It might not look like it but Saif Ali Khan has just one movie that made more than Rs100 crore. In a long career that spans almost two decades in Bollywood only Race 2, which was in fact a multi-starrer with John Abraham, broke that mark.
On the other hand, Saif has managed to survive in the A-list of Bollywood despite his movies not doing earth-shattering business. Most of the time, he was a steady stable performer who could be banked on to pull in an initial audience which is one of the prime considerations for all commercial movies to ever get made in Bollywood.
But for the last few years, his run has been abysmal at the box office. How does an actor maintain his street cred during such times? He takes on movies that will get him critical acclaim. And so Rangoon, directed by one of Bollywood’s ablest directors Vishal Bhardwaj, was a natural fit for Saif. It was in Omkara, directed by Bhardwaj, that he put in one of his best performances ever.
Rangoon, which released last week, is however belying its promise. For a change, the critics are not raving and the reception is lukewarm. While there are no bad words for Saif himself, to be part of a movie that arouses no excitement is time and energy wasted for an actor.
Box office collections make up for that but in this case, the audience has turned out to be equally unimpressed. The initial collections have been tame and for a movie that stars Shahid Kapoor and Kangana Ranaut besides Saif, that is not a good sign. All three of them could do with a blockbuster at this point in their careers but they will probably have to wait for another time.
For Saif that might be Chef, the remake of the hit Hollywood movie. It is directed by Raja Krishna Menon, who last year delivered a superhit in Airlift. That one however starred Akshay Kumar, who has been on a success plateau for a long
time, including his latest release Jolly LLB 2 that easily broke the Rs100 crore mark.
If Chef becomes a superhit then it will need more than Saif’s star power. But Menon has shown himself to be a director who connects with the audience while still making sensible movies. After Chef, Saif has a few more movies on the line, so he still has opportunities left but they are running out.
Profit cut
Now that it has been a month since Kaabil and Raees released simultaneously, it is a good time to review how they affected each other. What is clear is that Rakesh Roshan was very astute in warning that both movies would make half of what they could unless they released separately.
Raees began with a bang and it was thought that Shah Rukh Khan might finally have the big blockbuster he needs to get into the company of the other Khans. But then after the first week, the movie collections fizzled down until it ended under Rs150 crore in the domestic market. That is half of what Aamir Khan and Salman Khan have been pulling in with their movies.
Kaabil, on the other hand, started like a tortoise but got rolling later. It never quite caught up to Raees but it was not all that far behind either. Both movies crossed Rs100 crores and the difference between was around 30 crores for the Indian market.
This is good news for Hrithik Roshan because the expectation from him is somewhere around this level but for Shah Rukh it is decidedly a poor showing even if he made a ton-load of money on the movie. If they had not released on the same date, both of them could have crossed Rs 200 crore at least.
Forgiven
Pooja Bhatt had a strange experience recently which came to the notice of the world last Thursday when she tweeted, ‘Horrified that a man called Prashant Malgewar-Solitude Lifestyle Inc is masquerading as my agent & taking funds from event co’s on my behalf’.
This was followed by another tweet, ‘A man walks into a reputed event co’s office, claims money on my behalf & no-one there asks for authentication or a signed invoice from me?’
She seemed to suggest that this was fraud and there were even reports that she would be filing a police complaint. But then came a twist after a meeting with the man who took the money. She made him return the money and then, in what seems very gracious, forgave him.
She revealed this in a series of tweets, ‘Met Prashant Malgewar-The man who took money from an event co on my behalf without my consent & made him return the funds to them’, ‘He admitted his deceit, apologised irrevocably & promised he would never attempt something like this with any other artiste or individual’, and ‘‘Prashant Malgewar is a sole bread earner & seemed genuinely remorseful. Will not press charges for the sake of his family. Forgive. Forget.’
Show or no show?
Karan Johar continues to make news for all the right and wrong reasons nowadays. His tell-all autobiography, the controversy over the presence of a Pakistani actor in his movie, his tiff with Ajay Devgn and Kajol have all made for headlines.
Now, one more might be on its way. Kapil Sharma, who made one hit movie and whose comedy show is one of the most popular on television in India, was to be in Karan’s chat show as a guest but now there are rumours that despite the episode having been shot it might not be aired at all.
There are conflicting versions on the reason for it. One of them says that the two had been recently co-hosting an event when Shah Rukh come onto the stage and Kapil is said to have asked Karan to leave, perhaps in humour that didn’t register, leaving the latter miffed. And then there were reports that Kapil himself had been embarrassed by some of the questions Karan asked while shooting for the chat show.
On the other hand, there are also reports that these are just rumours and Kapil will in fact be the guest that ends this season of Koffee With Karan.
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IN NEED OF A HIT: Saif Ali Khan will have to rely on his upcoming films for the hit that he desperately needs.
