Filed under: News, Opinion

Are our Big time Movie Producers, unethical, two-bit, double-crossing smooth operators?

Or is this a new,dark and nefarious type of publicity gimmick thought up by some really spaced-out marketing wizard,which has gone terribly wrong after the first time around?The past one year shows a very interesting trend.(I also have come to suspect the dark humor on the side of the Producer fraternity too.)

It seems now that along with the big-budget movie productions slated for release,hyped over the three weeks prior to their release, a new activity has been added to the ones that we are used to,over time.Along with the audio release,trailer/promo release,the movie's micro - site with wall papers,screen savers and the like,there is a very interesting addition to the whole proceedings.The LAWSUIT.
It isn't funny.It is so true.

Flash back One - April 2008.

The lawsuit activity hit big time,and center stage prior to the release of Krazzy 4 ,as some of the tracks that were used by Rakesh Roshan for the movie were outright plagiarism of famed ad-jingle maker Ram Sampath.The fertilizer hit the fan on a Wednesday, rose to fever pitch,as the blogosphere hummed,the TV channels debated with rabid intensity on the ethics employed by the Roshans -(the refrain being,they have money,they can do anything) and the next morning,to the collective sigh of Bollywood,they reached an out-of-court settlement and The movie went on to be released the next day.This was all the more interesting as it was the high-voltage David-pitted-against-the Goliath story and the media ran with it.

Flash back Two - December 2008.

This time it was Aamir's version of Ghajini,slated for release on 25 December. Just when you thought you had been snowed under the pre-release hype,the issue was,confusing,perplexing and bordering on the bizarre.The injuction was given in Chennai and Mumbai High Courts,though Mr.Chandrashekharan was 'surprised, shocked and perplexed' as to how Geetha Arts and Murugadoss could entertain any idea of producing the film in Hindi when they had not been given any rights for the same.",he also revealed that he had come to know about the project going on the floors in April itself!!! Whoa.Now,that is what I call timing.

Flash back Three - September 2009.

Salman's comeback (?) Wanted Dead and Alive release date had Boney Kapoor running around looking for money to someone who allegedly claimed he owed a bit.10 Crore,to be exact.The hassled one was LMB Holdings, a B4U group company, who claimed Boney Kapoor owed them 10 crores and wanted a stay till he paid it back.Boney deposited the money,and Sallubhai will pound the baddies,starting Sep 18,2009.

Jumpcut to September 16, 2009.

But,all is not well with Kamal Haasan-Mohanlal Combine Unnaippol Oruvan,due for release on September 18th.The HC has unequivocally put its er..hammer down and asked Kamal to obey a status quo on the litigation filed by Pyramid Saimira over the alleged advance amount they paid for Marmayogi, which is surprisingly another 10 crore!!!Whoa again!So,unless any miracle happen in the next 48 hours,(which I think will happen,as far as trends go),the Movie will again emerge the winner,relegating the ethics to the background,till another time and another big production.

Come to think about it, you have become so conditioned to this 'activity' along with the current marketing spiel,that it would be less all the fun without having one legal suit for every movie release.

What say?

 

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Filed under: Celebrity, News, Opinion

When a week ago I read about Lisa Ray suffering from some rocket-science kind of cancer (Multiple Myeloma), the first thing that came into my head was, 'Really? Is she? Or are they talking about some role she is playing? Is this some silly publicity stunt?' Oh! Evil me!

Well, on further reading about the chemotherapy on her blog, a realization hit me hard - celebrities are indeed human beings. Like the common man, when diagnosed with cancer, they have to go through all the pain and depression. However, Lisa is evolving as a ray of hope and strength to all those people, celeb or non-celeb, who deal with the disease. Read more about Lisa, in her own words: http://lisaraniray.wordpress.com/

I feel sad when I get to hear about people dying of cancer, on a daily basis. Is this nature's new way of keeping a tab on the population? I wonder!

I woke up on September 15 and the first thing I heard was about Patrick Swayze's death. The 1991 winner of the 'Sexiest Man Alive' title had to give in to the enemy, Pancreatic Cancer, after two long years of suffering. There are a whole lot of very talented celebrities who had to lose the cancer battle like the beautiful Nargis and the dramatic Nutan. Also, who wouldn't know about the controversial Jade Goody (of Big brother fame) or the showman Feroz Khan. The list seems never ending...

For some reason, I find it very unreal to accept that a celebrity has cancer. Why? How many of us knew that Kylie Minogue (yes the one dazzling in the new Hindi movie 'Blue') was suffering from breast cancer? It's a mean world. We get so carried away by their external appearances. If any of the celebrities were to stand in front of me and tell me about their suffering, all I would do is stare at them and wonder about their beauty or appeal or both.

As I get to read more about Lisa Ray and many other famous people fighting the disease like Nelson Mandela, Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Taylor and Lance Armstrong, I am able to see and understand them in a more personal way.

For the sake of all of the humans suffering from this harmful disease, all I can do is wish that real life had a bit of the poetic justice that we mostly see in reel life. I still remember the scene from a movie I watched where the male lead miraculously recovers from the deadly cancer and gets back to running around trees. How unrealistic yet how appealing a thought! Sigh! Sad that reality is different...

Kudos to the very beautiful Lisa Ray for accepting something that cannot be changed, with so much courage and no drama. She has bestowed in me a newborn respect for herself and every other person who has to go through this painful disease. Way to go Lisa! And yes, like you say, NEVER STOP FIGHTING!

 

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Filed under: Celebrity, News, Opinion

What do you do when you (are a woman and) lose in Bollywood? - Well, you strip!

It's like strip poker in the industry these days and almost every actress seems to have gone through this phase.

The Bikini culture in B-town can be broadly classified into two categories I reckon:
One, where you strip and you get lucky
The other, you keep stripping and nothing happens

The first category sure did give Bollywood some of today's sensational (and sometimes not-so seasoned) actors like Deepika Padukone, when King Khan saw her steaming in that swimsuit on the Kingfisher Calendar. Also, if you force yourselves to a nice little flashback down memory lane, you'll see the image of Priyanka Chopra sporting a Bikini in her first film Andaaz. Well, both of them have come down a long way now, with considerable success.

The second category is what keeps us wondering. What didn't work?
The most recent strip queens you get to see are of course Lara Dutta and Rani Mukherji. What forced them to try out Bollywood's most used, but hardly successful formula to success? Here's my speculation:

Lara : Hmmm... Understandable! She has been offered 'almost-not-there' kind of screen space for a long time now. The last time she had a decent hit was Partner which was back in 2007. I guess this frustration is what got her to do a lot of Bikini scenes in her new flick Blue. She looks good though.

But it hurts to see Rani, the good old Rani, in Dil Bole Hadippa. Agreed that there is no complete bikini but hey, who are we kidding. The clothes are pretty much a fusion of a swimsuit and a lehnga. We thought you had good acting potential Rani, you really didn't have to do this!

Apart from these two, there are a host of other actresses who have tried out the same formula. I feel terribly sorry for Kareena Kapoor when I think of all that effort she had to put into shedding those curves to become a straight size 0, not to forget her bikini-self in Tashan. Didn't work, again. Amisha Patel (who?) in 'Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic', Minisha Lamba in 'Kidnap'(why?), Amrita Rao in Shortcut (why, oh why, oh why?) - all flops, big flops. Bipasha Basu and Esha Deol's skin show in the Dhoom series went to the dogs when all the credit went to the boys - Hrithik Roshan and John Abraham.

So, is it time to let go of these shortcut formulas and try out some real acting?

(P.S - I really hope Rani and Lara don't fall under the Dhoom girls' category or the Kareena Kapoor league. Good luck girls!)

 

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