Showing posts with label Titanic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Titanic. Show all posts
When Titanic was released in 1997, there was only one print in entire Delhi-Sanjeev Kumar Bijli
8:33 AM
By Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Executive Director, PVR Inox Ltd (BOMBAY TIMES; April 20, 2024)
There was a time, not so long ago, when only Hindi movies used to play at the single screen cinemas in India. The ’80s and early ’90s were decades dominated by films with Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor and Jeetendra to name a few. If we wanted to watch a Hollywood film, we either had to wait for months for it to release at the cinemas, or drive to obscure places to rent it on VHS. Hollywood studios usually gave India a miss in their overall release plan, as there just weren’t enough cinemas and business to justify the cost of releasing it here.
With the advent of multiplexes though in the late ’90s and early 2000, things began to change. The proliferation of new and premium screens gave rise to both demand and supply for English films. And from a gap of months from US release, films were released within a couple of weeks. Sometimes even on the same day as the US release.
Liberalization, rising middle class and incomes, proliferation of satellite channels and the internet, all contributed to the discovery and consumption of English films. I remember, in 1997, when Titanic was released, it was nothing short of a momentous event in India. We were operating only two properties in Delhi at the time, a four screen multiplex and a single screen. The studio, 20th Century Fox, wanted to release only one print in the entire city, and we had to choose where to play the film. We decided to play it at a single-screen cinema. Such was the euphoria and anticipation around the film, that we had the entire cinema decked up by an eminent designer.
The landscape of cinema, consumer taste and preference has evolved over the years. A day and date in sync the US release of a Hollywood film is now standard, and so is a wide release with over 500 prints or more of commercial films. The list of blockbusters that have surpassed the 50 crore to 100 crore box-office collections is long and impressive with recent hits like Oppenheimer, Barbie, Avatar proving that English films can be as big as Indian films.
But what has also emerged in the last few years is the penchant for foreign language films. The Indian audience has become extremely discerning and receptive to consuming content in foreign languages. We are travelling more, getting exposed to different cultures and watching foreign language content on streaming platforms.
A couple of years ago, through social listening, we inferred there was a huge demand for Japanese anime films. We started to distribute and screen them, and the response was phenomenal. Films like Suzume and Demon Slayer did a box office of 10 crores and 6 crores respectively. Not just anime films, other foreign language films have also done exceedingly well at the box office. Buoyed by the Oscar recognition, films like Parasite and most recently Anatomy Of A Fall did a business of 7 crores and 1.5 crores respectively.
With globalization and increased awareness, I am certain this is just the tip of the iceberg, and foreign language films have found an audience in one of the largest cinema markets in the world!
Expert discuss as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge, Titanic, Jab We Met, Tamasha re-release
8:12 AM
As a few Bollywood classics re-release in theatres, experts weigh in on the step and how it might fare
Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; February 13, 2023)
Unlike last year, which saw only a few Hindi films rake in the moolah, Bollywood seems to be in an experimental mood this year. While Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Pathaan became a blockbuster without any promotions, another interesting initiative has been old hits such as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge (1995), Titanic (1997), Jab We Met (2007) and Tamasha (2015) re-releasing across cinemas in India.
What encouraged the backers of these cult titles to release them again? Producer Anand Pandit says, “I don’t know the purpose behind it. I can understand if there’s an occasion like (actor) Amitabh Bachchan ji’s 80th birthday, when his old films released again. Woh baat alag thi. Randomly films ko laana… I don’t know if people will spend Rs. 200 on them.”
It’s worth noting that all the titles that have re-released are romantic films. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh feels they will work: “Love stories will do well this week due to Valentine’s Day. I remember how I wanted to watch Amitabh ji’s films when they re-released, despite having seen them years ago. That craze was still there. There’s no harm in re-releasing them.”
The fact that no new Bollywood release is slated for this Friday may also work in the favour of these films. “Pathaan has also slowed down and there’s a vacuum. So, releasing timeless films again is a good idea,” says Adarsh.
Filmmaker James Cameron’s had re-released Avatar (2009) before Avatar: The Way Of Water hit cinemas last year. Trade expert Atul Mohan says, “Many movie lovers from today’s generation don’t watch these films, thinking yeh films slow hain. Theatre mein films dekhne ka mazaa alag hota hai. Even I will go to watch these films, thinking, ‘I watched them before marriage, now I’ll go with my wife’. I don’t see big numbers coming, but nostalgia trip definitely hoga.”
Titanic 3D, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Jab We Met: Re-release trend to make V-Day magical
8:20 AM
Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; February 12, 2023)
This Valentine’s Day, select cinemas across the country are releasing some timeless romantic films – like Titanic in restored 3D, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Tamasha and Jab We Met. In the last couple of years, re-releasing films has become a popular trend.
Cine experts say that earlier re-releases were limited to film festivals, but post pandemic, when cinemas re-opened but without too many new films to attract audiences, they banked upon these all-time favourites to draw in the crowd.
Last year, when retrospectives of Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan were organised, many couldn’t even get tickets as there were limited shows. Film archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur tells us, “Earlier, the question used to be will people buy tickets to watch an old film in the theatre? Why would anyone pay to watch a film that is on OTT already? But the success of these re-releases makes a strong case for restoring our classics and iconic films. It is not just in India, but across the world that films are being re-released because there is an audience which never got an opportunity to watch them in the theatre.”
It’s critical that Jack dies. The whole film Titanic leads up to that moment-James Cameron
11:12 PM
Renuka Vyavahare (BOMBAY TIMES; February 11, 2023)
The one thing that binds the greatest movies is their ability to stand the test of time. Twenty-five years after James Cameron made Titanic (1997), an epic tale of star-crossed lovers, forbidden attraction and class disparity set against the backdrop of a tragic historical event, it continues its reign as a celebrated love story. Leonardo DiCaprio’s effervescent Jack and Kate Winslet’s resilient Rose made us dream, hope, and believe that love can embolden you to stare death in the face if not melt icebergs.
On its 25th anniversary, the recipient of 11 Academy Awards, Titanic has returned to the big screen once again in a remastered version. On this occasion, master filmmaker James Cameron in an exclusive conversation with Bombay Times, revealed what Titanic truly symbolizes and looking back, would he change the much-discussed climax of the film. Read on...
From Titanic to Avatar and its recent sequel, a sentiment that has stayed constant in India is the proximity of your films’ emotional core to Indian cinema and our stories. How do you weigh in on this thought?
The only difference is that I don’t do a song and dance number at the end of a movie (smiles). I was talking to S S Rajamouli (at the Critics’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles) about RRR and how much I enjoyed the physical production, the beauty and spectacle that he had created in his film, but also the tension, the action and all the things that I like. That film made me think about the Indian film industry at large and how much I enjoy Indian films for those reasons – whether it is the emphasis on family, friendship, personal duty towards the people around you and all those things.
Have you seen Indian films, or are you familiar with Indian culture?
I have now, but I hadn’t when I was making Titanic 25 years ago. I visited India for the first time in 2010 and made a lot of new friends who are still in touch with me. I have paid a lot more attention to Indian cinema since then. The interesting thing was that we didn’t really have a strong release for Titanic in India when it was first released in 1997, because India was making so many of their own movies that you weren’t that interested in our films. Today, I can’t help but notice that India was one of our strongest territories for the new Avatar film (Avatar: The Way Of Water, 2022), so it’s a changing and expanding market.
But when the film released in India in the ’90s, we remember how there was a lot of curiosity around it and that it ran to packed theatres.
You may be right. I don’t remember. Let me go back and check on that, but I certainly can remember that India was not as big a player in the global marketplace for international films as it is today, or even as it was 13 years ago when the first Avatar (2009) film was released.
Looking back, is there any change that you would want to see in Titanic? Can Jack survive along with Rose, perhaps?
(Laughs) No. Let’s say somebody went up to William Shakespeare at the Globe theatre 25 years after they first did Romeo & Juliet and said, ‘Hey, do you think it’d be better if we restaged the play today and they both live at the end?’ What do you think his answer would have been? It’s critical that Jack dies! The whole film leads up to that moment; the whole theme of the movie is crystalized and resolved by that, so I wouldn’t want to change that. The only thing that I would change, if I had to change something, would be to make that damn raft a little smaller, so it wasn’t this long burning fan question (smiles).
Speaking of the burning fan question, wasn’t there room for two on that raft?
The correct answer to that is yes, there’s room for two (Jack and Rose), but had they both latched onto it, the raft would sink to a depth where they both would be exposed to freezing water and that would compromise her chances of surviving. As the film shows, Rose barely survives by a whisker as it is. So, the chances are they both would have died. We have done some forensic experimentation to analyze that scene and do a trade study, if you will, to see what our options were at that moment. This will be put out on a television channel in a few days and hopefully, that will resolve this long-standing query.
Eleven Oscars and a lifetime of love later, what according to you, lies at the heart of the Titanic? What makes this movie so timeless?
For me, at the heart of Titanic is love in the face of mortality. Titanic is about mortality, life and death. It’s about people making life-and-death decisions. It’s about actual history, about the men who stepped back from the lifeboats to ensure the survival of their loved ones. That’s part of the enduring fascination with Titanic. Telling a love story against the backdrop of a story that’s about our familial love, it doesn’t have to be a boy-girl romantic love. Love for anyone in our lives. We watch Titanic as a way of imagining… What would it be like for me in that situation? What would I do for love? Would I sacrifice myself for love in that final moment? That’s part of the enduring fascination for the movie Titanic and the actual history.
Indian audiences respond to emotion of a movie. And that's what we have put into Avatar: The Way Of Water-Jon Landau
8:30 AM
Avatar: The Way Of Water has Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana reprise their roles as Jake Sully and Ney’tiri, and Kate Winslet as the matriarch of the water tribe
Kritika Kapoor (BOMBAY TIMES; December 12, 2022)
It’s taken Avatar’s makers 13 years to return with its sequel, Avatar: The Way Of Water. That’s partly because director James Cameron was waiting for the right underwater tech and also because they had to create the setting – a part of Pandora inhabited by the ocean-dwelling Na’avi clan, the Metkayina – from scratch. In the sequel, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana reprise their roles as Jake Sully and Ney’tiri, now parents to five children, who have to learn to survive in the water world. Like the protagonists, the cast was put through the ringer during filming. Kate Winslet, who plays the matriarch of the water tribe, even ended up breaking Tom Cruise’s record by holding her breath underwater for a whopping 7. 12 minutes!
Ultimately, for the film’s producer Jon Landau it all boiled down to “getting it right”. And though there’s no denying that the world’s changed dramatically since the original Avatar came out, he tells us why he feels the timing of its sequel couldn’t be more perfect. Excerpts:
‘CINEMA HAS TO GIVE PEOPLE CONTENT WORTH GETTING OUT OF THE HOUSE FOR’
It’s not that people don’t want to go to the cinemas. I, in fact, think they want to go more than ever. But we as an industry have to give them content that is worth getting out of the house for. We can’t give them the same thing they can get on their phone or their TV at home. We have to give them something new and different. And that was our goal from Day 1 – to create “a must-see on the big screen” experience. Not just in the visual, but also an emotional sense. And I think that when movies work, they work emotionally. And I think one of the things that the Indian audiences respond to is the emotion of a movie – whether it’s the laughter, whether it’s the heart. And that’s what we have tried to put into the film – heart.
‘IT TOOK OVER A DECADE TO DO IT RIGHT’
We took our time because we wanted to do it right. And this is the amount of time it took. If you look back, it took us the same amount of time between Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009). Am I happy with how it turned out? 100%! We make the movie for audiences, and that’s one of the reasons why in India we’re going to be in so many different languages. We know the diversity of the country, and Avatar – at its root – is about celebrating diversity.
‘NOT MAKING SEQUEL FOR THE SAKE OF IT’
I think we are making a lot of sequels (Avatar 3, 4 and 5 are already in the pipeline), but not for the sake of making a sequel. We are making a continuation of a saga. I look at each one of our movies as standalone movies. Each movie is going to come to its own story conclusion, its own emotional resolution and we always go, ‘is that a movie worth making?’ ‘Does this movie warrant a cinema experience?’
Do high-budget VFX guarantee box-office success?
8:24 AM
Industry experts and stakeholders feel that filmmakers need a clear vision when it comes to spending money
Syeda Eba Fatima (HINDUSTAN TIMES; November 28, 2022)
A mere teaser for the high-budget upcoming film Adipurush managed to enrage the audience, which chastised the filmmakers for using heavy and unappealing VFX and special effects. A few months back, the Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt starrer Brahmastra, also made on a high budget of approximately Rs. 410 crores, faced criticism for only relying on VFX and not on a strong storyline. On the contrary, when the low-budget Telugu-language superhero movie HanuMan’s teaser gained attention for its impressive visual effects, it triggered a debate among movie buffs about whether makers really need to go overboard with VFX and their budgets?
We spoke to industry experts and stakeholders to find out if spending more on VFX guaranteed success at the box office.
Producer Ramesh Taurani asserts that one can never plan the budget in advance for large-scale movies: “It’s not necessary that a film’s budget will always stay the same. Filmmaking is a creative process, and sometimes a lot more or a lot less is invested than what the makers had initially planned. There are so many ifs and buts involved. Every big film, from Titanic (1997) to others, was never completed within the budget that was assigned at the beginning. And creative satisfaction is more important than anything else.”
Whereas, VFX artiste and creative director at Futureworks, Abhishek De, points out that quite often, the budget shown by the filmmakers and their team isn’t real. “Producers and distributors play a game where they show up different figures to hype up the film. It’s all about marketing. So even the smaller films that are not big in scale manage to create a buzz because of the figures. While it can work in their favour sometimes, it can also backfire.”
Animator and VFX company owner Rajiv Chilaka believes that first and foremost, filmmakers need a clear vision when it comes to spending money on VFX.
“The price of VFX will inevitably increase if the director keeps changing the script because he’s unsure of what he wants. With Adipurush, I feel they rushed a bit, and being heavy on VFX, they didn’t give proper time to the film’s pre-production, which needed to be very strong. When [filmmaker] S S Rajamouli makes a film, he shoots certain sequences for 200 days, hence its high budget. However, when people try to achieve similar results by spending the same amount of money but don’t devote enough time to it (fulfilling pre- and post-production requirements), things don’t go well,” Chilaka explains.
He adds that for the Indian market, the production budget should not exceed ₹150 crore, which can only be reduced with proper planning.
People say I share great chemistry with most of my co-stars, be it Allu Arjun, Akhil Akkineni or Hrithik Roshan-Pooja Hegde
8:23 AM
Pooja Hegde talks about her on-screen chemistry with Prabhas and her other co-stars
Titas Chowdhury (HINDUSTAN TIMES; March 10, 2022)
The upcoming romantic drama, Radhe Shyam marks Pooja Hedge’s first association with actor Prabhas. And its trailer has created a buzz among fans about the actors’ chemistry. Quiz Hegde about it and she says, “Chemistry is something that just happens.”
She adds that while Prabhas is known to be shy, he is jovial within his circle of close friends. And that, she feels, is what contributed in “creating magic”. “Sometimes you know someone really well but it doesn’t translate on screen, and sometimes you meet someone for the first time, but it just clicks, magic happens... I would like to believe that we look really good together,” Hegde, 31, shares.
This isn’t the first time that her chemistry with a co-star has been noticed. Her rapport with actor Allu Arjun in Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (2020) also grabbed attention. Hegde says, “People say that I share great chemistry with most of my co-stars, be it Allu Arjun, Akhil Akkineni (in Most Eligible Bachelor; 2021) or Hrithik Roshan (in Mohenjo Daro; 2016). I love love stories. And I love to give my all in a scene. Maybe that translates on screen.”
As she looks forward to Radhe Shyam, she can’t help but ignore the comparisons to Titanic (1997). So, how did she react to sound engineer Resul Pookutty’s claim that the former’s climax is bigger than that of the cult classic? “I started sweating,” she laughs, adding, “If you see a sinking boat in a film, you end up comparing it to Titanic. Having said that, I’m relieved in a way as I feel we have been able to accomplish a similar kind of production design and scale.”
Blast from the past: Now theatres in India too will re-release blockbusters?
8:06 AM
Production houses contemplate playing previous hit films to increase footfalls, should cinema halls reopen
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; August 2, 2020)
Taking a cue from countries that have resumed operations of theatrical screenings amid the Coronavirus pandemic, Indian production houses will also screen their previous blockbusters to lure viewers back to cinema halls.A trade source tells mid-day, "Some multiplexes and single screen owners are in talks with distributors and studios like Warner Bros India, Yash Raj Films, and Reliance Entertainment, among others, to showcase their blockbusters."
Devang Sampat from Cinepolis says that with the Indian audience comprising viewers of Indian and international content, they have a large slate to play with. "For the first two weeks, Cinepolis plans to screen 3D films like Avatar, Gravity, and Titanic, and Oscar-winning movies. Regional films will also be aired in accordance with each state," he says, adding that a survey conducted by their team has revealed that 86 per cent of moviegoers are eager to visit theatres. "Once we decide which titles we want to play, we will work on acquiring the rights."
Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi, who runs 17 single-screens across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, adds, "Single screens have been at the forefront of these conversations. Reliance has Rohit Shetty-movies like Golmaal 3 and Golmaal Again, Singham, and Simmba. Warner Bros has gone a step ahead and created interesting packages and catalogues where the best of their comedies and action films can be sent to the exhibitors. The idea is to rebuild the habit of watching movies at theatres and earn the confidence of our audiences."
Joker BREAKS Gravity’s long-standing RECORD; emerges as HIGHEST grossing non-dubbed Hollywood film in India!
3:20 PM
Over the past few years, Hollywood films have emerged as a huge competition to domestic films. In 2016, The Jungle Book collected Rs. 187.84 crore and it was the first Hollywood flick to have crossed the Rs. 100 crore mark. In no time, Hollywood films entered into Rs. 200 and even Rs. 350 crore club! The latter was achieved by the recently released flick, Avengers: Endgame.
What’s interesting to note that the collections of these English films get a boost because they are dubbed in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. It contributes to 40-50% or sometimes even more to the overall business. Also, only mainstream films are released in dubbed versions. Those films that are niche, dark or aren’t quite massy get an English version-only release. As a result, the collections of these films are obviously not so high.
But there have been exceptions. Titanic, released in 1998, was released without dubbed versions, although the trend had already begun in India. And yet, it collected Rs. 29 crore at the Indian box office, which is mind-boggling for that era. It was the second biggest grosser of the year after Kuch Kuch Hota Hai! The record of Titanic was then broken 15 years later by the space thriller Gravity. Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, this Alfonso Cuarón directed flick released in India on October 11, 2013 in 192 3D screens and 3 IMAX screens, and only in English. The film was loved so much for its nail-biting content and visuals that it remained in cinemas for nearly 25 weeks! And it managed to collect Rs. 32 crore, thus surpassing Titanic’s collections.
And now Joker, one of the most appreciated films of 2019, has broken the record of Gravity. This dark film, which released on October 2 in India, stars Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role of a mentally troubled comedian in the fictional Gotham city. The character has been extremely popular among the niche audiences as 11 years ago, Heath Ledger too played the same part in The Dark Knight before his untimely demise. Moreover, Joker premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival and it got a rousing reception like never before. All these factors contributed to the buzz.
Yet, many in the trade and industry weren’t sure of Joker’s box office prospects in India. They argued that it’s too dark and also, it’s not releasing in dubbed versions. As a result, very select audiences would watch the film in cinemas is what they felt. Moreover, it was clashing with the big budget Bollywood actioner War and the multi-starrer Telugu film Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy. So experts believed these two films would be the top priorities for audiences at large.
Joker released in around 400-500 screens and the response took everyone by surprise. War took a thunderous Rs. 50 crore plus opening and yet Joker managed to collect Rs. 5.15 crore! In it’s five-day extended weekend, it collected Rs. 23 crore. On Monday, the collection increased in the evening as the next day, October 8, was a Dussehra holiday. The Monday collections were Rs. 4.35 crore while on Tuesday, it earned Rs. 5.35 crore. So in 7 days, it collected Rs. 32.70 crore and broke the record in Gravity!
In its extended first week, Joker has collected Rs. 37.50 crore approx. If the film remains strong in the days to come as well, then it can even cross the Rs. 60 crore mark! This is despite the limited release that too only in English, disturbing content, and having competition from two big films! At a time when so many articles have been written about Joker breaking records in its domestic market in North America, it’s also important to know that it has achieved a small but significant feat in India as well!
Avengers: Infinity War becomes seventh historic Hollywood blockbuster in India
8:33 AM
Box Office India Trade Network
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR has become the seventh historic blockbuster from Hollywood in India as listed below. It could even become the biggest of them all in terms of adjusted gross but that will depend where the film finishes. At the moment THE JUNGLE BOOK is the biggest closely followed by TITANIC in terms of adjusted figures.
It all really started for Hollywood in 1994 with JURASSIC PARK which grossed around 7.50 crore nett which equates to 125 crore nett in value today. JURASSIC PARK and TITANIC are the only big hits in the single screen era as at that time it was difficult for Hollywood films to fill up 1000 seaters even if dubbed. The multiplexes changed the game and in the last three years the huge grossers from Hollywood have become more frequent.
The seven historic blockbusters from Hollywood in India is as follows.
1. Jurassic Park (1994)
2. Titanic (1998)
3. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
4. 2012 (2009)
5. Fast & Furious 7 (2015)
6. The Jungle Book (2016)
7. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Shocking: Was the mummy of the Princess of Amen-Ra responsible for Titanic disaster?
7:44 AM
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 21, 2017)
In the late 1890s, four Englishmen on a visit to Luxor came across the mummy of the Princess of Amen-Ra and bought it. One of them carried it up to his suite. A few hours later, he walked out into the desert and was never seen again. The next day, his friend was accidentally shot at by an Egyptian servant and his arm had to be amputated. The third returned home to bankruptcy while the fourth fell seriously ill, lost his job and ended up selling matches in the street.
The mummy reached London and entered the home of another businessman which caught fire soon after. Three members of his family were also injured in a road accident and these misfortunes prompted him to donate the mummy to the British Museum. While the coffin was being unloaded, a workman broke his leg and another died two days later. Afterwards a night guard complained of sobbing from the ‘Egyptian Room’ and frantic hammering on the door. The child of a disdainful visitor died suddenly and a journalist who'd photographed the casket killed himself after seeing the developed pictures. The ‘unlucky mummy’ was then banished to the basement. The supervisor who oversaw the transfer died, and the museum, in a hurry to get rid of the exhibit, was happy to sell it to a private collector who after a series of accidents, locked it away in his attic till an archaeologist bought it from him and boarded a luxury liner sailing to America with it. On the night of April 14, 1912, the ship hit an iceberg and sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic with 1,500 passengers. The ship was the H.M.S. Titanic.
Fact or fiction? No one is sure, though the story seems more rooted in fantasy, like that of 17-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater and penniless artist Jack Dawson, the ill-fated lovers of the Titanic, which was a figment of writer-director James Cameron’s imagination. His co-producer, Jon Landou, on a visit to India in 2012, admitted that more than the doomed ship, it was the love story that had struck a chord with him because Rose was so like his spirited mother Edie who, when other women were producing babies, was producing films like Long Day’s Journey Into The Night, The Pawnbroker and The Chosen with husband Ely.
Rose and Jack also made Jon believe that someone somewhere was waiting for him. That ‘someone’ turned out to be a colleague working with him on Beach Street. “For a year, I’d drop Barbara off on her dates. Then, I took her out to dinner and for the last 27 years there’s been no one else,” said the genial American, his eyes turning misty at the mention of his wife and mother, as I cradled the Oscar statuette he carried in his backpack.
This was just one of the 11 Oscars Titanic bagged. I remember James on stage booming, “I’m the king of the world” while Jon who had grabbed the mic ahead of him, thanked 53 cast and crew members in a winning speech that went on and on. He later admitted it was used the following year to show nominees what “absolutely not to do” on stage.
Twelve years later, ahead of the release of his Avatar which opened in the US on December 18, 2009, James, in an interview, confided he'd been creating spacecrafts, creatures and distant worlds in his head for a long time and the ‘blue film’ might have followed Titanic which opened on December 19, 1997 had it not been for the logistics involved.
Avatar grossed over $2 billion and
broke Titanic’s box-office records to become the highest grossing film
of all time, as also the bestselling film of 2010. It was nominated for
nine Oscars and won three, but when it came to the Best Picture Award,
James could only watch as his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow (right) became the first
woman to walk away with the coveted statuette for her little big film,
The Hurt Locker. As she went up, he mouthed, “Yes, oh yes!” even as his
hopes of an Oscar drowned. Fact, as they say, is stranger than fiction,
and love the strangest of all emotions.The Jungle Book scores BIG on television
8:28 AM
Box Office India Trade Network
The year has been a disaster till date (till date because DANGAL may rescue it somewhat) but there have been a couple of films that have shone. One is SULTAN and the other is THE JUNGLE BOOK. These two films are the only real hits of the year from universal box office to universal appreciation across the country. THE JUNGLE BOOK grossed around 188 crore nett in a twenty week run. The run was more than double what the biggest Hindi films achieve.
The India GBOC of the film at 255 crore is more than the Worldwide GBOC of all Hindi releases barring SULTAN. That includes films like AIRLIFT, HOUSEFULL 3, RUSTOM, M S DHONI - THE UNTOLD STORY and AE DIL HAI MUSHKIL. After a huge box office run the film has now taken television by storm by easily smashing all records for a Hollywood film. In fact like the box office it has fared better than many big Hindi films. The film has achieved the sixth highest rating of films premiered on television this year while it is 5th highest of films released this year. The ratings for 2016 are below and show impressions which is basically the number of television sets that viewed the films on their respective premieres.
1. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo - 2,51,19,000
2. Sultan - 1,13,10,000
3. The Flying Jatt - 98,43,000
4. Dishoom - 95,44,000
5. Housefull 3 - 78,16,000
6. The Jungle Book - 75,51,000
7. Baaghi - 69,88,000
8. Dilwale - 67,61,000
9. Sanam Re - 56,66,000
10. Bajirao Mastani - 54,76,000
THE JUNGLE BOOK is also the biggest Hollywood blockbuster in India in terms of inflation adjusted figures as it beat the 180 crore nett adjusted figure of TITANIC released in 1998.
1st time in theatre: Bollywood stars on their earliest encounters with the silver screen
7:49 AM
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 7, 2015)
KANGANA RANAUT
I was eight when I saw parts of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. I didn't sit through the whole film but I remember constantly humming “Na Jane Mere Dil Ko Kya Ho Gaya“. We don't have theatres in the valley where I grew up, so I only watched my first film when I was 14, in high school in Chandigarh. Some 30-40 of us girls accompanied our principal, her son Gullu, the warden, the hostel cleaning and cooking staff for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas. We had to sit through the film under the watchful eyes of our warden. When Shah Rukh Khan dies in the film, I was sobbing uncontrollably, deeply affected by the tragic fate of Devdas, Paro and Chandramukhi as also the grandeur of the maker's vision. I would smile in the physics lab after watching the film, thinking about the songs and the scenes.
SHOOJIT SIRCAR
I was in standard 8 in Kharagpur. One day my father, who was training
pilots in the Indian Air Force, took me to watch Satyajit Ray's Pather
Panchali. I was bored and fell asleep. Three years later, we shifted to
Delhi and our class was taken for the same film. Halfway through, we all
walked out. At that point I was only interested in football. But later,
after I got into theatre, I watched the film for a third time at IFFI
Delhi. I was older and this time it made me cry. Later, I watched
the third part, Apur Sansar, and it made me howl. Now, I tell my actors
that before they work with me, they have to watch the Apu trilogy. I
made Deepika (Padukone) see all three films
before we shot Piku.
RAKEYSH OMPRAKASH MEHRA
I remember watching V Shantaram's 1957 classic Do Aankhen Barah Hath on
TV and since then I have believed it's the greatest film ever made.
Since then, I have seen this story on humanistic psychology and how it
explored the idea of an “open prison“ many times and each time it has
revealed something
new to me. It has left an impression on my style of filmmaking.
DEV PATEL
The first film I saw in a theatre was Titanic in 1997 with my whole
family. We had booked an entire row and
that was the first time I saw my parents cry over a performance. I was
thinking about romancing my first crush, the gorgeous Kate Winslet, and I
think my dad felt the same way.
SHRADDHA KAPOOR
Films have been a part of my life since as long as I can remember. I was
five years old when Andaz Apna Apna (featuring her father Shakti Kapoor
as Crime Master Gogo) released. I was really excited and I loved the
absurd comedy so much that I forced my parents to take me for it several
times. Of course, Crime Master Gogo is my all-time favourite, a villain
with a soft heart.
NANDITA DAS
My father is a painter and my mother is a writer. Watching films was not encouraged. The only films I saw were the ones at the Children's Society of Delhi. I loved Haathi Mere Saathi but my real brush with cinema was in college when an Indie filmmaker introduced me to French, German and Russian films. I never developed a taste for mainstream fare because of my upbringing.
I was eight when I saw parts of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. I didn't sit through the whole film but I remember constantly humming “Na Jane Mere Dil Ko Kya Ho Gaya“. We don't have theatres in the valley where I grew up, so I only watched my first film when I was 14, in high school in Chandigarh. Some 30-40 of us girls accompanied our principal, her son Gullu, the warden, the hostel cleaning and cooking staff for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas. We had to sit through the film under the watchful eyes of our warden. When Shah Rukh Khan dies in the film, I was sobbing uncontrollably, deeply affected by the tragic fate of Devdas, Paro and Chandramukhi as also the grandeur of the maker's vision. I would smile in the physics lab after watching the film, thinking about the songs and the scenes.
SHOOJIT SIRCAR
I was in standard 8 in Kharagpur. One day my father, who was training
pilots in the Indian Air Force, took me to watch Satyajit Ray's Pather
Panchali. I was bored and fell asleep. Three years later, we shifted to
Delhi and our class was taken for the same film. Halfway through, we all
walked out. At that point I was only interested in football. But later,
after I got into theatre, I watched the film for a third time at IFFI
Delhi. I was older and this time it made me cry. Later, I watched
the third part, Apur Sansar, and it made me howl. Now, I tell my actors
that before they work with me, they have to watch the Apu trilogy. I
made Deepika (Padukone) see all three films
before we shot Piku.
RAKEYSH OMPRAKASH MEHRA
I remember watching V Shantaram's 1957 classic Do Aankhen Barah Hath on
TV and since then I have believed it's the greatest film ever made.
Since then, I have seen this story on humanistic psychology and how it
explored the idea of an “open prison“ many times and each time it has
revealed something
new to me. It has left an impression on my style of filmmaking.
DEV PATEL
SHRADDHA KAPOOR
Films have been a part of my life since as long as I can remember. I was
five years old when Andaz Apna Apna (featuring her father Shakti Kapoor
as Crime Master Gogo) released. I was really excited and I loved the
absurd comedy so much that I forced my parents to take me for it several
times. Of course, Crime Master Gogo is my all-time favourite, a villain
with a soft heart.
NANDITA DAS
My father is a painter and my mother is a writer. Watching films was not encouraged. The only films I saw were the ones at the Children's Society of Delhi. I loved Haathi Mere Saathi but my real brush with cinema was in college when an Indie filmmaker introduced me to French, German and Russian films. I never developed a taste for mainstream fare because of my upbringing.
Fast & Furious 7 is the 5th Hollywood all time blockbuster in India
4:59 PM
Box Office India Trade Network
FAST & FURIOUS 7 has become the fifth All Time Blockbuster in India from Hollywood. The film is on course for a first week total of 67-68 crore nett which would make it the highest grosser ever in India from Hollywood.
The first All Time Blockbuster from Hollywood was JURASSIC PARK released in 1994. It was released on 125 screens across India in English and Hindi and grossed around 6.75 crore nett. It was the first film from Hollywood to see such a wide release. 21 years later FAST & FURIOUS 7 has come on 2000 screens
The next All Time Blockbuster was TITANIC in 1998 which was released on just 7 screens on release and was not dubbed but still emerged the second highest grosser of that year after KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI. Then in 2007 came SPIDER-MAN 3 followed by 2012 in 2009 which became the first Hollywood film to cross the 50 crore nett benchmark. The 100 crore nett benchmark is a possibility for FAST & FURIOUS 7 though barring 2012 the big Hollywood openers don't have legs whereas the likes of LIFE OF PI, GRAVITY and INCEPTION continue to go on forever. Still 30 odd crore needed after week one is not a big ask.
DOP of Titanic Russell Carpenter shoots Ajay Devgn-Leena Yadav’s next
7:46 AM
Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 22, 2014)
Leena Yadav, who last directed the Amitabh Bachchan-Ben Kingsley starrer Teen Patti, is currently shooting her second film, Parched, which is being produced by Ajay Devgn and Aseem Bajaj.
Mirror has learnt that the director has roped in Academy Award-winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter to shoot her social-drama, which revolves around the sexuality of women in rural India.
Carpenter is best known for serving as the director of photography on the James Cameron-directed Titanic, other than films like The Ugly Truth, Charlie's Angels and more recently, the Jobs biopic featuring Ashton Kutcher.
When contacted, Leena confirmed the news. She said: "I sent across the script to him in LA. He loved it so much that he immediately agreed to come on board. We have shot in some parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat and Russell has done an impeccable job."
The film, which is in Hindi and English, features Adil Hussain, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Radhika Apte in the lead roles. Leena plans to release the film later this year.
Constructing Kangana Ranaut's bra was a challenge-Gavin Miguel
8:04 AM
Kripa Krishnan (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 16, 2014)
After
her turn as a plain Jane on the ‘flight’ to self discovery, real-life
fashionista Kangana Ranaut is playing one in her next, Revolver Rani.But this character, who lives for the trifecta of ‘phashion, phun and gun’, is not one of the ‘bagwatis’. Instead Alka is a gangster from Chambal, who goes weak in the knees at the idea of European couture. But far away from the fashion cloisters, the ingenious outlaw creates her own pastiche of high fashion, all donned while massacring rival gangs and gunning down politicians.
The result is military insignia laden jackets paired with salwars and a metallic bra, reminiscent of Madonna’s infamous conical bra moment, among other off-kilter sartorial statements.
The brain behind this medley is fashion designer Gavin Miguel, whose other collaboration with Kangana included her chic mutant avatar in Krrish 3.
“The brief was to create a quirky, wacky wardrobe. But we were careful not to go into the dowdy territory,” says the costume designer. And striding the thin line between unusual and ugly required a lot of trial and error, especially when metal and lingerie had to be combined.
“Constructing the bra was a challenge as we had to choose the right metal and then craft it in a way which will hold up without causing injury,” said Miguel.
Though the majority of the film was shot in a hamlet in Madhya Pradesh, Rani takes a Europe sojourn and it was in vintage shops in Paris that Miguel found the eyecatching sunglasses donned by Kangana in the film. And it is while in the continent that Alka also performs an ad-hoc recreation of the now iconic wind swept kiss from Titanic.
“Alka does her own take on Kate Winslet’s outfit. She mixes many influences but the final product is always her own,” says the costume designer.
The film begins with guns and gamchas galore and as Alka moves ahead in life, courts a Bollywood wannabe played by Vir Das and becomes a mother, her wardrobe too changes. From contrasting colours and a profusion of statement accessories, Miguel moved to reds and pinks to mark this progress.
Though there are no coveted labels involved, the costume budget did induce many tugs of wars. “We have a culture of short changing creativity. But the director Sai Kabir told me that if I justified an expense, they will provide me the budget.” So, it’s another win for fashion then.
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