She's a star prodigy and made her debut with Bobby Deol in Barsaat - a film that was no blockbuster. Yet this doe-eyed damsel is optimistic about her career and is determined to out shine the rest as she moves along. Twinkle Khanna is no more the starry-eyed girl next door. She believes that a little more luck, added to her careful planning in choosing films, would do her good. Recently in an interview, she spoke about her ups and downs in her career. Admitting that she's had the best of banners to work under and the top heroes of today as co-stars, her luck seems to stray away at the box -office. Choosing films for herself, Twinkle believes in the totality of the project, and not the role she plays. Her homework with each character she plays consists of fleshing out the role, and she works in tandem with directors, sometimes adding a detail or two with their permission. Twinkle doesn't stop at playing the typical romantic Hindi heroine either. She's yearning for variety and would love to play a role that's negative, from start to finish. All charged up about her last release Baadshah, opposite Shah Rukh, she found this Khan energetic, forever improvising and absolutely great to work with. She's pinned hopes on her current venture, Mela; a film she feels has contributed to her growth as person. Twinkle has a long way to go and as she takes small steps towards success, we hope that getting up there won't be so difficult for her after all.
The month seemed lean to movie traders, but Bharat Shah's Baadshah outdid itself and other films, by netting a perfect 100 percent collection on the first day. Shah Rukh Khan has underscored the fact that he is a major draw in this film but trade circles think its too early to celebrate, with several big budget films getting off to 100 percent starts, only to fizzle out in the long run. Incidentally, the film has also bypassed Taal's record of 115 prints, with a record number of 123 prints, as it seemed much in demand by the distributors. Baadshah can bask in its glory for the while, as the weeks other releases are not in the same league and haven't put up much of competition.
The hottest news in the distribution circles last week was the launch of Vashu Bhagnani's Tera Jaadu Chal Gaya. The Abhishek - Karisma Kapoor starrer had a rather discreet launch with the recording of an emotional number by music director Ismail Darbar (of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam fame). Tera Jaadu Chal Gaya, a love story, marks the directorial debut of A. Muthu, David Dhawan's editor. The entire production team is new, including writers and technicians. From the overwhelming response of distributors trying to bag rights to the film, it definitely seems that this venture is going to leave its mark at the box office.
One more actor added to the list of rethinkers and revisers. Mithun Chakraborty has finally prioritized his career. With his films taking a severe beating at the box office and their untimely releases, Mithun landed himself in mess with distributors and producers. His recent decision to cut down on films has heaved sighs of relief and his price per film is also to have been reportedly slashed down by 50 %. More recently he has decided to work for free for producer's Surendra Srivastav's next film, as a special consideration since the producer was unable to pay him his full price after the severe losses he faced with the last Mithun starrer, Ganga Ki Kasam.
CY film's Hum Tumpe Marte Hain had producer Cheetah Yagnesh Shetty's mother performing the negative cutting ceremony on August 24 at Adlabs. The star cast includes Govinda, Urmila Matondkar, Nirmal Pandey, Paresh Rawal, Gulshan Grover and Johnny Lever. The film has its cinematography by Sameer Reddy, lyrics by Anand Bakshi and music by Uttam Singh
The dubbing of Jaanwar is currently in progress and the film is slated for a November release. Starring Akshay Kumar, Karisma Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, Ashustosh Rana, Ashish Vidyarthi, Johnny Lever and Shakti Kapoor. The film has its music by Anand Milind, its action by Tinu Verma and choreography by Raju Khan. Suneel Darshan is producing and directing the film.
Dil Lagake Dekho was shot in London where three songs were picturised recently. The remaining four songs and the talkie portion will be picturised soon. With this the film would be ready .The star cast includes Govinda, Manisha Koirala, Satish Shah and Jaspal Bhatti in lead roles. Dilip and Sameer Sen are music directors for this film.
During an 8-day stint at RK Studios, a song was picturised along with some dramatic action scenes for Mere Apne. The film stars Amrish Puri in a pivotal role along with Mukul Dev, Mayuri Kango, Milind Gunaji and Deepak Tijori. With its music by Anand Raaj Anand and choreography by Saroj Khan, the film has its cinematography is done by Thomas Xavier and is produced and directed by Ratan Irani.
Harmesh Malhotra directed Govinda and Priety Zinta film "Tere Ishq Mein Pad Gaya Re", will be completing a 20-day schedule in America. Once there, three songs and many scenes will be pictured on the leading stars and Satish Kaushik and Sadashiv Amrapurkar. This Tutu Sharma produced film has the music given by Anand-Milind, lyrics by Sameer and dialogues by Anwar Khan.
Aishwarya Rai finds herself as the new leading lady in Boney Kapoor's new production. Under SK Films Enterprises, this yet-to-be-titled movie was launched on May 7. Anil Kapoor is the hero of the film and Satish Kaushik is directing it. So far Kabir Lal has been selected as the cinematographer and dialogues will be given by Jainendra Jain.
Directors Abbas-Mastan have signed up Bobby Deol, Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor, younger sister of Karisma Kapoor for their forthcoming venture. This movie is produced by Vijay Gilani and music is being composed by Anu Kapoor. The entire team is planning a 40-day long schedule in Switzerland and Norway where some songs and action scenes will be pictured. The rest of the cast consists of Johnny Lever, Amita Nangia and Anant Mahadevan.
There has to be life after the heady success of 'Dil To Pagal Hai'. Aditya Chopra, the director son of Yash Chopra, is in news because he has done something which others have to think twice before doing it. He has brought Big B and King Khan together in his next venture. Aditya Chopra is planning a movie with the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and three more heroes. The other two heroes are most likely to be Jugal Hansraj and Yash Chopra's youngest son Uday, who always had a penchant for acting. But the fifth hero has not been considered yet but whoever it will has to be good. As far as the heroines are concerned, there will be three of them and Karisma Kapoor and Kajol are most likely to fill in the spaces. But everything about the film is quite hush-hush and everyone associated with the film is tight-lipped about the venture. As happens with all of Yash Chopra films, even this film has to be a special one considering the pain taken to select the star cast and everything else.
This hottest star from the south has taken Japan by storm. He is fondly called the Dancing Maharaja and everything about him makes the Japanese gaga over him. The two comedians - Senthil and Gaundamani - regular in all Rajnikant movies have been nicknamed as the new Laurel and Hardy by them. Meena, one of Rajnikant's co-stars, has fallen in love with the place and the Japanese too are quite excited about her. She was approached by the famous drink makers of Japan to reprise the 'Thillana Thillana' dance number from the film 'Muthu'. This Rajnikant craze started with 'Muthu' (1995), released last year, which had an estimated audience of 125,000. Even the Aishwarya Rai - Prashanth starring 'Jeans' is making the Japanese happy nowadays.
The unit of Champion returned from Hyderabad on July 26 after a month-long shooting schedule wherein producer Sujit Kumar and director Padam Kumar and action director Tinu Verma canned many emotional, dramatic and action scenes on the entire starcast. A song was also picturised on Sunny Deol and Manisha Koirala. The film also stars Kashmira Shah, Rahul Dev, Surendra Pal, Tom Alter, Anil Nagrath, Krishna Mishra, Dina Pathak, Master Abhishek, Neha Sharad and Deepak Parashar.
This film was launched with the recording of a song on August 9. Rendered by Sadhana Sargam and penned by Sameer, it was composed by Viju Shah. Being written and directed by Adesh K Arjun and Dinkar Kapoor, the film stars Arjun Rampal, Tara Deshpande, Rahul Dev, Nirmal Pande and Johnny Lever. A leading heroine and other cast have yet to be finalised. It will go to sets in mid-December.
Puru Raaj Kumar, Sharbani Mukherji, Shakti Kapoor, Himani Shivpuri and many junior artists and fighters participated in a seven-day shooting spell of this film in Bombay. Aroona Irani and Govinda alongwith other top artistes will make a guest appearance in the film which also stars newfind Aushim Khetrapal, Raj Babbar, Raza Murad, Ishrat Ali, Anil Nagrath, Malay Chakraborty, Biswajeet Pradhan and Kader Khan. Being written and directed by Saleem Ali Khan , the film has music by Jatin-Lalit, lyrics by Sameer, action by Bhiku Verma.
Maruti International's Rishta will go on the sets in December this year. The film will be produced by Indra Kumar and Ashok Thakeria, will be directed by Indra Kumar. Anil Kapoor will head the cast. The two leading ladies and other credits are yet to be finalised.
The industry is abuzz with rumours that Karisma Kapoor may become Biwi No 1 in real-life by plunging into matrimony with Jeh Wadia by the end of this year. Karisma recently returned the signing amount to some producers which resulted in rumours gaining credence. Family sources and her spokesman vehemently denied the marriage news as 'false and baseless'. She is refusing to sign on for more films in order to clear her backlog first and is now choosier about her roles, explained her publicist.
Salman Khan had predicted that Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam would be a big hit and it came true. Now the Khan is confident of his home-production Hello Brother directed by his sibling Sohail with brother Arbaaz as his co-star and in which Rani Mukerji plays a fun-loving nursery school teacher. Salman has even sung a song in his own voice for the film. Rani's guest appearance in Mann with Aamir Khan didn't make an impact, so it is to be seen whether she fares better with Salman. And Rani has put on a little weight, which is actually a requirement for her character in Kamal Hasan's Hey! Ram.
Naghma, the dancing talent from the South, who's acted in over 50 of their movies with a string of mega-hits has decided to return to Bollywood. She had made her debut opposite Salman Khan in the hit movie Baaghi and was paired opposite Shah Rukh Khan in King Uncle. Then Southside producers had approached her for her attractive looks and dancing talent and in the last seven years she's been doing her stuff in the south of India. She's had a bad experience with one of her stars there and so now is back to Bombay. "Yes, I am back here for good and getting real good offers," she said. Naghma has shed her buxom flab and looks ravishingly slim. She's been signed opposite Salman Khan for the David Dhawan directed Chal Mere Bhai and Kunwara where Govinda plays her husband. She also bagged Maa Tujhe Salaam with Sunny Deol and Sunil Shetty. Meanwhile her little sister Jyotika has now headed South and already has a hit Tamil film.
Stunt director Tinu Verma got his first break in Ghayal thanks to his friend Sunny Deol with whom his association dates back to the Betaab horse-back days. So when Tinu decided to turn director he went back to Sunny Deol with an offer to play the lead in Bajrang, an aborted venture he likes to forget and start afresh with Maa Tujhe Salaam. It's a patriotic film and Tinu combines the muscle power of Sunny and Sunil Shetty for his narrative. However, there were some concerns that Tinu would throw the limelight more on his pal Sunny and sideline Sunil. The director laughs at the allegation, "While Sunil plays a Mujahideen extremist, Sunny an Army Major in the film, the film is all about how the two unite and vanquish terrorists from the Kashmir valley." He says he is not playing favourites. The roles are 'balanced'. "I wouldn't jeopardise my own film, would I?" he asks.
A month long final schedule of Baadal commenced from August 16 in Khandala and other locales in Bombay. Two songs, the climax and some other important scenes were shot on the entire starcast. Being produced by Salim and directed by Raj Kanwar on his own story, the film stars Bobby Deol, Rani Mukerji, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Mayuri Kango, Ashish Vidyarthi, Shahbaz Khan, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Razzak Khan, Baba Sana, Johnny Lever, Ashutosh Rana and Amrish Puri. The music is by Anu Malik, lyrics by Sameer, action by Bhiku Verma, dances by Harmeet Singh.
The trade has been cautious about the film and its prospects. A section of well-known producers and distributors have even been indulging in blatant criticism of the film following its premier on Thursday. But this is nothing new. Distributors of the film are extremely confident and optimistic. They believe the price they paid for it was justified. They were all invited to a special screening of the film and were quite pleased with it. Creatively, it is Ghai's best film ever, said JP Choksey. According to him the story line may seem cliché, but the conceptualisation of the scenes, the gloss and grandeur and the lighting and music make it very special. Nestor D'Souza of Metro says that he liked the movie but chose not to be over-ambitious. "The only factor I was apprehensive about was Akshaye Khanna's market, since it has plummeted and the audience has been refusing to accept him, just as they had initially treated Sunil Shetty and Akshay Kumar," says Nestor. He says the response to Taal has been great and it appears to be in for a long run at Metro. However, in the first show at Metro, a section of the audience was heard hooting. Metro has witnessed such incidents before, "and it is certainly no guage for the merit of a film," says Nestor. Subhash Ghai has commented that the film will take time to do well.
The entire shooting of Gang has been completed. Directed by Mazhar Khan, the film stars Jackie Shroff, Nana Patekar, Kumar Gaurav, Juhi Chawla, Ektaa, Mukesh Khanna, Gulshan Grover, Tinnu Anand and Girja Shankar. Also starring are Raza Murad, Dalip Tahil, Imtiaz Khan, Razzak Khan and Lilliput. It's a Bharat Shah presentation and the film has music by Anu Malik, lyrics by Javed Akhtar.
Everybody wants a glimpse of Madhuri Dixit when she's on the sets. She's just back from her annual month-long US vacation and looks refreshed and ready to go as she acts for an Ajay Devgan starrer. Attired in ethnic wear, Madhuri wore burnished silver jewellery for the dance sequence in progress and the sets were swarming with Madhuri fans. The actress smiled and posed for photos with them. She obliged her fans but didn't do so with the media. When asked for an interview she said, "What for?"
Lata Mangeshkar is among the hundred great names of the millennium in a survey conducted by TIME magazine. There are three more Indians - Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa and JRD Tata in the TIME hundred.
Subhash Ghai's Taal will be the first Hindi movie to be screened on an IMAX screen. On August 24 this year the movie opens at IMAX 3D Theatre in White River State Park. The vast auditorium gives viewers a movie-going experience like no other. The screen is about 6-storey's tall and is unobstructed. IMAX projectors are the most advanced, the most powerful and highest precision ones ever built.
The two months ahead will see distributors scrambling for a chain of theatres, what with the number of films lined up for release. The list is endless starting with Taal and Kohram this week, followed by Arjun Pandit, Badshah, Dil Kya Kare, Hum Tum Pe Marte Hai, Sangharsh, Hello Brother, 1947, Mast, Jaanwar, Kunwara and Khoobsurat. Apart from these are the Diwali releases of Hum Saath Saath Hai, Dillagi and Mela which are scheduled to hit the screens in quick succession. The films will see a pre-Diwali atmosphere alongwith the triangular cricket series. Distributors also try and release films during auspicious week's and so many of the films get released together.
Producer Satish Tandon and director Sanjay Gupta commenced a 20-day shooting schedule of Satish Tandon Productions' Jung from August 10 in Sun City, Johannesburg and other locales in South Africa where three songs and some scenes will be picturised. The film stars Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff, Raveena Tandon and Shilpa Shetty. The film also stars Aditya Pancholi, Neeraj Vora, Saurabh Shukla, Sachin Khedekar and Navin Nischol in important roles. Lyrics are by Dev Kohli, Rani Malik and Sameer and music is by Anu Malik.
Director Harmesh Malhotra and Producer Tutu Sharma commenced a ten-day shooting schedule of Tere Ishq Men Pad Gaya at different locales in Bombay. The film stars hero number one Govinda, Preity Zinta, Satish Kaushik, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Prem Chopra, Mohnish Bahl, and Kader Khan in key roles. Music is by Anand-Milind, lyrics by Sameer and dialogue by Anwar Khan.
