I was thinking about doing a kind of combined post with some of the other new songs releases I may have missed. But, firstly, I don’t know that there are that many big new song releases, everything is entering the Ramadan duldrums right now. And anyway, Salman is such big news that he doesn’t need anything else.
I know it’s not Ramadan yet. But it’s coming in about a week. Which means any film released this week and beyond isn’t going to have maximum box office, and therefore producers aren’t going to waste a major release now. And then Salman’s next comes out at Eid, which means no one is going to waste a major release for 2 weeks after that either.
Teasers usually come out about 8 weeks before a film, and then the full trailer at 6 weeks, and then songs rolled out one by one. The next major release won’t be until after Ramadan, and after Tubelight starts to leave theaters, so like 10 weeks from now, way too far away for any kind of publicity.
Which means in the trailer world, I am seeing some small regional stuff, some boring lower budget stuff, and nothing I really want to talk about. And also, Tubelight!
First song is out! Which gives us a bit more of a sense of Salman’s character, rather than the story as a whole.
There seems to be some kind of developmental issue with him, right? Both physical and mental? I don’t know exactly what it is supposed to be, but I think it is supposed to be something specific. He reminds me a lot of a patient at a clinic where I worked, a very very sweet man in his 60s who had the innocence of a child. His facial expression and sweet smile remind me of the patient, but also the way he is holding his body. The posture, the hands, the movements. It must be a reference to a specific disorder, but I’m not sure what.
I wonder if they gave him a specific developmental issue for similar reasons to why Karan gave Shahrukh Aspergers in My Name is Khan? Karan said that he wanted this epic journey for love. But today’s audience is so cynical, they wouldn’t believe someone doing something like that for love. So instead he made the character have a real medical reason for being so literal, and so dedicated, and all of that. Maybe if this film had been made 4 years ago, when the audience was more innocent, Salman would just have been an innocent village boy who cared about people and put his heart over his head. But now, for us to believe in his simple faith, they have to give him a disorder. Whatever it is. Down Syndrome maybe?
dontcallitbollywood 
The last song teaser for Half Girlfriend also came out at the same time as the Radio song. So earlier there were the other song promos of HG. That is considered a major release. I’m surprised you seem to be unaware of it.
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Oh I am aware of Half-Girlfriend, I did a post on it already when the first few songs came out. But I wasn’t interested enough in it to do a whole new post just for a new song teaser.
On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 11:39 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think you’re right about Salman having some kind of developmental issue.
By the way, have you seen the teaser of Simran? I liked it but I would have loved to see someone like Sonam do this instead of Kangana.
Also it looks like a new controversy may begin since apparently Kangana and Hansal Mehta are not giving credits to the original writer of the film.
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Haven’t seen the teaser, but oooo! That controversy looks INTERESTING!!! From so many angles. Just one example, from comments in interviews of everyone involved (writers, stars, directors, producers), we all know that part of hiring a major star is their creative input in the story direction. And that’s a good thing, that’s why you want to hire them. But, so far as I know, stars have never expected to have their work listed in the credits officially. Or, put it another way, they have considered that their name carries so much weight the industry/audience understands how much input they had without needing the official title. And it’s not just the 3 Khans, the whole “narration” system of hiring a star implies that you come to them with a story idea, not a bound script, and the further steps are worked out in partnership. Varun, Ranbir, Dips, Alia, Anushka, even people like Tiger Shroff, I just assume they all had a narration, gave input, and helped turn the film into the best possible fit for themselves and the best possible film in general.
So Kangana insisting on credit is breaking a system that I don’t think should be broken. It seems kind of insecure? I assume everyone who matters knows that the writer comes up with the idea and collaborates with everyone else on set to make it as good as possible. And that everyone who matters knows that a hit film is credited to a star not just for their acting, but for everything else they bring to the table. Now Kangana is insisting on public credit for something she was already getting in private, and taking credit away from a poor writer.
On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 12:27 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m guessing that Kangana wants the credits to help her in the future. She had previously been given Additional Dialogue credits for Queen. Maybe she thinks Simran is going to be another film that is praised and therefore she wants public credits for it. Also since she is planning on becoming a director soon, I think she is doing this for credibility. If someone producer or technician has doubts about Kangana’s abilities, she can easily point to Queen and say that she has done this in the past.
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See, that’s what seems so odd to me. I’m surprised that she thinks she needs that kind of credibility. Rishi Kapoor wanted to direct a movie, so he directed a movie. Hema Malini, Aamir Khan, all kinds of actors. Everyone knew that their position as “lead actor in a film” gave them all they needed on their resume, included all the other little sub-categories within it.
With Queen, at the time I had the impression it wasn’t coming from Kangana, but more from the director and writer, like they felt it wasn’t honorable to take credit that she deserved. But maybe that was mistaken, maybe it was coming from her, since this certainly seems to be.
On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 9:22 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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This is just my guess, but maybe she does need that credibility since Kangana seems like she’s not the easiest person to work with. And since she’s coming off of two flops, maybe she’s having trouble securing funds for her movie. Also all of the people you mentioned were stars and I don’t think Kangana has that kind of clout in the industry. Especially since she’s gone against influential people like Hrithik and Karan Johar in the past.
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that makes sense. I mean, it makes sense that she thinks that. But I suspect it won’t make much difference, if people don’t want to work with her, they won’t work with her, no matter what her credentials are.
On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 10:14 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well, this just got a LOT messier…
This showed up this morning:
Then Kangana did an interview about this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/05/18/kangana-ranaut-on-accusations-of-stealing-credits-being-diffi_a_22096892/?ncid=fcbklnkinhpmg00000001
And now Hansal Mehta’s statement about this whole controversy:
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That interview is really really good! He asks great questions. And Kangana gives really good answers. I was interested in her clarifying that she does know what is expected of an actor collaborating with filmmakers, and that this went beyond that.
I’m with Molly, who said that we will have to wait for her directorial debut, because that is when she will have to put her money where her mouth is.
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Right! I was also really interested by her answer to the question about whether she would help her own kids in the industry or not.
That’s true. Last I heard, apparently it’s still at the scriptwriting stage.
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I can’t wait for her directorial debut. She will have to put her money where her mouth is (almost literally, but since I use literally correctly it’s not actually literal) If it is a roaring success than Yay! she is as talented as she thinks and says she is and if it fails than those of us who think she is a narcissist at best and a sociopath at worst will be vindicated. For the life of me I do not understand why Barkha Dutt, one the smartest women around, always takes Kangana’s side. But since we are all trying (?) to see things from multiple perspectives, I’ll wait.
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