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More news →Missed me doing action? Coming back soon, says Suniel Shetty
Suniel Shetty is taking a U-turn and returning to where he started in Bollywood – action. The macho actor, who is taking a sabbatical from producing movies after facing losses, is pumping his muscles to crush some bones on the big screen for a resurrection. “There are plans to come back to action. I am working hard on my body and fitness for that. I will do something that is extra extraordinary. It will be a patriotic film,” Anna, as he is fondly called, said in an interview. “The script is ready and I am playing a central character in the film. The action in it will be unbelievable. Hopefully, it will work,” added the 49-year-old, who drifted to comedy with movies like “Hera Pheri” and “Hulchul” for a new innings. Asked if the film will be a contemporary or period outing, the fit actor nodded for the former. Prodded to reveal more, he said: “I wouldn’t like to talk about it until it happens. But it’s just that they (the characters) are in the raw, in the jungle and up in the mountains. So there will be a lot of commando oufit action up there.” Suniel, who will reach the milestone age next year, is also pumping metal hard for the film and to mould his muscles into an age defying body cover. “I am training hard for it. I am much leaner now and far more ripped than I was, but I want to go down even further. I want to be very sporty than I have ever been. I want to be really lean and ripped,” said the actor, who looked everything but his age in a more toned than ever avatar. “I am also hitting 50 next year and when people believe they are getting older at that age, I want to believe I am younger,” he added looking dapper in full sleeve black t-shirt and blue jeans. So will the movie be a home production? “No home productions for me right now because in the two years I did productions, I lost a lot of time as I was not acting. There’s too much stress with productions,” said the actor, who couldn’t impress lady luck when he turned producer in 2003 with his banner “Popcorn Motion Pictures” and produced duds like “Khel” and “Rakht”. Suniel injected action in the comman man’s home as a desi Schwarzenegger in his 1992 debut “Balwan”. While he jumped bridges in the movie to save women from goons and slithered in paint in a dark godown to break the antagonist’s jaw, he became the contemporary He-Man in Bollywood. A Black Belt in kick boxing, he kept the decade packed with more of muscle power in outings like “Waqt Hamara Hai”, “Mohra”, “Suraksha”, “Shastra”, “Rakshak”, “Krishna” and “Aakrosh” and “Dus”, to name a few. “I missed action and I am happy that films like ‘Wanted’, ‘Ghajini’ and ‘Dabangg’ brought back action in such a big way. It is larger than life,” said the actor. Apart from fame, the action image, however, proved fatal for Suniel when it came to comedy. “It (comedy) was something that was natural in me but because of my structure and because of the action that I did, people didn’t see that side of me. But I am not held on to my forte by doing only action as the thing that sells. I wanted a change of image and I am working towards it,” said the father of two, who received critical plaudits for his role in the Maoist drama “Red Alert: The War Within”. Apart from action and comedy he also has to his credit patriotic outings like “Border”, “Refugee” and “LOC: Kargil”. For his almost two-decade journey in Bollywood, he said: “There have been highs and lows but the day I get out of the industry, I just want people to say, ‘he was a nice guy… he was a good actor and a good human being’. That’s why I also make a conscious effort to make sure that I don’t hurt anybody,” he said, sporting a childlike smile. A “family man”, who likes to keep it low-profile, the actor also owns restaurants specialising in Udupi cuisine and clothing boutiques. “I am also trying to revise my water sports business in Mumbai.” As for films, his other future projects include a venture on capital punishment and “Thank You”.
Box office analysis-June 19 , 2008
First weekend performance of latest release It was expected that MERE BAAP PEHLE AAP would taken an opening in the middle range (around 50%) but it was a little lesser than that. Thankfully, it wasn't a shocking opening per se and decent collections over the weekend mean that this medium budget film would do well in recovering it's cost. However, unlike majority of Priyan's last few films, most notably being Akshaye Khanna starrers like HUNGAMA and HULCHUL which were good successes, MERE BAAP PEHLE AAP would have to settle down on the lower side. Reason for film's ordinary opening is simple - audience has started finding the director's films all too predictable which is resulting in lesser footfall. It may have possibly increased but word spread fast about the film's second half being more of a family drama than a comic fare which resulted in 'let's catch it later on a DVD' effect! Other two releases of the weekend - SUMMER 2007 and animation flick DASHAVATAR - have been washouts. With 2-3 shows a day, zero buzz, pathetic reviews and poor release strategy, both the films have bitten the dust. While SUMMER 2007 is all set to gross lesser than Sikandar's debut film WOODSTOCK VILLA, DASHAVATAR too seems to be going down the same route as 99% of animation films coming out of Bollywood have been in the year gone by. Last week's movies In last week's column, I had admitted that a clear verdict on SARKAR RAJ wasn't really on the cards. However, first week's collections have proved one thing crystal clear - the film is certainly not a flop as has been made out by some sections of media. In fact the film is a clear success at the box office. Even though some media reports have been questioning the film's pull, especially after a huge number of prints that the film was released at, the fact remains that over 23 crores coming in the first week means that at the least SARKAR RAJ would prove to be an average success at the box office. The film has been quite good in Mumbai where it earned close to 5 crores. Delhi was good too with close to 2.5 crores while NCR got another 1.5 crores plus. While in case of RAM GOPAL VARMA KI AAG, it was crystal clear after the first show itself that the film was a failure, and hence everyone associated with it - especially Ramu - was pulled down, SARKAR RAJ has troubled a few in a different way. Because the film didn't under perform in a way as some would have expected, the focus shifted on - 'Collections are good but not very good'! However, most seem to be ignoring an all important point that Ram Gopal Varma has finally managed to end his poor box office run with SARKAR RAJ which now happens to be the biggest first week money spinner of his career. In fact the film has even created city records at a few centers that seems to have gone unnoticed by majority of trade pundits. AAMIR too would prove to be an earner for it's makers UTV. That's because slowly but steadily the film has started making an impression at the box office. AAMIR didn't open to a response which would have made everyone sit up and take notice but that wasn't really expected from AAMIR which had everyone from it's director to leading man to cinematographer and other prominent crew members being rank newcomers. Also UTV didn't pump in big money into the film's promotion and instead wanted audience to check it out by themselves. The experiment has worked as the film showed decent progress as it moved from it's first weekend into the week days. This Raj Kumar Gupta directed film has enjoyed a 1 crore first week which is certainly decent. All of this is courtesy very good word of mouth that has spread on quite strongly, hence resulting in urban centers (which is basically the target audience of the film) waking up to the film's credentials. Rajeev Khandelwal has come up with a flawless act in the title role of AAMIR and the film deserves to be sustained at theaters on a continued note to see collections stabilizing over a period of time. From the past WOODSTOCK VILLA crashed by more than 90% and collected a mere 20 lakhs at the box office in it's second week. With the film looking at wrapping up under 2.5 crores, it is time for the film's DVD release. The film wasn't bad but surprisingly master-of-promotion Sanjay Gupta seems to have given a half hearted release to the film that has resulted in it's early exit from the theaters. Meanwhile JANNAT seems to be the only film that has done well in the week gone by along with SARKAR RAJ. With approximate 2 crores more coming in even in it's 4th week, the film saw a reasonable 60% fall and today stands at 32 crores. This is a huge HIT for Bhatts and Emraan Hashmi and one can expect the production house and their favorite actor to be coming together for many more projects together. Ditto for Kunal Deshmukh who has turned out to be yet another Bhatt find! Meanwhile, for the time being, pretty face Sonal Chauhan may just have to contend herself with the kind of roles that require her to sing and dance around the trees! BHOOTHNATH saw it's biggest fall till date as it crashed by over 70% in it's fifth week. With close to 40 lakhs added to it's total, this Amitabh Bachchan starrer stands as an average success at 25 crores. The film should continue to attract eyeballs though since it's DVDs are arriving soon on Moser Baer which means that a Rs. 50/= tag would ensure continued sales for the home video. In the future Three young films release this weekend - DE TAALI, HAAL E DIL, KHUSHBOO. Out of the three HAAL E DIL deserves 10 out of 10 for it's excellent promotion which has resulted in decent awareness about this film that basically stars newcomers. A 30%-40% start for the film should be reasonable and since it appears to be a safe romantic genre film in the offering with some very good hummable tunes, HAAL E DIL may eventually sail through. Same should be the case with DE TAALI which sees Ritiesh Deshmukh and Aftab Shivdasani return after MASTI. A comedy, it's opening isn't expected to be great but the youth flavor should make it a safe preposition in the long run. One can't say the same about KHUSHBOO though which hasn't been hyped the way HAAL E DIL has been. Between en established cast (DE TAALI) and hyped newcomers (HAAL E DIL), it may just get sandwiched in spite of good songs and decent vibes that it is generating.
Priyadarshan Confident
After 06-06-06 dated Omen in Hollywood, now its Priyadarshan's directed 'Mere Baap Pehle Aap' realease date which is doing the rounds. Apparently Akshaye Khanna's debut 'BORDER' also made it to the theatres on the 13th and was declared a hit. Akshaye has also worked with Priyan on hits such as Hungama and Hulchul which gives him enough reasons for being confident. Another factor that makes the director fearlessly release the movie on 13th June (expected movie release date) is the strong starcast of the movie. Naming a few it has the comedy icon Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav who have already found their share of success with Priyan. Whether or not the 13th of June adds yet another feather to Akshaye's cap after the success of 'Race', Priyadarshan seems totally unperturbed with the likes of Shahrukh Khan and many more wooing the director.
Priyan draws inspiration from MUSKURAHAT for MERE BAAP..
The music of 'Mere Baap Pehle Aap' was recently launched at PVR Cinema on Wednesday. The entrance resembled a wedding venue with a proper Band Baaja playing. The entire star cast of the movie was present except for the Groom 'Mr. Paresh Rawal along with Mr. Om puri and Mr. Nasereddin Shah. Priyandarshan walked in first and spoke about his inspiration for his film, which he drew from his first release 'Muskarahat'. Keeping it in mind he's given the same pleasant feeling to 'Mere Baap Pehle Aap'. He also spoke about casting Genelia in his film as she easily fit the simple next-door girl character. Lyricist Sameer dressed in all white walked in with a serene face and spoke about how he loved writing the lyrics for the title track where the son had to gently express his feelings to his father and say what he wants to convincingly. He praised Sangeet Haldipur for singing the title song so well and mentioned that a good director like Priyandarshan who knows what he exactly wants just easily conveys it to the music team making their job easier. He guarantees that the songs will definitely be one of the USP's of the film as it is melodious and has a good blend of all emotions thanks to music composer Vidyasagar of the Hulchul fame. When asked which were his favorite tracks he mentioned the title song and Ishq Subhan Allah. Archana Puran Singh thereafter walked in with hubby Parmeet Sethi and didn't reveal much about the movie except that she plays a cop where her language is quite colourful unlike her plain costume - the officer's uniform which she is seen wearing throughout the film. But she's definitely not complaining about it as she says everyone loves working with Priyadarshan and actors never bother to question him about their role just as she did not. He briefly just told her about her role over the phone and she said YES. She also spoke about Akshaye as an intense actor whose intensity can be seen only once the camera rolls. Before that he's simply in a different form giving the impression that he has not done his homework. Speaking of Akshaye Khanna, he was escorted in through a private entrance and the event started with RJ Anurag from Red FM as the compere. He too was all praises for the film along with its producer Raman Maroo and its presenters Shemaroo Entertainment. An AV was played presenting Shemaroo's contribution of 37 yrs to Bollywood establishing the fact that they have evolved by heaps & bounds with a huge archive of Hindi films and have been making waves in the Indian entertainment Industry with films like 'Manorama ' 6 feet Under' and 'Omkara'. Then the promos of the film were played and it was a laugh riot. The press surely seemed impressed and loved the title track with was catchy and had the spirit of the film. The star cast was then invited on stage - Priyadarshan, Akshaye, Genelia, Archana Puran Singh, Manoj Joshi, producer Raman Maroo, Bhushan Kumar, Lyricist Samir, Music Composer Vidyasagar. Akshaye thanked the press for being there and spoke about his wonderful working with Priyadarshan and his team. This is their fourth film together and as usual its a cake walk. He loved the script the minute he heard because of its hilarious twists and turns and the fact that it will connect with all age groups. Genelia too like the others praised the music of the film choosing 'Ishq Subhan Allah' as her favorite and when asked about her experience working with Akshaye and Priyadarshan, she was all smiles. Rajpal Yadav and Shobana missed their appearance on stage as they arrived late. Rajpal Yadav spoke to the press later telling them that he was really happy being a part of Priyadarshan' team for this film. Also present there was Aadesh Srivastav, Vishal Bhardwaj and to extend their support and good wishes.
Kareena Kapoor- Highest paid Bollywood actress?
Post the huge critical and commercial success of 'Jab We Met' Kareena Kapoor's career has accelerated into top drive. The success of 'Jab We Met' was preceded by the critical acclaim of her superlative & award winning performance in 'Omkara' which had the critics raving that based on her acting abilities alone, Kareena had all the potential to reach the top actress slot in Bollywood. Post the success of 'Jab We Met', Kareena Kapoor has become the highest paid Actress in Bollywood. Kareena eclipses the next generation of actress when it comes to the diversity in her choices, right from big budget fare with A- list directors to imaginative projects, she has literally done it all. She is the perfect mix of performance and glamour. And with her slew of her forthcoming films like 'Tashan' will Yashraj, 'Golmaal Returns', 'Kambakth Ishq', a film with John Abraham and a film with Karan Johar, Kareena is the undisputed claimant for the mantle of number one actress in Bollywood. Besides her film which will consolidate that position, Brand Kareena, like SRK & Big B, is also known as the 'Endorsement Queen' in endorsement bandwagon. Kareena high profile endorsement brands consists of Globus, ICI Paints, Head & Shoulders, Boro plus cream, Citizen watch etc.. She is indisputably the most glamorous fashion icon with her magnetic personality. Viewers fall in love with her instantly, since she is spontaneous, camera friendly and a natural performer. Kareena has always experimented with roles and her risks, hard work & perseverance has paid off. Be it a Refugee, a K3G, an Omkara, Dev, Aitraaz, Hulchul, Chameli, it's not hard to be astonished by her intensity and range. And justifiably with the award season in Bollywood, Kareena has already bagged the Star Screen best actress award for her performance in 'Jab We Met'. If the first award of the year is any indication, seems like Kareena will dominate all the award functions for the best actress category this year. She seem to have left competition behind with her spontaneity & uninhibited performance in 'Jab We Met' which is inching towards being a cult classic! Well truly, she has earned the well deserved top slot!!
Akshaye Khanna chilling out in a Houseboat in Kerala
Akshaye Khanna is presently shooting in Alleppey, Kerala with one of his favorite directors Priyadarshan for his forthcoming 'Untitled' film. Akshaye and Priyadarshan, as a team have been consistently delivering hits like HULCHUL, HUNGAMA, and with their latest venture, are sure on a hit track record again. But besides shooting with his favorite director, Akshaye seems to be enjoying the breathtaking beauty of Kerala. It is Akshaye's first visit to Kerala, and is amazed at the beauty of God's Own country. He is virtually living it out in a plush Houseboat, in the backwaters of Kerala. The locals have told him on how The Houseboats of today have evolved from the traditional kettuvallams and are equipped with all modern amenities like plush carpets, bedrooms with attached bath and on board food. And surely Akshaye seems to be enjoying every bit of the shoot in this land of lagoon, beaches and the unspoilt backwaters. Says Akshaye, "I am enjoying my stay in a houseboat out here. It's a different experience altogether. Kerala is such a beautiful place; I am charmed by its beauty. There is so much of tranquil calm in the backwaters of Kerala".