The average showdown

The big showdown between Dilwale and Bajirao Mastani seems to have not really had any real resolution. Everyone had assumed that a Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol-Rohit Shetty movie would be on its way to break a few records but nothing of that sort seems to be happening.
Many had assumed that Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the director of Bajirao Mastani, might implode on the back of his self-indulgence which really knows no boundaries often vacillating between art and pointless spectacle. But that has not come to pass either.
On one day since their release, Bajirao Mastani even crossed the collections of Dilwale. But that still does not mean that it has crossed the winning line in the race between the two movies, because Dilwale is still ahead in the total box office revenues.
It will definitely cross the Rs100 crore mark but that is no cause for celebration in this present time. A few years ago any filmmaker would have been happy with such a number but lately Aamir Khan and Salman Khan have been getting their movies to rake in numbers like Rs200 crore and Rs300 crore.
Indeed even Shah Rukh has been in that club with Chennai Express. And that is why there are no fireworks happening even when Dilwale crosses the Rs100 crore mark, because the way it is going everyone seems clear that it is not going to do much beyond that if you discount its great overseas collections.
Sure this is the Christmas and New Year holiday period, but a movie that releases a week earlier needs momentum to break out —if it does have momentum, then as Aamir Khan has show time and again with his December releases, the ticket collections enter the stratosphere.
Unfortunately Rohit Shetty’s Midas touch has failed him this time and it should worry him because perhaps the audience is just bored with his style of filmmaking that relies on a mix of stunt, silly humour and not any plot to speak of.
There is however another reason for the average business of Dilwale and that has to do with Shah Rukh becoming embroiled in a political controversy when he spoke of an atmosphere of growing intolerance in the country. Protests against him resulted in many theatres being forced to not show Dilwale in some states.
Shah Rukh and Rohit Shetty both say it has affected the fortunes of the movie. And it probably did a little but in the grand picture did it make a big difference? Probably not.

Tech leap

In a recent television interview show, Shah Rukh Khan faced some young fans in the audience and took questions. One of them asked why he kept doing the kind of movies he did, when his resume has some great plot-driven thoughtful movies instead of the out and out commercial fares he has been sticking to in recent times.
His answer was that in the last few years what he has been trying to do is push the boundaries of technology in Bollywood movies. And that while it has been an expensive proposition, it was worth it because he has learnt a lot and this was his way of giving back to an industry that has made him what he is.
The biggest example of his fixation with technology has been his home production Ra.One. It had been a really expensive movie to make and in fact Shah Rukh had had to ramp up his other commercial activities like brand endorsements to make up for the enormous drain that the movie was putting on his finances.
As it turned out, the movie did just about alright and nowhere near what it should have to compensate for the time, energy and resources that he had put into it. But, surprisingly, Shah Rukh says that he will definitely make a sequel to it at some point.
In an interview to a newspaper he said that the name of that movie will be G.One and he will make sure that it will be an even better one, because of the experience with technology they have been gathering.

New Robot

This was a casting coup that was entirely unexpected. It will be remembered that a few years back there was a Rajnikanth movie called Robot. It was made in Tamil but went on to become a huge hit in a number of languages.
Since it is in fashion to make sequels of superhits, one has been announced for Robot also. Rajnikanth himself also needs a hit desperately given that his recent movies haven’t done so well and the legendary status that he enjoys is beginning to wear a little thin.
In the original movie he had a double role and played both villain and hero. But what has come as a surprise is that the antagonist of the sequel is going to be Akshay Kumar.
He has played negative characters in the past but in recent years Akshay has always been a stereotypical hero. Bringing him in is a casting coup of sorts and makes it a movie that will be a huge release in both Hindi and Tamil.

The case goes on

For some time at least, Salman Khan was a man whose relief knew no bounds. This was following his acquittal in the drunk driving hit-and-run case by the High Court.
While he remained very low key soon after the celebrations, not wanting to test the public reaction to such a verdict, after a few days he reportedly called his legal team over and they spent the whole night partying.
He has good reason to thank them given that almost everyone expected him to be held guilty. But now comes news that he is still not off the hook. It was up to the state government to decide whether it would go in appeal to the Supreme Court against the not guilty verdict and they had been silent on it.
It was thought that perhaps Salman’s celebrity status and popularity might work in his favour but now the government has decided that they will indeed go in appeal. If the Supreme Court holds him guilty then that means there is no other appeal left for him. On the other hand he could finally put the case behind him if they uphold that he was not driving the car.

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