Force 2 couldn’t have been released at a more inappropriate time. The government has just demonetised Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes, which made up 85 percent of all the currency in the country, and replacing them in the system is expected to take several months.
One fallout of the move has been on cinemas, where tickets are mostly booked in cash. It was a given that Force 2 might therefore be in for a substantial loss. But given the nature of Bollywood economics, where every Friday’s release is more or less pre-decided many months in advance, it was impractical to shift Force 2’s release either.
As a result, the John Abraham movie made just under Rs30 crore in its first week. Normally a movie doesn’t see any big leap in collections after this period. And in an age when Rs100 crore is the benchmark for a big hit, this figure doesn’t look too good.
On the other hand, it is after all a John Abraham movie and they don’t really get into the Rs100 crore territory. The movie he did before this one, Rocky Handsome, had even lesser collections. Even Force, of which Force 2 is a sequel, made less money even though it was deemed a hit. By that reckoning, Force 2 is a more successful movie. The producers might well be wondering what would have been their movie’s takings if the demonetisation had not happened. They might very well have had a big hit on their hands!
Incidentally, John did go into some trouble for Force 2. During its shooting he had had to be hospitalised with a knee injury for which surgery was required. But he has now revealed just how serious it was. He almost lost his leg with the doctors contemplating amputating it because he had ignored a blood clot for too long. Luckily for him an operation had managed to treat it just in time.
Amitabh rumour
There is something really strange about R Balki’s fixation with Amitabh Bachchan. The director’s debut film was Cheeni Kum in which he made an old Amitabh play a romantic role. It was a decent movie that became somewhat convoluted towards the end.
Balki then directed Paa, where he cast Amitabh as a young boy with a disease that made him look like an old man. Then there was Shamitabh, in which he made Amitabh’s voice the main hero.
As the movies became stranger, they also began to be less successful at the box office. He finally got out of his Amitabh fixation by casting Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor as the main leads in Ki & Ka. But he still couldn’t resist having Amitabh in it with a special appearance at least. That movie just about recovered its money.
For some reason, the poor response by the audience doesn’t seem to deter Balki. When news came that he had gone back to his old favourite, Amitabh, yet again for his next project no one was surprised but that he might also have Akshay Kumar in it did generate some excitement.
Amitabh and Akshay have acted together in a few movies but the last one was a decade ago. But Balki soon clarified that the news was nothing more than a rumour. He spoke of not having even thought of what movie he was going to do, far from deciding on the cast.
Unforgiven
A year back Salman Khan was furious when Bollywood personalities like Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Karan Johar took part in a stand-up comedy routine called roast, in which participants insult and humiliate each other using the foulest of language.
It had become instantly controversial with even police cases lodged against them. But then everyone forgot about it, except for Salman. The reason for it was Arjun, who had once been Salman’s sister’s boyfriend.
Some of the jokes made at the roast had had to do with this relationship and that was something Salman is said to have found intolerable. In the video of the event put up online those jokes were reported to have been snipped out. But Salman has not forgiven as was evident at a marriage that both of them attended.
He is reported to have pointedly ignored Arjun, suggesting that the latter was still in his bad books. There could also be another reason for this cooling off. Salman’s brother Arbaaz has just divorced Malaika Arora and there was gossip that once upon a time Arjun was even having an affair with Malaika. In a recent interview, she denied that there was anything like that going on ever and people had given a different meaning to what was a good friendship.
This recurring appearance of Arjun in connection to his family has to be disturbing if you are in Salman’s shoes.
Playing Madhuri?
Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor started their careers together with the Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed Saawariya. And they were never seen together in a movie ever since, somewhat unusual for two actors who have been in the A-list for almost a decade. It was said that the two were in a relationship during the Saawariya days. Whether that is true and whether the subsequent break up led to them not acting opposite each other is a mystery.
But it is just possible that they might soon act in the same movie and the director who is said to be responsible for this is Rajkumar Hirani. He is making a biopic on Sanjay Dutt’s life and Ranbir is playing Sanjay. Sonam, it is said, might be playing the character of Madhuri Dixit who was once upon a time rumoured to be in a relationship with Sanjay. It was said to be after their break up that Madhuri decided to opt for an arranged marriage.
To have this part of Sanjay’s life shown on film will certainly invoke a lot of curiosity. That it is being played by estranged lovers just makes it all the more interesting.
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Force 2 could have been a much bigger hit if not for the demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes.
