King Khan Wins Back Fan
It took 1,600 screaming fans swaying along to the song “Kal Ho Naa Ho” to make me wonder how I ever could have lost my childhood love for Shah Rukh Khan.
The film superstar that helped bring Bollywood cinema to an international stage was at the Shubert Theater Thursday evening, in a one-day visit to New Haven all the way from Bombay, India. (Yes, it’s technically Mumbai now, but no one in Bombay calls it that). While Khan was there under the auspices of Yale’s Chubb Fellowship, he drew a crowd that included far more than Yale students, including at least 30 people from media outlets all over the region. A woman who said she flew in from California showed up at the Shubert at 7 a.m., according to theater staff. And hundreds of families from the area lined up at the doors before the event, in a line stretching all the way to the Taft apartments on Chapel Street.
THOMAS MACMILLAN PHOTO
Fans lined up down the block, starting at 1 p.m.
They were all in for a long wait. The media had been lining up for a press appearance from the actor since 1:30 p.m. They sat around for another two hours after Khan was detained at the White Plains airport, and his private plane was then diverted to Westchester because it was too big to land at Tweed, according to New Haven police spokesman David Hartman. The Shubert audience waited until 5:30 for a talk that was supposed to start at 4. But when “King Khan,” as he is affectionately known by his fans, finally made it into the theater, any frustration melted away.
A reporter from TV Asia interviewed people in line.
“I’ve been waiting 15 years for this!” exclaimed one reporter… Continue reading
Introducing Spuul for Worldwide, On-Demand Access to Bollywood Movies and TV Programs
Cloud-Based Streaming Video Service Lets Consumers Watch Premium Indian Content via the Web, Mobile Devices and Connected TVs
SINGAPORE–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Meet Spuul, a cloud-based streaming video service that provides consumers around the world on-demand access to more than 600 (and growing) premium Indian movies and TV programs. Spuul lets viewers decide where and how they watch, providing content access from a variety of devices including laptops, smartphones, tablets and connected TVs.
“When developing Spuul, our goal was to create a service that is flexible enough to accommodate today’s busy lifestyle without sacrificing quality”
As the industry’s premier legal video streaming site dedicated to Indian content, Spuul provides users with an easy-to-use, legal way of viewing premium Bollywood movies and TV shows. To ensure the ultimate end-user experience, Spuul offers viewers a unique resume capability which allows users to watch a movie on one device, hit pause, and then pick up where they left off on the device of their choice.
“When developing Spuul, our goal was to create a service that is flexible enough to accommodate today’s busy lifestyle without sacrificing quality,” said S. Mohan, co-founder of Spuul. “By providing the ability to start a movie on your TV, stop when it is time to leave for work and resume where you left on your iPhone in a train on the way to work, we believe we’ve succeeded in our goal. It is about being able to access quality content whenever, wherever you want.”
To assure users quality viewing, regardless of device, Spuul is powered by a combination of Amazon Web Services, Brightcove’s Video Cloud, and Akamai’s CDN. Together, Spuul delivers a cloud-based solution offering multi-bit rate streaming, allowing video content to be uploaded centrally and delivered no matter what the infrastructure locally.… Continue reading
I worship movies, so I do one film a year: R. Madhavan
Talented actor R. Madhavan straddles two worlds – Hindi movies and southern cinema – with elan but despite having a good hold in both, he doesn’t believe in piling up projects in his kitty.
“I do one film a year. I don’t look at a film like a project, I worship it. It’s like going to a temple. I can’t jump from one film set to another film set,” Madhavan told IANS.
He added: “This year I have done two films – Tamil film ‘Veetai’, which by god’s grace has done very well, and now I have this one – ‘Jodi Breakers’. So it’s a very conscious decision to do one film at a time.”
Following the success of “Tanu Weds Manu”, Madhavan is back to woo his fans in the Hindi-speaking belt with the romantic comedy ” Jodi Breakers”, releasing Friday. In the film, Madhavan will be seen romancing Bipasha Basu for the first time on big screen.
Describing the film as a unique concept, he said it suits the modern-day relationship requirements and added: “It (Jodi Breaker) is required for modern-day people. We don’t do it as a hobby; it’s a job. So, people who are uncomfortable with their ‘jodi’ and who are unable to get out of it for whatever reasons, we find a way for them where we break their ‘jodi’ without much hassle.”
However, in real life Madhavan is a ‘jodi maker’ and said: “I have got six people married and all of them are happy.”
If he is impressed by the concept of the film, directed by Ashwini Choudhary, Madhavan is equally confident about his chemistry with Bipasha in “Jodi Breakers”.
“It’s very evident from the trailers that we share a phenomenal chemistry. It is very easy to get along with her. I am… Continue reading
Nira Radia and Bollywood movies
With The Iron Lady out in theaters, and conversations sparked about Margaret Thatcher and her controversial politics, it raises questions about our need as voyeurs to dissect and discuss the highs and lows of celebrities, public figures, or just about anyone whose life has managed to create a stir in society
It appears the current subject of curiosity and speculation in the Indian film industry is corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, who was in the news last year for her alleged connection in the 2G spectrum allotment scam.
Of the spate of films dedicated to Radia’s life, the more prominent of the lot stars bollywood villain Ashutosh Rana, and is ironically produced by a Lucknow based Congress Leader, Kush Bhargava. The film, “Monica-the Politics of Murder” is a brazen and blatant attempt to ride the wave of public curiosity towards Radia and her professional dealings.
Director Satchit Puranik, throwing caution and presumably libel charges to the wind is making a film titled “Radia-tion” based Niira Radia and the 2G scam, casting a relatively unknown starlet in the lead role.
In addition to Puranik, Filmmaker V Srinivasan Sundar’s film “100000000000″ (good luck getting audiences to remember that title) about four students who rob 10,000 crores from a powerful female lobbyist aims to capitalize on Radia’s professional likeness.
The question someone needs to ask the filmmakers before they embark on telling their stories is how much of the story do they really know? Filmmaking is about telling a story through the director’s perspective, but what good is it if it appears to be completely one sided.
Are they using news reports and press clippings to do their research? Are they even interested in trying to understand the person or the scandal from all sides, or is… Continue reading
Bollywood Journal: Harinam Singh’s Hair-Raising Horrors
The fates have conspired. First I read a great article in Open about “The Cult of C-grade Movies” and the appeal of their shoestring sincerity, and then I discovered a podcast by two world cinema fans about the worst films they’d ever seen. It was time to dive into the darkest, strangest corner of Hindi cinema that I’ve ever laid eyes on: the low-budget fright films of director (and often producer, writer and/or star) Harinam Singh.
- If you’ve never heard of Mr. Singh or his work, you’re not alone. Even a complete list of the films he’s been involved in is hard to pin down. Using a handful of sources, I’ve come up with the following, spanning from 1992 to 2006: “Gumnaam Qatil,” “Jeb Katari,” “Khooni Dracula,” “Ramgarh Ka Daku,” “Shaitani Aatma,” “Shaitani Badla,” “Shaitani Darinda” and “Shaitani Dracula.”
Are you sensing a theme? After watching five of these films, I’m tempted to think that his love of the devilish and fiendish might be the only thing viewers really need to know about Mr. Singh. He has a clear concept of evil that repeats across many of his films: young women in skimpy clothes are raped and killed by men in rubber monster masks who pant and grunt, and a group of friends tries to catch the monster. In between essentially identical scenes of crimes and investigations are plenty of muttering police officers, monsters walking back and forth in the dark, and sound effects made by crew imitating very ill cats. In “Ramgarh Ka Daku,” Mr. Singh replaces the literal monsters with a take on “Sholay” villain Gabbar Singh, who terrorizes the village with his Amjad Khan impression.
It’s easy to assume that financial constraints prompt Mr. Singh to re-use components of his films, and their basic look changes little:… Continue reading
18 annual screen
18th Annual Screen Awards 2012 Nomination list.
Best Film
DELHI BELLY
NO ONE KILLED JESSICA
SHAITAN
SHOR IN THE CITY
THE DIRTY PICTURE
ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA
Best Director
ABHINAY DEO – DELHI BELLY
BEJOY NAMBIAR – SHAITAN
KRISHNA D.K, AND RAJ NIDIMORU – SHOR IN THE CITY
MILAN LUTHRIA – THE DIRTY PICTURE
RAJKUMAR GUPTA – NO ONE KILLED JESSICA
ZOYA AKHTAR – ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA
Best Actor (Male)
AJAY DEVGN – SINGHAM
AMITABH BACHCHAN – AARAKSHAN
R MADHAVAN – TANU WEDS MANU
RANBIR KAPOOR – ROCKSTAR
SHAH RUKH KHAN – DON 2
Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Male)
ARUNODAY SINGH – YEH SAALI ZINDAGI
KUNAL ROY KAPUR – DELHI BELLY
NEIL NITIN MUKESH – SAAT KHOON MAAF
RAJESH SHARMA – NO ONE KILLED JESSICA
SAIF ALI KHAN – AARAKSHAN
Best Actor In A Negative Role (Male)
ABHIMANYU SINGH – I AM
AMOLE GUPTE – STANLEY KA DABBA
JIMMY SHEIRGILL – SAHAB BIWI AUR GANGSTER
PRAKASH RAJ – SINGHAM
PRASHANT NARAYAN – MURDER 2
Best Actor (Female)
KALKI KOECHLIN – SHAITAN
KANGANA RANAUT – TANU WEDS MANU
PRIYANKA CHOPRA – SAAT KHOON MAAF
RANI MUKERJI – NO ONE KILLED JESSICA
VIDYA BALAN – NO ONE KILLED JESSICA
VIDYA BALAN – THE DIRTY PICTURE
Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Female)
ADITI RAO HYDARI – YEH SAALI ZINDAGI
KIRTI KULHARI – SHAITAN
PARINEETI CHOPRA – LADIES VS RICKY BAHL
POORNA JAGANNATHAN – DELHI BELLY
SWARA BHASKARA – TANU WEDS MANU
Best Actor In A Negative Role (Female)
KAINAZ MOTIWALA – RAAGINI MMS
KALKI KOECHLIN – SHAITAN
MAHIE GILL – SAHAB BIWI AUR GANGSTER
PRIYANKA CHOPRA – SAAT KHOON MAAF
Best Actor In A Comic Role (Male/Female)
DIVYENDU – PYAR KA PANCHNAMA
KUNAL ROY KAPUR – DELHI BELLY
PITOBASH – SHOR IN THE CITY
VIJAY RAAZ… Continue reading
Modern cinema
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, romance movies and action films starred actors like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Shashi Kapoor and actresses like Sharmila Tagore, Mumtaz and Asha Parekh. In the mid-1970s, romantic confections made way for gritty, violent films about gangsters (see Indian mafia) and bandits. Amitabh Bachchan, the star known for his “angry young man” roles, rode the crest of this trend with actors like Mithun Chakraborty and Anil Kapoor, which lasted into the early 1990s. Actresses from this era included Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan and Rekha.[21]
Some Hindi filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal continued to produce realistic Parallel Cinema throughout the 1970s,[30] alongside Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani and Vijaya Mehta.[17] However, the ‘art film’ bent of the Film Finance Corporation came under criticism during a Committee on Public Undertakings investigation in 1976, which accused the body of not doing enough to encourage commercial cinema. The 1970s thus saw the rise of commercial cinema in the form of enduring films such as Sholay (1975), which solidified Amitabh Bachchan’s position as a lead actor. The devotional classic Jai Santoshi Ma was also released in 1975.[31] Another important film from 1975 was Deewar, directed by Yash Chopra and written by Salim-Javed. A crime film pitting “a policeman against his brother, a gang leader based on real-life smuggler Haji Mastan“, portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan, it was described as being “absolutely key to Indian cinema” by Danny Boyle.[32] The most internationally acclaimed Hindi film of the 1980s was Mira Nair‘s Salaam Bombay! (1988), which won the Camera d’Or at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the pendulum swung back toward family-centric… Continue reading
Cast and crew
- for further details see Indian movie actors, Indian movie actresses, Indian film directors, Indian film music directors and Indian playback singers
Bollywood employs people from all parts of India. It attracts thousands of aspiring actors and actresses, all hoping for a break in the industry. Models and beauty contestants, television actors, theatre actors and even common people come to Mumbai with the hope and dream of becoming a star. Just as in Hollywood, very few succeed. Since many Bollywood films are shot abroad, many foreign extras are employed too.
Stardom in the entertainment industry is very fickle, and Bollywood is no exception. The popularity of the stars can rise and fall rapidly. Directors compete to hire the most popular stars of the day, who are believed to guarantee the success of a movie (though this belief is not always supported by box-office results). Hence many stars make the most of their fame, once they become popular, by making several movies simultaneously.
Only a very few non-Indian actors are able to make a mark in Bollywood, though many have tried from time to time. There have been some exceptions, one recent example is the hit film Rang De Basanti, where the lead actress is Alice Patten, an Englishwoman. Kisna, Lagaan, and The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey also featured foreign actors. There is also Emma Brown Garett, an Australian born actress, who is starring in a few Indian films.
Bollywood can be very clannish, and the relatives of film-industry insiders have an edge in getting coveted roles in films or being part of a film’s crew. Industry connections are no guarantee of a long career: competition is fierce and if film industry scions do not succeed at the box office, their careers will falter. Some… Continue reading