4 movies to talk about! In various stages, one a trailer, one a second song, one an announcement, and one starting to film. And I am interested in ALL of them!!!!
Parmanu Trailer
It’s finally here! The movie that John has been trying to finish making and get released for ages. And it looks….pretty good! I was curious what the angle would be on the story, it looks like the focus is more on managing to keep the test secret and outside of the eyes of the world, especially America. On intelligence and imagination and taking a leap forward.
Which is great! With the subject matter, I was worried it would be another rabble-rousing mindless jingoistic thing, but this is treating military advancements with subtlety and calm. Also, John looks really good. In every way, his appearance is right for the part, not a super bulked up action hero, but a driven army officer. And his delivery of lines is interesting, I am ready to watch a whole film about this character!
New Veere Di Wedding Song
Well, this is almost what we wanted. After the strange Badshah video came out, in the comments we were talking about wanting a full on Bhangra number with the female leads dancing together. Which this sort of is. Well, what this mostly is.
The only thing that I am still a little “hmm” about is that the men get almost as much to do as the women, and there is that strange “harder” lie thrown in the middle that still sort of sexualizes it. But I like that the women are dancing with each other, and I really like the flashback to them as schoolgirls in the middle.
Arjun’s New Movie
I am super excited about this! This is the first movie Arjun is signing after his sudden persona switch from “oh yeah, Arjun” to “India’s favorite big brother”. Not that I am saying he is more famous than before, or that his persona up until now was bad, or anything like that. Just that a director or a producer may sort through a list of possible names and feel slightly different when they hit Arjun, instead of thinking “troubled young man” they may think “what if we made him a responsible mature hero?”
And this is definitely one of those films! Directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, the man who made Raid, based on another true story of capturing “India’s Most Wanted” (thus the title), claiming it is based on a story that happened “without firing a single shot”. So, hopefully something similar to Raid, a hero who is thoughtful and slow and hardworking and dedicated, instead of flashy and action-y. That is my favorite kind of hero, and I also think it is the kind of role that Arjun could do very well.
Arjun Reddy in Hindi, as It Was Meant To Be
The last time we checked in on this story, Arjun Kapoor was supposed to be in this movie instead of the other one above, and the original director/writer of the story Sandeep Vanga was not involved and was very sad. It was an odd story, he said that he didn’t even realize one of his partners had tricked him into signing away the remake rights, he was working steadily with Shahid on crafting a Hindi remake, and then out of nowhere he learned that the rights to the film belonged to someone else who had sold them to Cine1 with the understanding that Arjun Kapoor would be the lead and Boney was pushing hard for this to happen.
But now the remake is announced as it is supposed to be, Sandeep Vanga directing and Shahid starring. So, yaaaaay! And also, I wonder what happened in between these two stories? Did they pay off Cine1 for the rights? Did Cine1 never really have the rights? Or was there some kind of deal worked out? Or was it simply that Boney doesn’t care enough any more to push for his son to get this role? Which honestly might be the best thing for Arjun, if he is allowed to make his own career decisions for himself.
dontcallitbollywood 
They managed to release the Paramanu trailer on May 11, which is the 20th anniversary of the Pokharan test. Do you know if that was its originally intended release date? It makes sense why John would want to go for that date. Now the film is releasing on May 25, which hardly gives it time to build up a buzz, with all the other films releasing.
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I don’t think this can be the trailer release date plan. At least, not a long standing plan, with how many things have changed. Maybe original it was supposed to be the film release date? Or they were planning the trailer much earlier and just a song on May 11th or something?
On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 10:03 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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No, no, the trailer has already released yesterday, and they announced that the film would be coming on May 25. I just wondered if May 11 was the original planned release date (it would make sense, given the anniversary) before all the messup happened. Now maybe they’re stuck with May 25 as the release date because there’s no good other date. Isn’t Race 3 releasing mid-June or something?
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Oh, yeah! I see what you mean, and I suspect the same thing. Although, it was also supposed to release like 4 months ago, so I know it isn’t the “original” release date. But I assume it was the date they were planning on once the January/February dates fell through.
On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 10:40 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I love Sonam’s choli and skirt. so beautiful! I want it!
It’s me, because I don’t like Sonam or she is terrible even in songs (apart of clothes, of course)?
I like Parmanu trailer and John’s look. I hope it will be a good movie and a hit.
And for Shahid as Arjun Reddy, I don’t know if I like it. I’m sure he will be good in this role, but think, e.g Amit Sadh or other struggling actor.
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Another actor would probably be good in Arjun Reddy, but then in this case it’s a bigger question. The director handpicked Shahid for the role and they have been working on it together. I don’t know if a Telugu person would even know about Amit Sadh or someone like that. Maybe it just means there is an even greater responsibility for those people in the industry who do know the outsider types to use them since the people who really don’t know anything won’t know enough to take a chance on them.
Or maybe that doesn’t make any sense, I’m sleepy.
On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 12:59 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I agree with the comment above, if it can’t be Arjun in Arjun Reddy then I’d rather have a lesser known actor. Amit Sadh or Jim Sarbh would be interesting. Shahid is just getting a little too old looking but in a no body fat, “I’m fighting ageing to the death” way like SRK. We know he plays drugged out well and he should be able to handle the emotional drama very well (he really is one of my favorites), but I just don’t see him in this. Part of me is starting to really wish this remake didn’t get the green light. The original was so good.
I like the idea of this Arjun film that was just announced. He’s definitely an Ajay Devgn light kind of actor already so working with this director could be a good thing for him. He really hasn’t done a serious dramatic (but not over the top) role yet, I think.After a romantic drama, a rom-com and then Panipat and this one, he’s making good choices and I couldn’t be more excited! I’m starting to think his career looks a lot more promising than even Sid’s or Aditya Roy Kapur’s. I think the big brother and dutiful son thing will help his image even more (though I don’t think he really has an image problem, does he?). His dating life has always been low-key, despite rumors of him dating Malaika Arora Khan which I always think is kind of cool.
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Arjun is interesting, because I never felt like he had that strong of an image before. He was nice, laid back, able to make a joke and take a joke. But now all of a sudden for the first time his personal life is more memorable than his professional life. And it’s kind of shifted how I see him in characters too, something like Mubarakan where he plays the cowardly screw up doofus is going to be less believable now. Anyway, I am also excited to see him in a serious dramatic but not over the top kind of role! I think it might be a really good fit for him, and it’s also a good fit for the industry, we need more of those mature type actors and roles.
The one thing that gives me faith in the remake is that this is the actor that the director handpicked and has been working with all along. So it’s possible they can pull it off. I doubt this will happen, but what I would really love is if they changed the story for the actor, you could easily move the romance out of med school to a few years later when they are working in the hospital together or something like that.
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PS Forgot to sign my comment above, thanks for posting! You could probably tell it was me since I was babbling about Arjun again:)
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So glad John is going to be able to release Parmanu, KriArj seem to have dug their own grave. Not very happy with Shahid in Arjun Reddy. Though he doesnt look as old as actually is, he does have a “screen age” cos he’s been around for so long. They should’ve gone for someone younger, so that the audience is really surprised. Shahid has done the drugged up act before – though this oen is more angry and the other one was funny. But the original director is on board, so thats good news.
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That “screen age” thing is so strange!!!! In real life, Shahid is only 2 years older than Amit Sadh, but in Career Life (thanks to Shahid’s extremely young launch), he feels like a whole other generation.
On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 10:07 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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