What is the greatest Academy Award snub in history?

 My idea of the greatest snub involved one of Hollywood’s greatest films.

It happened on Thursday night, March 2 1944 at Grauman’s Chinese Theater (seen above), where the 16th Academy Awards ceremony was in full swing.

Casablanca, a top contender, had already won “Best Screenplay” and “Best Director”. Then the winner for “Best Picture” was called out …

Jack Warner accepts Casablanca’s “Best Picture” Academy Award from Oscar host Jack Benny

… and producer/ awards participant Hal B. Wallis described what happened next.

After it was announced that Casablanca had won the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year, I stood up to accept when Jack [Warner] ran to the stage ahead of me and took the award with a broad, flashing smile and a look of great self-satisfaction.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. Casablanca had been my creation. Jack had absolutely nothing to do with it. As the audience gasped, I tried to get out of the row of seats and into the aisle, but the entire Warner family sat blocking me. I had no alternative but to sit down again, humiliated and furious ... Almost forty years later, I still haven't recovered from the shock.

Oscar night: Jack Warner elated; Hal Wallis suppressing his anger

Hal Wallis had worked at Warner Bros. for 20 years. The head of film production for a decade, he’d stepped down from the job in 1941 because he “had no rest, had no home life”. Wallis then negotiated his own independent production deal with the studio, creating his own unit inside Warners where he would only produce four pictures a year.

One of those four was Casablanca, and Mr. Wallis had overseen every aspect of its production, from choosing the property and developing the script, to selecting actors and director, supervising the final edit, and signing off on the music and sound mix.

So, yeah. Wallis was ticked off at Jack Warner. Hugely.

And the snub by Warner was obvious. So obvious that it got noted in the L.A. Times, which caused Wallis (maybe under company pressure?) to fire off a note to Times columnist Edwin Schallert on March 4:

I have been with Warner Bros. for twenty years and during this time it has been customary here as elsewhere for the studio head to accept the Academy Award for the Best Production. Naturally I was glad to see Jack Warner accept the award this year for “Casablanca”. … I am happy also to have contributed my bit toward the making of that picture. Your comment in your column this morning on rivalry at Warner Bros. is totally unjustified. …

But Wallis was, of course, spewing misinformation. He was neither “happy” nor “glad”. And a month later, he resigned from Warners, though there was still two years left on his production deal:

I … felt I could no longer work under the conditions imposed upon me by Jack Warner. … Jack did not live up to the terms of our contract. He often acquired material I never saw and never had an opportunity to consider for my own productions. … Jack began to inject himself into my company’s decision making. Matters came to a head that Oscar night. …

I broke clean, left for New York without any plans, and holed up at the Waldorf Towers for eight weeks. ...

Word of the rupture got around, with tales and jokes about the Wallis-Warner breakup circulating widely. Five years after the fact, novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler related one of them to his British publisher:

My favorite Hollywood story is about the Warner Brothers, Jack and Harry. The day after Hal Wallis ankled and left them flat, there was deep gloom and a horrid sense of catastrophe at the executive lunch table. … Jack and Harry come in. Jack turns to Harry.

Jack: That sonofabitch, Wallis.

Harry: Yes, Jack.

Jack: A lousy fifty dollar a week publicity man. We built him up from nothing. We made him one of the biggest men in Hollywood. And what does he do to us? He picks up his hat and walks out and leaves us cold.

Harry: Yes, Jack.

Jack: That’s gratitude for you. And take that sonofabitch Zanuck. A lousy hundred a week writer and we took him in hand, built him up and made him one of the biggest men in Hollywood. And what did he do to us? Picked up his hat and walked out on us cold.

Harry: Yes, Jack.

Jack: That’s gratitude for you. Why, we could take any sonofabitch we liked and build him up from nothing and make him one of the biggest men in Hollywood.

Harry: Yes, Jack.

Jack: Anybody at all. (Jack turns and looks at writer/associate producer Jerry Wald, sitting there at the executive table.) What’s your name?

Wald: Jerry Wald, Mr. Warner.

Jack: (to Harry) Jerry Wald. Why, Harry, we could take this fellow here, this Jerry Wald, and build him up from nothing to be one of the biggest men in Hollywood, couldn’t we, Harry?

Harry: Yes, Jack. We certainly could.

Jack: And what would it get us? We build him up to be a big man, give him power and reputation, make him one of the biggest names in Hollywood, and you know what would happen? The sonofabitch would walk out on us and leave us flat.

Harry: Yes, Jack.

Jack: So why wait for that to happen, Harry? Let’s fire the sonofabitch right now.

In actual fact, Jack Warner did his share of seething. He commenced making snide comments about his former studio chief, and allegedly refused to let his one-time studio head have a picture taken with the Casablanca Oscar. It got to the point where Jack Warner’s actual brother Harry fired this cable off to him, soon after Wallis ankled the Warner Bros. lot.

MY ADVICE TO YOU IS NOT TO MENTION THAT PARTY’S NAME [Hal Wallis] EVEN IN FORM OF KIDDING. ATTEND TO YOUR OWN BUSINESS. I ASSURE YOU HE WILL DO VERY WELL. IT COMES ACROSS THE WIRE MANY PEOPLE SEE IT AND THEY THINK YOU ARE JEALOUS. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A BIG MAN.

Harry Warner’s predictions regarding Hal Wallis proved correct. Soon after resigning from Warner Bros., Wallis set up a production unit at Paramount Pictures, and went on producing highly regarded films into the 1970s.

And somewhere along Hal W.’s new road to further success, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sent Mr. Wallis his own Casablanca “Best Picture” Oscar, along with a letter of apology.

End Note: Yeah, this isn’t a “snub” in the way the question intends, but a snub nevertheless.

End Note Too: Warner was technically justified in getting up to accept the “Best Picture” award, since other studio heads had done it. But elbowing out the person who actually did the work was incredibly bad form. Independent producers had accepted Oscars before, and Wallis was within his rights being ticked off at Jack Warner. (Academy rules didn’t officially acknowledge individual producers until 1951.)

Why do some people think Sridevi is overrated when she's considered one of the greatest actors of her time?

 Sridevi is first Lady Superstar of Bolly wood.Who said she is overrated ? She is an alrounder,multifaceted and multi talented.She is a complete actress. She is Goddess of Acting and acted in Hi ndi,Tamil,Malayalam,Kannada and Telegu movies. She has given iconic d ance in Nagina,Chandini and Mr India. She dressed up as Charlie Chaplin in Mr India.She was playback singer in S adma,Chandini,Kshana Kshanam and Garjana.She has also performed a div ine classic dance for Durga Sukhtam i n a temple.She is a perfect dancer too. Sridevi has given mesmerising perform ance in Sadma,by portraying the role of Nehalata a young woman who meets a car accident and suffers retrograde am nesia, losing all memory of her adult li fe.She transforms into a small child (6-7 yrs).Nehlata was kidna pped and sold into a Brothel.She come s in the eyes o f a teacher Somu ( Kamalahassan) wh o rescues and takes her home.Somu gi ves her love and care.Once her memor y comes back and comes to adult form The ending of Sadma is v ery tragic.Sri devi has potrayed as a s mall child as well as an Adult. No actress in Bollywo od can give performance like Sridevi. glSadma is remake of Balu Mahendra's T amil film, Moondram Pirai

Sridevi potrayed the role of a mother w ho was seeking justice for her step da ughter in Mom (2017).She has shown her prowess and vigour of an actress. She plays the role of a materialistic wi fe who sells her husband (Anil Kapoor) for greed of money to another woman played by Urmila Matonkar.She has als o given fabulous dance numbers.She la ter feels jealous of another woman and realised her mistake.No actress in Boll ywood can take Sridevi's can take her place in Judai and challenge.She is a n atural actress. Another memorable mo vie of Sridevi is Lamhe (1991) who play a the role of Mother and Daughter.She was looking awsome and she transfor med from Mother to Daughter.The mov ie was superhit.Sridevi debuted in Bolly wood as a child artist in Julie (1975).S he potrayed the role of Irene,younger si ster of Julie (Lakshmi).Her role was ve ry small but noticable.Sridevi potrayed the role of Step Mother of Super Star R ajinikanth in Tamil Movie,Moondru Mu dichu (1976) directed by K Balachande r.Look at her acting skills as she potra yed the role of step mother just at the age of Thirteen.Is she overrated ?

Sridevi classic movies are Gumrah,Kh uda Gawah,Ladla,Judaii,Nagina,Chaal Baz and Mr India are memorable.Sride vi's mind blowing performance was lis ted,Fourth out of Eighty Iconic Plays In Bollywood.Sridevi is endowed with the capacity to play a Bubbly Girl to a Teary Girl.She is a Perfectionist.She plays du al role in Chaalbaaz,Twin Sisters,Anju a nd Manju.Anju is worn,torn and abused while Manju is a Street Girl with lots of Courage and Smartness.Anju and Manj u are separated at birth.Manju takes re venge on Anju's cruel uncle.The movie is just like Hema Malini's, Seeta Aur Ge eta.Chaalbaaz showcases Sridevi's ve versatility as an Actresses and her Go d gifted acting skills.Roop Ki Rani Cho ron Ka Raja (1993) is another entertain ing movie of Sridevi and Anil Kapoor.T he movie has unforgettable songs.Sri devi dubbed her voice for first time in her movie Chandini(1989) as she coul d not speak Hindi when she entered Bo llywood.In her movie, Akhree Rasta (19 86) ,Rekha has dubbed her voice.Chan di movie of Sridevi is evergreen and th e song,”Tere Mere Harhon Pe" is super hit and the costumes of Sridevi in this movie has added another flavour to thi s movie directed by Yash Chopra.Sride vi portrays the role of Shashi Godbole ( 2012) who struggles to speak English and mocked by Husband as well as Da ughter.Sridevi's last movie was Mom ( 2017).Sridevi breathed her last on Feb 24,2018 in Dubai.

Hit movies of Sridevi.

List of Awards conferred to Sridevi.

Anybody has doubts whether Sridevi is Underrated,please read the answer.

(Source : Facebook and Google)

Who are the greatest Asuras of Indian epics?

 The strongest asuras are as follows :

Madhu and kaitabha :

• They are created by Vishnu from two droplets of water
• They covered the entire universe with darkness and stole the vedas from Brahma
• Vishnu slayed them using Vaishnavastra and recreated the three worlds using their corpses .

Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu :

• They both terrorized the universe and defeated everyone except Trimurti
• They were slain by Varaha and Narasimha

Ravana Kumbhakarna :

• They defeated all the gods combined and conquered the three worlds
• They were finally slained by Rama avatar

The end

Which is the greatest disaster movie made in the Hindi film industry, Kala Pathar, The Burning Train, or some other?

 Actually nobody wants to make a disastrous movie and the movies that you have mentioned above are not that bad. They were an attempt to try something different and there is always a risk in doing so. Yash Chopra who is mainly known for his romantic musical movies also tried his hand in the thriller genre with Itefaq starring Rajesh Khanna which did not had a single song.

He tried something different with Kala Pathar. A lesser known fact is that Kala Pathar was based on a real incident Chasnala mining disaster that took place in 1975 in Dhanbad, Bihar (now known as Jharkhand.)

There was an explosion in the mine followed by flooding which killed more than 300 miners. The film did average business at the box office but was critically acclaimed and received several nominations at the Filmfare Awards.

It attained a cult status and is considered a classic in Indian cinema. Besides this the IMDb rating of the film is 7.7 which is quite good so it will not be fair to call it a disaster.

Similarly Ravi Chopra tried something different in 1980 by making The Burning Train which was inspired by a Japanese disaster film The Bullet Train. Though the film is considered a flop it was the seventh highest grosser of 1980. It can be said that the movie was some 5 to 10 years ahead of its time.

The Burning Train shows the struggle to live when you are trapped in the clutches of death. It was a different movie which did not work at that time probably might have done better if released later because the special effects in the film were quite normal.

The length of the film is a matter of concern still the film has a good repeat value. The IMDb rating of the film is 6.8 which is not that bad. Therefore these two films cannot be given the tag of being the most disastrous film of Hindi cinema.

Its my personal opinion that trying something different should not be termed as a disaster because it requires a lot of courage to go against the wind and try something different rather than follow the trend. If IMDb rating is considered as the parameter then Sadak 2 is the most disastrous film which has a rating of 1.1 otherwise it is very difficult to pick out one film and term it as the most disastrous movie of Hindi cinema.

Image(s) Courtesy: Google

Who are the greatest actors in India?

 If I look at bollywood, dileep kumar and sanjeev kumar emerged as great actors initially.

Both actors were excelled in doing different types of characters, time period when overacting is considered as superior acting, both actors have given lots of performances still looks very natural acting.

In south india things was different, during 60s, 70s, over the top acting was considered as very superior

Main stream actors like sivaji ganesan and rajkumar used to that type of acting, they changed this acting style from 80s, when people started liking natural acting,

Malayalam actor sathyan master was another example of such type of acting

These actors use to do over the top acting and celebrated as great actor.

Telugu cinema had svr and anr, both actors were the capable of doing over dramatic and natural acting and also excelled in doing different types of characters.

In the 80s Indian cinema started changing completely, trained actors from Institute shown very realistic acting.

Nasurdhin saah and ompuri increased acting standards of acting cinema, now over the top acting became irrelevant.

From 80s Indian cinema had seen lots of character artists who can be treated as very superior actors.

Tamil cinema, after MR radha, seen lots of great character artists like, Raghuvaran, prakash raj, naseer and ms bhaskar.

From Hindi cinema , paresh rawal, manoj Vajpayee, nana patekar and nawaz are considered as superior actor.

Telugu cinema had kota srinivas rao

Malayalam cinema had, barath gopi, murli, Jagthy sree kumar and kalabhavan mani.

Indian cinema also seen actors who are entertaining stars and also superior actors

Mohanlal, kamal and mamooty are the best example, who shown realistic acting in different types of characters and also emerged as biggest stars of their film industries because of their acting abilities.

Actors like amir khan seen stardom at international level, because of his great acting abilities.

Some actors seen great Stardom because of acting their acting abilities, but for a short time, like vikram and surya

Why did the greatest warriors fail before Krishna’s strategy?

 That is because intelligence is superior to Physical strength. Even the strength of the greatest of warriors fails infront of an intelligent person.

O descendant of the Bharata lineage! Deeds performed through intelligence are the best, those performed with the arms are medium, and those performed by bearing loads with the thighs are the worst.

• 35, Prajagara parva, Mahabharata.

Krishna used his intelligence to counter formidable opponents and save the Yadavas and Pandavas alike.

Kalayavana

Kalayavana had a boon from Shiva of invincibility against the Yadavas. Krishna tricked him to chase after him by pretending to flee. Krishna lured the Yavana king into a cave where king Muchukunda was sleeping. Muchukunda had a boon from the devas that anyone who disturbs his sleep would be burned down. Krishna fooled Kalayavana into disturbing Muchukunda and as a result got burnt to ashes.

Jarasandha

Jarasandha had the largest army in the entire country and most of the kings were his allies. Krishna skillfully avoided a direct confrontation between Jarasandha's army and Indraprastha’s army by going to Magadha in disguise with Bhima and Arjuna and then getting Jarasandha killed in a one on one wrestling match with Bhima. Krishna knew that Jarasandha due his pride and arrogance will not back down from a challenge -

If that lord of men is confronted by the three of us alone, there is no doubt that he will engage one of us in a duel. Out of contempt for the worlds and his pride in himself, he will certainly challenge Bhimasena to a duel.

• 18, Jarasandha Vadha parva, Mahabharata.

Thus Krishna averted a huge war between Magadha and Indraprastha and killed Jarasandha by using his own pride against him.

Vasavi Shakti

Karna had Indra's Vasavi Shakti with a boon of infallibility. Krishna saved Arjuna by keeping him away from Karna as much as possible, confused Karna's mind making him forget about the astra every day and then finally diverting the missile to Ghatotkacha. Krishna thus wasted the divine missile and got rid of the wicked Ghatotkacha at the same time.

Keshava has always protected Kounteya Arjuna. In the battle, that is the reason he didn't allow him to be stationed before the son of the suta. Achyuta stationed other supreme rathas there. O lord! He acted so that the infallible spear might become fallible.

‘Sanjaya said, “O king! The slayer of Madhu knew what Karna desired to do. The immensely intelligent Janardana instructed the immensely valorous Ghatotkacha, lord of the rakshasas, to engage in that duel. The intention was to make the infallible weapon useless.

• 157, Drona Vadha parva, Mahabharata.

Drona

This was the the only time Krishna specifically made out a strategy to bring down a Kaurava warrior. Seeing Drona was especially dangerous on the 15th day, Lord Krishna came up with the strategy of demoralising him by spreading the rumour of Ashwatthama’s death. Drona in despair abandoned his weapons and is consequently killed by Dhrishtadyumna.