Multiplex Killed the Single-Screen Cinema-Goer

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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.

My image has changed after two hits: Sajid Khan

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With both his films, Heyy Babyy and Housefull, declared super hits, anchor-turned-director Sajid Khan feels he might have outgrown his image of the funny-guy-next-door and may not be able to fit the comic host role any more.

"Success is a very important thing. Till now people perceived me as a friendly anchor, a compere who used to crack jokes, a boy-next-door kind of a person. But after my directorial ventures, my image has changed. In fact, I feel I won't be able to fit in that comic, host image now," Sajid told IANS in an interview.

Known as the comic host of TV shows like Ikke-Pe-Ikka and Sab Kuch Ho Sakta Hai and various award ceremonies, Sajid received acclaim as a full-fledged director for his 2007 venture Heyy Babyy. It featured Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Fardeen Khan and Vidya Balan. Shah Rukh Khan was seen in a special appearance in the movie.

He followed the success of his debut film with the 2010 hit Housefull, again a multi-starrer. He repeated Akshay and Riteish along with Arjun Rampal, Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone and Jiah Khan.

"I am at the scripting stage of my third film," said Sajid, brother of choreographer-director Farah Khan.

When asked whether his third film will also star Akshay, the 38-year-old said: "I would love to take Akshay in the film, but right now I can't confirm because this film is just at its scripting stage right now."

With two back-to-back hits, Sajid believes good film stars are as important as a good script.

"Script and star cast - both are important for a good film. Today is the age of packaging, if you package your product well and if you have star power in it, it gets more viewers," he said.

After humorous films, can the audience expect a dark, action thriller from Sajid?

"I follow what is a hit at the box office. I want to provide full entertainment to my audiences because I know that's what is liked. So I really don't know whether I will be able to make a film like that or not.

"I believe that children are a very important part of film viewing. It is the children who take their parents or other family members to watch the film with them. So I make films that interests the whole family," he told IANS.

Along with his directorial work, Sajid has donned another hat too -- this time of a judge. He will be seen judging the second season of the reality show India's Got Talent along with Kirron Kher and Sonali Bendre on Colors.

"I was offered two-three reality shows while I was shooting for Housefull, but that time I was busy. But when Colors offered me this show, I got interested and took it up," said Sajid.

"My focus in the show will be to bring out the most unique talent in the show and I will say whatever I feel. I won't manipulate my words," he added.

Aamir Khan won't sign movies till 2011

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Being India’s top actor, it’s no surprise that Aamir Khan is perennially in the news. But since Khan prefers to let his work speak for itself, rumours about his upcoming projects take up pages and pages of newsprint. And still it remains unclear what the actor is up to next.

 

Speaking for the first time since his last movie, Raju Hirani’s 3 Idiots, became the most successful Bollywood box office hit, Khan quashes the reports of his involvement in various projects, including Kaun Banega Crorepati 4 (KBC 4), Mani Ratnam’s Lajjo, and Anurag Kashyap and Danny Boyle’s Bombay trilogy. “Yes, I was offered KBC 4, but I’m not doing it,” Khan reveals. “I’m too busy with my three upcoming productions and I don’t have the time to take on anything.” 

No TV for now Khan, who is perhaps the only A-list Bollywood actor yet to make his television debut as a host, says he is not averse to television, but doesn’t have the time for it at the moment. “I think TV is an extremely powerful medium and can be used really well to entertain or to engage,” he says. “But at this point of time, I don’t have the bandwidth for it.” 

The actor has also been linked to Mani Ratnam’s revived project, Lajjo, where he is reportedly being paired on screen with his 3 Idiots’ co-star, Kareena Kapoor. He smiles, saying, “I was unaware of Lajjo being revived, until I read about it in the newspaper. It was news to me too! Because where I am concerned, talks about Lajjo were over more than two years ago.” 

Khan, who is producing two movies, Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli Live and wife Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghaat in 2010, goes on to disclose that he is not looking at any scripts until February 2011, when his third upcoming production, Abhinay Deol’s Delhi Belly, will release. “I have taken on the responsibility of the films as a producer,” Khan says. “So while I may not be acting in it, Peepli Live is as much my film as 3 Idiots was. If you ask me what my next film is, I’ll say Peepli Live.” 

But the actor does admit that he met Danny Boyle and Anurag Kashyap regarding their Bombay trilogy. “I met Danny just as a friend,” he says. “He told me about the project and I told him I’ll be happy to read the script when it’s ready. I’m not committed to Bombay Velvet any more or any less than any other project at this moment. My next film depends on the projects that come my way, and which excite me when I’m ready to sign films.” When asked if he is being unfair to directors by not signing films for a year, he laughs, “What about the poor directors who’ve made three films for me?

Aamir Khan’s next films as a producer

Peepli Live Directed by: Anusha Rizvi Starring: Raghuvir Yadav, Omkar Das and Nawazuddin Siddiqui Release date: August 13, 2010.
The film is a satire on farmer suicides. When two impoverished farmers are about to lose their land owing to debts, they decide to commit suicide to benefit from a government scheme. A journalist overhears their discussion and a media and political frenzy follows.

Dhobi Ghaat Directed by: Kiran Rao Starring: Prateik Babbar, Aamir Khan and Dan Husain Release date: End of 2010.
Like most of Khan’s projects, the story of Dhobi Ghaat is hidden safely by a veil of secrecy. It is only known that the film has four lead roles, and Khan plays one of them, while Prateik Babbar plays the other. 

Delhi Belly Directed by: Abhinay Deol Starring: Imran Khan, Vir Das and Kunal Roy Kapoor Release date: January 2011. Delhi Belly is reportedly an urban sex comedy, set in Delhi. The movie is said to be unique in that the spoken language will be English, rather than Hindi. Khan has not confirmed any of the rumours regarding the story’s genre.

Gary Coleman dies at 42

The actor dies in Utah days after a brain hemorrhage. After soaring to fame in the late 1970s, his post-TV-series life included a stint as a shopping mall security guard and an unlikely run for California governor.

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Gary Coleman, who soared to fame in the late 1970s as the child star of the hit sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" and whose post-TV-series life included a stint as a shopping mall security guard and an unlikely run for California governor, died Friday. He was 42.

The diminutive Coleman, whose adult height was 4 feet 8 inches, died at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo after suffering an intracranial hemorrhage earlier this week, according to a statement from hospital spokeswoman Janet Frank.

A resident of Santaquin, Utah, Coleman had been hospitalized Wednesday and lost consciousness the next day. He was taken off life support Friday afternoon with his family at his side, the hospital said.

Born with failed kidneys, Coleman had undergone two transplants by age 14 and his growth was permanently stunted by the side effects of dialysis medications.

He was a precocious, chubby-cheeked elementary school student living in Zion, Ill., when a scout for TV producer Norman Lear spotted him in a Chicago bank commercial.

The exceptionally bright, talented and self-confident Coleman was 10 when "Diff'rent Strokes" debuted on NBC in 1978.

As the lovably outspoken 8-year-old Arnold Jackson, he was the comedic centerpiece of the series about two Harlem sons of a black housekeeper whose white boss, a wealthy widower, takes them into his Park Avenue penthouse after her death and later adopts them.

The cast of the sitcom, which ended its eight-season run in 1986 after switching to ABC, included Conrad Bain as the wealthy Philip Drummond; Todd Bridges as Arnold's older brother, Willis; Dana Plato as Drummond's daughter, Kimberly; and Charlotte Rae as Mrs. Garrett, Drummond's new housekeeper.

"Its appeal rests chiefly on Gary, a black Pillsbury Doughboy, tiny and cuddly with a face like a pincushion," The Times' Howard Rosenberg wrote in 1979. "At 50 pounds and belt-buckle high, he's small enough to be a Christmas tree ornament. But from his mouth come words … well, you just have to be there."

In a 1979 TV Guide article headlined "Small Wonder," Coleman was described as having "the comic delivery" of Jack Benny, Groucho Marx and Richard Pryor.

"When he walks onto a stage, something has happened, and you feel it," Lear told TV Guide. "That's called presence, and it's rare. Many important actors, even stars, don't have it. Gary does."

The scene-stealing Coleman quickly became a pop-culture icon, whose recurring line "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

Praised by comedy legends Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, Coleman was in big demand for TV talk shows.

He more than held his own during his first appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" in 1978, which led Carson to jokingly ask his young guest, "What night are you available for guest host?"

At the height of his TV series success, Coleman reportedly earned $64,000 per week and is said to have made $18 million during his TV heyday.

Born Feb. 8, 1968, Coleman was the adopted son of W.G. (Willie) and Edmonia Sue Coleman, who, according to a 1990 Times article, brought him home from a Chicago hospital when he was four days old.

It was not until 18 months later, The Times reported, that the Colemans were told that Gary had been born with one atrophied kidney and that the other would soon fail.

In 1989, Coleman sued his parents and his former business manager, Anita DeThomas, for allegedly stealing more than $1 million from him. The Colemans and DeThomas countersued for defamation and breach of contract.

The legal battle ended in 1993 when, Variety reported, a Santa Monica Superior Court judge awarded Gary Coleman $1.28 million and ruled that his parents and manager had wrongfully profited as his guardians and managers during five years while he was a minor.

Coleman's acting career as an adult fell far short of his "Diff'rent Strokes" glory days. He made only occasional guest appearances and had mostly small roles in films and TV movies.

Coleman, who filed for bankruptcy in 1999, also worked as a commercial pitchman, was hired to have his likeness and voice used in a mature-rated video game and ran a video-game arcade in Marina del Rey, among other things.

The adult Coleman also had a few encounters with the law that put his face back in the news, including allegedly punching an aggressive and much-larger female autograph hunter in the late 1990s, for which he was fined and ordered to take anger-management classes.

In February, he accepted a plea deal in Utah on domestic violence charges stemming from an incident the previous year between him and his wife, Shannon Price. Coleman was fined $595 and ordered to take classes on avoiding domestic violence.

Coleman's profile as a "former child star" reached its peak in 2003, the year he gave permission to a Bay Area alternative weekly newspaper to jokingly nominate him for governor in California's gubernatorial recall election.

He was among 135 candidates in the election, a colorful field that included L.A. billboard queen Angelyne, comedian Gallagher, Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and porn star Mary "Mary Carey" Cook.

A New York Times writer wrote that Coleman "had become the poster child of the California freak show that is the governor's recall election."

Coleman, the Washington Post reported, "has walked a line of believing in his own legitimacy and mocking it."

"My slogan," Coleman told the Post, "is I'm the least qualified guy for the job, but I'd probably do the best job."

Coleman, an independent who later appeared on CNN to say he was endorsing fellow actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, received 12,683 votes, placing eighth in the race that saw Schwarzenegger elected.

"I want to escape that legacy of Arnold Jackson," Coleman told the New York Times during his run. "I'm someone more. It would be nice if the world thought of me as something more." became a national catchphrase.

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.

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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.

The Art of Bollywood: Ode to a pre-digital era in Indian film poster art

Alisha Patel spends an afternoon with Rajesh Devraj, co-author of "The Art Of Bollywood", absorbing the historical outline of Bollywood poster art from the silent movie era onwards

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In "The Art Of Bollywood" authors Rajesh Devraj and Edo Bouman document the hand-painted movie posters that made Bollywood the love of the East and the fascination of the West. Devraj and Bouman successfully map a design history that extends over 70 years in their ode to one of India's most unique art forms. The book, which spans the silent era through to the 1980s and 1990s, covers a pre-digital time in Bollywood poster history.

The period from the 1920s to the 1990s was a time when Hindi cinema developed its own distinctive visual language and produced its most magnificent images. These images, both well-known and rare, grace the pages of a book that is unique in that the focus is original poster art, as differentiated from re-prints, re-release posters, and regional variations. The crudely lithographed copies that are all-too familiar have been excluded and instead the publication embraces many other great visuals created by authentic poster artists, such as old movie magazine ads and booklet covers.

When the filmmaker painted the publicity posters

Mumbai-based co-author Rajesh Devraj may never have been an artist, but as a child, Devraj spent time in Jaipur where his father had an outdoor advertising service and distributed films. It was during these years, in the company of Coca-Cola billboard painters and the occasional movie-poster artist, that his love for the visual arts formed.

Devraj says, "Hollywood posters switched from illustration to photography at an early stage and they also tended to use a lot more textual information. In India, by contrast, the focus remained on painted images for most of the 20th century, and that's what made Bollywood so special.

"Additionally, if you look at the way banners, billboards and cinema displays were created here -- that was such a unique system as well. In Hollywood, the studios commissioned designs which were reproduced everywhere in exactly the same way. But here, you had dozens of painters across the country, using publicity stills to create their own handmade versions. I don't know if there were many other countries that had a similar wealth and diversity of images."

In the early 1920's Baburao Painter, one of the pioneers of Indian silent movies, used to take great care to oversee the publicity and art direction of his movies. A painter as well, the story goes that he was the first Indian filmmaker to use posters and painted cinema displays. Though most of his images are untraceable, there are numerous accounts that describe his work and his dedication to art. In legendary actress Durga Khote's autobiography ("I, Durga Khote: An Autobiography", OUP, 2006) Khote mentions that Baburao called her to Kolhapur for a film, but instead of shooting he spent most of his time painting her portrait.

Diversity across decade and region 

Says Devraj, "There's something I like about all the artists included in the book; it's very much a personal selection. But I do consider D. R. Bhosle one of the most consistent and skilled poster artists in Hindi cinema. Most people think of Bollywood images as over-the-top, but Bhosle's work was quite restrained. He could create the most stunning posters simply by placing a single expressive image against a stark black background."

He adds, however, that the overcrowded "masala poster" often identified as typical of Bollywood, was merely a phenomenon of the 1970s, reflecting the nature of the movies during this period. "The product of the 1950s, Hindi cinema's Golden Age, is a lot more restrained in comparison. The artists would use devices like colored faces sparingly, while in the 1970s, a single image could employ every imaginable trick in the book," he says.

While most think of the 1950s as an age of purposeful cinema, "The Art of Bollywood" book proves otherwise. Demonstrating the pop side of that decade, one can see the emergence of pin-up art in images for movies such as "Ada" and "Miss Bombay". The demise of the chaste 1940s brought about attitudes that were more relaxed in the era post Independence. Raj Kapoor's early films like "Awara" represent a new brand of romance, which can be seen in the publicity images for the movie -- S.M. Pandit's image, reproduced in the book, is highly sensual.

The poster-art, which changed over generations, also had regional differences. Delhi artists created their own lurid style in the 1970s and 1980s -- oodles of blood and AK-47s in both hands, even when the movies were relatively harmless. Looking at a poster for "Pooja Ke Phool" (1964) (art by G.H. Rao) (left), Devraj points out the difference in images created by south Indian artists for Hindi films. "They stand out for their saturated colors, which are used in unusual combinations. Faces are smoothened out and given bright red lips. Everyone got this treatment from south Indian printers in Sivakasi -- Hindu gods and he-men alike. If you think about it, it's quite an achievement, making Dharmendra look effeminate."

The poster for "Free Love" (1974) is by another one of Devraj's favorite artists, Ramkumar Sharma, "who sometimes brought a surprising allegorical touch to his images." According to the author, Sharma was uninterested in painting conventional star images, and liked to insert twisting serpents and other such graphics into his pictures, to suggest a character's mental state. The Western semi-nude figure here represents free love I guess", muses Devraj. "But I’m not too sure why Yogita Bali is holding money in her hand!"

In the 1980s, many commercial movie producers moved to photographic images, though sex and horror movies continued to use painted images with gruesome monsters and nubile nymphets. The result may have been some very pulpy and entertaining images, but unfortunately Bollywood's long tradition of hand-painted images seemed to have ended sordidly. When trends changed in this decade, veteran poster artists retired and the younger generation took to mass-produced photo-collages, and later, digital images. Then there were also those whose workshops churned out large banners and cinema displays which were, in turn, threatened by the introduction of vinyl in the 1990s. Today only a handful have survived across all of India.

Is there any art in film promotion today?

"There's a great deal of polished work today, but if you have to look for truly iconic images, I think you'll find no more than a handful, among them "Lagaan" and "Swades" are the examples that come to mind. I don't think the poster artists of the past had a better hit rate, but then, each one from Diwakar to D. R. Bhosle had his individual style, which transformed even the most mundane film stills. You don't really get that individual expression today," feels Devraj.

And has the all-pervasive commercialization of Bollywood been a cause for the demolition of traditional poster-art?

"Not at all. It's always been a commercial industry. The painted image survived as long as it did, only because there were restrictions on technology in the pre-globalization era. Blame it on the Khadi Curtain."

Sushmita Sen now wants a biological child

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After adopting two children, former Miss Universe and actor Sushmita Sen now wants to give birth to a child.

“I will go for biological baby because the clock is ticking for me,” Sushmita, 34, told reporters on Thursday on the sidelines of a preparatory workshop for the 2010 Miss Universe pageant.

Sushmita’s production company Tantra Entertainment was awarded the India franchise to select participants by the Miss Universe Organisation.

The Hyderabad-born actress ducked questions about her marriage.

“I said the clock is ticking... I never said anything about marriage,” she snapped when reporters asked whether marriage was on the cards.

“Every girl wants her prince charming. I have stopped thinking about it long back but still I want it,” said the actress.

Sushmita adopted daughter Renee in 2000 and another girl Alisah in January.

TWITTERATI - Bollywood Stars & Tweets

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“I wonder when we’re gonna get sick of Twitter,” tweeted Shruthi Haasan last week. Fans may be asking the same question, But given the celebrity traffic on the micro-blogging site, The singer-actress’s fraternity doesn’t seem to share her fatigue. If 67-year-old Amitabh Bachchan signed up this month with his first tweet reading: “hey baby !! I made it on twitter !!! Yeeaaaaaahhhh !!”,Then at age 78, Shammi Kapoor tweets all hours of the night and day. Ashton Kutcher to Abhishek Bachchan, Demi Moore to Deepika Padukone, Sean Penn to Shah Rukh Khan, Shane Warne to Sachin Tendulkar, Twitter is one starry, starry site. With minute-by-minute updates of who ate what for lunch, Who is having friends over for dinner and who is going on a fancy holiday, the private lives of the rich and famous are now just a mouse click away...

Why Twitter?

While their Hollywood counterparts had discovered the joys of Twitter some time ago, Bollywood stars have only just woken up to the power of 140 characters. “I am on Twitter because it gives me an opportunity and a platform to be able to share and voice my opinions on matters that concern me and like-minded people,” says Twitter poster-girl Gul Panag, one of the first from Bollywood to sign up. For Priyanka Chopra — whose love affair with Twitter started about six months ago — it represents “freedom of expression at its best”. “I love the interactivity of it and the fact that you get a pulse of what the world is thinking and doing, not just through your followers but also through the people you follow,” says the Dostana girl who refers to her followers as “Twitter Rockstars”.

The prospect of direct interaction with fans and the promise of instant feedback have prompted many celebrities to go tweet, tweet, tweet. “Twitter is almost like having a chat session with my followers on a regular basis. There is a reaction to every tweet I make, there’s feedback, suggestions, opinions and that’s what makes it so interesting. This happens as a one-on-one between my followers and me with no one in between, making it very real and honest,” says Priyanka.

Removing the mass media as a go-between, celebrities are getting their message out loud and clear. “Twitter works very well for the stars because it gives them an opportunity to connect with their fans directly and pass on, what they believe, is undistorted and undiluted information, and not have anyone cross-examine them for it,” says Bharathi Pradhan, The Telegraph columnist and editor of The Film Street Journal.

Not to mention the ego boost!

TWEET, TWEET, TWEET

Fans, of course, are lapping up all the attention. Which admirer wouldn’t love the chance to see private pictures posted online — without the chance of them being discredited as doctored? Genelia D’Souza and Priyanka Chopra have put up pictures of the sets they shoot on while Uday Chopra has posted clips of the food he eats! And then there is all that trivia. Did you know that Abhishek Bachchan listens to David Guetta all the time and is a die-hard Chelsea fan? Or that Sachin Tendulkar cherishes a guitar autographed by U2’s Bono? And that almost every other night, Paris Hilton talks about being in her pyjamas and cuddling her dog to sleep as she watches the latest episode of Glee?

The Q&A session with followers — started by Shah Rukh Khan and now aped by many — in which a fan can ask their idol any question directly, is another pop hit. How Shah Rukh met wife Gauri, how Arjun Rampal woos wife Mehr Jessia, what Hrithik Roshan is afraid of, which fan trait irritates Shahid Kapur the most… such is the substance of the chatter.

“I like reading about what Shah Rukh had for dinner and what Hrithik does when he is not shooting. It’s information that comes straight from the star and isn’t something that one gets to read in interviews. I am sure the followers love it,” says television presenter Gaurav Kapoor.

Celebrities are making the most of the direct channel of communication with the world. Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur recently apologised on Twitter to actor Anil Kapoor after learning that the Slumdog Millionaire man was miffed that Kapur had recommended him as a judge for a reality show. Tennis star Sania Mirza launched on Twitter a stout defense of Shoaib Malik in the days preceding their controversial marriage. Director Karan Johar even took on fellow filmmaker Priyadarshan after the latter alleged that the controversy surrounding Karan’s My Name Is Khan was a publicity stunt while Hrithik Roshan apologised to the media after losing his cool during a temple visit recently. “Why call a press conference and spend time and money when you can just log on to Twitter and put forth your point of view to millions in a minute?” asks adman Prahlad Kakkar.

WORK AT PLAY

But it isn’t only just fun and games for our celebs on Twitter. Most have discovered the power of the medium and are now using it extensively — sometimes directly, sometimes subtly — to promote themselves and their films. Shah Rukh and Hrithik became Twitter-active just when their biggies My Name Is Khan and Kites were up for release. Mallika Sherawat has been going “Hisssss” on Twitter for a year now. Posting (favourable) reviews of their films and retweeting gushing fan feedback is the done thing for the stars. “Through Twitter, they not only promote their own films but put in a good word for others too,” laughs Bharathi Pradhan. Case in point: In a recent tweet, Karan Johar described Kites as “outstanding” while a few months ago, Preity Zinta tweeted about Amitabh Bachchan’s abysmal Teen Patti being a “must-watch”!

Tollywood too has become tweet-smart. Filmmaker Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury is promoting his upcoming Ekti Tarar Khonje on Facebook and Twitter. “It’s free and reaches out to 5,000-10,000 followers in a few seconds,” he says. Director Aparna Sen joined Twitter just weeks before the release of her film The Japanese Wife and together with her actress-daughter Konkona Sensharma and actor Rahul Bose, they went all out to promote the film online.

If films are being promoted, then why should star-led brands be far behind? “My brand new electric pink sony cyber shot arriving tday!!yuummiiieeee....can’t wait!!” was a recent tweet from Deepika Padukone. If Genelia posts pictures from the sets of shoots for brands she endorses, then actor Dino Morea uses Twitter to promote his Cool Maal range of merchandise.

And who knows where the Twitter invasion will end? With the Net slowly moving in on every aspect of the entertainment space, Twitter was the chosen forum for the unveiling of the first look of Karan Johar’s I Hate Luv Storys, starring Imran Khan and Sonam Kapoor. “Twitter may have lower penetration than various other mass media but there is no denying its effectiveness,” says Kakkar. “Twitter has already begun to be a fit in the marketing plans of many films. But at this stage, it is an effective addition to a robust marketing plan and not a substitute for one,” adds Priyanka Chopra.

Final proof of celeb dependence on Twitter? Karan Johar and Anupam Kher have both requested their Twitter followers to suggest the titles for their upcoming films!

PRIVATE GOES PUBLIC

But is Twitter the cause of decay in celebrity mystique? “Too much accessibility to the star downs the wow quotient. When you invite easy feedback you become closer to criticism,” feels t2 columnist Mssssssir. Case in point: actress Celina Jaitley was recently abused by a follower when she tweeted about equal right for the gay community. “Stars are respected for their brand image. If you are just a click away from knowing what the star is doing, then the fan craze dwindles,” agrees Kakkar.

And there is such a thing as too much information. Holly star couple Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore even communicate with each other (and flirt!) through Twitter!

Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury has a different viewpoint, though. “Shah Rukh tweeting about how he is spending time with his family will be interesting to most followers and might even help them realise the importance of family time at some level,” he says. “It’s a place for us all to share our lives and I tweet in that spirit. And since I am a private person by nature, I only tweet about things I am comfortable about sharing,” adds Priyanka.

Not everyone is comfortable with revealing all on Twitter. The makers of Anjaana Anjaani, Priyanka’s new film with Ranbir Kapoor, have made the stars sign a confidentiality agreement promising that they will not talk about the film on Twitter!

As Preity Zinta recently tweeted: “Sitting with some friends and they all think Twitter is dangerous!”

But it’s a danger that our stars are happy to flirt with — at least for now.

Scent of Gujarat for Rs 5 crore - Bachchan on week-long tour for shoot

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Ahmedabad, May 20: This “khushboo” will cost Gujarat Rs 5.4 crore. The salesman who is going to sell the fragrance is, after all, Amitabh Bachchan, though he wouldn’t be taking a penny.

The superstar, who had stirred up a controversy after becoming brand ambassador of Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, will reach the state on May 28 for a week-long trip to six tourist spots, shooting one-minute films as part of a campaign.

The main theme for all the films to be shot with Bachchan at the different locations will be “Khushboo Gujarat ki” — or the fragrance of Gujarat.

The campaign will cost the state exchequer Rs 5.4 crore, though Bachchan will not be paid for his “services” as he had volunteered to become brand ambassador to promote tourism in the state.

Bachchan had agreed to become brand ambassador after meeting Modi on January 6 during a special screening of his film Paa.

But to use the superstar’s appeal to entice visitors, the Gujarat government will have to shell out Rs 1.4 crore to the creative team of advertising firm Ogilvy and Mather (&M). A source in the tourism department said Rs 4 crore would have to be paid to Rising Sun, a Mumbai-based production house that would provide support.

&M India chief Piyush Pandey said he was giving final touches to the script and “it would be ready in another three days”.

Sources said Pandey got the script of each of the films — to be made in Hindi and English — cleared by the chief minister, who would personally monitor the superstar’s visit. Officials said the BJP-led government was looking to Bachchan to revive the state’s dormant tourism industry.

Bachchan’s photographs will be shot at each of the spots for the tourism department’s ad campaign, scheduled to begin sometime next month. The sources said he would shoot at locations like the Asiatic Lion sanctuary at Gir, the Somnath temple and Balka Teerth, the place where Lord Krishna is said to have renounced his body.

He will spend three days in Kutch for shoots at Mandvi beach, the Harappan site of Dholavir and the Rann of Kutch, before going to Gir. After two days with the lions, he will go to Balka Teerth and Somnath.

While it is not clear why Mahatma’s birthplace Porbandar and the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad have been excluded from the schedule, the state government, sources said, was keen on projecting Somnath, an important shrine for Hindus that has been destroyed several times by invaders.

It was from here that BJP leader L.K. Advani launched his controversial rath yatra in 1990.

Twenty years later, his protégé Modi is banking on the Bollywood star’s appeal to market the shrine for a welcome breath of fragrance for the state’s tourism industry.

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."

Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Buddha on holly high

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Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Buddha is growing daily. The film on Prince Siddhartha’s journey to enlightenment has now got many a big Hollywood name attached to it.

David S. Ward, best known for his Oscar-winning screenplay The Sting (Paul Newman, Robert Redford), will be writing the script for Buddha. Ward also co-wrote the Tom Hanks-starrer Sleepless in Seattle.

Michael Shane would be Buddha’s executive producer. Shane’s credits include Hollywood blockbusters like I, Robot and Catch Me If You Can.

Karl Walter Lindenlaub will shoot Buddha. The German-born director of photography is based in Los Angeles and has shot films like Independence Day, The Jackal, Maid in Manhattan, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Ninja Assassin.

Buddha’s costumes will be done by April Ferry who has worked on Terminator 3 and Rome. Glenn Boswell will be the stunt coordinator. Given that he has worked in films like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, all three Matrix films and The Thin Red Line, the action should be special.

That’s not all. The pre visualisation is being supervised by Jarrod Linton (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Da Vinci Code) and the storyboard is being done by David Russell (Star Wars, Batman, Moulin Rouge).

Says Ashutosh: “The past two months of pre-production have been exciting. It has been exhilarating to be working with people who have worked in movies that I have admired and seen over and over again. This is the first time that I have done pre-visualisation for a film. It has been an amazing learning curve.”

An Indian Sweetheart - Priyanka Chopra

National Award winner Priyanka Chopra survives stardom with habitual cheer.

At 4 am, Priyanka Chopra was jolted out of sleep by a hysterical male voice. “PC, Jalwa ho gaya,” said director Madhur Bhandarkar, bellowing out the news that Priyanka had won the National Award for her performance in his movie Fashion. Priyanka did what many 27-year-olds would—she let out a little high-pitched scream in her hotel room in New York, called her dad in India and cried over the phone. The next morning she walked onto the sets of Anjaana Anjaani “looking like a raccoon” after a sleepless night spent tossing about in excitement. “I felt like what Sachin Tendulkar must have after scoring a century,” she says.

That was more than two months ago. Since then, Priyanka has accepted her award, fervently praying on-stage that she wouldn’t trip over her sari and “fall over Madam President” during her big moment.

After shooting for two months in New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco with Ranbir Kapoor, the actress landed back in Mumbai to announce that she had signed on as the new host of Khatron Ke Khiladi. She then flew to Kashmir for Vishal Bhardwaj’s Saat Khoon Maaf. In preparation for this film, she had participated in a 20-day acting workshop with Naseeruddin Shah. She’s back in Mumbai now for four days to shoot a commercial; then she is off to Bangkok and then Coorg to shoot her new movies. After that, it’s the Khatron Ke Khiladi shoot in Brazil, and finally a reunion with Farhan Akhtar and Shah Rukh Khan for Don 2.

Didn’t she check into a hospital last year after fainting on the sets from stress? “What do I do? I think of movies even when I’m free, so I might as well be working,” she says giggling, admitting that the one thing her mother, gynaecologist Dr Madhu Chopra, still nags her about is having her meals on time.

Strangely, our interview happens on a rather dull day when Priyanka has been lolling around for four hours, waiting for things to fall into place. She’s shooting a shampoo ad in a shabby studio in Powai. There are planks of wood everywhere and carpenters hammer away until a short, bald man walks in and launches into a tirade against the sawdust billowing up in clouds. Someone pulls up a white plastic chair, but then Priyanka’s publicist comes up and ushers you into her make-up van. There are about five people in the van, Priyanka is in a black tank top and track pants, her hair in pink rollers. Everyone is murmuring, “Costume crisis.” Someone grumbles about the AC not blasting cold air. I sit on another plastic chair and try not to stare at a bunch of carefully combed out hair extensions laid out on a sofa and some rogue strands on the floor. A famous female designer steps in; the van gets almost claustrophobic now. Priyanka and she discuss nips and tucks in the adjoining private room. While the designer dashes out to fix the white dress and the huddled group moans about wasting the star’s time, Priyanka calls you in.

It must be a royal pain to sit around for hours, your hair in tight rollers?

“What can you do?” says Priyanka calmly, “I could throw a shit-fit and bring the house down, but what purpose would that serve?”

Perhaps it is this sanguinity that has helped Priyanka float above disasters. This year started with one—Pyaar Impossible—but the star has also tided over the shambles of Love Story 2050, Drona and God Tussi Great Ho in the past two years. “I know, I know,” she says rolling her eyes, “but critics have been kind to me. I haven’t borne the brunt of those flops. I’m a small part of the movie; I just try to make my character believable. I’m not from a film family (Priyanka grew up in Jamshedpur) and I started working when I was 17. I pick my roles depending on what movies I’d like to see. I go up a grade, I fail, I get up from the floor, dust myself off and start over.”

Luck smiles on her too—she also had Fashion, Dostana and Kaminey in 2008 and 2009. So how did she swallow a bitter pill like What’s Your Raashee?, where she played 12 roles in 12 different sun signs? “Your heart breaks a little when your film doesn’t work,” she says thoughtfully. “It’s almost like a break-up.”

Her other heartbreaks have been subjects of intense media interest. There are speculations now on whether she and Shahid Kapur are on or off (the actress reportedly dumped him because he was a stick-in-the-mud and disapproved of her partying). Part of her love lore is the public groaning of her Love Story 2050 co-star Harman Baweja after she left him. Priyanka insists she isn’t seeing anyone currently. “I don’t have a boyfriend. I’m single; it’s official. I’ve fallen in love in the past and it will happen in the future. I’d like someone to complete me, but I have my family and friends. I’m not lonely.”

It helps that Priyanka has a hectic work life. The actress says she had her first holiday in six years when she went to Koh Samui, Thailand, in 2009 with her gal pals. This year, she’s signed a mixed bag of films, including the new Anurag Basu film Khamoshi starring Ranbir Kapoor. This love triangle has Ranbir playing a deaf-mute and Priyanka as a mentally challenged girl. The third angle was meant to be Katrina Kaif, yet the papers this morning say that Priyanka elbowed Katrina out of the project. “That sounds terrible, oh please! Anurag spoke to me about it when I was in the US and I was really excited about the movie, knowing that there would be two heroines and that Ranbir and Katrina had been signed on. I’m going to go ahead and do it,” says Priyanka. The implication is clear; it’s Katrina who has the problem, not she.

It’s famously said that actresses can’t be friends, but Priyanka figured it out herself on Koffee With Karan in 2006. She guilelessly declared that she was friends with Kareena Kapoor, not knowing that Kareena had declared on national television that she would rather be acquaintances with PC than friends. Asked today if she has any actress friends and she’s forthright. “Actually, no. I’m not here to make friends; I disconnect after work. I got along with Lara (Dutta) and Kareena when we worked together, but that’s a movie-to-movie thing.” What she does invest in is her Twitter time, having more than 340,000 followers and tweeting about five times a day. She maintains a hugely cheerful, I-love-life, woo-hoo attitude on the social networking site, but says that like any Cancerian, she’s subject to mood swings and it shows up in ‘I feel lost today’ tweets.

For now though, she’s punch drunk on life after the National Award and on bagging Khatron Ke Khiladi where she replaces Akshay Kumar as the host. The two were what the film trade called a ‘hit jodi’, but they haven’t worked together since Waqt in 2005 after the Bollywood grapevine insisted they were ‘too close for comfort’.

“I can’t fill Akshay’s shoes in Khatron Ke Khiladi because they’re too big. He’s the original stunt hero. What I can do is take it forward,” she says. So what gives her the heebie-jeebies? She ponders for a moment: “You know, I’ve eaten a roach, tried a maggot, had boas and cobras wrapped around me, picked a rat up by the tail once from my hotel room and thrown it out, gone deep-sea diving, done bungee jumping and white water rafting. I’ll find out what I’m scared of on the show. Probably leeches.” Of being covered with them? She shrugs, “No, you can get them off with salt. No, I meant putting leeches in my mouth.”

Birthday Special: Madhuri Dixit

To her fan legions, Madhuri Dixit was and still is the goddess of Grace and Style. Regarded widely as one of Bollywood's best superstar-actresses, Madhuri broke many-a-heart when she quit Bollywood in 1999. Her comeback movie, 'Aaja Nachle', was a half-hearted attempt, and fell flat at the B.O.

Here's a pictorial tribute to Queen Mads on her 43rd birthday.


Madhuri Shankar Dixit was born on May 15, 1967, in Mumbai, Maharashtra.


Madhuri Dixit made her debut in Hiren Nag's 'Abodh' (1984), but it was 'Tezaab' (1988) that made Madhuri a rage among Indian Youth. Her 'Ek Do Teen' became a teen anthem.


Must-see movies of Madhuri Dixit: 'Devdas', 'Lajja', 'Pukar', 'Dil To Pagal Hai', 'Mrityudand', 'Hum Aapke Hai Koun!', 'Khalnayak', 'Dil', 'Beta', 'Saajan', '100 Days', 'Parinda', 'Ram Lakhan' and 'Tezaab'.


Madhuri will make her comeback on the small screen with 'Dance Premier League', on Sony TV.


In 2001, Forbes named Madhuri among the Top Five Most Powerful Indian Movie Stars.


Madhuri Dixit on being a home-maker: "All that pativrata bit I did in the movies was a cliché. Today, when I warm up the food or lay the table, I catch myself smiling."


Madhuri Dixit on fame: "It's so ironical. When you finally achieve recognition, you hide behind dark glasses."


Madhuri Dixit on success: "Good films flop, atrocious films do well. Uncertainty is the only certainty in this business."


Her dance number "Choli Ke Peeche" in 'Khalnayak' remains one of the all time favourite item numbers.


Madhuri Dixit on media: "The tendency in the media is to portray everyone in the film industry as sex-starved creatures. Please spare us."


Madhuri Dixit married Sriram Madhav Nene in 1999. She is now settled in Denver with her husband and two sons.


Madhuri Dixit wanted to become a micro-biologist.


Madhuri Dixit is an accomplished Kathak dancer.


In 2008, Madhuri was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award by the Government of India.


A movie has been named after Madhuri: 'Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon'. The protagonist of this film, played by Antara Mali, wants to be "the new Madhiri Dixit of Bollywood".

http://entertainment.in.msn.com/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=3905603

Big money riding on Bollywood sequels

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Film producers are taking lessons from Hollywood and planning sequels of nearly 50% of Hindi movies released in the last four years.

The next two years are going to be the years of sequels in Bollywood. Five blockbusters are getting ready with the next instalment of their stories — Race 2, Dhoom 3, Wanted 2, Partner 2 and Don 2 , and trade analysts estimate around Rs 150 crore to be riding on these sequels.

In line for a sequel, for instance, is Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani’s Munna Bhai. The series made cash counters ring loudly. After the success of 3 Idiots, Chopra is all set to start rolling for the third flick in the Munna Bhai series, Munna Bhai Chale America. Amit Gulati, associate executive producer, Vinod Chopra Films, says: “We have made only one sequel of Munna Bhai MBBS and it was as big a hit as the original. We are now working on a second sequel. Usually if the first film is a hit then the chances of the sequels clicking with audiences is more or less guaranteed.”

Likewise, Tarun Mansukhani, who directed the Abhishek Bachhan-starrer Dostana has already started working on its sequel, Dostana 2. “Sequels of popular movies are almost a guaranteed business because it is sure to generate repeat viewership for characters that people have already loved,” says Mansukhani. Most sequels don’t do well, he cautions, adding: “It is a risk but sequels have a 60-70 per cent chance of becoming a hit. Whereas in a completely new project you cannot hope for a guaranteed success.”

Boney Kapoor’s BSK Network and Entertainment has projects like Mr India 2, Be Positive which is a sequel to No Entry, and also a sequel to Salman Khan starrer-Wanted which would be christened Most Wanted. The third instalment of Dhoom will also make an appearance soon. While Dhoom released in 2004, Dhoom 2 hit screens in 2006. Now, after a gap of five years, Yash Raj Films is planning Dhoom 3.

Analysts believe sequels are a risk-mitigation strategy for most film-makers. Jehil Thakkar, head of media and entertainment, KPMG, notes that “a few of the sequels like Golmaal Returns or Dhoom 2 have been more successful than the originals”. With the first movie, the brand and audience are established, now the film-maker just needs to build on it. Sequels are also easier to sell to distributors.

Lessons to be learnt, of course, include, ensuring that audience do not run out of steam. “By the time a Hindi movie would reach the third or fourth sequel, the audience would begin to get complacent, like it happened in Hollywood with movies like Rambo 4, and even Batman. But Thakur points out that because sequels need less time to write, produce and market, these ensure a faster breakeven for any producer.

Factbox: Main films at 2010 Cannes festival

(Reuters) - The Cannes film festival, the world's largest, opens on Wednesday.

Following is the list of competition films and a selection of movies being presented during the event outside the main lineup. They are listed by title, director and director's nationality.

IN COMPETITION:
- Tournee (On Tour)/Mathieu Amalric/France

- Des Hommes et des Dieux (Of Gods and Men)/Xavier Beauvois/France

- Hors La Loi (Outside the Law)/Rachid Bouchareb/France-Algeria

- Biutiful/Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu/Mexico

- Un Homme qui Crie (A Screaming Man)/Mahamat-Saleh Haroun/Chad

- The Housemaid/Im Sangsoo/South Korea

- Copie Conforme (Certified Copy)/Abbas Kiarostami/Iran

- Outrage/Takeshi Kitano/Japan

- Poetry/Lee Chang-dong/South Korea

- Another Year/Mike Leigh/Britain

- Fair Game/Doug Liman/USA

- Route Irish/Ken Loach/British

- Schastye Moe (My Joy)/Sergei Loznitsa/Ukraine

- La Nostra Vita (Our Life)/Daniele Luchetti/Italy

- Utomlyonnye Solntsem 2: Predstoyanie (Burned by the Sun 2: Exodus)/Nikita Mikhalkov/Russia

- Szelid Teremtes - A Frankenstein Terv (Tender Son - The Frankenstein Project/Kornel Mundruczo/Hungary

- La Princesse de Montpensier (The Princess of Montpensier/Bertrand Tavernier/France

- Rizhao Chongqing (Chongqing Blues)/Wang Xiaoshuai/China

- Lung Boonmee Raluek Chat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives)/Apichatpong Weerasethakul/Thailand

OUT OF COMPETITION

- Robin Hood/Ridley Scott/Britain

- You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger/Woody Allen/USA

- Carlos/Olivier Assayas/France

- Tamara Drewe/Stephen Frears/Britain

- Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps/Oliver Stone/USA

- Stones in Exile/Stephen Kijak/USA


http://in.reuters.com/article/hollywood/idINTRE64A6ML20100511?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

The Digital Witch Project

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Digital cinema is here to stay, but can Bollywood adapt, asks RISHI MAJUMDER

WHAT DOES Dibakar Banerjee’s Love, Sex Aur Dhoka (LSD) have in common with the 1999 Hollywood horror The Blair Witch Project? Both were frontrunners in the use of digital camera. But beyond this quiz question should Indian audiences care about the arrival of digital cinema in Bollywood? They should. Beyond the mere image, the use of digital cameras in Bollywood has the wonderful potential to create a revolution in the quality and variety of films we watch.

Bollywood is now following LSD, with both Anurag Kashyap’s upcoming That Girl In Yellow Boots and Kamal Haasan’s Tamil remake of A Wednesday being shot digitally. Even those who dislike the digital camera passionately, like Hemant Chaturvedi (who calls Slumdog Millionaire ‘one of the ugliest films he has seen), predict that in five years digital cinema would have permeated Bollywood.

“Shooting digitally cuts costs drastically compared to shooting on 35 or 16 mm film,” says Kashyap. “This will lead to more experimentation and new filmmakers getting a chance to make their films.” He claims Yellow Boots would’ve cost two and a half times more if he’d shot it conventionally.

But cost-cutting is not the only reason. By some coincidence, both LSD and The Blair Witch Project used digital cameras to recreate the poor picture quality of amateur videos. But this doesn’t mean all digital films look tacky or inferior — digital technology has travelled far since 1999. High-end digital cameras were used to shoot blockbusters like Star Wars II and III, Apocalypto, Avatar and Oscar-winner Slumdog Millionaire, and their image quality was as good as any shot on 16 or 35mm cameras. Also, digital cameras are much lighter compared to unwieldy film cameras — and so allow for more experimentation. Kashyap, for instance, would’ve never been able to shoot the climax of Yellow Boots on the streets “because I would’ve had to get government permission, vacate the area and use extras.” Filmmaker Danny Boyle too has claimed that hauling heavy apparatus into Dharavi’s narrow lanes to shoot Slumdog Millionaire would never have created the same film. Digital cameras have other advantages such as allowing shots in low light without external lighting for a more realistic look. They also enable the filmmaker to view a shot immediately, almost as the audience will, to decide about re-takes.

Digital flag-bearers like Banerjee and Kashyap both cite examples of western masters like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola who’ve shot digitally — “It’s the medium of the future,” they say. Those who don’t graduate to this medium will find themselves at sea once digital picture quality exceeds a film camera’s.

Digitisation will need Bollywood to overhaul its old guard of technical crew. “Sadly, Bollywood is not technically prepared to use this technology,” says Banerjee, citing a case where a producer imported five expensive digital cameras but forgot to order the matching post-production systems. He complains that film executives treat digital cameras like a “magic pill” that’ll guarantee “aesthetics and cost-cuts”. While working with film cameras is fairly standardised, the digital process varies from case to case. So much so that its advent in Bollywood has created a new designation among film crews — the Digital Imaging Technician. Banerjee sees this as just the first step: “It’s a change that has to occur every decade when new technology takes over the industry. It’s inevitable.”

Mums, listen to your kids: Kajol

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Bollywood has some and then a few more. Yummy mummies, we mean. But we chose the lovely actress Kajol to be TOI’s guest editor for this special Mother’s Day issue.

Not because she’s acting in Karan Johar’s Stepmom that will release later this year. But because she’s the only actress who twice in her hugely successful career has unselfishly stepped back from the top to gladly accept motherhood.

The first time after daughter Nysa, Kajol returned in 2006 to win the Filmfare Best Actress Award for Fanaa opposite Aamir Khan. Then this year, just after another stunning performance in My Name Is Khan with her favourite co-star Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol completed Stepmom and settled down to her second baby. It must take some doing. The actress, however, dismissed the putting-career-on-hold and making-a-comeback theory with a toss of her auburn hair.

“Your career is part of your life, your family is part of your life, and your whole life — your personality — is made of every part put together. It’s upto you to strike the right balance,” she said. “I learned from example. My own mother (the actress Tanuja) always put her family first. Even when she was working, we were her top priority, she gave us quality time — when she was there, she was with us 120 per cent. I’m lucky to have had her. And I hope to be like her...”

She’s glowing with the early stages of pregnancy, and she’s comfortable with her condition, she made no fuss about the great commute from her home to our office in peak summertime to take the chair for this issue. Dressed casually in a loose white top and black trousers, feet encased in soft slippers, she slipped into the role emphatically... brown eyes flashing with expression, fists thumping the table to make a point. When coffee and sandwiches were placed before her, Kajol’s face lit up. “I’m so pregrant, aren’t I,” she giggled.

She was unhappy with Mother’s Day, per se. “Mothers are fab and kids bring out the best in women,” she said, “but you can’t relegate your relationship with your mother to just one day in a year. For a child, the mother is God... the mother has the same responsibility to her child as God has to the world. And just as you wake up each morning and worship God whether you’re 14 or 40, you should respect your mother... even when you are grown up, in complete control of your life and are probably looking after her.”

And she had a word of caution for troubled mothers in today’s society of suicidal children: “They should listen to their kids... a mother’s gift to her kid should be the power of speech. Don’t be impatient. Don’t close yourself to your child by expecting her/him to be what you want them to be. Your message to them should be, ‘I love you for what you are and will support you whether you pass or fail your exams.’ Mothers should also stop to consider what they would do if their kid was suddenly taken away from them today. I would die! Compared to that, you can make make every situation work...”

There were more tidbits from this mother and mother-to-be even while she discussed work (“I’m a nice boring person, you won’t get gossip on me!”), babies, motherhood, growing up, families (“they teach you and make you who you are”), the need to discipline kids (“spanking is not bad as a means to get attention... it’s not the punishment, that’s much worse, and devious”) and pregnancy itself (“don’t become a mother unless you’re ready, don’t let this decision be thrust on you, because then everybody will suffer... especially your child”).

Plus, a final word of advice to mothers: “Advice itself is bad, don’t be weighed down by what society says your kid ought to be doing, rely on your own instincts and decisions. As a mother, you know what’s best for your kid, by learning, by instinct, by habit... And, practise what you preach. Your kid learns by watching you. In future, your child takes reference from you.” We had just one question for Kajol, did she subscribe to the public opinion that she was Bollywood’s yummy mummy? “Absolutely,” she declared, giving the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai smile, “I was yummy even before I had my baby!”

Quick Guns - South side superhunks are making a fresh raid on Bollywood

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At the music launch splash of Mani Ratnam’s Raavan in Mumbai, a low-key, unassuming man in a white jacket tickled everyone’s curiosity. While Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan played to the gallery with their anecdotes and jokes, Vikram John Kennedy Vinod, aka Vikram, floored the crowd with his discreet sense of humour. “Jab main Tamil mein acting karta tha to Hindi ke baare mein nahin sochta tha, aur jab main Hindi mein acting karta tha to sochta hi nahin tha (When I acted in the Tamil version, I never gave the Hindi version a thought, and when I acted in the Hindi version, I didn’t think at all),” he said in a disarming accent, bringing the house down.

Few could have gauged from his genteel demeanour that the Tamil superstar has the most significant and versatile presence in the eagerly awaited Ratnam bilingual. Not only does he act in both versions, he also plays vastly differing characters. In the Tamil film, he essays the brutal outlaw Beera Munda (played by Abhishek in the Hindi version); and in the Hindi film, he is the good cop, Dev. It promises to be a grand entry into Bollywood for a southern star with a successful, two-decade-long career behind him.

Savvy Vikram is just one of a whole new brigade of stars from the south all set to give the Bollywood charge. Another colossal Tamil phenomenon, Suriya—who has arguably the most beautiful eyes in contemporary Indian cinema—is expected to wow the north in Ram Gopal Varma’s Rakta Charitra. And after making a successful debut in the Telugu political drama, Leader, Hyderabad’s newest hunk, Rana Daggubati, now stars in Rohan Sippy’s Dum Maro Dum, a thriller set in drug-infested Goa. “His looks are fresh. And he’s young...but has a mature presence,” raves Sippy. Meanwhile, superstar Chiranjeevi’s son, Ram Charan Teja, who created history with Magadheera, one of the biggest blockbusters ever in Telugu, is reported to have been signed by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment for their forthcoming Hindi film, Haafiz.

This south to north movement is not a new phenomenon. Several southern stars, among them Kamalahaasan, Rajnikant, Venkatesh, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Madhavan and Siddhartha, have made forays into Bollywood. More recently, Kannada star Sudeep registered his presence in RGV’s Phoonk, Rann and Phoonk 2. Traditionally, however, rather than the southern heroes, it is their female counterparts who have scored big in the north, be it Vyjantimala, Hema Malini, Rekha, Sridevi or Asin. While not lacking in talent, the men have, on the whole, not met with as much success. “Perhaps it’s a male territorial issue. They have not been allowed to usurp the ground of the Hindi film hero,” says filmmaker Srinivas Bhashyam.

On a more flippant note, however, some keen watchers of the north-south interface lay the blame squarely on the southern penchant for moustaches; not shared in north India, they point out, which has more often preferred its heroes without facial hair. These taste barriers seem to be breaking down now. Audiences on both sides of the Vindhyas are evolving, and contemporary south Indian heroes are becoming universal, rather than region-specific, in their appeal. In other words, abs, biceps and a raw physicality are speaking louder than moustaches. Suriya, for instance, is a hard-to-resist combination of a toughie with a moonily romantic face. Vikram in a T-shirt and linen pants, lighting his cigarette from a candle in the Khili Re song from Raavan, exudes cool with a capital C. And put Rana in a crumpled kurta pyjama, he could even pull off a Bhojpuri film!

But why would the kings of the south want to court Bollywood, especially when their own film industries are doing as much, if not more exciting work than Bollywood? Suriya is quick to point this out: “We have everything—creativity, concepts and technical expertise. We work better with montages, song sequences, even capture small moments beautifully.” What Bollywood offers him and other southern heroes, however, is reach and roles. It provides them access to a bigger market and a wider audience, and an opportunity to build on their fan base.

“I can’t do routine roles, and am always looking for well-defined characters,” says Vikram. As he sees it, Hindi cinema has grown by leaps and bounds. “There are fantastic, out-of-the-box roles in films like Chak De, Omkara, Dil Chahta Hai, Paa and Cheeni Kum. These characters can’t be done in the south. A Rang de Basanti or Chak De won’t gel well there,” he says. So he jumped at the challenge that Raavan offered. With both versions being shot simultaneously, he had to constantly switch between two completely different characters, verbal and body languages and get-ups. So he’s simple, slick and stylish in one role, and rustic, rugged and brutish in the other. “The contrast was stark. It was as though I was in an acting workshop,” he laughs.

Clearly, the move to Bollywood is fuelled by a need on the part of these stars to reinvent themselves. “It’s a creative thing. They are constantly raising the bar for themselves,” says Sippy. For Suriya, like Vikram, playing the “standout, flawlessly written character, who is not the normal hero” is important. His persona in Rakta Charitra is that of an ordinary man caught in an extraordinary situation and required a complex, psychological interpretation. “It’s a challenge to do something with a completely different sensibility...in a place and language I don’t belong to,” he says.

The last bit, mastering Hindi, has been a big challenge. Rana, who has had a relatively cosmopolitan upbringing, is comfortable with the language, but Suriya and Vikram have had to learn it afresh (and have practised hard in order dub their own lines). “I needed to put in extra effort to connect with the words and to get the emotions, modulation, expressions right,” says Suriya.

Rana went one further in shedding his roots, since he had to look Goan and learn Konkani for the character he plays in DMD. “In Hindi, you don’t have regional barriers, the plate of characters is more wholesome and wide-ranging. I couldn’t have played a Goan in a Telugu film,” he says. Suriya feels that conservative Tamil Nadu does not allow for liberal and modern themes in the movies. “Some 60 per cent of the audience is based in rural areas, multiplexes are fewer. Chennai itself hardly has five per cent of the night life of Bombay,” he says. So Bollywood offers him a cosmopolitanism he is eager to embrace.

“There is no barrier to anything in cinema. I could be doing a film in French next,” says Rana. “It’s an ocean out there and we are ready to leap,” says Vikram. That said, they’re not abandoning their regional ships entirely just yet. The idea is to accommodate both, by working on Bollywood projects that are wrapped up fast, while continuing to honour commitments in the south. “I am not moving to Bombay, I’ll come and go,” clarifies Vikram. Like the other southern heroes, he is unwilling to give up everything he has struggled so hard for. “It would be like starting way down the order to work your way up all over again. Why would I want to compete with an SRK or Salman?” asks Vikram.

So, after Raavan, he’s doing a Tamil psycho-thriller directed by Selvaraghavan where he plays three different characters. Suriya’s next is a film by A.R. Murugadoss (of Ghajini fame) and Rana is, again, working with Selvaraghavan. Bollywood offers are on the horizon but they are choosing with care, hoping to ensure they break that long-standing jinx. Of course, for viewers it’s another reason to celebrate.