HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS SUFFER LOSSES IN BOLLYWOOD!

Tomorrow, one of the most important films of the year, Chandni Chowk To China (CC2C), is all set to hit the screens. Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Nikhil Advani and the Sippys come together for this Hindi flick, which also has a Chinese connection! But what is also notable is that Warner Bros, one of the world’s largest film and television production companies, is also associated with the film as a co-producer! However, Warner Bros is not the first Western Production to make a mark in Bollywood. Other bigwig Hollywood studios, too, invested in some of our films. However, surprisingly, all such films flopped!

CC2C is not the first Bollywood film of Warner Bros. The company had earlier co-produced last year’s disastrous flick Saas Bahu Aur Sensex (SBAS), starring Tanushree Dutta, Kirron Kher, Farooq Sheikh. Inspite of dealing with sensex and telecasting funky promos, the film took a terrible opening at the BO. In fact, it was one of the biggest flops of 2008.

Sony Pictures till date are associated with two Hindi films. The first one is the well-known disaster of 2007, Saawariya! Co-produced by Sony Pictures, Saawariya created tremendous curiosity mainly due to the presence of a ‘hot’ newcomer Ranbir Kapoor. The film would have easily become one of the biggest grosser of Bollywood. But when the product doesn’t turn out to be nice, there’s little chance it’ll score! And that’s what happened with Saawariya too. In spite of having two popular debutants, a topmost director and astonishing sets, the film failed at the BO. Not to forget, it became the butt of many jokes too!

Sony was also associated with Meerabai Not Out (MNO) as worldwide distributors! MNO, like SBAS, was also a big flop. It was released at a completely wrong time, with 4 small films and just a week after 26/11 terror attacks. The film dealt with cricket yet failed to arouse curiosity. Films in first week collect crores or lakhs in Mumbai, but MBO fetched in thousands!

Walt Disney, too, had an unsuccessful innings in Bollywood. They collaborated with Yash Raj Films and churned out the animated Roadside Romeo. A wonderful film, it failed to attract audiences due to its low promotion and wrong release timing. A flop unfortunately.

Lastly, 20th Century Fox were distributors of a lesser known film Bullet-Ek Dhamaka (2005) starring Iqbal Khan and Aseem Merchant. The film was well promoted but failed to attract moviegoers. To add to it, it was released with a biggie like Black. At that time, many didn’t even know a film called Bullet had released!

One fact worth noticing is that all these above mentioned films had either newcomers or lesser known star cast and this was one of the major reasons behind their failures. However, things will change with CC2C! The film has a superstar (Akshay Kumar) and Deepika Padukone, one of the hottest actresses currently. The film’s unusual promos and its Hollywoodish look have created tremendous excitement! Let’s hope the film turns out to be a wonderful entertainer and impresses the audiences in India, China and throughout the world!

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DOUBLE STANDARDS OF CENSOR BORAD!

Many moviegoers, particularly the fairer sex, feel that Ghajini should have got ‘A’ certificate instead of U/A. They are of the opinion that the actions scenes in the film were too gory and harsh and therefore not suitable for minors. I personally feel Ghajini’s U/A certification is justified since most of the film has entertaining comic and romantic scenes. Maybe according to the Censors, a fully action film deserves ‘A’ rather than a semi-action packed film like Ghajini!

But with this, one question arises: If Ghajini can get U/A, why not a film like Fashion? According to Censor Board guidelines, ‘A’ rating is given to a movie which contains extreme violence, sexuality (including nudity), frightening images and language. Fashion had neither. It’s high time CBFC abandons its double standards.