Archive for Achilles
Drona story is a lift of the Azreal superhero storyline
Wnat to find more? wait for the film … and those familiar with azreal storyline will know the ‘inspiration’ .
Rock On: Another feather is Farhan Akhtar’s cap
One of the most underplayed debuts of recent times, Farhan Akhtar is a winner all the way, despite the missing brouhaha that surrounds the first film of anyone belonging to of a Bollywood family, as he rolls out another endearing and young film much like Dil Chahta Hai.
The storyline couldn’t get simpler. A set of young close knit college friends start a band called Magic that goes on to win a rock contest giving them their first big break. But misunderstandings soon lead to their break up and consecutive estrangement with each of them locking up their passion for music to pursue more practical career options. What they all leave behind is their camaraderie and an unfulfilled passion for music only to lead superficially sated lives with a void that almost never goes away.
Ten years and an accidental meeting brings them all face to face with their past confronting them with their denial and incompletion. And what begins then, is a resurrection for their first love and another contest that would bring the band back together on the stage, this time for more emotional reasons than otherwise.
An undemanding story, portrayed with much ease and comfort, Rock On is absolutely fabulous and most believably real.
Rock On on Rolling Stone cover! - Farhan’s dream comes true
Subhash K. Jha
Sunday, August 31, 2008: (Mumbai) :
Actor-director Farhan Akhtar is elated with the cast and composers of Rock On making it to the cover of popular music magazine Rolling Stone.
The September issue of the magazine features Farhan, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny, Purab Kohli and composer trio Shankar-Ehasaan-Loy on the cover - all looking dapper in black.
“Doing a film where I play a rock musician is a dream come true. But being on the cover of Rolling Stone? Man, that’s beyond a dream,” Farhan remarked.
ET - Drona Insured for 50 crores
Economic Times
MUMBAI: It’s not just producers and directors who are excited about the rising corporate investment in the Indian film industry. Insurance companies have reason to smile too: the film insurance business is prospering. Private insurer Bajaj Allianz is expecting a 50 per cent growth in its film insurance business this year. Drona, due to release on October 2, has been insured for Rs 50 crore by the state-owned insurer United India Insurance (UII).
All the big-ticket releases of this year, Love story 2050, Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na and Jodhaa Akbar, were insured.
“The film industry has always been an unorganised sector. With the entry of corporates in this sector, it has become more organised and corporatised. This means that producers want to insure their productions to mitigate some losses,” said TA Ramalingam, head, underwriting at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, which insured the recent release Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na. He also added that independent producers are still shying away from insurance since they do not want to pay the premium.
The premium to insure a film usually ranges between 0.75-1 per cent of the total insured amount. While writing a film insurance policy, the insurer usually covers the expenses incurred by the producer due to the death or injury of actors, damage to sets, costumes, equipment as well as theft. A film’s performance on the box office can not be insured.
“Film insurance is a tricky trade. It requires complete understanding of the film industry. It can’t be treated like other insurance policies because film production is a fairly complicated process involving people and equipment,” said Ajit Gupta, development manager, UII. For the record, the trend of film insurance began in India in the late nineties when Subhash Ghai’s Taal was the first film to be insured by UII. Since then, UII, the pioneer in this segment, has insured about 100 films.
Akshay Kumar is King in Bollywood
With his latest success Singh is Kinng, Akshay Kumar has jumped into a pay bracket of Rs 70 crore.
Apparently, UTV has signed him for their next project for Rs 70 crores. This puts him above the Khans and Hrithik Roshan.
For over a decade the Khans were ruling the roost in Bollywood. They were the first to break into the crore bracket. Hrithik Roshan joined them after his debut in 2000.
Now Akshay Kumar who has repackaged himself according to the times has skipped ahead of these kings of Bollywood.
Bollywood: The Bollywood king, but not a Khan!
With Singh is King netting Rs 29 crore in its first weekend compared to Rs 26 crore for last year’s blockbuster ‘Om Shanti Om,’ the most successful star in Bollywood need no longer be a Khan, a Bachchan or a Roshan. For over a decade, there seemed to be a smooth transition from Shahenshah Bachchan to Badshah Shahrukh, with an intermittent challenge from Aamir and Hrithik.
If the 1970s and 80s were dominated by Amitabh’s roles of an angry young man called Vijay taking on the system in Deewaar and Agneepath, the last decade has been mostly about the fun guy next door called Rahul getting the girl even if Shahrukh started his career by literally killing her softly with his song in Baazigar or scaring her out of her wits in Darr! The more serious space was occupied by Aamir whose Lagaan was nominated for an Oscar in the category of the best foreign film. And the schoolkids were wowed by Hrithik playing Superman in Krrish.
Now Akshay Kumar has broken into this charmed circle of those who rule Bollywood. Singh is Kinng has proved he can no longer be dismissed as a hero of the front-benchers and whose earthy humour appeals only to the masses - like in director Madhur Bhandarkar’s Aan: Men at Work where police-officer Akshay hurls a cop-killer to his doom from the top of a building and who, when asked where the baddie is, quietly replies “Voh oopar gaya hai” (”He has gone up”)!
In a Robust Industry, the Titans of Bollywood Reign Supreme
‘Who gives us clout?” Shahrukh Khan, the actor also known as King of Bolly wood, asked during a recent interview here. He quickly answered the query himself. “It’s the last mile, the audience. My logic is this: Can you beat me at the box office?”
In the last 15 years few have challenged Khan at the top of the Bollywood box office. His string of blockbusters has given him such clout - as well as wax statues in his honor at Madame Tussauds in London and the Musee Grevin in Paris - that India Today, one of the country’s leading newsmagazines, placed the 42-year-old Khan at No.6 in its annual power list in February. He may have ranked below the billionaire Ambani brothers, but he came in ahead of the former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. And it was no accident that the most powerful man in the Hindi film industry is an actor. In Bollywood the motion picture industry remains resolutely star struck, even as special effects have helped to reduce Hollywood’s dependence on big- name actors.
“There is a variety of ways in which a picture gets made in Hollywood, but I can say without qualification that in Hindi pictures stars are the determining factor much more than they are in Los Angeles,” said Michael Lynton, the chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which helped produce “Saawariya” (Beloved), the first Hollywood-Bollywood studio collaboration.
Five men dominate the business in Bollywood: Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan (the Khans are not related), Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan. Each of these stars functions almost as a one-man studio, with an in-house production company. Two of the most successful films in 2007 - “Om Shanti Om” and “Tare Zameen Par” (Stars on Earth) - were produced by the companies of Shahrukh Khan (”Om”) and Aamir Khan (”Tare”). The last holdout to the production game, Kumar, co-produced his latest release, “Singh Is Kinng,” which set a Bollywood record by making $15million in its opening weekend this month.
Bollywood beats sports stars in endorsement pitch
NEW DELHI: Gone are the days when cricketers dominated the advertising scene. The power balance between sports and the silver screen for celebrity endorsements has shifted almost entirely to Bollywood, a fact revealed when ET scanned through five-year data collated by media tracking firm TAM AdEx.
Surprisingly, this is despite the huge success of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Here are the hard facts:
The number of brands endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar has dropped from 10 to 6 over a period of five years, Rahul Dravid’s endorsements have slipped from 12 to 5 and Sourav Ganguly barely has a couple to his credit, down from 9 in 2003.
Filmfare - Will Priyanka overshadow Abhishek?
We have seen her doing stunt scenes with lot of vigor. Well Priyanka has already been appreciated for her performance in Don and now once again this beautiful actress is going to show her rough and tough side in Drona!
It is learned that Priyanka has an interesting role in Drona where she plays Abhishek’s bodyguard and thus walks away with better stunt scenes! We’ve heard that despite playing the lead role in Drona Abhishek has less action scenes than Priyanka! “She will be seen doing more action sequences than the actual hero of this film”, said our source.
Reportedly Priyanka has gone through some rigorous training to perform those difficult scenes swiftly. Interestingly after Hrithik Roshan and Harman Baweja, it is Abhishek who will now join the Superhero bandwagon.
But what if most of the action will be done by his heroine? A unit hand explains, “Priyanka’s role is equally interesting in the film but since Abhishek plays the lead role, he had to get more prominence thus its first trailer showcased Abhishek without Priyanka. There is nothing more than what meets the eye.”
‘The Dark Knight’ Triumphs Again
All speculations of Mummy dislodging it from #1 has been proved false. It has almost done 400 M in 17 days … and as I said before, 500 M milestone will be crossed by TDK.
For the third week, the Warner Brothers Batman movie “The Dark Knight,” starring Christian Bale as the caped crusader and Heath Ledger as the Joker, took the top spot at the weekend box office, earning $43.8 million. The film, directed by Christopher Nolan, has made $394.9 million in three weeks of release and Warner Brothers is expecting it to easily break $400 million within a few days. That milestone would put “The Dark Knight” well on the way to surpass the original “Star Wars,” which is the current No. 2 in overall box office revenue for the United States and Canada, with $461 million. “Titanic” holds the all-time record at $601 million. Over the weekend “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” (Universal), starring Brendan Fraser, came in a close second with $42.5 million in its first weekend. Mr. Fraser had two movies in the Top 5: the 3-D action film “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (Warner Brothers) came in fifth with $6.9 million, for $73.1 million in four weeks. Coming in third was “Step Brothers,” the comedy starring Will Ferrell from Sony’s Columbia Pictures, which made $16.3 million over the weekend and $63 million cumulatively in two weeks. In fourth place was “Mamma Mia!” (Universal) with $13.1 million in its third week, and $88 million overall.
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Jodhaa Akbar Celebrates Silver Jubilee
Jodhaa Akbar is celebrating its silver jubilee week in Mumbai. The film is running in three theatres in the city. Dreamland, Cinemax Sion and Fame Malad have the film on matinee shows.
Jodhaa Akbar is the biggest worldwide grosser of 2008. It grossed 63 crore nett (96 crore gross) in India and 31.25 crore overseas. The worldwide total was over 127 crore.
Jodhaa Akbar starred Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Sonu Sood, Khulbushan Kharbanda, Poonam Sinha and Raza Murad. The film was directed by Ashutosh Gowariker who also produced the film alongwith UTV. Music was by A R Rehman and lyrics by Javed Akhtar.
Economic Times - Sarkar Raj is a Failure
MUMBAI: After the failure of Sarkar Raj and Contract (we’re not even bringing up Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag), Ramu has devised a new way to promote his next film, Phoonk. This hardcore horror flick is set to release next month. And Ramu claims that Phoonk is the scariest of all his horror films.
So much so that now Ramu and Azam Khan, his producer, have, rather immodestly, announced a prize money of Rs 5 lakh for anyone who can dare to see the film all alone in the theatre. Darna strictly mana hai.
Azam Khan says, “We’re confident that the film is so scary that it will be extremely difficult to watch it all alone in a theatre. We will be running a contest and giving out details on our website about how to participate in it. Right now we have decided that we will screen the film for the winners of the contest a few days before the release of the film, that is on August 22. At the moment we have planned four trials that we will screen in a preview theatre.”
RGV’s ‘Phoonk’ is the scariest of all his horror films!
After the failure of Sarkar Raj and Contract (we’re not even bringing up Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag), Ramu has devised a new way to promote his next film, Phoonk. This hardcore horror flick is set to release next month. And Ramu claims that Phoonk is the scariest of all his horror films.
So much so that now Ramu and Azam Khan, his producer, have, rather immodestly, announced a prize money of Rs 5 lakh for anyone who can dare to see the film all alone in the theatre. Darna strictly mana hai.
Azam Khan says, “We’re confident that the film is so scary that it will be extremely difficult to watch it all alone in a theatre. We will be running a contest and giving out details on our website about how to participate in it. Right now we have decided that we will screen the film for the winners of the contest a few days before the release of the film, that is on August 22. At the moment we have planned four trials that we will screen in a preview theatre.”
The condition is simple - anyone who wants to win Rs 5 lakh has to watch the film from start to finish, without getting out of the theatre. The contest will be well-publicised. We are now working out the logistics of date and time.”
The Dark Knight Holds All Time Box Office Triumph
The Dark Knight is clearly Hollywood’s most luminous hero – yes, we are all out of metaphors, oxymora and superlatives for this film that has wooed critics, fascinated fans and rewritten box office history.
The latest installment in the Batman franchise, starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader and the late Heath Ledger as his nemesis, the chillingly creepy Joker, has reached new heights of movie industry glory.
The film has been breaking record after record in consecutive new “Bests.” Best three-day opening, Top-Grossing overall box office weekend, Fastest movie to reach the $200 million mark and the list goes on.
Angelina Jolie tipped as next Catwoman
Angelina Jolie wants to play the role of Catwoman in a future Batman movie.
The actress, who gave birth to twins earlier this month, is reported to have already made enquiries with film executives about playing the part.
Julie Newmar, who played the feline villain in the 1960s Batman television series, said Jolie would make a fantastic Catwoman should the character be reprised.
Wolverine trailer! - KickASSSSSSS!
The best ever Superhero character ever created … along with Batman!
With The Dark Knight destroying all competition at the box office, the question for comic book fans is: now what?
The answer may be Wolverine. The trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine has hit the net, and it looks to do Canada’s finest superhero justice. And yes, Gambit makes an appearance.
`Dark Knight‘ sets record for reaching $300M
LOS ANGELES - “The Dark Knight” continues to obliterate box office records, crossing the $300 million mark in just 10 days.
That surpasses the record set in 2006 by “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man‘s Chest,” which took 16 days to make $300 million.
Fellman expects that “Dark Knight” could reach $400 million in about 18 days, which would beat the record “Shrek 2″ set in 2004 when it made that much money in 43 days.
‘Dark Knight’ Domination Spreads Overseas
Christopher Nolan sequel has already past ‘Batman Begins’ in worldwide box office.
Already smashing all domestic records, Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” has now moved to the top of the foreign box office as well.
Expanding to 43 territories and playing on 7,143 screens in its second weekend in international release, “The Dark Knight” took in $65.6 million for the three-day period ending Sunday, July 27.
Ok that is a different piece then. Check out the September 2008 issue of The Atlantic, lots if interesting ...
Q, This was a Newsweek piece although it might have been referencing the Fallows article. I will have to go ...
McCain is a hypocrite and totally unreliable. Shame on American public if they shy away from Obama because he is ...
Chipguy, McCain is not a hardliner on abortion he is more pro choice this Palin chick is an extreme on ...
Don't recall saying people were here because of me. But I've seen some of the abuse I've got in the ...
lol satyam, stop flattering yourself brother, i expected you asking for 50% revenues of ng after you said people come ...
Have a hard time believing this. 
LOL Rockstar !!
Although I would urge you to put the words "So Called" before Secular !