How Bollywood defines a hit
MUMBAI (Reuters) – If you want to see what a “hit” Bollywood film looks like, you might have to make the trip to the rundown Maratha Mandir theatre in Mumbai.
For more than 15 years now, the theatre has played a matinee show of the same film — Aditya Chopra’s “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge”.
What makes a Bollywood blockbuster
MUMBAI (Reuters) – If you want to see what a “hit” Bollywood film looks like, you might have to make the trip to the rundown Maratha Mandir theatre in Mumbai.
For more than 15 years now, the theatre has played a matinee show of the same film — Aditya Chopra’s “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge”.
A Minute With: Priyanka Chopra
MUMBAI (Reuters) – As one of Bollywood’s most sought after actors, you would think Priyanka Chopra has enough on her plate but the 29-year-old is now making time to pursue another passion.
Chopra has signed up with Universal Music for her debut music album and spoke to Reuters about her new singing career.
A Minute With: Amitabh Bachchan
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Amitabh Bachchan has exchanged his psychedelic shirts and colourful scarves from “Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap” for a shawl and kurta in Prakash Jha’s “Aarakshan”, a film that sees him portraying an upright school principal.
Bachchan spoke to Reuters about the film, his own school and college years, and what he thinks of India’s education system.
Singham: Ham, beef and not much else
Rohit Shetty’s “Singham”, a remake of a Tamil film, is a cop movie that is perhaps meant as a tribute to the 80s “angry young man” and the theme of the lone, honest police officer taking on the rotting system.
Ajay Devgn plays that honest cop — Bajirao Singham, a police inspector in a remote village in Goa who maintains peace and calm in the village by using his goodwill with the villagers. When he is transferred to “Goa city” (I always thought it was a state) after crossing paths with a don-turned-politician, Singham is confronted with a corrupt system, cynical co-workers and threats from the politician.
India’s “recycled” school teaches environmental lessons
PUNE, India (Reuters Life!) – On a regular school day, four-year-old Kush Bhattacharya can leave his mathematics class to run barefoot on grass, hide from his friends in a cave made of cow dung and return to recite nursery rhymes in a red bus that doubles up as a classroom.
Kush is a student at the Aman Setu school in Pune, an educational and technological hub three hours drive from Mumbai.
‘Aarakshan’ explores caste-based quotas in education
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Director Prakash Jha’s last film put the spotlight on the dark underbelly of regional politics in India. His new film “Aarakshan” explores the murky world of its education system.
The film, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone, draws inspiration from real-life incidents to build a story around education and caste-based reservation in India.
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara: Showcasing Spain
At one point in Zoya Akhtar’s film, the three protagonists are sitting in a bar in Spain, celebrating the fact that they have just completed a daring sky-diving adventure, when one of them (Hrithik Roshan) starts talking about an old Doordarshan ad. He talks about the music, how the logo would unfold and finally, is asked by another protagonist — “Yeah, but could you please get to the point?”
That could be the tagline for the whole film. Don’t believe the filmmakers when they say “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” is not a rehash of Farhan Akhtar’s “Dil Chahta Hai”. It tries to re-create the same coming-of-age effect, the same clever lines, but with half the success of the earlier film.
Hollywood inspires Bollywood to flirt with technology
By Manasi Phadke and Shilpa Jamkhandikar
MUMBAI (Reuters Life!) – Don’t look for an Indian “Avatar” anytime soon, but Bollywood, inspired by the success of blockbusters such as “Transformers,” is starting to take special effects seriously.
Up until five years ago, producers were unwilling to embrace technology, preferring instead to spend millions on expensive outdoor shoots and sets.
A Minute With: Zoya Akhtar
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Zoya Akhtar’s first film was probably the best reviewed movie of 2009, but “Luck By Chance” didn’t exactly set the box-office registers ringing.
Two years later, Akhtar is back with her second film, a multi-starrer with a big-ticket cast and the baggage of expectations.
-
About Shilpa
-
Follow Shilpa
