Where Bollywood Comes Alive
Posts tagged hum tum
Romance in Bollywood: From flowers camaflouging kiss to instant ishq wala love
03 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Subhash K Jha (MID-DAY; February 14, 2013)
From two flowers coming together to camouflage a kiss, to sexually explicit scenes and dialogue, celluloid mirrors quick-fix love and push button passion in a world, which has little time for romance.
n 1970, Asha Parekh starred as a (pretend) widow in Kati Patang and Rajesh Khanna was her silent lover. There was not a single touch or caress between the two. Distributors were aghast, ‘How can we have the biggest romantic star of all time not even embracing his heroine once? Audiences would boo the film out of theatres,’ they said. But director Shakti Samanta stuck to his guns. No way. The widow wouldn’t cuddle up to the lover boy, come what may. Jump to 2000. Girls in movies like Ragini MMS look straight at the guy and ask, “Have you come yet?”
Says Asha Parekh, “It’s all too blatant and upfront in today’s films. When I did Kati Patang with Rajesh Khanna there was Anand Bakshi’s poetry to express love between the couple. In the very romantic Yeh shaam mastani Rajesh Khanna didn’t even brush his hand against me. But the intense feelings came through. Those were times of forbidden love. Parents monitored relationships. Today, which 20-something girl or boy would listen to the parents if they forbade a marital alliance? Forget marriage, we now have live-in relationships. And that too we get to see in our films.”
Like we see in Pyaar Ka Punchnama. Parekh feels cinema is only a reflection of reality. “Today, we have songs devoid of More >
Pam Aunty loved the expression ‘Lamhon Ki Guzaarish Hai’-Prasoon Joshi
05 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
As told to Subhash K Jha (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 6, 2012)
I had been writing poetry and lyrics since long but my first hit that virtually opened the doors for me in Hindi cinema was the Alka Yagnik-Babul Supriyo duet Saanson Ko Saanson Mein Ghulne De Zaraa from Kunal Kohli’s film Hum Tum.
I wasn’t new to romantic poetry and had written a substantial amount of it before. But this number gave me a euphoric feeling of mass connectivity. Having started out as a copywriter in advertising, I knew what connecting to your audience meant. The high I got from reaching out to millions of hearts is indescribable. Saanson Ko Saanson created an immediate and far-reaching impact. And, I got my first popular award for it. I feel the film industry reacted to my poetry in a positive way because they noticed a fresh poetic voice in my writing. I hadn’t copied any established poet-lyricist. I was pretty much walking on my own lonely path of creativity. The audience liked that.
My strength was I could not be compared to other lyricists. I didn’t follow the usual patterns of film lyrics writing. I remember Pam Aunty (Pamela Chopra – wife of late Yash Chopra) telling me she loved the expression, “Lamhon Ki Guzaarish Hai” in my song. Part of the credit for the song’s impact goes to Rani Mukerji and Saif Ali Khan who emoted to the lyrics and made them their own.
Yash Chopra saved me from going extinct-Saif Ali Khan
17 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
Aakansha Naval-Shetye (DNA; October 25, 2012)
Saif Ali KhanActor Saif Ali Khan, who cut short his post-wedding celebrations back home in Pataudi to rush to the city in time for the final rites of Yash Chopra, reveals that the veteran filmmaker was the only one he looked up to as a father figure in the industry. “His family is the only family in the industry that I feel I belong to outside of my own. I owe my career to him. He salvaged my career as he was the only one brave enough to sign me on at a time when no one was ready to cast me. And Parampara proved to be a turning point in my life. It was like he saved me from going extinct! It was his constant faith in me as an actor that saw me reach here today,” says Saif, who then gave several superhit films with his production house including the National Award winning Hum Tum.
“I think what set Yashji apart was that his films spoke volumes about grace, honour, poetry, music, culture and everything seemed effortless. But despite the grandeur of his films, he was not a self-obsessed showman. He was never pompous and he let his films do the talking. He was grand when it came to kindness and love. He was a genuine artiste who loved his work passionately, but loved the people around him even more,” adds Saif.
Recalling his experiences of working with him, Saif says that food and happiness went hand in hand all the time. “He pampered his cook, who in turn pampered us tremendously. After shoots, we would play cards, bond More >
Saif Ali Khan is the most stylish-Mamta Anand
08 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
Publicity-shy Mamta Anand has been a designer for a decade, but this is her first interview
Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; September 9, 2012)
Mamta Anand, wife of film director Siddharth Anand, started her career as a fashion designer a decade ago and made her mark with her hubby’s film Salaam Namaste. She prefers to keep a low profile — the reason her name may not ring a bell among B-Town’s designer firmament
What are the highs and lows of your profession? Fortunately, I have not experienced too many lows. I have worked with Saif Ali Khan in Hum Tum, Aamir Khan in Fanaa and Abhishek Bachchan in Paa. When you work on a movie, the character brief is given to you. If I receive appreciation for my work, I get a high. After Salaam Namste, pink became a trend for men since we used it a lot for Saif.
Was it easy for you to get work as your husband Siddhath Anand is a director? In fact I met him on the sets of Hum Tum. He was assisting Kunal Kohli then. We started dating and got married later. Earlier I worked as a stylist for MTV. Eventually I got into films and did Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, Paa and Mausam. When I design for his films, he gives inputs. But he doesn’t interfere with my work.
Do actors demand changes in the costumes? Yes, they do give their inputs; we have meetings with the director and actor and then start working. Fortunately most actors have repeated me in other projects. Shahid Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor and Aamir all have their own sense of style that I did not More >
Uday Chopra’s comic take on himself: Daya Prochu
010 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Mehul S Thakkar (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 25, 2012)
If at all proof was needed that Uday Chopra is sport enough to laugh at himself, here it is. Yesterday evening, the CEO of YRF Entertainment, launched Yomics, a comic book featuring popular characters from films under the Yash Raj banner.
And while Yomics has characters from Ek Tha Tiger, Dhoom and Hum Tum, the one that clearly stands out is christened Daya Prochu.
Asked about the funny-sounding name, Uday laughed, “Re-arrange the letters and it’s actually my name. Yes, Prochu is very close to my heart,” later adding on a more serious note, “He is my alter-ego actually.”
According to Uday, Prochu is one of those characters who can make fun of himself.
But why a comic book of all things? Said Uday, “I was always into comics, right from my childhood. In fact, I was going to launch a comic book on my character Ali from the movie Dhoom. But it didnt work out at that time.”
Uday, a self-confessed gadget freak, was dressed in a black tee-shirt and blue denims, a la (late) Steve Jobs at most Apple launches. He even made the presentation from his iPhone, which is a staple of several YRF films.
Accompanying Uday was his childhood buddy, Abhishek Bachchan, whom he has partnered in the entire Dhoom series.
Asked if he’d like to convert any other movie into a graphic novel, Uday said, “Yes, its my father, Yash Chopra’s film with Shah Rukh, and I will do that during Diwali.” Salman Khan and Rani Mukherji could not come for the event but More >
I was the first filmmaker from outside that YRF hired-Kunal Kohli
011 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
Ready with his next romantic film, Kunal Kohli tells us why he swears by the Yash Chopra school of thought
MUMBAI MIRROR (June 1, 2012) You met Shahid Kapoor to cast him in a love story but ended up signing him for a project that wasn’t even scripted. True. Shahid wasn’t too sure of the subject. But I was keen to work with him. He asked me if I had a different story and I thought to myself – sab log yeh hi bolte hain. So I told him about an idea that I had been toying with. He loved it. I asked him to sign the project immediately since I did not want to waste my time fleshing it out, if he later changed his mind. Shahid said that he had never signed a film based merely on an idea. So, I went back and wrote some more. He loved it and said yes.
Was Priyanka Chopra the next obvious choice? I could think of no one else. She fit the bill. I wanted a goodlooking actress who would compliment Shahid well. That’s why Priyanka.
But Shahid and Priyanka broke off before your film could take off. Were you worried about how this would affect Teri Meri Kahaani? Not at all. Both of them are thorough professionals. Frankly, what happens off-screen is not my concern as long as they do their job perfectly. And in that, I had no complaints. I never spoke to them about their personal equation. And they never brought it up either.
Your last film as a director and producer did not do too well. Was it difficult to make a comeback? I have handled hits and flops in my career. I have seen both More >
It’s little too slick for single screen -Saif Ali Khan
11 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
Saif Ali Khan talks about the Agent who’s got the gadgets, the girls and even a comic book, but ‘sadly’ no tagline
Suranjana Nandi (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 20, 2012)
Kareena and I were having lunch the other day. And I started talking about Agent Vinod. And she was like ‘Whoa!’” Saif Ali Khan tries to explain how much he had been talking about his upcoming production of late. And still, with five days left for the film to hit the theatres, the actor takes out a couple of hours to visit the Mirror newsroom and chat up with the team. Anxious, excited and perhaps a little nervous, Saif talks about things other than the film as well.
It’s past five in the evening. In a conference room with temperature that would have made penguins happy, Saif starts off with his experience as a producer. “The film’s USP is Sriram (Raghavan). He had told me how Vinod would be part Bond, part Bourne and part Tintin. And there would be scenes where he would say, ‘So this is the Bond part. You can be a bit stylish’,” explains the actor – producer. But of course, the film had to be different from a regular Bond film. “We have cars and cool chicks and gadgets. But Vinod is not Bond. Unlike 007, Vinod is introduced in a not-so-snazzy way,” says Saif.
The actor who has already watched the film twice and says that he wouldn’t mind seeing it again, however is scared about it faring well in the single-screen theatres. “It’s perhaps a little too slick. There’s a huge difference between the multiplex More >
Bollywood goes Toonastic
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
India’s first live action animation film comes this Christmas
Meena Iyer | TNN (BOMBAY TIMES; December 4, 2010)
Aditya Chopra pioneered this trend of mixing real characters with animated cartoons in a song in his super-successful Hum Tum (2004). Six years later, director Kireet Khurana has made India’s first live action animation feature-Toonpur Ka Superhero (TKS) for Krishika Lulla of Eros International and Kumar Mangat Pathak of Big Screen Entertainment.
Kireet, who is an animation expert, feels that this Christmas Eve (December 24) will be extra special for children because his film is exactly what Santa Claus would order for children in Bollywood. He’s proud that for the first time Bollywood has made a live action animation full-length feature with two superstars-Ajay Devgn and Kajol in the thick of it. The storyline is cute. There is trouble brewing in the sprawling city of toons just below the surface of the earth. And, yes you guessed right; apna Bollywood couple get in there to resolve issues.
Says Kajol, who plays a doting mother in the film, “I thought I had done it all, but honestly, the temptation to do a feature film that actually brings together real and animated characters in a full on confrontation had me super-charged. I have had a great time working on it. And I’m sure my daughter Nysa and all the other children are bound to go gaga over it.’’
Ajay is equally charged. “Remember Who Framed Roger Rabbit? More >