A few days back I reported that rumor had it Mahira would be replaced in Raees, or at least the producers were investigating finding a different actress. One of the commentators pointed out that this wasn’t a very reliable report, which I agree with, but it was in Bollywoodhungama, which means that if it was wrong, at least they would give a detailed follow-up. Which they now have!
Well, I guess if you give people everything they want, they will give you the one small thing you ask for in return.
This ADHM news has me depressed, so I thought I would throw in some nice happy news items. Well, “news” items.
I was debating whether it was worth it to try to research and summarize everything that happened with the release of My Name is Khan, for reference with the release drama of ADHM. And then I discovered, I could just link to other people who have already done that!
In my last few posts, I’ve mentioned how the ADHM issue isn’t quite the same as My Name is Khan yet, because the government and police haven’t weighed in and picked a side. That is no longer the case.
So, this is the movie that everyone is like “The best movie of all time!”? So far, I’m not seeing it. A good movie certainly, probably a very good movie. I’m just not having my mind BLOWN by what I am seeing.
Oh man, it looks SO GOOD!!! Dear Zindagi, not ADHM. ADHM looks the same as before, this new teaser provided no new info.
Yaaaaay! Karan says something! And it is personal and passionate and well-written and completely serious. Not his usual “Koffee With Karan” persona, that other side of Karan, the one that comes out when he really cares about something.
Today Dear Zindagi got it’s first poster, and Befikre got its 3rd trailer. How is this thusness? Dear Zindagi is coming out 3 weeks before Befikre!!!!
I’m not quite sure why this is even reported, because there’s the whole story, and then it ends with “but then it didn’t happen and may never have been a real thing after all!” I guess the story is that it was even a little bit believable to begin with?
The biggest news is really the meta-news that there are 3 news stories about ADHM to one about Shivaay. Clearly, the people who run English language industry news sites are pretty sure that their readers care more about ADHM then Shivaay news.
Two very different movies! Both of which released “dialogue” trailers. Although, I guess all American trailers are dialogue trailers? Unless they are action trailers, I suppose.
Okay, I am gently dipping my toe back to the news pool, after being more or less out of it for the past few days. Two nice simple easy stories.
I’m still sick, so this may not be as logical and clear as it could be. But I still have to report it because it is SO BIG!
This is my favorite kind of post, the “Ha! I am a GENIUS who is always right!” kind of post. A couple of days ago when the COEAI group announced they might be considering a ban, I put together the little scraps of information and deduced a variety of things. And they are all true! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!
Feel free to disagree! But my reaction, after watching it, is that it is trying so hard to be “different” from the regular Indian films, that it ended up being exactly the same as a million other western films. Most obviously the French movie Love Me If You Dare (I haven’t seen it, but it was fairly successful and widely reviewed and talked about when it first came out).
Lots of not-so-happy news items today, but also a baby! So if you slog through the less happy parts of the post, I will reward you with a baby at the end!
So interesting what is considered “good” public image for fathers versus what they might do in private. And how, sometimes, they just don’t care about public image. And sometimes they have to care. And sometimes they pretend they don’t, but really do, which bothers me.
Newest tax reports are out, and as of right now, Salman is paying the highest estimated taxes of the film industry. And it might be even higher, because he is suing for a looooooooooot of money from a TV channel.
Interesting developments! Still no word from the Cinema Owners association on their decision, which is the real make or break part of it, but some news from other groups.
With all of this Ae Dil Hai Mushkil back and forth, one person has been remarkably silent, Fawad Khan himself. Moviemavengal just tweeted me a link (you should follow her on twitter, she is much better than me about tweeting news updates) to his Facebook post on the topic.
It’s like a little “before and after” picture for stardom! Two news stories, one about Varun Dhawan, established young hero with a booming career, and one about Harshvardhan Kapoor, struggling to make it with his big break film about to release. Both of them are making very savvy choices for where they are at the moment, but they are in very different places.
Have you noticed that in Indian film, an overnight success is rare, but an overnight failure is even rarer? It takes the slow accumulation of flop after flop after flop before there are any repercussions. But, finally, Farhan and Katrina are feeling the burn!
Okay, it’s getting less press than the earlier “Ban” and stuff, but the real pressure is on now for Karan to do something about Fawad in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. The bottom line is being affected. Although Fawad probably doesn’t care, because he has much more important things going on in his life!
I always feel bad about how the resolution to things is usually not reported. There’s the initial exciting incident or court case or rumor, and then months later when it is actually resolved, nobody pays attention because they have moved on to a new rumor or incident or whatever. So today I am going to try to fix that and report 3 separate resolutions to old stories.
dontcallitbollywood 