Hrithik Roshan is riding the high of his life with Bang Bang. The movie has even broken the Rs200 crore mark for worldwide revenue collections swiftly and is going to create some more records if the trend continues.
Hrithik had been on some really creative marketing gimmicks, like throwing challenges at other stars and them faithfully complying. Ranveer Singh, for instance, went on to a busy road with a boom box, turned on a song from a hit number of a Hrithik film and then started dancing like Hrithik. The video went viral on social networking, exactly the reaction that was anticipated. Most of these promotional videos were done before the movie released.
But there was something really strange when it came to a promotion that Hrithik undertook after the release when it was clear that Bang Bang was a blockbuster. The reality show Bigg Boss is a port of call for any movie promotion, largely because its host Salman Khan does a good job plugging it. But, while it was thought Bang Bang would also jump on the bandwagon, one didn’t see any of its stars coming to Bigg Boss before the movie’s release. But last week Hrithik suddenly walked into the show. That itself was a surprise but what was even more curious is that he didn’t go there on a Saturday or Sunday when Salman is hosting, instead it was on a weekday. It was almost as if he was proving a point that he didn’t need anyone except himself to make a movie a hit.
What was even more intriguing was that the heroine of Bang Bang, Katrina Kaif, was also missing. She is a former girlfriend of Salman and the industry went abuzz with the speculation that this could be a reason. As they say, there are wheels within wheels and those who know the answers are not revealing anything.
Standing orders
Preity Zinta, forgotten by Bollywood and its audience for some time, suddenly made a comeback in the headlines over an issue that usually puts many in Mumbai vehemently argue against each other. She had gone for a show of Bang Bang and the national anthem was played, something that is done by law in Mumbai’s theatres. The law however does not require people to stand up for the national anthem, though by virtue of tradition and courtesy most do.
Preity apparently noticed a man who had not stood up and then got chagrined enough to ask him to leave the theatre. The matter would have ended there if she had not felt the need to boast about it. She tweeted about what she had done. Instead of applause what she got was lots of criticism because many thought she had no business humiliating someone like that. Preity then tried to make amends by deleting the tweet but that only got social networking further riled up. They do have a point. Especially since she is a star, such a humiliation would have been traumatic for a man who had come to a cinema hall only looking for some entertainment on an off day.
SRK’s son for all to see
The birth of Shah Rukh Khan’s son AbRam last year was witness to some really strained circumstances. A newspaper had reported that Shah Rukh and Gauri had gone in for a surrogate delivery. That in itself is not so problematic, but the paper also insinuated that sex determination tests had been done on the baby, something that is illegal in India.
Other newspapers and busybody politicians then tried to capitalise on the rumour and there had even been government officials landing on SRK’s doorstep to investigate. This was after the rumoured affair of Shah Rukh and Priyanka had strained his relationship with many of his friends who sided with his wife Gauri. Wives of other stars had even started to give the cold shoulder to Priyanka at functions. The rumour about the sex determination test turned out to be completely false and it became known that the boy had in fact been born prematurely and the parents had been very worried about his health.
While Shah Rukh was really upset and angry at the time, he eventually put it behind him. But the family had protected AbRam and had refused to have any image of his released to public, until recently when his followers on Twitter started requesting Shah Rukh to show how his son looked. He had said he would do it soon.
And then on the day of the Eid festival, he finally put a photo of him holding his child. It was accompanied by his tweet, “Eid Al Adha Mubarak to everyone. May all have the happiness that life has to offer. The littlest one wishes you too.”
Salman in trouble
It must be a little worrying to be in Salman Khan’s shoes. The law is getting closer and closer to him in the hit-and-run case that he was involved in 12 years ago after allegedly running his vehicle over pavement dwellers while being drunk on the wheel. Thanks to the tortuously slow legal process in the country, the case had managed to get dragged on for so long. But it is now in court and every few days there are ominous indications that Salman’s claim to innocence is not being validated. After some really murky happenings like documents related to the case getting lost and then found, and some witnesses going back on their statements, a slew of witnesses are corroborating the prosecution’s charge. Last week, one more witness said that he saw Salman driving. With evidence like this piling up, it only seems a matter of time before a verdict that could potentially send Salman to jail is out. Not that he has not been in jail before. But he is considerably older now and such experiences are much easier to live through in one’s youth.
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