Rajneeti takes huge opening - biggest of the year!

Reviews are mixed, but the film has worked really well with audiences all over!!

LINK

Rajneeti Super Strong Start Kites Crashes

Saturday 5th June 2010 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network

Rajneeti opened to excellent houses of 85% plus across the country. The film was strong from its first shows at multiplexes and single screens and at many centres in places like CP Berar, CI and Rajasthan it had a phenomenal opening. The multiplex release of Rajneeti was much smaller than recent biggies like Housefull and Kites. Rajneeti should emerge a big winner at the box office.

Kites crashed in week two with around 6.75 crore nett business. The two week business is around 46.50 crore nett and the film will not add much over its remaining run at the theatres. FLOP

LINK

Raajneeti Rocks The Nation

Saturday 5th June 2010 13.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network

Raajneeti has recorded by far the best opening of year by collecting nearly 10.50 crore nett on its first day. The collections are just extraordinary all over barring a few centres.

The collections are just huge in Mumbai, Delhi/UP, East Punjab, CP Berar, CI and Rajasthan with South being good but lower comparatively. The Raajneeti first day is humungous as it has collected the second highest first day total but with 30% lesser shows at multiplexes than films like Kites and Housefull which were the second and third biggest first day openers respectively before Raajneeti.

The film has simply surpassed all expectations and may be on its way to being the first big smash hit of 2010 in India.

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...

LINK

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.

Multiplex Killed the Single-Screen Cinema-Goer

LINK

The man who brought the multiplex to India says he misses the old days when everyone shared one, big, tattered screen.

The scourge of multi-screen theaters that have spread in the last decade has brought the middle-class back to movie theaters but has also hurt the industry, said entertainment entrepreneur Manmohan Shetty. Mr. Shetty opened India’s first multiplex in Mumbai in 2000 through his company Adlabs Films (which is now part of the Anil Ambani empire and renamed Reliance MediaWorks.)

The fancy, expensive new theaters and the movies on their screens have ignored the country’s biggest movie fans who happen to have small salaries, said Mr. Shetty.

“Multiplexes have killed the industry,” Mr. Shetty told India Real Time on the sidelines of an event during the International Indian Film Academy weekend in Colombo, Sri Lanka. “We shouldn’t have forgotten the people on the bottom.”

While the multiplexes have upgraded the movie watching experience in Indian cities, they have also made it more expensive and exclusive. Movie makers are now aiming their content increasingly at the middle-class movie-goer even though they represent only a minority of viewers in India.

Mr. Shetty points to box office receipts in southern Indian which has fewer multiplexes and more movies aimed squarely at the movie-mad masses. As much as three-fourths of all the movie revenues in India come from that area of the country, he said. “In South India they didn’t break the pattern,” he said.

Tamil actor Rajnikanth is still a superstar at 60. He rules the South and has mass appeal because his films are fun. In old, single-screen theaters in Chennai, the crowd sometimes gets up and dances when Rajnikanth’s name flashes on the screen, said Mani Shankar, a movie director and writer from Hyderabad.

“There are mass films and class films,” he said. “In the South they still make the mass films.”

One of the best selling western films ever in India was “2012.” It worked because it was dubbed into many local Indian languages and it was an easy-to-follow, exciting story.

Much of India cannot afford or appreciate the movies from the new Bollywood, which is trying to woo the middle class minority, Mr. Shankar said.

“The movies are not visceral enough, they are cerebral,” he said.

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

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.

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.

Akshay Kumar flick Housefull in weekend; revenues at Rs 32 cr

LINK

New Delhi: Beating trade and critics’ expectations, Akshay Kumar's latest flick Housefull has emerged as the second-highest box office grosser in the opening weekend only behind 3 Idiots collections. Between the last Friday and Sunday, Housefull raked in around Rs 32 crore catapulting it to the top of the list of releases, this year.

The movie is expected to rake in around Rs 50 crore from the first week collections, film trade experts said. In its march towards becoming a commercial success, box office collections for Housefull has surpassed opening collections of hits like My Name Is Khan, Ghajini , Love Aaj Kal and Singh Is Kinng among others, trade data shows.

“Yes, Housefull has managed to receive a good weekend collection because for the previous six weeks, there was no good content in the theatres. Also, the film has great starcast, locations, music and comedy—that has worked in its favour,” Vinod Mirani, managing editor, Box Office India told FE.

The film may manage Rs 50-crore collections in the first week as no big-budget films are expected to hit the theatres till May 21 when Hrithik Roshan’s much-awaited film Kites is scheduled for a worldwide release. According to a trade analyst, Kites, is expected to get the biggest openings of the recent times as its release is awaited for the last 8-10 months.



Housefull has also raked in big moolah in the overseas markets, especially in the United States and UK . For the weekend, Housefull generated over Rs 10 crore in the overseas market. Within the country, the film opened to packed houses in north, Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Maharashtra and Western India .

“We saw 100% bookings in a number of our shows on Saturday and Sunday for Housefull, probably the first time since IPL began. Even the weekday shows are running with 40-45% advance bookings,” said a senior executive of a leading multiplex chain in Gurgaon.

Some film analysts feel that the collections for Housefull will fade away after the first week mainly due to the release of Yash Chopra’s Badmash Company and also because of the high distribution costs for Housefull . The film, directed by Sajid Khan, was released with over 750 physical prints and around 1,000 digital prints, the cost of which will become high to sustain against the diminishing returns from second week...

BW Box-Office : 2010 Quarter 1 results

One super-duper hit (Carried over from the last quarter), one superhit this quarter and a whole lot of predictable flops — a look at the BOX-OFFICE results

 SOURCE : TELEGRAPH INDIA

3 idiots

Release date: 25.12.2009

What: From slamming the education system to championing human values, 3 Idiots packaged message with masala and mirth.

Why: 3 Idiots created a frenzy like no other modern Bollywood film has. Some watched it for the fifth time to laugh out loud with the “balaatkaar” scene, others trooped in for the nth time to roar for Rancho and wipe a tear for Raju. Aal izz well became the national phrase as Aamir Khan powered his way to a record box office of Rs 350 crore-plus. Four months on, it’s still running.

t2 review: You have the two different halves — the first one designed to make you laugh and the second one to make you cry.

Verdict: RECORD HIT

Raat Gayi Baat Gayi

Release date: 01.01.2010

What: A drunk man fails to recall the events of the previous night leading to a comedy of errors. 

Why: Lack of big names and no pre-release publicity meant that very few turned up to watch this desi Hangover.

t2 review: Unless you are watching 3 Idiots one more time, you can give this one a try. But just like the title suggests, it will be a case of raat gayi, movie gayi.…

Verdict: FLOP

Accident on Hill Road

Release date: 01.01.2010

What: High on drink and drugs, a young woman rams her car into an elderly man and leaves him bleeding on her car windshield. With disastrous results.

Why: A frame-by-frame copy of the Holly flick Stuck, the audience came back with only one ‘disturbing’ image —- Farooque Shaikh’s rear-end sticking out of the windshield for the entire film! 

t2 review: Far from being edge-of the seat, Accident on Hill Road makes you settle comfortably into your seat and go zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Verdict: FLOP

Pyaar Impossible

Release date: 08.01.2010

What: A goddess-and-the-geek love story of a nerd with a secret crush on the college beauty, only to woo her in style years later.

Why: Too long and too pretentious, Pyaar Impossible was worth a watch for the Chopra (Priyanka), but unwatchable because of the other Chopra (Uday).

t2 review: The only reason you should dream of a date with Pyaar Impossible! is the eminently edible Priyanka Chopra. She not only looks stunning throughout the film but Piggychops’s acting chops keep getting better with every outing.

Verdict: AVERAGE

Dulha Mil Gaya

Release date: 08.01.2010

What: The done-to-death Bollywood formula of a village belle metamorphosing into a modern diva to get back at the man who had spurned her. 

Why: In the making for close to half a decade, Dulha Mil Gaya was a huge yawn with Sushmita Sen’s OTT act making it worse. Even SRK’s special appearance could not save this one.

t2 review: Languishing in the cans for over two years, Dulha Mil Gaya is caught in a time warp.

Verdict: FLOP

Chance Pe Dance

Release date: 15.01.2010

What: A struggling actor guides a bunch of kids to victory in a dance duel.

Why: Too many years in the making and half-hearted performances dragged down this desi School of Rock. Shahid rocked, though. 

t2 review: Chance Pe Dance is yet another telling audio-visual evidence that Bollywood writers and directors are struggling to keep up with the new kids on the block.

Verdict: FLOP

Veer

Release date: 23.01.2010

What: Salman the actor turned Salman the scriptwiter in this mangled mess of history. 

Why: A ludicrous plot and scant regard for detail meant that Anil Gadar Sharma’s attempt at a massy and melodramatic film fell flat, despite an earnest Salman. 

t2 review: Taking a cue from the famous Fly trailer, our advice: Be brave, be very brave to watch Veer.

Verdict: FLOP

Ishqiya

Release date: 29.01.2010

What: A scheming widow seduces both uncle and nephew, one with ishq another with sex, in this scintillating drama about love/lust aaj kal.

Why: Raw, earthy appeal, Vidya Balan’s irresistible femme fatale, great supporting acts by Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi made Ishqiya a must-watch. Sadly, not for enough numbers to make it a hit.

t2 review: Allow for a little nonchalance here, a little self-indulgence there and Ishqiya is definitely one of the most assured debuts in recent Hindi cinema.

Verdict: average

Rann

Release date: 29.01.2010

What: An expose on the murky business of 24x7 news and the sordid politician-media-corporate nexus.

Why: Attempting a Madhur Bhandarkar, Ram Gopal Varma was let down by a linear narrative and uni dimensional characters. Even AB Sr’s powerful presence failed to resurrect Rann.

t2 review: Overly dramatic and with a predilection for the hyperbolic, Rann is a film that promises too much and delivers too little.

Verdict: FLOP

Striker

Release date: 05.02.2010

What: A talented carrom player in a Mumbai ghetto of the 80s is forced by circumstances to give up the game, only to rediscover his passion years later.

Why: Rang De Basanti man Siddharth’s Bolly comeback generated a lot of hype for this medium-budget Chandan Arora (Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh) flick, but too many dull moments meant that Striker was way off the mark.

t2 review: Striker is not the first film where you sit and wonder what the film is about.

Verdict: FLOP

My Name Is Khan

Release date: 12.02.2010

What: A Muslim man with Asperger Syndrome struggles to prove his innocence in post-9/11 America. SRK all the way.

Why: Karan Johar moved away from his usual formulaic filmmaking to give us a tale of love and longing. Kajol excelled (as usual) and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music helped power SRK’s best act to the highest overseas collection by any Bollywood film. Overall, MNIK has brought in Rs 200 crore and counting — second only to 3 Idiots.

t2 review: My Name Is Khan has conscience and courage and two heartfelt performances. It can try your patience a bit but it will not leave you untouched.

Verdict: SUPERHIT

Toh Baat Pakki

Release date: 19.02.2010

What: An overbearing older sister (Tabu) desperately match-makes for her younger sibling — two men at the same time. We couldn’t figure out the rest of this yawnathon.

Why: Non-starry (Tabu doesn’t count) and non-glam, Toh Baat Pakki was bad with a capital B.

t2 review: Toh Baat Pakki is yet another twisted rip-off DDLJ added with the super-sweetened feel of a Barjatya film.

Verdict: FLOP

Click

Release date: 19.02.2010

What: A young photographer’s present is haunted by the sins of his past in this remake of Holly horror Shutter. 

Why: Shreyas Talpade was the only known face in this zero-publicity film. Click barely survived in cinemas for a week.

Verdict: flop

Teen Patti

Release date: 26.02.2010

What: Desperate to test a pathbreaking probability theory, a maths genius is unwillingly hurled into the murky world of gambling.

Why: A painful watch from start to finish, the much-hyped Teen Patti sacrificed an interesting premise at the altar of an incoherent screenplay and lacklustre performances. Even Amitabh Bachchan and Ben Kingsley failed to lure the audience to the theatres. 

t2 review: Flimsy and fantastical, incoherent and pretentious, Teen Patti comes crashing down like a pack of cards.

Verdict: flop

Karthik Calling Karthik

Release date: 26.02.2010

What: A loser’s life takes a turn for the better when he starts receiving phone calls every morning — from himself!

Why: A never-tried-in-Bolly-before premise, an earnest performance from Farhan Akhtar and Deepika’s looks made up for the predictable twists and turns. The hatke Bolly film, with a disappointing second half, didn’t grow enough. 

t2 review: Don’t go in sniffing a terrific twist and you might well enjoy Karthik Calling Karthik.

Verdict: AVERAGE

Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?

Release date: 05.03.2010

What: A family is in a real fix when an unwanted guest comes calling and shows no signs of leaving the house.

Why: Cheap gags and ho-hum moments meant that even three National Award winners (Paresh, Konkona and Ajay) couldn’t prevent Atithi’s fortunes from plummeting at the box-office. 

t2 review: It is only the obnoxious toilet humour and the unnecessarily prolonged farting gag that stays with you at the end of Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?.

Verdict: AVERAGE

Road, Movie

Release date: 05.03.2010

What: Four strangers meet on the desert roads of Rajasthan and carve their own destinies, powered by the magic of cinema. 

Why: A unique theme enhanced by superlative performances made this Dev Benegal film a brave attempt. Sadly, that wasn’t enough to prevent the festival hit from playing to near-empty theatres. 

t2 review: Dev Benegal’s Road, Movie is a bittersweet — less bitter, more sweet — fable about the timeless — and boundary-less — magic of cinema.

Verdict: FLOP

Right Yaaa Wrong

Release date: 12.03.2010

What: An emotional drama about cops and criminals with a thriller twist.

Why: The presence of A-listers like Irrfan and Konkona and a rare appearance by Sunny Deol notwithstanding, there were few takers for this long-stuck-in-the cans film.

t2 review: Right Yaaa Wrong has such a shoddy first half that you won’t be blamed if you don’t return for the riveting half after the break.

Verdict: FLOP

Hide N Seek

Release date: 12.03.2010

What: A group of friends get stranded in a closed mall with a killer on the loose.

Why: Modelled on the lines of Holly slasher thrillers, not many knew when this small-budget film came and went, given the lack of stars and zero publicity.

Verdict: FLOP

Lahore

Release date:19.03.2010

What: A simple story of a boxer made complicated by petty politics and India-Pakistan dynamics. 

 

Why: It may have won a few awards at the C-festival circuit, but IPL and the lack of big names kept audiences away.

t2 review: You may watch it for the boxing, but do not expect much of a kick.

Verdict: FLOP

Love Sex Aur Dhokha

Release date: 19.03.2010

What: The loves and lives, problems and prejudices of modern urban India seen through spycam and handheld footage.

Why: Breaking new ground in formulaic Bollywood, LSD piqued audience interest. Unaffected and honest. Friends watched it, families didn’t.

t2 review: The industry’s first full-blown experimental film pushes the envelope when it comes to style and content, marrying the two in a manner that is original and innovative.

Verdict: BETWEEN FLOP AND AVERAGE

Shaapit

Release date: 19.03.2010

What: A young couple dare to take on a 300-year-old evil spirit to rid themselves of a generational curse. 

Why: Lack of genuine chills and thrills and new faces (singer Udit Narayan’s son Aditya was one) were enough for Shaapit to be cursed at the box-office.

t2 review: The viewer is taken on an agonisingly long journey that is interesting to begin with, but ends up being a huge bore.

Verdict: FLOP

Hum Tum Aur Ghost

Release date: 26.03.2010

What:A fashion photographer develops the ability to see and hear the dead. A desi Sixth Sense? Not by a mile!

Why: Is it a thriller? Is it a comedy? Is it a romance? None of the above.

t2 review: Hum Tum Aur Ghost is me, you aur some laughs — and a whole lot of yawns!

Verdict: FLOP

Well Done Abba

Release date: 26.03.2010

What: A beautiful father-daughter relationship in the background of rural corruption and political powerplay form the core of this Shyam Benegal film.

Why: Commendable performances — led by Boman Irani — and the trademark Benegal finesse weren’t enough to overrule the lethargic pace of WDA. The audience stayed away.

t2 review: At 150 minutes, Well Done Abba is bound to try even the most patient of souls.

Verdict: FLOP

Mittal vs Mittal

Release date: 26.03.2010

What: Tormented by marital rape, a woman takes up cudgels against her abusive husband. 

Why: Though it addressed a pertinent issue and starred Calcutta’s own Rituparna Sengupta, Mittal vs Mittal suffered on account of average performances (only Ritu was good) and tacky production values.

t2 review: The romance is half-baked and the characters are so over-the-top that they start grating on one’s nerves after a while.

Verdict: FLOP

Tum Milo Toh Sahi

Release date: 02.04.2010

What: A cafe assumes the role of a centrepoint for a group of urbane couples to discuss and sort out their lives. We couldn’t figure out the rest.

Why: The usually dependable Nana Patekar was a riot but that wasn’t enough to prevent Tum Milo Toh Sahi from being a non-starter at the box-office.

t2 review: The dialogues are loud, the songs are noisy and each actor tries, and successfully so, to be worse than the other.

Verdict: FLOP

Sadiyaan

Release date: 02.04.2010

What: A modern reprisal of the Devki-Yashodha tale, this one had a Hindu mother raising a Muslim child.

Why: Bland and boring, Sadiyaan had very little going for it. Able performances from Rekha, Rishi Kapoor and Hema Malini went waste in this Luv Sinha debut.

t2 review: Sadiyaan is so old school that you feel a couple of sadiyaans have drifted by in those 160 minutes in the movie hall!

Verdict: FLOP

PLUS...

Vivek Oberoi’s action thriller Prince and Riteish Deshmukh’s rom-com Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai released last Friday. Given the average reviews and lukewarm audience response, one needs no crystal ball to predict that both films will fare poorly at the box-office

FAST FORWARD TO SECOND QUARTER

HOUSEFULL
Why: The Heyy Babyy hit team returns with an entertainer. Akshay with bikini bods Deepika-Lara-Jiya is sure to keep the house full for the first weekend.

BADMAASH COMPANY
Why: Actor Parmeet Sethi makes his directorial debut in this Rocket Singh-cum-Bunty Aur Babli con movie. Watch out for the Shahid-Anushka pairing.

KITES
Why: Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori are set to scorch the screen in this Anurag Basu film. The biggie of the quarter

RAAJNEETI
Why: Katrina Kaif plays a Sonia Gandhi-like character in this Prakash Jha political thriller. Big names like Ajay Devgn, Arjun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor make Raajneeti a must watch.

RAAVAN
Why: After shoots (a lot of it in Calcutta) and reshoots, Mani Ratnam’s modern-day
Ramayan with Ash and Abhishek is set for release in June. Will it work?

ACTION REPLAYY
Why: Aishwarya and Akshay time-travel to the 70s in this Vipul Shah rom-com. 

 
 

Fox Entertainment rejoices Avatar, MNIK success

Last year, Fox Entertainment was celebrating the success of Slumdog Millionaire. This year it's toasting to the record breaking Avatar and has also broken new ground with its bollywood foray My Name is Khan (MNIK).
In an entertainment with CNBC-TV18, Jim Gianopulos, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Entertainment, spoke about the relationship with Karan Johar's Dharma Productions and Shahrukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment.
Below is a verbatim transcript of an exclusive entertainment with Jim Gianopulos on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: What is your relationship with Red Chillies Entertainment?
A: It materialized as a partnership and the film was expensive because so much of it was shot in the US and in multiple locations. The film is about a journey across the country. So those multiple locations and the cost of making that film certainly pushed the budget up higher than a normal bollywood film. It wasn’t one of this–here is the money, see you in a long time. We wouldn’t have done that they didn’t want that. There were many number of people who they could have sold the film to. They made arrangements for every one of their films.
Both of us wanted to try the relationship, improve that there could be a great partnership and the benefit of the synergies of coupling great talent and worldwide marketing and distribution. From the very beginning it was viewed as a partnership enterprise. There was deference, to the extent that we deferred to Karan and Sharukh in terms of how it was handled and how I was positioned here in India. They deferred completely to us in the rest of the world and particularly the US. This didn’t mean it wasn’t collaborative in every corner of the world that it was released.

Q: Are you happy with the collections?
A: Yes, very happy.

Q: When you look at the India Theatrical collection, while it opened really well, it kept falling by more than half in all the following or consecutive weeks, was that disappointing?
A: No because this was a movie which was intentionally looking to change the form and test the limits of the form. It wasn’t a conventional bollywood film and we heard it in some of the smaller markets and some part of the country where people said, I don’t get what is Shahrukh Khan doing in that role and why is the film in that sort of a narrative form. The fact that it didn’t play in some of the smaller markets in the country was really not a surprise because it wasn’t conventional and it wasn’t intended to be.

Q: So now movies are now going to be before Avatar and after Avatar, isn’t it?
A: That’s what they said about Titanic.

Q: Are you used to it?
A: I won’t go that far. It’s a very unique experience and a thrilling one.

Q: Have you already derived USD 2.5 billion?
A: We have derived USD 2.7 billion.

Q: Give us an idea of what it means because on one hand we are talking about MNIK which is some USD 40 million and you have USD 2.7 billion on the other hand?
A: Someone once said to me that the business transactions were quite substantial. We said the difference is that there are more zeroes. This is the difference between those two films. So this is an incredible experience that we have been involved. We have the very much the same pride with My Name is Khan because that doesn’t happen every day.
To be able to take great talents like Kajol and Sharukh and expose them to the rest of the world is really a great source of pride. There was one moment when we had the biggest local movie in China and the biggest in the world with Avatar. The only place that we weren’t number one that weekend was in the US.

LINK

Media, entertainment seen as $24 bn industry in India by 2014

MUMBAI: The $13 billion Indian media and entertainment industry is seen growing 13 percent annually over the next five years to net revenues of $24.25 billion by 2014, says a report released Tuesday.

The study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) made the projection based on the recovery staged by the industry in the last quarter of 2009, which, it feels, will continue in the future.

The growth will be driven by factors like favourable demographics, high economic growth, strong fundamentals, expected rise in advertising revenue and increasing penetration, adds the study, conducted jointly by consultancy KPMG.

"The media and entertainment industry represents the face of consumers in India," said FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra, after the study was released by Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan at the Frames 2010 conference.

"It is a part of our daily life and touches maximum number of people. So despite the challenging last year, I'm excited by the potential of the industry to even grow beyond 13 percent per annum over the next few years," Mitra said.

Others who attended the inaugural event at India's commercial and entertainment hub included actors Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif and filmmakers Yash Chopra and Karan Johar.

Speaking on the session, Shah Rukh Khan said the three basic needs of every Indian -- food, clothing and shelter (roti, kapda aur makaan) -- appeared to have been fulfilled for most.

"There is now a fourth desire and that is entertainment and movies are a popular source of this fourth requirement. Another concept popularly emerging and posing to have a great future is sport entertainment," he said.

"We are at the threshold of a huge burst on the entertainment arena in India and entertainment is the packaging of a growing economy."

As per the FICCI-KPMG study several factors augur well for the industry, notably the potential for growth in media reach, impact of digitisation and convergence, better consumer understanding, innovation and enhanced penetration of regional markets.

The study also gives the following estimates of the size of various segments of media and entertainment industry in 2009 and the projection for 2014:

Television: From $5.71 billion to $11.58 billion

Filmed Entertainment: From $1.98 billion to $3.09 billion

Print Media: From $3.88 billion to $5.97 billion

Radio: From $173 million to $364 million

Music: From $184 million to $382 million

Animation: From just $71 million to $1.03 billion

According to the study, gaming will be the fastest growing sector in the media and entertainment industry. This sector grew 22 percent in 2009 and is expected to expand by 32 percent per annum to reach $711 million by 2014.

LINK

Indian biz grows 1.3% to $13 billion in 2009

Media and entertainment industry examined at confab
By Nyay Bhushan
March 16, 2010, 08:26 AM ET
NEW DELHI -- The Indian media and entertainment industry only grew by 1.3% in 2009 to touch $13 billion (Rs 591.59 billion) given the effects of an overall slowdown over the last two years.
These are the findings of "Indian Media and Entertainment Industry 2009" published by FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) in association with management consultants KPMG India which was released Tuesday on the opening day of the 11th FICCI Frames conference in Mumbai.

By contrast, last year's report had assessed the industry at $12.9 billion (Rs 584 billion) in 2008, a 12% increase over the previous year, projecting a 12.5% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over five years estimated to touch $23.3 billion (Rs 1,052 billion) by 2013.

Looking ahead, the report forecasts that the industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of 13% to touch about $24 billion (Rs 1,091 billion) by 2014.

Filmed entertainment is estimated to have grown at a CAGR of 5% over the past 3 years with the industry touching revenues of about $2 billion (Rupees 89 billion) in 2009, a reduction of 14% over 2008 when the industry touched $2.42 billion (Rs 109.3 billion).

The sector suffered a setback due to the month -ong strike following a stalemate between multiplexes and producers, in additon to other factors including a lack of hit films. The film industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9% to touch $3 billion (Rupees 137 billion) by 2014.

The TV industry grew 6.8% over 2008 to touch $5.7 billion (Rs 257 billion) and is projected to grow at 15% over 2010-14 to touch $11.5 billion (Rupees 521 billion) by 2014. This growth will be driven by a rise in subscription and advertisement revenues, the report said.

Looking at the overall entertainment industry, the report added, "Aspirations of Indian players to go global and foreign players entering the industry will also help the sector post a double digit growth in the next five years."

Among the report's findings is the fact that media spend in India is 0.41% of the GDP, half of the world's average of 0.80% and much less compared to developed countries like the U.S. and Japan.

Also, current media spend per capita for India is very low at $4 compared to other countries. While it may be difficult to match levels of developed economies given India's large population base and lower spending power per capita, the report states that "there is scope to follow China and enhance this ratio."

FICCI-Frames will conclude on 18th March and among this year's speakers was Shah Rukh Khan who delivered the opening keynote address titled "New Connect between Hollywood and Bollywood" in which he said that "we in India need to forge alliances to share expertise and knowledge with Hollywood rather than just monetary investments."

Khan also added that Bollywood was severely lagging behind Hollywood in three spheres -- screenplay writing, VFX (and technology) and discipline and organization. But Khan was optimistic about the future growth of the industry pointing to the Indian government's predictions for robust growth in GDP adding that "we are all the more optimistic about the Indian film industry."

LINK