Happy Saturday! I am staying at my parents’ this weekend instead of going over to my place, the back and forth was getting to me. I think ideally I would do 8 or 9 nights at my parents, and then 3 nights at home, and then back again. But tragically work schedules don’t work like that. Anyway, staying at my parents! Which means I am both more available for blogging (because I don’t have a big project to work on) and less (because I have to be nice with the other people I am living with).
No big project, no going to my place this weekend. So instead I can sit back in my little bedroom like I’m a teenager again and sullenly watch TV/movies. Woo, so much streaming catch-up!
Now, things for you all to talk about! I took a dip into the pool of completely empty news and saw what I could bring up.
T-Series is beating the drums about making two sequels/franchises, Aashiqui and Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin. How do we feel about T-Series having the rights to these two Mahesh Bhatt creations? What does that mean in terms of the rights of the artist? Remember when they took Race away from Abbas-Mastan? Hmm.
Rumor has it that Karthik Aaryan and Rohit Dhawan (David’s son/Varun’s brother, director of Dishoom and Desi Boyz) are looking at remaking Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo. Huh. I don’t have anything wrong with that team, Karthik has the good fast talking irreverance to do it, and Rohit has the lightly surreal and funny touch. But, why? Was there anything in the movie, beyond Allu Arjun himself, that was worth remaking?
Try not to be too upset, you missed out on the opportunity to have a virtual date with Arjun Kapoor. Anshula has a crowdfunding website platform to raise money for day laborers, and Arjun raffled off 5 virtual dates with himself. I know he’s probably “taken” already, but isn’t there that small possibility that he could have a virtual date with a fan and fall in love?
Okay, that’s all I’ve got! Now it’s time to raid my parents’ fridge for breakfast and think about putting on clothes instead of PJs so I can walk the dog.
dontcallitbollywood 
I heard about this date with Arjun, and was a little sad I didn’t participate.
For Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo I just can’t believe they chose Kartik and not Varun. I’m not a fan of Varun, but he can be charming and dances well and needs a hit so why Kartik? He is not a good choice for this kind of role. I don’t know why I care because I won’t watch this (Rohit Dhawan is the worst!), but everytime Kartik’s new movie is announced I can’t stop rolling my eyes.
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The fact that his brother is directing it kind of makes it a slap in the face, doesn’t it? And Karthik is strange, because everyone is betting on him without a lot of proof. He had one shocking sleeper hit, but was that him or the script or the director? And everything since then has been okay but not world-shaking. I can actually see him in this role, kind of smart aleck and above it all, but I could see plenty of other people too.
On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 10:40 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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This remake reminded me about #RX100 remake. I forgot about it because so many months have passed and I didn’t hear a word. Are they still working on it? Was Sunil’s son so bad they abandoned the project? (unlikely, because his sister had movies released). I need to know.
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Oh right! Another reason to be surprised at the Karthik casting, seems like mostly these southern remakes are just used as a cheap way to launch a Hindi star kid.
On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 12:52 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ok, I read a little and:
October 2018 – the remake and Ahan’s name are announced
November 2018 – Milan Luthria confirmed
March 2019 – Tara Sutaria confirmed as a female lead
August 2019 – filming starts
How long usually the filming last? There are no big names in the movie and no special effects and stuff, simple sets; the director is experienced, producer also.
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Huh! Maybe now would be the time they would be starting to look for a release date and making announcements and stuff? Only they can’t, because everything is up in the air. Say 2 months for filming, another month or so for post, Tara had Marjaavan and couldn’t do promotions, they would be looking to start cranking things up around Feb/March.
Or if someone was busy with something else, maybe they have a schedule left to finish that has to be delayed now?
Mostly I’m happy that the Kick 2 director is no longer part of the team!
On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 3:50 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Didn’t Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo make a lot of money? Does the actual plot of the movie matter as much as $$ in the industry? Actually I liked Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, though I too don’t see how it could be done without Allu Arjun. So good luck to them, I hope they create something worthwhile. Allu Arjun wants to get into Hindi cinema, why don’t they remake his movie with him? Of course then Kartik wouldn’t be involved….
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See, here’s what throws me. Ala whatsit made a lot of money, so of course other people want money. But if it only made money because of people loving the star, then you aren’t going to make money by remaking it. So why bother? Why not just hire Allu Arjun for your movie instead of remaking his movie? Or hire an equally popular Hindi star and make a different movie? Why throw money away buying the plot which really isn’t worth much?
I would be so much better at running a film studio then these dumb dumbs
On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 10:50 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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You know that Rangoli’s twitter has been suspended. Now the story has a follow up. Kangana made a video I haven’t watched because I don’t want to be angry, so I don’t know exactly what she said, but a lot of people started commenting that they own Hrithik an apology because he was right and not Kangana. I was very happy when I saw that. Some people also mentioned Adhyayan Suman and it’s good. I hope more people will know his story.
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Thank you for sharing good news! Like you, I just can’t read or watch anything direct from Kangana/Rangoli any more, so I’ve been covering my eyes with the whole story. But I am thrilled that more people are believing Hrithik now, I felt so bad for him being isolated like that.
On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 3:32 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I don’t know where you read about the Ala Vaikunthapurammulo remake (I like to spell it out in full to show off over you 🙂 ), but you evidently missed the part that it is being remade by Allu Arjun’s production house. They are the ones who picked Karthik for the lead and Rohit Dhawan for the director. Speculation at another forum is that they decided to remake it themselves rather than sell the remake rights to someone else, so as to have control over the final product (I don’t blame them for this, since Hindi remakes of South films are usually terrible). As to why have someone else for the lead, it’s because Allu Arjun’s next film is slated to be a multilingual, and I guess that will be his official foray onto the national stage.
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Thank you! That’s so much more sense! I just couldn’t figure out why someone would pay for the remake rights since the plot was so slight. But if they already had the rights, why not remake it? Like, these jeans aren’t worth the money to buy new, but they are too nice to donate, that kind of grey area.
On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 10:31 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Just a little nudge from me on the spelling of Kartik Aaryan’s name – he is north Indian, and the first name is spelled without an ‘h’ in it, so ‘Kartik’ rather than ‘Karthik’, which is the south Indian spelling. He definitely spells it without the ‘h’ (eg see his Twitter feed!). I only spotted it and wanted to correct it as I happen to be the sibling of a Kartik, who gets very annoyed when acquaintances (usually the south Indian ones) send him messages spelling his name with the added ‘h’!
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Thank you! I love little nudges like this, it’s the only way I will learn. Especially with context, I’m never going to remember just yes-no on the H, but I can remember “North Indian, no H”.
On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 6:43 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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