Talking Business

DIWALI IS DILEMMA TIME...

After the last minute decision to postpone Dillagi, last week, theatres which had booked the film earlier are now faced with a problem of finding an alternate film to play during the Diwali week. According to Rajesh Thadani who has been trying to book the Manoj Bajpai-Raveena Tandon starrer, Shool at Gaiety, where Dillagi was slated to release earlier, exhibitors may be forced to continue with the current films, rather than play reruns during Diwali week.

Even where Shool is concerned, Mumbai distributors, Devgan Entertainment are said to be firm about not releasing the film in more theatres. They are also believed to be quoting fancy terms in order to discourage exhibitors from approaching them. At Gaiety, the film was almost booked, with the theatre even starting the publicity. The publicity has now been withdrawn, since discussions have failed to bear fruit. It is unlikely that a reputed theatre like Gaiety will screen the Mithun starrer, Maa Kasam, which is also being released on Diwali day.

... SO IS RAMZAN
Meanwhile Sunny Deol is believed to be working overtime to meet the November 19 deadline, since a further delay is virtually out of the question, what with the Ramzan period starting soon after. A technical problem in the Dolby Digital recording is said to be what compelled Sunny to postpone the release.

If the latest buzz in the trade is to be believed, Boney Kapoor is planning to release his Pukaar on December 24, during Ramzan period, two weeks prior to its scheduled release date on January 7 (Idd day). The news has fuelled widespread speculation in the trade about the reasons. Especially since Ramzan is not believed to be auspicious for film releases, with the Muslim audience religiously staying away from cinemas.

But as one distributor puts it, Kapoor has very definite reasons, one of them being to get one of the best chain of theatres for the film. Besides, according to this distributor, the last two weeks of Ramzan are not as bad, with Christmas falling the very next day and Christmas week lasting until January 1, when Christian audiences patronise theatres in full strength. Apparently, Boney Kapoor is extremely confident the film will successfully sail through the following week, after which Idd will follow.

Despite the long delay in its making, Pukaar is believed to have shaped up brilliantly well, and Boney is extra confident the film is too big to be affected by the timing of the release. Meanwhile, the distributors, when contacted, were not aware of the preponement. Mumbai distributor, Vinay Choksey of VIP Enterprises, said he expected the film to release on Idd Day, as initially scheduled. “I don’t see the possibility of the film releasing during Ramzan, so the question of the impact it is likely to have does not arise,” he said.

WILL HE, WON’T HE?
The hot topic for discussions in the trade, last week, was the party that Subhash Ghai hosted at his studio in order to celebrate his wedding anniversary. The presence of Aamir Khan, who is generally not known to frequent any function without a definite reason fuelled much speculation. Like every year, this time too, Ghai chose to keep the suspense intact about the cast for the two films he is scheduled to start shortly, one of them being directed by Satish Kaushik.

According to a distributor, who decided to solve the mystery of Aamir’s presence, Aamir graced the function purely as a social event. “Apart from that there was no other reason why he attended. The fact is, having turned producer with Lagaan, Aamir has now decided to interact more closely with the industry,” the distributor insisted.

Also intriguing was Ghai’s decision to float an international company and the presence of Ashok Amritraj at the function, leading to speculation that the two had joined hands to float the international concern. It may be recalled that after the extraordinary success of both Pardes and Taal overseas, Ghai has been exploring the idea of making films exclusively for the market overseas, and releasing them himself.

Also present at the function was CI distributor, JP Chowksey, now a fixture of sorts in the Mukta Arts’ chain of distributors, after the release of Taal. Like Ghai’s other distributors, Chowksey is also awaiting the day when Ghai will make an official annoucement about the two films and their respective casts.

AN EVENING WITH URDU
Talking of Chowksey reminds us: a subsequent visit to Javed Akthar’s home on a special invitation proved truly memorable for him. He spent almost three hours, listening to the finest Urdu poetry by Javed Akhtar’s father, Jan Nissar Akhtar. According to Chowksey, apart from the poems penned by the veteran poet, some of Janisar’s collection of poems date back to as long as 300 years, and gives a totally different view of the richness of Urdu poetry.

“What impressed me most was the perfection with which some famous Urdu poets have written on Hindu festivals. One poem I read depicted the birth of Lord Ram in chaste Urdu,” he said. Chowksey was also happy to learn Javed Akhtar was already on to translating all the poems into Hindi, and has even persuaded publishers, Rajkamal, to publish them.

A DEBUT WITH AAMIR
Meanwhile, Javed Akhtar’s son, Farhan has signed Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna for his directorial debut. Reportedly, Farhan approached Aamir simply as a prospective director with a promising script, without telling him he was Javed Akhtar’s son. And Aamir agreed, looking at the promise in the boy’s eyes.

Manisha Deshpande