‘Sikandar’ Ka Muqaddar

If there’s growing resentment in the trade (due to reasons mentioned above), there’s also a sense of bewilderment, particularly towards the postponement of the release of one film. That film is Big’s Sikandar. In the ongoing fight between multiplexes and producers/distri­butors, Big and PVR had made it absolutely clear that they were with the multiplexes. No doubt, the two corporates also have production and distribution businesses, but they’ve both given more importance to their exhibition (multiplex) business and quite understandably so. Before the fight started, Big had been announcing the release of Sikandar for 27th March. Somehow, the film did not release that day. Read more

Worst Time For Cinemas

Cinemas all over India are, perhaps, facing the worst time of their existence. In 1986, cinemas in Maharashtra had downed shutters in their fight against the state government for reduction in entertainment tax. Around that time, cinemas in Uttar Pradesh had also closed down, again to pro­test against government inaction. Barring such closures, cinemas in the country have never had it as bad as in the present times when producers have announced a halt to all new Hindi film releases. Read more

The ‘Prem’ Kahani Continues

Right from Sooraj Bar­jatya’s Maine Pyar Kiya, in which his character was called Prem, Salman Khan has had a fascination for that name. The actor wants the magic of that name to now rub off on brother Arbaaz Khan. That is why he has asked producer Ashok Kheny to change the title of his film starring Arbaaz Khan, from Shaadi Ke Effects to Prem Ka Game. Inciden­tally, Salman Khan plays the narrator in the film, giving warning signals to the straying husband (Arbaaz Khan).

Issue dated 26 April – 1 May. 2009

Salman Khan’s Unique Gift

So happy was Salman Khan when he saw the rushes of his Wanted that he on his own recorded a promotional song for the film with its music directors, Sajid-Wajid. This is his gift to producer Boney Kapoor whom Salman has ask­ed to use the song extensively to promote the film which is a remake of the Tamil and Telugu blockbuster, Pokkiri. The surprise doesn’t end there. The song has been rendered by Salman himself! You never know, if this song catches the fancy of the public, Salman Khan may be wanted not just as a hero but also as a singer by his other producers.

Issue dated 26 April – 1 May. 2009

Growing Resentment

The resentment has begun and it is only growing with each passing day. One is talking about the reaction to the embargo on new releases put by the core committee of producers and distributors from April 4. It is already three weeks since the releases were put on hold but the standoff between multiplexes and producers/distributors, be­cause of which the core committee cancelled all fresh releases, still continues. Read more

Popular Poonam

Poonam Dhillon may not be doing too many films but she has kept her contacts in the industry with one and all alive. This and her popularity were on display at her grand birthday celebrations on 18th April at The Imperial. Read more

Cinemas Downing Shutters

Production offices may be buzzing with activity but offices of distributors and exhi­bitors as well as cinemas are as good as shut these days. With no new releases since three weeks now, distribution offices have no work and so also exhibition offices. As for cinemas these days, there are often lesser number of patrons in the auditorium than the staff members on duty! It is due to this reason that most of the multiplexes have either shut down some of their screens or drastically reduced the number of shows they conduct daily.

The single-screen Roxy cinema in Bombay has announced closure for a month. Probably, the cinema management doesn’t expect that a settlement to the ongoing dispute between producers/distributors and multiplex owners will come about for another four weeks! Also, since IPL cricket matches are posing tough competition to films, the management of Roxy cinema may have decided to keep its pre­cincts closed to the public even if a settlement to the dispute is found before May-end. Another cinema in Bombay – Liberty – has dec­lared that it will remain closed for a week from 24th April for maintenance work. These are but two examples of cinemas in Bombay. The position is no different in other parts of the country.
Issue dated 26 April – 1 May. 2009

Trim, Prim And Proper

All the flak Vidya Balan got for having put on weight, seems to have prompted her to shed some. The Pari­neeta girl is back to looking slim, prim and pretty. Well, there must’ve been projects that didn’t land in her lap be­cause she looked bulkier than what she ought to have looked. Now that Vidya is back in shape, one can be sure

Issue dated 26 April – 1May. 2009

Cinema Employees Badly Hit

Producers and distributors may have adopted a tough stand against the seven multiplex chains with which they have a problem about revenue-sharing, but they now need to take a compassionate view of the situation. For, in this crossfire between producers and multiplex owners, the ones paying a price are also the employees of not just the seven multiplex chains but of many other multiplexes and single-screen cine­mas too. Many staffers of cinemas and multiplexes have either been asked to proceed on unpaid leave or have been sacked from their jobs.

Some cinemas have re­duced the working hours of their employees due to the re­duction in the number of shows conducted daily, and, conseq­uently, also proportio­nately reduced the salaries of the employees. As if the recession hadn’t hit the working class in the exhibition trade badly, this dispute and its repercussions have come as yet another bolt from the blue. If not for the sake of the seven national multiplex chains, let the core committee of producers and distributors revoke its decision to cancel all new film releases, for the sake of the cinema employees at least!

Leave alone the staff members of the cinemas, even caterers and contractors who supply cinemas their daily quota of samosas and batata vadas are at the receiving end, thanks to the suspension of new releases. Cinemas are the only place from which many of such caterers earn their livelihood. Several of them must not be getting their two square meals a day now. Spare a thought for them, industry people! They, too, are a part of this industry which sells dreams but is today haunting its own people like a nightmare.
Issue dated 26 April – 1 May. 2009

My Mom’s New Boyfriend (English)

In the line of duty, employees are sometimes pressed into uncomfortable positions. In Millennium Films’ My Mom’s New Boyfriend (A), an FBI agent heads a team that keeps surveillance on his mother even when she’s in her closed bedroom with her boy­friend. Read more

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