An overlap of language
The centre of the Bollywood is Mumbai, which is the capital city of the state of Maharashtra. Bollywood, as we know, is another name for the Hindi film industry.
But in Mumbai itself, there is also a Marathi film industry that makes movies in the local language of the state.
While other parts of India like Chennai and Hyderabad have huge movie industries in Tamil and Telugu, Marathi movies, because of being overshadowed by Hindi, has never been able to make it big on their own.
Recently, the state government decided that to promote the industry all multiplexes must have a show of a Marathi movie at prime time, which is from 6 to 9 in the evening.
And instantly a number of personalities in Bollywood started raising their voices in protest. Mukesh Bhatt, who is the president of The Film & Television Producers Guild of India said that it was unfair that such an order was passed without any consultation. Actress Deepti Naval said that it was a dictatorial order. Other filmmakers and distributors also expressed their discomfort with the move.
Such voices seem to hint that Marathi films would have no takers and therefore the theatres would have to incur losses because of it. But the point that is missed is that most of the Hindi movies that are released also flop miserably. A product from Bollywood does not guarantee a hit. And multiplexes usually have a lot of screens, sometimes more than five. One show being set aside still leaves all the rest for Hindi movies.
That said, there were some voices of support for the measure from Bollywood. One Bollywood man who has switched over to Marathi is Riteish Deshmukh and he tweeted saying it was a welcome move. Ultimately though, the government had to relent and changed the window’s start time from 6pm to noon.
OPPOSITION: Mukesh Bhatt flayed the Marathi state government for its orders compelling multiplexes to show a Marathi film during primetime.
Twitter talker
One actor who rallied in public against the move for a Marathi quota was Rishi Kapoor.
He tweeted, “You cannot thrust anything on anyone zabardasti. If it is good it will survive otherwise..Cinema is also a business. Big monies involved.”
He seems to be an odd man to get involved in an issue like this but while Rishi was always known by film journalists to be someone who speaks his mind, the public is only now getting a taste of this after he started to be active on Twitter.
He soon landed into a number of controversies. When a law was amended, making beef unavailable in Mumbai, Rishi publicly opposed it. He tweeted then, “I am angry. Why do you equate food with religion?? I am a beef eating Hindu. Does that mean I am less God fearing then a non eater? Think!!”
And when there was something said against women in Parliament, he tweeted asking what sort of manhood was this that attacked weaker people. Immediately people labelled him sexist and he then tried to make amends with a series of tweets that spoke of the many movies that he had done on women’s emancipation.
At one point, fed up of all the controversies he was getting into, he even told a newspaper that he was thinking of leaving Twitter because he was constantly being misunderstood. But, fortunately for his followers, he seems to have changed his mind. Interestingly, his Twitter profile goes with these words, “Son of a famous Father, Father of a famous Son. That leaves me no where!” But he is certainly making more news than both of them at present.
TWITTER BIRD: Rishi Kapoor said at one point that he was leaving Twitter, because he was constantly being misunderstood. But he seems to have changed his mind.
Revealing contract
Ekta Kapoor has a few character traits that have led to her becoming a successful businesswoman. She is a pathbreaker and spots trends long before they become apparent to anyone else. That was how she revolutionised Indian television with her family dramas.
Then she came into movies and another aspect of her character — adaptability — came into the fore. After a run of flops, she quickly changed her strategy, going for a mix of movies that catered to different interests in the audience, employing talented directors and also combining it with hard commercial sense. So she could produce a classy movie like Lootera and also a horror skin flick like Ragini MMS 2.
She is also said to be a hard taskmaster when it comes to people management. And she probably thought she was a bit remiss in that earlier when it came to actors being asked to do sensual scenes that called for exposing their bodies.
It is rumoured that in Ragini MMS 2, Sunny Leone had refused to do certain explicit scenes when she was asked to do them. Ekta’s now producing a movie called XXX, which explores sexuality, and she doesn’t want to take any chances this time. And so actors in the movie have been asked to sign what is being termed a nudity clause that doesn’t allow them to refuse to do those scenes later. The director of the movie says that they had to be cautious in not having actors back out once production starts.
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BUSINESSWOMAN: Ekta Kapoor has quickly adapted to the ways of Bollywood.
Rejected or not?
Bobby Deol was once thought to be the next superstar on the horizon but he is now relegated to being in movies like Yamla Pagla Deewana, produced by his own family.
Recently one more movie of their production and starring him in the lead role was said to be in the pipeline. It was said to be based on the life of Genghis Khan. But then came news that indicated few shared his optimism about his own standing.
Because apparently, said media reports, he had approached Nargis Fakhri to be the heroine in the movie and she had refused citing date considerations. Nargis herself has hardly any big successes to talk about and so if she rejects Bobby’s movie then it is somewhat humiliating.
As it turned out, Nargis clarified that she had not rejected the movie because it had not been offered to her so far. She tweeted, “Unverified info seems 2b the media norm. How can i decline work that I’ve never been offered?!”
ON THE WANE: Bobby Deol was once thought to be the next superstar on the horizon but he is now relegated to being in movies produced by his own family.
