So at last, the jinx has been broken. Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan as a pair never really made music together — at least not on the big screen. If their first film together, Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke, bombed, their second joint outing, Kuch Na Kaho, lived up to its name and truly didn’t say anything at the box office. The third film in which they were teamed together, Umrao Jaan, was their worst. The real-life lovers came together once again in Dhoom 2, but they weren’t paired opposite each other in the thriller. The two were also seen dancing to the super-hit Kajra re number in Bunty Aur Babli, but again they were not teamed as hero and heroine in the comedy flick. By a strange coincidence, Dhoom 2 and Bunty Aur Babli worked big time at the box office. But Mani Ratnam’s Guru, which has the recently engaged stars teamed together as husband and wife, has disproved the belief that theirs was a jinxed pair. Guru may have opened to dull houses but collections picked up due to positive word of mouth. The weekend, in particular, was extremely good, although collections in several circuits dipped from Monday onwards.
The Mysore circuit was the one in which the film, loosely based on the life of late industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani, behaved the best. It was followed by Bombay territory. However, the news of the engagement of Ash and Abhishek, three days after the film’s release, didn’t really help boost the film’s collections. It could have seen the audience throng the cinema halls had it been unexpected. But since the engagement was imminent, it was just a matter of time when it was to take place. That took away from the news its potential to favourably alter the collections in the following days.
In India, it is negative news more than a positive happening that affects a film’s performance at the ticket windows. For instance, the death of a lead actor of a film would immediately result in its collections shooting up. Or the fear of a ban on a film might see the public rushing to see it and, therefore, contributing to the kitty. The logic in both the cases is the same: that the audience may not get a chance to see the actor in question in the former case or the film in the latter. But in eventualities such as an engagement or a marriage, there’s no such fear and, therefore, they don’t impact the box office. Of course, negative news generally works positively for the film in question. It would not be out of place to mention here the suicide of Rekha’s husband, Mukesh Agarwal. Although the actress was accused of driving her husband to take the extreme step, her first film released days after the catastrophe, Phool Bane Angaarey, proved a runaway hit.
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Not only is Boney Kapoor planning a sequel to No Entry (it might be titled Re-Entry), he is also thick into what he does best — remaking South Indian hits. He has acquired the Hindi remaking rights of the Telugu blockbuster, Pokkiri, and is due to start production sometime in April or May with Salman Khan playing the role essayed by Mahesh Babu (better known in Hindi film circles as Namrata Shirodkar’s husband) in the original. The Tamil version (shot in Tamil, not dubbed) was released last Sunday in Tamil Nadu and, by the audience response on the opening day, it seemed that the Tamil version would write the history of the original. Excited first-day-first-show moviegoers bathed the picture of their hero, Vijay, in milk. Yes, it happens in a city like Madras. As in the Tamil version, the Hindi one will also be directed by choreographer Prabhu Devaa. A reluctant Salman is said to have seen the Telugu version in a trial show in Bombay after a very hard day’s work (hence the reluctance). But he was so floored by what he saw that Salman remarked at the end of the show, “It’s a kick-ass film.”
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Hrithik Roshan has once again changed his cell phone number. The superhero does that every now and then because although he can battle ten baddies at one time, he is at a loss to tackle intruding fans who send him all kinds of messages on his phone and also trouble him with calls at the oddest hours. Hrithik shares this habit with brother-in-law Zayed Khan. Wonder who could be disturbing the peace of Zayed Khan. Because if there are fans of the new Khan on the block, where do they disappear when he has a release?
Komal Nahta is editor of Film Information
