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“The Salon du Cinema in Paris approaches. The retrospective on my films and the opportunity to showcase some other of Abhishek and Aishwarya’s films. We shall be together again and that prospect is more exciting than the honor itself. There is more honor at Davos this year and within a few days after the Salon. The Economic Forum recognizes my contribution to Indian Cinema and wishes to garland me in the minus temperatures of this quaint little town in Switzerland. And thereafter is the probability of New York to attend the premier of Aishwarya’s film, Pink Panther 2 and to bring in Abhishek’s birthday !!

‘Shoebite’ or now named ‘Johnny Mastana’ is back on track again. Legal issues being taken care of we are on the road again by the end of this month and a bit of February too. Hopefully by then the RGV film would have taken shape as would have ‘Pa’,the make up test for which I will need to travel to Los of Angeles.”

HISTORIC is the word that’s used to describe Ghajini’s opening. It is indeed historic, and here’s why:

* The first film to beat the previous best opener (RNBDJ) by a margin of 10+ Crores (7 day opening)

* The widest release with a print count of around 1100 prints in India, it notched up a per print average of 5L per print (approx)

All lists are odd (at least, the best ones should be), but this one is odder than most — Qalandar.

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NG members are requested to put up this week’s Boxoffice related reports,updates and numbers of films in this one thread instead of consuming separate/individual thread. Thanks!

To repeat what I said elsewhere the Ghajini opening is mind-boggling but I am particularly pleased for two reasons. One because Aamir did this in the masala genre and defied all expectations. But also because this confirms an aspect of his stardom that at least to me was apparent for some years. I remember all those debates with so many on Aamir’s career. the people who taunted him vis-a-vis SRK and so forth. the people who unfairly compared RDB straight up to something like OSO or whatever. My point always was that if a star could do a Lagaan and a fanaa and an RDB and a TZP he could create the biggest initials in the right genre (again so many laughed when some of us suggested Fanaa would have been much higher with Gujarat added). With Ghajini Aamir now has the kind of monster that will not be surpassed easily but leaving this aside it completely shreds every notion of Aamir not being a mass star or what have you. The hype argument for Ghajini is not really fair either since this film was hardly a hype machine like OSO or SIK. There was genuine buzz about this, sure Aamir hyped it to some degree but there was nothing out of the ordinary in the promotion here. The film just struck a chord in a huge way and the numbers are there for all to see. Stunning as the numbers are there is something about the overwhelming success of the film in every conceivable market that transcends these numbers.

His next film is now 3 Idiots and we know this is minimally a blockbuster in the making.

Can anyone sincerely look at Aamir’s record in this decade and find any other star’s more impressive for that length of time and looking at all possible factors? I don’t even think there’s competition in this regard. Aamir had long set the terms of the debate in more ways than one but with this Ghajini performance he’s really left his peers in the dust.

But let’s look at the larger contexts once again. Aamir’s own career trajectory has not been unlike a masala film revenge story long brewing! When the Yashraj/SRK wave hit the industry Aamir completely eschewed it and really carved out a very different career. He had to sacrifice a fair degree of box office success in the 90s for his choices even if he was never considered less than one of the top stars even in that decade. Eventually the tide turned a bit and a combo of new economics and changing audiences made a dramatic leap forward possible for him. BUT he’d positioned himself for this for a long time. With edgy urban fare like Rangeela, politically conscious drama like Sarfarosh, something really off the beaten path in Earth… yes there were masala moments aplenty with Indra Kumar and especially the mega-successful Raja Hindustani (people conveniently forget that this film was the most successful one in that entire decade leaving aside HAHK and DDLJ! Aamir had had his mass Ghajini-like moment even in that decade).

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Abhay Deol on his unconventional movie choices, playing Devdas, not going the Deol way and his aversion to dance

Do you ever feel Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! was not as lucky with the timing of its release (two days after 26/11)?
I don’t believe in luck. Nobody could predict what happened in Mumbai. That is a much bigger tragedy. I truly understand that people didn’t feel like watching a film when such a heinous attack had taken place. Even I was shaken.

Couldn’t the producers (UTV) stall the release?
We only had a day (Thursday) to decide. Since it was releasing worldwide and had already opened in USA and the Middle-East, the pirated DVDs would have hit the market, it was too late to stop the release. So I made peace with it and supported the decision to go ahead. It was a confusing place to be in. I was so upset and angry with what the city was going through and on the other hand, my movie was releasing. But I’m sure the goodness of the film will translate somehow or the other into revenue. If the theatre collections are low, it will score big on DVD and satellite television. At the end of the day, a good film always finds its audience.

Sandhya Iyer

Song that struck a chord

2008 was by no means a musically fulfilling year but it did offer a few good songs.
Sandhya Iyer lists some of the best of the lot

The year was hardly distinctive for its music, save for a couple of sound tracks. In fact, barring Jodhaa Akbar and Jaane Tu..Ya Jaane Na, no single album really offered a wholesome musical experience. But there was still the odd song in a number of films that stood out for its melody and made 2008 somewhat worthwhile. Here’s looking at some of the best that the year offered.

1. Mar Jawan (Fashion): For long now, Salim-Sulaiman have been impressing with their melodious, earthy tunes infusing a certain Sufi feel to them. With Mar Jawan, they compose a
silken-smooth tune that beautifully compliments with the film and even as a stand-alone one is sheer magic for its background music and lilting rendition.

2. Kehne Ko Jashn-e-Bahaara Hai (Jodhaa Akbar): The Ashutosh Gowarikar film easily had the best soundtrack of the year with gems like Khwaja Mere Khwaja, Man Mohana and Azeem-O-Shaan. The Urdu lyrics added more grace and freshness to the songs, while the choice of tunes and instruments provided the perfect grandeur and luxuriance for this period piece. While it’s difficult to choose between Khwaja…and Azeem-O-Shaan, one is tempted to go for Kehne Ko..in keeping in mind how much this beautiful number succeeds in heightening emotions in the film. The love story truly reaches a melodic peak with this Javed Ali sung number.

Top-10 Bollywood scenes in 2008
January 5th, 2009

http://www.realbollywood.com/news/2009/01/top-bollywood-scenes.html

By Joginder Tuteja

In the year gone by, there were some truly remarkable scenes that made an impression. While some of them have hardly been seen by many due to the film flopping at the box office, quite a few of them belong to the kind that have managed to impress a large segment of audience. Joginder Tuteja goes down the memory lane and brings alive 10 such sequences!

10. Adah climbing up a pillar (1920)
This scene could have just gone totally wrong had it been executed carelessly. With a potential of turning more hilarious than scary, this sequence had Adah crawling up and down a pillar, that too on her back, as she portrayed the role of a woman possessed. Also mouthing words like ‘tic toc’, which symbolized the count of a clock, Adah was indeed scary in her lizard walk. Vikram Bhatt kept a tight leash over the proceedings and aided with some flawless special effects and background score, he managed to pull it off. No wonder, this is one of the most remembered scenes from the horror flick that brought back Vikram Bhatt into the reckoning.

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Promises that our movies plan to keep this year

MONEY MATTERS

The strong closing of 2008 with Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Ghajini has injected a dose of optimism in the film industry. The trade analysts are hopeful that the industry will be back on its feet soon though production houses with corporate backing are likely to cut budgets. “Hopefully, the tide has turned and the new year will see the industry emerge stronger,” says trade analyst Taran Adarsh. “The string of flops had demoralised audiences but they are likely to head back to the theatres. The list of films that release this year is strong too.”

The relevance of any star is judged not by how his fans perceive him or her, but what the general public perception is.  Thus Salman became suddenly irrelevant and now only his fans find something positive in his films or his life.  Akshay became suddenly relevant after his bumper 2007 year.  Hritik never was irrelevant, nor was Aamir.  Was Shahrukh ever irrelevant?  And is he now at the end of 2008?

So what exactly happened to SRK in 2008?  He was awarded a high French civilian honor, a Malaysian knighthood, had a wax statue unveiled at the Grevin museum in Paris, owned and ran a successful (in fact most profitable) IPL team, and acted in one film – Rab ne Bana Di Jodi.  This film was made in 40+ days, was minus all hype and opened right after the terror attacks to go and do bumper business.  In fact it continued a good run despite the Ghajini juggernaut.

Now SRK has two projects coming up in 2009.  His production Billoo Barber is generating interest and the shooting of MNIK has begun.  Interestingly in the online poll by IndiaFM MNIK was the number one film that people were looking forward to and Billoo Barber number 3.  Sandwiched in between is 3 Idiots – a film that incidentally was first offered to him – but later went to Aamir after a fall-out between SRK and VVC.

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BOI has come up with new opening week figures and Net totals for many movies in these two revamped pages:

First Week Figures

All India Net Totals

Some interesting observations:

Members plz put down your figures on Ghajini 7-day total

We know that just like Golmaal Returns and Fashion, Amir Khan’s Ghajini had an extended run, with paid previews and some regular shows in the evening of 24th.

I am interested to know what the honourabale NG members feel is the net total from 24th and 25th (Xmas) so that we can substract it from the 8 day plus total (64-64.50 crore) and arrive at an equivalent 7 day total.

Thanks in advance.

Katrina Kaif Is Now, ´One Of The Most Rocking Personalities´!

Zee News

Mumbai, Jan 04: Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan may have a mutual admiration society and both may bond with each other superbly, but as a child the “Ghajini” star never thought that Big B would make it to the top.

Aamir, who is riding on the success of his latest film “Ghajini,” made this disclosure at the unveiling of the latest book on the megastar titled “Bachchanalia” here on Saturday evening.

Aamir said that since he was born into a family of filmmakers, talks at home were mostly about films and film stars of those days.

Top Bollywood Female Actress of 2008
January 3rd, 2009

http://www.realbollywood.com/news/2009/01/top-female-actress.html

By Joginder Tuteja

2008 was a year when quite a few newcomers made a mark in their very first film. Actors like Anushka, Asin, Adah and Prachi Desai made a thumping impression while Genelia D’Souza saw a revival in her career with ‘Jaane Tu Jaane Naa’. Katrina Kaif got her hits but there wasn’t a single performance that could make the cut into the Top-10 of the year while big guns like Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai, Bipasha Basu and Kajol continued to reign. Joginder Tuteja looks at some of the best performances by a female actor in the year gone by.

10. Prachi Desai (Rock On)
Her foray into the big screen was much welcomed with ‘Rock On’. An unconventional way to begin her Bollywood innings, what with playing the part of a married woman and no romantic angle per se, Prachi Desai was courageous enough to take a plunge into a film that had a director (Abhishek Kapoor) with a flop tag (Aryan - The Unbreakable) to his name. Still, with people like Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Shanka, Ehsaan and Loy attached to the project, she got herself a start with ‘Rock On’. The ploy worked and how! With a restrained performance, she was the person who got a certain ‘thehrav’ to the rocking proceedings of ‘Rock On’. The million dollar question is - ‘Will she be able to be a part of the glam brigade from here on?’

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