A Film that every distributor simply refused to buy

 

4 Crore Rupee Budget

Anil Kapoor - Madhuri Dixit the biggest hit combination in Bollywood from 1988

Amrish Puri the top billed villain

Anupam Kher the second highest billed villain

Bappi Lahiri the top billed music director

After Beta - a blockbuster hit released barely a month ago

Two #1 Songs - Dil to Dil Hain & Yeh Zindagi hain ek Juaa on the top radio channels

Yet on 25 April 1992, Distributors left the Opera Theatre in Mumbai in DISMAY refusing to pay a cheque to buy the rights to distribute the film in their territories

This was the Prakash Mehra starrer - ZINDAGI EK JUAA

The film was deemed - TOO VIOLENT AND GANGSTER LIKE for its period

This was 1992

The Era of the Angry young man was over and the era of Young Love was beginning

Dil, Aashiqui, Saajan were the biggest blockbusters of the period pushing Bachchan out from the #1 position for the first time in many years

The Story of

• Two Rival Gangs who murdered each other regularly
• Madhuri Dixit getting addicted to Heroin and killing herself (Performing Brilliantly)
• Anil Kapoor ending up with 25 year life imprisonment

The Film just didn't add up

Distributors who went expecting a big success didn't even say “We will let you know”

The film was an INDIANIZED take on SCARFACE (1983) starring Al Pacino

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It became the FIRST FILM that distributors across India refused to touch , the first for reasons not related to the 1975 emergency

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Prakash Mehra made a deal with Theatres

He went personally and distributed the film to theatres who all demanded a Minimum 21 day run guarantee for the film

Prakash Mehra had been losing money for the past 5 years since 1987 , his Bachchan starrer Jaadugar had lost him ₹53 Lakh personally

He sold his Beach Bungalow (Next to Waheeda Rahmans)

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The film took off very well

The First Friday saw an opening in Bombays Top 70 theatres - that beat the record of Beta (1992)

Bachchans Khuda Gawah was running across theatres and it's collections fell sharply as Zindagi ek Juaa was released

The first Monday saw a 80% drop

The First Monday Matinee Show saw a 80% Drop in the Top 70 theatres in Bombay

College Audiences still trickled in one's and twos

Khuda Gawah began picking up again as Bachchan made the LAST FILM announcement

Then something happened that ended the films ambitions completely

A 1 Crore Rupee , small budget film, shot entirely in Ooty gathered steam and knocked out the film completely

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The film didn't even make it to a single nomination in 1993

Even though Madhuri had her finest performance , expressions - it was a role she wanted to forget

Suresh Oberoi , father of Vivek Oberoi, believed it was one of his best performances

Asha Bhonsle at the age of 59, sang a song that made her sound like a 20 year old in an era without Auto Tune

The Dance and Song are outstanding in every way

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It wasn't until 1998 that GANGSTER CINEMA made a reappearance under the Aegis of the Legendary Ram Gopal Varma with Satya and Mahesh Manjrekar with Vaastav

This time they were both Massive hits and the distributors were not as squeamish

Which was Sanjeev Kumar's film in which he had nine roles?

 Sanjeev Kumar played nine roles in the film Naya Din Nai Raat which was a remake of Tamil movie Navarathri.

The role was initially pitched up to Dilip Kumar who suggested Sanjeev Kumar for the same.

Sanjeev Kumar plays the nine characters with each character embodying one of the nine rasas (emotions).

The nine roles played by Sanjeev Kumar are of a psychiatrist, a bandit, a leper, a priest/smuggler, a transvestite actor, a wealthy widower, a hunter, a drunken lout and a young man.

It was indeed a challenge to play these multiple roles. Sanjeev Kumar played it convincingly and garnered a lot of praise for the same.

He made each personna unique through his mannerisms and voice and achieved a feat which cemented his legacy as a master of disguise and character acting.

Image(s) Courtesy: Google

Which scene of actress Mandakini's film created a big controversy in India at that time?

 Mandakini, the heroine of the film Ram Teri Ganga Maili, in order to pacify her newborn child who is crying out of hunger in the train, while performing the duty of a mother, hugs the child to her chest and calms his hunger or appetite. Yes, that scene was embroiled in controversies at the time.

What are the contributions of Telugu cinema to the Indian film industry?

 Telugu cinema has contributed a lot to Indian film industry. It has also given outsiders who are not Teluguites a career in the film industry . Let's look at some of its contribution :

• First Mythological movie

The 1957 movie was the first Mythological movie in Indian cinema and it was a trend setter movie in Indian cinema. It can be termed as a movie which is way ahead of its time.

• Career for other language people

Actors like Siddharth has got more hits in Telugu cinema than in Tamil cinema. In one of his interviews he tells that wherever he goes he introduces himself as a Telugu actor.

Prakash Raj is known more for his work in Telugu film industry than for his work in Kannada film industry.

Most of the heroines in Telugu film industry in the 21st century are outsiders. Most of the high budget movies in Telugu which are released in multiple languages will feature other language people too.

So overall Telugu film industry has always welcomed outsiders and treated them just like a native.

• Remakes

The 2002 film Jayam was remade into Tamil and the actor was since then called Jayam Ravi.

Tamil actor Vijay has a lot of remake movies from Telugu:

Ghilli remade from okkadu

Aathi from Athanokkade

Pokkiri from pokkiri

Vaseegara from Nuvvu Naaku Nacchavu

Badri from Thammudu

Hindi film industry in the past 20 years has been making a lot of remakes which are originally made in Telugu:

Salman Khan's

Wanted is a remake of Telugu film Pokiri.

Ready is a remake of Telugu film of the same name. This movie has been remade into other languages too.

Shahid Kapoor's

Kabir Singh is a remake of Telugu film Arjun Reddy. He is also set to make a remake of another Telugu film called jersey.

Akshay Kumar's

Rowdy Rathore is a remake of Telugu film Vikramaarkudu.

Ajay Devgan's

Son of Sardaar is a remake of Telugu film Maryaada Ramana.This movie was remade into 5 languages.

There are many more such movies and this list is huge.

• Singers

Both SPB and Janaki were singers in other South Indian languages and have sung a lot of songs in those languages too.

and last but not the least is Baahubali which was amongst the highest grossed Indian movies and it disproved the common belief of people that regional languages cannot make it into the highest grossed Indian movies.

So this is an overall glimpse of Telugu cinema though there is a lot more to talk.

What are the biggest casting mistakes in Indian Film History?

 

• Stupid Khan in Tubelight.

Remove Salman Khan from this movie and this becomes a great movie. The producers forgot that Salman Khan just cannot act which was required in this movie.

• Akshay Kumar in Jolly LLB 2.

Agree or not Akshay ruined the charisma that Arshad Warsi created in the first film. Well Akshay Kumar has destroyed most of the sequels he worked on.

• Hrithik Roshan in Super 30.

Okay the movie wasn't that bad, it's just that Hrithik doesn't look much rural, he's a handsome urban hunk. And the main character is from a rural village in India. In this movie Hrithik looks more like a Egyptian God.

• SRK in Zero.

What really pissed me off about this movie is that they spent so much to make SRK look like a dwarf. They should have instead hired a talented dwarf actor, saved the budget, SRK and Katrina could have done a cameo and the movie would be much better and realistic. It's not a bad movie, it's just that watching SRK forcibly trying hard to make unrealistic things look realistic is just not what this movie required.

• Shraddha Kapoor in Haseena Parker.

Shraddha Kapoor just cannot play the negative role. Give me a break. She more looks like a candy canny, the next door girl trying to lose her virginity. The Filmmakers tried to make her look ruthless in this movie by just applying soot beneath her eyes. The movie, obviously tanked.

Who was the first choice for Rishi Kapoor's role in the film "Chandni"?

 Govinda and Rekha were the first choice for Chandni, though Anil Kapoor was just considered for the same. The title, “Chandni” itself was the screen-name of Rekha in the film, “Silsila”. However Rekha refused the film. Coming back to the question.

Yash Chopra was going through a bad financial phase as his films were not clicking at that time. He wanted to make a present day romantic love story. Govinda was an emerging star at that time and Chopra narrated the story to Govinda.

Govinda straightaway rejected it as the film had a portion where the hero falls from a helicopter and has an accident due to which both his legs are damaged.

Govinda was not comfortable to play the part where he is disabled and is on a wheelchair. He did not want to play the role of a lame person.

Interestingly, it was a crucial part of the storyline and could not be changed. So he turned down the offer making way for Rishi Kapoor to romance Sridevi.

Image(s) Courtesy: Google

Why is the Tamil film industry dominated by non-Tamil actresses? What happened with Tamil girls in Tamil Nadu? Why is it rare to find Tamil actresses?

 Nowadays we find many actresses from other regions acting for different languages.

The Tamil Film industry is dominated by non-tamil actresses as there aren’t many ladies from TN as an actress. Audiences would love to different kind of ladies on the screen. I find the actresses who knows the language or brought up from that language cultures acts well for that language films.

Let’s talk about actresses from TN who made big in Kollywood

Samantha Akkinenni

This lady is from TN. She acted in Tamil and Telugu films. After marriage, she got only telugu offers. Hopefully she gets some offers too. She was last seen in Family Man. She was seen as a Sri Lankan tamilian. It was nice to see her doing this kind of role.

Aishwarya Rajesh

This lady is tamilian. She is current young actress from TN who is active in tamil films. She is also active in Telugu.

I just like her.

Regina Cassandra

This lady is also from TN. She has done good number of films. She impressed me from Chakra film. Her first film as antagonist.

Andrea Jeremiah

This lady is also from TN. She has done good number of films and is also a good actress. She has a good number of upcoming tamil films.

Trisha Krishnan

Another nice lady actress from TN. She has played in many telugu and tamil films. She is one of the bold actress

It isn’t rare to find. There aren’t many ladies from TN aspiring to become an actress. Acting is also required. They also should be suited to the role. If they aren’t, the makers go for other actresses.

Which are the Indian film posters that are not copied?

 I'll talk here about only Kannada language movies.

Kannada movies especially Upendra’s directed movies have unique posters that are only one alphabets or symbols.

A(1998)

This movie changed the Kannada film industry for ever . This was something new in Indian cinema at that time. It was the biggest blockbuster and industry hit in Kannada Film industry back in 1998.

The photo shows a metaphor.

Others include

Shhh!(1993) - An horror mystery thriller. It is considered as the best horror mystery thriller in Karnataka. The poster shows a skull with silent posture of Kannada alphabet.

Upendra (1999) - the unique poster shows the main character with three main female leads.

UI (2024) - Vishnu naama/ Vishnu Tilaka and underside of a Horse hoove.