natasha to figure out what to do, J begins to realize he has real feelings for her; but when Tony catches them together, J and Natasha take off together on a cross-country adventure that forces them to fight not only for their love, but for their very lives.


For a 90-minute movie about forbidden romance, Kites has an absurdly complicated story structure, featuring an elliptical narrative, dual flashbacks, and even flashbacks inside of other flashbacks. But there is literally nothing sophisticated about it at all, including J and Natasha, whose chemistry is an embodiment of the Annie Hall conversation between Alvy Singer and a couple that is happy precisely because both parties are "very shallow and empty and has no ideas and nothing to say." While the film itself clearly has no understanding of the legalities of marriage, allowing J to wed multiple women without divorcing any of the previous ones, he and Natasha are exceedingly stupid: in a scene in which they attempt to divorce one another so they can marry their respective fiancées, the two of them agree verbally that they are divorced, and I am pretty sure they both believe that is a legally-binding contract.

Ironically, the musical numbers are probably the sort of thing that could redeem such a cliché-laden story as this, but Ratner removed that Bollywood trademark in favor of an overall shorter and more streamlined film. That said, I can't imagine sitting through a version that would run one second longer than this one. Even the action scenes, which dexterously replicate the energy (not to mention cinematography) of Western car chases and shootouts, go on longer than they should, suggesting that the original filmmakers didn't have the forethought to focus on anything at all, but still paid attention to everything way too much. If it tells you anything, Kites looks as if it were sponsored by a combination of Ed Hardy and '80s-era Tony Scott.

As the imperiled lovers, Roshan and Mori provide a lot of empty attractiveness, but always seem to be going through the motions of a romance that was defined more by movie formulas than actual interest in one another. But even their sex appeal has been largely neutered: apart from one scene where they show off their respective physiques, there's only one actual kiss in the film, and a scene of consummation is edited so obliquely that it plays as all build-up with no payoff. That both of the actors do more acting with their mouths than any other part of their bodies only further highlights the bottomless shallows of the cast's pool of talent.

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Hoax Office Hardsell

To manufacture buzz, Bollywood’s PR engines will use anything

“What would you do if your mobile number was disclosed on the worldwide web?” I’m asked this rather odd question by Bollywood PR consultant Dale Bhagwagar. “I’ll ask the service provider to change it at once,” I reply matter-of-factly. But that’s definitely not the way Bhagwagar’s agile mind, adept at turning trivia into hype for the benefit of his famous Bollywood clients, would have reacted. In fact, one of his major triumphs arose from precisely such a situation. A few years ago, when his then client Shilpa Shetty’s number somehow got leaked on the internet (he avoids telling you how), he used the incident to whip up a media frenzy that planted her firmly in the day’s headlines. Press handouts were distributed widely and TV reporters were persuaded to take up positions outside the police station where Shilpa went to file a complaint. Candid, even boastful, Bhagwagar says happily, “We used the incident very effectively to hardsell Shetty.” And then, as we sip our cold coffees in suburban Mumbai, he casually proceeds to take a call from Rakhi Sawant to advise her how her run-in with the censor board over a music video could be played out in the media. “Good publicity is good. Bad publicity is better. Ugly publicity is the best because it travels the fastest and hits the hardest. The worst of all is no publicity,” declares Bhagwagar. 

That is his motto, and indeed the motto of every film publicist in the business, though few are as brazen as Bhagwagar. They are more likely to favour sophisticated MBA-speak about “expectation management”, like Prabhat Chaudhary of Spice PR, the man behind the marketing success of Three Idiots and Ghajini. The promotion of films and stars has become a big, clever and crafty enterprise and image managers and publicity gurus are riding the wave. Some even have management students clamouring to join them and investors willing to put serious money into their once hole-in-the-wall companies. Film marketing budgets are skyrocketing, more inventive ways are being deployed to manufacture hype for a star or a film, and the media, without which none of this would work, has emerged as a willing handmaiden for the Bollywood publicity machine. “Movies are becoming commodities. What we’re witnessing is FMCGisation—movies becoming like soaps and shampoos,” says Siddhartha Mukherjee, senior VP, communications, at TAM Media Research. 

Take this week’s big release, Kites. The film’s first “look” was unveiled last year at the Cannes film festival and it has relentlessly been in the news ever since. The publicity machine has been fed stories of a Hrithik-Barbara Mori “affair”; of Suzanne Roshan walking out of her marital home; of Hrithik turning alcoholic; of director Anurag Basu’s supposed misunderstanding with producer Rakesh Roshan; of the climax of the film getting leaked in a tabloid; of a controversial kissing scene between Hrithik and a topless Mori. Last week, Hrithik got into a scuffle with journos at Shirdi; shortly after, the film got into copyright infringement trouble in Bihar; last Sunday, a glowing advance review of the film by a foreign critic started doing the rounds on the internet; and then, to top it all, came a tweet of heady approval  from none other than Karan Johar.

Is this just a string of coincidences or a variety of cunning schemes hyping the film and its stars? That such a question can be asked about so many films that have hit the screen in recent times strongly suggests the latter.

1The Hype Machine

• Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s spat with Chetan Bhagat over denial of proper credits to him for Three Idiots
• MNIK’s run-in with Bal Thackeray
• Karan Johar’s apology to Raj Thackeray on the use of “Bombay” rather than “Mumbai” in Wake Up Sid
• Kurbaan’s posters with a bare-backed Kareena Kapoor removed by Shiv Sena supporters
• Billu Barber faces the ire of barbers’ associations. Title eventually changed to Billu.
• Rann runs into trouble over Jana Gana Mana remix
• Deshdrohi’s Kamaal Khan gets 5 seconds of fame because of the Marathi-Bihari issue in his film

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2Issues

• Aligning Rang De Basanti with causes like the Jessica Lall case, and fatal MiG-21 accidents
• Making dyslexia a hot topic for the causerati to sell Taare Zameen Par
• Playing up the failures of the education system to sell Three Idiots
• Organising college debates on the role of youth in politics to kickstart publicity for  Rajneeti

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Read more HERE.

Crossing over, but with hurdles

With the global market beckoning, Bollywood is on the cusp. Should it woo audiences with restrained productions or continue with melodrama? Sudish Kamath finds out.

 LINK

How much of Bollywood drama can the world handle? And how much restraint will the local audience appreciate? Hindi cinema seems to be torn between the two worlds, its loyalties divided between two contrasting sensibilities.

Over the last few years, films such as “Rang De Basanti”, “Rock On” and “Wake Up Sid” have been winning over urban multiplex audiences with their restraint and, at the other end of the spectrum, the soppy melodramatic “Saawariya”s and “Kambakkht Ishq”s have bombed at the box office.

Catering for whom?

As Karan Johar recently discovered, the twain don't seem to meet. Though the melodrama in the first half of “My Name is Khan” was muted to appeal to the West, the contrasting soppy second half came under fire from critics all over the world. But when the film collects 17 out of its 39 million dollars from the West, who do you really make a film for?

“My Name is Khan” epitomises that conflict with its half-hearted change in sensibility.

When Karan Johar brainstormed for titles for his “Stepmom” remake on Twitter, he realised that any Hindi sounding title made his film sound like a soap opera about motherhood.

More recently, the Roshans and Anurag Basu met with extremely polarised reviews to “Kites”. While most Indian critics and audiences thought it was too slow, the foreign press remained in awe of the genre-bender, applauding it for changing gears from drama to comedy to action to tragedy with its song and dance narrative and compared it with the flamboyance of Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.

For long, melodrama has been the staple of Indian cinema but with urban centres getting more and more used to Hollywood and international fare, the tolerance levels for mush and corn has gone down significantly. Once celebrated for its sense of drama, Karan Johar and Sanjay Leela Bhansali today feel the heat from the new age brand of restraint from the likes of Anurag Kashyap, Farhan Akhtar and Nagesh Kukunoor.

While multiple-Oscar winning “Slumdog Millionaire” faced no such problem despite its in-your-face drama (apart from a segment of media calling it poverty porn), “Kites” has met with scathing reviews at home for being overly dramatic, cheesy and predictable. For the record, “Kites” collected Rs. 65 crore worldwide (with Rs. 30.5 crore at home) in its opening weekend. Now consider that the film was released in 2000 screens in India and 500 screens abroad. A more West-friendly shorter 90-minute-version of the 130-minute film presented by Brett Ratner, minus the song and dance, will release this week.

Though packaging the Indian form of drama with its song and dance glory may not always work (as “Kambakkht Ishq” demonstrated), it surely has altered the sense of morality depicted in Hindi cinema over the years.

While Karan Johar makes no big deal out of his hero marrying a divorced single mother of a teenager, Anurag Basu shows the bad guy going to bed with the heroine of the film without really making it seem like a big deal. Chastity that used to be a prerequisite for the heroine is not sacred anymore (maybe it does not apply to Barbara Mori because she's Mexican) as filmmakers attempt to keep it real for the West.

As Hindi cinema makes this jump from drama to restraint, where does that leave the rural Indian audience? Who is going to give them their monthly dose of a “Gadar” and “Wanted”, once filmmakers decide there's more money abroad?

And with the growing sensibility disconnect between city-based critics and the audience from the heartland of India, what really defines a good movie? Something that reaches out to a segment of audiences that bring in more money or something that entertains of a nation of hungry, cinema-crazy fans who have been born and brought up with melodrama.

With the global market opening up, Indian cinema is at the cusp of significant change — in form and content.

"I have always tried to push the boundaries and that is why we made Kites." - Hrithik

Kites will not soar but Hrithik Roshan continues to fly high.

LINK

Hrithik Roshan defended his latest release Kites during his Calcutta trip on Monday. He didn’t sound too happy with the reviews in India but he did agree to take a few questions inside Auditorium 2 at INOX (City Centre Salt Lake). He also answered a couple of questions only for t2.

Do you think you have failed your audience?

Because of my past success, people are coming to watch Kites with strings attached. I am an artiste. I have to explore. I have to do different things. Some people asked me whether I would go back to doing typical films. What they are actually saying is that Kites is not a typical film, which is a good sign. Some will resist change, some will accept change. We are all proud of the film.

Did too much hype kill Kites? Especially because you are coming after two years...

I don’t know why people are making me feel that I have been away for ages. It’s been two years but it’s not taken two years to make Kites. People are under the impression that I have been into Kites for the last two years. But no, I have made two films during this time period and I have also recovered from six months of very tortuous pain from my knee injury. I couldn’t walk and I couldn’t do a lot of things. That’s where my time has gone and in spite of that I have done Kites and Guzaarish (Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film opposite Aishwarya Rai). And that should come out very soon, in two-four months. So there won’t be that long a gap after Kites.

In hindsight should you have played safe and gone for a more massy film?

When I did Koi… Mil Gaya with my father, everyone said that it will go against your action image. How can you play a mentally challenged person when three of your films haven’t worked? But I did it at that time. Then they said that a superhero film with mask and cape will not work in India. That worked. I have always tried to push the boundaries and that is why we made Kites.

Compared to other superstars you are elusive. Is that a conscious strategy?

I think every individual needs to be his own person and you have to find the person you are. I might be a bit more shy than the other stars. That’s all. I don’t feel the need to be in the news for no apparent reason, for no logical reason. Just to push the image of a superstar, which I don’t consider myself to be and I don’t identify with one.

What was it like working with Barbara Mori?

Working with Barbara was absolutely fabulous. She is such an honest actor, so true to herself and so dedicated and passionate. She gave us the right impetus and the right push so that we could attempt something as honest as Kites. The film wouldn’t have been possible without her.

Did you help her adjust to the Bollywood scheme of things?

I helped Barbara whichever way I could. We were playing hosts and we were all welcoming her to our country and showing her the way India can love. That is why I am a little sad about the way the press has written wrong stories about her. But again it’s about individuals and not everyone.

Why did you get mad at the media at Shirdi?

It was not the media. One shouldn’t generalise. It was about five people who went beyond any reasoning. I tried my best to reason with them. See, we shut our eyes when we pray. Why do we do that? Because we want to put a stop to the world and just connect with god. I wanted my wife and my mother to get that privacy. So I requested that please don’t enter the shrine… you have been following us for half an hour and that’s okay but please don’t enter the shrine. Give us 35 seconds and then we will come outside and I will talk to you. But they didn’t listen to me. What do you do?

You also turned playback singer with Kites? How did that go?

I am very scared to say this but I enjoyed singing a lot. Of course, I am not a professional singer and neither is my character. What Anurag had said to me made sense to me. He said it didn’t matter if you sang it well or you didn’t, it was about being honest to the moment. About keeping it real. Even if you sing badly, it would look sweet. The whole attempt of the film was to keep it real.

Hrithik's Troika ?

A grand opera or Kati Patang? KITES!

A film like Kites can really be reviewed at two levels. Is it indeed a crossover film that strikes most of the right notes, or is it mushy 3 penny romance masquerading as a grand opera? The film was two years in the making and came to us carrying HUGE expectations. Hrithik was on an all time high, not having had a misstep since 2002 (Mujhse Dosti Karoge). I think one can discount Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (2003) as he also had a mammoth Koi Mil Gaya that year. But the law of averages looks to have finally caught up with him. In an attempt to create a cross-over film, the Roshan combine has created something that is neither chalk nor cheese and is dull and boring into the bargain.

How does one review Kites? Should I talk about the fact that a film that is supposed to be foreign pasta and not desi biriyani, fails to take into account the fact that Las Vegas is a desert and it almost never rains there, that there is no ocean with reefs withing any reasonable radius of the city, the Mexico is FAR FAR away, that it is OK for movies like Singh is KINGG to show Melbourne being run by the Sikh mafia, but a crossover film should not show a family of Indian origin running a city and state in the US in a mafia like hold? I could go on and on, but that would be cruel to a film like Kites. It really does not stand up to such scrutiny. So what is Kites then? Is it a breathless frothy romantic actioner? Is it a desi/bidesi Romancing the Stone or even a slicker Dhoom 2? I really wish that were the case. I wish the film was a fun filled romp that kept me entertained and engaged so I did not have to start analyzing the inane plot and the slow pace.

What are the positives then?

1. Barbara Mori does come out as a surprise, I did not expect acting competence but there is that in decent measure (though her ultra toothy smile got on my nerves after a while).

2. The cinematography was really superb, slick and sophisticated, and world class, We expect that with people like Santosh Sivan and Ravi Chandran, but this was Ayananka Bose, a job well done.

3. Hrithik's FIRE dance sequence starts out very 90s but the spin on his head is gold. Why a Salsa teacher does break dancing in a competition is anyone's guess. He is sincere and tries very hard in the film, so marks for effort.

What does not work at all:

1. The Las Vegas mafia is laughable, and the Reservoir Dogs moment is shoddy. In fact the film lifts many moments from many films, but then you never expect an original product from director Anurag Basu.

2. The chases are interminable and laughable, the one on the big rig is particularly bad, as the cop cars wait for car after car to crash into them, and they never move to the next lane (I am not even going to talk about the oblivious big-rig driver).

3. Hrithik and Barbara chemistry is okayish, but one never warms up to it, as we have no idea why they even fell in love.

4. The villain is laughably bad, and really drags down the film. And I do not mean cult bad in a Mogambo-ish way, but plain bad.

Read more HERE

Kites Boxoffice - opens well, but rapidly heads South

Kites Falls On Saturday But Accumulates Big Weekend
Kites collected a huge 30.50-31 crore nett over its first weekend including paid previews. The film dropped on Saturday but it was mainly single screens showing 40-50% drop while big city multiplexes only dropped around 10-15%. Business on Sunday was good but despite having good weekend numbers there is not much hope for the film as reports are bad and Monday is likely to see very big drops.

The first week should finish around the 40 crore nett range and the film may struggle to cross the 50 crore nett lifetime mark. Kites has been totally rejected by the single screen audience and Monday multiplex business will determine where the film is heading at multiplexes.

LINK

For a film reportedly priced at 127 crores this is disastrous business. The US box-office was very lukewarm and Kites managed about 1 million dollars in the opening weekend. Perhaps the Ratner Remix will fire - we should find out by Friday.

Kites Box Office thread

Kites has taken a mind boggling opening all over India this morning. The film has opened to full houses at most centres across India. Both multiplexes and single screens show a huge turnout.



But the initial reports coming in are not too encouraging especially from outside metroes. Kites has a lot of English of Spanish dialogue and this is not going down well. The distributors have supplied Hindi subtitles for prints going to Hindi speaking dominated centres but it is not the same as having actual dialogues in Hindi.




The collections on Friday will be awesome and it will be remained to be seen where the film goes from here. Saturday will tell how the reports are affecting collections but it may be possible that due to heavy advance Saturday could be strong. Monday is likely to be tough for the film especially outside metroes. On the other hand if the film sustains over the weekend it will mean bumper collections and lifetime Indian theatrical business will be good on strength of opening. It will be an interesting week at the box office with Kites.

LINK

Please post all the BO pieces in this thread.

Friday 20th May 2010 11.00 IST

Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network

Word of Mouth: Bollywood film 'Kites' will see if two-pronged approach flies

Two versions of the film will be released. The traditional cut will be more than two hours and have plenty of dancing and melodrama. A recut by Brett Ratner will be faster and focus on the central romance.

Courtesy : LA TIMES

India has a population of more than 1.1 billion, and South Asians make up one of the fastest-growing immigrant communities in the United States. The country's thriving Bollywood movie business, however, has not yet exploded in mainstream American theaters —- something "Kites," in an unusual two-pronged release plan, hopes to help change.

On Friday, India's Reliance Big Cinema will release the traditional cut of the romantic drama, a two-hour-plus movie filled with extended dance sequences, enough melodrama to fill a season of "Gossip Girl" and plenty of lingering close-ups of bare-chested star Hrithik Roshan (think a Hindi-speaking Fabio, with better hair).

A week later, on May 28, Reliance will introduce a much shorter "Kites: The Remix" recut by "Rush Hour" director Brett Ratner, a fast-paced, more Westernized rendering focusing on the film's central romance (between characters played by Roshan and Uruguayan-born soap opera star Bárbara Mori) that largely excises the creative indulgences that distinguish many Bollywood productions.

"The story — a cross-cultural romance between an Indian boy and a Mexican girl — lends itself to a very wide release," says Reliance's Sanjeev Lamba, who says the first "Kites" film will premiere in more than 200 domestic theaters, a record North American opening for a Bollywood movie (the remix will debut in about 50 theaters next week). "We are trying to look at staging it in the widest possible manner."

The film ultimately will open theatrically in about 60 countries. "That includes a lot of nontraditional territories that don't typically take Indian films," Lamba says.

Directed by Anurag Basu, one of India's most innovative filmmakers, "Kites" was shot in a number of American locations (Las Vegas, New Mexico, Los Angeles) and is performed in English, Spanish and Hindi. Made for a comparatively rich budget of $30 million, "Kites" might not have much sex, but it showcases many of the other staples of American cinema — car chases, shootouts and even a "Thelma & Louise" plot twist.

The dual release strategy aims to give the South Asian movie-going diaspora a familiar Bollywood movie with Friday's version, and perhaps use the remix to lure new audiences — specifically, second- and third-generation Indian Americans and Latino Americans — that might have shunned the genre in the past. "What we are trying to say," Ratner explains of his remix, "is that this isn't your father's Bollywood movie." Says Lamba: "It has all the soul of the original film, but it has a different beat."

Reliance isn't the first to experiment with such a Bollywood release scheme.

Earlier this year, Fox Searchlight released two editions (a longer and shorter cut) of "My Name Is Khan" in domestic theaters. The movie, made by Fox International Productions, did huge business around the world for the genre (about $41 million, with $22 million coming from India) and grossed about $4 million locally, a very good result for a Hindi-language production (last year's foreign-language Oscar winner, Japan's "Departures," grossed just $1.5 million domestically).

From a marketing perspective, Bollywood releases can be tremendously attractive, as they can be sold with very targeted advertising and hardly any television spots.

Reliance's buddy comedy "3 Idiots," released theatrically in 2009, grossed $6.5 million domestically with a prints and advertising budget of about $500,000, says Mark Urman, whose Paladin Film is consulting on the release of both versions of the "Kites" films. "It's unbelievably cost-efficient," says Urman, who is promoting "Kites" with online advertisements, billboards and free publicity, using costar Mori to court Spanish-speaking patrons. The remix will be released in some cities with sizable Latino audiences, including Dallas and Houston.

Yet it won't be easy getting reviewers to take notice of even one version of "Kites," Urman says. "We have such a hard time getting critics to see some of our movies once," he says.

Ratner, who has a production deal funded by Reliance, hopes that his remix can do to Bollywood movies what "Rush Hour" did for star Jackie Chan — take one genre (in the case of Chan, Hong Kong martial arts movies) and Westernize it to the point that it escapes its limited niche. In shortening "Kites" by more than a third, Ratner excised almost all of the film's dance scenes and narrative subplots and redundancies — "Instead of saying things eight times, they say it twice," he says — and added new, hipper music cues and dubbed some of the film's dialogue.

"The best part of the movie for me was the chemistry between the two leads, the love story," Ratner says. He cut down a subplot in which Roshan and Mori's characters were driven to marry other people for money, not love. "It didn't make them likable," he says.

More than anything, though, Ratner tried to give his cut some energy and a more even narrative tone, unlike the longer version, which swings from torture scenes to dance numbers without blinking an eye. "I want to introduce people to a genre of film they've never seen before," he says. "I tried to keep the movie the way it was, but just make it more accessible to Western audiences."

Tool to track Bolly releases

LINK

Calcutta, May 19: Between Kites and Raavan, which will open bigger at the box office? Will a political film like Raajneeti start better in Mumbai or in Delhi? Is Kites only wooing young audiences or also older viewers?

Now Bollywood has the luxury of having access to these answers and more. The world’s largest film industry finally has a weekly tracking tool — a norm in Hollywood for decades. With the opening weekend now making or breaking a Hindi film, understanding the buzz around a forthcoming movie can come in handy.

Cinematix, the weekly tracking tool launched by the Mumbai-based media research and consulting firm Ormax Media, tracks Bollywood films around six weeks prior to their release date till the day they open.

Awareness and interest levels around a film are being gauged by interviewing moviegoers in the 15-34 age group. Currently being conducted across three cities — Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad — the survey throws up many other telling data that, if available to moviemakers in advance, can help them make adjustments in their marketing and promotion campaign.

“Pre-release awareness and intention to watch are the factors affecting the opening weekend collections of a film,” Shailesh Kapoor, CEO of Ormax Media, told The Telegraph. “On the basis of the response, you may choose to take a relook at your media and creative strategies during the pre-launch phase.”

For example, the Shahid Kapur-starrer Badmaash Company, which arrived on May 7, had only a 31 per cent “intention to watch” in its release week and the not-so-great opening figures at the box office bear testimony to the accuracy of the survey.

Compare that with Kites (releasing May 21), which 71 per cent of the respondents intend to watch, according to figures collated till May 14. That figure will go up further this week and thus Cinematix predicts a historic opening for the Hrithik Roshan-Barbara Mori romance.

Like in Hollywood, producers will have to subscribe to the weekly data from the survey. They will get a detailed report every Monday with age, gender and city-wise analyses of their movies.

“I think it’s an interesting concept and can be useful for filmmakers like us,” says Kites director Anurag Basu. “But the survey has to be done in more cities to get an idea of the pan-Indian buzz of a film.”

Calcutta and Hyderabad will be added to Cinematix’s survey area in the next couple of months. “The five cities account for almost 75 per cent of the box-office collections and so the results will give a fair idea of the nationwide buzz,” says Ormax CEO Kapoor.

The only previous attempt in Bollywood to understand the pre-release mindset of audiences has been through preview screenings.

But that has been largely to re-edit the film according to exit interviews of handpicked viewers. 3 Idiots, for instance, was shown to many preview audiences in quite a few Indian cities before it actually released on December 25 last year.

Hollywood does both — hold preview screenings and track the buzz. Satrajit Das, associate manager of market research firm Nielsen Bases, says: “Our US-based parent company does these surveys regularly and they always present interesting data for Hollywood studios to work upon. It’s good that Bollywood is finally taking a leaf out of their book and approaching releases methodically.”

What’s intriguing, however, is not the broad result that the tracking tool is throwing up but the small details it is coming up with.

For example, cinegoers in Delhi are not that keen to catch Raajneeti despite the buzz about it being loosely based on Sonia Gandhi’s political career. Katrina Kaif may want to keep track of that.

Komal Nahta with Anurag Basu

Bollywood goes west in Kites, but now let's swap

Brett Ratner has 'remixed' Bollywood melodrama Kites, an idea which could spice up any number of dull movies about India
n the 1990s, Harvey Weinstein rightly took a lot of flak for buying up award-winning foreign movies and recutting them savagely, then releasing them in America as if they were still the same moves. To me this was far more corrupt and dishonest than those cynical old exploitation producers of the 50s who would take a murky Japanese monster movie, add a cheap American actor in newly shot scenes; dub the dialogue into badly synched, poorly written English; cut footage; change the title to Octopus-Robot From Outer Space; and release it in an imaginary, all-new format like "Awesome-Scope!" These guys knew they were trash-merchants, but Weinstein called what he did "art".

1. Kites: The Remix
2. Production year: 2010
3. Country: India
4. Runtime: 80min mins
5. Directors: Anurag Basu, Brett Ratner
6. Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Kabir Bedi, Steven Michael Quezada
7. More on this film

Nowadays, the process has been tarted up, made vaguely respectable and is called a "remix". And oddly, I couldn't be happier. Brett Ratner, taking a leaf from the old exploitation playbook, has taken Bollywood director Anurag Basu's melodrama Kites and, for its American release and with Basu's co-operation, has excised 30 minutes, re-edited it, and overdubbed ridiculously overripe and self-satirising dialogue, plus explanatory voiceovers and added a topless scene – not the ordinary course of business in Mumbai, to be sure. It's as if Ratner were half-Roger Corman, half-RZA.

This is an approach that might improve any number of boring and humourless movies made by westerners about India. So, why don't we remix a few of them and grant them a new lease on life?

First up: Gandhi, what else? This epic snoozer seems indemnified against aggressive criticism because of its hero's saintliness and his non-violent teachings. Well, I call bullshit on that. It's not Gandhi I hate, it's Richard Attenborough's direction, and the Ratner approach, or even outright Bollywood-isation would really set this movie up on its feet. Lots of songs, people doing that hands-together-praying type of dance, NO KISSING AT ALL, EVER, and everything saturated in eye-popping, fluorescent highlighter-pen colours. Add some of that and you'll forget you're watching some skinny old geezer in a toga-diaper.

Next up: David Lean's sclerotic and embarrassing A Passage To India, the last British movie I can remember to feature an actor in blackface (Alec Guinness, come on down!) and one that could really use a gigantic Bollywood enema. Dame Peggy Ashcroft could do an animated dance with a digitally inserted Apu from The Simpsons, just like Gene Kelly did with Tom and Jerry, and God knows what the super-chaste Bollywood aesthetic would come up with for the rape in the Marabar Caves. Some shadowy dance number with a strategically positioned spitting cobra, probably.

If you are not seething by now and want more or want to send brickbats go to this link

Publicity rules

LINK

What do Badmaash Company, Housefull before that and Kites, the next biggie on the anvil, have in common? Besides being big-ticket releases, the movies have made news for myriad reasons that have little to do with filmmaking and more with film publicity. The larger gamut of publicity fell into three broad categories: a) rumoured romance between the lead pair b) alleged differences between team members (producer, director, actresses etc) and c) opening collections for the first two films.

Of course, with Kites, the buzz has predominantly been about the smoking hot chemistry between Hrithik Roshan and his co-star Barbara Mori. Mori, during her visit and stay to promote the film, was nonchalant about the rumours, dismissing it as the standard practice followed by the filmi media the world over.

Hrithik too seems unruffled when questions about their link-up are raked. Was the story a figment of the media’s imagination? Or a time-tested promotional gimmick created by the publicity machinery? Well, nobody will quite know. Truth be told, link-up stories between co-stars are old hat and a pretty convenient way to keep the auds guessing. The production house bosses, publicists and producers are all part of this trickery. Another convenient gimmick trotted out concerns spats between co-actors. This works particularly well when two or three actresses form part of the team.

A young actor who was linked with his co-star before the release of his movie fessed up that the production house had circulated the stories even though he had made his discomfort about it known. For yet another film, the link-up tactics were abandoned in favour of news about a senior actor on the team and the youngster in question sharing cold vibes!

Frankly, these rumours hardly ever bother hard-nosed producers willing to try just about any trick in the book to make movies work.

One such producer scoffed when I pointed out that such rumours could damage personal relationships and reputations. “Everyone in the industry knows these are publicity stunts. It doesn’t affect anyone,” he reiterated.

However, he took umbrage to the fact that the media was recklessly quoting astronomical star prices resulting in stars making unreasonable demands!

“These claims of multi-crore deals are rubbish and planted by the stars themselves. The media should verify these claims,” he retorted.

Yet another oft-used gimmick is that of declaring a movie as ‘super-hit’ with box-office figures that just don’t add up. One would have imagined that the introduction of corporate practices would result in greater transparency. But no such luck. Collection figures for most movies remain (to use a favourite cliché) shrouded in mystery. Fantastic weekend collections announced by production houses are often dismissed by trade analysts and industry insiders as bogus. Some feel that such premature declaration of a hit is a preemptive measure to safeguard business against scathing reviews or poor word-of-mouse (posts on the Internet). Now, this is the part that could affect the aam aadmi, particularly those who have invested in the media and entertainment companies. Reading between the lines for the stakeholders would certainly be a good idea.

Round-up of news for the day!

Anushka Sharma out of Rockstar

We all know that Imtiaz Ali first conceptualised Rockstar with John Abraham. Then, the reworked script worked in favour of Ranbir Kapoor. Well, after John Abraham, it’s Anushka Sharma who gets the axe we hear. The poor girl, who just loves Ranbir by the way, was distraught by the latest developments. The buzz is that Imtiaz wants to cast an unknown girl for the role. Watch this space for more.

This is sad news indeed. Hope Imtiaz is not thinking of foisting another Giselle type on us!


We all knew Jackie Chan was not in Ra.one..
But now we hear that SRK has signed a lesser known martial arts hero from China but presently his name is being kept under wraps.

So we should expect martial arts to play a big part in the film!


John and Tabu's UTV films in trouble
Just heard that UTV has decided to shelve the Tabu-Shreyas Talpade starrer Season’s Greetings, despite it being 80 per cent complete. Earlier, we heard that they decided to disassociate themselves from David Dhawan’s jailhouse comedy Hook Ya Crook. It’s rumoured that the film’s star John Abraham and David Dhawan will now produce the film themselves. The film is allegedly 90 per cent complete. Dhawan wants some scenes with Indian cricketers but the IPL season has kept them busy.

This is a pity - Tabu needs to be seen more in films, such a fine talent!


The English version of 'Kites' will release one week later

Now here's vital info. While everyone knows that the much-awaited KITES will be released worldwide on May 21, its international cut - in English language - will be released one week later, on May 28. It means, the American audiences will get to watch the two versions [Hindi and English] in two consecutive weeks. While the Hindi version, targeted at the Indian diaspora with a running time of 2 hours, will arrive on May 21, the English version, with a running of 90 minutes, will arrive at select venues on May 28.

Here's more on KITES! More than a week ago, a reputed newspaper had done a 'Spoiler Alert' and had revealed the climax of this keenly anticipated film. Expectedly, the news-report sent shock waves across the length and breadth of the film fraternity, since an expose of this kind, much before its release, usually harms the film in question.

While the newspaper tendered an apology the very next morning, KITES director Anurag Basu couldn't hide his anger while talking about it. "The climax mentioned in the news-report is false and fabricated. The sad part about the whole thing is, even if I say it's wrong, people might assume that's how the film actually ends," Basu sounds hurt.

This supremely talented director likes to stay away from the media glare, even though he's helmed one of the biggest movies of this year. Ask him if he had differences with producer Rakesh Roshan and he jokes, "Thankfully, we didn't come to blows." But he gets serious soon enough, "Actually, it took us time to adjust to each other's pattern of working. There were no hiccups once we understood each other," he says.

So will he work with the Roshans again? "You should ask them whether they would like to work with me again," he laughs.

This could be a smart move - Hrithik has enough hard-core fans who might go and see both versions in theaters overseas!!

Summer Fiesta - A look at upcoming BW releases

LINK

From politics to mythology and animation and comedy, bollywood’s summer of 2010 has something for everyone

With many parts of India gasping under record temperatures, Bollywood is gearing up to offer some respite to movie buffs this summer. What’s more, filmmakers are offering a variety of movies to suit the tastes of filmgoers. So from politics to mythology, there will be generous sprinkling of romance, comedy, glitz and glamour.

There’s Housefull, a romantic comedy by director Sajid Khan, whose first film Heyy Babyy was a runaway success. Khan repeats three of his lead actors for the second time (Akshay Kumar, Boman Irani and Reitesh Deshmukh)and joining the laugh riot are Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone, Arjun Rampal and Jiah Khan. The film revolves around Arush (Akshay Kumar) whose quest for love ends him up in not one or two, but three marriages releases on April 30, 2010.

If Housefull looks at the story of a man caught in a sticky situation because of three marriages, Gurinder Chadha’s new offering, It’s A Wonderful Afterlife is a comic romp about a typical Punjabi mother obsessed with a desire to get her overweight daughter married. Like her previous films, Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice, Chadha’s new film, too, will be released in Hindi and English on May 7, 2010. Explains Sandeep Bharagava, chief advisor of Indian Films, the company releasing Chadha’s film: “It’s A Wonderful Afterlife is essentially an international release but we have dubbed the film in Hindi too.”

In fact, a lot of films are getting released in more than just one language. Kites, one of the most awaited films, starring Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori, a Mexican model, made at a budget of Rs 55 crore, according to film trade analyst Komal Nahata, has been shot in Hindi as well as English. The Hindi version has been shot by director Anurag Basu, while the English version has Hollywood director Brett Ratner, who has also worked on the Rush Hour series and X-Men: The Last Stand. The story revolves around Roshan, an artiste who plays fast and loose with two women, Kangana Ranaut and Mori. The film has been in-the-making for some years now and will finally see a worldwide release on May 21, 2010.

Nahata adds, “Due to the nine week dispute between multiplex owners and producers last year, the film industry lost around Rs 80 crore. This year, collections from some big budget films like Kites, Raavan (Rs 35 crore) and Rajneeti (Rs 40 crore) are expected to be good.”

Going by the initial trailers of films like Rajneeti and Raavan, Nahata has a point. Rajneeti, written, produced and directed by Prakash Jha, will have Katrina Kaif in a completely new avatar. The political thriller with an ensemble cast, including Naseeruddin Shah, Ajay Devgn, Nana Patekar, Arjun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor, revolves around a set of characters who fight violent battles to attain power. Rajneeti, believed to be influenced by Mahabharata, releases on June 4.

If Rajneeti takes a contemporary look at the Mahabharata, Mani Ratnam’s Raavan, starring husband-wife duo Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, is a modern-day interpretation of Ramayan. Raavan releases on June 18.

Milan Luthria’s Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, too, resonates with political undertones. The film is based on the life and times of underworld Don Haji Mastan, Starring Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi and Kangana Ranaut, it’s been produced by Balaji Telefilms and will release on July 30.

Releases are incomplete without a Yash Raj movie and this summer the production house has Badmaash Company lined up. The movie stars Shahid Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Vir Das and newcomer Meiyank Chang (former contestant on reality show Indian Idol). The story looks at the journey of four youngsters who start a successful business venture. The twist in the tale comes when they’re forced to shut shop. How they manage to survive and jump back to script another success story is the focus of the film. Badmaash Company will be Sharma’s second film after Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and it’ll be interesting to see whether she lives up to the audience’s expectations. It will also be critical for Kapoor, after his films Chance Pe Dance and Paathshala, have already been labeled as flops this year.

Bollywood is also ready with animated movies like Koochie Koochie Hota Hai and Toonpur Ka Superhero. With Koochie Koochie Hota Hai, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions is all set to recreate the magic of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Toonpur Ka Superhero, on the other hand, will have voiceovers by Ajay Devgn and Kajol. Dharma Production’s will also release I Hate Luv Storys, starring Sonam Kapoor and Imran Khan release on July 2. Kapoor will also be seen in another film, Ayesha.

It’s time to bring on the bucket of popcorn, then.

COMING SOON

HOUSEFULL Cast: Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta Director: Sajid Khan Release Date: April 30 Budget: Rs 40 crore

KITES Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori Director: Anurag Basu Release Date: May 21 Budget: Rs 55 crore

RAJNEETI Cast: Katrina Kaif, Ajay Devgn Director: Prakash Jha Release Date: June 4 Budget: Rs 35 crore

RAAVAN Cast: Abhishek Bachchan Director: Mani Ratnam Release Date: June 18 Budget: Rs 40 crore

I HATE LUV STORIES Cast: Imran Khan, Sonam Kapoor Director: Punit Malhotra Release Date: July 2 Budget: Rs 35 crore