Monday Morning Questions Post, Spyder and Judwaa Week!

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Happy Monday!  2 days to Spyder, 4 days to Judwaa.  Or 3 days and 5 days?  I guess it depends on how you count.  Anyway, soon!

As always, this is the place to ask me anything you want to ask, from the personal (“are you seeing Spyder or Judwaa?”) to the specific and factual (“what are Spyder and Judwaa?”) to the general discussion question (“which film do you think will be the better movie and/or the bigger hit between the two?”)

 

The only rule is, you have to let me answer first!  Because that way the discussion goes better, plus it’s more fun that way!

32 thoughts on “Monday Morning Questions Post, Spyder and Judwaa Week!”

    • I want to watch Judwaa because it looks so fun! I like big bright happy fun films. Especially because I will be going with my friend Dina, who sat through Munna Michael and Mubarakan with me, and we had a great time. Sometimes laughing at the movie, sometimes laughing with the movie.

      Spyder, opening night through Friday night is going to be super expensive, and crazed in the theaters. So I am thinking of a Saturday matinee maybe.

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      • Gosh I don’t even remember when Munna Michael and mubarakan released being in India 😛
        Do you think people here in India would want to watch entertainers like Judwaa anymore? Similar movies in the past like dilwale, dishoom and Happy New year didn’t really do well here. How do you think Judwaa 2 will perform?
        Also Varun seems to be one of the hated actors on the internet ever since the nepotism debate started. Every recent interview of him on YouTube has at least 1 person commenting “Nepotism sucks” or whatever.

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        • Mubarakan did surprisingly well at the box office. It came out between Tubelight and JHMS, so it benefited a little from their failures, but it did seem as though people would rather have a silly goofy entertainer, than a failed “serious drama”. I know I would! If I go in knowing it’s going to be a worthless fluff film, i can enjoy it a lot more than something that aspires to be more than that and fails.

          Judwaa 2 looks like a perfect Varun film, lots of dances, lots of goofy stunts, exactly what he does well. But maybe that will backfire on him? If there is this backlash now, the more Varun-y a film is, perhaps the more hated it will be. Instead of something like October which seems as though it will take him somewhere new.

          However, I still think it will do well. There is the nostalgia factor, the family holiday release factor, and the fact that so far big silly entertainers have done better this year than the serious dramas.

          No matter what it will have a huge opening, because they are giving it a massive release across India, and on a holiday weekend with no other Hindi film to challenge it (unless Spyder is released dubbed, but last I heard it wasn’t going to be). It may not do as well overseas and certainly won’t do well in the south thanks to Spyder competition. But it should hold strong in the Hindi belt in India. And will probably do well in the Hindi belt overseas (Australia, New Zealand, Canada).

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          • Hmm yes mubarakan wasn’t as critically panned as expected…… maybe this would do well in the 3-4 holidays. BTW how is Jai lava kusa faring in the US? It’s apparently doing really well overseas and is expected to give a tough competition to Spyder. Are you planning to see it? Jr.NTR is a very good dramatic actor and has excellent dialogue delivery.

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          • The official box office figures aren’t out yet, buzz is that Jai Lava Kusa is doing well, but buzz is essentially meaningless. I’ll put up a full box office post once the real numbers are out and I’ll be able to answer then. I probably won’t be seeing it, just because I HAVE to see Spyder and Judwaa, and that will take up all my free movie time.

            On Mon, Sep 25, 2017 at 9:45 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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        • Honestly, I’ve been seeing a lot of hate for Varun on the internet ever since Dilwale. Actually ever since he made that joke about Dilwale being like inception.

          Taran Adarsh has been tweeting the daily U.S. collections for Jai Lava Kusa. Compared to Jr. NTR’s last movie, Janatha Garage, the numbers for Jai Lava Kusa are slightly lower. Both movies released on a Wednesday and by the end of Sunday, Janatha Garage made $1.43 million while Jai Lava Kusa made $1.39 million. But I’m sure there will be a clearer picture once you look at the per screen averages.

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    • Well, they can film in Kashmir again, so it doesn’t have to be a Swiss mountain top any more, there’s that. But also, in general, it feels like there is an embarrassment around the big romantic fantasy songs. They are more likely to be something like dreaming of her in your daily life, instead of being taken to a mountain top.

      On Mon, Sep 25, 2017 at 8:11 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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    • Every once in a while I’ve tried one of those systems, but I end up getting bored with listing what I have watched and want to start listing what I haven’t watched and need to 🙂

      On Mon, Sep 25, 2017 at 9:25 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  4. I have been reading your Hindi Film 101 and I have been completely windblown with the entry process of Bollywood. Is it possible for you compare actor and actresses’ entry processes with the South industry?

    I believe Spyder will do so much better than Judwaa 2 overall worldwide collections! The director has given some awesome movies in the past and Mahesh Babu too?! I dont understand his popularity. Why do you think he is so famous?! the most cutest smile?!

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    • Unfortunately, I don’t think I am qualified to right any kind of a 101 post on the South industry. I really just don’t know enough. Although I am trying to learn as fast as I can!

      As for why Mahesh Babu is famous, I don’t know that either! Probably a combination of natural talent and charisma, lucky movie choices, and family connections.

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    • Mahesh Babu is a star kid who was expected to carry on his father’s legacy so he started off with a pretty decent-sized fanbase. But I don’t think that’s the only reason Mahesh was popular because his father, Super Star Krishna, was a huge star in the 1970s and 1980s while Mahesh got launched in 1999. His father still had fans that supported Mahesh but his father wasn’t the biggest star around anymore. Plus they say that Super Star Krishna was in debts and Mahesh worked to clear those debts until Pokiri happened.

      A lot of Mahesh’s hardcore fans became fans because of Okkadu and Pokiri which are both action movies that went on to become blockbusters. Pokiri was actually the biggest hit in Telugu cinema until Magadheera came out three years later. A lot of people, including me, like Mahesh for his subtle yet intense style of acting. He embodies the phrase “silent yet violent” in movies like Athadu and Okkadu. I personally love Mahesh’s comic timing which I find to be underrated. His best comic performances are Murari, Khaleja, and Dookudu in my opinion. Off-screen, he’s a pretty down to earth guy who only seems to care about his family and movies. I also love Mahesh off-screen for his sense of humor and sarcasm! It’s really fun to see his reactions whenever journalists ask him silly questions. I do think that Mahesh is good looking but that’s not at the top of the list of why that’s a fan. I actually hate to tell people in real life that I’m a fan of Mahesh because they automatically assume that I only like him for his looks.

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        • It actually took me a while to come up with a way to say everything that I felt. Like I always knew why I like him but I never had to like spell it out. I still left out a bunch of stuff that I could have mentioned 🙂

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        • Niki has come up with great observations and I couldn’t have said it better. But I just wanted to add my opinion.

          I think Mahesh Babu always appears very young, especially having a boyish face. Eventhough he is 40plus, he always looks like he is in twenties.

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      • At no point was Krishna “the biggest star around”, although he was certainly a leading star of the 70’s and 80’s.

        As for Mahesh Babu, he does have charisma, and can portray the internal conflicts of his characters well without much overt “acting.”

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        • So Niki’s impression is correct, although Mahesh came from a star family, he succeeded based on his own merit, not on inherited fans from his father, like some other stars did.

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          • No, no, Mahesh certainly inherited his father’s fan base, which was quite large. He was even introduced in a film made by his father (or possibly starring his father, I can’t remember), when he was a child. The film’s title is Rajakumaradu, which means “prince”‘, hence Mahesh Babu’s tag of “Prince Mahesh.” But, just as in Hindi films, not all star kids make it to stardom; they have the benefits of the insider connections, but they can only succeed on their own merits.

            I wasn’t trying to minimize Krishna’s stardom, just noted he was never the biggest. NTR and ANR dominated the top spots till well into the 1980’s, when they started slowing down. Even in this “slow” phase, whenever a film of theirs released, it was huge. Krishna was launched in 1965 or 66, in a film made especially to launch new actors; all the actors of that film were new, and found through an exhaustive search. He was the only one of the four leading actors of that film to make it big, and establish himself as a leading star in the 60’s and 70’s. But there were others at his level (i.e., after NTR and ANR) during that time, such as Shobhan Babhu and Haranath. By the end of the 1980’s, Chiranjeevi was the new superstar, taking over from NTR and ANR, and then there were Nagarjuna and Venkatesh. That trio ruled for the next 20 years or so.

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          • I didn’t mean to imply that Krishna was ever the biggest but that he was one of the biggest at his peak. I was trying to say something that kind of differentiates Mahesh from someone like Ram Charan. Like Ram Charan was launched in 2007 during which Chiranjeevi was still the top star in the industry while Mahesh was launched after Krishna’s reign as a leading star was over. By the way, Rajakumarudu was a K. Raghavendra Rao film though Krishna did have a cameo appearance in it. Mahesh did act as a child and as a teenager in some of his father’s movies but his official adult launch was through Rajakumarudu.

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          • Thanks for correcting me about Rajakumarudu, Niki. My knowledge of the early stages of Mahesh’s career (or even the later stages) is spotty at best. 🙂

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        • BTW, Krishna is rather unique in Telugu film stardom. He was the first to be “launched” as a hero (albeit through an objective search, not through connections); the other heroes who were his contemporaries worked their way up through the system the old fashioned way, namely, starting in bit parts, then small supporting roles, then slowly working their way up to third lead, then second lead, and finally, the hero role. The whole journey took several years (ten or more), so that, if they had started in their early 20’s, by the time they finally made it to a hero level, they were already in their mid 30’s or so, and had a shelf life to their mid-50’s. In contrast, I think Krishna was 25 or at most 27 when he was launched as a hero, and was one ever since.

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          • Moimeme, before Rajakumarudu, Mahesh Babu acted in Krishna’s ‘Koduku diddina Kaapuram’. But Krishna’s other son Ramesh Babu couldn’t succeed in film industry.

            As you correctly said, a father can make the entry point easier. After that the son has to succeed based on his own merits. Mahesh Babu has got his own talent to stay all these years.

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  6. I remember you saying that you watch around 3-5 movies per week. If I’m correct, you also mentioned that you didn’t really watch much regional cinema before Baahubali. So did you just watch Hindi movies all week?

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  7. Margaret! Long time no comment, I know.. Sorry.. Let’s start afresh! I have a couple of questions for you – 😀

    1. Why no Kangana Ranaut coverage? 🙂 She’s been on a rampage these past couple weeks, targeting just about every actor (male and female) and she’s given some very brave interviews. And the big guns are silent, too scared to even name her. Covering that could give you plenty of eyeballs (and views… :-))

    2. Do you think Judwaa 2 will break the industry’s 2017 dry spell? Except Ayushman Khurana and well, Varun Drawn, almost every star/non-star has been non-successful this year. 🙂

    Lastly, thank you for revisiting DDLJ!!

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    • Hello again!

      1. Like I said in my last few news posts, I have been off the news beat for a while, which means I have no background info for any in depth coverage. So I am not touching Kangana! Not until I have time to dig into every single interview and backstory and everything else so I know I’m not making a fool of myself when I talk about it. But feel free to keep me updated in the comments!

      2. I think Judwaa 2 will probably do well, but the profit margin is going to be tiny. I think Hindi film has officially reached the tipping point where the marketing and release are so high that it is almost impossible to make a profit. Ayushmann is the best game in town currently in terms of profit margin. Well, Ayushmann and Rajkummar Rao. Varun always makes money, but how much money do they have to spend to get it? I’m guessing October will be a bigger profit maker for him than Judwaa.

      And eesh, that reminds me, I have to actually write tomorrow’s DDLJ post. I’ve got the screenshots, but no words yet.

      On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 9:16 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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