Showing posts with label Ajay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ajay. Show all posts
Sunny Deol accused of dishonouring multiple film commitments after taking advance payments
11:19 PM
The actor-MP has been accused of dishonouring multiple film commitments after taking advance payments, more so after his film Gadar 2 had a successful run at the box office
Yashika Mathur (HINDUSTAN TIMES; May 30, 2024)
Film producer Sorav Gupta (of Sundawn Entertainment Pvt Ltd) has levelled shocking allegations of cheating, extortion and forgery against actor-MP Sunny Deol. In a press conference earlier this week, Gupta, a real estate developer turned producer alleged that Sunny Deol took money from him in advance to do a film in 2016, continued to take more money while promising that he would start the film, but eventually never ended up doing the film after his recent film Gadar 2 became a huge hit.
Gupta tells HT City that in 2016 he signed a deal with Sunny Deol as the lead for his film on a fee of Rs. 4 cr. “We gave him Rs. 1 cr in advance but instead of starting my film, he opted to shoot for Poster Boys (2017) instead. He kept asking me for more money and by now my Rs. 2.55 cr is in Sunny ji’s account. He also made me give money to another director, book Filmistaan studio and get an executive producer,” Gupta tells us.
The producer also alleges that Deol forged an agreement with his company in 2023. “When we read the agreement, humne dekha ki unhonein toh panna hi change kar diya beech wala, jahan par fees ka amount Rs. 4 cr ko badha kar Rs. 8 cr kar diya aur profit to Rs. 2 cr kar diya,” he shares.
Filmmaker Suneel Darshan, known for films such as Janwar (1999) and Andaaz (2003) also came in support of Gupta in the same press conference and alleged that he, too, had faced the same issue with Sunny Deol. “Sunny Deol acquired rights from my movie Ajay (1996) for overseas distribution and only made a partial payment. The balance payment never came through,” says Darshan, adding, “Later, Sunny requested me to work on a project with him, saying, ‘Have faith in me, help me out’, and got me to pay him again.”
An industry source, on condition of anonymity, tells us that Deol is notorious for dishonouring commitments with several producers after signing agreements . “He is a known troublemaker for years. Sunny had given a bound script of a film called Ram Janmbhumi to a producer who created a huge set in Mumbai. Sunny signed the film for Rs. 5 cr. But later, he refused to come to the sets and demanded a fees of Rs. 25 cr because he had delivered a blockbuster (Gadar 2, 2023).”
Gupta shares that he has filed a police complaint against Deol “The police issued [Deol] a notice on April 30. His office sent a letter saying he was out of town on the day he was to present himself,” says Gupta.
We reached out to Sunny Deol for his side but were met with no response till the time of going to press.
(R-L) Suneel Darshan, Sorav Gupta and Ashok Sarogi
Coronavirus lockdown: Cinema can come back stronger, going by past instances
9:08 AM
Box Office India Trade Network
The Coronavirus pandemic is looking to be the biggest shutdown ever for Hindi cinema with the worst seen before being in 2009 when there was no major release for around 2 months though small films did release on limited screens. This is going to be a longer shutdown if we go by China where cinemas have some chance of opening in a few weeks time which would mean a 3 month shutdown. It is being reported that the biggest theatre in Wuhan where the pandemic started was disinfected yesterday getting ready to open up.
So with the huge problems in US and Europe, the 3 month period looks a minimum for this shutdown and its not that too if everything goes back to normal as soon as cinemas open up. There is fear in the industry that this will change cinema forever for the worse but that's an unlikely scenario. The only horrible scenario is that a vaccine for this pandemic proves hard to find as that will for sure change cinema forever. But considering where medical science is around the world today, you would expect someone somewhere to find one.
Obviously the industry in this scenario takes the negative side as they see films with lower budgets and stars cutting fees to help out when that is not probably the need of the hour as the audience that was there has not run away. However, there is a huge global pandemic which does not allow socializing and eventually things will come back to how it was before. However, there is no time frame as to when that'll happen. Its always weird the industry always expected stars to cut prices in bad times but that has never really happened. It is all supply and demand and these prices are not forced. Also its a totally star driven industry and until you find the technique or content to drive the industry, then star prices will only go one way and that is up.
The last shutdown in 2009 did see higher occupancy at multiplexes and that was even though 2009 did not have huge event films. But that was not a health scare also so the likely scenario is that the higher occupancy will come this time as well due to pent up demand. But it will not be straight away and may take some time but eventually they will be higher as the health risks diminish.
There have been four major shutdowns in the last fifty years or so and after each one, there has been an uptick in average box office occupancy for a period. In March 1968 there was a shutdown of releases and shoots for 19 days due to high rental charges in North and CP, CI, Rajasthan. The mega BLOCKBUSTER RAM AUR SHYAM was one week away from a silver jubilee in many theatres when this shutdown came. Post the shutdown there was a line of big HITS and successful films.
In October 1986, there was a halt of releases in Mumbai due to huge taxes which were around 170% in Maharashtra. Films did continue to release in other circuits and DOSTI DUSHMANI and INSAAF KI AWAAZ proved to be HITS during the strike while NAGINA, which released a week after the strike was halted, was a blockbuster. The tax was so bad that there were some films having a 10 lakh total GROSS collections and the share to the distributor was just one lakh. This bandh lasted 31 days.
The tax problem in Maharashtra returned in January 1997 and there was a shutdown for a month with no major releases. The state government had bought down entertainment tax to 50% in September 1984 and it was going back to 100% from January 1997 which led to cinemas shutting in Maharashtra and no big releases. The casualty was AJAY which only had a one week run in Maharashtra. When the cinemas opened up in February, there was a flood of grossers like JUDWAA, HERO NO 1, ZIDDI and KOYLA.
Then in 2009, there was the longest strike due to a revenue sharing issue between multiplexes and distributors/producers. The cinemas did remain open so there was no causalities but there was not a major release for almost 3 months. All the chains saw better average occupancy for six months after the strike then what they saw for six months prior to the strike.
So there is hope that cinema will come back stronger when the things are back to normal though it will take time as all the other closures were industry problems and here its a huge global issue. A good result will be if things get going sometime in the third quarter but due to westerns countries having the worst of the pandemic, the fourth quarter may be when the bigger films come and there could be a line of them.
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