While a conscious but weak Salim Khan was shifted out of Lilavati Hospital and taken home to his Galaxy Apartment, which is five minutes away, Salman Khan was in the editing room readying his next film Battle Of Galwan, which has been rechristened a non-controversial and nationalistic-sounding Maatrubhumi. Changes in titles, cast and content are part of filmmaking, with cinema having to be sensitive to shifting geopolitical stances. Political expediency nudged Salman to retitle his film just as Neeraj Pandey had to bow to legal pressure to drop the title of his Manoj Bajpayee film Ghooskhor Pandat, which the Pandits found offensive.
“But no, so far we haven’t changed the title of Lahore 1947,” affirmed Aamir Khan amidst rumours that he had to rename his Sunny Deol-starrer and call it Batwara 1947. Aamir likes unique titles for the films he makes — Lagaan, Peepli Live, the Taare... series, Dangal, Secret Superstar, Laapataa Ladies, Loveyapa, Happy Patel are all fresh names. Unlike, say, Azaad, Aankhen or Devdas, which keep getting made in different avatars. Aamir will therefore be reluctant to go with Batwara, which was the title of a Dharmendra-Vinod Khanna film in 1989. But a name change may be on the cards for the Sunny film because Lahore is a title that’s been registered by Suneel Darshan, and he’s in no mood to part with it.
How long can a producer hold on to a title before it can be picked up by another? The time varies but suffice it to say, Aamir cannot use Lahore right now. Remember the noise Madhur Bhandarkar made six years ago when Karan Johar had announced The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives? Madhur, who had registered Bollywood Wives way back, didn’t want to give it away. Karan had argued that he wasn’t encroaching on Madhur’s territory; he was making a show for Netflix and not a feature film. A lot of hot air was expended in 2020. But as it turned out, Karan made three seasons without a glitch while Madhur is calling his just-completed film The Wives.
Meanwhile, change is also constant in human equations. Aamir produces a film and signs a pricey Sunny for it. Earlier, they had only historic clashes — Dil vs Ghayal (1990), Raja Hindustani vs Ghatak (1996) and Gadar vs Lagaan (2001). And all six were hits. With the two on the same side for the first time, they just might deliver a double whammy with Lahore or whatever it’s ultimately called. Sunny and director Rajkumar Santoshi, who took the Lahore subject to Aamir, also have chemistry as all the films they’ve made together — Ghayal, Ghatak and Damini — have been box office successes. But they’d clashed over The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) when Sunny had wanted the makers to drop Ajay Devgn and sign Bobby. Sunny was too old to play Bhagat Singh and Santoshi couldn’t picture Bobby as Bhagat Singh. But 24 years on, their equations have changed again as Sunny and Santoshi join forces for this year’s Independence Day release.
Change was on stage when Amazon had a day-long programme with emcee Karan Johar on his toes as the streaming platform’s slate of new shows and theatrical feature films was announced. Up there was Alia Bhatt with sister Shaheen and just before them was Hrithik Roshan with his cousin Eshaan. The actors had a change in their roles as the films they announced were as producers. Especially Hrithik, whose immensely successful lifestyle brand HRX’s foray into film production is not to keep himself going as an actor. In fact, making films that star him is not even a thought that drives him. Also to be noted: HRX does not mark a breakaway from his father’s production banner — it’s a subsidiary under Rakesh Roshan’s FilmKraft umbrella where Hrithik is a partner.
Celebrities developing a sharp business sense is the new change seen all over the film world.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author
