Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 3, 2015)

When Basu Bhattacharya confided in Sangeeth Sivan's father that his son, Aditya, wanted to direct a film, cinematographer-director Sivan immediately offered to loan him his equipment, which included lights and a Mitchell camera, and his sons, Santosh and Sangeeth. Sangeeth was a capable production guy with contacts at Prasad Lab in Chennai which got him rolls of high speed Agfa film for free which Santosh, a talented cinematographer, put to good use, reeling off one brilliant four-minutes, 400-feet shots after another. He even did the dissolves and superimpositions in camera, having experimented on this earlier with his brother on the documentaries they had worked on.

"Babla (Aditya) and Nusrat (Aamir Khan's sister) would write the script all day and we would shoot through the night. The last shot would be taken as day was breaking and the last Rs 200 would be spent on chai, samosas and jalebis," recalls Sangeeth, adding that one day, Pankaj Kapur wanted a packet of cigarettes. "The money was over so I scrounged around and managed to put together the Rs 80 needed. The next day, he returned the money to me, saying I could pay back what I owned to everyone in tens and twenties having watched me beg and borrow."

He recalls shooting at Bandra with Pankaj waiting on a bike under a lamp post. He had to strike a match which cast a glow on his face. "He gave us take after perfect take without the match blowing out despite a strong wind from the sea. It was only later that he revealed that he'd strike three-four matches together knowing he wouldn't be caught out in a long shot," says Sangeeth.

Aamir was shooting for Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak simultaneously and would turn up whenever he had an evening free and the rest of the team who had bunked out at Basu's bungalow for two months, would spring into action. Even though they could only shoot when co-producer Asif Noor who had a shop in Bandra sold a pant or a shirt, the shoot went off smoothly. None of the crew got paid and even Aamir used his remuneration for the promotions. Raakh was ready before QSQT but as they had promised, they waited for Aamir's uncle, Nasir Hussain's film to release first. It was a blockbuster and they were rewarded with a steady stream of distributors. But many of them got scared off when they discovered that it was a dark, three-hour plus film with no masala. The ones who stayed insisted on its length being trimmed down. "Babla who was out of the country, warned that not a single frame should be cut," reveals Sangeeth. "But Asif managed to convince him."

Then, Sangeeth and the film's editor, A Sreekar Prasad, sat down to re-edit the married print which had already been mixed, ensuring there was no sound jerks. Aamir, who knew the script well was consulted on the cuts. "On one occasion he told us to edit a scene that had him crying without glycerine. But on second thought, he felt the high-performance shot should be retained. So we had to put back what had been cut twice over," he laughs.

Sreekar won the National Award for editing, Pankaj for best supporting actor and Aamir got a special jury mention.

Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 14, 2014)

Sangeeth Sivan’s next, titled Fools, has landed in a controversy and that too of his own making. Sivan had zeroed in on the cast —Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor and Kunal Kemmu—but the film, to be produced by Anuj Sharma (Anil Gaddar Sharma’s brother), is unlikely to take off on schedule. Last evening, Arshad pulled out from the film and the chain of events that led to his exit revolves around T P Aggarwal.

The producer had signed Sangeeth to direct a film by the same name (Fools) that was to star Sanjay Dutt and Arshad. Both the projects also share a scriptwriter, Pankaj Trivedi. Aggarwal claims to have paid Rs 1 crore to Sanjay, Rs 50 lakh to Arshad and Rs 16 lakh to Sangeeth, before discovering that his film has got a twin.

When Mirror contacted Sangeeth on Saturday to get to the bottom of the ‘foolish’ mixup, he said, “Fools is just a working title, we will change that. Anuj and I are not making the same film that TP Agarwal and I were supposed to make. Arshad heads the cast of Anuj's film."

Little did Sangeeth know that his happiness was short-lived as on Sunday afternoon, Arshad walked out of his film. Arshad’s secretary Bhola called up Aggarwal to reassure him of Arshad's stance.

When contacted, Aggarwal said, “How can Sangeeth make a film written by Pankaj with three characters, one of them being Arshad? That Sanjay couldn’t do it because of his legal troubles is a different story. But I had written to Arshad about my payment and I'm glad he is not doing the film. Meanwhile IMPPA has sent a notice to Sangeeth to return my Rs 16 lakh.”

Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; March 29, 2014)

The makers of superstar Rajinikanth’s much anticipated film, Kochadaiiyaan, have now announced May 1 as the new release date for their film. This big budget film — it has cost approximately Rs 125 crore to make — will release in seven different languages all over India.

It is hardly surprising that no other South films are releasing on this day. However, interestingly, some Hindi films have already declared May 1 as their release date. Clearly, they are willing to take on the challenge of competing against the Thalaiva ( it means boss in Tamil). hitlist spoke to a few industry insiders to get their take on whether these films can pass the box office test on May 1.

So far, a total of three films — Indra Kumar’s Super Nani, Ashuu Trikha’s Koyelaanchal, Akhilesh Jaiswal’s Mastram, and Tanushri Chattrji Bassu’s Purani Jeans — are likely to release on same day as it is a holiday weekend. It may be pointed out here that May 1 is celebrated as Maharashtra Day as well as Labour Day and it falls on Thursday this year. Apart from these films, a Hollywood film, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, will also release in India on May 1.

A source points out that it’s surprising that Purani Jeans is clashing with Kochadaiiyaan, as they are both Eros productions. “It is bit odd for both of them to release them on the same day. It is likely that one of them will be pushed ahead.”

Trade expert Komal Nahata points out that Hindi films releasing on the same day as Rajini’s latest film will find it tough to do well at the BO. “After Robot’s resounding success, Rajinikanth’s star power has risen multifold across India and not just in the South. I am sure some filmmakers will change their release dates, as it is not advisable to clash with such a big film. But some of them will end up releasing their films as there are hardly any free weekends available now and they will invariably eat into each other’s business,” he says.

Anand Vishal, head of operation- sales, Fun Cinemas, says, “In some pockets of Mumbai, Rajini’s film will do well and we will factor this in while alloting screens. For example, in Matunga and some other Western suburbs, it will definitely do well. So we will give the film more screens in those areas. But yes, it is true that distribution becomes a tough task for us if more than two films release on the same day.” However, he is quick to point out that he expects Mastram to do well. “Youngsters like to watch such films as they deal with bold subjects,” he says.

Director Sangeeth Sivan, who has worked in both Bollywood and the South film industry, feels that Rajini is a like a God in the South, so it is understandable that no will consider a box office tussle with him. “However in Mumbai or elsewhere, I don’t think his films create a similar mass hysteria. All said and done, it is an animation film. I agree that Hindi cinemagoers will watch it, but it should have a limited impact on other films. My guess is that Hindi directors will be more concerned about cricket (IPL) than Rajini.” Mukesh Bhatt’s film, Citylights, that is being directed by Hansal Mehta, was supposed to hit the screens on May 1. But the film’s release has now been pushed ahead and it will release on May 23.

When asked if the reason behind this move was avoiding a clash with Rajini, Bhatt denied it. He said, “Our creative team decided to delay the film’s release ten days ago. The film is not complete as of now, and we don’t want to hurry it.” He also emphasised that with people having different tastes, all kinds of films can afford to release on the same day. “ One has to keep in mind that some films can’t avoid a clash as there are no free weekends available,” Bhatt said.

Director Ashuu Trikha offers a similar explanation for changing the release date of his film, Koyelaanchal. He says, “I am releasing my film on May 9 instead of May 1 and this decision was taken long ago. I didn’t know anything about the release date of Rajinikanth’s film back then.”

Producer Sunil Bohra, whose film Mastram (right) is also slated to release on May 1, says, “I am not shifting the release date of my film. I think we have a different set of audience, so there is no harm in releasing the film on same day.”

Their confidence notwithstanding, how these films will actually fare remains to be seen.