‘Fashion’+'EMI’ + ‘Golmaal Returns’= Rs. 800 million at stake in Diwali
After Eid, Bollywood is now preparing for Diwali clash on next Wednesday. Three big movies will be released in theatres and they are: ‘Fashion’ Hindi movie, EMI Hindi movie, and Golmaal Returns. Over all, Rs. 800 million will be at stake in this Diwali.
‘Fashion’ Hindi movie is directed and produced by famous Bollywood director, Madhur Bhandarkar. Revealing the dark side of the fashion industry, ‘Fashion’ Hindi movie stars Kangana Ranaut, Mugdha Godse, Priyanka Chopra and Arjan Bajwa. Fashion Hindi movie costs Rs. 250 million.
Sanjay Dutt starrer, ‘Kidnap’ Hindi movie was released on the Eid day. On Diwali, the Hindi movie goers will see him in EMI Hindi movie. EMI Hindi movie also stars Urmila Matondkar, Arjun Rampal. ‘EMI’ Hindi movie cost Rs. 150 million.
Finally, director Rohit Shetty comes up with Golmaal Returns; sequel of his super hit Hindi comedy movie, ‘Golmaal.’ The production cost of Golmaal Returns stand at Rs. 400 million.
In total, Rs. 800 million will be at stake in Diwali. According to market analysts, this is not a healthy competition for Bollywood because distributors fight over getting major theatres. At the end of the day, this affects the business of the movie. If more than one high profile movies release at one particular time then the movies fail to attract viewers. The success of a movie ultimately depends on attracting large number of viewers to the theatres. Now, the million dollar question is- which movie you are banking on?
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The Last Lear: Playing the role of a theatre actor was tough for Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan needs no introduction, one of the finest actors of Indian cinema, he has played a wide range of roles but in The Last Lear, for the first time, Amitabh Bachchan played the role of an actor and not a movie actor but a theatre actor and critics have already labeled it as one of his best performances.
In The Last Lear, Amitabh Bachchan played the character of Harish Mishra, a theatre actor, who mainly acts in Shakespeare’s drama. He is a very passionate actor and can not stand movies. Still, he was convinced by a young director Siddharth Kumar (Arjun Rampal) to work in a movie. The Last Lear, revolves around Harish Mishra’s experience of working in his first movie.
According to Amitabh Bachchan, playing the character of Harish Mishra was a tough job for him. It took him back to his schooldays. During his school days, Amitabh Bachchan performed few dramas of Shakespeare. He had great interest in Shakespeare. Amitabh Bachchan’s father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, famous poet and professor of English literature in Allahabad University, translated famous dramas of Shakespeare such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear in Hindi. Amitabh Bachchan’s mother, Teji Bachchan, performed in Macbeth and Othello.
Harish Mishra is a theatre actor. He is very passionate and has a huge ego. Since he is a theatre actor, he possesses a very loud personality. Even when Harish is talking with a person, he talks in a way, as if he is acting on the stage. To portray such a complex character, writer and director Rituparno Ghosh made Amitabh Bachchan do a lot of homework on Shakespeare. He made him read books and watch DVDs of the famous dramas of Shakespeare.
The Last Lear is inspired from Aajker Shahjahan, a stage play by legendary Bengali actor, Utpal Dutt. Amitabh Bachchan had the opportunity to work with Dutt in the 70s and the 80s. Barsaat Ki Ek Raat, Bhuvan Shome, Saat Hindustani.
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The Last Lear was a self-exploration as an actor for Arjun Rampal
For many Bollywood actors, the year 2008 may not be so memorable but for Arjun Rampal, I guess, year 2008 will always remain memorable. The actor gave some of his most memorable performances this year. Till now, Arjun Rampal has been known as an actor who could only fit into commercial movies with his model like figure but he proved it all wrong. With his performance as a passionate musician, Joe Mascarenhas, in Rock On!!, he put the film critics in awe of his acting talent. Now, he does it again in The Last Lear. The movie is also special because it is Arjun Rampal’s fist English movie and for the first time, he is working in a parallel cinema.
In The Last Lear, Arjun Rampal plays the character of a director, Siddharth Kumar, who hailed from Kolkata. Siddharth Kumar is a passionate movie maker who will never compromise the quality of his movie at any cost. To successfully portray his character, Arjun Rampal arrived in Kolkata few days ago before the shooting of the movie started. Arjun traveled all around the city in tram and bus and tried to know about the Bengali people and the Bengali culture. He wore bandana so that nobody could recognize him.
This is not the first time Arjun Rampal acted with Amitabh Bachchan. Arjun and Amitabh Bachchan did two movies: Aankhein and Ek Ajnabee. Arjun said:
“No matter how long your association with Mr. Bachchan has been, the first shot with him invariably makes you nervous. However, every moment with him is a learning experience for me,”
In The Last Lear, Arjun Rampal played the character of a movie director which was also a new experience for her. Last year, in
Om Shanti Om, he played the character of a movie producer. According to Arjun Rampal, The Last Lear is more of a self-exploration as an actor for him. For now, he is very satisfied as an actor but he is very much interested in movie making and started his own production company Chasing Ganesha.
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Prachi Desai, Farhan Akhtar and other join the launch of Rock On!! community in BigAdda.com
Rock On!! producer Farhan Akhtar and social networking site BigAdda.com joined together to promote Farhan Akhtar’s upcoming movie, Rock On!!. The social networking website launched a new community group to promote the movie. If you are a BigAdda.com account holder, you can log into the community and share your thoughts about the movie. You can also listen to music and download movie wallpapers.
BigAdda.com also launched a contest titled, Star Banega, in association with Rock On!! The winner will work in the next movie of Farhan Akhtar. techshout.com reports:
To participate in the contest users have to:
Log on to rockon.bigadda.com
Participate in “Star Banega”
Say why you think you are a Star
Get your friends to vote for you
A panel and friends’ voting (50:50) would decide
A big launching ceremony was held in Mumbai which was attended by Farhan Akhtar, Prachi Desai, Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli, Luke Kenny, and Koel Puri.
Farhan Akhtar is working very hard to promote the movie. He worked for two months only to promote the movie. His production company spent a large amount of money to put up posters of his movie around 3000 theatres.
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Prachi Desai and Farhan Akhtar in Rock On!!
This year, another movie of Farhan Akhtar will be released on August 29th, but this time, it is different. This time the man is in front of the camera. Yes, Rock On!! brings out the dormant actor and singer inside Farhan Akhtar, who started as a director in 2001. He sang five songs for the movie. Interestingly, these are not any typical Hindi romantic or tragedy songs but hard hitting, high pitched rock songs.
It has been a cherished dream of Farhan Akhtar to act in a movie but he did not get the right role. He had always been open to acting. After Dil Chahta Hai, many people requested him to make a movie like Dil Chahta Hai. Director Abhishek Kapoor who is also making his directorial debut with Rock On!! is a big fan of Farhan Akhtar. He decided to rekindle the magic of buddy flick. At that time Farhan Akhtar was planning for his next movie, Voice From The Sky. Abhishek Kapoor told him the story of a Delhi boy who comes to Mumbai and forms a rock band which fails to continue and then the members of the band reunite ten years later. It was a very simple yet realistic story which attracted Farhan Akhtar.
Those of you who are big Dil Chahta Hai fans will also love Rock On!! Like Dil Chahta Hai, the story of Rock On!! revolves around the urban youth. Everything about the movie is modern and classy. This is also the weakest point of the movie because people living in small towns or rural areas would not be able to appreciate the movie. Dil Chahta Hai also ran into same problem.
Many people do not know that Farhan Akhtar is an avid guitarist. He has been practicing guitar for twelve years and he has done it all on his own. This self-learned music was a big leverage for him in playing the character of Aditya, who is the vocal of a rock band in Rock On!!. Even the music composer of the movie Shankar, who trained Farhan Akhtar for the movie, was very much impressed.
“Farhan with his guitar is quite a sight - he just rocks it. It is unbelievable that he has actually learned playing the guitar on his own, downloading chord charts, fingering techniques from the Internet, strumming and singing along, all on his own.”
Farhan Akhtar also performed live in the music launch ceremony of Rock On!! which took place at the The Infininty Mall on Andheri Road.
Rock On!! is also the debut movie of Prachi Desai. The actress who became popular playing Bani in Zee TV’s popular serial, Kasamh Se. Prachi Desai is now very much interested to make a career in movies. When asked whether she would return to television Prachi Desai said:
“I don’t know when I will go back to TV. If my films don’t do well, I will have to go back. But right now I’m doing films and I hope it takes me somewhere,” said Prachi.
“It is not that I don’t want to go back to my TV image of wearing saris, but it is too early to do all that again. I have other films in hand also. So TV will wait for now,” she added.
While talking about her TV career, Prachi said that she was not happy with what she was doing in television because there was no variation.
For her role, Prachi had to change her appearance. Bani in Kasamh Se was a small town girl who was very simple minded and honest. In Rock On!! Prachi’s character, Sakshi, is a woman of today. Sakshi is a woman who was born and brought up in Mumbai. She is a well educated and sophisticated women and very compromising.Those of you who are used to see Prachi Desai wrapped in colorful sarees in Kasamh Se will see a new Prachi Desai in the movie who wears western style clothes. For her new look, Prachi Desai gave all the credits to her director, Abhishek Kapoor. She said that it was Abhishek who visualized the character and it was all that he had wanted. All Prachi had to do was carry the role. Prachi Desai is also doing another movie, Life Partner, directed by famous director duo, Abbas-Mustan. In this movie, she is going to appear with Fardeen Khan, Govinda, Tusshar Kapoor and Genelia D’Souza.
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Rock On!!: Interview of Farhan Akhtar
Rock On!! is Farhan Akhtar’s debut movie as an actor and singer. In this movie, he played the character of Aditya, who is the vocal of a band. The movie is jointly produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani. Here is an interview of Farhan Akhtar on “Hindustan Times,” where he talks about the movie.
When asked about how he felt singing five songs in the movie, Farhan said that it had to be done because the script demanded it. There were five songs in the movie, written and sung by the band. The actors remained faithful to the script. Director Abhishek Kapoor also clarified that the actor playing the vocal of the movie had to sing five songs.
The background melody of Farhan Akhtar’s previous movie, Lakshya, is used in the title song, “Rock On!!” Farhan Akhtar said that after the release of Lakshya, many people asked him why he did not include the tune in the movie album. While doing the music of Rock On!!, composer trio, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, who also composed Lakshya’s music, decided to include the tune.
How come there aren’t too many Hindi singing rock bands here?
Maybe because lyric writers for rock bands are more comfortable in English. But there are bands in Delhi, which write their songs in Hindi. Rock buffs prefer international acts to Indian bands, which is a bit shameful actually because there are fabulous bands here. I think promoters lack perspective about how to tap a psychedelic crowd. But it’s just a matter of time now. Slowly but surely, rock is gaining popularity. Indian rock has come of age.
To prepare for the character, Farhan Akhtar did not listen to any special music. His own listening of Guns N’Roses was enough to prepare him for the character. Currently, he enjoys listening to pop.
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Rock On!! movie preview
There are many Bollywood movies where we see the hero is a famous singer. We have already one in the line titled Karzzzz, by you know who, but here is an exceptional movie which is going to be released this Friday.
Title: Rock On!!
Director: Abhishek Kapoor
Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Prachi Desai, Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli,
Luke Kenny, Shahana Goswami, Koel Puri.
Synopsis: Well, Rock On!! is the first Bollywood movie that deals with rock songs and rock band. The movie tells the story of a rock band and its four members: Aditya, Joe Mascarenhas, KD, and Rob Nancy. Four friends started a rock band but before they could hit it big, they went their own ways. Though they chose different paths, all of them had the music inside them which reunited them once again. Once more, they formed the band and tried their luck. The movie shows how each member of the band faces different obstacles and overcomes them.
This movie is Farhan Akhtar’s debut as an actor. Already, he has established himself as a director with movies like Don - The Chase Begins Again, Lakshya, Dil Chahta Hai. In this movie, Farhan Akhtar plays the character of Aditya Shroff, a bohemian guy, who hails from Delhi. Aditya leaves the comfort of his family and comes to Mumbai to establish himself as a rock singer. He also has a talent for writing unconventional poetries which has message for today’s youth. In addition, his singing charisma makes him invincible.
Joe Mascarenhas, played by Arjun Rampal, is an idealist who talks less but a talented guitarist. He is also very loyal to his girlfriend which makes him a hero in the eyes of other members of his band. He is the lead guitarist.
Kedar, who prefers to be called as KD, which stands for “Killer Drummer,” comes from a wealthy family. His father has jewelry business but Kedar dreams to become a drummer and he is ready to go the distance. On the stage, it looks like he is beating the drums like a crazy guy but that is his style.
Rob is the “problem solver” of the group. He is a laidback calm and quiet person. He plays the keyboard. During any disagreement between the band members he is the one to step in and resolve the issue.
Prachi Desai, the famous “Kasamh Se” actress, is also making her first movie appearance in Rock On!!. Here she plays the character of Sakshi, a sophisticated girl from South Mumbai. She is very calm, quiet and ready to compromise everything for the person she loves.
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Farhan Akhtar perfroms live in Rock On music launch ceremony
Director Farhan Akhtar lauches his career as an actor with Rock On. The movie is also special because through the music album of this movie, Farhan Akhtar also launched his singing career.
In the music launch ceremony of Rock On, Farhan Akhtar performed live and rocked the audience. He sang two tracks from the movie in a true rocker style. The music launch ceremony was hosted by The Infininty Mall on Andheri Road.
Rock On, as the title of the movie suggests, is a movie about singers. The movie tells the story of a rock band. The four members go different ways but they reunite and gain popularity.
Along with Farhan Akhtar, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, who composed the music for the songs also performed live in the show. Arjun Rampal who also plays the character of a singer did well in his part. To play the characters of band members, all the four actors Purab Kohli, Arjun Rampal, Farhan Akhtar, and Luke Kenny underwent training. Purab was trained by Lindsay D’Mello on drums, Arjun Rampal with Chandresh, Luke Kenny with Loy and Farhan with Shankar on vocal and Ehsaan for rhythm guitar.
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A book by CosmoFair founder
A book by CosmoFair founder, Bill Belew, that might change your world
