Where Bollywood Comes Alive
Posts tagged barfi
When Ranbir Kapoor lost out to Barfi
019 hours ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
A co-passenger, a die-hard fan of his screen character, failed to recognise the reigning heartthrob, even after a long conversation about the film
Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 18, 2013)
The incident occurred yesterday morning. On his way back from Dubai where he was promoting his upcoming film, Ranbir Kapoor had an experience he will not forget anytime soon. He met a lady on the flight, who despite being an ardent fan of the character he played in Barfi, failed to recognise the actor. And this, after having a chat with him for half-anhour. An amused Ranbir played along. The lady, who had this curious rendezvous with Ranbir, was Sophia Jammal Samtani –a Lebanese married to an Indian, who was travelling from Lagos to Mumbai to meet her husband.
An eyewitness told Mirror, “Dubai was a stopover. Sophia was sleeping blissfully when Ranbir came and sat next to her. She woke up about half-an-hour before the flight landed in Mumbai.”
Ranbir struck up a conversation with her and the topic soon veered towards films. Sophia told Ranbir that although she has not seen many Hindi films, some have made a deep impact on her. She also mentioned Fanaa and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. It was when Ranbir asked if she had seen any recent film, Sophia said excitedly: “Sorry but I forgot Barfi. That was one film in recent times, that will always remain entrenched in my memory. All three actors (she did not name them as Ileana D’Cruz, Priyanka Chopra and Ranbir Kapoor though) gave More >
What good would Dilip Kumar’s love be without Madhubala?-Priyanka Chopra
01 week ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
As Indian Cinema completes 100 years, top women artistes tell us what it means to make a mark in a male-dominated industry
By Priyanka Chopra (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 10, 2013)
In the year of Nirbhaya and many more like her… the Indian woman stands at a very critical juncture… on one hand, she’s led the country with an iron hand like the late Mrs Indira Gandhi and on the other, she has been humiliated repeatedly.
Cinema today is a very powerful social medium. I believe there is a passionate relationship between celluloid, artists, technicians and the audience. And where there is passion, there must be a woman involved. As we celebrate the centenary of Indian cinema, it’s the perfect time to understand the role that women have played and continue to play in our cinema. I feel very privileged to be part of this industry during this milestone moment. In this year that will be etched in cinema history, will women write a new chapter? From Mother India to Rosie, Raat aur Din to Fashion and The Dirty Picture—from Marathi, Bengali, Malayali and every other cinema, we have women essay characters penned by the stalwarts in the business (Yes, credit here to the men writers too)
Honestly, I can talk best on Hindi cinema and the part it has played and when I take a moment to reflect—women have always been pivotal to cinema. For example… what good would Dilip Kumar’s love be, if he wasn’t pining for the hauntingly beautiful Madhubala? You would have never understood Amitabh Bachchan’s More >
TV is more difficult than making films-Anurag Basu
01 week ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Agencies (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 7, 2013)
Filmmaker Anurag Basu, who started his career in direction with the 1996 hit daily soap Tara, says films should not be considered superior to television and adds that filmmaking is easier. He also directed TV shows Star Bestsellers and Koshish… Ek Aashaa before making his big screen debut with 2003 movie Saaya starring John Abraham and Tara Sharma. “I don’t feel that films are superior to television. I don’t know why people say this? I do films, but trust me, television is much more difficult than making films,” Basu told the reporters at an award function held in Mumbai on Saturday.
Anurag, who was bestowed with a special award at the ceremony, rued that when he worked in the television industry as a director and writer, there were no such awards.
“I belong to TV. I was born here as a director. Sometimes I get jealous that there were no award functions like this in our time,” said Basu.
“We did so much hard work in TV and never got an award,” he added.
His last release was Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra starrer Barfi!, which was also India’s official entry to the Oscars last year.
Currently, Basu is busy co-judging the children’s talent show, India’s Best Dramebaaz along with actors Sonali Bendre and Vivek Oberoi.
How online advertising-marketing is now intergral to Bollywood
02 weeks ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Shakti Shetty (MID-DAY; April 28, 2013)
THE huge hoardings in the city — despite the constant reminder from environmentalists that they come up at the cost of trees — aren’t going anywhere.
But they aren’t the sole source of promotions now. More often than not, the first look of a Hindi film is nowadays seen on the Internet, even before it goes live on television.
On April 5, the song Badtameez Dil from Ayan Mukerji’s upcoming film Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani was released online. Within two days, the video garnered more than 1.2 million hits on YouTube. Similarly, the Laila Teri Le Legi item song — featuring Sunny Leone — from Shootout At Wadala attracted about half a million viewers within a day. Speaking of which, every single day Indians watch about 125 million videos on the aforementioned video-sharing portal. But it’s not the only available digital option.
Back in 2009, Aamir Khan travelled across India during the launch of 3 Idiots for a campaign titled ‘Catch me if you can’ with regular updates on his blog. Over the years, this drive to connect and engage with the audiences has grown. Facebook (FB) pages dedicated to movies and their stars along with Twitter handles — even the fake ones — generate curiosity. The battle to grab eyeballs has gradually moved from the real to the virtual world. And nobody is complaining. Besides, the producers pay by the seconds on TV whereas online portals are a lot cheaper and a lot more accommodating.
The rising number of web users is a More >
Ranbir Kapoor is called Pepsi in Besharam?
13 weeks ago
by Fenil Seta
in Rumour has it
Asira Tarannum (MID-DAY; April 27, 2013)
Ranbir Kapoor’s name in Abhinav Kashyap’s Besharam is Pepsi! And the star even endorses a cola brand of the same name. Interestingly, RK has had amusing names in his past few projects.
His character’s name in Ayan Mukerji’s Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is Bunny and in his last release, he was called Barfi.
Says a source, “Ranbir is okay with the idea of having such screen names. He is a director’s actor. The audience relates to his screen names well. After Barfi, the audience used to call him by his screen name.”
During a media interaction, what he was asked about his funny screen names he had quipped, “It depends on the director and the script writer completely. I have no say in it. I think it’s just a coincidence that I get such names but I like them.”
How Priyanka Chopra got her groove back
01 month ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Priyanka Chopra has fought and won her place back as one of the main contenders in the numbers game, finds Upala KBR
Upala KBR (DNA; April 18, 2013)
Priyanka Chopra’s name always featured among the top three actresses next to Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor. But that changed two years ago. Suddenly the actress seemed to have lost her foothold. In 2012, she had only two releases. She had no films with any of the three Khans, or even a Devgn and Kumar for that matter. Her fall-out with Karan Johar ensured that she was even out of the party scene and a certain well-known star address in Bandra. But then everything changes. The actress who had been written off, made a dazzling come back. Here’s looking at how PC did it.
Letting her work speak Her performance in Barfi! got her rave reviews and reminded her critics and detractors just how talented an actress she was. Suddenly, there was renewed interest in her work. While everyone was speculating on the fact that she had no other film apart from the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer in which he had the author-backed role, she concentrated her energies to breathing life into Jhilmil. Her character touched a chord and suddenly filmmakers began knocking on her doors. And it has to be said, her performance in the Anurag Basu film was one of the better performances of last year. This year she stars in the big Diwali release Krissh 3 with Hrithik Roshan.
Age is just a number For whatever reasons if the A-list actors didn’t want to work with her, More >
Young theatre artists are living the big Bollywood dream
01 month ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Till a few years ago theatre actors were seen in two-bit roles in movies, with the only honourable exceptions being stars such as Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher and Shabana Azmi. But suddenly many young theatre artistes have made the successful transition to Hindi films with pivotal roles. RINKY KUMAR speaks to a few good men theatre actors, filmmakers and casting directors to find out what triggered this trend.
Rinky Kumar (MID-DAY; April 7, 2013)
What’s common between a 20-something guy being chased by zombies on an all-boys trip to Goa, a guy strutting around Emraan Hashmi’s house in his underwear and a chubby ‘loser’ who has suicidal tendencies? Nothing, you might think. But here’s what: Anand Tiwari, Namit Das and Kunaal Roy Kapur are all established stars on the stage who are now essaying these pivotal roles in their respective movies — Go Goa Gone, Ghanchakkar and Nautanki Saala. All the three films will hit the marquee in the next few weeks. They are some of the many theatre artistes who started off with small roles, but are now getting more screen space in commercial Hindi movies.
New-wave cinema demands new faces Theatre artistes have always been an integral part of cinema, case in point are actors such as Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi and Rajit Kapur, to name a few. But of late younger stage artistes are being seen onscreen more, thanks to their popularity in television commercials and also the new wave of movies that is dominating More >
Is National Award giving regional cinema a raw deal?
02 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
National Awards were declared yesterday and once again the jury have overlooked excellence in vernacular cinema
Shubha Shetty (MID-DAY; March 19, 2013)
The winners for 60th National Awards were announced yesterday and regional filmmakers, other than a couple of Malayalam and Marathi directors, are not exactly celebrating. While some of the awards seemed truly deserving, with highly acclaimed films made in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali finding almost no mention in the winner list, many are left wondering about the selection process. The superstar of Bengal film industry, Prosenjit Chatterjee was disappointed with only one Bengali film winning and that too a jury award. This year Bengali film industry had sent maximum number of entries to the panel. However, according to the actor, Bengali cinema has never got the recognition it deserves. “Last year, two of my films, Moner Manush and Autograph were appreciated everywhere, but neither got a national award. Even Soumitro Chatterjee, one of the best actors the country has seen so far, who was Satyajit Ray’s favourite, got his first National Award only a few years back.” The actor strongly feels that the jury needs to be well represented by filmmaker from different regions. “Some of the regional film industries churn out same if not more films each year as Bollywood, and some are of real high quality. If Bollywood has produced around 150 films last year, we have also made 108 films. It is time to give regional cinema More >
Wait longer for Barfi’s world television premiere
02 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 7, 2013)
For those waiting to watch Barfi and Heroine on television, there’s some bad news in store. These are among the 250-odd films released in 2011 and 2012 that haven’t found buyers for their satellite rights yet.
A source from the television industry reveals, “Filmmakers, especially studios who now come more into play, quote astronomical amounts for almost every film that they are involved with,” which makes recovery close to impossible.
While the list is dominated by films with lesser-known faces, it is surprising that Kareena-Ranbir starrers have also found place in it. Conservative estimates peg losses to filmmakers at nearly Rs 500 crore, thanks to the lack of interest on the part of the channels.
Says Hemal Jhaveri, Senior Vice President and General Manager, STAR Gold and Movies OK, “Exorbitant pricing apart, we also need to look into the fact that many films have bad content.” Jhaveri recently spent big bucks in buying a slate of Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn starrers.
As for the big vs small films debate, it seems broadcasters are interested only in the big-ticket projects.
Says Ketan Maroo of Shemaroo, which holds a lifetime rights library to over 600 films, “It is now a TRP game. Channels are making it clear to filmmakers that they will put their money only on blockbusters. Some channels have even lowered ad inventory for fear of people switching to another channel. And ad rates never dip. Earlier, we used to buy many More >
I had the most complicated role in Life of Pi-Irrfan Khan
02 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
Irrfan shrugs off Paan Singh’s Oscar snub, while enjoying his big moment with Life of Pi
Mehul S Thakkar (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 1, 2013)
Big moment for you – Life of Pi won Ang Lee an Oscar. Yeah, someone tweeted, ‘You are the only Indian actor to be a part of two Oscar movies’ (Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pi). But when you are doing the film you don’t think of whether it is going to be a blockbuster or win an Oscar. You just see the potential of an interesting story.
Why did you not go to the Oscar ceremony? The invitation came in a little late and I was already committed to doing something else.
You have done quality work with the top Hollywood guys. But you don’t seem to tom-tom it. I like to wait and see the impact of my work before talking about it. I will never fool my audience.
But there are others who do bit roles and shout from rooftops. They must have felt they have contributed a lot. I don’t feel that way. The audience is discerning. They know who is just creating a lot of noise and who has something substantial to talk about. (smiles)
There is a strong belief that Paan Singh Tomar was a better bet for the Oscars since it was a story of an unsung hero whereas Barfi was mostly ‘inspired’ from severalfilms. It is the audience’s reaction that matters more to me. But yes, I wish there was a body which was concerned about the image of Indian film industry outside India. I wish this body had enough credibility to earn our respect and it would not be about Paan More >